My Blood Bowl season has continued apace, although frankly I've been a little too busy to keep up with this blog recently. Below are some short summaries of the next three matches in my Blood Bowl campaign.
This was always going to be a tough game. It was an interconference match up against a Khorne team. The Bloodlusters were coming into the game with two journeyman pit fighters after one of their pit fighters was injured in their previous game. My plan in this match was to try to keep their Bloodthirster busy using my Minotaur, Big Jim.
This match was always going to be a tough ask for the Lambs, and despite having two close opportunities to score whipped away from us, IIRC the score was 1-0 to the Bloodlusters at half time. The Lambs had cabled the Chaos Wastes for the services of star players Chaos Warriors Lewdgrip Whiparm and Bilerot Vomitflesh but sadly they did not make the impact I was hoping for. Bilerot is an interesting star player to field as he has such a nauseous stench that even heralds of Khorne were finding it difficult to be in the same area as him. He makes a great defensive player to field.
I think I made a mistake in opting for a couple of expensive Chaos star players for this one - I should have bought some more team re-rolls and a lack of these really punished me. I also did not show enough awareness of where we were in terms of the game clock, which also cost me. It was a learning experience, let's leave it at that. Helmut Hooves was seriously injured while Rudiger the Cruel picked up MVP honours for the Lambs.
The Lambs managed to draw against this goblin team, which was an achievement if you ask me. It did not start well, with Big Jim being taken out by a chainsaw in the first turn of the first half. Luckily the offending goblin was sent off not long afterwards, but the damage had potentially been done.
This team did not allow me much in the way of inducements, so I was playing with no re-rolls against a team with an arsenal of specialist players, including a pair of trolls, a doom diver and a fanatic. The trolls kept trying to maneuver into a position to throw the doom diver, and at one point he was almost eaten, but luckily the Lambs stayed in the game with the Chaos Warriors making their presence felt.
It was the first time I played a team with Dodge skills and this was difficult to cope with for a Chaos team more used to smashing things until they stopped moving. The goblins were quick and agile, but when we made contact with them they went down hard. In the second half Big Jim came back on and the goblin injury bench started to get more crowded. We had a journeyman Beastman playing to make up the numbers as Helmut Hooves was away hurt, and he succeeded in putting a goblin in the hospital, so was promptly offered a full time contract.
Another shut-out, this time against a fearsome team of orcs. My luck was against me all game long. I had an absolute shocker. It was one of those matches where even my opponent was taking pity on me and offering helpful hints. That said, these orcs were formidable, no arguments on that score. I think the result could have been a lot worse.
The Lambs were crippled on turn 4 when Big Jim was sent out for the rest of the game. This was the first time someone had succeeded in doing this all season, so respect there. My impression of this team was that they were almost as tough as dwarves, but faster and more agile. My traditional advantage with my heavily armoured Chaos Warriors was negated by the infamous Black Orcs.
Some honours were salvaged in the second half when Mikkel Ironfist put one of the Black Orcs in hospital. But the Lambs had to fight tooth and nail to keep the score to 2-0. The orcs kept a tight wall of blockers around the ball carrier, anchored on their troll, and making liberal use of the Guard skill. But they seemed a very versatile team. Luckily they lacked a passer, having lost theirs KIA in their previous match, but did have a lone goblin they could toss, and it was he who grabbed one of their touchdowns.
That's it for now; I'll be returning with a summary of the rest of the season as time allows. Thus far my impressions of the league have been very positive indeed. All the players are keen. The levels of experience vary, but primarily people are there to have a good time, first and foremost.
Although I have been playing Blood Bowl since around 1990, long hiatuses in between mean I am no expert, and the first few games were really just learning experiences for me, as I got to grip with the rules and learned from my errors. I think the Lambs would definitely have done better with more re-rolls earlier on and I fundamentally failed to appreciate the importance of these to the overall game. Also, I understand Chaos can be a hard team to play in its early stages. My players are starting to pick up some experience now, and I may start adding new figures to designate my stars. We'll see.
Brighton Bloodlusters 3, Lambs to the Slaughter 0
This was always going to be a tough game. It was an interconference match up against a Khorne team. The Bloodlusters were coming into the game with two journeyman pit fighters after one of their pit fighters was injured in their previous game. My plan in this match was to try to keep their Bloodthirster busy using my Minotaur, Big Jim.
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| Big Jim takes down a Bloodletter daemon! |
This match was always going to be a tough ask for the Lambs, and despite having two close opportunities to score whipped away from us, IIRC the score was 1-0 to the Bloodlusters at half time. The Lambs had cabled the Chaos Wastes for the services of star players Chaos Warriors Lewdgrip Whiparm and Bilerot Vomitflesh but sadly they did not make the impact I was hoping for. Bilerot is an interesting star player to field as he has such a nauseous stench that even heralds of Khorne were finding it difficult to be in the same area as him. He makes a great defensive player to field.
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| Lewdgrip Whiparm lines up for a pass. |
I think I made a mistake in opting for a couple of expensive Chaos star players for this one - I should have bought some more team re-rolls and a lack of these really punished me. I also did not show enough awareness of where we were in terms of the game clock, which also cost me. It was a learning experience, let's leave it at that. Helmut Hooves was seriously injured while Rudiger the Cruel picked up MVP honours for the Lambs.
Lambs to the Slaughter 0, Squig Sin City Bengals 0
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| Doom Diver Down...! |
This team did not allow me much in the way of inducements, so I was playing with no re-rolls against a team with an arsenal of specialist players, including a pair of trolls, a doom diver and a fanatic. The trolls kept trying to maneuver into a position to throw the doom diver, and at one point he was almost eaten, but luckily the Lambs stayed in the game with the Chaos Warriors making their presence felt.
It was the first time I played a team with Dodge skills and this was difficult to cope with for a Chaos team more used to smashing things until they stopped moving. The goblins were quick and agile, but when we made contact with them they went down hard. In the second half Big Jim came back on and the goblin injury bench started to get more crowded. We had a journeyman Beastman playing to make up the numbers as Helmut Hooves was away hurt, and he succeeded in putting a goblin in the hospital, so was promptly offered a full time contract.
Goldie Lookin' Pain 2, Lambs to the Slaughter 0
Another shut-out, this time against a fearsome team of orcs. My luck was against me all game long. I had an absolute shocker. It was one of those matches where even my opponent was taking pity on me and offering helpful hints. That said, these orcs were formidable, no arguments on that score. I think the result could have been a lot worse.
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| Black Orc blitzers and their troll buddy warming up. |
The Lambs were crippled on turn 4 when Big Jim was sent out for the rest of the game. This was the first time someone had succeeded in doing this all season, so respect there. My impression of this team was that they were almost as tough as dwarves, but faster and more agile. My traditional advantage with my heavily armoured Chaos Warriors was negated by the infamous Black Orcs.
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| The Pain vs the Lambs |
That's it for now; I'll be returning with a summary of the rest of the season as time allows. Thus far my impressions of the league have been very positive indeed. All the players are keen. The levels of experience vary, but primarily people are there to have a good time, first and foremost.
Although I have been playing Blood Bowl since around 1990, long hiatuses in between mean I am no expert, and the first few games were really just learning experiences for me, as I got to grip with the rules and learned from my errors. I think the Lambs would definitely have done better with more re-rolls earlier on and I fundamentally failed to appreciate the importance of these to the overall game. Also, I understand Chaos can be a hard team to play in its early stages. My players are starting to pick up some experience now, and I may start adding new figures to designate my stars. We'll see.
There is an argument that Orcs are the best team, but then again, there's an argument that every team is the best team, so make of that what you will.
ReplyDeleteIf you fancy some off-season friendly matches, let me know. I hope to take part in the next season and could do with some practice myself!