Vikings Invade Las Vegas: NATC Day 1 Games Report: Day of the Elves

Continuing on from the last update's coverage, we come to Day 1 of the NATC where the Fjord Furies, Norse Dwarves, and their brave compatriots of the West Coast Chaostriches readied to face the squads fate would throw at us.

The way pairings worked was a swiss style match up of the 13 squads, with each player within the squad also being ranked by performance as player 1,2,3&4 being matched against the opposing squad's equally ranked player.  I wish there was a way to add in a system to jockey the match ups, similar to how the ETC does it for Warhammer.. I think that'd be a lot of fun, but I admit this is probably more fair.

For Game 1 we were placed on Table 1! Oh yes! As it should be.  Start at Table 1.  Because that was likely the only way we were going to be playing on Table 1 in this event.

First game the pairings were random and I drew.. Wood Elves! Odin help me.
First time I play Norse on the tabletop and I draw the very best tournament race.
Well, tempered by fire.

GAME 1 :  vs Jon's "Dark Brown": Wood Elves. 

Can't say I was impressed with the team name.. it's about as interesting as "Red Sox" .. if you remove 'Sox'.
But the team was quite nice and that's what counts most.  It was converted from plastic warhammer wood elves and got me wanting to make a team like that myself.  The Treeman was the Treebeard character from the Lord of the Rings line.

My team poses for a pre-game shot for their fans.

Uffda sizes up Treebeard.

"What's the three-week long phrase in Entish for 'you're going down?'"

I won the kick off toss, and he won fame.  I elected to kick. 

Reason for kicking is I have slim hope of stopping them from scoring. I want to spend the first half tying the game up and putting the hurt on, so only want to give them one chance to recover from the knock out box.

Early in the match I stunned a catcher, and stunned a wardancer! I proceeded to foul the wardancer, but just  stunned him again. Not great injury rolls to be sure. Uffda decided to deny the treeman and dodged away!

Seeing a chance for glory, Vestri, #9, ran off to sack the elf ball carrier with a 1 die blitz and gets him down & scoops up the ball!

Not willing to push my luck with fast elves behind him, Vestri scores in turn 6!  Score: 1-0

I got the ball away from him again, but he returned the favor and tried a crazy move to tie it up, but failed.

Second half a Wardancer leaped, blitzed and knocked out my carrier, got the ball, dodged out, dodged, two go for its and scored.  Yikes. That's Elves for you.  Score 1-1 in Turn 3 second half.

I then Scored on turn 6, deciding it was safer to score for the win & try to defend against the tie than risk getting the ball stolen by the wardancers who I just couldn't manage to injure.

He made a play to tie it up, but I got the ball, injured the thrower & fouled a catcher into the injury box and kept the ball safe to prevent an elf tie.

Game ended 2-1 with casualties 3-1.  Victory for the Fjord Furies!

GAME 2: vs. Spencer's "Wood Elves": Wood Elves. 

I managed the best record for our squad. We did alright.. 1 win, 2 ties & a loss I think.  But for my reward for being top player I got to face another Wood Elf team!  On the one hand, my fragile armor 7 isn't a handicap, but trying to keep wood elves from winning is a brain squeezer.  I'm starting to think it's uncommon to care about your team name because this Wood Elf team's name was "Wood Elves"!  Alright, take back everything I said about the name 'Dark Brown'.

Dice off in the beginning: I won the kick off and he won fame. Sounds familiar.
Worked last time, so I elect to kick again.

Another Wood Elf team with a Treeman.  I'd thought they were usually not rated for Tournaments, but they are more fun, so it's nice to see them. I see he's staying clear of the sidelines: I do love that about Frenzy: makes people afraid of the sides, worrying they'll be pushed out into the angry crowd!

Things start nicely on turn 1 as one of my boars injures a catcher!
But early results were nice for the elves too: I couldn't stop them from scoring:Turn 4: 0-1.

With half of the first half left we prepare to score and wreck havoc.

Turn 5 the elves tried this as well, as five elves surrounded Uffda and blocked him for 2 dice: but no good! Reroll? Fail again! And Uffda injured a line elf for his impudence!  Very glad I picked Block for his skill!

With far too many elves around, I risk the double go for it to score on turn 7 and make it! Tie Game!
The first half ended and I didn't use any re-rolls.  Very odd!

Second half it starts Raining! Just my luck as I am receiving.
But not so hard for Elves, a wardancer comes down, steals the ball and scores on Turn 3.
Score 1-2.  They make it look so easy!

Next kick I get 'ball in hand' and give it to Regin the Wereboar!
Lots of pushing and shoving, but not a lot of damage.  Still, Regin makes it to the endzone and scores to tie!

In the last moments of the game the Furies knocked down a catcher, failing to hurt him and him being the only elf capable of scoring in time, they fouled him, stunning him and preserved the tie.

Game ends: Tie 2-2, Casualties 3-1.  A tie result but I edged on points for causing more injuries.

Unfortunately, (if I remember correctly) I was the only one to tie in our squad and that was the best result!
So down the tables we go!

Game 3: vs Cole's "Very Old Dudes": Wood Elves.

By Thor's Hairy Backside!  Really? Wood Elves again?  I stayed as our team's top player so I guess I shouldn't be surprised I faced off against Wood Elves again: a popular team and so good it was likely to be the best record holder in the opposing squad.  Dan got to play against Halflings, and I got Wood Elves?

This squad is 'local' for us, based in the East Bay Area. And Cole? I've faced him a few times before. He's good. Damn good.  I've never beaten him and and he seems to favor fast high scoring teams, especially Wood Elves.  So shouldn't be a shock to say, I didn't have high hopes for the game's outcome. On the plus side, I had recent experience against Wood Elves, but 2 games total with Norse compared to years of Wood Elf experience?  I'd certainly not be the favored to win.

I do have to say, Cole: you just have to paint this team.  A few years and no change:unfinished, chipped & scratched, metallic green skin, bases not finished... it just detracts from the game experience to play against a team in this kind of shape.  It is hard to tell what mini is what type player since it creates visual camo akin to a 'dazzle' pattern, but mostly it's just not visually fun. Doesn't take a lot of effort to paint to a minimum standard of block some color and throw a wash on it.  If someone can't manage it or have the time, I know a pretty good brush for hire.. ;) I'd even give him a discount since I'm likely to play against the team again!

But really, no excuse: not difficult to do minimum standard and if you have time to play you can find time to paint. It isn't just a matter of doing it for yourself, it is also for everyone you play: it just adds to the pleasure of the game. Not to jump & criticize... talented player & nice guy, but the tournament rules always seem to say 'painted & based teams' and this one isn't. OK, on with the game:

Like the last two games, the Wood Elves get Fame +1 and I kick.
It is a shallow kick and he catches it right at the line: pretty good result for me.
Turn 1 he injures a linemen of mine.. since the Apotho didn't have much of a role in earlier games, and Wood Elves aren't known for doing a lot of casualties I use my Apotho and heal my injured player.
My Turn 1 I return the favor and injure one of his linemen! I also push the thrower off the field and he's knocked out!

But Cole really has Wood Elves dialed in. He manages to knock out 2 of my players, pushed another off to reserves and successful stalled until Turn 6 before he scores, not leaving me much time to tie it up and hurt his team.

He kept the pressure on, but Austri on turn 7 dodges, goes for it and scores!  Tie Game!

The Wood Elves set up for a chain-push 1 Turn Touch Down play, which he's quite adept at, but it doesn't get pulled off, so the half ends with a tie.

At the half, my turn to receive the ball: the plan: take it slow and hurt as many elves as I can.

The elf thrower with leader recovers from his knock-out.. was hoping he wouldn't! But a catcher doesn't, along with my blitzer.

I kept the ball cages and pushed another catcher off the field.. love frenzy!

But here comes a Wardancer Duo! Two of them blitz in to free up the ball and move it down!

Not looking good for the Fjord Furies!

The Wardancer had to betaken care of... preferably by an undertaker.
I sent a player in to blitz him, needing to go for it to do so, got a push! So I rerolled.. Pow!
The Wardancer goes down! Roll for armor? 11! Injury? 11! The elf gets taken off field and the ball returns to my control!

I stalled it to score on Turn 8 to win 2-1,with casualties 3-1.

A great day of Blood Bowl, no bad games, at least for me.  Our Dark Elf player experienced a lot of bad luck. In the overall it was looking like the German team: Teutonic Terrors were looking like the likely team to take it all!


So Day 1 down with the West Coast Chaostriches seeing some rise and fall and rise again.
A tense day facing nothing but Wood Elves for me, and knowing I was remaining as our squad's top player (seriously... how did that happen?) I just hoped I wouldn't be facing Wood Elves the next day!

Not the best luck to face Wood Elves three times in a row, but with 2 wins & a tie I can't complain.. made the most out of that bad luck!