The Psychedelic Furs at Chaos Cup 2013: Game One

PRE-GAME

75 Coaches at the Chaos Cup, making this the 2nd largest Blood Bowl tournament I've ever been to, and my first Chaos Cup. The venue was large and roomy.  Only 2 games per table: very nice.  I've been to tournaments where you don't have enough room to both put out your team roster & roll dice so this was nice luxury.  In the huge hall, Impact Miniatures had a good-sized store of items for sale.

The Chaos Cup staff were setting up the 'Chaotic Brush' painting contest, which is a first for my experience with Blood Bowl... too often there isn't even a painting award for teams, let alone an independent painting competition.  There were three categories: Sideline miniature, Single Miniature, Team.  I entered all three: why not?

Then I picked up my freebies and new pitch.  I also got a purple 'I am Chaos' wristband (forgot to photo that in yesterday's update) since I was playing a Chaos team.  Cool. I also got several Raffle tickets.  Lots of prizes were given out over the weekend, but I didn't win anything, I spent all my raffle-luck when I was a kid at school cake-walks. What a waste. And it was time for Game One!

CHAOS CUP 2013 : GAME ONE
Opponent: Mousillon Martyrs. Humans, Coached by Brett.

I faced the Mousillon Martyrs, clearly a team from Bretonnia.
The team had 12 players, no Ogre, Thrower with Nerves of Steel, 2x Blodging Catcher, 3x Guard Blitzer and a Guard Lineman. He also had 3 Re-rolls & an Apothecary.  You get a lot with humans even at 1 million!

The Martyrs got +1 Fame, I won the toss & elected to kick.

The fans cheered as the ball took to the sky, inspiring my team with an extra re-roll.
The Chaotic crowd must have loved to see the Slaaneshi Home Team!

Straight away the Minotaur, Pretty N. Pink, blitzed a human lineman and sent him to the knock out box!
That's the way to do it!
The ball-carrier looked exposed, I went for him: wrestle him down, then Inxs, dodged to go recover the ball, but failed his dodge, failed his re-roll, and stunned himself!

A Blitzer takes advantage of the confusion, recovers the ball and heads to score. 

Echo was having non of that: he blitzed that Blitzer down!

Unfortunately, he failed to recover the ball, and a slippery Mousillon catcher snagged the ball and scored. 

With the majority of the half left, the Furs set up to both hurt & catch up.

The Mousillon coach, seeing the threat made a quick call to reorganize into a Perfect Defense as the ball was kicked.  Sneaky! 

A fight breaks out and Duran, son of Duran is injured! 

                                             but Inxs has the ball and is determined to tie the score...

The humans crowd in.  Squeeze takes a chance to hurt a Catcher, opting to hard fall instead of wrestle, but rather than hurting the fragile catcher he injures himself! That's Chaotic luck for you!   

In return the humans knock down Inxs and the ball squirts free! 

Pretty lashes out in blind frustration and skulls-out! 

Kajaa Googoo, the last hope, Goes For It on the blitz: Rolls a 1, Re-roll? 1: Trips and the Blitzer is safe.

I guess Kajaa doesn't have any Mountain Goat in his family. 

 The Martyrs Score again making it 0-2 at the half.

The Furs have their work cut out for them in the second half.

The ball is kicked and he blitzes!

The ball was kicked very deeply, but Inxs recovers it.

Ultra Vox clothesline's an infiltrating Blitzer and brays to the crowd.

In retaliation, the Martyrs injure Adam Ant! Down a Guard... not good!

In further reprisal, Xtc kills a Blitzer!  The Bretonnian Apothecary tried his best to save the man: he would live, but he'd still be sitting out the rest of the game. 

Inxs makes headway upfield and eventually scores: 1-2

With just a turn left to play, The Psychedelic Furs set up with deep defense, in case of a Riot. 

But the crowd seemed to accept the loss and hope for a more favorable outcome in the games to come.

The game ended 2-1 in favor of the Mousillon Martyrs, with casualties 4-3, same favor. 

Looks like a close game by those numbers, but not really.  The humans outplayed the Furs, and going in to the second half down 2 was a hard hill to climb.  

This was the first full game with this team (or any Chaos team for that matter) for me on the tabletop. 

I had a couple bad luck moments, but when doesn't that happen in Blood Bowl?  

I can't resist playing 'Big Guys' on teams, they are fun and just visually impressive center pieces. 

But considering my Minotaur failed his Wild Animal roll 6 times when statistically you'd expect 2 or 3, does point to the humans maybe being the wiser team having left their Ogre at home. 

But my main goal was to enjoy the look of the team on the new pitch and have fun, and I got both of those.

A great game and great opponent! 

My MVP of the match?  Not Pretty N. Pink for sure.. he started with a great first turn, but then slacked off failing all those Wild Animal tests.  I'll give it to Inxs, for at least getting us on the score board. 

Stay tuned for the next game tomorrow, and thanks for watching! 

On To GAME TWO 

Enjoy: