Roster for Killing Spree

I'm going to the Killing Spree this weekend. It's a smaller tournament with around 15-20 coaches.

It's a resurrection tournament where you're allowed to take a TV111 team. Star players and inducements aren't allowed (except for 'flings and gobos who can take a chef and bribes). 

You also receive two skills before the tournament and then one skill before each round (after knowing your opponent). Before round 4, you can give a player a double skill. Before round 5 and 6, you may give a further skill to a player, ie a ghoul with sure hand can get block. The player with the double can't get extra skills. 

I'll probably play undead at this tournament, for two reasons. 

1. They're a good tournament team.
2. I'd like to raise my undead ranking. 

Here's the roster I'll probably bring:

2 Mummies
2 Wights
4 Ghouls
5 Zombies
3 RRs 

Since I've got 13 players, I can foul quite a bit and I'll probably line up with 11 players in the second half.

 Regarding skills, I'll probably take guard on a mummy and a whight before the tournament. For round 1, I'm thinking sure hands on a ghoul, except if I face dwarfs, norse or amazons.In that case I'd go for wrestle instead. 

Not really sure about the rest of the skills, but I'd like to have something like this. 

Mummy: Guard
Mummy: Block (Round 4)
Wight: Guard
Wight: Guard/Frenzy
Ghoul: Sure Hands and maybe Block
Ghoul: Wrestle
Ghoul: Block/Wrestle
Ghoul: maybe Block
5 Zombies 

Not sure if it's worth having ghouls without skills around. I’m also not sure about having a sure hands ghoul. Maybe it's better to just blodge or wrodge them all. What do you think?

Oktoberbowl

Oktoberbowl

This is a short summary of the Gesundbrunnen Picknick Packers first tournament.
You'll find my roster here.

Game 1 vs Kehmri (Skuld)

This game was a tale of two halves. In the first half, my dice were hot and I managed to CAS his block tomb guardian in turn 2. After than it just continued and he had three kehmri left standing when I scored in turn 8.

In his half it was the other way around. He got my players of the pitch (mostly KOs) and could then score in his turn 8, in which I had the trees left, two of which were rooted.

I however got three ’flings in and could theoretically score in my turn 8.

He kicked the ball and it scattered forward, towards the LOS in one of the wide zones. If it bounced out, I would have an ever better chance of OTTD, but it wasn’t to be and the ball bounced out of my hand off reach. This meant that the game ended in a tie, which I was happy with. A good start to the tournament.

CAS 4-1

TD 1-1

Game 2 vs Ogres (Thursablot)

In this game, lady luck was really one my side. I CASed an ogre early and my opponent managed to CAS his break tackle ogre while dodging. I move up one side and he manages to blitz the ball free, but I could recover and move up the side. He then plans to dodge a snotling in amongst my players, to be able to chain push my BC out. The snotling fails his dodge and I can move up the pitch, screening him of and scoring in my turn 8.

The Gesundbrunnen Picknick Packers moving up the pitch

2nd half

He’s got four snotlings and three ogres against my full team. I then kick off and, perfect defense.

I manage to steal the ball and the game ends 2-0

CAS 4-0

TD 2-0

Game 3 vs Wood elves (mufflo)

I start by receiving the ball and move up the pitch with a loose screen.

My plan being, that he’d have to leap in to get to my BC. Since he’s just got one RR, this would be a bit risky for him, but he still manages to do so. I was lucky though and managed to keep the ball after the bounce and in turn 7 I tried to throw a ’fling with the ball.

He got away fine, but didn’t manage to land, even with a RR.

The elves then moved the ball to the other side of the pitch, but failed the last GFI, meaning that it’s a tie, going into halftime.

2nd half

The second half sees him moving down the pitch, knocking out ’flings as he goes. He scores in turn 8 and I’ve then got a ’fling and the trees on the pitch.

In my turn 8, I tried to OTTD, but I just got as far as the hand off to the waiting ’fling, which failed, with a RR.

CAS 2-4

TD 0-1

Game 4 vs Norse (equilibri)

I got a lot of CASes on the norse and he manages to dodge -> CAS three of his players (two in the first half).

I then made a risky move, blitzing with Deeproot and failing a GFI for the actual blitz(and the loner roll). If I had succeeded, I could have chain pushed some of my side step ’flings onto his BC, blocking him or/and just annoying him. Maybe even keeping him from scoring, but it wasn’t to be.

He managed to move down the pitch and I threw a ’fling towards his BC. The ’fling lands and then blitzes his BC into the endzone. I’ve now got two turns to score or knock some players out. I sadly can’t do it due to Deeproot blitzing himself down on a double skull and I fail the loner roll.

2nd half

I roll for my five KOs. Not a single die shows a 4+.

I then roll for my chef. Not a single die shows a 4+

I move the ball pup towards the trees and to get within a semi screen, I GFI (he’s got sure feet). A double one. 

A turn later, I manage to get to the ball, pick it up, but my tree can’t throw the ’fling.

After a turn or two, I’ve got two rooted trees and Deeproot left on the pitch. My opponent then CASes Deeproot and eventually scores in turn 8.

Something was cooking in the KO-box

All my ’flings, but one are in the KO box.

CAS 3-2

TD 0-2

Game 5 vs Norse (Ozt)

The first half sees me kicking off and him failing his second block of the turn with the yeti against one of my trees (with block). I then start blocking down everything I can before sending a ’fling sailing towards the ball. Sadly, he lands in the tackle zone of a player and stunned himself. 

My opponent then scopes up the ball and moves forward. I screen him of and he changes direction, but he’s a bit to eager and I can box him in against the side line. He’s then forced to dodge, but fails and looses the ball.

I also manage to foul his yeti, which results in a KO.

The rest of the half is then a struggle for the ball and we go into half time on a tie,

He start’s the half with ten players against my eleven, but I quickly reduce his numbers and slowly advance up the pitch.

In turn six, I made a brake for it with the BC and tried to GFI, to get out of the norse reach. A double one (sure feet).

My opponent then blitzed a berserker free, picks up the ball and makes his way down the field.

He however failed his dodge, trying to run a player within scoring range.

I blitzed his BC with a ’fling. Two dodge stars. He went down. A tree then threw a ’fling onto the ball, but he failed the landing. I was so close, but I’m still okay with 0-0 against Ozt, one of the highest NAF Ranked norse players in the world (above 200 before the tournament)

CAS 4-1

TD 0-0

I end the tournament 1-2-2- (W-D-L) and place 23 of 30. Worth mentioning is also that I managed to score the second most CAS. The most being scored by the best stunt team, an ogre team.

It’s been a great weekend and I’ve had a lot of fun. The organization and the tournament as a whole has been one of the best I’ve been to. Hats off to JohnnyD for making this happen.

I think I’ll make some tweaks to the roster for the next tournament with the ’flings, which will be StockBowl Cup in November.

Roster for Oktoberbowl

Just a quick post about my roster for the upcoming Oktoberbowl

I went with the following

2 Trees
11 Halflings
1 FF
2 RR
1 Master Chef
Deeproot

The Gesundbrunnen Picknick Packers

It's a change from my initial roster, which was the same except I had Puggy instead of a 'Fling, FF and my 2 RRs, but after paying a couple of games, I felt that you need some RRs as a base. You can't rely on the master chef giving you enough RRs.

It may however be a different case when the trees have block, but I can still use the RRs for take root, failed GFIs, pick ups, landings and trying to standing up.

For skills, I'm going with the following

Day 1
2x Block (Tress), Sure Feet and 2x Side Step

Day 2
3x Side Step

Yes, it's a lot of side step, but I feel that it's the best skill they've got access to and the reasoning behind sure feet is for the OTTM attempts. Yes, catch and sprint might be better, but they are probably only going to be used when going for the OTTM, which I felt was a waste of a skill. I therefore went with sure feet, since I can use it through out the game and it also affects more rolls than catch.

My goal for this tournament is to not lose al my games.
Hopefully the Gesundbrunnen Picknick Packers will surprise everyone and pull of a win.

Thanks for reading and if you've got some tips on how to play 'flings, please let me know.

Bootcamp Bash

We had a mini tournament within our league yesterday.
It was three games and your team had to be below TV1400k (at the start of the tournament).

I decided to play with my 'flings in preparation for two upcoming tournaments in Stockholm as well as the upcoming season.

Game 1 vs Orcs

Inducements: Deeproot, a master chef and a wizard.

The orcs had the standard 4 BOBs and 4 Blitzers (one +AG) as well as a thrower, a goblin and three linemen. His troll had recently died at the hands of Deeproot in our last game. I felt fairly good about the game since I've played this team three times before (1-1-1).

I started the game kicking off to him. He managed to pick up the ball and advance it forward, almost to the LOS. He however didn't protect his ball carrier enough. He was more or less in the open, from the point of view of my trees. My opponent hadn't realized that I just had to block one lineman away with Deeproot in order to free one of my regular trees. The freed tree then blitzed the ball carrier (with a 'fling assist) resulting in a knock down. Thanks to a lucky scatter the ball was now surrounded by a tree, Deeproot and a 'fling.

The rest of the half was more or less a scrum around the ball, where failed pick ups and bounces followed each other. In turn five, a tree somehow managed to pick the ball up when it bounced on him. I then handed it off to a 'fling in turn six. Said 'fling was then flung towards the end zone by Deeproot. He landed and scored the games first TD.

My opponent now had two turns to score. He tried to do so, but failed a GFI in turn seven.
This menat that he just had one player in scoring position, which I hadn't seen. I tried to get the ball to a 'fling by the tree, but failed my pick up.

My opponent now had his turn eight left, but he hadn't realized that he had a player within range (would have been a pick up, short pass, catch and a dodge, but still) and blocked with him.

The half ended 1-0 to me and I liked my chances going in to the second half.

He kicks to me and I secure the ball and move forward, toward my tree, still feeling good about my chances. He then gangs up on one the tree on my left and makes a 1d block with a BO. Knocked down, armor break and a BH tree later, I'm in trouble. Half his team is now in position to crash down on my small guys. I run up my right side and screen the ball carrier off.

He pressures me and I use my wizard on the orcs standing in front of the screen. Two stunned orcs. Yes, this could work. I'll just make a block with Deeproot first before I move through. Double skulls. Loner reroll, a three. Darn, that was stupid. Since I had to dodge with some of my 'flings, to screen the ball carrier, I figured that I should do the "safe" Deeproot block first. I shouldn't have. At least I should have move the ball carrier first. He was then swarmed by orcs and brought down.

The orcs then picked the ball up and scored in their turn eight. This left me with a OTTM attempt, but the ball landed in the back, so it was a draw, which I'm still happy with.

My goal for the day was not to lose all my games. Goal achieved.

Game 2 vs Undead

Inducements: Deeproot and a chef

I win the coin toss and elect to receive. I pick the ball up and set up a screen.

In his turn, he gangs up on a tree and fouls him with a dirty player. Another BH tree.
This is going to be an uphill battle.

I lose the ball, but somehow manage to pick it up again, screen him of and score in turn eight.
I was lucky in managing to score this turn.

Second half, I can't really stop him, but I at least try and make it difficult for him. He walks in for the draw, 1-1 in his turn eight.

He then kicks to me, a blitz on the kick off table and a bad scatter renders my chances of an OTTM impossible.

This was a really dirty game, where he fouled around six times with his DP before being thrown out.
That skeleton really earned his TV in this game. On tree out and a stunned Deeproot, plus some 'flings.

I was very happy with the draw here and I think he should have scored earlier since his chances of stealing the ball from me and hence winning the game, were quite high.

So far 0-2-0.

Game 3 vs Dwarfs

Inducements: Deeproot

This was the match up I was dreading. At this mini tournament, we had eight different teams.
Nurgle, 'Flings, High Elves, Amazons, Skaven, Orcs, Undead and Dwarfs. I was hoping on not having to play either the dwarfs (well duh) nor Nurgle (renders the TTM almost impossible).

Well, since I'm going to two tournaments this fall with the 'flings, I might as well try playing against the bearded ones. Even if I lose, it's been a lot better than I though.

The game starts with me getting +2 Fame and I elect to receive the ball.
We set up and he rolls on the kick off table. Pitch invasion. Wow, what a start. Every dwarf but three are stunned. I can't believe it and neither can he.

Eight stunned dwarfs

Since I didn't have enough inducement money for a chef this game I don't want to waist one of my two rerolls this early, when I fail the pick up. Which means that his dwarfs are up when I reach the LOS with my ball carrier. He puts pressure on my screen, but I still manage to break through and score in turn six. A lot, thanks to him fouling my trees and having two long beards/blockers sent of. I think he saw how effective fouling was in my last game.

he the fails to score, having just a couple of turns left.

Second half starts with me kicking off and him failing the pick up. So I figure that I might as well try to throw a fling. The thrown 'fling then picks up the ball, in a TZ, but then tripps over his own hairy feet trying to dodge away. This however makes my opponent panic. He takes the ball and throws it to a blitzer, who scores.
This leaves me six turns to score, which I do in turn eight, winning 2-1.
I started the drive out numbering the dwarfs, which made it really hard for my opponent to stop me. He however never stopped trying nor complained, which really showed great sportsmanship.

Standings after round 3

This menat that I ended with a 1-2-0 record and third place.
I was thrilled. I hope that I'll have the same kind of luck in the two upcoming tournaments this fall.
At least, I hope I'll have as much fun as I did this time around.

Thanks for reading.

Stuck in a rut and FUMBBL

It's been a while since I've posted. The reason for that is that I wanted to show my finished 'Fling team, the Gesundbrunnen Picknick Packers, but they're still not done. I haven't painted in a while and I wasn't a 100% happy with the last miniature. I needed a bit of a break.
My league has also been a bit slow recently, meaning that I haven't played any games for a while. I felt a bit stuck when it came to Blood Bowl.

FUMBBL to the rescue! I joined a league with a dark elf team and I've since played the first game (2-1 W). I really like playing dark elves and I can't wait for my Impact elves to show up. The dark elves are going to be my next tournament team, since I think they fit my style of play perfectly.

Before they show up, I'll finish the 'Flings. Right now I've just got the 'Fling that's in a treemans hand, ready to be thrown, left to paint. I've then got 10 'Flings, 2 Trees, Deeproot and Puggy, which is enough for the planed tournaments in Stockholm in October and November (might do more 'Flings in the future). They'll aslo be featured in our local "for fun" tournament the Bootcamp Bash (27th of September).  Depending on the result in these tournaments, they might see some playing time in the Preußen Bowl as well (because I don't think I'll have the dark elves done by then).

Hopefully, the dark elves will be ready for the NAFC 2015.

I've also got another tournament planed for November, the Killing Spree, where I'll be playing undead and hopefully get my NAF-Ranking up with them.

So, a lot of Blood Bowl coming up come October, but until then I'm bridging the gab with FUMBBL.
Hopefully soon, I'll showcase my 'Flings.

Plans for a nurgle team

I've played a couple of games with nurgle online (both Cyanide and FUMBBL) and I like the way they play (or rather hinder the opponent team from playing).

I started with this roster:

1 BoN
4 Warriors
1 Pestigor
5 Rotters
2 ReRolls

and so far I'm at 3-2-0 (W-D-L) (FUMBBL and Cyanide combined).
I had to try this team on the tabletop.

So I set out to find some miniatures that I could use for my nurgle team.

I started with the pestigors and found a couple of the old warhammer pestigors on Ebay.

Warhammer pestigors

I need to do some cutting and green stuffing to make them more blood bowly, but it should be relatively easy.

After finding them, I started looking for a set of warriors and had a look at the Avatars of War warriors, but then I remembered that I'll get a set of the Apocalyptic Hunters from Impact Miniatures as part of their latest kickstarter. They'll be perfect, with a bit of green stuffing and head swapping.

Apocalyptic hunter Set from Impact Miniatures

Finding a spawn proved to be a bit more of a challenge. I started biding for a Warhammer one on Ebay, but I got outbid. Thankfully though, I found a better version from Kromlech.

Morbid Spawn from Kromlech

Now I was just missing the rotters. I initially thought I'd just use my zombies as rotters, but then I found something better, Blights from Heresy Miniatures. Same here, a bit of green stuff and they'll be good to go.

Blights from Heresy Miniatures

So there you have it, my plans for a new nurgle team. I'll update you as the project moves along. I'll probably prepare the miniatures quite soon, but they'll have to wait a bit before being painted. I'd like to finish my 'flings as well as my dark elves before starting with my nurgle, human, chaos pact or orcs. So much to paint, so little time.

Perfect Blood Bowl weather

The sun was shining, the beer flowing and we had a good time.
It was however a different story on the actual field. I thought I'd give a short recap of yesterdays games and maybe analys said games.

Game 1, Wedding Deerskins (Necro) vs. The Orclandraiders (Orcs)

The Orclandraiders, place 2 in group B of the BBBL, came in to the game with a TV of 560k more than the Wedding Deadskins. This only because their star blitzed was MNG. The Orclandraiders have been around since the start of the BBBL in 2005, but suffer from some odd skill choices of early inexperience and therefore some bloat.
The Wedding Deadskins entered this season as a fresh team (in our league you start with 110k extra gold plus one skill). So far they'd payed 6 games (2-2-2) and skilled up the werewolfs (blodge and block), a golem (block) and a ST4 zombie.

Inducements

For the inducement money they hired Ramtut III and a wizard.
My thought about hiring Ramtut III was simple. The orcs, missing their star blitzer, are quite slow. A ST6 piece with wrestle would cause them problems and slow them down. He can also act as a cage breaker with his break tackle and wrestle. Add to that the two golems and the orcs should have a hard time moving forward. The wizard is more or less a no brainer in this case, stopping the orcs from caging.

1st half

This game started off with a twist from the first dice roll. The field was covered in snow and ice. A blizzard had rolled in, which I was quite happy with. It would stop the orcs from GFIing and I might be able to take advantage of this with my faster players.

The stands were covered with Orclandraiders fans. 20k of them, easily outnumbering the 9k Wedding Deadskins fans. You could here the orc fans cheering as  the orcs kick off the game, thus giving them a 6th reroll. The kick was placed deep and thanks to one lineorc with kick, it stayed there.
The Deadskins started blocking the orcs to the left, forming a screen on their right side. The ghoul in the backfield scooped up the ball and ran down to the screen. A good start to the game.
The orcs then started battering themselves against the screen, almost breaking through. The Deadskins however took advantage of the situation and the fact that the troll didn't want to do anything for the first two turn, pinning the orcs down on their right hand side while running the ghoul and some protection up the left hand side. The orcs tried to get back and almost made it, but thanks to Ramtut III and a dodge, followed by two GFIs from the ghoul, the Deadskins managed to score in turn 7. The picture below showing the start of turn 7.

Start of Deadskin turn 7, just before the TD

During this mad dash toward the end zone, one werewolf and a zombie had been KOed. One zombie had been badly hurt, but he managed to regenerate. The KOed zombie came back, but the werewolf spent the rest of the game KOed.

The Deadskins then kicked off to the Raiders, ball landing just behind the goblin. It was picked up and handed to said goblin. However, the troll didn't want to throw the goblin, fumbling him twice, thus ending the first half of the game, 1-0 for the Deadskins.

2nd half

The Deadskins kicked off again, this time it was a high kick, landing deep in the end zone of the Raiders half. Their thrower saw the high kick and placed himself underneath it, but failed to catch the ball. Turn 1, the orcs start blocking and picks up the ball, driving it downfield.
The Deadskins stopped the forward movement off the orcs and this is when the wizard decides to cast a fireball in to the fray. The screen goes down and Ramtut III dodges and blitzes the ball carrier. The ball carrier sees Ramtut III coming, thus dumping the ball to one of the orcs in the backfield (who's marked by a ghoul). The lineorc can't catch the ball and it comes to rest next to him. The orc thrower is knocked down by Ramtut III and the Deadskins put a TZ on the ball in the form of a wight.
In the following turn, the orcs can't get the wight away from the ball and thus fails to pick the ball up.
The Deadskins see their chance and Ramtut III dodges one square to blitz the orc thrower in to the crowed, but disaster strikes. Double skulls!

The dreaded double skulls

The orcs can't capitalize and yet again fails to pick the ball up. In the following turn, Ramtut III blitzes in to the scrum, freeing the ball up. There's just one orc TZ on it and a ghoul jumps in, picks up the ball, doges away and runs off. The orcs can't get to him and the Deadskins score in turn 6.

This was however not without cost. A wight and a zombie (regenerates) has been MNGed and the star werewolf (blodge) got -AG. With a badly hurt zombie, this totals up to five CAS for the orcs (claw didn't work a single time for the Deadskins).

This is also how the game ends and I was very happy with managing a win.

To compensate the -AG on the werewolf both a ghoul and a wight (MNG) get +AG. The -AG werewolf was retired and a new one was brought in for the last game of the season against the Barbarian Icefighters (Norse).

TD      2 - 0

CAS    0 - 5

Thoughts

I think I was lucky, pulling away with a win in this one. My dodge rolls went my way and I could out maneuver the orcs. If I'd failed more dodges, it would probably have been a draw.

I'm also very happy with my choice of inducements. Ramtut III was great in this game, causing a lot of problems for my opponent. The wizard worked, taking out the right people of the screen. This was however balanced by the fact that I couldn't roll above seven when it came to armor rolls with the wolfs. When I did break the orcs armor, it was never above seven.

I've also started to doubt dodge as a second skill on my werewolfs. There's so much tackle around, so I think I'll give jump up a try. They can either jump up and hit the player marking them (a free blitz on 2+) or use their M8 to the fullest. I've 1 SPP away from the second skill on the werewolf with block. I think I'll give jump up a try one him.