Berlin Open

I was co-organizing the tournament as well as playing in it, which should be fun, but stressful (also the reason for the lack of insight game reports).

We sadly had some drop offs just before the tournament and were a bit disappointed that we just managed to get 20 coaches. The positive side of it though was that there were many new coaches (or at least new to the Berlin scene), which is always nice.

The tournament rules were simple and the same as the rules for NAFC, back in the days.

TV110 and 5+1 Skills.

Roster

I decided to play undead since it had been a while since I played them back in 2014. I don't know why I haven't played them in a while, since I like to play undead. Maybe it's due to the miniatures (my first painted team).

2 Mummies (Block, Guard)

2 Wights (Guard, Tackle)

3 Ghouls (Wrestle, Block)

5 Zombies

1 Skeleton

3 Re-rolls

Assistans Coach

Cheerleader

I like this roster as it sturdy and it enables some fouling. The alternative would be to field all four ghouls, but while making the team faster, it's also more fragile.

Game 1 vs Chaos Dwarves (peterd)

FAME 0
Nice weather

I kicked the ball to start the game and couldn't stop peterd's offense. His claw mighty blow minotaur removed some players, but I had a chance at the ball after a mistake from peterd, but couldn't capitalize on it.

Lining up for the kick off

I then scored late in my drive and peterd had an opportunity to win the game. I could however get his ball carrier on the ground, but the ball bounced around and finally landed on his minotaur! Peterd could still win the game, if his minotaur behaved, dodged and GFIed, which didn't happen, but it was a tense last turn.

Minotaur with the ball!

A fun game against one of the nicest coaches in blood bowl.

End 1-1 (2-3)

Game 2 vs Dark Elves (Danbob)

FAME ?

Nice weather

Dan was a lovely chap, but new to the tournament scene and his inexperience showed. I could score in my turn 8 and then stole the ball in the second half. Dan did have an opportunity after I stole the ball, but failed too many dodges to take advantage of it. If it wasn't for a double 1, the game would have ended 2-0, but a win is a win.

Cage moving up the field

End 1-0 (1-1)

Game 3 vs Dark Elves (BroccooLi)

FAME 0
Blizzard!

I get to receive the ball first (and the weather changes to nice) and move up the field slowly. BroccooLi defends well and I needed a bit of luck to score in turn 8, but I managed. The OTTD was a failure, but it was close.

The undead team moves up the field

BroccoLi then gets the ball in the second half, pushing to score quite early and then lightning strikes and I have three players KOed and one CAS in a single turn. I couldn't stop the dark elves after that, but luckily got me, the KOs came back and we now had an exciting game on our hands.

Look at all those KOed players!

Once the ghoul had the ball in his hands, the undead team went for a power drive to the right, but the dark elves overcommitted and I could run the ball carrier back to the left side and after two GFIs, he was out of reach for but a handful of players. I also screened off the dark elves to force them to dodge, which they did. 1 re-roll 1. It was the worst of times to have a turnover and I just needed to blitz one player away before scoring in turn 16.

End 2-1 (1-2)

Game 4 vs Chaos Dwarves (Claymore)

FAME +2
Swealtering Heat

I kicked the ball and the game started with a get the ref!, which I think was more in my fortune than my opponents.

I MNGed a chaos dwarf early in the half and my opponent used his apo, which resulted in another MNG. My opponent was now one dwarf down and without his apo. That looked bad and I had managed to put him in a bad spot, which wouldn't be easy to get out off. Things didn't get better when I cased three players in one turn!! I then continued to up the pressure and fouled a bull centaur off the pitch. The half ended 1-0 to me.

As I received the ball for the second half, it was 11 undead vs 6 chaos dwarves (well, not dwarves as half the team was now made up off hobgoblins).

I then fouled the second bull in to the casualty box and stalled the game out for a 2-0 win in turn 16.
I could probably have scored earlier and ran up the score, but I felt that a safe 2-0 was better than a potential 2-1 (if the KOs came back and my guys were out due to the heat).

End 2-0 (4-0)

I was very lucky in game 4. Surely, that couldn't continue?

Game 5 vs Dark Elves (Sprinter)

FAME 0
Nice weather

I kick the ball to my opponent and rolled a blitz! and the ball was close to the LOS.
My tackle wight blitzed to open up a path to the ball and managed to cause a serious injury. The apo was used and the result was another serious injury. Great start to the game for me and my luck from game 4 was continuing. I didn't put anyone underneath the ball as I wanted to screen up the area for a safer pick up in turn 1, but the ball bounced on to my tackle wight, who caught the ball.

My opponent then knocked the ball free, but wasn't in a good position, close to my team and I could put pressure on the elves. Sadly, I made an error in my first turn, dodging my block ghoul out off contact after a blitz which ended with a ghoul in the casualty box. I should just have left the ghoul in contact (was next to the guard wight) and could have dodged out the turn after (if needed) to cover the area which I wanted to cover directly. This opened up a path for the elves along the sideline, which they took.

I was now in pursuit and tried to catch up. I had left a safety (my wrestle ghoul) which was blitzed and put in the casualty box. I was now down to one ghoul (currently not on the pitch) and chasing dark elves with my slow players. I did however catch up as Sprinter decided to stall out the half, which turned out to be a disaster. A witch dodged and 1d blitzed a mummy -> Skull!. That ended the half and I had somehow been very lucky.

I received the ball in the second half and it was a relatively deep kick. Sprinter put me under pressure, running his team in to my half. I had to run up with my ghoul, who then made a pass to a wight. Phew, it worked and I could move up the pitch with the wight, using my slower players to delay the dark elves.

The teams only ghoul takes the ball up the field before the dark elves flood the backfield

My numbers prevailed and I could score in turn 16.
The game was closer than game 4, but I had still been lucky.

End 1-0 (6-1)

Game 6 vs Dark Elves (Ignaz)

FAME -1
Nice weather

I kicked the ball deep to the dark elves and stayed put in my half of the pitch, playing a zone defense.
Things looked okay, but I couldn't break any elves. The dark elves were pinched towards the sideline and I had tried to make the score difficult in turn 8, but my opponent made all his roles including a blitz with a witch elf (with the ball) which included a 3+ dodge, 1d block (x2 due to frenzy), 2+ dodge and a GFI, without a re-roll. Not too difficult, but I would have liked to see it fail.

Well, the game wasn't over as there were a half to play still and I suspected that I just needed a draw to win the tournament. Hopefully I'd break some elves and manage an eight turn score.

It was however not to be as the second half started with a perfect defense and the ball ended up next to the sideline. I failed the pick up (with a re-roll) and the ball fortunately stay in bounds, but the dark elves now flooded my backfield and I was very much under pressure. I managed to recover the ball in my next turn and set up a cage deep in my own half. The dark elves continued their attack on the ball and I had to fight to get it safe each turn and I couldn't progress. Matters weren't helped by the fact that I was loosing players and the elves remain on the pitch (my opponent played an 11 man roster without an apo).

It was a matter of time before the elves could get the ball and score in turn 16.

End 0-2 (0-1)

Conclusion

The loss at the end was annoying as I just needed to draw the game to win the tournament, but that's the way it goes sometimes. I did enjoy playing undead and will do so again in the near future. This was my fourth Runner Up and I hope that I can break the spell sometime soon.

The standings after game 6

Thanks for reading.

German Team Bowl 2018

German Team Bowl 2018

It was my first ever German Team Bowl and we had assembled a team from Berlin, the Inglorious Blocksters! We even printed matching t-shirts and all.

Team logo!

Roster

I went for wood elves as I feel that I'm strongest with them out of the teams I have painted.

2 Wardacners (Strip Ball)

Treeman

Catcher

7 Linemen (2 Wrestle, 2 Dodge, Block)

2 Re-rolls

Apo

FF

Game 1 vs Wood Elves (mubo)

We were hoping for an easy game to start the tournament, but we got the opposite and were up against a part of Team England (who later won the tournament). I was facing off against mubo, who's a quite good wood elf coach. I figured that I'd at least be able to learn a thing or two from him.

Very Sunny

FAME +1

I was forced to kick and the first block of the game was a CASed linemen, which I actually used my apothecary on. I figured that numbers would be important in this game and I was hoping that it wouldn't come back to bite me, being so aggressive with the apothecary.

"Zone defence"

My game plan was to play a zone defence in my half, trying to blitz his catchers with three dice. This resulted in a KO in turn 3 and it was then 10 vs 10.

Later in the half, there was an opening (caused by a double one) and I striped the ball from the opposing wardancer's hands and one of my linemen caught it. This stopped mubo's drive and the half ended 0-0.

The lineman catches the ball

In the second half, mubo put me under pressure and I moved up quite quick, scoring in turn 4, thinking that I'd rather have the draw secured rather than potentially lose the ball and lose the game.

The game turned out to be a nail biter as my strip ball wardancer leapt in for a 1d blitz on his wardancer with the ball, rolling a pow. Great, I thought, but then the ball scattered into the hands of the other wardancer, who caught the ball on a six and mubo could then score in turn 16.

END 1-1 (1-2)

Game 2 vs Dwarves (Twyllenimor)

FAME -1

I kicked and Twyllenimor fielded his deathroller. The game then started with a thrown rock and a CASed dodge lineman for me. Not the greatest of starts. The kick was however deep and I tried to funnel the dwarves towards a sideline.

Kick off!

Later in the half, I was surprised that Twyllenimor fouled my wardancer with a longbeard, which was sent off. This meant that there would be only 10 dwarves on the pitch for the next drive (unless he managed to argue the call, for the sent off deathroller). The dwarves scored in turn 8 and I didn't manage my OTTD (failed the first dodge through the back line).

Foulded wardancer

The second half was a completely different game and my dice went hot. I managed to CAS some dwarves and in the end, scored three TDs in the half. Last one thanks to a blitz.

END 3-1 (2-0)

Game 3 vs Orcs (Boss-Gorka)

FAME -1

Nice weather

I started the game on defence and rolled a blitz on the kick off. Not a bad start to the game and I caught my own kick. I then scored in turn 2, thinking that I could perhaps run up the score as I was up against a newer player.

Defencive set up

It wasn't to be though as I snaked a hand off for the 2-0 before halftime.

My drive didn't go as I was hoping and I didn't manage to score again. Still won the game though.

END 1-0 (1-1)

Game 4 vs Norse (lauth81)

FAME +2
Nice weather

This was an exciting game that could have gone either way. I started off by kicking the ball and lauth81 had a scary moment where the yeti decided to roll double both downs on a blitz. The loner re-roll worked and it was all good, but it could have been a disaster as his ball carrier would have been exposed. He then scored in his turn 8 and I didn't manage the OTTD.

The norse team move up the field

Second half saw me scoring quite early and it would come down to the last couple of turns to decide the game. I put lauth81under pressure but he could safely move away out of reach, or so he thought.

End phase of the game

My wardancer dodged away from his marker and leaped in for an up hill blitz, resulting on the ball on the floor. My catcher then went in for the pick up, getting it and then throwing an inaccurate pass to an open lineman. Had the pass been accurate, I would probably have won the game. As it was now, lauth81 still had a chance to win the game, but the required pass turned out to be too much for the noresemen and the game ended in a draw.

END 1-1 (0-3)

Game 5 vs Wood Elves (Jonny_Kanone)

FAME +1
Nice weather

I started with the ball and was able to drive up the field in a mega cage. Jonny_Kanone tried to jump in but had to re-roll the leap and then rolled a skull. I scored in turn 8.

Mega cage

I then set up against the OTTD and forgot that Jonny_Kanone had a grab tree. I also forgot about the frenzy wardancer, who rolled a double skull. This meant that there wasn't a re-rolled to be had when the first GFI failed. It was pure luck on my part to have the half end on 1-0.

In the second half, I suffered a KO in turn 9 and used my apothecary to keep the player on the field.
Jonny_Kanone drove up the field and scored in turn 16, after I failed a leap, re-rolled and rolled a skull on the blitz. Jonny_Kanone then rolled a perfect defense on the kick off, which stopped my OTTD attempt.

END 1-1 (2-1)

Game 6 vs Dwarves (Narok)

FAME -1
Nice weather

I got to kick the ball and was very happy when the kick off result was a blitz! I blitzed a longbeard to the side to enable a dodge lineman to dodge past the deathroller (no tackle) to put pressure on the ball. The dodge was a 1 followed by another 1 and a CAS. Worst blitz ever...

I wasn't able to halt the dwarf cage as my team failed their dodges and KOed themselves. The half ended 0-1.

Dwarf cage on the move

eam to that side of the pitch to stop me. I then cut back and my opponent had to run back the other side to catch up. As the dwarves are a bit slower, this left the sideline exposed and I could score in turn 14. This left the dwarves some time to score and if I was lucky, perhaps I could steal the ball and score for a W.

I didn't managed to steal the ball and thanks to a deep kick, a dwarf score was unlikely.

END 1-1 (1-0)

Conclusion

I managed a 2-4-0 record which I was happy with, considering the competitive climate. I talked to mubo regarding what I could improve and I got some pointers for my roster, which I was going to try out in a future tournament.Stay tunned.

Thanks for reading.

Braunschweig Open

First ever Braunschweig Open and 16 coaches showed up to play five games of blood bowl. A win awarded 2 points and a draw 1 point.

A small, but good tournament and I'll be back next year. 

Following my disappointing result at Preußenbowl, I decided to give dwarves another go. Could I perhaps improve?

Roster

I had 1200 TV to play with (including skills (max 7, no double)) and played the following roster;
2 Runners
2 Blitzers (2xGuard)
Troll Slayer
7 Longbeards (4xGuard, Mighty Blow)
2 Re-rolls
2 Fan Factor (one fan factor free due to roster being sent in on time)

Game 1 vs Nurgle

First game saw me up against a hard as nails nurgle roster and exactly what I didn't want to face. My opponent played a 12 man roster (4 warriors (2xblock, 2xguard), 2 pestigors (2xblock), BoN (guard), 5 rotters (5xblock) and 1 re-roll).
I started with the ball and went for a surf in turn 1, but double both downs sadly stopped the rotter from being surfed. I was hoping for a man advantage early, to really optimizes my guard.

No surf in turn 1

I went all in on going down the side and was hoping to knock enough of his players down to move through, which could have worked as my opponent had given me a chain push, to push a longbeard forward, next to his last line of defense. Sadly, that turn saw me fail three foul appearance rolls and I was stopped in my tracks.

Dwarves going down one side

This left me with one option, a potato play. I managed to dodge both my runners through his defense (one dodge each), but the blitzer, that was suppose to protect them didn't manage to get away from the BoN. The runners were knocked down and the half ended 0-0.

Potato play

We ran out of time and didn't pay the whole half, but I don't think that the result would have been different. My opponent ran down with both his pestigors and I managed to knock one down and base the other one, having two players waiting for their next move and the rest of his team was based.

The game ended 0-0 (2-0)

Game 2 vs Dwarves

Second game and I was up against one of the three dwarf teams at the tournament. My opponent was a new tournament player and his roster saw just eleven players (runner (block), 2 troll slayers, 2 blitzers, 6 longbeards (all with guard)) and no apo. He had four re-rolls, which I think hurt him as he needed the apo and a twelfth player. Being down in numbers is not what you want as dwarves. 

I received the ball in the first half and started knocking down his players and made a push towards one of the sides. He took the bait and went towards that side, leaving me the possibility to cut back and divide his team. I then started surfing his players on the other side, while he headed backwards with the players on the wrong side. As my opponent engaged me on the other side, I switch back to the middle of the field which was now open. I believe that my opponent had seven dwarves left on the field at the end of the half. I had also managed to casualty one of the longbeards.

Kick off!

My opponent was down on players and guard. He moved towards one side and I set up a defense, stopping him and preventing him from doing what I did, cutting back towards the other side. I again surfed his players and after a turn or two, his ball carrier went off the pitch. The ball scattered in to my half and my runner went back to pick it up. I left him a one die blitz (in to a two dice against) with a marked troll slayer, which he took and made. It wasn't too bad though, as I could recover the ball. I had also sent a blitzer up the field in turn 14 (which he ignored) and in turn 16, I made a GFI and a quick pass for my second score.

The game ended 2-0 (1-0)

Game 3 vs Orcs

Orcs, a tough match up for dwarves. They had two guard and two block BOBs. Two of the blitzers had mighty blow and the thrower had leader. I got the ball first and slowly moved up the pitch. Not much to say about the first half. I got bogged down (the blizzard not helping my speed) and lost the ball (and my runner was MNGed) as well as a guard longbeard, which I used my apo on. It was 0-0 at half time.

Start of turn 2 for the dwarves

The second half saw the orcs moving up extremely slowly (although the weather change to nice) and I could set up a solid defense. The turning point was mid half, when my mighty blow longbeard knocked out the troll. This made things easier as he lost a bit of strength advantage. He did however break through with two blitzers in turn 15. After marking the closest one, I decided to put pressure on the cage instead. Marking the thrower and the other cage corners, forcing him to dodge and blitz away my players, which he did. All he had to do was make the pass in turn 16, but fumbled it. Even if his pass had been successful (5+) the receiver would have still needed to catch and GFI for the touchdown.

The game ended 0-0 (0-2)

Game 4 vs Dwarves

I was yet again up against AV9 and the third dwarf team at the tournament. However, I was looking forward to seeing what the deathroller roster (deathroller, 2 runners (leader, block), 2 blitzers (2xguard), troll slayer, 6 longbeards (3xguard, mighty blow), 1 re-roll) could do. It was also played by one of the better dwarf players in Germany, so I was hopefully in for a lesson.

I got the ball first and tried to go up one side which didn't work when a blitz resulted in a skull and both down, bogging me down next to the side line.

Going down one side line

Commiting to one side

 I had some of my players surfed and decided to change my strategy in the middle of the first half. I retreated and wanted to hold the 0-0 at halftime, hoping to be up on players (the deathroller would be sent off and any KO/CAS would help me be up on players). The ball was however blitz and recovered by my opponent. I could blitz his runner with the ball in turn 8 and got the ball on the ground again, covering it with two players. In his turn 8, the ball was then picked up by his runner (after clearing one of my players marking the ball), but the pass was failed, saving the 0-0 at half time.

After my turn 8. The runner with a white band and the blitzer are in scoring range

To make thing worse for my opponent, his KO didn't wake up and the deathroller was indeed sent off, as was his coach, on a 1. This left my 11 dwarves (6 guard) to his 9 (3 guard). The kick was deep and in my turn 9, I KOed another longbeard. Things were grim for my opponent as I overwhelmed him with guard and just waited for the right time to pounce on his runner with the ball. Once I did, he responded by picking the ball up and punting it down deep in my half. Brilliant move and I had to run back with my runner to pick it up. The position meant that I had to make 4 GFIs in order to score. My turn 15 was extreme, seeing me make 8 GFIs and set up a screen around my runner. My opponent couldn't do much to stop me and I scored in turn 16.

The game ended 1-0 (1-0)

Although I won, I was still given a lesson on how to play dwarves. The punt was brilliant and something I'll take with me for future games.

Game 5 vs Lizardmen

Last game of the tournament and I could theoretically win the whole thing, but it was unlikely. It was however not probable, as I was up against lizardmen, one of my least favorite race to play against. They have it all, speed, strength and armour.

My opponent was playing with 12 lizards, all saurus with block and the krox with guard. Like me, there were just two team re-rolls.

My opponent received the ball and forced me to spread out and defending the whole width of the field. I made a mistake on one side. I should have pushed a saurus away instead of going for a second block. The push would have left me with more longbeards to move away, leaving me in a better position.

First kick off

This saw his skinks speeding down one side, out of my reach. I then followed up with a gamble, fouling his krox (playing for the second half), since my players were there. I rolled a double 6 on the armour and then just stunned the krox, which made it a bad trade. It also enabled my opponent to stall longer and he scored in turn 8. In my turn 8, I KOed a saurus, which then got back up for the second half.

I spent the second half slowly moving up the field and I thought I'd manage the draw, but one annoying saurus among my longbeards just wouldn't go down. It finally did, but after eight block dice and I had to keep my position. That in turn enabled my opponent to solidify his defense. It meant that I had to do riskier moves and it just didn't result in the much needed touchdown.

The game ended 0-1 (0-1)

Conclusion

I ended up in fifth place on a 2-2-1 record. More importantly, I just allowed one touchdown and would have won the best defense award, had there been one.

All in all, I was very happy with my second dwarf tournament. They aren't my cup of tee, but I find that playing them evolves my game. Especially the fact that the game is made up of two halves. Playing elves can sometimes be a higher pace game, which makes it feel like you need to win the game in one half. As an example, in game 4, I played the long game, surrender the first half in favor of the second half. I kind of do that with elves too, just trying to keep my opponent from scoring and not going for the ball at all, but I guess I'm saying that you should never panic. There's always second half and changing you strategy in the first half in favor of it shouldn't be overlooked.

Another thing I already knew that I wanted to try was the deathroller. Seeing it being used as I use my tree man with wood elves made me want to try it even more. Here's some wip pictures of my deathroller.

Deathroller wip

The next time I play dwarves at a tournament, I'll probably bring the deathroller along. I don't know when that will be. Perhaps for next years Preußenbowl. Can't get much worse than it did this year, right?

My next tournament will be the German Team Bowl and I'm probably playing wood elves (also considering pro elves) which will be a change of pace. I've missed playing AG4 this year and getting back to more familiar playing styles will be nice.

Thanks for reading.

Underground Cup IV

Underground Cup IV

This was one of the two tournaments I'm co-organizing with Spielmacher and you can find the rules for the tournament on our webpage.

As I won't be able to play in many tournaments this year (due to life), I decided to play as a normal participant. This meant that all my organizing would be prior to the actual tournament.

I had a real struggle on deciding a roster for the tournament, going from dwarves to undead, but as it turns out, fate would have it otherwise. As I was still an organizer, we had said that I'd switch to halflings, if we had someone turn in a stunty roster, in order to have a best stunty award. A halfling roster was sent (and later also an ogre and a goblin roster) in and I played the following;

Roster

2 Treemen (2xBlock)
10 Halflings (4xSide Step)
Puggy
Deeproot
Master Chef
Assistant Coach
Cheerleader

This is more or less my standard halfling roster, although the current meat seems to swing towards Karla and Zara, but I don't have them painted. I was also thinking about going with the Karla and Willow roster, but again, not painted.

Regarding skills, block trees are awesome and I feel that four side steppers is the perfect amount to have. Everything else would just be icing on the cake (in my case, I like to take two diving tacklers and a sure feeter).

Game 1 vs Halflings (Cubefarmer)

What a draw, I was up against a fellow halfling player. Deeproot took money from both team and "ran" for it, but his roster didn't include Puggy, which mine did. He had a reroll instead, which I stole.
I started with the ball and scored at the end of my drive. I then prevented his OTTM attempt with my set up.
In the second half, one of his tree rooted early and I could pressure him (both with position and Puggy blitzes, taking out his halflings) which resulted in an early throw. The halfling scattered backwards, towards my defense and landed in two tacklezones. The flung fling didn't make it and the ball landed in the outstretched arms of one of my flings. I scored in turn 16, sealing the deal.

It was a fun game, but the second half was very one sided.

TD 2-0
CAS 3-2

Game 2 vs Norse (Kohli)

A norse roster without and apo and just 12 players. He'd gone for a sure hands thrower, kick lineman and block on the Yeti. Not the skills I would have gone for, but I'm not a norse player.

I got to kick the ball and was hoping for some damage in order to control the second half. The game started with a blitz and a fling off the field, but my trees responded with two CAS and that got the ball rolling. I could get the ball safe and scored late in my drive. After the second half, my opponent had seven players left on the field, to my ten.

Things just continued the way they started and I pitch cleared my opponent and scored in turn 16.

TD 2-0
CAS 6-4

Game 3 vs Humans (Madfrog)

This was my second game on table 1, but I knew that it wouldn't last. Humans can be quite difficult for flings and this proved to be the case. He pressured me and I lost Puggy to a failed dodge midway through the first half. This prevented me from scoring, but I could stop him from scoring as well.



In the second half, I stole zero rerolls, which made this an uphill battle. I pressured him and had two 1d blitzes on the ball, but both were pushes. I pushed his ball carrier into my endzone in turn 14, leaving me two turns to score a OTTM. Sadly, the kick landed on the sideline, in the endzone. Worst case scenario and I failed a GFI after picking the ball up, which meant that I couldn't get to the ball at all. The human player later went on to winning the whole tournament, so not too sad about losing. Was a fun and close game.

TD 0-1
CAS 2-*don't remember*

Game 4 vs Dwarves (Steinhammer)

Game 4 and best stunty was still up for grabs. I was also in the running for Best Defense, Most CAS and Most TD! I didn't like my chances though, being up against dwarves.

Before Deeproot was killed

I got to receive the ball and thought the game to be lost when he in turn 2 blitz Deeproot with his mighty blow troll slayer. A 5 on the dauntless, knock down and then an 11 on the armour. Shit....a 9 for the injury, plus that mighty blow. No Deeproot! The situation was dire and I didn't manage to score (but neither did he). 

Star of the second half

He played very conservative in the second half, but went down one sideline and after Puggy blocked a blocker away, I could blitz a tree in next to his runner. He dodged out and passed over the tree, which of course made the interception. I had enough turns to score with a treeman, but failed my dodges to screen the tree off. This meant that he could again blitz with a troll slayer, getting the tree down. Sad as it was, that we weren't going to see a treeman TD, I managed to get the ball back and run a fling out of reach from his team. I could score the winning TD in turn 16.

TD 1-0

CAS 4-4

Conclusion

I had so much fun this tournament and very happy, that fate decided to have me take flings. In the end, I won Best Stunty and Best Defense, being the only player to just allow one TD. 

I managed to inflict 15 CAS, which was one less than the Most CAS-winner on 16.

Here are the final standing, which saw me in fourth place. I was ecstatic with my performance and 3-0-1 with flings is a great result.

Thanks for reading

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.

Update for 2017

It's been a while since I've posted on the blog and there's a good reason for it. I was blessed with my second daughter in August and have since used my free time for the hobby and not the blog.

I hope to remedy this in 2018, but I thought I'd update you on what I've been up to hobby-wise since my last post.

Tournaments

I've played in two tournaments since my last post. I played two games as the odd man out at Underground Cup and finished the year of with XMas Bowl.

Underground Cup III

I played pro elves in round 1 and in round 5. Spielmacher, my co-organiszer played the other games as I had to get back to my family.

The tournament was a success and I won one game and lost to the tournament champion, Sprinter in round 1 (although it was a close game).

We've decided to change Underground Cup to a one day tournament with four games (as the first instance) and introduce a new tournament, the Berlin Open as a two day tournament in September. We hope to get a large amount of attendees from the rest of Europe since we offer something that's quite rare now, the "TV110 + (5+1) Skills"-format.

XMas Bowl

As last year, I went with wood elves, but this time with a different roster. A roster that I like more than others, but I haven't had enough linemen painted before to field it. There were some special tournament rules in place, like a free snotling (with sneaky git and loner), a free cheerleader if the roster was handed in on time and the winter pitch weather table was in play.

Roster

Treeman

2 Wardancers (Strip Ball)

Catcher

7 Linemen (2xWrestle, Block, 2xDodge)

3 Rerolls

Coach

(Free Cheerleader)

(Free Snotling)

Game 1 vs Skaven

This was a weird game. It had it all. Three blitzes and two one turner attempts (mine was successful).

The game ended 2-2, but could easily have gone 3-2 for either side.

The elves score the first TD of the game

Game 2 vs Skaven

My opponent was newish to the game and gave me too much space to work with. I could easily screen off and he also placed too many players in contact. The game should have ended 2-0 for me, but a crazy set of rolls made it 2-1.

My opponent gave me too much space to work with

Game 3 vs Norse

I was up against a coach that I play once in a while for tournament training. Things looked okay for him util I had a monster turn were I removed four players (1 KO, rest CAS). After that turn, the game was more or less over. It would have been 3-0 if a hand off wasn't dropped on a 1 reroll 1 in the last turn.

Defending in the first half

Game 4 vs Dark Elves

My opponent was quite unlucky in combination with being to aggressive. It resulted in turnovers when he was out of position. I won the game 3-1 and some of it was thanks to his players being removed by the turnovers (and my players). The game could have ended 4-1 in turn 16, but once again, 1 reroll 1 stopped that.

Conclusion

After round 4, there were two coaches on 3-1-0. I thought I had won the tournament, but as it turned out, we had the same Net TD (first tiebreaker) and the second tiebreaker was Net CAS, which was my problem. I had suffered too many casualties and the other coach hadn't (orcs). I came in second for the second year in a row, but this year I also left with Most TD and to my surprise Most CAS.

I was happy with my result but sad that I would have won the tournament if any of the turn 16 scores would have worked in game 3 and 4. So close, but I'll be back next year!

Most CAS, 2nd Place and Most TD

Hobby

I've managed to get some hobbying done in the evenings, when the girls were in bed. I had parental leave for the first month and managed to paint half a dwarf team, which was more than I thought I'd manage. I kept on with hobbying in the evenings and managed to finish the team before Christmas.

I also primed my dice tower to have a scoreboard and weather icons.

Dice Tower

I added magnets to the dice tower and covered it in planks made out of plastic card. I then made scoreboard markers and weather icons out of plastic card and glued them to a thin metal foil. Worked like a charm and I can now just point to the dice tower when people come up to me at tournaments, asking for the score.

wip of the scoreboard

final version

Dwarf Team

It was due time to paint the dwarf team from the Iron Golems kickstarter.

I've still got a deathroller (from Vortice Miniatures) to paint, but I'll probably wait a bit as I'm keen on starting something else...

Deathroller

I'm going to use the dwarves at Preußenbowl in February with this roster.

Roster

2 Runners (Wrestle)

2 Blitzers (2xGuard)

1 Troll Slayer

7 Long Beards (3xGuard)

3 Rerolls

Apo

First game with the dwarves and everything goes wrong

I've already played one practice game against Spielmacher and the unconventional wrestle skill on a runner suits me perfectly. I might have been playing too much wood elves and wrestle is one of my favorite skills (the other being diving tackle)

Thanks for reading and I'll hopefully post ofter this year!