Spiky Club Open 2005 Still Places Left

[Indigo]

Had a good time once again. Finished up with a 3-2-1 record and 3rd place overall so not too bad really

Game 1
vs. Craig Andrews' Undead. Started quite well and just got better. My dice were fairly average until he started rolling pretty poor scores. From then on I didn't stop breaking armour and left him with 4 men on the pitch at half time. Though most came back I still managed to stay on top to win 2-0 in the end.

Game 2
vs. Nazgit. Game of the weekend. We both seemed to play really well, luck felty fairly even throughout and though I stopped him scoring when he received he did the same to me for most of the second half. It was left to some pretty scary blitzing and hand offs to win it in turn 8 of the second half. Learnt a couple of decent defensive tricks here too!

Game 3
vs. Chris Blair. Was similar to game 2 with a very tight first half. I scored in 7 turns in the second half, leaving him only two turns to equalise. Despite a brave defense he got the rolls he needed to equalise in the end.

Game 4
vs. Buster Gut. When you have a dirty player who never gets sent off by an ignorant ref, things aren't going to be pretty. My DP managed to KO the bull centaurs 3 times, the mino and also injure a Chaos Dwarf. And the ref never saw a thing Though it meant it was one sided from near the end of the first half I still had to be careful to get the 2-0 win.

Game 5
vs. Gumboo. My second Undead team of the tourney. Leo played very well in the first half and despite my defence (which I thought worked well) he managed to score in turn 7. Though I had two turns left his perfect defence pretty much eliminated my chances of scoring again. Not to be put off I ground forward in the 2nd half, even going men up, until a 1 die dodge-block onto my (blodging) ball carrier so him go down injured and the ball went in the crowd. Predictably it landed perfectly for one of his wights to scoop it up and saunter in to win 2-0. Tho most of the game was brill I felt a bit robbed by the outcome in the end.

Game 6
vs. Cidervampire. Another Undead team. Things didn't go overly well in the first half with an abundance of POW results on his dice against all my blodgers. Not much I could do to stop him scoring really. Still, I tried for the two turner. His perfect defence (AGAIN) made things tricky but I still got forward, though the long pass let me down.
Second half I was still men down but somehow managed to get away until yes, another 1 die block saw the ball go in the crowd, ending up in prime position for Geoff. This time I managed to do something about it and took the ball back upfield. A few desperate scuffles later and the ball bounced loose. A catcher scooped it up and with a screen to cover her she ran into safety.

Extra time was bizarre. About 25 turns each (since we'd been told to play no-limits sudden death) and we both finished up with about 5 players each. It went both ways until managed to get the ball, survive a blitz and run off down the pitch to win 2-1 and grab 3rd place.

Overall, pretty chuffed. Apologies again for playing in a 3hr game and making everyone late. Not my fault, honest

[dantitan76]

Nice ... but who won?....

[Joemanji]

Nice ... but who won?....

Lucifer and Gumboo/Leo were still battling it out when I had to leave to catch my train ...

[Joemanji]

I was playing my Lizards again for this tournament. Ended up going 2-2-2, so quite a mixed bag.

Game 1 :: vs Gav Miles (Ogres) :: Won 1-0 (1-1)
Kicked to start the game, and managed to defend out the 1st half. Scored in a couple to start the 2nd half, and then defended out the remaining six turns. Felt a bit rusty to be honest, and was very glad of the win.

Game 2 :: vs Indigo (Amazons) :: Lost 0-1 (0-1)
Classic hard-fought game. One of those games you don't mind losing, because it makes the story better. Was always players down after Indigo got a Saurus-CAS on the first turn. Barely touched the ball all game. Was very happy with my play to hold Indigo out for 15 turns, only to make a minor error on the last turn to let him in for a (relatively) simple score. Probably my most enjoyable game of the tourney nonetheless.

Game 3 :: vs Richard Woods (Orcs) :: Lost 0-1 (1-0)
Horrible game to lose. 1-0 to a last turn TD for the second game running. Completely shut Richard out in the first half, he got the ball about 3 squares into my half, if that. I received in the 2nd half, but managed to fail every single important dice, including a quad-skull, and Richard took advantage to score the game's only TD. Gutted.

Game 4 :: vs Woody (Undead) :: Drew 2-2 (1-2)
As I said, I never thought I'd end playing Woody on table 22! Was lucky to scrape the draw tbh. My ball carrying Skink got stranded in the open when I was 2-1 down, but Woody rolled a pure quadruple skulls to blitz! Managed to hold out for the 2-2.

Game 5 :: vs Sean Hassey (Lizards) :: Won 1-0 (0-1)
An all-lizzie bash. Again, I managed to hold out in defence for the first half, despite some amazing Skink dodging antics from Sean! Scored quickly to open the 2nd half, and the game ended with me desperately trying to get as many TZs on the loose ball before they called time on the game, which ran over. Fun.

Game 6 :: vs Wightlord :: Drew 1-1 (2-2)
A strange one. Matt's high risk/high reward plays really took me by surprise! He scored well to start, and then almost managed to stop my reply by dodging into my cage to blitz the ball carrier. 2nd half got really grubby. I lost the ball early in my attempt to score, and then it got lost in a scrimmige for a while. Wightlord finally managed to chuck the ball into space for a Wight to run onto, but he failed a GFI in the endzone after doing all the hard work. The game ended with the loose ball in the endzone with two Saurus marking it, and Wightlord trying to roll the 5+ dodge and 5+ pickup to get the winning TD. That went on for 3 turns, with nobody else able to get up to support the play from either team.

[Dark_Soul]

Mine to follow, when I can remember my Darkson log-in!

[Podfrey]

Barely awake this morning after getting home at 1am (double traffic jam on the way back). Not really what you need after a 3 1/2 hour final .

The final (against Gumboo) was unbelievably tense, with Leo scoring from his drive and halting the reply (first half). This left me with a problem at half time. Either draw the game or push for the win. Deciding valour is the better part of discretion I put the ball in in 4 turns, leaving over half the game left. After a break down the wing from Leo I halted the surge and threw the ball downfield to a waiting runner. Unfortunately the pass was inaccurate and the scatter was not kind. This meant Leo could cover to make it difficult for me to retrieve the ball and despite a last ditch pass from the Mummy deep in the backfield it was too late for the Undead to take advantage. Ending the game at 1-1 there was no other way of deciding the outcome except penalty kicks (1D6 each, highest gets a point. First to 3 points wins). In the end though the Power of the Fez was mightier than the gargle and the final result was 3-2 on penalties.

Overall a very tough but enjoyable tournament.

One very sour point of the weekend though was the discovery on Sunday morning that someone had removed 5 of Max's Dwarves and his Norse Ogre from his case. Despite a thorough search of the hall and other figure cases they couldn't be found. If anyone does find them (they are very distinctive) then please return them.

Thanks to Yohann, Cris, Del, Patrick, fellow Geoff and Leo for 6 superb games of GW's finest offering.

[Max Horseman]

Congrats to Lucifer, a good effort fella ! Anyone who attended Spiky, please check the other thread I started.

Cheers,

Max

[Gumbo]

I had a phenomenal tournament. Was using Undead, first bashy-esque team i've taken to a tournament, and they ended on 5-1-0.

Game 1: vs Steve Watkins (Firebreather) with Undead.
An Undead v Undead contest. After the first turn scare of a failed pu, we were able to bring the ball safely into the cage and grind through Steves defence for the score. In reply, 2nd half, Steves drive went quickly with in a few turns, allowing us a 2nd reception and the winning TD (not for lack of trying, as Steve pulled off a last ditch 5+, 3+ 2+ 2+ 1dice take down on my wight which we thankfully recovered). 2-1

Game 2: vs Aran (Dwarfcoach) with Humans.

Aran had a horrible time on pick ups failing his first 2 turns of pick ups with his throwers 'Sausage Fingers' skill. But he managed to bring enough players back to keep us out, and when the mummy 1 rr 1'ed a gfi to blitz into the mesh of players and so to stand next to the ball, knocking himself out, we had to back pedal to shut out the human for the half. The 2nd half saw us grind up the pitch with some human blitzers poking round the back of the cage, but we freed ourselves and moved up the right to score. This left a two turn chance for Aran, but he went for the ball first and hit a 1 rr 1, and without any players in scoring position the game was at an end. 1-0. I should also mention the humans casualty count was phenomenal at a whopping 7 while we made just the one.

Game 3 vs Mikael (Odium_Khan) with Khemri

When the the weather hit pouring rain, the Khemri were always going to struggle with a 5+ pu on the ball. It stayed that way for the game and we were able to surgically remove the dirty players and throw ra whilst avoiding the mummies. Mikaels blocking dice were also pushback city, so the khemri were unable to make those crucial pitch removals. A last ditch effort involving a couple of skeletons, pick ups, hand offs, dodges and the rest did make us sweat slightly, but the ghoul and wight combo managed to blitz the carrier and the bounce went fortunately into ghoul hands allowing a 2nd TD. 2-0.

Game 4 vs Tom Brown (mrbrownesquire) with Humans

A deep kick on our reception meant it took a while for us to properly cage the ball, but we managed to push through to score, with the humans unable to score late in the half. 2nd half the humans wedged themselves next to the pitch, and so the Undead boxed them in popping out the ball to score the second.

Quarter Final vs Dave Candlish (Indigo) with Amazons

Another deep kick meant 2 turns to cage and Dave had men in my half before it was formed. However we shut the cage, and ground slowly up the pitch, Dave's zons retreated slowly and the ghouls were able to spring round them and score. With 2 turns left (and Dave eyeing up the 'Loser-omoter' for the probable necessity of a passing play) our Perfect Defense put pay to that and it was 1-0 at the half. 2nd half, Daves KO's came back, mine didnt meaning i was men down and facing a dirty player! My zombie line of scrimmage promptly went and i was left fighting a numbers game which the ladies were winning. As they made their way round my defense, it was left to a 3+ 1 dice block v a blodger with no tackle. POW came in. Ball bounced out into the crowd. Undead fans chucked it to my prone wight how pegged it up the pitch and scored. Cheeky to say the least, though i had failed a previous 3+ w/ rr dodge to blitz the carrier with my tackler so the take down i dont feel so bad about. The throw in however was cheer nuffle genius. Great game (arguably, until then!!)

Final vs Geoff Porrit (Lucifer) with Amzons

Well im sitting on this stage smoking like Dot Cotton at a funeral (Other peoples fags, appreciation to Woodie, Longshot, Lowney and Evil Git who furnished my nicotine habit, as i didnt get time to go out and buy any), wondering whether i can beat this hardened veteran or whether itll be Gumbo and chips for tea. So Geoff elects to kick first and we score within 4 turns up the side, no real problems, though 1 dice blocks did feature (pushbacks were adequate). Then on returning, Geoff, like the crafty Siren that he is, coaxed in my Strip Ball for a 1 dice block, which saw the ball spill kindly to my Ghoul, who picked up and handed to his blodge counterpart who pegged it up the field. The counter blitz ended in just a pushback, and my ball carrying blodger found himself next to the sideline needing a 1 dice 3+ no rr to score. Rolled the block...pow/skull. I then had to dodge out (in a tacklers takle zone) only to fall and spill the ball. This then meant some running back to stop the score attempt which failed and it was 1-0 at half time

2nd half, Geoff received and we hit a Blitz. Just the one ghoul made it through catching the ball, and geoff had to rethink and recover the ball. As the 2 other ghouls went into help, i made an error and didnt see the tackle zone present which the ball carrying ghoul had to dodge into to get out of the mesh of opponents. The 4+ w/rr failed, Ghoul injured, the ball spilled, and despite 2 wights (strip ball and tackle) we were now pretty much over committed, and Geoff scored in 3 turns. We received again against a more solid defense and knowing turns were of the essence, made a break up the flank, and another error meant i missed the crowd push situation i had made for myself. The ball went out and the throw in allowed Geoff to throw the ball to an empty square on an inaccurate throw which scattered to with in covering distance of my Mummy. He covered the ball and Geoff tried to pull of a large string of rolls to pass it out and score, which failed.


The game was 1-1, there was no time for OT so we went straight to the dice off. 'Penalty kick' dice rolls where the first to 3 wins. Even that ended up 3-2 A great game v a great coach and no shame for me in losing on a dice roll (woudln't know what to do with that cup any way; next to the family photos maybe?). 2nd place at my 3rd tournament can't say fairer than that (well a positive casualty count might have been nice!!!).

P.S. I really want to know if/how CandleJack got that trophy through customs. Do tell![/u]

[dwarfcoach]

Great weekend (again!), some great games and an overall score of 3 wins and 3 losses (although my NAF ranking will suffer due to some none-NAF wins and all NAF loses ).

Some fun, and sometimes odd circumstances and cool memories including (in no particular order):

* £16 breakfasts

* 'Not' going to the Blue Oyster Bar

* "Sorry mate, my cards been declined. Lend me a tenner for the next round, I'm sure it will be fine in the morning..."

* At 11.30pm asking a rather disgruntled looking barmaid when does the pub close and being told "When the boss stops drinking..."

* 3-nil spankings (Cheers Simon)

* 5-0 righteous victories (Cheers Dave)

* Lucky flip-flops


Fantastic event, thanks alot Dave & co!

[Pipey]

Great tournie. Cheers to Dave et al for organisation.

Had 6 great games with Orcs:

Game 1 vs. Besters (Jim)
Orc coach. Bit of a slug fest this one. Received and scored after an 8-turn grind/stall ( most beautiful thing in the game ). In second half thought I'd defended well til he pulled off an audacious hand off to a gobbo (on a 5 - sans reroll) who waltzed through my line and double pushed to score). Had three turns left to counter but it we weren't quicj enough. Result 1-1 draw

Game 2 vs. Dan
Dan was playing Undead. He received and I was a bit slack in defence to allow his wight to pass to his ghoul who legged it toward my endzone. couldn't knock him down with an ODB blitz and next turn he scored. Managed to get one back to make it 1-1 at half time. Second half executed the 8 turn grind again to win 2-1

Game 3 vs. Lycos (Dave)
Dave played Chaos Dwarfs. I received and scored in turn 7 with a Black Orc (ball landed on his head from the kick off). The CDs couldn't score back before half time so Dave set up again for the second half. He got a touch back and when he gave the ball to his Centaur I knew it would be hard. Dave scored in turn 6 giving me 3 turns to reply which I couldn't manage (my attempt relied rather heavily on the use of the lose-o-meter - never going to happen!) Result 1-1 draw

Game 4 vs. Ivan
Against Orcs again. I received and scored turn eight again In the second half Ivan was able to score in turn 4 due to a bit of good luck and an equal amount of tactical sloppiness from yours truly . Might well have scored the winner in the remaining 5 turns but I had been playing pretty slow (and had started late - helping poor Max find his figures ) and had to finish early.
Result 1-1 draw

Game 5 vs. Dwarfcoach (Aran)
Using humans. Aran is not very good at BB so this was an easy win. Especially after my hearty breakfast that morning had given me an extra boost! Result 2-1 win

Game 6 vs. Odium_Khan (Mikael)
Against Khemri. Khemri is a bit of a bugbear team for me. Still I managed to pull of a 2-1 win Miakel received but his attack broke down when his Mummies succumbed to woggy coconut syndrome. I was able to pinch the ball and score. Wasn't long before I was 2-0 up in the second half. Mikael did manage a consolation TD and a few consolation CAS late in the day.

************

Other highlights:

Purple Turtle (blue oyster???)
Mad Franky Frazer
Fare Dodging
Breakfasts

And well done Geoff for another hard fought win. NAF rankings could look very different when the results go up...

[BB-Pad]

Thanks to everyone for making my first tournament a really enjoyable weekend.

I won't go into detail about my matches but will say that luck had a major part in my first 3 wins and skill in my next three losses!

Meeting "Jeffrey the Butler" from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air in a pub in the town centre on Saturday night was a bit freaky but it was a good night even if we didn't make it to the salacious Honey Pot...

And Paul - you can't play Owen in a 4-5-1!!

Cheers,
Pad

[dwarfcoach]

Game 5 vs. Dwarfcoach (Aran)
Using humans. Aran is not very good at BB so this was an easy win. Especially after my hearty breakfast that morning had given me an extra boost! Result 2-1 win

Hmm, well Brenden is good at Blood Bowl and he did deserve the win he had against me...


(it appears he is not good at reading the terms and conditions when booking into hotels, especially the part that says if breakfast is included in the cost of the room or if it costs an huge amount extra that will added to your bill at the end... )

[Odium Khan]

Wonderful tourney which I'd gladly return to! Next time I hope I won't have to leave in the middle of the final (have to work on my confidence -I more or less knew I wasn't playing in that one when I booked my tickets ).
Cheers for all my opponents, drinking mates and especially to Stick and Bunny who transported us (me and Candlejack) all weekend!
I have also written a plea for help to gken1 on how to beat Orcs with Khemri... Hope he answers soon so I can practice long and hard for the Dutch Open. Beware all Orc coaches!

[Dangerous Dave]

Good tourney guys..... very short report from me...

2 wins
3 draws (zzzzzzzzzzzzzz)
1 loss (to brother )

Managed two 1 turn touchdowns - 1 v venemous and 1 v sputnik - the latter being a wild game in which about half of sputnik's team carried the ball on the same drive........

Great fun...


..... and Owen is never going to play well in a 4-5-1


Anyone for a Guinness?



Dave

[Candlejack]

okis.. here a short breakdown of my tourney...

Team: Undead (as usual)
Skill before the tourney: tackle on a wight

First Game John Humphries - Woodies

Nothing spectacular.. the woodies score in turn 3.. the undead bashing offence starts and slowly pounds the elves back into their endzone to score 1-1 in turn 8.. second half was basicly a 8 turn grinding drive for the undead interrupted by two or three attempts to leap-blitz my ballcarrier.. but with a rather shy defence the elves did not manage to stop the stall and the game ended 2-1 giving me 15 points.. next skill: dirty player on skeleton

Second Game Dave Dowes/Lycos - Chaos Dwarves

This game started out interessting. The CD got offence and tried to slow walk a cage through the middle of my defence.. in turn 3 it got stuck and ended up with it's two front corner gurads close to my players at the end of their turn. 2db opens the cage, blitz takes down the ball carrier, wight follows up, catches it and is trapped. Since i can't put down all players around him nor push him out he goes down in turn 4 and the CD recover the ball but leaving me a chance for a 2db blitz on him. only thing i need is to roll a push on a 2db with my mummy to free up an assist.. pow/skull, pow/skull reroll skull, pow/skull.. turnover.. YAY.. from this moment on the CD take over and punch me down.. so i start the second half with about 9 players or something like that.. 1 mummy in the ko boy along with some other players.. so i decide to go for a quick td and hope for some comebacks.. i manage to push my players up the middle of my opponents half but due to my lack of players he gets the ball carrier down.. on the start of my turn i have the chance to score with two 3+ rolls needed (pick up and gfi in blizzard) reroll wasted on pick up.. gfi fails with a 2.. ghoul falls over and dies.. from this moment on the game was over.. had only 1 ghoul and some zombies left on the pitch.. and with my oppoent having his dp still in the game and get the ref for him i ended up cleared from the pitch on turn 7 half 2.. lost 0-2 scored 1 point.. next skill: block for a mummy

Third Game Mike Parker - Ogre

tbh.. a rather boring match.. the ogres stuck to their offence tactic.. 1 gobbo in the backfield for the ball rest goes to the line.. so i spend the game with running around the line.. kicking down the gobbo.. scroing.. and on my opopnents turn explain him when he got 3 dice on his blocks and when not.. and what he needs to roll for passes/ttm etc. with him trying to tell me ttm would not be affected by tackle zones.. yeah right.. :-/ so i win 5-0 get 15 poinst again.. next skill: block on the other mummy

Fourth Game Michael Spencelayh - Chaos

chaos eh? sounds like a piece of cake, doesn't it? imo the best opponent i played in that tournament and with some other race he might have whooped me for good.. he spend lotsa time thinking but it payed off.. always got some decent protection on his ball carrier and managed to rebuild his cages almost everytime.. at some point the lack of skills and/or agility caught up and he could not keep up against the bashing of my undead or dodge away enough to protect the ball carrier anymore.. but despite getting 8 dices in total on the blockless ballgoat i don't get it down and even skull myself on the last attempt so the half ends 0-0 In half two i decided to completely go for the killroad which did not work out exactly the way i planned it.. socred 1 blcoking cas in total and my dp fouled the stupid mino 5 times with various assists resulting in 3 stuns, 2 prons and finally a send off.. *d'oh* luckyly i managed to block some beastmen into the ko box and my opponents luck let him down in the end.. so got a kinda lucky 1-0 in the end giving me 12 more points.. maybe he should not have shared the power of the fez with me next skill: dirty player on the other skeleton

Fifth Game Patrick/BB_Pad - Undead

ewwww... undead vs undead.. block mummies vs guard mummies.. 4 ghoul lineup vs 3 ghoul lineup.. this could get nasty.. my kick went exactly on the corner of pitch next to the LoS.. ghoul picks up the ball and hides behind two other players who where next to some players of mine.. so i open the "cage" with a 1db and the mummy charges in for the kill on the ghoul.. gets him down but does not break armour.. the ball bounces back to his half so he recovers it in the next turn but cannot get away far enough.. after 4 or 5 blocks and pushes my tackler takes the ghoul down again and one of mine gets it picked up.. i got lucky enough that ghoul did not go down in the following two turns so i was able to score the 1-0 and bash a bit for a change his second offence.. kick off roll.. perfect defence... ouch.. due to some lucky armour/injuries rolls and him burning some rerolls i get the ball again and get the 2-0 in at the end of the half.. pewh.. lucky me.. on my offence the weather turns to sweltering heat.. but that does not impress my undead much.. the good rolls continue and my opponent is outnumbered.. so i get the 3-0 in without to much trouble.. but now the luck turns a bit.. sweltering heat and his ko rolls don't work well for me so suddenly i'm down one player and start failing some early rolls.. together with a decent ball protection he scores 3-1 .. *scratch* my guys became lazy it seems.. but only 2 turns left and he sets up deep on my offence.. so i decide to go for another td.. blocking down the LoS and swarming in his half leaving only one ghoul in the backfield.. and whoops i fall down while bringing some guys in scoring range.. his players swarm up set some tacklezones and one ghoul gets into scoring range.. now i either can put down that ghoul or use that wight as pass reciver to get the ball to the scorer.. i decide to stick to my plan and try the pass.. need one go to make it a long pass and snakeeyes strike.. his ghoul runs up.. gets the ball.. scores.. 3-2 suits me right for getting greedy but still 16 points.. last skill: block on a ghoul

Sixth Game Simon Ashe/Darkson - Norse

Not much to say about this game.. rather one-sided due to my opponent failing many rolls and me makeing almost all armour rolls the only things that worked good for him were the 2db against and that one 3db against block he made.. av7 can be a pain when mummies walk over you... so i get a 2-0 win with 14 points..

After this game lots of people came and asked me what the score was and how many points etc... and everyone was like "Mhm.." or "So looks like you made it" or soemthing like that.. and i was only thinking "What are those people talking about?" since i had no clue there was a trophy as well for the "best of the rest".. so i just wait for the finals to end while being happy about my 5/0/1 ratio which is the best i had so far on a NAF-tourney.. then the awards ceremony comes up.. i hear dave saying someting about "most touchdowns" and while i wait for one of the elf coaches or skaven coaches to go to the stage i suddenly hear my name called out.. was just like "wth???" i mean.. getting most td on a 6 games tourney with 13 touchdowns.. that does not sound right, does it?? i mean i won't complain but you elf guys out there should really stop bashing that much and care more about this leather thingy.. now i was really ready to call it a day.. got much more out of it that expected.. then dave comes to the spiky league winner.. the "best of the rest" and suddenly again utters my name.. that was when it really went creepy.. plus i got this stunning trophy.. wooot.. i think i should stop playing now.. must have used up all my luck on that weekend..

so.. thanks to all of you for a nice tournament.. and especially dave and his crew for organizing it.. and for those who are wondering how i brought that skull home.. was not much of a problem.. the people at the airport security just had to look twice on their x-ray monitors and started laughing a lot .. *shrug*.. the only down side was that due to carrying it around in that box all the time with not much cushioning the silver spikes went off :-/ but with some glue i was able to fix it and now it looks like new again

Also got some pics online.. the last one shows the skull at his new home.. pics are rather large 2048 res.. and about 1.5MB each...