Blue Nuns - Amazons with Bad Habits

[theBymster]

A bit of an aside: I took the Girls to Stone Bowl 2019. Here's a little write up of how the day went for me:

Stone Bowl 2019
Nuns on the Run, Ooop North!
I’ll be honest, as one day tournaments go this was one to forget, results wise. But it had so many other redeeming qualities that turned a poor day on the pitch into a good day to be alive! Last year it was what I consider to be the kickstart of my coaching career as my first full blown one day tourni. I took Necro, which I was getting the hang of in SBBL V, I got a WDW so ended up 6th as I gained no bonus points for achieving the secret objectives. This year I came 25th with DLW and no secret objectives.

The Gals:
One thrower, two catchers, four Line women, four blitzers, an Apo, Karla von Kill and three re rolls.
1.1m on the nose (with a Fan Factor of 1!)
The skill set was five normal skills with a Star, or five normal and one double.

Obvs, having discovered Roxanne I wanted to take her. But I was a bit split because I’ve never taken an unpainted model to a torni before and I’ve picked up from some previous events that non painted models is a No-No. Anyway, taking Karla was a chance to show off my kit bash conversion.
2 x guard on Blitzers, 1 x Stand Firm and 1 x Tackle. Sure Hands on the Thrower.
I’d decided, and publicly announced, that this year I’m going for the social interaction and ticking off some of the 26 rather than going for the wins and the points.

Match 1 vs High Elves.
My oppo (I’m guessing) a bit green to tornis. He was a bit unsure of some basic protocols and conventions, and / or nervous. He defo knew his team, which was a beautifully painted new GW Elven Union set. I won all the tosses for my matches, which makes a change, and I chose to kick first in this one, to give me a chance of the 2:1 grind, and to let me concentrate on battering his players off the pitch for the first few turns. He scored in T2, which I was not expecting. It was typical elven bullshit; holding the ball deep T1 and send Catchers up field. I bashed in the middle, double tagged one runner and schwited the other to the floor. He ran up, handed off the ball, dodged free the Catcher then ran up and passed to him (or something similar) There were a few 3+ rolls and possibly a 4+, I wouldn’t have tried it, but whatever. It worked. I thought he would have run the clock down a bit more. So I was confident of scoring back in 6 turns… But he managed to stop me. He was a bit of a two-trick pony. One trick was the two turn TD. The other was 5+ Dodge, into cage followed by 1D (or 2D Uphill) Block. The really annoying thing was that it bloody worked 50% of the time! I tried the extra onion skin around the cage but that left me low on numbers and unable to arrow forward through the defence. So 1-0 at half time, I just slogged the grind for an annoying draw (with Chess clocks for the 4th Quarter,) stalling out the last 2 turns. I hoped this was a Submarine manouver – rising up from the mid ranks after round 1 to get 2 wins for a strong finish…. This was not to be either.
Match 2 vs Humans; Ogre AND Zug.
I’ve never played Zug before and actually was a little more scared of him than was really warranted. My oppo played like an absolute machine. We were the first to finish. Anyway, some minor details of a 3-0 loss before we got to that bit… He took about 40 seconds per turn, wordlessly moving and turning his players and rolling dice. His positioning was flawless. I elected to receive and by T4 I was dispossessed. By T5 I was turned over and by T7 I was 1-0 down. My positioning was dreadful by comparison. I was never sure what my plan was and certainly didn’t see what his plan was. I was too concerned with the ST5 players, who did do a lot of damage, but it was the blitzers who made the plays of the game. I started loosing players early on and never got to redress the balance. Karla and a guard Blitzer got sent after Zug and one time knocked him down, but otherwise did a bit of pushing. In the third quarter Karla left the field. My oppo’s buddies (who were sat next door – don’t you just hate that; when a guy just parks himself down at a table, makes sure he has plenty of space and refuses to move? “Oh no, this is my board, do you want to bring your stuff over here?” NO, actually. Half of us have got boards out. This is not your front room!) were calling him Lucky Steve. I thought this was a reference to the 80’s film, Cool Hand Luke. Turns out it just was ‘cos his rolls were lethal. Always lethal. I asked to use his dice because they were that good. It quite possibly was the most shit game (so far) of my short career. After kicking with 10 girls at the start of the 2nd half and conceding, I set up for my last drive with 7 players, against 11. Then he got a blitz, surrounded the ball and took a T16 score. My turns were quicker than his. I had no players and I didn’t really care. I was out played, out diced and out numbered from the start. I tried to come away with something; surely I learned that its better to start with 4 on the LoS, or make better use of your blitzers, or give the ball to Karla, or some nugget of understanding. But I was just bored into submission and couldn’t wait for the insipid sandwiches and Tesco Basics crisps.
Once again I couldn’t be bothered to leave my models out for painting judgement. The level of painting in the venue was excellent.
My final match was a lot more fun and made the day worthwhile, Thank you Vagabond. A youngish guy from Manchester with Rat-men. Four Gutter Runners, R-ogre, Rustgouger AND Fat Rat (whatever the other Star Player is called)

Match 3 vs Skaven
I elected to receive and hope to get the Ball and Chain guy sent off at a moment of my choosing – by ending the drive with a quick-ish score if necessary. As it turned out I was able to use his LoS line rats as a screen from him for a couple of turns as they kept lying down and standing up and lying down and I guessed he wouldn’t want to risk smashing them. For once I read the mind of my oppo.
Having two prehensile tails to dodge was a pain in the arse, as was Glart in general... And we all know about Gutter Runners. I smashed one or two off the pitch at some point, Tackle proving useful there. I was so wishing I’d taken Roxanna. We had a good laugh / banter. Vagabond got a spot prize for rolling double skulls, re roll double skulls. So His luck was definitely down, but he found the bright side: “I’m not going home empty handed!”
Basically, I went for the two one grind and got it. Just. I thought I’d set up perfectly to stop a one turner with that big “W” formation behind the LoS. Turns out I misjudged the width needed, and a gutter runner popped up at the outside of that “W” with a clear run. Thank fully there was some basic failure to pick up or pass or catch the ball and a T16 crisis (draw) was averted.

The best parts of the day, for me, were catching up with some opponents from previous tournis, like Aswig and The Rake, feeling like part of a team; with SBBL represented by 6 coaches present, we all fared differently, Only Dragonborn getting to shake hands with the TO, to receive Most Casualties for his Dwarf team with death roller. Of course, THE highlight was receiving the Ogre Team from Thor which I won in a raffle!!! Stoked!!! A bonus was unintentionally photo (video) bombing Alan from 2DrunkFlings being interviewed… but then turning it to my advantage and getting a “read the Rules Alan!” in there.

A great day. Thanks Deeferdan, what a top bloke and what a great event.

[theBymster]

Meanwhile, back at the SBBL....



SBBL VII Match 4:
Blue Nuns vs Orcward


<<<<<<<<< My fb SBBL Write Up:

I’m So sorry everyone… I may have introduced Ed to a new tactic / set move. His score against me was a one turner, and it involved a Troll and a gobo!! And he very nearly did it twice!
140,000 fans arrived at the Stad von Middleton, 80,000 in blue. The weather was perfect for Bloodbowl and despite an anticipated change in the weather around half time, it stayed nice.
The ladies got a good toss in, the first they won all season, and after one look at all that green muscle they elected to receive. “for what we are about to receive…”
The Nuns gathered and headed up the right flank by T2 they had a strong, double walled cage over the half way line. Bit those Trumpie Fungi quickly built a wall. A tall wall that ladies of the cloth couldn’t see over or through. So they headed around. Mother Knip gave a “Guard” assist giving Mother Brühworst all the courage she needed to Dauntlessly pick on Black Orc Blocker and send him sprawling to the once consecrated ground of this ancient stadium. This opened up a channel for Sister Cambazola to peg it along the side line and pa’s it to the new recruit, Sister Chardonnay: waiting with her new catcher’s mitt. The rerolled pass was accurate and plopped sweetly into her basket. She then turned on the gas and fled up the pitch so fast that Mother Frankfurter could only just keep up with her to provide a bit of block-a-me-doodle.
The empty cage lashed out at the green tide and sent a couple more orc-a-doodle-dos to the orc-a-doodle-don’t (or sticky turfey.)
A lone Blitzer had the legs to get to the ball carrier, he gave her a push. For the other orcs it was too far away, or they were too scared of the women on a mission from God. There was a bit of castling up and time wasting and generally dodging about before Chardonnay finally ran the ball in, T8. Oh a BOB got surfed out of the end one too. The crowd were defo not pleased as the poor creature was never seen alive again. His stinking carcass was found behind the “ZonmbieWay” shacks bins at dusk. This left the Orcwardeers a bit of T8 LoS bullying and a dismal attempt at getting the ball to the gobo with hopes of airborne glory…
Half Time: Zons 1 – 0 Orcs
Ed’s opening turn saw the effects of a good half time talk on a team with few tactics. The Nuns kicked a little deep but the green skin thrower had the legs and the wit to gather the ball and push forward twice without stumbling then a successful hand-off to The Gobo. Even the Troll knew what to do. He resisted eating the tasty snot morsel and managed to throw him down the field without fumbling. The proud gobo sailed through the air, over the heads of the waiting Nuns, and landed perfectly on his jelly-like little feet. Which then carried him quickly over the line and into the end zone. 1-1 before the nuns even heard the whistle. The heady mix of pride and joy in the green camp was palpable.
But, of course, then the nuns had a chance to take the ball…. The orcs kicked very deep indeed but Sister Cambazola had her confidence in throwing raised after her escapades in the first half. She gathered the ball and steadied her sturdy legs safely out of all orcs reach. While she did that, sister Chardonnay weaved her way through a gap that the superior mothers opened up… well, OK, again the details of how it happened ate a little sketchy (there must have Ben a pass and a catch, some guarded blocks a d some careful positioning) but after three turns Chardonnay and a faithful Blitzer were strutting around by the end-zone, playing push with a green Blitzer. In the centre of the pitch (to the right) everyone else was playing a new version of chicken which seemed to involve a lot of standing up and sitting back down again from both teams, except for the Troll who was abviously exhausted from his show of brilliance earlier and the gobo who thought himself too above it all to join in.
And then a curios thing happened: that determined orc Blitzer, harassing the ball carrier with uphill blocks… well he bullied Chardonnay into the end-zone!!
2-1 with 2 turns left.
3 linos on LoS, new catcher in the wing, thin blue line from side to side 3 squares up from the end-zone.
3 remaining BOBs on LoS, Troll and gobo by their side. Blitzers and thrower covering the back field.
Half hearted kick, 1 square away from Thrower. He picks up, hands off to gobo. HE gets thrown, not eaten or fumbled. He drifts on and to the left. Lands in front of sister Cambazola. Uses his Dodge skill to step to her right. Fakes and goes again, psychic Nun reads his thoughts and brings gobo to earth. He coughs up the ball. She grabs it and sprints up field, gets her THIRD completion to sister Chardonnay who boldly undertakes a solo mission into the smelly half if the field, a GFI to ensure she could reach The End even if she gets pushed a bit by bullies.
T16
Two Blitzers sandwich tackled S Chardonnay ; Both Down and Push. If I had sent her more experienced sister, Chablis to do the job SHE would have survived (she has block)but I didn’t want to loose my only player with Tackle ahead of my date with Slaan…
Despite spending the last turn of the match KO’d Chardonnay earned a normal skill up for her 2 TD contribution and The Nuns finished on top. Not after dishing out a T16 foul on the little snot bag gobo. Well, some traditions must be upheld!
Well done Ed I think I was honestly as grateful for the lesson in stalling as you were for the lesson in Really Stupid, Throw Teamate, Right Stuff and Always Hungry!
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Post match: Sister Chardonnay, the new catcher is no longer a rookie, her two TD’s gained her a normal skill up. While I would love to start off by giving her side step I Chose boring Block to give her the survivability that Blodge brings. Ahead of my Meeting with Slaan in what turns out to be a battle for 2nd place in the Auld World Conference I have some other choices to make: do I sack a lino (Sister Leibfraumilch with -1AG) to cut back on TV? Do I spend All of my 100,000 on a re roll to stop the gobos sniffing it out?
I know next week’s oppo has binned his Crox, who got -1 something in his Week 4 game against Goldengate and his Skaven. And he rolled an annoying amount of 1’s and brought up the TV, all the reasons I don’t like Big Guys!

[theBymster]

I feel like I’m doing the classic amateur blogger behaviour: starting off strong, daily updates when nothing even happens, followed by a few weeks of the bare reportage essentials dished up with some enthusiasm, quickly descending into just the bare essentials with no enthusiasm. It would seem that it wont be long before my reportage dries up and my writing and I slip back into the comfortable familiarity of obscurity. I’m sure that the thousands who have trodden this path before me have all had their reasons, as I have mine. I have consciously decided not to post this on Face Book, so I’m not really sure why I want to tell you all this, but my Dad died the other day, April 1st, April Fool’s Day! Today would have been his 74th birthday. We sang him Happy Birthday at the crematorium.
I’m sure there is an opportunity here for the start of a whole new blog about bereavement, a forum even. Obviously here is not the place and I do not want to set myself up as some guru or conduit for grief and loss. Loss is something we all deal with from time to time, in different measures, in different ways. One of the things that has really helped me (is really helping me) with my grieving process has been (is) Bloodbowl. The occasional job as well, anything that is immersive and distracting has been a help – in moderation obviously. And so it was that I drove to Telford, a week on Tuesday, to meet Ben for our SBBL, Season VII, Week 6 match… As you know by now, the further into the past things get the harder it is for me to relate those events with any detail or accuracy. So please expect something vague and overviewish for my next match report entry and I promise not to disappoint.
Well, it has been great for me to sit and bash at the keyboard again and feel like a bit more “normality” is creeping into my life through that process. I can only hope that it hasn’t bored you all to tears or brought up any of your own teary issues. With Easter weekend upon us I hope the next Nun Blog will be lurking on these pages very soon….

[MacHurto]

Hey mate, sorry to hear about your dad. Hope you are ok.

There isn’t much movement in this forum, but things get read plus, it doesn’t get deleted so you can always store your team’s path here and read it back in a couple of years when you have forgotten

Anyway, looking forward to the next update

[ulvardar]

Sorry to hear about your dad. My best whises and a warm hug.

[theBymster]

SBBL VII Match 6.
Blue Nuns Vs Unsubs
‘Zons vs Slaan
The Bymster Vs King Lemmiwinks

The only other time I’ve played against Slaan was in a very forgettable 7’s match in Nam; Chelt-nam. Twelfthman getting the better of my Norse in their first ever game. So I had a good look at the team specs (I have got the RN Estudio Kick Starter team in the pipeline, so I have taken a bit of interest in the line-up.) I ran a couple of test play matches. Ive written about the validity of that exercise before. I never build a team like my opponents and my team always loose test plays. Maybe these two facts are related, probably not!
We struggled to get a date that we could both make and with the vast distance between us, geographically, we were kind of coerced into a Tuesday evening at the Thursday venue. An old school (honestly, straight out of the 70’s) Pub in some forgotten corner of Telford called Ketley.
After the previous match Sister Chardonnay, the new catcher, skilled up. She took Block to try and make her survive long enough to get side step. But if she does that will probably be around the time of the play offs. Which at the time of writing seems like it will not include me, but at the time of playing seemed like a strang pissabolity, as they say ‘round these parts. I also bought a cheerleader, A) to keep gp under 100,000 and out of the attention of the goblins. B) because I bought cheerleader models when I was at Worcester Wargames last and wanted to incentivise myself to paint them. C) its kinda nice to stop your opponent getting re rolls.
More than a week has passed between playing this match and me writing about it, so AGAIN, details are a bit sketchy:

Going into this match my opponent and I were drawn on league points and sitting 2nd and 3rd in the conference. So, actually getting a win would be a massive boost to either one of us. (me 3rd – because 3 wins and a loss is not better than 2 wins and two draws!)
The Frog-men won the toss and elected to kick. The Nuns had one definite Offensive game plan and strict instructions to stick to it NO MATTER WHAT! What with all these long legged leapers the plan was for Cambazola to get the ball and sit with it (Sure hands and Blodge) in a tight cage, to put a Guard Blitzer on diagonally opposite corners of said cage, wrap an onion skin or two around that, with the possibility of sending a catcher up field as a decoy or as an actual catcher if everything else is going tits up. This plan then involves bashing the shit out of the slimy pond hoppers until there’s so few left that we could break formation and run for the line just before half time. The success of this plan revolved around not getting cold feet because the ball is not progressing up the field, but to persevere, hold formation and target the leapers who may try and leap into a cage and try a one dice block on the ball carrier. Once The Girls held even a slightest numbers advantage I told them to get in there with the fouls, drive a wedge in hard and be brutal (Normally I do not foul, because when I have done it, it always ends in a double.)
Anyway, the plan was working brilliantly. I had a numbers advantage, I had the ball, No froggies could leap near it. Then we entered the second quarter and I even moved backwards a space or two to secure the onion skin. All of a sudden I started to fear that I wouldn’t have the legs when it came to gunning for the end zone. Maybe I even counted how many squares there were to cover and realised I HAD to move over the half way line. Anyway, I left a Guarder behind, tagged at the back of the cage. I think some oppo jumped in at some point because Ben said he was waiting for the opportunity to evade that Guard player in the post-match discussion. But the way I remember it was that the ball carrier failed the dodge as part of a poorly executed shift of the cage, and spilled the ball. In a matter of seconds some semi-amphibious slime ball got THE ball and hopped it. Down by one at the start of the second half. Adding insult to injury, I was kicking. But to add injury to injury The Unsubs were back to 11 players on the pitch (Possibly?)
The Nun’s Deefensive strategy was even more simple than the Offensive one: keep a double walled hull between the ball and the endzone while bashing away at the little hip-hoppers. It worked. Toads (whatever) left the pitch in droves, the fourth quarter saw the long tongue freaks cough up the ball, the Nuns grabbed it with both hands and even stalled for a turn or two before strolling in for the equaliser. There must have been some confusion about what turn it was, because T16 saw the King Lemmiwinks scratching his head for ages to set up and attempt a One Turn Touch Down (OTTD,) (and persist even when it became obviously not possible.) then I shook hands for the end of the match. Either I had another turn or unsubs shouldn’t have had theirs, right? Anyway, the game took ‘kin hours and I wanted to get home. I was also gutted that I had been turned over in the first half, so had a mini-grump on.

Most annoyingly I rolled 2 for my winnings against Ben’s 5. I also equalled my ff of 3 so no movement there. So one almost tough choice to make about how to spend 120k before my next game with Probability Phill and his brutal rats next match: a re roll or a couple of line woemen? Or even replace Sister Leibraumilch, with the lame wrist, -1AG, and buy one more Vanilla Nun…?

Anyway, my BIG issue (not today thank you) is that my Blitzers are just not getting the skill ups that I had hoped they would. All the (three) other positionals have now got Blodge and are at least choosing what they’re going to get next, If they haven’t already got a second new skill. The Mothers on the front line are, meanwhile, enjoying their bonus skills from the start of the season, but not taking their role as experienced exemplars seriously enough. They should be leading the way in getting those Mighty Blow hammers out and heaping on the Guard. I’m also getting nervous that Chablis is the ONLY player with tackle… Despite identifying this trait I always get scared to pass the ball to a blitzer. In fact having never had a 2 score buffer zone I haven’t had the guts to try ANY needles 3+ rolls! Zons are a low scoring team

[theBymster]

I'm not gonna lie: I played Goldengate in my next league game. we drew. Then we shared a room in Nottingham at the NAFC. no tention at all, that was nice, but 2 games of Sevens and 6 games with Norse mean I cant remember much about our SBBL Week 6 game. soz there's a gap in my blogging. Except to say that Sister Chardonnay got a skill up and took Side Step, to be annoying and to hopefully widen the pitch for her.

[theBymster]

SBBL Season 7, Week 7.
Cross-Cinference week.
Blue nuns Vs Hornucopia
theBymster vs Simon
Amazons Vs Chaos

My second meeting this season against one of the four returning teams. So the first set of choices was what inducements to take. A healthy 500,000 gp was put in my account by the powers that be. Initially my mind looked towards Morg ‘n’ Thorg who once nearly saved me against a mightily overpowered chaos team in the Shrewsbury Blitzcraig, but I could see there was gonna be a slugging match between Morgan and the Horney Minotaur, and with Claw, Mighty Blow and god knows what else I thought it best to spread the gold around. Karla was the auto include choice for me, ST4 and Dauntless should be effective against all that Chaotic Muscle, esp with Dodge and Block and Jump Up is one of my favourite underestimated skills. It nearly always catches the oppo unaware. I went through so many mind changes leading up to the match as to what to do with the rest of the cash: Willow for the LoS and a Keg and a Blodge Mercenary seemed like the ultimate spread of the wealth, but I got cold feet as the haters been posting on fb ahead of the GW (or is it FW?) release of their Willow Rosebark model. Roxanne IS gorgeous, but I didn’t want her violated by all those horny, muscle bound animals! She just looks a bit too squishy up against a well-developed Chaos team. On the drive to the match I decided: Karla and Zarah, the twins from different mothers. It left nothing else for Mercs, Kegs or even traveling coaches, but it was a plan and I haven’t looked back.
Despite the huge disparity in FF we both attracted 12,000 fans and with a cheer leader I was confident of getting a fifth re roll at some point. The weather was fine and Simon won the toss, electing to receive.
His Mino had Block, +1 ST, Claw, Mighty Blow as well as Horns and Wild Animal. There were two Blockers with Guard, I think all of them had Block, and I swear one of them had dodge and +1AG. Thankfully no one had Tackle (except the star of the blue show, you’ll find out about her later) but there was a +1ST Beastman and a couple with Block or Blodge and one with Kick.
Generally, I expected that I was going to be torn apart, players sent of left right and centre until I was hugely outnumbered and over-run by Muck and Muscle. I thought Dauntless would be the major offensive against the Mino. Out of who’s sixteen turns rolled four 1s and rolled a 3 to stand up one time on the Wild Animal test. Yes, you read that right; the Mino had to stand up. That’s ‘cause Zarah was on his case with Stab. After T1 I realised his ST was 6 so needed a 4+ to get any Dauntless adrenalin pumping or just roll a 9 with 2D6. Plum finished her game on another table and came and confirmed the odds for me after I had failed to Stab “The Beast” three turns in a row. Then it worked. The Cattle was lowing. Face down low! I think I got two successful Dauntless attacks and two failed ones, where I had two supports anyway, so It was 1D block. The only thing that broke his armour was stab though, and boyoboyoboy was it satisfying!
The first drive was a bit of a steep learning curve for me, there were so many skill up loom bands the chaos could have been mistaken for a hula hoop display team. The drive lasted the entire first quarter sending Sister Cambazola, the running quarter-back Thrower and a Linewoman to the KO tent. There was usually some nun or other rolling around on the ground too. However, the Minotaur kept rolling 1s and the Blockers were mostly a bit slow so I feel like I managed to keep a healthy pressure up on the ball to ensure a score rather than a stall from the right honourable gentleman opposite. What I learned was that with an AG4 Blocker, and a Sure Hands Runner Chaos had options to move the ball around and try some elven bullshit as well as some bull horns bullshit. Only I didn’t really learn that, as I proved in the fourth quarter, but before that came the …

Second Quarter, My drive.
“Both Catchers on the pitch now, let’s get the threat upfield. Chablis and Chardonnay, I want you dodging around by that endzone like hookers at a truck stop!”
The weather changed, it was heavy rain; +1 to all pick up, catch and intercept rolls. And they had Kick. So it ended up being a very deep kick, one away from the End Zone. Cambazola got her beautifully manicured hands on the ball first time, no re roll needed, and was determined not to put the catchers under any pressure by throwing to them. She was still in the back half of her own half of the pitch but everyone else managed to make an effective yet economical screen to hold the horn wielding goat-men at bay. I actually sat back and enjoyed the artistry of what I’d done there, for the first time I felt secure without the self entrapment of a tight cage. The problem was the rain and all the Oof and Hoof in the way. Never mind the fact that I was struggling to remember what turn it was. I moved up the centre of the pitch, towards the road block, then moved left but didn’t have the legs left to make it a fake and send anyone right nor even slip a catcher through the net and up field to draw the muscle away from the ball. Half way through T7 I realised it was a classic case of too little, too late. So did Simon. He beat up on my girls, but then I returned the favour, And Karla got the Only Cas of the match; a Guard ‘n’ Block Blocker. Result.
Second half, Nuns to receive. Another deep kick in the pissing rain. But I had 11 players on the pitch, all my positionals and two stars, Simon was 11 players, but missing a valuable Blocker. I started with an aggressive 5 Players on the LoS including two stars, toe to toe with the Mino and his Beastie cohort. Cambazola picked up the ball with no hitch again and started pacing towards the centre while a Blitzer and Catcher combo held each wing and the big girls layed down some cloven hoof clove chewers in the daisies. This was the power play I had hoped for. Over the next three turns Zarah stabbed the Mino and put him face down, another blocker and a goat-boy got KO’d. (I was so so tempted to gang foul the Mino but already he had pulled so many of my players to him that I took the chance to move up field and get a loose cage midfield. Oh yeah, and we had a bribe each from one kick-off result or other!?!? At One, Nil down I felt I HAD to concentrate on getting scores.) T5 I had another tough decision to make: With two GFIs I could get Sister Chardonnay into the End Zone, with another two GFIs I could get Cambazola next to her to give her a hand off, as they say. The benefit of this would be a whole quarter to turn Simon over and score. Sounds conceited? He was three players down I had stacks on my side and had figured it’s way easier to roadblock his team and pressure them than to stall out for the draw, and I was suddenly hungry for league points. (Plum is running away with our conference lead. Four of us are in contention for the remaining play off place. Dragonborn has already drawn in this cross-conference week, Malkin has lost, and Goldengate has won. So, a win would massively improve my chances with my next match arranged against Dragonborn.)
However I used a re roll for something or suddenly realised the rain would affect the hand off catch anyway, already committed to the plan I decided to adapt it to get the ball carrier as far up the field as I dare (no GFI) and while she had Chardonnay with her, she was on the wrong side to provide cover from incoming hairy horners. I set up who I could to screen of the dynamic duo and had to trust in a lack of dodge for my opponent. It didn’t bother him that he had no dodge. A Runner stepped away from Mother Frankfúrter and got a 2D block on Cambazola. Double Push, re rolled to Both Down & Push. This was the second time I let the horny boys get a block on the ball carrier and the second time the dice let me keep said ball. It truly IS a dice game. T6, bit of 2D blocking to clear the loose cannon by the ball carrier (and a couple of others to see if I could side-line anymore goaties… then a run in.

The Last Quarter was the most dramatic, however. The weather changed. Great. Goat with Sure Hands picked it up, pressure. I had three turns to turn over and score, better get on with it.
My kick went wide, the Mino Roared with Wild rage again, Simon had 9 players, one of whole was holding the ball. Three caged around him. The usual suspects were bullying nuns on LoS and two grazers were on the other wing. So I felt confident in applying pressure and stalling the ball. Wrong wrong wrong. Kala went and took out a corner of the cage and tagged the carrier. Girls behind her to roadblock any advance forward up that wing. Blitzer and Lino tagging the wingers on the other side and Zarah nipping behind the Bull to get the sweats on the drivers.
The problems started at the begging of Simons turn, when I realised the winger on the half way line was actually the AG4, Blodger. Oh.
A Clever bit of manoeuvring got Karla shunted out of the way of the ball carrier who GFId to hand off the ball to the AG4 Blodger. Who caught it, dodged away and double GFId it up the pitch towards the score zone. The one consolation was that somehow this used up Simons last ReRoll. But still, my jaw was on the floor. My pulse was up and my irises narrowed. It took me a second (Hour) or two to work it out but I could see a way to get sister Chardonnay, with her Tackle skills, to a 2D block on the annoying ball carrier. Not having thought what to do after that I set off: A Lino got up and moved towards the offending chaos article. A simple GFI to get there. Failed the first, plenty of re rolls, oh, failed the re roll. On the deck goes she, turn over, GAME over, surely? A bit of bashing, a bit of tagging from the farmyard crew and, of course, sending the ball carrier as far as his chubby little agricultural legs could carry him. Which turned out to be the square next to the End Zone.
Me, still Major Sweats, got Tackle Girl next to ball carrier with two GFIs. (if 2 was forward for the ball carrier, she was in square 5 on the scatter template.) then someone else, probs the tripping lino from last turn, with two GFIs into Tackle Zone of the potential scorer, (on square corresponding to 6 on scatter template.) I did do some bullying elsewhere in the field, using number advantage while I could. Not to make life easier for Simon’s next Oppo, not cos I’m a sore loser, but to stop him doing the same to me next turn, honestly.
Sadly I didn’t have the legs to force the carrier into a 3+ dodge. He only needed a 2+. (you can tell what’s coming cant you?)
Slow Mo:
Simon: “I’m not going to try anything else. A dodge to there.” Shakes a single dice in his hand.
Me: “On a 2+, no re rolls?”
Simon: “with the Dodge skill.” Lets go of dice.
Me: “She has Tackle.”
Dice Lands on a 1.
Stunned silence from both Coaches.

[theBymster]

Well, the inevitable did happen; work and life got in the way of my regular, detailed blogging activity. The Blue Nuns have played their last two SBBL matches and I haven’t written a thing about it, and weeks later I feel guilty for leaving their story unfinished so here’s a little summary to try and bring some closure for this shared experience…

Mother Bratwurst is the first Blitzer to level up! OK, all the blitzers started off with one bonus skill, so its not like they’ve been running around un-skilled, but it’s taken me this long to get a second MVP on any of them. Mother Bratwurst already had Dauntless so in her role as Giant Slayer it seemed only right and proper that she get Mighty Blow and boy do I wish I’d started pumping up these girls in pink much sooner! (I’ve painted my team with a colour coding, a variation from the convention of base colours; all the blitzers have pink bases and wimples, Line girls – white, Thrower – grey, Catchers – yellow.)
Ahead of my game against Simon and his Chaos Chosen Plumb commented: “But all those blitzers with Guard and Mighty Blow, right? You’ll be fine.” Grrrrrrrrrr!

SBBL Season 7, week 8.
Blue Nuns vs Screaming Skulls
Amazons vs Undead
TheBymster vs Dragonborn

Details, statistics, order of events, player names, dice rolls, tactics and counter tactics, all are forgotten now. It was a quiet and thoughtful game, with outbreaks of attempted light-hearted humour and trying to put a gloss over how important we each felt the game to be. I think it’s fair to say that we have both taken teams that we hope will further our understanding of the game, rather than competitive, “Got to be Number One,” teams. What with Plumb and Ben Malkin still unbeaten in our conference chances of a play-off spot were getting tighter and tighter. With those two playing each other as their last game, Dragonborn going against Goldengate and me up against Dan and his (Greebo Bunnies) Nurgle team, also following a lot of drawn results in the cross conference week, these last two weeks were really going to shape the final positions in the conference.

I wish I could give you even a bit of reportage. It finished 1:1 on TD’s and 2:2 on Cas.
Both of my Casualties caused were from Mother Bratwurst. The first was a rookie Mummy in the first half, who I was very glad to se leave the pitch, but who then passed his Regeneration roll (the first ever for The Skulls ) the second was a well tooled up Wight in the second half who was killed outright, for whom I did feel a bit sorry for… but then I got over it!
The two cas I received were both Badly Hurt results on Line Women, so I got a way lightly I feel.
I remember that I was constantly trying to keep spread out over the field, defending the fast ghouls and trying not to get too caught up with the slow Mummies and Linos, avoiding the damage to my player’s armour and my brain ache from big rucks. I also remember being particularly pleased with myself for forming an effective screen to shield the catcher Sister Chablis as she strolled (or possibly dashed) over the line. I think at one point I even gave the ball to a Guard Blitzer so she could earn some SPP, but it went horribly wrong in a nasty ruck and I was lucky to get the ball out to the blonde winger for her first score.

With only one game left there were only a couple of useful options for MVP. Sister Werbergunder, a Line Girl who rose above her peers by causing a cas early in the season, got it. A normal level up with Nurgle ahead, she went for Wrestle.