Preußenbowl 2018

First tournament of the year and I was using my recently painted dwarf team. I was back and forth on taking the dwarves as my practice games with them didn't go splendid, so I was thinking of taking my wood elves again. I did however settle on the dwarves as the team is painted and it's good to try something new from time to time.

Roster

I went with a roster that my friend Spielmacher has won two tournaments with, but I changed one skill. I went with wrestle on a runner instead of mighty blow on a longbeard. It's good against some opponents, but less so against others. In hindsight, the mighty blow would probably have been better.

2 Runners (wrestle)
2 Blitzers (2xguard)
Troll Slayer
7 Longbeards (3xguard)
3 Rerolls
Apothecary

The roster is hard as nails, in theory, but it seemed like the dwarves forgot to pack their armour for this tournament.

Game 1 vs Norse

First game was against an 11 man norse team without an apothecary, which on paper should have gone better for me than it did. I was hoping to get the choice of receiving of kicking, but was forced to kick. I was still hopeful though, but it didn't really go according to plan. My opponent stunned a dwarf on turn 1 and I removed a lineman in turn 2, but then it went south from there and I found myself outnumbered early in the first half. My opponents yeti was phenomenal and didn't wild animal once, only got one none pow block/blitz and didn't cause a turnover in the whole game. He didn't remove dwarves in the beginning, but he got hot later in the game. 

The dwarves kicking in the first half

I had one shoot at the ball carrier in the first half and needed a push to get a guard on the ball carrier, then a 3+ dodge for the blitz with the wrestle runner. Sadly, the block was a skull, rerolled into a push. The dodge was then a 2. My opponent could stall out the half and I got three armor breaks in my turn 8, but nothing more than a stunned lineman to show for it.

Second half didn't start half bad, but my opponent got the dice he needed including two 4+ dodges with his ulfwerner for the sack. Yes, I could perhaps positioned better, but I was somehow outnumbered in the first half of the second half as well. One of the removals was cause by me, trying to dodge a blitzer (using a reroll) and failed, resulting in a CAS. I did however get some removals in the later part of the game, but by then it was all over.

The game ended in a 0-1 (1-4) loss and I wasn't happy with the result as I felt that a draw would have been fair.

Game 2 vs Orcs

The tournament was full of elves and skaven, so I wasn't too happy to face orcs instead of an AV7 race. I had played my opponent in a practice game prior to the tournament and had problems in that game due to too many stuns. In that game, my opponent used his troll to blitz, but surely that couldn't work in two games...

The orc roster was made up of 4 blitzers (tackle, mighty blow), 4 BOBs (2xblock, 2xguard), thrower, troll, goblin, lineorc and 3 rerolls.

Dwarf getting the ball in the first half

I got to choose if I wanted to start with the ball, which I chose, in the hope of getting someone off the field or perhaps a stunned. The half started out great and my opponent overcommitted on one flank which open up a hole for me to move through. He also lost a black orc early and had a second one surfed (KO) mid first half. Sadly for me, he blitzed with his troll, even GFIing in to my position and could halt my advance. The turn after that happened, I messed up a chain push and was in a bad position, but he couldn't really capitalize. He did get the ball, picking it up in four tackle zones, but I got the ball back. A turn or two later, he managed to blitz with his runner (without anything) and killed my wrestle runner. The half ended 0-0.

In the second half, I figured that I should put him under pressure and sent some dwarves in to his backfield. This resulted in a thrown ball down the field, which I wasn't expecting at all, as it was quite risky. My opponent then figured that he'd blitz with one of the BOBs with guard instead of scoring a touchdown. Nuffle doesn't like actions like that and it was a 1 in 81. I could then surf his ball carrier, but the ball stayed in my half. I managed to pick it up with a blitzer, but he 1d him to the ground, moving off with the ball. I tried the same, but skulled the blitzer down. My opponent then scored, but left me enough time to perhaps score an equalizer.

I started well with a touchback and a quick snap, but he managed to dodge through with his goblin in turn 16 and a blitzing lineorc, knocking the ball carrier down. I should have made a GFI with my troll slayer to cover that play better, but I wasn't really expecting it to work, dodging through a dwarf team. The game ended 0-1 (1-2).

Game 3 vs Dark Elves

After two loses, I should be able to have an easier game in game 3, right?

I was up against Sprinter with his dark elves. He's a good coach (won our tournament Underground Cup 2017 with dark elves) and this wasn't going to be easy.

I got the ball in the first half, but the kick was awful and landed next to the LOS, in one of the wide zones, on the sideline. Sprinter then rolled a perfect defense.

That's a bad kick, if you're a dwarf

I started the game by making a bad tactical choice, but I was afraid of not being able to pick the ball up and it bouncing out, towards his half. What happened was that the elves pick the ball up in their first turn and I was playing defense for the rest of the game.

I did have a shot at 1-1 before halftime, but my blitzer failed a GFI and killed himself instead.
That was the story of the game and you can tell that it's not going well when you play your opponents team and discuss what moves are the best ones. The game ended 0-2 (2-1).

Game 4 vs Nurgle

Last game of the tournament and I still had a chance to win a prize, the wooden spoon. I was up against nurgle (BoN (guard, 3 burgle warriors (3xblock), 3 pestigors (sure hands, dodge, frenzy), 5 rotters, 3 rerolls) and the guy in the lead for Most CAS. Don't ask me how though as he only had three block and one mighty blow.

Kicking!

This guys dice were hot and he managed to stun a dwarf per turn (or worse). I had nine dwarves at the end of the first half, but still managed to halt his advance and the half ended 0-0.

In the second half, I moved up the pitch and scored my first touchdown of the day(!), giving him three turns to equalize, but I stopped him again, wining the game 1-0 (0-3).

Summary

I sustained seven casualties, which is the same number I took playing wood elves at Xmas Bowl 2017. I caused seven casualties, which is half of what I managed with my wood elves. If you had asked me prior to the two tournaments, I would have expected the dwarves to dish out more hurt, but that's the way it is sometimes.

I'll give the dwarves another go sometime. It can't get much worse.
The wrestle runner will get switch for a mighty blow longbeard. I do like playing elves more than dwarves, but it's good to switch it up sometimes and it was more fun that I thought it would be and considering how bad this tournament went, it should be quite fun, if it goes halfway as planned.

More pictures from the tournament can be found here.

Thanks for reading.