New project(s)

I'm almost done with the dark elves and have started to look forward to my next project.

I even asked twitter what to do and people wanted me to start my chaos dwarf team. My idea at the time of asking was to do a "quick and dirty" team, just so I could play something else, but I have changed my mind since then. I'd just end up disappointed with the team and probably never play them, which would be a shame.

When I was working on the dark elves I said to myself that my next team would be a straight paint team, ie no conversions. If I were to do the chaos dwarves, it would involve some conversions, but less than the dark elf team. However, putting so much effort in to a team as the dark elves has left a bitter taste. Mainly due to the primer incident, which saw me having to scrape my miniatures to remove some bad primer and in the proces destroing some of the work I had done. They turned out alright, but there are some spots on them that are just bad, due to either scrapes or spots where I couldn't remove the primer. I don't want that to happen again and hence, I'll put the chaos dwarves on the back burner...for now. I just need to do something else in between.

Instead, I'm going to paint my wood elf team. I'm doing so for two reasons. 1, I'd like to give white primer another go. 2. It's a team I'd really like to play in a tournament and I just need to paint 10 miniatures, because I've got three painted trees already (although I'll paint a fourth one for this team eventually).
I'll be using the miniatures from star player miniatures which are just great. Some might say a bit big and I'd agree, but so are my halflings. The elves aren't too big, just alsmost. Right now I'm thinking jade green and orange as teamcolours, but that canchange once I get started.

I am however not giving up on the chaos dwarves just yet. I'll start converting them to mix it up between painting and converting. I'll mainly use miniatures from Russian Alternative and here's a picture of the chaos dwarves I'll be using for my blockers and bulls.

I'm a bit curious if I can assemble the team to resemble the picture I have in my head. They'll probablty not get painted for a while though as JBones slann are up after the wood elves. After that, mayb, but I also want to paint the dwarves from Iron Golems and Goblins from Willy. There are just so many teams I whant to paint. Stay tuned for wip pictures of both the chaos dwarves and wood elves.

I'll also take some pictures of the finished dark elf team once they're done. I've got the bases to go on the remaining four.

Thanks for reading.

Dungeonbowl 2016

It was that time of year again, where one of the majors where being played in Düsseldorf and this was my second trip there. I was looking forward to the tournament even more that last year since I knew that some people I talk to on twitter and the likes were coming. Even more so, since I had managed to convince my friend brocCooLi to come as well, whom I met up with at the air port on Friday. That evening we stayed at the bar and had some beers while playing some boardgames and catching up with various people. Great night and a good start to the weekend.

The roster

I didn't manage to finish my assassin (or even start painting him) so I played with the same roster as I did at the Preußenbowl, with the exact same skills.

4 Blitzers (1x Dodge day 1, 2x Dodge, Guard day 2)

2 Witch Elves (Block, Wrestle day 1)

1 Runner

4 Linemen

2 Rerolls

Assistant Coach

Cheerleader

What I did mange to finish was a display base/carrying tray. I'll make two more (one for 11 players incl a big guy and one for up to 14 players) and my upcoming teams will be based to fit it/them. It's really handy to have when changing tables etc.

Team on the display base/tray

Game 1 vs Orcs (Da_Git)

The tournament started with a match up against orcs. It's not a bad match up for the dark elves as long as they can keep a couple of players for the second half and stop the orcs in the first.

I was facing 13 orcs (4 Black Orcs, 4 Blitzers, 1 Thrower and 4 Lineorcs).

The skills were tackle on a blitzer and block on a black orc and the thrower.

Weather - Very Sunny
FAME +1 (I think)

I elect to kick since I wanted to defend with eleven elves. The orcs started the game by KOing a lineman, forming a cage and moving up the pitch. I try to slow the cage down by giving the orcs a square a turn to move forward on and I also manage to CAS one of the blitzers. I also managed to CAS one of my linemen on a dodge. The orcs CAS my runner on a both down (the black orc wasn't hurt in return), but it was otherwise an uneventful half and I did manage to stop the orcs.

Orcs moving up the pitch

The half ended 0-0 (1-1) and I had nine elves against eleven orcs.
The kick off result was a perfect defense.

Orc line up prior to the perfect defense

Orc line up after the perfect defense and my turn 1

To counter the perfect defense I moved off towards the weak side flank of the orcs.
The orcs responded by chasing the elves across the field.

Orcs in pursuit

That meant that the elves could go back and head down the other flank and eventually outrunning the orcs. The orcs responded by fouling the downed wrestle witch and CASing her.

Dark elves running up the side line

Elves stalling out the half

I stalled out the game and scored the game wining touchdown in turn 16.

It was a good game and my opponent was great. We both had fun and it was a good start to the tournament.

End 1-0 (1-2)

Game 2 vs Chaos (LordOrc)

My second game had my facing chaos. The team just had eleven players (Minotaur (Tentacles), 4 Warriors (2x Block), 6 Beastmen) and that's the reason that I chose to receive the ball. I had more block and my team was faster. I was hoping to get some beastmen out for the second half, which would make it easier to defend. As it turn out, the plan didn't work.

Weather - Nice Weather
FAME -2

The half saw the elves KOing a beastman and screening the ball carrier. The chaos team responded by KOing a lineman in their second turn.

I did the same play as against the orcs, moving to one side and then running up the other side, screening and using the faster movement of the elves.

Dark elves trying to out run the chaos team

In my third turn I dodged with a lineman, but had to use the reroll on the dodge and of course the following block was a double skull and a KOed lineman. This left me out of position and at least on player could have been surfed if it wasn't for the chaos team having equal bad luck and ending their turn in a quick turn over.

The elves could then move off and screen the ball carrier until turn 8.

For the second half, I managed to get 1 out of 5 KOed players back.
This meant that it was 7 elves against 10 chaos players, which could theoretically work.

But it didn't and I was losing elves fast. At the end of the half I had just two blitzers left. I still managed to knock the ball lose (yes, some good dice rolling involved), but the ball carrying duties was just taken up by another warrior. The game ended in a draw which I was okay with. I think I managed to get 1 out of 11 KOs back this game.

End 1-1 (1-4)

Game 3 vs Humans (Glorian_Underhill)

This was a rough game. I don't like it when my opponent shouts and that with every dice roll. Every block was followed by a BAAAAM!!! while slamming the dice cup down on the table. Even worse, my opponent was shouting SKULL!!, SKULL! when I was rerolling a failed 1d block (yes, first one was a skull).

Weather - Nice Weather
FAME -1

My opponent played with Mighty Zug, 4 Blitzers (2x Guard, Mighty Blow), Thrower, 6 Linemen, 2 Rerolls. An interesting line up and I was hoping that I'd be able to avoid Mighty Zug.

I lost the coin toss and had to kick, but I think I would have done so anyway.

This game went south fast for me. My opponent CASed a lineman in turn 1. CASed my runner in turn 2. CASed my wrestle witch in turn 3 and KOing a blitzer in turn 4. At this point I gave up on the idea of stoping him and let his cage run through. Instead, I tried to get as much damage in for the second half. In turn 6 I managed to CAS one of the guard blitzers.

He scored in his turn 8 and as we lined up for my turn 8 (I didn't get any KOs back) rolled a blitz. Not too bad, but that was just the way the game was going.

My KOed blitzer from turn 4 came back for the second half came back and I could line up with 8 elves against 11 humans.

Lose ball!

This was however not the end of the humans quest for getting my players of the field. One of my blitzers was KOed in turn 10 and a lineelf was CASed in turn 11. I did however CAS the second guard blitzer in my turn 11, but I lost the ball eventually. I didn't give up and almost got a draw out of the game, but it wasn't to be.

End 0-1 (2-4)

Game 3,5 vs dwarves (brocCooLi)

After we'd grabbed some dinner and gotten back to the hostel, we found the hostel bar empty so we figured that we could hang out in our room. We grabbed a couple of beers and decided to play some blood bowl. We made a pitch out of paper and had a go at dark elves against dwarves with all our skills (so like a day 2 game).

The paper pitch

After game three this was exactly what I needed. A fun game with a friend and a beer in hand. No pressure and we gave each other some tips for day 2.

End 1-1 (No idea abut the CAS)

And as it turned out, game 3,5 might have helped my prepare for day 2 as I was up against dwarves in game 4.

Game 4 vs dwarves (JBone)

JBone and I have talked via twitter and I met him at the NAFC last year. We've never played though and I was really looking forward to the game. Kind of my game against brocCooLi, a game between friends and no pressure.

JBone was playing with 12 dwarves including all the positional (no the death roller). He had given mighty blow to both his troll slayers, guard to both blitzers and guard to two longbeards. A nice roster and I would probably play the same after seeing how it performed. (when I get my dwarf team painted).

Weather - Nice weather
FAME -2

I started the game on defense, which I prefer against bash team due to the fact that it's probably the only time I can set up eleven players on the pitch.

The kick landed close to the sideline and quite deep, so good for me, but one of the fans threw a rock at my guard blitzers, but he was only stunned.
The deep kick stopped JBone from advancing as early as he might have liked.

Dwarves stuck at the LOS, waiting for the runner to catch up

In moving forward JBone leaves a small gap, which I exploit and I can get the ball on the floor in turn 4. I then pick it up and run away with it in turn 5.

Elves running away with the ball

JBone responds by CASing my wrestle witch, but I was okay with that. She had gotten the ball lose and thereby doing her job. I wasn't suspecting there to be more dwarf offenses anyway, if it all went to plan.

I scored in my turn 6 and gave the dwarves a chance to equalize, but it wouldn't be easy with dwarves.

I started the second half with just 8 players since my two KOed players didn't want to come back.

We set up our teams and my plan was to keep the ball in my own half, forcing JBone to advance and then either find a gap or just punt the ball into his half. I should at least be able to manage a draw. Right?

The result on the kick off was a perfect defense. I really hate that result. It can be so devastating and this was one of those times. JBone bases all my players on the line and made sure that every dodger had a tackle dwarf next to them.

I started my turn by blitzing a dwarf blitzer with my block witch, trying to get a lineman free. I was hoping for at least a push on a 2d block, so I could dodge away afterwards (getting away from the longboard). The result on the first block was a skull and a both down. Since I didn't want to leave the witch next to the longbeard, I had to dodge away. A 1. Reroll. A 1.

Darn, my first turn of the half was over and my whole team except the runner was based. This was going to hurt.
It turned out that it wasn't that bad, but I had a feeling that it was going to change soon. JBone also got his runner next to my runner so my first action in my 10th turn was to declare a blitz with the block witch. She wasn't in contact with a longbeard, so I could use dodge, if I rolled a one. A 1. Dodgereroll. A1!!!!

Yet again my turn had ended on a double one. This is where I lost the game.

The witch just needed to dodge out for the blitz...

The dwarves blitz my runner of their runner, who then picked the ball up and scored. 1-1.

All was not lost, I just needed to get some KOed players back and score in the remaining turns, but I did not get my players back so it was 7 elves vs 11 dwarves.

Elves chilling in the KO-box

The kick off result on the final kick of the game was a Get the Ref!.

I tried to screen the dwarves off, but JBone put me under pressure, basing all my players, which meant that I had to dodge and roll dice. It didn't work out for me and in his turn 13 he CASed both a blitzer and the remaining witch elf.

I couldn't get away and with just 5 players left on the field there wasn't much I could do.
JBone got the ball and I had one last chance at it. I dodged a linemen through his lines and based his runner. My knocked down runner then dodged in a tackle zone and blocked his runner. A skulle and a push. That was my last chance and after that I was left with two players on the field.

In JBones turn 15 I started playing his team instead. "You should blitz here so this guy can move over and foul that player"

In my turn 16 I could turn over the last lineman from being stunned to prone.

End 1-2 (0-2)

A game of blood bowl can really swing fast. Setting up after the first half I felt really good and in control of the game. My first two turns in the second half were horrible and JBone really took advantage of the situation.

I'll get you next time JBone!

Game 5 vs Skaven (...hm)

I felt the I put myself under a bit of pressure before this game. I really wanted to finish with a better result than last year since dark elves should be able to get a better record than halflings.

My opponent was playing with 13 players. A rat ogre (break tackle), 4 gutter runners (tackle, guard), 2 storm vermin (2x guard), thrower and linemen (1x wrestle) (not a 100% sure about the roster)

Weather - Very Sunny
FAME +1

My opponent won the coin toss and elected to receive. I set up my team and kicked off. Brilliant coaching, I got a reroll.

My opponent start by blocking one of my linemen and CASing him. Not the greatest of starts. The next couple of blocks do no harm and then I look over to his reserve box. It's empty, so he's set up 13 players on the pitch. As per the Dungeonbowl rules, my opponent suffered an immediate turnover and two players were randomly removed from the pitch. Thankfully for my opponent, it was just two linemen who were removed. It was a bit weird having gotten the advantage in this fashion, but I honestly hadn't seen that he'd set up 13 players prior to kicking off.

In my turn I moved in to his half and stole the ball. I screen my ball carrier of and scored in my turn 8. The only thing that happened was that my guard blitzer CASed himself on a dodge on turn 4.

This meant that I just had 10 players to his 11. We line up and the kick off result is a blitz.
Not the best result against skaven and he blitzes my wrestle witch away (she was standing under the ball), but to my surprise, he puts the blitzing storm vermin under the ball. The storm terming doesn't catch the ball and a scrum is formed around the ball.

I can eventually get the ball away from the scrum (and the rat ogre) and move off with the ball.

The elves move away with the ball

I score in my turn 16 and the game ends 2-0 for me.

End 2-0 (1-2)

Game 6 vs Skaven (Goloman)

Final game of the tournament and I'm yet again up against skaven.

The roster was a bit different and there were just 12 players this time (in favor of a reroll). The rat ogre had block, one storm vermin had guard and the other one tackle. One lineman had wrestle, the thrower had leader and a gutter runner had block.

Weather - Nice weather
FAME -1

I'm forced to kick and it's a really shallow kick, landing on the LOS in the wide zone my opponent had left empty (we both got a reroll on the kick off). He moves his thrower to cover the ball and tries to pick up the ball with a gutter runner. A 1. Reroll. A 1. Bad luck for my opponent, but I think he should have moved more players to cover the ball, so a bad play.

Elves taking advantage of the failed pick up

I then move up with my whole team, pick the ball up and screen him off.
He tries to stop me by putting his players in the way of my screen/cage which results in a gutter being surfed in turn 2 (CAS) and a storm vermin with tackle in turn 3 (CAS).

I was never really threatened and could stall the half out. I also managed to surf two gutter in turn 5, but they both went in to the reserve box.

I'm receiving in the second half and I could line up 11 elves against his 10 rats.
I was feeling good about this game and all I had to do was to stop him from scoring.

The kick off gives him a reroll, but it's a good kick for me. I can set up a secure position and move up the pitch.

In turn 11 the rat ogre finally CASes the lineman that I had used to tie him up. A fair trade. The rat ogre had been a none factor all game, up until that point.

Elves with the ball

Turn 13 sees my guard blitzer CASed, but my ball carrier was "safe" the whole half.

In his 15th turn he manages to dodge through and get a -2d blitz on the ball carrier (the runner) with a gutter runner (with block). I elected not to use dump off (which in hindsight probably would have been wise to use) and the result was a pow and a dodge pow. The ball is on the floor and my runner is stunned, but I had one turn left (but no rerolls).

I still had a blitzer in scoring range and he had no players in scoring range. I had won the game, but tried for the 2-0, but failed a dodge with a linemen (who was going to pick the ball up and give it to the blitzer).

End 1-0 (0-2)

Conclusion

This was a great weekend and I'm okay with the result. 3-1-2 isn't bad, but I feel like the dice played too much of a part in game 3 and 4. Either could easily have been a draw and game 4 looked like a win after the first half. The 3-1-2 got saw me land in the 27th place out of 84.

I sustained 16 casualties over the weekend, which is a lot for an AG4 AV8-team. Some wood elf teams at the tournament had suffered the same number of casualties and only one team had suffered more than 16. It was a goblin team with 19 casualties. I'm thinking that I should try wood elves. I'm used to playing down in numbers and wood elves are even better at it than dark elves due to the wardancers and the higher general speed. Having a treeman in the center is also appealing.

The tournament is very well organized and I'll definitely come back next year. Hopefully I've finished my wood elf team by then. Thanks for reading.

The FUMBBL-experiment 2.0

The FUMBBL-experiment 2.0

I wrote about a FUMBBL-experiment a while back and since then I've started a second round for two reasons. One, I like the slann and vampire teams and two, I wanted to see if I could get better results a second time around, using what I've learned from my first attempt.

Slann

My slann team, the Kreuzberg City Croakers have now played seven games and lost none (4-3-0), which I'm very happy with.

The first thing I did with this team was to get a linefrog to 6 SPPs in order to have a wrestler.
I also didn't focus on the catchers (they'll get SPPs eventually) and I've just got three on the team. I find this enough and it makes the team more resilient overall. It also helps to keep the TV low.
I deceided to stay on twelve players for TV-reasons and as an experiment, I gave one linefrog mighty blow on a double. The idea is to give him block followed by tackle and that is cheaper than a blitzer with the same set of skills. Might give blitzers a try, but I'd rather have twelve players than fall back to eleven (for the same TV impact).

I was also very fortunate to roll a doubles on a catcher, which got guard. I'm honestly not too happy about that choice. In a tournament, yes, but in a leauge, it's a great risk to leap in with the catcher, because he'll be out the turn after. In hindsight, I should maybe have gone for pass followed by sure hands.

Another thing that I've done less is leap. I play the team as a human team with the ability to leap, but not as plan A. This has helped me get better results. So much that I've started to understand why the winner of Preußenbowl II, DocMaXX (playing slann) just had three rerolls on his roster.

The slann are moving up the list of my favorite teams and I can't wait for JBones kickstarter to launch, so I can start playing slann in tournaments. I hope that I'll stay as excited once I do.

Vampires

I haven't gotten as far in to the vampire experiment. The Friedrichshain Fangs have now played two games (0-1-1), but I went with block as the first skill on a vampire. It's going to be interesting to see, if it's a better choice than dodge for the first vamp to skill.

I also went with kick on the first thrall to level up. Wrestle is a good choice and I was leaning towards it, but this being an experiment, I wanted to see what impact kick could have. This early, wrestle isn't as needed, but the second thrall to level up will get wrestle (except on a double).

Vamps aren't as high up on my list of teams, but I'd like to field them in a tabletop tournament as well. The next Stockbowl Cup I go to maybe. I'm also going to play some games with them in our open tabletop league, since I've got the team (unpainted).

Preußenbowl II

Preußenbowl II

The tournament year of 2016 started off with Preußembowl II and since this is the year of the dark elf for me, I was playing dark elves.

My roster was the same one that I took for Stockbowl Cup VI, but in this tournament you didn't get all the skills from game 1. For day one I went with dodge on a blitzer, block on a witch and wrestle on the second witch.

The draw was up on the Thursday before the tournament and I had halflings in the first game. I had mixed feelings about the match up. It's considered an automatic win, but having played halflings, I know that it isn't. This was going to be tough if I had to play without rerolls.

Game 1 vs Halflings (peterd)

Weather Pouring Rain

FAME -1

I won the toss and decided to kick the ball, since it was pouring rain. I was hoping for a weather change before I were to receive the ball.

The half started out great for me, rolling a blitz and being allowed a reroll (the master chef just stole one).

I positioned my bloding blitzer under the ball, but he didn't manage to catch it.
The ball scattered on a screening blitzer, who caught it.

In my opponents first turn, the ball was blitzed free and no one managed to pick it up until later in the half (I think it was around turn 5 or 6)

The ball is blitzed free

The ball bounced in to a fortunate spot for me and I could scoop it up and score in turn 8.

Fortunate bounce for the dark elves

I was feeling good about this game. All I needed to do was to keep the ball until turn 16. Easy, right?

The half started with me not having a single reroll and there was no weather change.

The kick was deep and the ball landed just in front of my endzone.

Of course, my runner didn't manage to pick the ball up and my opponent threw a halfing to get it. He almost scored, but after a failed pick up, the ball scattered out into the crowd and was thrown in to the middle of my half.

I secured the ball, but just wanted to make a two die block before picking it up (to surf a halfling), but rolled both down skull. My Runner was KOed and the halfling stunned. I still think it was the right move, since the risk of failure was the same as picking the ball up, but the reward was one less halfling on the pitch (who could pick the ball up).

Get the ball!

This mean that the trees could now reach the ball and we had a scrum on our hands.

This lasted until turn 16, when a halfling dodeged through, picked the ball and handed it to a friend, who then scored.

Not the worst start to the tournament, but it could have been better.

1-1 (2-2)

Game 2 vs Gobbos (Segga)

Weather nice

FAME +1

I elected to receive the ball and hopefully get a couple of goblis of the field.
My opponent left his chainsaw exposed, so I blitzed him and got him injured on turn 1.

The plan worked and I scored in turn 8. He also had to bring a secret weapon on in his turn 8, which meant one less bribe.

In the second half, I managed to steal the ball twice for TDs in turn 14 and turn 16.

Great kick for the dark elves

3-0 (3-0)

Game 3 vs Dark elf (Ignaz)

Weather Nice

FAME -1

I decided to receive the ball since we both had 11 players, I felt that this game would probably be won by the team that managed to get the upper hand early.

I managed to KO one of his linemen, but I then KOed one of my blitzers on a dodge (with a reroll).
The dodge was very important, since it would have put the blitzer in scoring range on turn 6 and it would have forced my opponent to either go for him or attack the rest of the team with the ball on the other side of the pitch.

A mirror match

I then followed up the KO blitz with an error in turn 7 and changed my mind mid turn. I made the blitz on the wrong side of the field and it cost me the TD, since I had miscounted the squares. I couldn't get into a good position and had to settle with going into halftime 0-0.

I didn't get my KOed blitzer back, but he got his lineman back.
Remember what I said about the team with the upper hand winning the game?
Well, I was right.

As I kick off to him I roll a perfect defense, but I don't really think it through and line up in a very stupid way. I was tilting due to my misstake in the first half.

He gets a lot of blocks in on me and stunns two players. That was it. I couldn't replay and he started KOing and injuring my players. Three players were out in turn 3 and I could do nothing but watch at this point. I tried to put pressure on his ball carrier and manged to do so, with half the number of players, but it wasn't to be.

(My CAS on him came in my turn 16)

0-1 (1-1)

(Second day and I now had dodge on all my blitzers)

Game 4 vs Humans (Jonny_Kanone)

Weather nice

FAME -1

I deceided to kick this game and it was all looking good up to about turn 5.

After turn 1

Before that turn, I was doing the classic dodge back elf defence, but in turn 5 he went all in and engaged my elves with his guard blitzers. I should have dodged out again, but I starting blocking, but the blocks didn't go my way and I was stuck.
He swung around and I could blitz his catcher, which was the only player covering his ball carring thrower.

Before the scrum

I had to make some GFIs to get there and failed the one for the blitz, but rerolled it. Sadly, it was a push back, so the witch had to make a third GFI. A one. Anything but a one...

If I had succeded, I had a blitzer free, who could have marked the ball carrier after a 3+ and a 2+ dodge.

He left an opening for a blitz in my turn 7 as well, which I took. It was a one die with the wrestle witch. A push, which meant that I had to do a -2d block. A skull and a push. If there hadn't been a skull on either dice (nor a both down), I could then have blocked the ball carrier with a lineman.

I started the second half with 8 elves and end it with 5. Double 1s ended my hopes of a draw and he could get the ball and scored in his turn 16.

0-2 (0-5)

Game 5 vs Khemri (Raykieboy)

Weather nice

FAME -1

I kicked the ball to him in the first half and line up in a standard elf defence, letting him move one square each turn. I also marked his ball carrier, so he had to use his blitz there, so he didn't even move forward every turn. In his turn 8, he blitzed the front guy in a column and knocked him down, but he didn't manage the 5+, 5+, 4+ dodge with his throw-ra and lost the ball. I picked it up, passed it and handed it off. After two GFIs, I scored in turn 8.

His turn 8. Blitz on the left column

He put me under pressure mid second half, so I had to score, but wasn't too worried that the Khemri team would score more than once.

Kicking off

We lined up for the kick and he didn't protect the ball and rolled a double skull/skull with a tomb guardian. I ran my team forward and stole the ball in turn 16, for the score.

But we had a riot on the ensuing kick off, which meant that it was Khemri pass time.
His hopes of scoring was ended on a interception though (not that it was likely anyways).

3-0 (4-2)

Conclusion & Thoughts

Am I happy with my result? Not really. It could have been better in game 3 and 4, but I made some errors, which cost me the games.The roster I'm using isn't really optimised for this type of tournament, due to the low amount of rerolls. Mainly on day 1, where I just had 3 dodge. At Stockbowl Cup VI, where I had all my skills from game 1, this wasn't so much of a problem.

Further more, the advantage that tier 2 got on day one made this even more obvious.

I am however happy that it went better than last year, where I ended on 1-1-3, also with dark elves.

It also made me think about the Dungonbow where you get three skills day one and three day two (one double), like the NAFC. The difference then is that it's the same for all teams, so I won't see a block ogre and three guard blitzers plus either a tackle or a mighty blow blitzers on day one. 

I am however considering bringing an assassin to the Dungeonbowl.

Stop laughing and here me out.

The ruleset encourages tier 1 teams and almost all of them have AV7 players.

Let's have a look at the tier 1 teams, which are chaos dwarves, dwarf, wood elves, skaven, norse, lizardmen, orcs, undead and amazons.

Obvious here are wood elves, skaven, norse and amazons. They're almost complete AV7 teams and have access to blodgers.

Then there's some teams that are mixed. Chaos dwarves, lizardmen and undead come to mind. They all share something, their ball carrier will probably have AV7.

So out of the tier 1 teams, there's only two teams, where the stab is really bad (orcs and dwarves), but for both teams, the shadowing isn't half bad. I might be able to force my opponent to blitz the assassin off, rather than move forward.

On the other hand, it's risky. Another AV7 player that's unprotected.

I did play against this roster at the NAFC last year (my only loss) and the assassin was quite good, if he's positioned correctly. Forcing your opponent to roll more dice is always good and having a safe shot at AV7 players isn't bad. It reserves rerolls.

It's also an excuse to get him painted.
I'll think about it some more, but I like the idea. If not only for playing a different roster.

Thanks for reading

FUMBBL

This is my first post for 2016 and it's been a while since I posted anything. The reason for that is that I'm currently traveling with my family. This means I haven't been painting much lately, but I think I'll finish the dark elves 2.0 tournament list for Preußenbowl 2016 in time. Here's a wip on the last two members, the witch elves (and the rest of the team in background).

wip witch elves

So, what will this post be about?

Well, when the rest of the family went to bed, I played some FUMBBL and I tried two teams that I've been curious about. The Slann and Vampires and this post will be some thoughts on both teams as well as some lessons learned. I'm glad that I did this experiment on FUMBBL since I didn't have to do it on tabletop. 

Vampires

I got the GW team off eBay a while back, but I haven't played a game with them on tabletop yet, so I thought that I'd try them on FUMBBL, just to see what they were all about. I started with 3 vamps, 8 thralls and 4 rerolls. The first lesson, thralls aren't that tough. In my second game, I had just 11 players and wished that I would have started with 4 vamps instead of three.

The team is very fragile and you have to get used to playing men down, even if you start with a bench. It's a fun team and if you don't roll ones, they can be very effective. I however rolled ones for my bloodlusts and thens for the bites, which got me outnumbered fast.

I had some fun games, but also some very frustrating games.

This is not an easy team to play.

After ten games, my record was 2-3-5

Slann

I had to try this team out since I'm getting them in a future kickstarter this spring.

I started the team with the croaxigor, 3 catchers, 4 rerolls and 7 linefrogs. I like the start of the team and I will use the same starting roster on tabletop. The reason for starting with the craoxigor is that I really like that miniature, so he was a must.

I enjoyed playing slann more than the vamps and after 14 games my record was 5-0-9, but I should have stopped after 10 games. By then, my record was 5-0-5.

After four games I had enough money for a blitzer, so I thought I'd give one a try and that's when it went wrong. After another couple of games, I bought a second blitzer. They're very expensive players and I don't feel that they are worth their keep. I'd rather have a linefrog with wrestle and strip ball for 10k less than a blitzer and that's the key for both slann and vamps, team value.

Lessons learned

Both vampires and slann need to watch their team value closely. Naturally, getting your vamps and slann catchers to blodge seems like the best thing to do, but I'm not so sure to be honest. By the time you've reached that TV your opponents will have a tackler or two. Lacking basic skills means that you're behind almost every other team in the skill rase.

Vampires

I got the advice to skill all my vampires with dodge first, but I believe, that the first vampire that skills should get block first. You need a blitzer and I'd give that vampire mighty blow and tackle before dodge. After that I'd follow up with two vamps with dodge and give the fourth one block. I'd also try and skill some thralls with wrestle.

Slann

Getting dodge on the catcher is fine and a logical choice, but after that I'd probably not give all four block. Sure hands seems like a good skill for leaping in and stealing striped balls. Side step also seems like a good choice. If I didn't have a linefrog with wrestle and strip ball, I'd give those skills to a catcher. 

Getting a linefrog with wrestle and strip ball is first priority though. If you can, hand of to a linefrog and score. Getting points on the catchers is easy, but will just drive your TV.

I'll stay away from the blitzers in future. At least until I've got a couple of good line frogs on my team.

I'll give both teams another go and try something else than blodge. 

Wish me luck!

X-Mas Bowl, a tale of three losses

X-Mas Bowl, a tale of three losses

This was my worst tournament to date and the report will be quite short, since I'm trying to forget and move on.
But it's not all bad. There's probably some lessons to be had from these three games.

The Gesundbrunnen Picknick Packers (thanks to Kohli for the picture)

Game 1 vs Norse (Kohli)

FAME -1

Blizzard

I got the honor of kicking of and it was going well at the start of the game. I forced him to the sidelines and could even surf his Yeti, but my defense was also split in two. I did however manage to get the ball on the ground, but an unlucky bounce saw his runner take of with the ball, out of my reach. I then focused on removing his players with fouls and blocks. Sadly I didn't manage to do more than KOs.
He scored in his turn 8 and my flung 'fling scattered back, out of reach of the endzone in my turn 8. I did manage to CAS two of his players.
He got all his KOs back and it was 11 vs 10. All i could hope for was a draw.

After my turn 9 (thanks to Kohli for the picture)

I moved up the pitch, screening my ballcarrier, but he still managed to mark the ballcarrier as I was beginning to run low on 'flings. Puggy was called in for the blitz on the ulfwerner marking the ballcarrier and he skulled. I used a loner reroll and failed. Puggy went down and the norse had a good shoot at the ball, but thanks to dodge, they couldn't get the ballcarrier down. It did cost me a turn of advancing and I had to score soon to tie the game.

Moving forward, I couldn't completely screen the ballcarrier of and my opponent could blitz him with his Yeti (which was prone), but I felt that this would be the best option for me. It wouldn't be a 3d block and the Yeti didn't have block nor tackle. As it turned out, the block was a push and a both down. My opponent went for the both down and my 'fling was stunned.
In my last turn, I picked the ball up, handed it off, threw a 'fling, but the flung 'fling didn't land and I lost the game. Even if he would have landed, he would have had to make a GFI, so it was far from certain.

This was a close game where I felt that I had a good chance of tieing or even winning, but all his KOs came back and I didn't  cause enough casualties or rather not early enough.

0-1 (3-3)

Game 2 vs Pro Elves (Heroic_Tackle)

FAME +1

Blizzard

I elect to receive the ball in the hope of getting some elves of the pitch, which I do, but just KOs.
I move up the pitch, screening my ballcarrier of and it's looking promising, but as I approach the endzone, my opponent goes for it and dodges in with a blitzer with dodge. He doesn't even need to use the reroll on the dodge for 5+ and the ball is on the floor. A catcher snatches the ball and runs off. I can't do much about it and I'm fouling and hitting, hoping to get a man advantage in the second half.

Turn 1 for the Picknick Packers

That doesn't work since all of his KOs come back and it's 11 vs 11. He scores late in the half and I go for a OTTD, which succeeds. It's now 1-2 and he moves a couple of targets forward for the score. I don't even bother defending and move everything forward, throwing a 'fling which blitzes the thrower in his backfield. I can't get the thrower down and he easily scores in his turn 16.

1-3 (1-2)

Game 3 vs Wood Elves (Seagull)

FAME -1
Nice weather

This game was close. I moved up the pitch, trying to get some elves out, but couldn't manage anything but KOs.
In my opponents turn 7, he leaps with his strip ball wardancer (without a reroll) and get's a hit on the ballcarrier. To add insult to injury, the wardancer picks the ball up and dodges back out, which means that the half ends 0-0 and without any casualties. This is however my fault, since I could have made it harder for my opponent.

The picknick Packers moving up the field (thanks to Kohli for the picture)

In the second half, my opponent gets his KOs back and it's 11 vs 11. I managed to stop him from scoring twice, but I can't do so a third time and it's 0-1. I fail the landing in my turn 16 and thus landing me last place at this tournament.

0-1 (1-0)

This means that I drop a total of 9,08 in NAF ranking with the 'flings. I don't think I'll get back up above 150 again.
Did I mention, that this was my 13th NAF tournament? Yes, the unlucky number 13.

My next tournament will be Preußenbowl and it's got even more adventitious rules for 'flings. I might play them again, just to prove to myself that I can play them or let them rest until I've forgot all about this tournament. I guess it depends on my progress with the dark elves 2.0.

Thanks for reading

Roster for X-Mas Bowl, flowers and dark elves

I haven't posted since StockBowl Cup VI report, but I've been busy painting.

But first, I'd like to talk about my roster for the X-Mas Bowl on the 13th of december.
It's a very small tournament here in Berlin and it's just going to be three games and around 10 coaches taking part.

I asked on twitter if I should go for undead or halflings and the result was undead. Since then, the rules for the tournament have changed and I've painted four dark elf linemen.

Dark elf linemen (I need to work on my photography)

What does the linemen have to do with it you ask? Well, my plan was to play haflings at the Preußenbowl in February next year, but by the looks of it, I'll get my dark elves done in time. That means that I'd like to play my dark elves 2.0 and the main reason for that would be that it will be the most recently finished team, but also because next year will be the year of the dark elf for me. I'd like to play them at the Dungeonbowl and also at Eur'Open. I also feel like Preußenbowl is one of the tournaments in which I'd have a chance at a NAF trophy and a tournament win.

This menas that I'll play less halflings next year, so why not play them next weekend? Just for fun and who knows, I might reclaim the #1 spot as the best halfling player in Sweden, if I win three games (not going to happen). The roster will be the standard one with:

2 Trees (2x block)
10 'flings (4x side step)
Master Chef
Peggy
Deeproot
AC
Cheerleader

To inspire the Gesundbrunnen Picknick Packers, I've added some flowers to their bases and display base. I've been meaning to do this for a while and I've finally come around to doing so. I wanted to add something to the bases, so they don't look "flat".

Here's some pictures



Wish me luck at the tournament!
Flower Power!