Berlin Classic 2019

The first tournament of the year, that I was also involved in organizing. One of the things I did was to organize the prizes and paint the NAF-trophy.

The medals

The NAF-trophy

Roster

I decided to play dwarves as they work quite well in this format and they should in theory be a good counter to one of the stronger teams, wood elves. 

2 Runners

2 Blitzers (2xGuard)

1 Troll slayer

7 Longbeaards

3 Re-rolls

Apothecary

Game 1 vs undead

This was a match up that I had practiced a couple of times against this coach prior to the tournament. He was borrowing my undead team, so I was playing against my own miniatures, which is a bit weird in a way.

I kicked to him and managed to stop him all together. As an added bonus, I managed to KO a mummy and a ghoul as well as CASing another ghoul. Things were looking good for the second half.

The dwarves manage to stop the undead team

The second half started with a pitch invasion and my opponent had +1 FAME. As it turned out, seven out of the eleven dwarves were stunned compared to two zombies lying down. The kick was also close to the LOS, which made the situation quite dire.

Pitch invasion!

Lucky for me, the KOed mummy and ghoul stayed out. I managed to pick up the ball with a blitzed, standing next to the other blitzer with guard. I was then directly under pressure from the undead team, but managed to secure the situation and the dwarf machine started to kick in to gear. Some removals later and the dwarves could steam roll their way to a 1-0 win.

Full steam ahead!

End 1-0 (2-0)

Game 2 vs wood elves

We had to chose our skill before we got to see the opponents roster, but we knew which race we were facing. As I was up against wood elves, I opted for mighty blow on a longbeard.

I received to start the game and yet again, it was a pitch invasion. It wasn't as bad as in game 1, but one dwarf went down and one of the LOS wood elf linemen, which was a shame, as it meant that I wouldn't be able to apply my mighty blow blocking it.

Pitch invasion

My mighty blow longbeard blitzed a catcher and KOed it. A good start, but it was about to change as the treeman retaliated in turn 2, CASing a longbeard and the turn after that it KOed a longbeard. Not great as I was now outnumbered by wood elves and couldn't get any off the field. I got stuck and changed tactic to protecting the ball rather than trying to score as I was afraid of a wood elf score in the first half.

Start of the second half

We set up for the second half and I was hoping to either stop the elves or get them to score early, which is what happened. They scored in turn 3, which in theory left me with enough time to score for a draw. It wasn't to be though as I needed a couple of 1d blocks and a dodge with my runner to get forward progress at the end of the half. Sadly, I rolled a scull on one of the blocks and didn't have a re-roll for the dodge. I failed the dodge and the game ended in a wood elf victory.

An exciting game and if you're going to lose, this is the kind of game you'd like to have.
A close hard fought game.

End 0-1 (3-1)

Game 3 vs skaven

I yet again opted for mighty blow on a longbeard as I was up against shaven. There were quite a lot of AV7 teams in the tournament, so I figured that it would be useful even later on.

The shaven got to start with the ball and a longbeard was CASed on the first blitz of the game (by a linerat!). I didn't like the start as the two mighty blow stormvermin were breaking armor left and right. My opponent stayed back with the ball and my plan was to cause as much damage as possible, the number on target being the gutter runners. The plan was working and once the rat ogre was KOed, the flood gates opened. I managed to stun and CAS some gutter runners as well a put the ball under pressure. This resulted in a 0-0 draw at halftime.

Stout dwarf defense

The rat ogre stayed out for the second half and the dwarves could push their strength advantage (due to guard) and rats left the field left and right. There was no gutter runners on the pitch to try for a one turn touchdown in turn 16.

End 1-0 (6-2)

Game 4 vs dark elves

Skill, guard on a longbeard

The elves got the boll for the first half and I tried to put them under pressure, forcing them to dodge or 1d blocks (or worse). My opponent however didn't fail a dodge or block until late in the half. A double one enabled me to get a 1d blitz on the ball. Sadly, my opponent rolled a 6 for the dump off pass and even though the catch was failed, the ball was in such a place that I couldn't cover it. My opponent was then forced to score in turn 7. Not much of a problem as I couldn't score in two turns.

The dark elves could sadly line up with eleven players, but I had managed to cause a casualty and the apothecary was spent, so if I could get a player advantage, I might manage a draw. I might still against a full team, but it would be harder.

I played really bad in the second half as I was very frustrated that I hadn't managed to remove anything and my opponent hadn't really failed more than one or two dodges. This continued on the second half and I decided to try something weird rather than the normal smart cage.

It all fell apart

This resulted in me losing the ball and the elves eventually score their second touchdown.

To be clear, I lost this game by being sloppy with my positioning. I could have managed a draw, but the frustration got to me.

End 0-2 (1-1)

Game 5 vs pro elves

This was the hardest skill choice. Another guard wouldn't have been wrong, but I figured that three guard should be enough as my opponent could have a maximum of two guard, but I didn't think that it would be the case. I considered tackle on the troll slayer, but instead went with block on a runner. This meant that all my players on defense would have block and I would have a fast blitzer to keep up with the catchers.

I started on defense and rolled a blitz. I put my dwarves in such a position that my opponent had 1d blocks (or worse) or tackle on his dodgers. My opponent started by 1d KOing the guard longbeard and another longbeard followed in turn 2. I couldn't dent the AV7 armour and my opponent could stall out the half, scoring in turn 8 after having to do a 2d block without the block skill and he was out of re-rolls, so it could have ended differently.

Dwarf defense

My drive saw the dwarves move up the field and the elves put me under pressure, but I could eventually brake through as my opponent ran out of re-rolls. It wasn't soon enough though, which meant that I couldn't risk going for the win.

End 1-1 (1-0)

Conclusion

I ended the tournament on 2-1-2 and wasn't really happy with my performance, but not too disappointed either. Dwarves aren't really my team and I need to practice more with them, but I will take a brake from them for a while. I'd still like to try out the deathroller sometime, but it won't be this year. I do believe that it's good to step out of ones comfort zone and try something else, to evolve as a coach. My main problem with the dwarves is that I get too connected and I'm more or less just happy with my performance in game 1. I need to build on that.

Next tournament will be the Dungonbowl in Düsseldorf in a month and I will be taking wood elves as I'm trying to push my NAF-ranking. I'm hoping that it will improve my chances of getting a spot in Team Sweden for EuroBowl 2020.

Thank you for reading