Darksun 19 - Double Trouble Vlog Preview

Hey Guys! A short vlog today featuring what units im taking to Double Trouble this weekend. Enjoy! 

Double trouble update

 

Hello! An update of some fashion on the various 40k aspects of my hobby from this weekend. Firstly, I've submitted my list on time to Alex for Double Trouble, a 40k tourney with a twist! Basically you get randomly paired a partner each round and then fight against another partner. It's the first time he's run it, and should be great event! Stay tuned in the next week for a video run through of what I'm taking and why. 

 

Secondly, as you can see from this photo my forces were in action for a training game ahead of the aforementioned tournament on the 11th. Was obviously a training mission because we all had space marines. So at least 1 in 9 lists will be "good guys" in Power armour, though I imagine it's way more than that. Second time I've played 40k all year, went reasonably well. The dual nature of the missions as you rush to compete objectives is great fun. 

 

Thirdly, on submitting my list i realised that I do have a model to paint! This missile rack. My old ultramarines are taking a rocket launcher with them so that they aren't completely useless on the battlefield. Holding objectives and taking hull points! Yay! I used these guys in the practice game and there was something deeply satisfying about using my first painted models!

I've decided that if I enter the whole army into the painting competition, I might do a little before and after version of the tactical squad, comparing them with some extra howling griffons marines. Hopefully Alex won't mind. Now that all the lists have been submitted, Did anybody take up 

my challenge about using some of hire first painted models? I'd love to get a group photo on the day :)

Milton Keynes X-Wing Regional Vlog - Darksun 17

Hey Guys!

I went to a 100+ x-wing event at the weekend and came 24th! You can watch a video of how I got on here, with battle reports to follow later in the week.

I partied pretty hard all the way home in the car to celebrate, listening to a Radio 4 podcast and a Blink-182 Album. Going 4-2 was what I'd hoped for, and whilst I was dreaming of making the cut, if you'd have offered me 24th at the start of the day I'd of bitten your hand off I think!

Poe dameron and T-70 X-wing repaints

Dear reader! Today I'm sharing my paintjobs for my T-70 x-wings! For those not in the know, they are the ones used in episode 7: The Force Awakens. They are a slightly updated version of the older models used in the ironical trilogy, and this bears out in the X-wing miniatures game. 

Being a sucker for punishment, I really like painting fantasy flights ore painted models. (Even if I could be working thru my back catalogue of things to do painting wise!)

I own two T-70s and normally paint a duplicate fighter to signify that it's an ace. I've done it with the B-wings, A-wings etc. This time, I couldn't resist the chance to paint up Poe dameron's ride. A lot of people have done the same, in fact id go so far as to say that it's the most common repaint I've seen. 

I went for a reasonably classic look here, lightly drybrushing skavenblught dinge over the black to pick out the raised areas. I then used a couple of base coats of games workshop orange before following it up with blazing orange. And then I highlighted the orange with a mix of white and blazing orange. 

The engines are a breakaway from my normal orange glow (there was already enough orange!), with an ice blue through to white effect taking place in less than 5mms. Doing t quickly whilst the paint wasn't dry meant that it all blended in quite well. I added shiney gloss to the engines and the cockpit. 

For my second T-70 (although it was painted first!) I used my now standard paint scheme. Bleached bone all over, tin bits on the metal bits and then wash the whole thing in nuln oil. Following that, lighten back up with tyrant stone (basically a bone colour) to give a rugged, well loved feel to the hull. 

The red was a mecharite red base coat, the blood red, then inked, then brought back up with blood red. I ended up putting gloss varnish of the little wing markings as well :)

For the engines I used the standard red/orange/yellow/white combo that goes on most of my repaints. I'm really pleased with how this turned out, I feel like I've got painting small base ships down quite well now. Really excited about wave 8 now! Will be doing some repaints and vlogs of those bad boys, so keep an eye out for that!

Battle report: Double Trouble Practice Game

Last week, we played our first practice game for double trouble. I know I know, it's still 5 months away, but hey! Practice makes me less incompetent.

We randomised the pairings and they came out as follows:

Team 2

Me (imperial guard - Leman Russ eradicate, standard Leman Russ, 35 guardsmen including a command platoon with 4 Flamers)  & Dan (Eldar shenanigans - 3 squads of guardians/ dire avengers, a farseer and a tank with a d-flamer.)

Vs

Team 1

Topher (tyranids - flyrant, 2 tervigons and a big swarm of gaunts) & Matt (HH blood angels- contemptor dread, big unit of marines with a captain and a stormraven)

We played the 3rd mission, which for those in the know means that you set up in all four corners. For those wanting more information, we set up like this:

The Tyranids were 1A, Eldar 2A, Blood Angels 1B and I was 2B. I managed to grab a warlord traight that allowed 3 units to outflank, so we outflanked most of the Eldar army, leaving only a farseer and a d-strength tank in 2B. All of the objectives were in the right 2/3 of the map. 

pew pew pew

Our oppenants went first, and didn't have much to do but run towards me! The flyrant swooped over to try and alpha strike Dan's tank, and one of the tervigons spawned some gaunts onto a central objective. The other tervigon, plus a squad of 30 gaunts, went as fast as they could towards me. meanwhile, on my other flank, the Blood Angels began to close in, slightly slower than the space bugs. Between them, I believe they registered either 4 or six victory points in the first turn as they were mostly claim objective ones. we also lost most of an autocannon team and most of a squad of guardsmen. Whilst I say "we" I of course mean me. Dan's tank jinked and got glanced but lived on. This did mean that they didn't get first strike.

In our first turn, we drew reasonably unreachable objectives, given that they were all claim this or that number objective. We did score our first maelstrom points as a squad of guardsmen heroically ran towards the Tyranids to claim objective #3. In the psychic and shooting phase, Dan's Farseer single handely took down a Tervigon through a combination of Mind war (I think) and a Singing Spear. Im hazy on the details because I wasnt 100% paying attention. I was way to busy watch the 18 inch gap between the Tyranids and what increasingly looked like lunch close down. So i opened fire to devastating effect. It felt very dramatic having two lines of ten men shooting at an oncoming hordes whilst the tanks lobbed shells overhead. all in all, I killed 15-20 gaunts. I felt more like a man than I had done all day.

Before

After

That meant at the end of turn 1 we had 2 points - one for first strike and 1 for claiming an objective but not having an ally on another objective.

In turn 2, things started to go downhill for us. Suffice to say, the Farseer died to a drive/fly by from the flyrant, Blood angels marched further towards me (although they were put off by the battlecannon a bit I think), and most scarily, the Tyranids moved in very close. You know its going badly when you're trying to help your men die so that the Tervigon is out of combat so you can shoot it. Luckily for us the Stormraven didn't turn up, but unluckily for us i believe they achieved another 2 objectives, whilst also smashing most of my army in. so they were up something like 9-2.


In our second turn, 2 units of dire avengers showed up as well as my Platoon Command Squad, which had four flamers. I'd decided to put them in normal reserve, since I figured they'd come on from my board edge. Which mean I could jump on what was left of the small space bugs. I did. They burnt to death. True story. The dire avengers that showed up on my right flank totally wiffed, leaving it to both my Leman Russ tanks to bring down the lumbering behemoth before it reached them. And unfortunately on the other side, they were too far away to do anything. This meant we didn't scire any VPS in turn two. 

The stormraven appears!

In turn three, matts gunship flew on in fine style, and began doing things. The rest of his army advanced towards the centre of the board, holding the middle ground. Apart from the contemptor dreadnought, which was lagging behind a bit. He'd been bugging the cover and claiming an objective, doing a worthy job of stacking up VPs over the previous turns. 



dead blood angels. everywhere.

Suffice to say, over the course of the next couple of tens things didn't go well for us. I loose track of the turns, but it was 1-sided enough that we stopped recording maelstrom points! In fact, we only achieved 3 over the whole game - our third coming in the 4th turn when both leman russ tanks opened fire into the big unit of Blood Angels. Many of them died, but significantly so did their warlord, with Matt opting to catch Battlecannon shots with his Captain guy. Plus, the remaining marines marched relentlessly into the squishy elder from what I remember.



a failed late game objective grab from the leman russ



Overall, on blood points we probably were a lot closer, there weren't many space bugs left at the end of the game, and we gave the Blood angels a bit of a mauling as they moved towards the centre of the board. But by that point we were already behind significantly on both areas, so it was a tough ride.

these Dire avengers did nothing

After game thoughts

• The deployment corners makes a massive difference in this game. we went into it thinking our triple outflank was going to be great, and it proved to be our complete undoing, allowing for our opponents to focus on my army almost exclusively. When they did turn up, everything was to near the middle and the surprise was lost.
• Normal reserve however, is awesome. I may need to check with Alex, but our interpretation of coming on the long board edge allows you to just jump your opponent.
• Guardsmen may be to squishy for this deployment. My build didn't have any staying power, and I ended feeling a bit trapped.
• Objective Placement. Basic, but important. they need to be spread out, especially since they are occurring 50% of the time!

I think next time I might be tempted to try a infiltrating list, or something that doesn't need to deploy normally. Anything that has the power to break the deployment restrictions basically!

Double trouble life hack: objective cards

A quick one today. A little life hack for practicing with objectives for the June tourney:

Playing cards! Whilst I'm sure I'm not the first person to do this, I came up with the idea all by myself, and didn't have to find it online or anything. You can get two sets of the double trouble cards out of one pack - using the suits to define which deck they belong to. I actually went for cutting the numbers in half, so 1-6 is one set, and 7-queen is the other. 

The really enjoyable thing is that this has a lot of practical excuition for practicing. You just need the corresponding table and it means you then don't have to roll on it every turn. We've found that you can sometimes need to roll multiple times to just generate a new result. 

It also works with the picture cards as well. Alex has the past generously sent out the PDF for the cards, but I thought instead of bothering him I'd try this out and see how it gets on. 

It's not a long term solution, and I'm sure won't look as professional as the official gw ones. But at £1 a pack it's a darn site cheaper! 

Battle Report: Howling Griffons vs Eldar

Earlier this week I played a guy called Ross at our club (Leicester sabres) for the first time. He had a lovely looking Eldar army, and I took my howling griffons. I didn't have as many bikes as I thought I would, partly because I don't own as many painted bikes as I thought I did!

My army consisted of:

Librarian: Psyker (Mastery Level 2); combi-grav; Space Marine bike 120

2 Space Marine Bikers: 2× grav-gun; + 1 Biker Sergeant (combi-grav; melta bombs) 108

4 Scouts: + 1 Scout Sergeant 55

• Land Speeder Storm: multi-melta 50

9 Tactical Marines: meltagun; lascannon; + 1 Space Marine Sergeant (combi-melta) 180

3 Space Marine Bikers: 2× grav-gun; + 1 Biker Sergeant (combi-grav; melta bombs) 129

9 Sternguard Veterans: 2× combi-melta; 2× combi-plasma; + 1 Veteran Sergeant (lightning claw) 275

• Drop Pod 35

Drop Pod 35

Drop Pod 35

2 Devastator Centurions: 2× grav-cannon and grav-amp; + 1 Centurion Sergeant (grav-cannon and grav-amp; omniscope) 250

1 Thunderfire Cannon: + 1 Techmarine Gunner 100

Inquisitor Coteaz 100

Inquisitorial Henchmen Warband

• Acolyte 4

• Acolyte 4

• Acolyte 4

• Death Cult Assassin 15

1,499 points

Not completely optimised, partly due to the lack of bikes but also due to my wanting to try the acolytes. I could even put them in a drop pod if I wanted to! Great for siezing objectives. Especially in a hammer and anvil set up. But we played kill points. And Ross had two wraightknights. So they weren't a lot of use!

A rough breakdown of Ross' list (I think) was as follows:

• Farseer on a jetbike
• 2x small squads of jet bikes each with a warlock
• 2x 3 man jetbike squad without a warlock
• 3 hornets. 
• 2 wraightknights 

So pretty min maxed. He got a bunch of psychic powers (including guide and eldritch storm) and I got psychic shriek for both, with the Coteaz getting preseince and the librarian getting forewarning (4+ inv) to round things out. I went into the game reasonably confident. It wasn't going to be easy, but at least it wasn't to difficult!

I was lucky enough to get first turn, and with a drop pod army took it!  Ross had mainly castled on to one side and I decided that I had to grab first strike, a wraithtknight and something else in the first turn.  So I went after his castle with my sternguard and centurions. And actually did reasonably well! 

All three of the units of jetbikes (including the farseer one) on this side of the Board failed thier moral check following my alpha strike. However, he rolled his flee numbers the right way around and they all stayed on the table. I killed a hornet and got this wraightknight down to one wound. 

In Ross' first turn he used the wraith knights to "D" off my grav centurions despite thier 4++ and the rest of his army took a big bite out of the sternguard  and the bikes who were with the librarian. I was also then charged by both wraightknights (one into a squad of bikes, and one into some sternguard). For the record "charged by both wraightknights" is not a experience I'm looking to repeat in the near future. However, to my glee the squad of four bikes (read, "my right flank") held a wraithtknight and that flank up for 3 successive combat phases. For thems that don't know what that looks like, here's a quick picture:

In my turn two I used what grav I had left to drop the other wraightknight and try and add further pressure onto where I was pushing in his deployment zone. I killed some more jetbikes, and thunderfire cannoned the life out of the farseer/warlock/jetbike.   My drop pod with added acolytes turned up and stayed out the way. Literally nothing for them to do. 

In his turn two Ross was beginning to consolidate and push back. My scouts got pinned down and then killed by the farseer, and the hornets continued to do nasty things. My inability to finish of the farseer and warlock was beginning to cost me dearly. 

Over turns 3&4 I didn't actually score a kill point, whilst the purple Eldar continued chipping away st my forces.  I made a bad call with my librarian, forgetting that I was withdrawing to leave the scouts to die so that I could have a go at the other wraightknight. I doubt it would have affected the result but it did mean they were in range of both hornets and able be brought down by them at the bottom of turn 3. 

Despite my thunderfire cannon being great value for money and a constant threat, my back line very quickly collapsed when the other wraightknight got in there. This a shot of the wraightknight charging into what remained of my flank:

And this one combat phase after the previous shot. 

This one tactical marine was pretty much all I had left by the bitter end :( poor guy. Oh, plus a 1 hull point left on a drop pod. The game ended as follows:

Me: 5 kill points and first strike. 

Ross: 10 kill points, slay the warlord and line breaker

After game thoughts

I didn't make a few key decisions in the early game that could have helped me in the longer term. The hornets were much nastier than I thought they'd be for example. I also probably should have put the tactical squad in a drop pod and suicided after one of the hornets on turn 1. Tbh that's all my sternguard ended up doing. 

Ross was a real pleasure to play against, I was worried I might be bringing to powerful an army but I think we were quite balanced on paper. We both hadn't played in a while and I think myself I particular was a little rusty. 

Army list changes

I think overall I'll need to go back to the drawing board and make this list a bit leaner if I'm going to use it again. Add more bikes maybe, or strip stuff out so I can put wyverns in. We will see!

Double trouble 2: Space marines

Hello reader! Continuing our musing on what to take for double trouble l, I thought I'd address what is probably the elephant in the strike cruiser. The skyhammer formation. 

Alex has updated the page since last I posted about this, and there are a couple of interesting things that both encourage and discourage me to take it. I don't quite know how well it will work in teams, where as I am sure that in the 3rd deployment type it would be awesome. That's because each 750 starts in a different corner, allowing you and your team mate to gang up completely on one side.  In a later post I'll discuss my thoughts on the mission. 



Tickets and attendance

Happily, I've already achieved first place at this tournament! Check out the link here: http://fromthefang.blogspot.co.uk/p/double-trouble-doubles-with-difference.html?m=1 to see who got ticket number 1! At the moment only 4 of the tickets have sold, I'd really encourage people to buy tickets if they can make it, Alex's events have always been well run and the vibe is usually excellent. If you're reading this and you're a Leicester sabre, ask me about it - we can always take a couple of extra ppl in the cars. Otherwise, get on board!

Skyhammer Draft 1

As you may or may not be aware, a fully decked out skyhammer formation comes in at around 800 points, so it's not hard to reduce that to 750. Let's take a look at my first stab at it:

 

9 Assault Marines: flamer; eviscerator; + 1 Space Marine Sergeant (combat shield) 175

5 Assault Marines: flamer; eviscerator; + 1 Space Marine Sergeant (combat shield) 119

9 Devastator Marines: 4× multi-melta; + 1 Space Marine Sergeant 180

• Drop Pod 35

9 Devastator Marines: 3× missile launcher; lascannon; + 1 Space Marine Sergeant 205

• Drop Pod 35

749 points

The main thing to note here is that the assault marines aren't big enough to both combat squad, with only one being 10 men. The devastators however are, making handy use of thier 3d6 morale check rule.  To stick to the format, here and some of the brief pros and cons.

Positive 

1. The special rules that this formation gets. All turning up turn 1? Yes. Relentless devastators and assault marines charging on turn 1? Yes. 
2. Board Control. Deploying my entire force after my oppenant is almost guaranteed. Not 100%, but most of the time I will get to choose the engagements, overwhelming specific flanks or areas. 
3. Mission types. Good for objectives in the first few turns, but even better for collapsing your opponent. 
4. Other deep strike armies. This combos nicely with other deep striking units. Got some swooping Hawks? Another skyhammer even?

Negative

1. It's only 35 marines. Not a lot of men so you'd need to be careful with them. One loose battle cannon shell and you're done for!
2. Anti armour. I'm not sure how well it would do against Knights. I've got eviscerators and multimeltas I suppose, but no grav, and no plasma for terminators. 
3. Hordes. Tyrannids and orks would love you to drop right in front of them and maybe kill a unit or two. 
4. Fearless. One of the hidden strengths of the skyhammer is the pinning effect the devastators can have. If your oppenant is fearless, that strength is taken away. 
5. Other skyhammers. Or people just reserving their stuff. It's then almost the battle to go second!

I am honestly unsure as to how competitive a taking a Skyhammer would be. As you can see from the negatives, it basically fails on paper against most things. Im not convinced that it would play very well in maelstrom missions either. Part of the game here is to make your opponent do something different and make a mistake because of what you're presenting them with. It would also had much more of an impact at 1500 than 1850, especially when everything has the potential to be much more disjointed.


I think for me overall, the skyhammer will still make your oppenant sigh as they look at your army, even with 30k, knights and other things all being allowed. So do I want to be that guy? And just as importantly, can I be bothered to paint 15 assault marines (that are pretty useless apart from this formation!) Its the trap that Games Workshop try to get you with all the time. Most of the time, I'm ashamed to say, they get me hook line and sinker. We will have to see. I might start getting some practice games in my local club now Alex has released the missions!


Until next time!



The Juggernaut Shield - Pictures and Final Thoughts

I thought I would showcase some photos of the teams from our tourney last weekend, and also muse on the advantages and disadvantages of having a bye.

Waaaagshington Greenskins

Ian's team are an experienced team of many editions of blood bowl, and even include a painted coach and apothecary (see back row in the centre).

The starting line up, a nice traditional red colour scheme, with some added extras. Ian did a bit of touching up on the models in preparation with some liquid skill (nuln oil). There are some really nice details, for example the shoulder pads of the blitzers came out really well. 

These are the two models that were hastily assembled in order to crunch me in round 4 and the semi final. Rather intimidating when he's assembling a black Orc (Thrasher) as we play, in case we play next round. The goblin was who nearly scored in the final is called "Pancake McNumpty". 

The final line up! With added emergency models takin thier assigned places. Really nice team to play against, great to have two fully painted playing ball on the pitch!

Pro Elf Pansies

Not fully painted, but that didn't stop them destroying all before them! They scored 18 touchdowns in three games!

And very impressively, these 3 were the cornerstone of the attack. 11 completions and 13 touchdowns between the three players (one of the catchers got a completion as well!) meant that the thrower and 2 catchers made this team champions! Plus they had terrific names :)

Mul-Buldohr Brewmiesters 

As featured in a previous post, the drunken dwarves! Thankfully from my perspective I never had to face thier death roller. Love the 3D printed tankards, and especially beer leader in the middle!

And to underline things- here they are kicking the teeth in of my wood elves! For some reason I tried to go toe to toe with them!

Bad Kings of the Old World

Although you've seen them before, here is a shot or two of my team:

A close up of a loyal lineman

Some of the star performers. My catcher scored most of my TDs and this wardancer got +1 armour! (And also didn't die!)

Obviously there were 5 teams, but I didn't get any close up shots of the South Park Rangers - although very nicely painted they were a stand in team and tbh I also forgot!

Project completed!

Whilst I'm a little late to the party, I'm declaring the combined blood bowl bits from January a major achievement of my 2015-2016 list. I completed the team by the 16th, majorly fast painting skills! And we also held the tourney. I only scored 8 touchdowns in 5 games, so that's a bit of a fail, and something I need to work on in the future. 

Having a bye
One of the things that we encountered was that every person had a bye for one game. In such a small tournament it didnt have to great an effect, but I can think of a couple of ways that it might be made more interesting. For example, so that there could be some benefit to having a bye, the coach could pick one of the following four options for his team to complete.

• "Rest week". In the middle of any busy season, teams always need a chance to rest and recuperate. Sometimes squads arent big enough to allow proper rotation, so you choose to give your team a short break. Effect: This bye allows any "miss next game" effects from the casualty table to be healed during your bye, meaning that players can start your next match.
• "Press Drive". Every second counts in this league! You and your players go on a press drive, flooding instagoblin, faceelf and all other types of social media/media in an effort to grow your fanbase. This has a positive effect, but you wont know how much until your next game. Effect: At the start of your next league game, you may permanently add some fan factor to your roster. Roll a D3 and add the result to your fan factor.
• "Intensive Training". Theres no rest for the wicked. You need to use this week to train your team up and work on those special plays. They spend the whole week on the training ground. This has varying positive outcomes, but at least you get more experienced as a unit. Effect: Randomly assign one team member +3 SPP to represent this training.
• "Gala Dinner". Be it Dragon Steak or Halfling Hotpot, your team has a fund raising dinner in an effort to prop up its ailing bank balance. You invite the local nobles and barons to your home ground for an evening of mixing with their star players in the hope of attracting more funding. Effect: Roll a D3 and add this much to your treasury. If this boosts your treasury enough to make a purchase, you may do so before your next game.

These are just my ideas! Does anybody have any comments or counterpoints? To powerful? To weak? Not needed? 

As ever, thanks for reading :) hopefully later this week, I will be musing further on double trouble lists. I'm going to address what for me is the elephant in the room :) 

The Juggernaut Shield: Blood Bowl Baby Cup Part 2

Today you join us as we look at part 2 of my review of the Juggernaut Shield: Blood Bowl Baby Cup. For part one, please go here.

As a reminder, the table after 4 rounds looked like this:

Head Coach	Team Race	Team Name	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	Points
Matt Grimes	Pro Elves	Pro Elf Pansies	3	3	-	-	9
Ian King	Orcs	Waaaagshington Greenskins	3	2	-	1	6
Luke Fogg (me!)	Wood Elves	Bad-Kings of the Old World	3	1	1	1	4
Matt Calow	Dwarfs	Mul-Buldohr Brewmeisters	4*	1	-	3	3
Peter Barrett	Humans	South Park Rangers	3	-	1	2	1

*Calow received the first round bye on the Sunday morning

So, in the fifth round my elves were to play the Waaashington Greenskins, with South Park Rangers needing to beat the Pro Elf Pansies to make the cut. I wasn't sure if I would be able to beat Ian. We'd played a practice game a couple of weeks ago, and he had stomped all over me for a 2-1 win for the Orcs. I touched the ball once after my second turn the whole game! So I knew I had to do better.

I got to receive in the first half, and was able to score almost straight away, in my second turn (this is my almost complete cage - the last guy fell over! However, in-spite of this I was leading 1-0, and then looking to craft a decent defense. I succeeded in this endeavor, managing to keep Ian from scoring for the rest of the half. Not only this, but on my turn 7 I bundled his ball carrier into the crowd, scattering the ball deep into his half. This was the turning point in the game, it went from the Orcs probably equalizing to me scoring a second touchdown on the stroke of half time. 

Quick! Stop them!

In the second half, Ian scored (despite my wizard i had bought with my inducements!) and if memory serves, punched me quite a bit! I did shove at least two of his players into the crowd though! The final score however, was 2-1 to me. With Pete failing to stop the Pansies as they raced into the semi finals, the final table looked like this: 

Head Coach	Team Race	Team Name	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	Points
Matt Grimes	Pro Elves	Pro Elf Pansies	4	4	-	-	12
Luke Fogg (me!)	Wood Elves	Bad-Kings of the Old World	4	2	1	1	7
Ian King	Orcs	Waaaagshington Greenskins	4	2	-	2	6
Matt Calow	Dwarfs	Mul-Buldohr Brewmeisters	4	1	-	3	3
Peter Barrett	Humans	South Park Rangers	4	-	1	3	1

We'd agreed beforehand that 1st would play 4th, and 2nd would play 3rd. This for me meant a grudge match with Ian straight away, whilst in the other semi final we had a game to decide who was the better Matt.

Ian and I took to the field again, with the game progressing in similar manner to the previous one. I scored reasonably early on (took me until turn 3 this time!) and then after the reset we had riot, which moved the turn markers on by 1 square. this was significant, because it gave the Orcs less time to grind through elves on the way to a touchdown, which gave me more opportunities to break the cage. Indeed, I started the second half with 11 players still on the pitch!

BB is the real fantasy football 

However, this was not the end of the story for the first half. In what was the biggest mess imaginable, I fumbled a long pass (twice) and the ball bounced out of the grasp of my thrower. Suddenly, there were Black Orcs and spare Black Orcs punching my elves out of the way. My elves, like my morale collapsed in a heap as the Orcs ran in for a Touchdown with the last move of the first half. Instead of going in 1 ahead, I was drawing.

These guys served me loyally but ate a lot of astrogranite

As we went into the second half, both of the semi finals were tied at 1-1, the Dwarfs holding their own against the Pro Elf Pansies. I felt confident in the second half, but alas it was not to be. Without a wizard i was unable to stop the Orcs scoring again, and without an apothecary i was unable to save my lineman who had kick from dying. (Kick is a seriously amazing skill as far as im concerned!) I could have tied it up 2-2 but for three turns in a row I was unable to throw the ball, or dodge to get to the ball, or throw the ball. So Ian rolled out with a 2-1 win,  and in a controversial turn of events the coach of the Wood Elves petulantly fired the whole team on the spot, so grumpy was he with their performances. In the other semi final, the "battleMatt semi final"  was won by the Pro Elf Pansies  2-1. This set up an Orc vs Pro Elves final.

The Final was a tense affair, with not only the Juggernaut Shield up for grabs, but bragging rights as well. If it had been me in Ian's shoes, I would have tried to kill the Catchers and then worry about everything else later. On reflection I think that may have been his plan.




With Matt leading 1-0 from an early touchdown as we approached half time, the Orc's were driving towards the end zone. However, their Cage was broken and in one turn the ball ended up one square away from the Orc end zone as matt failed his last go for it before scoring. Ian then tried to repeat the same feat, picking the ball up and going to a long throw that would have led to a hand off to a black Orc to score. It was not to be however, with the throw spiralling away in the wrong direction. Thus the first half ended with Matt ahead 1-0.

In the second half, Matt scored again and the situation become desperate enough for Ian to bring on his new goblin "Pancake McNumpty". Even this Goblin couldn't make it to the end zone, despite getting very close. To add insult to injury as Pancake failed a dodge roll and dropped the ball, the Pro Elves picked it up and again scored on the final turn of the Game, meaning that they deservedly won 3-0.




All in all, a great little mini tournament. I personally re-learnt a lot about how to play the game and also watching Matt play with the Pro Elves about how to block better/to my advantage. Ill be covering more of that in another post later this week, but for now I will leave you with a picture of the winner, with the Juggernaut Shield.

The Juggernaut Shield - Blood Bowl Baby Cup

Today I will be reviewing the first day of the Juggernaut Shield Blood Bowl Baby Cup that took place this weekend. This post forms the first of two that will record into the blog sphere our inaugural Juggernaut Cup.Originally we had planned to have 8 of us play in Coalville (just outside Leicester in the UK) in the nerd-airium of one of our club members Chris (toph). However, a couple of people couldn't make it, and then on Friday Chris' wife went into labor early. She gave birth on Sunday to a beautiful baby boy named Arthur, putting all our toys into perspective! Congratulations Chris and Kat! So because of the tiny amount of players and the newest addition to the Buckle Clan, we've gone with the name "Baby Cup".

So this left 5 of us, (see the below table), and nowhere to play. Fortunately, my wife was away for the weekend and we could all bundle round to my place. After some frantic phone calls on Friday night, we agreed to play 4 games of Round Robin with one person taking a bye each round, and then the top 4 would play semi-finals and then a final. This review is the first part of two, mainly from my perspective but with a few comments on the other highlights that I can remember!

Head Coach	Team Race	Team Name
Matt Grimes	Pro Elves	Pro Elf Pansies
Matt Calow	Dwarfs	Mul-Buldohr Brewmeisters
Ian King	Orcs	Waaaagshington Greenskins
Luke Fogg (me!)	Wood Elves	Bad-Kings of the Old World
Peter Barrett	Humans*	South Park Rangers

*Pete had order a Khemri team online before Christmas but frustratingly it still hadn’t turned up by the time we were due to play.

My first game was against the Mul-Buldohr Brewmeisters. These hardy Dwarfs were all custom modelled, with 3d printed tankards and other bits and bobs attached. Calow did an excellent job converting them. I got very lucky in this game on a couple of occasions, and ended up winning 2-1. In the second half i kicked to the Dwarfs and got a blitz straight away (free defensive turn before the receiving team has a go). This allowed me to score a second touchdown by the end of the my first "proper"turn of the second half. I did take a bit of beating, ending up with only 6 players on the pitch by the end of the game. 

me for some reason going toe-to-toe with Dwarves

There were a couple of highlights for my first game against Matt. The first was that over the course of the game i failed the first role of each turn more times than i care to remember. I also got double attacker down 5 times. That's not including the times i got attacker down plus both down. It was seemingly more dangerous for me to try two dice blocks than "risk" a 1 dice block.

The Mul-Buldohr Brewmeisters

The second highlight was that a Dwarf runner nearly blitzed + dodged out of a 4 man Wood elf defensive cage to score BY HIMSELF. He failed one of the last dodge rolls. Kudos to Matt for trying it - it certainly scared the crap out of me!

stop him! hes not supposed to dodge like that!

In the other first round game the Orcs beat the humans, with the Pro Elves receiving the bye. My second round game was the bye so i chilled out and got some lunch. The picture below is the Waashington Greenskins vs the Pro Elf pansies in the second round. A game that the Elves went on to win. The other game from the second round was one where the humans were again punched by the Dwarfs. 

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

For the third round I played the Pro Elf Pansies. From my perspective, this looked set to be a properly classic, high scoring game of Blood Bowl. It was both of those things, but not quite in the way i had expected!  Because I wanted to receive in the second half, i kicked to him at the start of the game and didn't quite catch on quick enough that i needed to foul his catchers off the pitch! At half time it was 2-1 to the pro elves, and i wasn't feeling to bad about the game. However, i didn't score again and Matt punched the life out of my team - he scored twice in the second half from him kicking to me! I ended the game with only 4 players on the pitch, and lost 4-1 overall. 

If we were to play again, I would make an effort to cripple the catchers as quickly as possible, Nerves of steel is a very good skill for playing a quick, incisive passing game. I would also try and receive first - giving me a chance to put a few of his players on the floor. Over the course of the weekend I think i should have done that more. I was always trying to dodge out of blocks instead of punching, i think that this left me a bit behind the eight ball. In the other game this round, Ian out punched Calow, and the Human team had a bye. 

I was so close to being able to just straight-up concede with no penalties!

In the 4th round of the round robin, I played Pete's South Park Rangers and the Dwarfs went head to Head with the undefeated Pro Elves. Ian had a bye, and was kind enough to cook dinner for us all. I hear the pork we ate was delicious (as a veggie i didn't have any!)

I was reasonably confident that I could take the Human team. They were neither as tough as the Dwarfs + Orcs, or as fast as the Pro Elves. This proved to be true in several areas, and for a large portion of the game I was ahead. I managed to hurt enough of the humans to ensure that my elves could blitz almost all the time. But then the tables turned and I again ended up with 5 casualties (including a dead and freshly painted wardancer!). Pete played very well, and ran in for a second touchdown near the end of the game to tie things up 2-2. In the other game of round 4 the Dwarfs were unable to stop the Pro Elf Pansies as the continued their rampage. 

After 4 Rounds the table stood like this: 

Head Coach	Team Race	Team Name	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	Points
Matt Grimes	Pro Elves	Pro Elf Pansies	3	3	-	-	9
Ian King	Orcs	Waaaagshington Greenskins	3	2	-	1	6
Luke Fogg (me!)	Wood Elves	Bad-Kings of the Old World	3	1	1	1	4
Matt Calow	Dwarfs	Mul-Buldohr Brewmeisters	4*	1	-	3	3
Peter Barrett	Humans	South Park Rangers	3	-	1	2	1

*Calow received the first round bye on the Sunday morning 

With some of the 5th played that evening and some on Sunday morning, I will report on that later this week (probably weds/thurs) and also hopefully Vlog about it as well. Im hoping to get some photos of the teams up by the weekend. I'll leave you with a tease of what the trophy looks like: 

rawr!