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.