Ordo Bowl '17 Season 2 Round 4 AAR

No Friendly games this go around, so round 4 is a little sparse with BatReps. Deathbot's Orcs and my Vampires faced off in the Super Leage, and my Chaos Dwarved played an Elf Union team.

Zorcon vs Deathbot's Super League Round 4

Paravon City Chiefs (Vampires) vs New Orcleans Saints (Orcs)

The Saints received 100k in inducements and hired Bomber Dribblesnot, a Goblin Bombardier Star Player. His stats are 6/2/3/7 with Loner, Accurate, Bombardier, Dodge, Right Stuff, Secret Weapon, Stunty. It was Pouring Rain the entire game.

Turn 2. A Vampire rushes the Orc Thrower in the backfield.

Turn 3. The Rushing Vampire is killed and the Orc Thrower
slots into a cage

An early Casualty to the Vampires. It cascades into a free-for-all as the Orcs pummel their way to the endzone. I recover momentum during the next drive and tie up the game before the half's end.

End of the Game as the Orcs score in the Pouring Rain.
The Vampire Casualties are severe.

The second half was dismal for the Vampire team. Dribblesnot made his first appearance and earned his salary. The Orc front line made the Vampire team pay for their last touchdown causing numerous Casualties. At the end of the game, there were only 3 Paravon City players on the pitch!

The New Orclean Saints win 2-1. More impressively, the Orcs cause 6 Casualties--2 Badly Hurt, 1 Serious Injury, and 3 Kills. Two of the kills were Vampires, only 1 of which Regenerated. The Paravon City Chiefs managed to Badly Hurt and Seriously Injure 2 Orcs.

Zorcon's Premiership League Round 4
Zharr'Thrak Seahawks (Chaos Dwarves) vs Boredom (Elf Union)

Going into this game, Boredome was leading the league with 3 wins, while I was in the middle of the pack sporting a 1-1-1 record.

With 480k in inducements, the Elf coach hired 2 Star Player Elves, Eldril Sidewinder & Jordell Freshbreeze. Eldril's stats are 8/3/4/7 with Loner, Catch, Dodge, Hypnotic Gaze, Nerves of Steel, Pass Block. While Jordell's stats are 8/3/5/7 with Loner, Block, Diving Catch, Dodge, Leap, Side Step. It was pouring rain at the onset of the game.

I was wholly unprepared to defend against so much MV 8. I received the Kick-Off, but it was the Elf team to score on turn 2. We set up again and I received another Kick-Off on turn 3. The weather dramatically changed to Sweltering Heat. This time I held off the prancing Elves until Turn 8 where they scored again.

The second half started and only 7 Elves were on the pitch. The rest of the team was recovering from heat exhaustion. I kicked off and hoped to take advantage of the numbers disparity. The weather again made a sever change as a Blizzard hit the stadium. Unfortunately I was still unable to contain the faster moving Elves and they scored on turn 2.  We set up for another Kick-Off. All of the Elves recovered and were back on the pitch. This time there was a Quick Snap, and I got a bonus square of movement and a touchback. This helped me to finally score on turn 4. I had an opportunity to score again on turn 8, but I failed the scoring GFI due to the Blizzard.

Elves dominate a 3-1 victory. Eldril was ineffectual and spent half the game in the Injury box. However Jordell was the MVP of the game--MV8, AG5, plus Leap was too much for me to handle. As hard as I tried to kill Elves (the other coaches nearby were encouraging me) I only Badly Hurt 2, one of which was a Star Player.

Final Thoughts

This was a tough round. Deathbot decimated my Vampires and my Chaos Dwarves were handed an old fashioned whoop-ass.

Ash River Falcons WIP

I have been steadily working on a new Blood Bowl team for a tournament this weekend, The Carnage Cup. My club, Ordo Fanaticus is the tournament organizer. In addition to Blood Bowl, 40K and AoS will also be main attractions.

Here is a brief rundown of the rules.

Team building:
Teams get 1,100,000 gold pieces to construct their roster
A maximum of 2 star players may be taken
Teams can purchase re-rolls, apothecaries (if allowed), coaches, cheerleaders & fan factor
Teams may also include bribes as part of the roster as per the standard inducement cost
Chefs can only be purchased by Halfling team

Skill Packs:
you may only give a player one skill in addition to what they already are equipped with
no skill may be acquired via skill pack more than twice
choose 6 "points" of skills where normal skills cost 1 point, and double skills cost 2

Tournament Scoring:
Win: 3 points
Loss: 0 points
Tie: 1 point
Casualties: 1 point if your casualties caused exceeds your opponents

The team is a kit bashed Khemri/Tomb Kings team. The linemen, Anointed Throwers and Anointed Blitzers are comprised of various era WHFB/AoS skeletons and the Tomb Guardians are based off Crypt Horrors.

A portion of the team fully assembled prior to priming. I attempted zenith highlighting, but it came out too subtle.

Willy Miniatures J. Erlitz

Reaper Mummy Rising

Reaper Bones Spirits

WHFB Skeleton Regiment
horse head with antlers

In addition to the team, I have a Coach, the Star Player Ithica Benoin, 2 Assistant Coaches/Turn and Score Markers, 3 Cheerleaders/Re-Roll Markers, and a ball.

The Coach (not pictured above) is a GW AoS Wight King.

The additional Bitz I used to kit bash this project were Thousand Sons helmets and shoulder pads, Necron Lychguard heads, Kroot shoulder pads, and Dreamforge Eisenkern Stormtrooper shoulder pads.

Lastly, I of coarse designed a team logo.

Its gonna be close getting everything done in time!

Blood Bowl Progress Chart

Did I ever mention I love charts! They help me organize data, rules and ideas. Thanks to Admiral Drax, I also use them to track painting and modeling progress for my miniature games.

The last time I posted a Blood Bowl Progress chart was about 4 years ago. At that point my teams were based on the Living Rulebook v3, and had not been updated to the current rules of the day, the Living Rulebook v6/CRP. Back then, I only had 15 teams, and grouped Star Players with a pre-designated team.

My teams currently reflect the rosters from the CRP, plus the NAF sanctioned teams, and the 2016 rules. Star players are now separate, and I have 7 new teams in various stages completeness--The majority of witch were scratch-built with models and bitz I already had. 

I am currently working on a Khemri team for an upcoming tournament After that, I will resurrect the Human team after 4 layers of paint--Primer, 2 layers of paint, and another layer of primer. This time I plan on stripping the figures instead of adding a 5th layer of paint.

I had a little fun here. I organized all of my teams into Old Warhammer World inspired conferences. The teams names in white text on black background are at least table top standard or better. The team names in black text over white background have all of the miniatures built in various stages of paint. The remaining teams in grey text are in different stages of collected and/or built.

Ordo Bowl '17 Season 2 Round 3 AAR

This round I temporarily retired my red set of dice and swapped them out to the original 2e white dice. Lets see if it made a difference. We have another 5-game BatRep this time, as both of my teams played a Friendly.

Zorcon's Premiership Game 3
Zharr'Thrak Seahawks (Chaos Dwarves) vs The Brothers Gory (Ogres)

A Hobgoblin fails a GFI on his way to score after
the crowd threw in the ball

My team had a 630k higher TV, so The Brothers Gory induced Morg'N'Thorg, a Re-Roll, and 2 Bloodweiser Kegs.

Ogres kick off and the Seahawks run in a TD down the weakside on turn 3! The Chaos Dwarves put up a great defense and The Ogres are unable to score before the clock runs out.

Seahawks kick-off opening the second half. The Brothers Gory get mired in the center of the pitch for most of the drive. But on turn 6, a Snotling made a run for it along the sideline. He took 2 GFI's to get out of range of all but 1 opponent. The little guy tripped and the ball bounced out of bounds. The crowd threw it back in play, right into Morg'N'Thorg's hands (back-left diagonal from the Minotaur in the pic above). But the Star Player couldn't catch it and dropped the ball. Then a Hobgoblin scooped up the ball and made a run for it, failing his GFI! The Ogre team attempted to make a harrowing play for a last minute TD, but after a succession of successful rolls, the thrown Snotling scatters too far away from the Endzone.

Current Roster. #10 leveled up taking Sure Hands

Chaos Dwarves win 1-0! Casualties fall in favor of the Ogres, 3-1. I killed a Snotling on turn 1, but received a Badly Hurt Hobgoblin and Chaos Dwarf, plus a Seriously injured CD.

Zorcon's Super League Friendly Game 2
Paravon City Chiefs (Vampires) vs The Ratriots (Skaven)

The Chiefs stuffing a TD attempt by the Ratriots

Special Play cards were in effect this game. Unlike the last Friendly game vs the other Vampire team, this time they impacted the game.

I lost the coin-toss but my opponent chose to kick. I play one of my Special Play cards. On every kick-off, I roll a D6+Fame (I had +1). On a 6+ opponent looses a Re-Roll. I rolled a 5 (+1) and The Ratriots are down to 2 Re-Rolls before the game starts. I ran my patented weak side set up 2-turn score play and scored in 2 turns. Now on turn 3 we kick off again and I roll a 6, causing the Skaven to loose their last Re-Roll. The rats are quick. The make an attempt to score, but I left a couple Thralls on deep defense and they stuffed the receiver. I scooped up the ball, but my TD was thwarted by the dice.

The second half opens and I kick-off, causing my opponent to loose another Re-Roll. The Rats make a good play on the weak side and get deep. Even though there was a decent cage, I managed to pop the ball carrier and the ball scatters outside the cage. A Thrall with Sure Hands picks up the ball in a Tackle Zone and I play my second Special Play Card-Make a Pass with no modifiers applied. So I threw a Long Bomb (-2) in a TZ (-1) ignoring those penalties to a Vampire. Success! The Vampire was also in a TZ and he Blitzed out, running 8 squares down field out of range of any opponents. I scored on my next turn. This time, I did not roll a 6+ during the Kick-Off and the rats did not loose a Re-Roll. My opponent played one of his Special Play cards, giving a linerat Stab and Dirty Player. The Ratriots tried to make a couple plays, but were down too many players to make anything happen.

A surprising win for the Vampires. Final score 2-0. Blood was spilled in this game--The Ratriots caused 2 casualties (a Badly Hurt and a Serious Injury), while 4 Skaven were Badly Hurt (1 self induced).

Zorcon's Premiership League Friendly Game 1
Zharr'Thrak Seahawks (Chaos Dwarves) vs The Mouse House Rejects (Dwarves)

One turn into the second half

What a game! A game to see which Dwarf team was superior. Our TV's were almost identical, so no Inducements for either coach.

I opened the game receiving the ball. I played both of my Special Play cards and my opponent played one of his right up front. One allowed me to take 2 Blitzes in a turn and the other awarded a bonus MVP, while the Mouse Hose played the Re-Roll stealing card I had last game. Unfortunately, My perfect offence for a 2 turn score failed as I was unable to pick up the ball on a 3+ with a re-roll. That set me back and wasted my 2-Blitz opening turn, but I managed to score on turn 6. My opponent punched an opening and made an attempt to score, but failed.

In the second half, The rejects brought out the Death Roller and played his second Special Play card--Give one player +1 ST and Mighty Blow (given to a Troll Slayer) for their first Block action. I kicked off. My opponent managed to get through my front line, but was blitzed on my next turn. After some scrambling with poor ball handling, I managed to get the ball into the Mouse House side of the pitch. I was unable to sustain a defense and lost the ball. the AG+1 Runner got the ball and made a dash for the endzone, ending his turn 2 squares away. I had 3 player that could reach him. Two were set up in case the Blitzer's GFI failed, the third player attempted the Blitz. A Hobgoblin and a Chaos Dwarf were adjacent to the Dwarf ball carrier, and my Bull Centar came in hard with a blitz, knocking the Dwarf Runner on his back. On turn 7 the Dwarf Runner stood up, moved into 2 Tackle Zones, picked-up the ball, threw a 1-die blitz, dodged and ran in for a TD!


Game ends in a 1-1 tie. Quite fitting for a show down between Dwarves in a Friendly game. There wasn't even a casualty! Each team only KO'd  a single opponent. Before the game, the Seahawks were given a brief on Dwarf armor weak points--We broke armor all game long. But my Hobgoblins skipped practice and it showed--None of them (even with Sure Hands) could pick up in less than 2 turns. While my opponent, The Rejects, hired an Elf trainer and taut them the fine points of dodging and passing.

P.S. The Re-Roll stealing Special Play card was essentially ineffectual this game. Even though The Mouse House had +1 Fame, only the first Kick-Off of the game was successful in taking one of my Re-Rolls, but I still had one Re-Roll left at the end of the half.

Zorcon's Super League Game 3
Paravon City Chiefs (Vampires) vs Mad Dogs of Middenheim (Humans)

Set-up for the second half

The Mad Dogs won the Coin Toss and chose to Kick-Off. The Chiefs Induced a Bloodweiser Keg.

This was a back and forth game right up to the end! Both teams sacked multiple TD attempts, and the ball traveled up and down, and to both sides of the the pitch. We both even had a (small) shot at a turn 8 hail Mary play. My dice started to falter a little in this game and I had issues with picking up the ball (3+ with Re-Roll). Blood Lust bit me a few times (pun intended), but with 5 Vampires times 16 turns, it seemed a reasonable amount.

One series of back and forth was in the first half. I had the ball and advanced deep past the line of scrimmage on the weakside. A Thrall had the ball with 3 Vampires and a Thrall running screen. The Middenheim Ogre Blitzed in and broke the screen, followed by a number of Human players marking my players, cutting off Block assists. On my next turn I brought in support and managed to push the Mad Dogs back a few squares. But on the Human's next turn they pushed 2 of my players off the pitch, and put the rest of the screen Prone including the ball carrier. The Human Thrower scooped up the ball and made a 2 turn advance towards the endzone. A Vampire Blitzed the Human Thrower and put him on the ground. A Thrall scooped up the ball and handed it off to a Vampire who dashed up the middle of the pitch through an opening. Two turns later I score.

In the end, it was a tie game, 1-1. But the Humans caused all the physical damage--5 Casualties! A self induced Badly Hurt Ogre, a Thrall and Vampire Badly Hurt, a Thrall MNG, and a Dead Thrall (with Block).

Deathbot's Super League Game 3
New Orcleans Saints (Orcs) vs Jerk store (Goblins)

Deathbot making a run for the endzone

Deathbot won +1 Fame, and Kicked-Off. The Jerk Store Induced a Bloodweiser Keg.

Unfortunately I only watched a portion of this game. But what really stood out was Deathbot loosing focus. He threw way too many 1-die Blocks that could have been 2-die with a simple move to assist. Plenty of Goblins were thrown on both sides. The Doom Diver on the Goblin team is a really smart new addition to the team (instead of scattering d8 direction when thrown, they scatter d3). I look forward to chucking one in the future.

A tough 0-1 loss for the Orcs. They were so close to tying up the game. Unfortunately for the Jerk Store, the Raiders got one thing right, and that was Blocking! Four Goblins went to the Injury Box: 3 MNG, and 1 Dead.

Final Thoughts
Swapping dice has indeed made a difference. Even though I had bad patches, the games seemed more even--Or at least games were not lost by bad dice rolls. Take the Friendly game Chorves vs Dwarves. I rolled Opponent Down and Broke Armor on almost every Block I threw, but I failed almost every Dodge, GFI, Injury, and Pick-up.

Actually, looking back, ball handling was an issue for all of my games with both teams this round. But because dice were rolling average/good in other aspects of the game, it didn't feel disasterous like my dice were last round.

Blood Bowl Inducements WIP

Another short post today about Blood Bowl. This time, we have WIP of all the figures I use for Inducements (although some of these are finished). None of these miniatures are necessary for game play, but occasionally they do help remind the coaches. Plus I love how they look on the sidelines.

I have tried to create enough to represent the maximum allowed for both teams. I have also tried to use only GW models, but there are a few exceptions.

Wandering Apothecary: A variety of era bits from the earliest plastics GW made, to more recent kits. Here we have a Goblin, Orc, Human, and Elf representing both "good" and "evil" races.

Igor: The wandering apothecary for the undead represented by vintage WHFB figures.

Halfling Master Chef: A pair of Halfling Master Cfefs from Meiko Miniatures and GW.

Wizard: A couple refugees from Basic Heroqust representing a :good" and "evil" mage.

Bloodweiser Keg (formerly known as Babe): Here we have 4 plastic barrels from Perry Miniatures with a little color laser printed branding.

Bribe: The 2 Humans and Dwarf are 2e Blood Bowl figures. The Goblin is from Impact Miniatures, and the Halfling is an old WHFB miniature. I would like at least 3 more models as it is possible to earn extra Bribes through the Kick-Off table.

Blood Bowl Markers, Tokens and Balls WIP

A short post today. I am really loving all the new race specific balls, markers, and tokens. Because I am an old skool gamer, all my teams are either vintage 2/3e models or scratch built. So I haven't bought any of the new teams due to the scale creep. However, I have acquired all these gubbins separately on eBay.

These coins/tokens are my favorite. Can't wait for more sets to be released.

The Markers are glued to a 20mm MDF base and a 25mm plastic base. I clues a penny to the bottom of the 25mm base to add a little weight.

All of the balls are glued to a 10mm bass wood disk with a 1/8" x 1/16" rare earth magnet embedded in the center.

Blood Bowl by the Numbers

This post covers my guidelines for jersey numbers that I use with my Blood Bowl teams. Since Blood Bowl is loosely based on American Football, I was inspired by the NFL's numbering system. However, I took some liberties, and my system is not as strict.

Image taken from interwebs without permission.

Unlike the NFL, each Blood Bowl team is comprised of a different selection of positions. So I couldn't implement a static universal system. Instead, I came up with guidelines that could be applied to any team. Following is a general breakdown of the system I use to number players.

Position	Number Ranges
Linemen	01-12
Catchers/Runners	12-15
Throwers	14-17
Secret Weapons	16-19
Blitzers	18-21
Blockers	20-23
Big Guys	22-25
Star Players	26+

The above example is just a guideline. In practice, there would never be an overlap of numbers between positions. In fact, there are only 4 rules I follow.

1. Linemen are numbered starting from 1
2. After Linemen, the positions are sorted in order by cost/toughness
3. Big Guys are always numbered backwards from 25
4. Star Players are numbered sequentially starting from 26

Some teams will have gaps in the numbering, and other teams will use the majority of numbers, depending on how many positions and total number of possible players. The less common positions not listed above are sorted according to the rules above. Here is an example of how I number an Orc team.

Position	Number Ranges
Lineorcs	01-10
Goblins	11-14
Throwers	15-16
Blitzers	17-20
Blockers	21-24
Big Guys	25
Star Players	26+

Numbering your teams in this fashion will not only add to the sports ambiance, using this system groups each position into a block of numbers that helps with identifying players.

Ordo Bowl '17 Season 2 Round 2 AAR

Deathbot and I each played a Friendly game, in addition to our scheduled games. So here I present all 5 mini-BatReps for our Blood Bowl League Round 2 games.

Zorcon's Premiership Game 2
Zharr'Thrak Seahawks (Chaos Dwarves) vs Pleasant Pheasant Pluckers (Halflings)

Image taken from interwebs without permission.

You would think playing Halflings would be something to look forward to. However, I was giving up 1 million TV! The Halflings induced Morg'N'Thorg (the best Star Player in the game), Deeproot Strongbranch (Treeman Star Player), a Bribe, a Bloodwieser Keg, and a Halfling Master Chef (stealing 2 Re-rolls each half).

The Halfling's front line consisted of three Strength 6 and a Strength 7 player! In an attempt to keep away from the Big Guys, I sacrifice 3 Chaos Dwarves to the Line of Scrimmage, placing the rest of the team one square back. I kick off . The Halflings get Quick Snap and gain a bonus square of movement--Advancing base-to-base with my valuable players. My Minotaur is Badly Hurt on turn 2, and a Bull Centaur spends the majority of the game in the KO box.

As the game continues, this season's curse from Nuffle continues and the dice are my biggest opponent. I roll triple skulls three times, fail picking up the ball multiple times (with Sure Hands), fail multiple Hand-Offs (with Catch), and fail a critical Go For It. Every turn it felt like I was just trying not to make things worse.

Tie game, 1-1. Seahawks suffer 2 Badly Hurts and the Pluckers suffer 5 Halfling Casualties: 3 Badly Hurt and 2 Serious Injured.

Zorcon's Super League Game 2
Paravon City Chiefs (Vampires) vs Jerk store (Goblins)

As I have mentioned, I am only playing in the Super League because my son Deathbot is in it. My role is more of a mentor to the other coaches, than a coach vying for better standings. While I never tank a game, I play a little looser, and help the opponent with strategy when they are behind. However, this was a very strange game--A game that Nuffle disproved of from the beginning.

The Goblin coach had a Bombardier, a Pogoer, a Looney, a Fanatic, a Doom Diver, a Ooligan, 2 Trolls, 7 Goblins (2 MNG), and 2 Re-Rolls. After almost being wiped off the pitch last game, I was limping into this game with 2 Journeymen, 7 Linemen, 3 Vampires, and 5 Re-Rolls.

Both coaches rolled horribly the entire game. It became farcical. At turn 9, one of the Goblin's Trolls had failed it's Really Stupid roll 6 times! I couldn't break Goblin Armor the entire game. In the end what made the difference was my superior number of Re-Rolls.

Game ends in an upset, 3-0 Vampires. The Goblins suffer 4 Casualties (3 self inflicted--A failed Leap, GFI, and Dodge): 2 Badly Hurt and 2 Serious Injuries.

Deathbot's Super League Game 2
New Orcleans Saints (Orcs) vs WWF Hall of Maim (Chaos Chosen)

Deathbot faced the Chaos team that decimated my Vampire team last round.

The WWF Hall of Maim was in charge the entire first half. Deathbot's Saints started to make a comeback with a quick Goblin toss TD in the second half. He began to play a skill game and the first part of the second half went to Deathbot. But the experience of the Chaos' coach prevailed.

Chaos wins 3-1. Surprisingly this was a gentle game with only one player Badly Hurt on the Chaos side.

Zorcon's Super League Friendly Game 1
Paravon City Chiefs (Vampires) vs Baltimourkain Ravens (Vampires)

My fairly new team of 3 Vampires and 8 Thralls (2 with skills) faced an upper league Vampire team in its second season with 5 experienced Vampires: a ST 5, an AG 5 and 3 Pro. I faced the Ravens last year with my Chaos Dwarves and pulled out a win.

Nuffle chose the outcome of this game. My dice rolling was embarrassing. Even my opponent was embarrassed. It was absolutely laughable--12 Re-Rolls couldn't even help me (I won a bonus re-roll on 2 Kick-Offs).

Ravens 2, Chiefs 1. No Casualties. With the bonus earnings from playing an upper league team, I was able to hire a 4th Vampire.

Deathbot's Super League Friendly Game 1
New Orcleans Saints (Orcs) vs The Ratriots (Skaven)

This was Deathbot's first game vs a fast team. It was too much for him. He was unable to contain the high move rats. Even his go to tactic of Goblin throwing failed.
A brutal loss for the for the Orcs. The final score was 5-0. The Orcs caused a Serious Injury to a Linerat, but an Orc Blitzer was pushed off the pitch and violently killed by the crowd

Final Thoughts
I don't like blaming a loss on bad die rolls, especially so frequently this season. However, all 5 of my games this season have resulted in horrible rolls. My opponents have even commented and squirmed in reaction to how bad it has been. I have certainly made mistakes and may have lost all of the games this season anyway, but I haven't caught a break yet.

Blood Bowl is a game of mitigating chance, and I love the game. But the last couple weeks have tested my passion.

Oh yeah, by the way, there is a set of dice that are getting punished.

Blind River Ravens Showcase

I painted this team specifically for the Ordo Bowl 2017 Blood Bowl Tournament. In hindsight I made a poor list, which helped lead me to loosing every game. All was not lost however, as I did take the Player's Choice award.

The entire team plus inducements and gubbins as it appeared at the tournament.

Back Row (left to right): 3 Refferees, Stupid Marker, Toll, Ripper Bildgerot, Troll, Stupid Marker, Turn and Score Markers.

Middle Row (left to right): Coach, 5 Goblins, 2 Re-Roll Coins

Front Row (left to right):   Fungus the Loon, Looney, Bombadier, Fanatic

Bottom Center (left to right):  Spikey Ball, Bomb Marker

The Stupid Markers are hand painted foam clouds attached to a magnetized Night Goblin mushroom.

The Bombadier is a converted Goblin Archer. The bomb is a bead, the match and wick are made of wire, and the match head and flame are made of hot glue. I also made a bomb marker similar to the one the Bombadier is holding.

I found this book box at a local thrift store. It was originally a box for a puzzle. I designed the cover in Photoshop, printed on standard 11" x 17"copy paper, and then affixed the new cover with spray adhesive.

The inside of the box. It held everything I needed at the event: Dice, tokens/markers, balls, pencil, glue and the entire team. I cut the edges of the facing so that it would lie flat. During the game it functioned as a pseudo dugout.

The team logo was not at all inspired by it's NFL progenitor. But instead it came to me while painting the team.

Post tournament celebrations.

Ordo Bowl 2017 Blood Bowl Tournament AAR

[During my absence from the blog-o-sphere, I was still active on and off in the hobby. In March of this year, I partisipated in a Ordo Fanaticus Blood Bowl tournament. This BatRep was written for and emailed to my friends after the event. I am re-posting it to this blog. --Zorcon]

These recaps are going to be much lighter than my previous post game reports. Details of six games in 2 days is just way too much to keep in my head. I did keep track of stats and significant events though. After the game recaps, I have all my team stats and a breakdown of total and average points/casualties.

This was a Swiss-style resurrection tournament, with a slightly larger starting Team Value (1.1 million gp, instead of 1 million gp) and a 6-skill bonus package (where 2 skills could be traded in for a “double” skill). There were 26 teams, 3 of which were “stunties” (including my team).

I went into this tournament not expecting to win many (or any) games. The team was meant to be a fun list and I think it succeed in that. My goals for the tournament were to win either the Stunty Cup (most points of all Stunty teams), or one of the 2 painting competitions (the judged technical “Best Team” award, or the fan favorite “Player's Choice” award).

DAY ONE

Game 1 – Khemri

Thrown Rock kills Star Player with Ball and Chain at Kick off on turn 0. The regular Ball and Chain player fails two 2+ rolls on turn 1, causing early Turnover and going to KO box, where he does not return to the game. Essentially starting the game without my 2 strongest guys against an incredibly strong and tough team. Dice rolls were terrible for most of the first half.

Loose 0-3; Total Casualties: 8 (0 for me; 8 for opponent)

Game 2 – Chaos

Bad dice rolls prevented 2 scoring opportunities. The most damaging was a Troll failing the Always Hungry roll (a 2+ roll) 2 consecutive turns in a row, eating (and killing) 2 Goblins, both holding the ball. 

Loose 0-2; Total Casualties: 6 (3 for me; 3 for opponent)

Game 3 – Orcs

A very fast paced game in which I could have tied or won if not for being down to 4 players mid way through the second half. In one 3 turn interval, I scored, my opponent scored, and then I scored by throwing a Goblln for a 1-turn TD. I earned 3 bonus Re-Rolls due to having +2 Fame.

Loose 3-4; Total Casualties: 5 (3 for me; 2 for opponent)

Game 4 – Goblins

The 2 Goblin teams go head to head. My opponent forwent 2 Trolls in favor of a 16-man team with 3 Bribes, 3 Re-Rolls and more Secret Weapons. Even though I killed his Troll early and my 3 Trolls were making lots of KO's, my opponent's superior numbers, bribes and re-rolls paid off. My TD was from throwing a Goblin, and I would have tied the game with another thrown Goblin on turn 16, but he didn't stick the landing.

Loose 1-2; Total Casualties: 8 (4 for me; 4 for opponent)

DAY TWO

Game 5 –  Dwarves

I opened the game by failing a 2+ roll (with Re-Roll) causing an early Turnover. Same thing happened on turn 2. I was unable to recover and my opponent scored quickly. This caused me to spend all my Bribes to keep my Secret Weapons in-play early in the First Half. Down 1-2, my opponent stopped 1 square from the Endzone and stayed there for for 6 turns, preventing me from getting the ball back in the second half. At that point I only had 2 Trolls and 2 Goblins and his entire team was swarmed around me—I couldn't figure out how to get out of it.

Loose 1-3 Total Casualties: 3 (1 for me; 2 for opponent)

Game 6 –  Lizardmen

My opponent received the Kick-Off and on his first turn threw a 2-die, my-choice block against both of my Ball and Chain players, with both resulting in a KO. That left me on my turn 1 down significantly in strength. My Star Player Troll blitzes his Star Player Lizardman and kills him. My next move was a 2+ re-rollable Dodge to allow a Troll to make a 2-die Block, but I rolled two “1's” in a roll. The skinks blew through my wide open weak side and held the ball at the endzone until turn 8, causing all my Secret Weapons to get ejected after my turn 8. I had an opportunity to tie the game on turn 16, by tossing a Goblin, but he did not stick the landing (4+ roll).

Loose 1-2; Total Casualties: 7 (4 for me; 3 for opponent)

TEAM STATS

Team Abilities: Re-Rolls - 1 /  Fan Factor - 2  / Bribes – 2

Total TDs in 6 Games: 22 (6 for me; 16 for opponents)

Average TDs per Game: 3.6 (1 for me; 2.6 for opponents)

Total Casualties in 6 Games: 37 (15 for me; 22 for opponents); This also reflects team casualties (not caused by a player):  7 (3 for me; 4 for opponents)

Average Casualties per Game: 6.1 (2.5 for me; 3.6 for opponents)

To make the list more competitive, I think I would have not taken Fungus the Loon Star Player, in favor of more Goblins, an additional Bribe, and/or an additional Re-Roll. I consistently lost the Secret weapons too quickly, usually going into the second half with 4 ejected players plus injuries (running 6-7 players at best through the second half. With more players, I could reserve 2 of the Secret Weapons. With 3 Bribes I could keep one of the secret weapons in the game longer. I burned my only re-roll on turn 1 to prevent (or fail at preventing) a Turnover on at least 3 occasions, so an additional Re-Roll would have been helpful too.

Even loosing all six games, I had a blast! What a great bunch of guys and a huge learning experience. Even though I have played in many Magic: the Gathering tournaments, this tournament was different--While it was a very competitive environment, it was friendly, and even relaxing. I never felt stressed out or nervous. I did have some game one jitters, but they went away quickly.

I mentioned a number of times above that I had bad rolls. I don't mean to say they were the reason I lost, but in most of my games, my opponent was cringing on my behalf and apologizing for how badly the dice were treating me. Two opponents even offered to switch dice with me—I should have accepted! A quote (on Facebook) from my first opponent: "John's dice seemed to have a personal grudge against him." It was pretty ludicrous at times.

One more thing I forgot to mention. I won a favorite opponent pin from the Orc coach (everyone got to give one away). I gave mine to my first opponent--The Khemri coach. He bought me a tournament-noob/I-just-destroyed-you consolation beer. But more importantly (to me), he came up to me after every game to see how I was doing. Oh, yeah, I also won the Player's Choice Award for best looking team! :D