Match Reports

[DoubleSkulls]

Mine will follow shortly.

[Mocaiv]

I have posted mine here with more pictures of the weekend here.

[Indigo]

I will too, and I'll be interested to read others. I have to say, the best (tactics-wise) coach I played on the day was relborn - he didn't make a single mistake and earned his victory. he was a pleasure to play against too! most entertaining match was against gallowin though, a 2-2 draw vs. Amazon!

I'm chuffed I got to play against TBBers though, it just means I can take lots of heckling on here cos they beat me

[DoubleSkulls]

It was great to meet a lot of you, though I don't think I actually got to play any TBBers.

Well overall I was extremely happy both with my performance (18th and best Orcs ). I don't think any of my games were ruined by one sided luck for either player. I only managed 8 TDs, but managed the same number of points as 9th place.

My team - Orcs - Mordor United

Varag Ghoul Chewer
Rookie Ogre
3 Blitzers
1 Thrower
2 Goblins
4 Line Orcs
2 TRR (+leader)
1 FF

Game 1 - Brian McGonigle - Halflings Won 2-1

Brilliant halflings! Just the opponent you want for the first game. After some confusion over the cost of a Master Chef Brian ended up with 3 Trees (Deeproot & 2 rookies), 13 flings and 3 TRR.

The whole game was played in a blizzard which I don't think helped either of us. First half I took 8 turns over scoring but disappointingly failed to cause a significant number of casualties. A riot stopped any chance of a 1 turn equaliser.

Then the flings with all 3 trees in a screen came forward and inspite of sacking the ball carrier I was unable to exploit the situation and he managed to score. Thankfully I had 3 turns left and Varag ran the ball in on the last turn for 2-1.

Brian was a good coach who really knew how to play his flings - it was extremely difficult for me to get anywhere near them with the trees blocking the route. I believe he managed 2 draws and a win with them - which is very good going in such a competitive environment. I suspect he's going to be the top NAF 'fling coach.

The Ogre got block - and I'm so glad I did. He was a real benefit to the team.

Game 2 - Rich Dansil - Dark Elves Won 1-0

Rich had Horkon Heartripper, 2 Witches (one with Block), 2 Blitzers, 6 line elves and not one reroll. Horkon was generally poor, against Orcs the Dagger isn't very useful and his lack of block was sorely exposed by my 5 blocking players. Leaping on 3+ without a reroll isn't great either.

Anyway Rich managed to put Varag on the floor in turn 2 and spent the next 4 turns ineffectually fouling him. As I wasn't fouling back an Elf got sent off and I managed to put a few in the KO bin. Unfortunately one of the blitzers managed to sack the ball carrier on the 7th turn and I was unable to score in the first half.

This wasn't too much of a problem as Rich only had 7/8 players for the 2nd half. A fumbled pass downfield left his whole team out of position. The ball was secured and camped out on the endzone and I spent the whole half hunting the rest of his team. By turn 7 there wasn't an Elf left and I walked in for the 1-0 win and a line orc picked up Dirty Player. With hindsight I think I could have made a different choice - probably tackle on blitzer a turn earlier, or strip ball to stop the stars.

Game 3 - Jordi LLobet(?) - Humans Drew 1-1

Griff and Zug, couple of catchers, blitzers and linemen to make 11. Only 1 TRR. Jordi was a member of the Spanish team and a great opponent. This was the best match of the tourney for me, nail biting tactical conflict where we both stared at the board long and hard before moving. But for some reason I can't remember very many of the details.

Anyway all I can really remember is that I just couldn't stop Griff sacking the ball carrier. He hardly failed a leap and I think had Griff not been in the game I would have managed a win. Jordi played him well though, holding him back until a genuine opportunity emerged and the exploiting it to the full. Zug spent most of the game in the KO bin.

I believe he took a lead in the 1st half with a Griff TD, and I equalised at towards the end of the 2nd with Varag, leaving a couple of turns for one of us to win. The lack of rerolls by then meant it all went pear shaped and neither of us could get the result.

Game 4 - Pedro Garcia - Undead Lost 1-2

Two Piling On mummies, Luthor, 3 wights, zombies and a couple of TRR. Pedro knew exactly what he was doing I just never got the bit of luck I needed to stop a very powerful team.

I knew I had to get rid of one of the mummies, then I could isolate the other or probably afford to feed him line orcs. 3 put down blocks with MB and a +5 foul and the mummy was only stunned once. As I'd already lost two KOs I scored in turn 4/5 to take a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately my lack of tackle (a KOd blitzer) or strip ball meant I couldn't get the ball off Luthor and he basically had a quite easy job of equalising.

The real problem that was none of my 4 KOs came back so I only had 8 players left to face the undead horde, while he still had 12 players available. The threat of the TTM and lots of tactical manouvering kept him cautious and I managed to delay and frustrate Pedro's offence. My last turn heroics did nothing and Luthor ran in the 2nd TD. My 1 turn TD TTM attempt failed after a burned the RR on the pickup and then failed the hand off.

Game 5 - Simon Curtis - Undead Won 1-0

More undead, please not 2 more PO mummies They both had guard . No Luthor either, but a pair of ghouls and all 4 wights.

Simon was unfortunate in the 1st half. He ended up with 8 players either KOd or casualties. I put his offence on a lot of pressure - a one ghoul broke down field but Varag dodged back, flattened him and pickup up the ball. Some desperate play from Simon failed to stop Varag running the length of the pitch while the remainder of my team set about hurting the undead as much as possible.

2nd half 6 out of the 8 undead players came back including both mummies. I set up my offence to whack all 5 players he'd put on the LOS and take a nice slow drive. However a blitz meant I took a couple of turns to recovery.

I had little incentive to push for the 2nd TD, and he only need to stop me scoring to keep 2 points. So both our teams played very cautiously and the game wandered off into a 1-0 win.

Game 6 - Seb van Deh(?) - Dwarves Won 2-0

Seb had taken Grim, 2 Troll Slayers, 2 Blitzers, 1 Runner, 5 longbeards and 1 TRR. The lack of TRR really hurt as it got burnt on double skulls 1st turn each half. TS's had MB and 3 Longbeards had guard.

A Perfect D result gave me my only favourable KO result of the tournament, and left the guarding longbeards out of position. A blitzer and goblin managed to sack the ball carrier on turn 2 - which backed up by half my team and the rest holding the Longbeards on the LOS meant that I gained possession with a goblin and sat next to the endzone until turn 8. In the meantime I went out hurting the Dwarves, and Seb helped me by fouling back. Significantly I KOd Grim with my 2nd foul and he never came back.

2nd half was a bit like the previous game - but Seb was much more inclined to chase the win than Simon had been. I ran a goblin around the backfield shout "catch me if you can" and the dwarves got dragged out of position enough that I could run forward and make a dash for the line. A blitzing GFIing longbeard managed to sack the goblin but I had enough players and a bit of luck and managed the 2nd TD in the last turn.

BTW Seb was a great opponent and we had a nice relaxed game - he even let me off an IP.


So overall a 4-1-1 record. The two Spanish coaches both had really tough teams and knew how to play them. Teams with Luthor or Griff really dominated the top tables and I believe the winning team had both.

Top marks to GW for organisation - I know all the ECBBLers had a great time.

[Indigo]

Summaries from my games with the Neuberg Magpies - a human team with:

Mighty Zug - Mr.T conversion
4 x Blitzers (invaluable, esp. with Guard)
1 x Thrower (Mr Soapy Hands)
1 x Catcher (hardly got a look in)
4 x Linemen (worth every penny)
3 x RR
3 X FF

I'm writing this from memory only as all my notes are at home! Apologies if I forget names or mis-spell them.

Game 1 vs. (TBB) gallowin - Amazon Draw 2-2
The first game and my expectations were high. I'd never played against Amazons before, and it showed with my distinct understimation of how good Dodge across the board was. That and perpetually rolling <!> results! It was tight all the way through, and ended in 2-2 draw with only one or two casulaties each. My opponent was very good, winning my sportsman award and we kept tabs on how we were doing for the rest of the tournament.

First skill - Guard for a blitzer

Game 2 vs. Sean Hassey - Wood Elf Loss 0-3
The first surprise was to find that Sean lives 20 mins up the road from me! We've exchanged numbers, and will no doubt get a few games in the near future. His team was a fairly standard elf team, as well as having Jordell. IMO Jordell won the match for him as I was simply unable to keep up. I suffered from some horrendous kick off formations, allowing easy leaps/dodges which proved fatal when my thrower failed to pick up the ball (an annoying tournament habit of his). I came so very close to scoring near the end of the first half, but my lame thrower failed a short pass and threw my chances and the ball into the crowd. Some great offensive play in the second half let him score his third. Sean was a great guy as well, but it's kinda hard to award a sportsman award to someone who pounds you into the turf!

Second skill - guard for another Blitzer.

Game 3 vs. ? Undead Win 3-1
My first and only win, and it had to be against my usual bogey team, the undead! I faced an impressive front line of Count Luthor and two mummies, so I was immensely relieved to have Zug & two 'Guard'ers facing them! To be fair, the dice tended to roll my way and I scored some well-worked TDs. He did manage to pull one back, and it would have been a second in the final turn if Luthor hadn't manage to fail an accurate end zone catch with two successive rolls of 1! It ended the day on a high point, and my opponent took it fairly well, but my share of the luck led me to doubt the probability of getting a sportsman award.

Typical that my only win wasn't against a NAF member

Third skill - guard for Blitzer #3 (hey it's been invaluable so far!)

Game 4 vs. (TBB)relborn - Human Loss 3-1
A very good game for me, as it has taught me a great deal. Relborn is an incredibly tight player, and I couldn't fault any of his moves at all, and his setups were very tricky to break down. This was a matchup I'd dreaded as without Zug I only had 10 players, and relborn made that a telling difference. My plan, when learning I would kick, would be to allow an early TD from him so I could then drag out the rest of the half and score at the end. This would then let me enter the 2nd half with the receivers advantage. It "kind of" worked! But not quite...

After his early TD, the game ground on until near the end of the 1st half my elaborately planned attack actually worked and I levelled it. However, the second half fell to pieces and he effortlessly managed to score another 2 to secure the win. A good player, I reckon he will figure highly in the human rankings, and of course he's a NAF member so my ranking will suck

Fourth skill - guard on the final blitzer. Overkill? Possibly...

Game 5 vs. ? - Human Loss 2-3
A somewhat flattering scoreline in my direction. I'd heard rumours of the guy with Zug, Luthor, Griff and a rookie Ogre, and now I was playing him. With 10 players against that front line, I was in trouble. Not to mention the piling on for his Ogre, and dirty player for a lineman. I knew I was in trouble when the first kick off roll was 'Get the ref' - he won, obviously. I put up the best defence I could, and was only 2-1 down with 6 men left by the end of the first half. A combination of piling on and DP was steamrollering through my line...

The second half saw a well won TD from me, but by turn 4 I had 4 players left, and only 2 upright. He scored at the very end, leaving 2 players on the field and 7 in the Dead & Injured box.

I didn't like this match one bit. Not only was luck against me, but IMO his team was beardy - I prefer BB over 40k as the options for beardy teams are smaller, but it does strike me as a power gamers team. Fair enough, it may be a valid tactic, but I don't have to like it. The only match I had no fun in...

Game 6 vs. Sandy Wilson(?) - Undead Draw 1-1
Buoyed up by my victory in Game 3, I wasn't too scared to face another Undead team (led by Luthor of course!). This guy had picked better skills, giving Block to mummies and 3 of his 4 ghouls (an interesting roster choice, at the expense of wights). As a result, it was a close fought and enjoyable game. Average luck to both of us, but crucially bad luck for both of us at key moments! The highlight of the game, and possibly the tournament was a desperate play in the final turn of the tournament. In the pouring rain, my Thrower picked up the ball (for a change), handed it to a catcher in 2 tackle zones (using Catch) who then dodged (using Dodge) away up the field to my Blitzer. The catcher then managed a quick pass to my blitzer, who caught it despite the ghoul in his tackle zone. The game now rested on a single dodge roll - if I made it I'd score and win 2-1. As you can guess, I rolled a 1 and the blitzer ate dirt. Oh well, such is the game we play!

It was a fun game, especially because of the ending, an my opponent was another good sport. It was an added grudge match as his 'Southampton FC' themed team was up against my 'Newcastle Utd.' team, who in real life usually have interesting matches!


Overall, a great tourny and I'm already planning a Wood Elf team for next year!

[McDeth]

Eternal Sleep ( Undead )
1 Luthor
3 Wights
2 Mummies
4 Zombies
2 Skeletons
2 Re-rolls
FF 3


Game 1

1st Game against Woodelfs Result 2-2 Draw

Lost Toss and received, not a problem I thought as I’d already played this game out in my mind about 50 times. Jordell picked up the ball and leapt and dodged his way to a two turn touchdown. Leaving me 6 turns to even up and then the whole of the second half to get of to a blistering start and 2-1 victory.

Oops plan shot to hell when blitz is rolled on the kick off table, still my defence is pretty tight and it involves Jordell Blitzing, dodging three times, GFI’ing twice picking the ball up.. A Flawless display of dodging etc, meant that Jordell had got the ball before I even had time to blink.. Luthor Blitzed wasted a re-roll and still couldn’yt knock him down. 10 Mins into the game I’m 2-0 down and feeling a little dejected.

Back to plan A. Luthor gets the ball and scores in Turn 8, to leave the second half with me 2-1 down, but with the ball. Mummies, do a little damage and Luthor is able to get the equalizing touchdown in Turn 8, leaving my opponent nothing to do to save the game. I had ball possession for 16 turns of the game, but was still happy that after being 2-0 down pulling of the draw. During the game Opponent didn’t get a single block in on Luthor. Poor start. Gave Mummy Block.

2nd Game vs Steve Watsons Skaven. Won 2-0
This was a game which I was always in control of again my opponent didn’t get a single block in on Luthor, and a quick turnover in the second half meant I ran out a comfortable 2-0 victory. Didn’t get a single casualty in this game. This game signaled the start of useless armour and injury roll, I daresay didn’t average more than 5 on 2 D6 on any more injury/armour rolls. Took Block on second Mummy

3rd Game Vs Griff’ empowered Humans. Won 2-1

Lost Toss and kicked. Human teams skills had the thrower with Hail Mary pass, and a Catcher with Diving catch, personally I thought these were last ditch attempts and not tournament skills, but hey who’s arguing. Griff for some reason ran into the end Zone, and the Thrower attempted a 6+ long Bomb. Hmm, after the expected failure Griff ends up in the crowd. Played the clock and ran out 2-1 Victor. Not a single casualty. Gave Dirty Player to Skeleton.

First day thoughts, after the first game disaster. Had to be happy at the come back, still all to play for tomorrow.

4th Game vs Sebs Dwarf’s with Star player. Won 1-0

Took out Grim Ironjaw in the first turn of the game with a KO, he didn’t ever get back on the pitch and having stopped the dwarves scoring in the first half, retained ball possession in the second half and scored too late for any reply to be made. Zero Casualties again. Took Strip Ball on Wight

5th Game vs Chaos Dwarfs with Htthark Won 2-1
Tough game this one managed to get Htthark of the pitch with a couple of shoves and pushes but only into the reserves, this meant Iturned over the ball and scored quickly hoping for a big victory, Htthark came back and equalized at half Time. Second half meant I retained ball possesion again and managed a last turn TD for the 2-1 Victory, this was the first game Luthor got Blocked, and that was only once.Gave tackle to a Wight


6th Game, vs Sputniks Undead Lost 1-0

After both losing Luthor this was going to be tight, I had 11, Sputnik 10, The first half was pretty tame, and even having received we spent 8 turns trying to batter each other out of the game, Half time 0-0, but at the start of the second half Sputnik only had eight players against my 10. Quickly I sent Wights around his defence and Blitzed the Ball carrier with my Mummy, and got the turnover, now with the ball, I felt confident that I’d take the lead, having set up tackle zones on every player. No A wight managed to dodge and Gfi his way through to get the blitz in and the ball was free again, now it was tight, the ball stayed on the ground for a few turns as we both had tackle zones on it, and with us having a por set of rolls, failing GFI’s and dodges it stayed there for a while, eventually Sputniks Ghoul managed to dodge, and Gfi his way to the ball and now without re-rolls, every move was critical, the game turned horribly at this point with it seemed every single block dice seemed to knock over my players, and the Ghoul ran free, I managed a late blitz but even then could only manage a pushback. The Tension built with my Mummy the only player in catching distance having to GFI twice to get a TZ on the Ghoul, who himself had had to gfi twice to get away from his reach.
Last Turn, ghoul rolled a one to fail the dodge, then a 4 on the dodge skill, to secure a last turn 1-0.

And Relax.

Last game was exceptional, very tactical, and it was great stretching the players to the limits without the influence of Luthor. I even picked up Two Casualties to take my total in the Tournament to 4. Whoopee Do. And Luthor only got Blocked once.

Finished 17th, not sure how the final ranking were done, but i'm guessing a few of us were on the same points, so i'm guessing touchdowns and casualties were the criteria. Considering i only scored 9 Touchdowns and inflicted 4 casualties it was going to be tough to get a higher place. Like Ian i managed the same number of points as the coach ranked 9

At least in the six games i only conceded 5 Touchdowns

[Venomous Breath]

Here we go then...


Game 1 : Venmous Breath 3 - Griff Oberwald 1

Game 2: Venomous Breath 1 - KO'd Griff 0

Game 3: Venomous Breath 1- Luthor 1

Game 4: Venomous Breath 0 - Crimson Tide 3 (woot no Griff)...

Game 5: Venomous Breath 2- Griff Oberwald 2

Game 6: Venomous Breath 1 - Varag "Hey Im not Griff" Ghouldchewer 1

The rest is just a drunken blur....

[shlominus]

shlominus = gerald kleemair = coach with the "masturbation is not a crime"-t-shirt.

earthshakers
chaos dwarves
hthark
bull
troll
4 chaos dwarves
5 hobbos
2 rr
1 ff

i blame any mistakes on cider.

game 1:

mike pye, lizardmen sartosa raiders
krox
4 saurus
7 skinks
some more stuff

win, 2-1, cas 2-1

his large amount of skinks made it easy for me to hurt him with my chaos dwarves. his score was a bit lucky, when the ball bounced out of 5 tackle zones, only to land on his single remaining skink, who caught and ran off with it.

i simply rumbled in twice with hthark.

skill: kick on a hobbo

game 2:

edoardo morales, dwarves, killer bees
star troll slayer
ogre +block
troll slayer
1 blitzer
2 runners
5 longbeards
1 reroll
stuff

win, 2-0,cas 3-1

he had bad luck when his ogre seriously injured himself when blocking my troll on turn 2. then he started fouling for some reason, which resulted in his rookie troll slayer getting sent off for attempting to kick a hobbo. i then retaliated by fouling as well, which ended the game for his star troll slayer. with his most powerful players gone i simply had to run the ball up the field.

skill: strip ball on the rookie bull

game 3:

pedro garcia, undead, sylvanian bats
luthor
2 mummies, both with piling on
3 wights
6 zombies
1 reroll i think, not sure though

tie, 0-0, cas 1-2?

had a hard time keeping the vampire under control. managed to foul him ko late in half 1. didn´t manage to score though, cause a hobbo failed a certain td-pass in the last turn.
2nd half the vamp came back.
i kicked deep and tried to pressure the ball-carrying vamp, stripped the ball away from him and even knocked him down a few times. but he always got up and took it again.
had a serious disagreement about how hynotic gaze is used. he wanted to use it even if he didn´t use the vamp as first player on his team.
andy hall ruled that he could. he was wrong of course but what can you do. this argument and the strain of playing the 3rd game in a row made us forget the time, so we had to abandon the game after 6 turns in half2. he was very close to scoring with the vamp, i wanted to play on, but we were told quite harshly that we need to stop.


skill: dirty player on a hobbo

game 4:

jordi llobert ribeiro, humans, los blood brothers
griff
zug
2 catchers , both with block
thrower
3? blitzers
4? linemen
stuff, can´t remember his other skill, was terrified by griff

tie, 1-1, cas 4-1?

he started on offence and made the mistake to leave his ballcarrying thrower in blitzing range of hthark. i knocked him over but couldn´t get to the ball, which was gobbled up by griff, who then moved up the pitch to score, being harrassed by my dwarves and the strip baller. but i coulndt stop him. i started hitting really well then, with the troll causing 2 cas. with his team reduced i easely scored, which left griff 3 turns to get the win. i set up deep to defend against any lightning runs and promtly rolled blitz, but couldn´t capitalize because of my conservative setup. he grabbed the ball with griff as expected, but he didn´t have enough players left to protect him, so a chaos dwarf blitzed him with an assist, got a knockdown after a reroll and caused a serious injury. what a laugh!

skill: block on the troll

game 5:

dan something, undead, the dead certs

luthor
2 mummies, 1 had multiblock, 1 had block
2 wights, 1 had strip ball, 1 had shadowing!
3 ghouls
couple of zombies
1 reroll

win, 2-0, cas 1-1

this guy was crazy! he used his multi block mummy at every opportunity, even with 2 dice against him. as he rolled a lot of skulls with these crazy blocks i had no trouble dominating the game. the count fell over trying to dodge on 4+ and was fould into the ko-box. he didn´t come back, so he had no chance at all.

skill: guard on a chaos dwarf.

game 6:

wolfgang eigl, undead, death raiders
luthor
2 mummies, 1 had block
2 wights, 1 had tackle
2 ghouls, both with block
2 skeletons
3 zombies, 1 with kick

win, 2-1, cas 2-2

a friend of mine, who plays in my local league in austria and therefore got my most sprting opponent award, even though all my opponents were good fun to play against.

started really shitty, with many failed rolls, so he easily scored his 1-0. then the luck changed, i broke his armor better and equalized on the last turn of half 1, with hthark running it in. he could have stopped me with a 1 dice block from the vamp, but he rerolled a push, got a skull and left the filed open for me. second half i started with the ball, reduced him to 8 players on the pitch and stalled until the last turn, then ran it in. managed to push the vamp off the field to make the stalling possible.

finished 19thafter game results only, 30th with painting and sportsmanship.

this was my first big tourney and i am really satisfied. had a great time, challenging games, cool people, lots of fun!

see you all next year!

[rwould]

Apologies for any errors; my notetaking got worse as beer consumption increased......

Game One: Vs. Jordell 2-2
Despite numerous attempts at kicking Jordell to death he insisted on only getting KO'd and came straight back. Minotaur scored in first half, allowing me to beat up the WE. Somehow though, at half time the casualty count was 3-0 to the Woodies!, with score 1-1.
Second half went better, got it to 2-2 with 3 turns for me to drive for the winning TD. Promptly double skull blocked with the Mino, which left me needing a die roll miracle to score. Still, the Casualty count started with 3 player casualties and 1 other.

Game Two: Vs Woodies 1-4
Casualty count this time was 4-4 each so I got beaten up a bit by woodies again (caused 1 non-player cas). Game was looking close on turn two of the second half, when I proceeded to roll three double skull blocks in my next six blocks (having used up my RR's straight away), and combined with some luck from Tomas (bloody wardancers....) and some good moves he stormed ahead to inflict a crushing defeat. Don't think he rolled a 1 until turn 7 of the second half either......

Game Three: Vs Undead
A real bash-fest, with me inflicting 4 more casualties (and 2 non-players cas's and only suffered one back), but he played good ball control (and dodging with his ghouls!). Second half failed five pick up attempts in a row (burning my RR's in the process.... Norse Throwers need Sure Hands!) which meant he grabbed the ball for the winning TD.

Game Four: Vs Borak led Chaos 3-1?
Game started well, with a solid drive for the first TD, and killed two players. Promptly got ready for the KO, and rolled pitch invasion. FF6 paid off and we took 4 players off the pitch, 2 permanently (although the Troll came back). This let us really beat up the chaos, although despite numerous mass attempts Borak refused to go off the pitch for quite a while. So 2-1 up at half time, and ready for the second half. Roll for the KO. Pitch Invasion. Kill another beastman on it, and now outnumber them 2-1. Promptly set about beating up who was left, KO'd most of the team, and got one more casualty for three (with four! non-player casualties), and another TD. Not sure if I got a fourth TD, but I only registered three.

Game Five: Vs. Luthor Undead 3-1?
Got ball, beat up both mummies (one B Hurt who didn't regen) and various others, and set up a cage on the left. Luthor came over and blitzed a whole, but was then surrounded by my players. My tackler came over and knocked her over, and after three turns of kicking we knocked her out, and luckily she decided to stay off the pitch for the rest of the game. Proceeded to continue to batter the undead around, although the minotaur spent most of the game pushing a skeleton around the pitch, and managed to knock it down and get through the armour once. This game came down to dodging Ghouls, or lack of them. They kept double-one-ing the dodge rolls which gave me the time to try and beat them up. However All I generally did was put players in the KO box, so only got two casualties this game. Oh, and I scored three times, but by this stage I was more interested in causing pain.......

Game Six: Vs Jordell 3-2?
I don't think I have seen anyone roll as badly as my opponent did. In the first half every other roll was a skull or a 1. Despite this I was only 1-0 up at half time, as killing Elves was the main priority. First block on Jordell sent him to the KO box, and he didn't come back until half way through the second half. Got three casualties (and one non-player) in the first half. Second half, I start quite well, scoring a wonder touchdown on a jammy series of rolls. Jordell comes back, dodges away on his first move, and promptly double-ones and critically injures himself! However, courtesy of me and my turn counter he managed to sieze the ball and storm to get a TD, to bring it back to 2-2. However, he had too few players left to stop another TD, and whilst driving down for it we 'happened' to bump into his few remaining players, get another two casualties (five player casualties, two non-player casualties both caused by failed double dodges!).

So, won 3, lost 2, drew 1, with all six games being enjoyable, and a crushing 21 casualties (+10 non player casualties which meant I averaged over five casualties per game!). Cheers to all my opponents for the good matches.

And the Minotaur was worth taking.....

Although my top 'killer' was Eric the Lineman, with 7 casualties! Did anyone have a single player get more than that? I also think he needs to develop a more scary name.

Richard

[rwould]

Apologies for any errors; my notetaking got worse as beer consumption increased......

Game One: Vs. Jordell 2-2
Despite numerous attempts at kicking Jordell to death he insisted on only getting KO'd and came straight back. Minotaur scored in first half, allowing me to beat up the WE. Somehow though, at half time the casualty count was 3-0 to the Woodies!, with score 1-1.
Second half went better, got it to 2-2 with 3 turns for me to drive for the winning TD. Promptly double skull blocked with the Mino, which left me needing a die roll miracle to score. Still, the Casualty count started with 3 player casualties and 1 other.

Game Two: Vs Woodies 1-4
Casualty count this time was 4-4 each so I got beaten up a bit by woodies again (caused 1 non-player cas). Game was looking close on turn two of the second half, when I proceeded to roll three double skull blocks in my next six blocks (having used up my RR's straight away), and combined with some luck from Tomas (bloody wardancers....) and some good moves he stormed ahead to inflict a crushing defeat. Don't think he rolled a 1 until turn 7 of the second half either......

Game Three: Vs Undead
A real bash-fest, with me inflicting 4 more casualties (and 2 non-players cas's and only suffered one back), but he played good ball control (and dodging with his ghouls!). Second half failed five pick up attempts in a row (burning my RR's in the process.... Norse Throwers need Sure Hands!) which meant he grabbed the ball for the winning TD.

Game Four: Vs Borak led Chaos 3-1?
Game started well, with a solid drive for the first TD, and killed two players. Promptly got ready for the KO, and rolled pitch invasion. FF6 paid off and we took 4 players off the pitch, 2 permanently (although the Troll came back). This let us really beat up the chaos, although despite numerous mass attempts Borak refused to go off the pitch for quite a while. So 2-1 up at half time, and ready for the second half. Roll for the KO. Pitch Invasion. Kill another beastman on it, and now outnumber them 2-1. Promptly set about beating up who was left, KO'd most of the team, and got one more casualty for three (with four! non-player casualties), and another TD. Not sure if I got a fourth TD, but I only registered three.

Game Five: Vs. Luthor Undead 3-1?
Got ball, beat up both mummies (one B Hurt who didn't regen) and various others, and set up a cage on the left. Luthor came over and blitzed a whole, but was then surrounded by my players. My tackler came over and knocked her over, and after three turns of kicking we knocked her out, and luckily she decided to stay off the pitch for the rest of the game. Proceeded to continue to batter the undead around, although the minotaur spent most of the game pushing a skeleton around the pitch, and managed to knock it down and get through the armour once. This game came down to dodging Ghouls, or lack of them. They kept double-one-ing the dodge rolls which gave me the time to try and beat them up. However All I generally did was put players in the KO box, so only got two casualties this game. Oh, and I scored three times, but by this stage I was more interested in causing pain.......

Game Six: Vs Jordell 3-2?
I don't think I have seen anyone roll as badly as my opponent did. In the first half every other roll was a skull or a 1. Despite this I was only 1-0 up at half time, as killing Elves was the main priority. First block on Jordell sent him to the KO box, and he didn't come back until half way through the second half. Got three casualties (and one non-player) in the first half. Second half, I start quite well, scoring a wonder touchdown on a jammy series of rolls. Jordell comes back, dodges away on his first move, and promptly double-ones and critically injures himself! However, courtesy of me and my turn counter he managed to sieze the ball and storm to get a TD, to bring it back to 2-2. However, he had too few players left to stop another TD, and whilst driving down for it we 'happened' to bump into his few remaining players, get another two casualties (five player casualties, two non-player casualties both caused by failed double dodges!).

So, won 3, lost 2, drew 1, with all six games being enjoyable, and a crushing 21 casualties (+10 non player casualties which meant I averaged over five casualties per game!). Cheers to all my opponents for the good matches.

And the Minotaur was worth taking.....

Although my top 'killer' was Eric the Lineman, with 7 casualties! Did anyone have a single player get more than that? I also think he needs to develop a more scary name.

Richard

[Marcus]

Great tournament. Have no complaints with any of my opponents who were all great to play against. I don't have copious notes, this is more a highlights reel.

P-Funk Allstars - Woodelves.
2 Wardancers
1 Catcher
8 Lineelves
2 RR
1 FF

Game 1 - Davin "BigD" George - Lizardmen with Silibili

Davin was sweating and cursing this one at length. The last time we played was at the Tulips where his Orcs lost 4-0 to my undead. I knew he was rusty for that game though and had had quite a bit of practice since, I was expecting a tough match.

It just didn't go right for Davin. First game gave me an advantage in that none of his Saurus had Block or Break Tackle, so I was able to easily pin down his Saurus with Lineelves and roll them out when necessary. His remaining skinks were hunted down and turned over. Davin was crippled by bad injury dice - I think he only managed 2 KOs against me the whole match, and the rest were stuns. Unable to get the overlap, Davin was unable to stop the more agile elves outmaneouvering him and we managed a tidy win.

5-0, Kick on a Lineman and move up to table 2

Game 2 - Michael Ormisher (?) - Woodelves.

Game of the tournament for me. Michael went skill-deep on his list - 2 Dancers, 2 Catchers and a Thrower. I even whipped out my calculator at the start (looking like the world's biggest poor sport) because I was kicking myself I hadn't thought of that lineup.

I lead out early, but Michael managed some 1st half casualties against my Wardancer and Catcher, leaving me with one 'dancer and an understrength line for the second half. Against an equally fast team, and seriously outnumbered I had to resort to a running game, Finally edging out the result in the last turn with a 2 turn running drive.

Quality opponent and got my best sportsman vote.

4-3, Tackle on a Wardancer, up to table 1. Fantastic!

Game 3 - (Don't have name to hand, sorry ) - Skaven.

My opponent had gone with 4 GRs, Headsplitter and a bunch of linerats. He had also taken Kick and Tackle. I knew I was in for a tough match - I regularly coach Skaven and that is exactly the kind of lineup I like to use. Plus he had chosen exactly the skills I would have chosen. It was a table 1 game and I knew that this guy had to be at least as good as me and used all my tactics.

Thankfully, that worked a little to my advantage. I knew what to expect and managed to blunt his plays reasonably well. I went 1-0 up and then ran in to capitalise on a failed pickup. My wardancer failed to pick up the ball in a tacklezone and the ball scattered forward to the one player who was adjacent... then forward to the one linerat who was adjacent to him, and forward again to another linerat, then across to headsplitter, who finally managed to roll a 6 and catch it. It was like one big long handoff action . Of course, since I was flanking backfield to capitalise on his failed pickup, I didn't have players to stop Headsplitter, in fact he was wide open with all of my players caught offside. He ploughed down the field headed for the touchline. I threw desperation blocks and tacklezones on him, finally managing to force a 3+ dodge to score which, thankfully, he failed. Unlucky.

The rest of the game was a scrappy affair with both of us finally managing to dig out 1 TD each. Final result 2-1. I had survived a game at the top table and would go into the next day in 1st or 2nd position.

Got Strip Ball for a Wardancer in anticipation of meeting some stars....

Game 4 - Thorbjorn's Humans, with Griff and Luthor

Game 4 at the top tables is always the most nerve wracking experience in Swiss format. You're starting early and you know it's all to play for. I was more than a bit nervous.

Well, it had to happen, both Griff and Luthor. Thankfully I was ready for it and was confident my strip ball wardancer would get 1 or 2 key turnovers in and my speed would allow me to roll away from the stars and beat the backfield for the early scores.

It went according to plan in the first turn, I got a 1 die block on Griff with Strip Ball and turned it loose, but was unable to fully consolidate. His next turn he blocked my Wardancer and killed him... He'd played a sum total of 1 turn in the game where I needed him most. I was in very, very deep trouble. Short of players and skills geared to stopping the 1-2 Griff-Luthor punch, Thorbjorn repeatedly broke downfield and screened me off. I managed to isolate and kill his accurate thrower, which removed some of his backfield strength and forced him to use Griff as a fullback. A mistake from Griff gave me a turnover but I couldn't press the advantage on the scoreboard. Remaining touchdowns went with kickoff, I couldn't stop his drives, and he was unable to stop my leaping wardancer runs. He eventually held advantage, running down the clock for 1 turn to prevent my reply.

3-4 Loss against a great opponent with a strong team. I was unlucky in that my one strongest weapon against his stars went out after only playing 1 turn. I think, given the closeness of the match, I played well enough to have won had my Wardancer lasted longer. Fair play to Thorbjorn though, he got rid of the one thing that could stop him early in the game then rode it out.

Picked up passblock for my thrower.

Game 5 - Paul "Geggster" Gegg's Skaven with Headsplitter

I knew I had to draw an ECBBL teammate sooner or later. Paul is easily one of our top coaches and was coaching a familiar 4 GR + Headsplitter lineup. I was reasonably confident I could get a result and figured the odds were about even.

Well, it was a nightmare game for me. I had great defensive options on my first drive, able to cover 1st and 2nd string recievers, blitz out the halfback, and have my passblocking catcher running deep pass interference. That's when I rolled snakeeyes on my wardancers dodge to make the first blitz. Paul ran in for the score. Paul used kick to pull me weak and short on offence, meaning I had to risk passes to bring the ball up to the line, It's a good tactic, if your opponent fails one of the 3 or more 2+ rolls they need then they have you where they want you. I managed to fail those rolls with monotonous regularity and Geggster punished every error with skill and precision.

Some strong defensive plays on my part managed to give me some good turnover chances. 2 of which I nearly fluffed due to yet another snakeeyes and a 1 to GFI over the touchlines. Thankfully, Paul's luck was almost as bad as mine and he wasn't able to consolidate. With the score, then, at 3-3 Paul had 2 turns left to win the match. I set up close and tight to try to force an error on the line before he could get recievers downfield. Headsplitter obliged by rolling double down at the start of the drive, securing the draw.

Bad luck in that game for both of us made it a frustrating one. While we both managed to show moments of flair, it was mostly a teeth-gnashing game. At least it was against a League mate so I'll get a chance to rematch him before long.

Was certainly out of contention by this stage but at least I had honour to preserve by fighting for a top 10 place. Stung by my repeated failed pickups I took Sure Hands on a lineman.

Game 6 - John "Neoliminal" Lewis' Skaven

Due to the tie result I was down to play Geggster again, we tried to arrange a table swap and John said that he'd play me. John had a fairly orthodox Skaven roster, with a good number of rerolls. I kicked and John swarmed TZs all over the ball, playing very conservative in case of failed pickups. I managed to keep pressure on and get a few good blocks on his ballcarrier and turn the ball loose. Sure Hands certainly saved me that match as I failed 3 pickups with my sure hands lineelf during the match. John also had 3 players with Strip Ball which was more than a little scary.

After the first couple of turns I really started to notice the look on John's face. Being from Australia I know the look of jetlag when I see it and John looked like he was trapped in another timezone. His concentration was not with the match and he was making some fairly random plays. Rather than kick a man when he was down I switched styles and went for "entertaining" rather than "optimal" plays, going for flair and style rather than grinding out the scores. We both managed to get some rapid scores in and the scoreline finished 4-2 in my favour. Not a fair reflection as John's mind wasn't at the table, it wasn't even in the country. I hope to get a rematch sometime in future when we're both sharp and up for it.

Meanwhile, Paul had managed a 5-0 victory against his opponent, pipping me by 1 TD for the highest TD award. Curses! At least it went to an ECBBL player....

Final Standing: 10th place overall. I'm more than happy with that result. I went in aiming for a top 10 spot, knowing it would be tough to reach even if I played perfectly. I knew I'd have to play my best game, and get away with a little luck. I had a little bad luck, I compensated for some and my opponents exploited the rest. The competition on the top tables was fierce and I'm convinced the final winners earnt their titles.

Great to catch up with everyone again and put a few more names to a few more faces. The ECBBL finals in Bugmans and the Rugby Bloodbowl on Saturday night was a laugh and I had a fantastic weekend. In the last year I've watched Bloodbowl tournaments go from small church hall affairs to big social gatherings. I have been absolutely floored by the great people I have met on the tournament circuit and always look forward to meeting up with them again. I think we should all be proud of the community we've built and the competition we promote, and the fun we have. Cheers to everyone.

See you again soon.

[Geggster]

Okay. Here goes. My report as to how I finished ninth and picked up most touchdowns.

Team: Skaven. Roster: 11 players (Headsplitter, 5 Linerats, 4 Gutter Runners, One Stormvermin, Apothecary, 2 Rerolls, 1 Fan Factor).

Had finished 9th at the Dutch Open and practice games had gone well (against good opposition – five of the ECBBL got into the top 20, all ten of us won at least three matches) so I was confident of a reasonable placing.

First up, Orcs coached by a newish Bloodbowl coach. My tactics throughout the game and tournament were to 3 die blitz (with Headsplitter and assist) and run three runners through to his backfield marking the thrower. Then two die blocks to free up a couple of linerats from TZ’s (with only 11 that mostly have AV7, I can’t afford to take many early casualties but it’s a balance as you also don’t want all of the opponents players free from tackle zones). I find many coaches worry about their backfield enough to burn rerolls early ball handling and don’t get their LOS blocks in. Case proven with a 5-0. Kick taken on a linerat (obviously).

Second up, Orcs (with Varag) on Table 3 that had already won 4-0. Got a good start. Received. Scored. Kicked. Turned over. Scored. 2-0 after five turns. But then a bit of bad luck and the game was in the balance. Runner failed a 2+ dodge (with skill) to assist a blitz on the ball carrier by Headsplitter. I felt that I could well have gone 3 up but a good long play by my opponent and he went in to score next turn. 2-1. I nearly one turned but then he nearly one turned with his throw team mate (although I didn’t agree that he could throw into the endzone when it split the band between long pass and long bomb – I conceded and he overthrew the goblin into the crowd. They killed him!).

Still felt confident until he rolled a pitch invasion. We both had FF1 and I lost. Headsplitter and two runners ko’d. I only fielded 7 rats and couldn’t turn him over. Half through the second half I realised that the opponent wasn’t hurrying to equalise (so he could set up the win for himself). I queried and he explained he was playing for extra time. When it was decided that extra time was not to be played (Andy Hall arbitrated) he still decided to wait to score in turn 8. I set up for the one turner and this time he rolled riot. Great. Bit annoyed that he settled for the draw (but I guess if he wasn’t aware then I can’t blame him). Strip Ball taken for GR for possible half die blocking on Griff, Varag, (with assist on Luthor, Morg, Hthark).

Wood Elves on Table 16 against Spanish opponent. He had one reroll so plan was to make him use it early. Kicked. Lined up the linerats for the 2 die blocks and sure as eggs are eggs, reroll gone in two turns. By this time, Runners all around his thrower. Mistake. 1-0. Repeated twice more. 3-0. Half time. Then six turn riot. He was annoyed (there was no way back now) but I was livid (3 at the half and him down to 9 Elves – how many more could I score?). You come to play, you spend a fair bit of money and half the game is obselete. Anyway, quick TD from me and 4-0. Took Dirty Player on a line rat so I could worry (although not even necessarily use it – I only had 11 players!) Star Players.

Day 2. On table 6 against lowest scoring coach with three wins (knowledgable Texan with Chaos Dwarves and Hthark). Weather went sunny and passing game effected. Still, managed to score for 1-0 and then stripped dwarf with ball into square next to sideline. Ball went out of play (great) but then crowd threw it back into middle of chaos dwarf cage and it was caught by a dwarf on a 5! Got another chance next turn after a bit of pushing chaos dwarves around and this time, vermin with assist knocked down ball carrier. Runner grabbed it and he was away. 1-0. Managed to stop next dwarven drive (again pushing ball out of play) but it bounced back in and next to Hthark. He picked up and scored with ease with the last play of first half.

I went 2-1 and he was forced to go hurry up to try and equalise and win. I mistakenly gave him a blitz on a GR to get out of a skaven cage near my endzone and he waltzed in, 2-2. Time for a winner still and after a length of the field play, I failed a GFI to win it in turn 7. Bad but not awful if it landed on the field as I had another Runner that was close by even if the downed Runner was stunned. The ball bounced out and was flung back into the middle of the pitch. Three times the ball had gone out and three times, it had landed incredibly kind for him. However, he failed a GFI to send a hobbo into a scoring position and it was down to me to retrieve the ball and pass two GFI’s (without reroll) to win. Made it. 3-2. Phew! Took tackle on a linerat.

Game 5. On table 4 against Marcus (fellow ECBBLer and current domestic champ) with his Wood Elves. Only six players had four wins at this stage and as they were playing each other, we were both aware that the winner of our game would be at least fourth after five matches (due to us both heavily scoring up till then) and certainly with a chance of a trophy. Even the Bloodbowl if at least two of the three matches ahead of us ended in a draw.

The game was a disappointment to be honest. With a lot at stake, the ones came thick and fast. Still bad dice for both of us was better than bad dice for one of us. I scored early doors after one of his Wardancers rolled snake-eyes (without skill so reroll burned) but the dirty foul only resulted in a KO. Mark failed a GFI to equalise. I then rolled double one to throw the ball out of endzone to a GR waiting to run off behind a leftfield screen. He scored. 1-1.

Mark’s Wardancer leapt to his rescue and stopped my next scoring chance. We took turns in not pushing the ball around until Headsplitter failed a three die block on the ball carrier with a Runner free to maybe take advantage of a fortuitous bounce. Without reroll, he dodged out on a 3 (prehensile tail), quick passed, caught and scored. 2-1 down at half time.

I pressurized his offence with a shallow kick and after he failed a pick up (rerolled), a failed handoff followed and a few seconds later, 2-2. Another pressurized kick off, another mistake and I blitzed his ball carrier. 3-2 but no rerolls left on either side. With time running out, I kicked deep (possibly mistakenly). He again failed a pick up but I wasn’t close enough to recover and he threw, caught and dodged his catcher free. I had a chance to bring him down but failed a crucial GFI. Two turns left but Headsplitter failed a block and the game petered out 3-3. Damn. As regular competitors and friends, we had eliminated each other from contention. I forlornly took Guard on my StormVermin.

Last game. On table 8 against Serbian Orcs (with Varag and heavy on tackle). I received and decided to target his throwers (he had two). I got in position to foul one with the dirty player but fortunately injured him with the block. Headsplitter (with ball) blitzed a hole in the defence and broke clear. The other rats formed a screen. 1-0. Then the biggest bullsh*t play of the weekend followed. I kicked into the corner without the remaining thrower. I worked my players down field but IRCC, I needed a 4+, 3+, 3+ dodge without dodge (but I did have a TRR) for a half die blitz (with strip ball) on the ball carrier (w/o surehands). Its 44% chance of strip ball working w/o reroll, 69% chance with reroll, (if you are prepared for both down, 69% w/o reroll, 91% with). I got there, knocked him down, recovered and scored. I even injured him too. All without a need of a TRR.

Feeling a little embarrassed, we started the second half. Almost immediately I injured his other thrower and his awful luck continued when he fumbled a simple throw (he went hurry up) deep in his back field, 3-0. Two quick scores later and 5-0. The chap handled the bad luck incredibly well. This was his only defeat.

So four wins, 2 draws, three clean sheets, 22 touchdowns. Very pleased with ninth but obviously extremely pleased with top TD’s.

I thought it was a terrific event and want to thank all involved.

Roll on next year.

[SHAVEN WOOKIE]

what a great weekend even know i finished 127 i did win something
the pub quiz

my line up

4 x bob
4 x blitzers
1 x thrower
1 x lineman
2 x goblin
2 x re-roll
4 x fan-factor

pimp daddy dangly and his west thurrock wotznotz

game 1 vs silibili lost 0-2

well what a start to the tourne lizardmen with 6 saurus and silibili.
after getting my wonderful new black dice all i could roll was double skulls
and this happened for the first 8 turns thats got to be some sort of record.
how i managed only to loss 2-0 was a bit of a shock with that luck

game 2 vs orcs win 1-0

yes victory and 4 cas as well has my luck changed a great touchdown from the goblins. 1 goblin picks up the ball in 2 tackle zones dodges out throws a long bomb to the goblin waiting on the otherside of the pitch and makes an accurute pass the goblin catchs in a tackle zone and scores.

game 3 vs zug lost 1-2

another 4 cas and was controling the game in the first half scored a touchdown in the 7 turn and got ready for the second half.
oh no they have come back to haunt me yep double skulls the only thing that worked for me was the blitz on his catcher which killed the little pest.

game 4 vs varag lost 1-2

well it seems if its not double skulls it has to be 1's if only i could pick up the ball i might have got some where. varag scored both of his touchdowns. while mine was scored by my thrower who did pick up the ball once on his second attempt.

game 5 vs skaven won 3-2

the way my other games had been going i did not expect to win like this
in the second turn took out his rookie ogre and killed him what a start but did go one - nil down. my turn to recieve make my blocks 2 vermin and a lineman badly hurt and a blitz on a gutter runner who knocked him out and did not come back. touchdown 1-1 thrower passes to the blitzer who catches and scores. touchdown 2-1 a blitzer runs straight down the line sacks a gutter runner and kills him then takes the ball and scores. touchdown from his last gutter runner in 1 turn. touchdown 3-2 once again the goblin does it again. this was by far my best game

game 6 vs varag again lost 0-2

this guy could not fail an armour roll and i was left with 5 players in the end but i did kill varag to ease the pain

all in all 2-0-4 not to bad for my first turn but the dice may need to be changed

see you next year

[cidervampire]

Von-Erichs, Undead

Having played a few practice halfs against Ian "Double Skulls" Williams when he was using orcs I was somewhat fearful of getting drawn against them. So of course I ended up playing against orcs 3 times

1. Orcs (forgotten name of coach) 4 - 0. Was quite relieved to see he had no stars but was worried I'd take a good kicking off 4 blockers and 3 blitzers. However, Luthor and his ghouls just kept striding up the pitch, taking the ball off him and scoring. Can't really fault my opponents play, other than his team selection.

2. Orcs (again) Carl Brown 2-1. Carl was a really great geezer (as were all my opponents) who I gave the sportsmanship vote to. Was a tough game which kept me thinking and shaking all the way through. Think I used Luthor pretty good this match. Managed to take Ripper out with my piling on mummy only for him to regenerate straight away. Tough game but great fun

3. Humans - Jez Lowe 1-2. The only game I didn't win in the 2 years of the event. Jez was a top bloke, played really well and had the virtually unstopable Griff playing for him. He beat me fair and square, can't even blame bad dice rolls for this loss, bugger.

4. Skaven - Arnod 2-0 (french spy in our b&b) Very slow game due to me being a bit dazed off the night before and my opponent making nasty cage things. Fortunately his first cage attempt was so tight it allowed me to push his rat ogre onto the ball carrier to shunt him off the pitch. After a great deal of time spent struggling to make my brain work I eventually got the victory

5. Orcs 2-1 (sorry forgot name again). In an early attempt to stop him scoring poor old Luthor got injured and never came back all match. Forunately I managed to take Varag out shortly after but was still left to face Morg and being 1 -0 down.Managed to pull an equalizer but things were still looking grim. My ghoul went for a dash down the pitch leaving himself open for an easy blitz from Morg who fortunately rolled a double skull. Morg being quite rightly annoyed stormed down the pitch to try to even things up but managed to stub his toe going for extra move to score, the ball fell into my hands and I managed to hang onto it until the final whistle. Pretty dull first half but a damned spawny result for me. He was let down though by having no rerolls other than varags.

6. Humans 2-1 (french guy whose name I've forgotten). Wasn't too happy to see Griff again. Having learned my lesson form Jez, I hung onto the ball, made sure it was well defended and just beat the hell out of his team until Griff went down to my player with tackle and never got up again. I then scored 2 fairly straightforward TD's tried for a 3rd on a blitz got a bit carried away and he managed to throw for a TD. Not wanting to push my luck Luthor and the 2 ghouls hung back with the ball and I pasted the rest of his team.

Very happy with my 5th place, managed to play 6 great guys I've never played before. Looking forward to many more games and meeting lots of new players

Cheers

Geoff

[Grumbledook]

Jonathan Bowers coached Bovine Slaughter - Chaos Dwarfs
Final Placing 4th

Hthark
Grashnak
4 Chaos Dwarfs
5 Hobbos
3 rr
3 ff

Match 1 Table 21
Dominik Schoener - Bakardi Breezers (?) - Dwarfs

Dwarfs was a dream start for me. They are slow nothing strong and low agility. Normal tactics to stomp down the pitch is just suited for my roster to stop. 4 choas dwarfs and 2 st6 stars easily put pay to it. I lost the coin toss and ended up kicking. He ran down to the los where i turned him over and ran up to score. Kicked again where the same thing happened.

Second half I receive and smash my way up the pitch for 3-0. I kick again and get a blitz. SO run through to ball tz on where the ball is about to land. The ball bounces and ends up in just 1 tz :/ Then his dwarf runner comes over picks up in tz, dodges out, 2 gfi and then a short pass to a blitzer who then catches it and runs off down the pitch. After all that without a reroll i was a bit stunned. My atempts to get back down after over committing on the blitz meant my only chance was a 1 die blitz with a hobbo who just got a pushback. Eventually runs it in to lost 3-1. A nice start for me.

Only problem i had that match was 3 times a block on my minotaur where he failed dauntless then rolled double pows. 3 times in a match left me smiling and it had no effect on the final outcome. Took sure hands on a hobbo.

Match 2 Table 12
Ancalagon - Quetzacoatl Flyers - Lizards

I don't like playing against lizards as its hard to cage against that much st4. I recieved then went down and scored in 4 turns. Then anca came back at me and a couple of turns later I had a chance with a dodge 2 gfi to blitz his skink with the ball 1 sq from the sideline. I hoped the ball would go out of bounds and land somewhere nice. Blitz went to plan but ball comes back in and a sauras caught it with a 6. He went on to level at 1 all.

Second half much the same happens and he breaks through my line. Hthark has a chance with 3 gfi to 3 dice blitz. Double 1 on the last gfi. His skink then runs along the line and in my turn i blitzed him into the endzone. Reason i did that was i thought i would need the 4 turns back to score to get a draw. There was no way i was going to stop him scoring at that point and I would rather have goen for the draw then just end up losing anyway. With a mess of too much st and tz placed around me had to make or break but i failed a dodge and it was all over. Was a close game and fun but nuffle favoured the spanish at the weekend and I got handed a 2-1 loss. Took kick on a hobbo.

Match 3 Table 25
Gallowin - Amazons

Second match running with a TBBer and amazons again nice opponent for my chaos dwarfs. Gallowin was great fun to play again and wasn't a lot he could do with the amount of times i broke his armour and the problems tackle was causing. Basically everything went my way got lots of stuns and finally won 2-0. Could have been more as the last turn of both halves i failed a 2+ to score. Very amusing and great fun to play against, gave gallowin my sportsmanship vote. Took guard.

Match 4 Table 13
Darkson - Amazing Ratling Carnival - Skaven

Yet another TBBer and another roster I though wouldn't cause many problems as he took no star players. Can't remember much apart from again I just broke armour loads, despite that I think i only caused 1 cas, got loads of stuns and a few KOs. His knockouts often not coming back. Ended up as an easy win with the final score 3-1. Took guard again.

Match 5 Table 7
Brendan Spencelayh - Les Artistes - Human with Griff

Third time i played a member of the northern warlords (max and geoff at the dutch open). First two times i lost then drew so I knew this was going to be a touch match (as i guess all the top tables games were going to be in the final matches) This is the first time i faced griff as well, so i was unprepared for this problem. I heard after loads of people had problems against griff and the phrase "i've been griffed" was heard a lot ;] I lost the toss and started by kicking. Griff got the ball and was secured third of the way into my half. I couldn't get to him so i decided to move players to make him roll as many dice as possable. Shouldn't have bothered he scored anyway. After the kick off the ball lands deep in my half. I pick the ball up with a hobbo and cage around him, thinking he would be safe. Then next turn griff comes bounding in and bang down goes the hobbo. Turns out i was one square too far forward. Now I thought I was going to be in trouble. Did a 3 dice block on griff and cause of dodge only managed a push. Then I decided the only way i was going to get the ball safely down the pitch was to give it to hthark. Now I didn't really want to rest my chances on this but as it was my only option, so with my heart pounding I pick up and then roll for the handoff and thankfully hthark caught it. I then strolled down the pitch using up the rest of the half while griff ran around hiding from my minotaur.

Second half i recieve and learning from the first half i get the ball to hthark and set about repeating tactics. This made brenden realise he had to at least try and stop me or his chances of a higher finish were over. I think he managed to leap into my cage 5 times for a 2 dice i choose. He got nothing more than a push. Then in the 6th turn I used a series of blocks and griff went into the crowd and got badly hurt. After that with no chance of stopping me, brenden conceeded the td and I finished with a 2-1 win. Griff was a pain but i htharked griff rather then getting griffed. A pleasing result and I was happy to reach my target of winning 4 games. Took dirty player.

Match 6 Table 2
Troels Laegaard - Woodwatchers - Wood Elf

Wow made it up to table 2 with other results going my way. I was surprised by his roster with a rookie tree and only one wardancer and no apoth, he didn't have kick either which was a shock. He recieved and then in his second turn his thrower needed to get 2 gfi to make the pass short instead of long, he used a reroll on this and then the wardancer rolled a 1 on the catch. Lots of rejoicing going on in my head. Grashank then goes over and thumps the stripballing wardancer and badly hurts him. I was even more pleased with removing the one hassle he really had on his team. I think strolled down the pitch getting lots of stuns and a few KOs.

I receive second half and stomp down the pitch again. Thought I would give him a try at scoring one back on me but in the last turn his thrower has to dodge away from grashnak and falls over. Grashnak picks the ball up and runs it in for a 3-0 win.

With all the painting and sportsmanship points in I ended up 4th and was very pleased with the end result, with all those good coaches there I was just hoping for a top 20 finish and managed to sneak into the top 5. I can't wait for next year.