Bob: "Looks like another great start to a Blood Bowl season! Two big and bashing teams, just like I like 'em!"
Jim: "That's right Bob! They may be young and unskilled but that certainly won't stop them from beating each other to pulp!"
Bob: "Too true Jim, too true... reminds me of my first season when-"
Jim: "Not now Bob, the players are about to hit the pitch! Tonight's match is between the Red Boyz from some barren wasteland Orc village somewhere or other, and an allied pact of forest animals and fauns! Well my, isn't that sweet? Blech!"
Bob: "Sweet? That bear is as big as I am! And that's the meanest looking deer I've ever seen."
Jim: "Yes, I suppose you do have a point there Bob. Ah! The coin is in the air, and the Orcs have called it and elect to kick..."
Our league began last night- not the best turn out- hope we pick up some more players.
League construction this time is an extra 50k for buying your team along with granting 2 players one standard rolled skill each. These players would start the league with 6 Star Player points to reflect that.
The idea is to hit the ground running, so if some people can't make every game they still have some development.
My team, the 'Aslan's Asskickers' a Chaos Narnia Pact team consisted of:
* All three Big Guys: Troll, Ogre, Minotaur
* All thee Renegades: Dark Elf, Skaven, Goblin
* 5 Marauders
* 3 Rerolls
* 3 Fan Factor.
* additional skills went to the Elf: Block, and a Marauder: Leader (for 4 Rerolls: I know I'll need them!)
Common wisdom seems to say dodge for the elf's first skill- but I figured I'd trust in his agility 4, and for trying to score, block is as defensive as dodge (both eliminate 1 die-side of being knocked down), but block is more useful as a deep safety: eventually I'd like the marauders fauns to be the ball carriers- so this let's the elf play both rolls for awhile.
Many people also seem to not rate the skaven: preferring another Marauder with better armor over the Skaven's extra movement. I figured the extra move might be useful now and then, plus the ferret adds to the visual appeal of the team: no contest then: he's in.
My opponent's team was Orcs:
4 blitzers, 4 black orcs, thrower, 2 line orcs, 4 rerolls. he had guard on a black orc and block on the thrower.
I knew this would be a tough match- I have 3 strength 5 to his 4 strength 4, but he does have guard and my big guys have reliability issues. Beyond that he's got 5 block to my 1, and he's got sure hands and pass. I'm feeling totally outclassed at this point- which is expected when fielding a tier 2 team, but never underestimate the intimidation factor of seeing 3 big guys facing you!
He kicked to me and Nuffle laughed at me right from the start: Blitz! Dang! I'd even set up to blitz-push a black orc off the field too.. no chance now! He gets a faun knocked out in his blitz action, so I start the game with 1 guy down. Well, that's Blood Bowl!
The kick goes very deep, the Elf is back there to get it- she does. My turn ends half way through because the Mino gets a both down result- I saw an easy way for him to push down toward my elf, so I tried to reroll the mino's block- nope, wasted reroll. Well, that's why I have four of them.
He pushes for my elf- takes 2 go-for-its to blitz,fails the 2nd, reroll is fine hits my elf for one die, and stuns himself! Lucky break. I move the elf away, knock some around, make a pass, pass animosity, catch, and head to score with a faun. I score on turn 4.
My knocked out faun stays in the box. I kick to the orcs and try to hold him- but it's not easy. In that part of the first half he injured a faun & the skaven ferret, and I injured a black orc: not too bad of an exchange.
Turn 8 a blitzer has the ball, I have one chance for a 1 die blitz with the elf- dodge out: 1. that was that. Maybe I should have taken dodge- but a 1 is a 1.. if i'd have had dodge it could just as easily been a both down result and the elf would have gone down. ah well, that's why everyone loves blodgers! he scores to tie it up at the half.
My faun comes back, so I'm at 9 players to his 10. I kick, he moves down my right side, driving with 2 black orcs. When I put pressure on the thrower, he throws to a black orc! Madness! but he catches it! Now I'm looking at my big guys tied up and wondering how I'm going to blitz a black orc! But I managed- goblin frog runs over to lend an assist and then a faun blitzes him for 1 die: black orc goes down, faun jumps in and picks up the ball! but he's exposed - I'd already used my reroll that turn so I didn't trust 2 go for it to get to a spot only marginally safer. The faun as expected got blitzed and the ball scattered- but he couldn't retrieve it, I moved in, scooped it with the elf and headed for the left side. Repeat of last: get to a faun and ran it in after another turn. Score is now 2-1. I'd also injured a blitzer and knocked 2 players out & he knocked out my elf.
Both his knocked outs come back, my elf doesn't- so I'm at 8 players to his 9. I kick to him and my turn for the blitz! Maybe things swing my way! His thrower had caught the ball, so I ran and go for it to get on his tackle zone. He drove down, and it didn't look good. I did knock the ball out, got it with the frog, made his roll, passed, and caught! but that faun went down and soon the orcs scored again: 2-2.
He kicks and the clock goes forward, so I have only 1 turn left to score.. I luckily had set up for the possible throw team mate 1 turn score, but the ball went to the far corner and I had no rerolls- it didn't look good.
So I took some easy blocks with big guys first, hoping for some star player points, the mino pushed a lineman, and on the second hit got both down.. so much for the one-turn touchdown play! Both the orc & elk broke armor!
The elk was just stunned but the orc? He was torn apart: Dead!
Yikes! What a way to end a game: give the fans what they came to see!
The Game ends in a tie: 2-2, with the orcs sustaining 3 injuries and the pact sustaining 2.
All in all I'm pleased with the first game: a tie against an orc team isn't bad at all! I fully expected to lose the first game, just hoping I'd not take any serious damage and get some development toward some skills.
The orcs made 50k: which got spent right away to buy a replacement line orc. Insult to injury: his MVP went to the dead orc! I made 60k, so bought an apothecary. He got one skill roll: guard for a blitzer, I didn't get any skill rolls: but have a nice spread around of SPP so some development should happen soon.
I think I may switch the Bear model to be the Ogre and Boar to be the Troll.. a couple people assumed that was how it was.I thought an Ogre & Pig would have cultural similarities, and a bear, not the most troll-like comparison, but could see it either way.
Until next game...
Now I'm not entirely sure I got all that (it's just not cricket you know!) but my overall impression was that the new guys seemed tp hold their own. Great first outing.
ReplyDeleteGreat post and seems to have been a great game.
ReplyDeleteOne question though, the big guys, don't they take up 4 squares each? For some reason we have always played that way, and its how I see it while playing the PSP version also. Just curious.
Thanks guys! Yes, it was a good game- we both had mad swings of luck, so the fact I got a tie and survived all while making a nice profit, I feel pretty fortunate!
ReplyDeleteMr.Lee: no, Big Guys take up 1 square just like any others, from snotlings to treemen, they're all supposed to be one square at a time.
If they did take up 4 spaces you'd get some big problems such as, how do you move if a 4 block space isn't clear? Are you pushed off field if 2 of 4 spaces get pushed? and their tackle zone field would be enormous.
The fact that big guys are on 40mm round bases (usually) and don't quite fit on the 30mm spaces is because of scale creep: minis have just been getting bigger over time, as minis companies compete against each other & try to better their last minis, they've gotten bigger and more detailed over the years. But the game's board size has been established for over 20 years: the 3rd edition board used the square size that the 2nd edition board used, and back then, even 'big guys' like ogres, trolls and rat ogres could fit on a 25mm round base, so it wasn't a problem.
Some people make scaled up boards with 40mm squares, and someday I'd like to make one like that, I think it would look nicer and be easier to have even the regular sized minis out there, since they tend to have more dynamic poses and wide flung arms etc.
I don't know about the psp version- if you're playing blitz mode, maybe it's different (I haven't played it), but the classic mode on the cyanide game I've played on computer and it does it correctly: big guys take up 1 square.
Nice report and well done on not getting beaten with a new Tier 2 team - Pact can be hard to play. Plenty of SPPs to go around, plus you have a kill...nice!
ReplyDeleteAre you playing weekly? Who are you playing next?
We do something very similar with start-up teams: a skill package of 4 standards plus 1 double (which you pay for) - the rules being you can only take a particular skill once, and no player can get more than one skill. We find that slaps a few games of experience on right up and makes for the teams to be more interesting.
Looking forward to hearing more about the Asskicker's progress!
It continues to be a classic and probably GW`s ultimate game... I`m even painting up a new team (well, more Chaos dwarfs, other models lol) for a new League starting february, after a break of, hmmm, 10 odd years
ReplyDeleteGreat report! Certainly helps firing up the old engine to get back into the game for slackers like me :D
This looks like so much fun and it makes me mad that I can't get women to play these games with me. I don't do malls and makeup, I'd rather play wargames and beat my drums than talk about my weight.
ReplyDelete"blink blink"... er David, were the "unpainted figures" your team??? heh.
ReplyDeleteThanks everyone!
ReplyDeletePaul: we play every-other week, but can also play one extra game a month, so should end up as 2-3 games a month. It's open-challenge, so not sure who I'll play next, but the league is nothing but bashers, so it will be a strong team of some kind.
Tomsche: Then welcome back to Blood Bowl! I'd say it's GW's best game. We've got 2 Chaos Dwarf teams in the league, so you should see them before too long.
Anne: Welcome! Thanks for following. I'm surprised you haven't found some women to rope into playing- Blood Bowl tends to get more women than a lot of other miniatures games. Our league a couple seasons ago had 2 women, and the last tournament I went to had one woman out of about 16 players and the one last January I went to had 2 or 3. So they're out there!
As you know Alan, my own minis tend to get put at the last in line.. usually a very long line, of minis to be painted ;) They'll get there though :)
Wasn't the 2*2 Big Guys a thing of 2nd version, with the Astrogranite field? It was long ago since I played that one, so a bit fuzzy. For 3rd and all revisions using the cardboard field, the BGs just occupy one square. The guys at TFF probably have all the dates and right versions.
ReplyDeleteThe boards are different size, 25 vs 29mm squares, that I'm sure. And the old WHFB rat ogre I got barelly fits in a plain 30mm (both feet reach the edge), it would get the toes scratched with a 25mm.
Yes, I think you're right, the squares were even smaller on the old styrofoam board. I don't know if the 2nd edition rules had the big guys spread more squares- i didn't think so, since I've seen a lot of old ogres on 25mm bases, but if they did it hasn't been that way for the last 20 years. I thought I had all the old rules- but looking through them, I didn't find any of the rules older than the start of 3rd edition.
ReplyDelete