OK now the show the last of my updates for the Arab armies – for now at least. That is some more skirmishers. I have a load of bow armed skirmishers suitable for these armies already, but not many javelin or sling armed ones. Thus, I decided to use some of the ‘spare’ figures I had to create some bases of this troop type. Many armies of the period can have a good number of these troops.
The first 5 bases of sling armed skirmishers. These are generally useful and so are good to have for all armies. These would be the poorest troops in an force and thus they definitely do not have any formed uniforms or really many other weapons. A few have shields, but these would be pure skirmishing troops, not expected to stand up at all in melee. The shields are likely stolen but they do seem like a good idea if you can get them.
Next are 11 javelin armed skirmisher bases. Some of the middle eastern armies can actually have quite a few of these. Many times a troop type can be either a skirmisher or an actual Javelin base. So having a load of these gives me options. It also allows them to be used in big skirmish games as such as clashh of spears as light troops which is useful as well.
Below I have some closer look at these troops. I have combined the front and back shots but it hopefully gives you a better view of these. They are based like the other troops in the force allowing them all to fit in with the existing bases.
I am not sure the maker of these models. I think a good number are Museum miniatures, but there may be an old glory model or two mixed in. I don’t think there are any forged in battle ones in this set.
So there we are. A good number of skirmish figurers to allow me to field those forces as needed.
Jim: Welcome back sports fans. I’m Jim Johnson and I am here with Bob Bifford to discuss the games to end the regular season for the Flapping Fangs – our leagues Vampire team this season.
Bob: Yes Jim, The Fangs have played 2 games since our last catch up, but it has to be said neither have been error free or super impressive. The Fang’s also failed to do a single casualty in either game (to their opponents). That was not from a lack of trying but maybe was an indicator of their success on the field – espeically as they have managed to hurt their own thralls in both games.
Jim: Thats right Bob. But they were facing strong opponents who were well coached in each game, so maybe there should not be so hard on the results at any rate.
Bob: Maybe, but in the game after their first win there was hope with the fan base at least, that they could get past the score draws trend which seem to be the staple of the Fangs team.
Jim: True. The Fangs win last time was big and really helped their post season chances. However, they were still in the lower third of the league. All the teams this season have top level experienced coaches, so any of them might be expected to bag a couple of wins at any time. So that was always a threat.
Bob: Speaking threats, the first game we should talk about was vs the Dull Azz POW Boiz an Orc team of some renown. They are the only team not to have lost so far this season. They have a good amount of block and guard on their roster and hit like a true green team. That power hitting as we mentioned already something the Fangs have been lacking all season.
Jim: Yes and this game was played on one of the new ‘Hogtown pitches’, and very nice it was as well. You can see the kick off below.
The new custom Hogtown league mats set up for kickoff – with serious stout beers as well and food orders in
Bob: The Fangs received the ball first and did what has become typical for them, a slow steady march up field trying to burn time while scoring. The Orc’s put a lot of pressure on the ball carrier towards the end of the drive though, It required a hypnotize and a blitz from the ball carrier to get in the endzone for the score. Unfortunately, that pressure meant that they had scored in the middle of the first half. So not great time management of the drive.
Jim: Yes, that left a lot of time for the Orcs to level the score, and they nearly did. But the Fangs got to the ball carrier and as can be seen in the action shot below. They did knock the ball loose. Unfortunately for them, they could not secure it. This is a theme for the Fangs this season – sacking the ball carrier but not being able to really take advantage of the play following to score.
Vampires knock the ball loose but do not have any free players to secure the ball
Bob: True, but this did delay the Orc drive though. It put the Orcs on the edge of it not being possible for them to tie the game before the end of the half. But the Orc’s did recover the ball and worked around the vampires to ty to score. It required several successful hits, multiple dodges, a handoff in coverage and more dodges with a final rush for them to do it. In the end the animosity of the Orc team was the flaw in the move and that caused the failure to score. So the Fangs were up 1 to 0 as the teams went into half time.
Jim: The second half was the Orcs drive and although they secured the ball in a good cage, the Fangs again broke in and got the ball loose. Critically, again they just could not secure the ball themselves. The cage dive and attempted recovery had used up all the Fangs reroll’s though, which was a key move. I don’t know if the move and commitment was the right one at that time.
Bob: Yeah that was some cage dive and they nearly got the ball clear, but a final rush into the open by the Vampire blitzer with the ball failed in the end. Once again the Orcs recovered the ball and moved down field. The Fangs defense did not give up though. They sacked the ball carriers twice more on drive but just could not get control of the ball. By now of course the Orcs were winning the player numbers game, with multiple Fangs players in the KO box or injured. That became the key factor at the end of the drive. The Orcs had enough numbers to clear the remaining Fangs players and they ran the ball in for the drawing Touchdown.
Jim: Luckily for the Fangs, the one all draw turned out was just enough for them in the standings. By the skin of their teeth the had enough to secure the 6th and last confirmed playoff place. It came down to tie breakers on TD’s but all those draws gave them that. The Mighty Might Reds (an Ogre team) won both their last games and so had them tied in points. The Ogres early season losses gave them a worse TD record than the Fangs though. The Fangs has always feared that a run from one of the other teams would put their ‘drawful’ seasons at risk – which it did…
Bob: So then they moved into the game played for playoff positions. This was a rematch from their first league game vs. the River Stir Rovers (an old world alliance team). You can see the report on thast here Both teams look very different than that game. The Rovers had to go to their practice squad and pull in 4 journeymen for the match, due to a good thrashing by the Chaos Dwarfs in their last game. But this also meant they got the White Dwarf as a star player to help with in field coaching.
Jim: The Fangs have dropped their big guy (the Varghast) and instead have hired 2 new blitzers. Meanwhile they have developed their key vampires – with them all being Block and Dodge experts now. There are even a few Thralls with some skills around the team.
Bob: In this game the Fangs defended first and put up a good defence. The Rovers were moving the ball well and got it into the Fangs backfield. That when the Fang’s finally got it right and not only sacked the ball carrier but also secure it and scored a defensive touchdown.
Jim: Yes in an inspired move that was not expected by many fans, they got to the ball carrier who was somewhat protected. They then collected the loose ball and threw it to a runner to get free and away into the Rovers half. It was a good move but is was again costly on rerolls for them. Overall though, the go ahead score was worth it, especially as they managed to hold onto the lead going into the second half.
2nd half kickoff of the Rovers to Fangs – and yes more Stout being drunk, maybe I should have had more…
Bob: Yes they were in a strong position it seemed at the start of the second half, and yet thats when things went wrong.
Jim: Did they ever. The Fangs just seemed not the be able to do anything right – other than take their own thralls out of the game or fail a dodge. The usual trundling moves of the Fangs on their drives just never got going. They have done some stretch plays as well in prior games, but the Rovers locked down an option in that area quickly – especially by KO’ing one of the Vamp star runners. The whole drive was an issue from the start.
Bob: Exactly and the drive ground to a halt before the line of scrumage with a large ‘mosh pit’ of players. Now that is just the kind of game I like Jim. But it looked that the game would stall at this point, as neither side could get an advantage for a period of time. Then a push of a Vampire thrower onto the loose ball generated a very favourable bounce for the Rovers. The ball had bounced around the group of players a bit and eventually landed straight in the lap of the at that point unmarked Rovers star catcher.
Jim: It looked all to easy for him to just catch the ball, dodge away and run for and into the endzone. That gave the Rovers a tying score mid way through the second half. This was clearly the worse drive from the Fangs this season with a clear lack of ability – with both failed dodges and the bloodlust impacting them at key points.
Bob: It’s not a good look for them especially this close to the playoffs.
Jim: No and in fact it got worse, as there was still some time on the game clock. The Fangs were down to 7 vs 11 players for the kick off – and then to 6 as another Thrall fell to a vampires bloodlust. The Rovers swarmed forward and the Fangs had to concentrate just to keep control of the ball for the remaining turns in the game. They initially did make moves to score but those quickly were replaced by moves to just keep the draw. It was a close run thin at the end but their ball control held.
Bob: I don’t think the Rovers feel like they missed out too much though, as the draw securely kept them above the Fangs in the playoff ranks. That said they did try to get the vampire thrower down but they just could not get him on the floor.
Jim: Yes so we go into the knockout round with the Fangs licking their wounds and thinking about whether they need more training. They do have a decent warchest of money to use if they want to. At least the break will allow them to field a full roster for the knock out game.
Bob: We don’t know who that will be against either at this time. It should be the 3rd place team, but it’s close at the top. So it could be any of the top 4 teams depending on how their playoff placement games go.
Jim: That’s right, and we will be back to give you the highlights of that game when it is in the books. The Fangs will need a much better showing than in either of these two games if they want to get through that and continue. There are no ties any more and with the tendency for self damage the Fangs really need to win in normal time, something they have struggled with all season.
Bob: They need to get better at hitting their opponent vs draining their own players. But that is enough for today I think Jim. Thanks fans and as always good blocking.
OK something a little different this week. I have gone back to the lead/plastic pile and pulled out some old GW Shadespire Underworld models to paint as a change of pace. GW had these with yellow armour so I thought I would give that a try as something different as well. I did not want to copy exactly what they did – that is the way of disappointment with my results, but it is nice to stretch a little. Doing them in non silver/leather or red seemed like and interesting challenge.
So here you can see the completed lot of IronSkull’s Boyz. I do at some point really want to get these on the table to play Pulp Alley as a ‘pulpy fantasy’ game. There are other small number skirmish games where they can be used as well. I doubt they will get much play in Shadespire/underworlds though but you never know.
from left to right Basha, Gurzag Ironskull, Hakka and Bonekutta
As per normal with such posts II’ll do a closer view of the models below. Overall, I’m quite happy with how these have come out. The Yellow armour/clothing and green skin is an interesting combination but it sort of works.
Basha and Hakka
I did have to add a little red to them, just on some of the weapons. I tried to vary the yellows a little as well and dirty it up. Although not perfect they are interesting for their style. I did not want to go too much into browns on these – that would be going into colours I use a lot as normal.
The leader (Ironskull) is the figure with the cloak. I thought about doing that a drastically different colour, but in the end went with a different shade of yellow/orange. That gives it a look which completes rather than stand out. Note, although the pics make it look like these are a little shiney it’s just the matte varnish reflecting the light – honest.
Below is an example use of these for Pump Alley. They would be ‘Animals’ i.e. have no ranged weapons (and the bonuses are in the stats)- the models really do not look to have any ranged attack capabilities. I also gave them ‘Well Armed’. This gives them an ability to cancel a negative in combat once per round – which reflects their heavy weapons etc.
I did not want to go into the idea of using equipment etc and si these are built using normal pulp alley league rules. So they should play ok I think, The only issue with this league is they are very focused on close combat. They are powerful and somewhat cunning etc. and will be a handful to deal with, as Orcs should be.
Well it’s time to check back in with our two favourite Blood Bowl correspondents on how the Flapping Fangs have been getting on in their league.
This is the last league of Blood Bowl 2020 rules in Toronto. We will move to the new ones in the New Year.
And so over to our reporters:
Jim: Welcome sports fans to a ‘Feel the Pulse’ special update about the the Flapping Fang’s. I’m Jim Johnson and here with Bob Bifford to discuss their last few games of the team. We will also update you on the team and news. There have been three games since the last update so we have some ground to cover. We are reporting after the third game has just finished.
Bob: Yes Jim and it’s been a while since we did an update. All the games have been vs. top rate opponents. The Fangs first game was vs. the Bacon Club – a Norse team with multiple stars in the making. These include Pongo an Ulfwerener, and their Yhettee Harry H. “Zute” Hopper. In fact the whole team was a menace for the Fangs. It was a good solid game of hard hits all round. The Norse did a couple of nasty casualties early on on some of the Fangs better players, but luckily they recovered from those.
Jim: Ah regeneration is great – when it works. The Fangs did ok through and themselves took out the Clubs star Valkyrie Amber early on. They took the ball from the Club on their drive and scored a defensive touchdown. But they could not capitalize on this initial success. The Fangs stopped the second drive of the Bacon Club in the first half but did not get their hands on the ball again that half. In the second half the Club got a defensive touchdown of their own. So each team scored on their opponents drive!
Bob: Both sides were down in numbers towards the end. So the game ended in a draw. One thing to note is that although there was a good amount of hits, the Bacon Club’s Yhettee generally had a slow game – with only a single casualty.
Jim: The Fangs tried to play more for the ball than the hitting game. In the end they did ok to get a draw from this game. A point from a tough opponent is not the worse result for them.
Bob: True but you can’t help but think the Fangs avoided a true beatdown here by inches. The Fangs do not want to play those games.
Jim: That leads us to the second game. This was against the Bad News Boarz a chaos Dwarf team. They brought in the star gutter runner Skitter Stab Stab for the game. He ending up being a key factor in the result.
Bob: Sure did Jim. With his knife he ‘stabbed’ his way into the books not only taking out one of the Fangs runners, but also scored the winning touchdown for the Boarz. He was a dual threat with the knife and his legs, which lead to the Boarz win.
Jim: Yeah the Boarz had the ball first and slowly moved the ball up. They had a couple of scares early in the drive, but looked to try to stall out for a score. That is when then Fangs blitzer ran in and took down the Boarz ball carrier. But rather than secure the loose ball first, the Fangs decided to try to set up do a stretch play and go for a defensive score. The Fangs failed in their initial setup of this though, which allowed the Boarz to recover the ball and go one up at the end of the half.
Bob: The Fangs bad play continued in the second half, when trying a quick score to get the game level their remaining runner missed a key catch. This could have been catastrophic but the Boarz were not able to secure the ball in the next turn. It allowed for a ‘hero play recovery’ from the Fangs. A vampire thrower Aleksandr Rottmann dodged past several Boarz players, picked up the ball in multiple tackle zones and then threw the ball to a thrall who had dodged free and rushed into the endzone. This made the game level with time left on the clock for both teams
Jim: But in the end it was to no avail. The Boarz used their star player – who had been targeted by the Fnags multiple times in the game but had survived. He used his speed to get in position and then rush into the endzone for the winning score with time expiring.
Bob: The Fangs have been guilty of trying to do too much in several of the games this season, This is one of them. If they had secured the ball first at the end of the half vs tying to for the score they may have got something from this game.
Jim: That’s true Bob. It would have made scoring harder but the safer play was denying the score. That said, Skitter was worth his fee and then some for the Boarz in the game.
Bob: Talking of stars, the Fangs last game was facing a team with Cindy in it. It was the Satan’s Teeth – a Human team who have been doing really well all season, with an undefeated record. Unfortunately, for this game Cindy was not helpful for the Humans.
Jim: She certainly was not. At least on this night something was amiss with Cindy. Maybe she had a fright on the way in and was scared of vampires. Could it be a hold over from a bad Halloween and making too many blood pies? She was not available for comment after the game as she is still selling her wares, so we may never know. But she fumbled thrown bomb’s 3 time during this game!
Bob: That level of play was not what Satan’s Teeth needed to help keep their winning streak.
Jim: The Humans started ok though, kicking to the Fangs. That had the Fangs make a slow and steady drive to score in the middle of the first half. The Humans and their mass of mighty blow did have an effect taking multiple Fangs players to the KO or casualty tents during this drive. It seemed the Human’s tactic was to reduce the Fangs numbers as much as possible in this drive and then win in the second half.
Bob: That worked to a limited extent though as the bench and KO returns ensured the Fangs were never that down in numbers on kickoff’s. One thing I was surprised at was that Satan’s Teeth did not have Cindy on the field for this first defensive drive.
Jim: I was too. But the pouring rain before kickoff, which stopped just as the game started may have been one of the factors for that decision. The fast score ability of the vampires may have been another factor. The Human’s received the ball with loads of time to try for a tying drive before the half. But things did not go to plan for the Humans. Their developing star thrower Louis Hackflem messed up the pickup of the ball which was within reach of the vampire players! This allowed the Fangs to get the ball themselves. Although not in a great position for the Fangs, with the ball carrier exposed and in the open this changed the humans drive. The Humans now had to work hard to stop going 2 down in the first half.
Bob: The Humans and especially their Blitzer team did some good hits on this. Although it was close they did stop the Fangs scoring. Part of this seemed to be the Fangs playing it safe vs. risking things for the score. A slightly more cautious approach from the Fangs coach, which I disagree with. He could have put the boot in on the humans here if he wanted too.
Jim: Well it at least had the Fangs defending their lead in the second half. The Fangs luck seemed to have turned towards the end of the half with multiple failures as well. So maybe this was a wiser choice.
Bob: Never give the suckers a hope I say Jim. My style of play was always stamp on the exposed throat when you can.
Jim: Well Bob the Fangs did not go for the jugular – which may seem odd for a vampire team. The start of the second half started badly for the Humans as well. A Cindy bomb fumble and Louis Hackflem again missing the pickup had the ball loose in the human endzone and a swarm of Fangs players in threatening positions. Note, the failed pickup by Louis was a second time this game and something he has not done all season until this game.
Bob: Louis is a professional though and did over come this. With pressure of the Fangs players bearing down he picked up the ball and passed it to Hooded Fang their star catcher. He sprinted off down the sideline. The catcher was at midfield and the Fangs had no open players to counter this. Was this the game breaking move for the Humans?
Bob: No Jim it was not. In a set of moves involving multiple hypno’s the Fang’s freed up thralls to mounted a counter to this. In the end human catcher got carted to the casualty tent and the ball bounced loose. Just the kind of Blood Bowl I like Jim. This was a play by a thrall with a hypno gaze assist to take all the skills away from the star human catcher.
Jim: That was a good score saving hit for sure. The Fangs secured the ball and moved it upfield after this. The Fangs also surrounded Cindy – the biggest threat at this point, who fumbled her bomb throw even after the coaches extra support from the sideline. So that allowed the Fangs to run in the second sore.
Bob: There was just enough time for both sides to get some good blocks in before the game ended. The humans did some ball passing – like it was an exhibition or something, but that was safe in their own half.
Jim: So there we are a win for the Fangs. At the end of this the Fangs are holding on to the last position for straight qualification to the post season. They need at least a point to ensure they keep that with the other teams challenging for the post season.
Bob: Sure do, and they are up against the undefeated Orcs of the Dull Azz POW Boiz. That will, be a real challenge for them. The Fangs team have developed though these games though and have a solid core of block/dodge players at this point. Their punch though is still limited with neither their Blitzer or big guy really stepping up the plate. So time will tell if they have enough muscle to handle the tooled up Orcs.
Jim: Bob, we have a late breaking new story, from the Satan’s Teeth coaches post match interview. Cindy has been asked to stop making her buttered yam and turkey leg pies in their future games. Those were a new addition to her selection for this game – based from the US Thanksgiving theme. The coach believes those pies are just too greasy for game day, causing Cindy and Louis (a big pie fan) to have slippy fingers during the game…
Bob: Ohhhh… those pies sound great Jim. Hmmm… I think it’s time we sign off here so I can find some of those pies for my own investigation of this news story. Thats before they are all gone…
Jim: …and thats Bob gone from the booth. OK sports fans, it seems we have come to an end here. Bob is already hunting down those pies in the same manner he used to hunt down the ball carrier in his playing days. I do hope no unsuspecting fans gets in his way.
Some of the Arab armies allow a few bases of mixed melee/bow troops. To field these, I painted a few specific bases with some bow and spears. The purple troops have 2 bases of each and the green have 4 melee troops and 2 bow. This means that for ALDG can field 4 bases of these mixed troops which have special uniforms. I have other bases which I can use for these troops if necessary, but these allow such troops to be a little bit more unique on the table. You can see them all below.
The green bows are in a different shade than the foot troops. The foot are also swordsman in reality rather than spears which the mixed troops usually are. Still they give me another option and make the forces more colourful. I doubt anyone will complain if they do not have spears when I explain what these bases are.
Below are some close up shots of the various troops. The purple/blue would be an expensive dye and so these are for more elite troops. Which kind of makes sense as well.
The green ones will also be better mixed troops or just elite swordsmen. Either way all these stand out from the normal rabble look of my typical foot troops for the period. So they will be clearly something different on the table.
Lastly the bows. They have different looks to my existing forces so can be elites or part of the mixed units. I don’t think the different green color really will make any difference for that – this was me playing with different greens.
So using the Ottomans as a basis for my Arab forces is great and gave me loads of cavalry and medium foot, especially bow armed ones but no real heavy foot. Now they were not the most common type of troop in Middle Eastern forces in the crusades period, but many of the armies do have an option for a few of bases of these troop types. Many of the heavy foot troops in the armies are spear based – which makes sense with the amount of cavalry which are used in the area.
So, I have done 6 ADLG bases aka 12 DBA bases of heavy spearmen. These are great for ADLG as they cover those troop type and what is needed in all those armies. Some of the DBA forces also can have 1 or two of these I believe, so these cover those as well. Doing 6 bases even allows me to use these as 2 or 3 units for Hail Caesar and Midguard games.
I purposely have done these with a variety of colours in a mixed style. Thus, that gives a more informal militia look for the unit vs. a formed and uniformed force. I do not believe many of the armies of the period would have uniformed troops for this type, so the decision to do them in a style which gave them a more mixed look was an easy one.
The basing and colour scheme makes them work with the other troops in the force that I already have. It’s simple but it works.
All these figures are I believe from Museum Miniatures. Again the single pose is not great but I these are not the most interesting troops in the army. So they work well for this really basic but important type of troop for those armies.
Following up on the camel armed cavalry I showed last time, the other type of camel troops in ancient warfare are the light/skirmishes. These are counted as light horse in ADLG and DBA.
In many lists you can have a couple of these even if there are no heavier camels allowed. I guess a few skirmishes on camels is not that unusual if your kingdom or recruitment area boarders the desert. Other armies with more camel options can have a few, but it seems 4 is usually the maximum, so I have done 4 bases of these as you can see below.
These are all bow armed, as that seems to be the most common type of weapon for these troops – although I can and will use them as javelin armed if needed. They are not common enough in armies to need extra figures for both types.
They are done in very much the same style as the heavier versions I showed last time. Again all these models are from Museum miniatures. They are also. 40 x 40 bases and done in the same style as all the rest of the army to fit in with them.
OK after a few posts on Blood bowl – and more to come, I thought I would post this time about some camels. Yes really…
Camels are an interesting mounted option for some of the armies in the middle east. I actually used these in the last Hotlead ADLG tournament, as a Tuareg army (which is mostly camels) so they already have seen the table. But even at the time I said I would do a closer look at all the models – so here that is.
There are in total 14 bases of standard 3 models, with to a base camels. In ADLG and DBA they are supposed to be on a 30 mm deep base, but these figures are so big and long that I used 40mm square bases instead. ADLG has rules to handle this and it’s easy to cope with in DBA as well.
All the models are from Museum Miniatures in the UK – and they are nice sculpts, but a little big/long for the 30mm deep bases. Museum Miniatures have a single pose per pack but I bought a combination of their packs and mixed them to give a more random, more modern and realistic look to the bases. That means some of these are from different ranges but they all do seem to mix fairly well together.
Many of the bases have a lance armed figures on them. In fact 10 bases do, and of those 6 have at least one model with lance being held vertically. The other 4 bases have just bow and swordsman for the riders. This combination of figures on the bases allows me to easily model different weapons or quality levels of troops in a force.
Doing a bit of research before painting darker colours (blue/black especially) seems to be the common theme for Tuareg’s. So I decided to go with that for those colours vs trying to go for a light/white colour. It does give them a specific look, with a combination of blues and dark greens for the outer clothing. This seems a little odd to me – dark clothing will get hot in the sun, but it does make them look very unique and is somewhat realistic.
Below I have closer view of the figures so you can see them. You can see I have done all of them with the same shields and general looks. I worked to ensure that I kept the camels to realistic colours as well – and yes in theory camels can come in light/near white which I can use as a general.
Here are another 5 bases. From the view the forward pointing lances are not that easy to see, but are there. Luckily, the camels mean those tend to go above the heads of opposing infantry. In ADLG camels are really good vs. horse mounted troops. So they are good to have in some infantry.
Lastly, there are the 4 bases without a lance. These can be used for just bow armed camel cavalry or specifically poor style troops if they are not explicitly bow armed. Many middle eastern armies can have a few bases of camels and so these will do for all those armies.
Jim: Welcome fans to the Fang’s post game discussion. I’m Jim Johnson and here with Bob Bifford to discuss the Fangs latest game – their game 2 in the Hobble league. This is where the Fangs played the high elf team Tokyo Smoke.
Bob: Yes Jim and first, I have to say, it was a disappointing game in many area’s for me. Sure the it ended as a 1 all draw, but overall the game was missing something…
Jim: Ah yes Bob, I think you are talking about that a single real causality throughout the game and that was by the Smoke. In the end even that was regenerated. It was a very bloodless affair really, which is especially ironic that vampires were involved. You could say the game had very little bite…
Bob : <groan>
Jim: As it seems is far too common now for their games, the Fangs did caused more damage to their own teammates than they did to their opponents. Thats going to be a real problem at some point for them.
Bob: Yes thats not a good trend. But it was not only that – there was far too much ‘elf-stuff’ happening on the field. Lots of dodging away and running around rather than getting stuck in. I know the Smoke are a very skilled and well coached high elf team, but neither side seemed to be able to land effective blocks throughout most of the game. In the first half especially the Fangs tried but they were just incapable of putting together any good physical play – including decent blocking or take downs.
Jim: You are right Bob. The Fangs seemed out of sorts in the first half generally. They had gone through 5 rerolls mid-way through that half and had not put much pressure on the ball carrier of the Smokes. The failed hypnogaze and bloodlust’s really mounted up and challenged them. Added to that their blocking was poor overall, especially compared to the Smoke who were at least putting players on the ground, even if they were not taking them out of the game. The Smoke did have the some blocking issues – going though multiple rerolls early as well just to avoid turnovers.
Bob: So both sides sucked at blocks – and not in a good way. The Smoke did use Tod their frenzy player well though and surfed a Fang thrall early. But even the crowd were not into the blood in the game though as he got back into play in the second half. Tod continued to be threat all the way through into the second half when the Fangs KO’ed him for the rest of the game.
Jim: In the first half the Smoke did a great job of negating the Fangs attacks on the ball carrier. They moved the ball from side to side, avoiding the main thrust of the vampires, while containing the hypnogaze threat to their cage. Then, a couple of quick turn ending failures by the Fangs after they had run out of rerolls, allowed the elves an easy score. It turned out to be an easy stall and score for them at the end of the first half.
Bob: Bah elves… It was so bad in that half for the Fangs that even the quick consolation pass at the end of the half by Aleksandr was dropped. The Fangs I think were just happy to get out of the half only down by 1 and with a full roster of players still able to take the field. It could have been much worse.
Jim: True, their bloodlust and failures had stunned their thralls but not taken them from the game in the first half. The Fangs received the ball at the start of the second half and put together as decent drive though. Maybe that extra coffin rest at half time really worked for them.
Bob: You might be right. It looked initially like they may try to do a flying start and a quick score. But, in the end they did a more traditional pick up and carry the ball in a mass of players. The Fangs did get a couple of decent blocks here and KO’ed a couple of the elves on the drive. That was more like the Blood Bowl I like.
Jim: It was no sure thing though. Kip the smokes ‘ball hunter’ was denied an attack on the Vampire ball carrier, but it was still a close run thing, The Smoke put up a good defence but the Fangs Aleksandr powered through for the score.
Vampires on their drve, containing the elven threat while moving the ball slowly down the field
Bob: That gave the ball back to the Smoke with plenty of time for them to score for the win. The Smoke were down a player but the numbers difference was not that significant. Maybe the vampires fancied their chances of a take away for the win, or maybe they did just not want to risk stalling and risking the take away by the elves. Either way it gave us an interesting second drive from the elven Smoke.
Jim: The deep kick by the Fangs was just too deep though and went for a touchback, so things looked good for the elves. Then they had to burn their last 2 rerolls in quick succession on really poor blocks. So now they were a little more pressured – less leeway for mistakes.
Bob: We finally got a bit more of a good old thump’em game as well at this point. The Fangs hemmed in the elves near midfield, giving them less room to maneuver. So the game got a bit more bashy by all accounts. The Fangs even manage to KO another elf. Thats when there came a critical moment in the game.
Jim: Sure did, Ira the Fangs star runner declared a blitz on Frank the elven thrower who had the ball, behind a defensive line. It would be a 1 die block but the Ira had a reroll and the block skill. So, would Frank dump-off the ball or take the hit? Most of the dump off targets were marked so making them a risky proposition. The best target was a wrestle elf who was in worse field position. If he dropped the catch it would be an easy scoop and run for as score by the Fangs.
Bob: In the end Frank ‘manned up’ took the hit. Good call from my view point, to avoid the elfy stuff and take the hit like a true player.
Jim: Yes he did and course he went down from it. The ball bounced to a fairly safe position though for the elves. Keen to take the advantage of the loose ball, the Fangs other runner did dodge through the elven players to pick up the ball, but could not escape the press of bodies!
Bob: The vampire runner did not have the ball long as the elves hit back and KO’ed her. That was a key hit. As an aside, I have to say the Smoke’s elves were a match for the vampire runners all game. They did not remove them from the field until late in the game, but they kept putting them on the ground from nearly every hit.
Jim: True, even the bodging vamp Ira could not keep her feet when taking hits in this game.
Bob: In the dying turns of the game the elves had to try some ‘elven shenanigan’s’ to get the score. Without rerolls and having their key players marked by the Fangs though meant that these attempts ended in failure. So the game drew to close as a draw.
Jim: Overall, the Fangs had a chance there at the end but I think they were happy to get out of this one with a draw. The high agility and speed of the elves had given them a good chance to score in that last drive. It was the vampire defence which held, but only just. The take away and possibility of a score was great, but it seems the Fangs were happy to avoid the loss more.
Bob: Agreed it seemed like that.
Jim: The poor first half of the Fangs where little worked for them was a missed opportunity. They just could not contain or really threaten the Smokes drive. The second half and especially that second elf drive was the key to the game in the end, wiith neither side being able to really make the break through.
Bob: The result is not bad for either team – a draw is better than a loss after all. Both teams came away with a nice pot of cash and no permanent injuries. I believe both teams used that cash to immediately recruit extra players – the Smoke a catcher and the Fangs added their first blitzer – Nikolay to the roster.
Jim: So thats it for this summary. We will see you next time sport fans.
Last weekend there was a one day 7’s Blood Bowl tournament held an hour and a half or so away from me – in a city called Barrie just north of Toronto. The 7’s format of Blood Bowl is not as popular as the full 11’s game for tournaments, but does allow faster games. The advantage is that in a day the event had 5 games vs. 3 full 11 player style. Added to that the event actually took up less time than playing 3 big games. I thought I would do a quick write up of the event and summary of the games.
Note, Blood Bowl 7’s only has 6 turns per side and is a faster game. It’s basically the same game rules but the in game fluff is for the amateur players vs the 11’s is professional. It uses a smaller pitch and teams who have less speciality players and fewer skills on them. A key factor is that there are also fewer team rerolls and only 6 turn per half not 8. That means there is even more risk/reward game management in the game. This is a good and bad thing at the same time for players. Things can go wrong quickly, but if they do the game will be over fast. I quite like the format but it is not to everyones taste due to the speed and risks of the game. It is good for getting people into blood bowl before they get truly addicted to the blood bowl gain/pain of big games. To me it is a great lite version of the game, perfect for playing on an evening without worrying about whether there is the time to finish a full game. Some people (the Bonehead podcast for one) say the format can help refine real coaching skills but I am not convinced of that. You do use different tactics in 7’s than in the full game.
The event was a game store I had not been to before called ‘The Tabletop Forge’. It was a clean and nice location for the event. They have a good amount of gaming space and a smallish selection of Games Workshop and other products. You can tell not in Toronto for that, as rents make that very hard to get good gaming space in the city.
It was also a friendly event organized by Gordon (who has played in our local league) and was NAF sanctioned so I may even get the results tracked there. All the players were friendly and played in the right spirit. Most of the pitches were custom 3D printed and painted. I have to say they looked great.
I took Skaven – my favourite team, with the Rat ogre, a blitzer, a thrower, and a gutter runner. The team was filled out with 3 line rats. I also had 2 assistance coaches and we got a Bud Keg (to help with Knock out returns) free if you put the rosters in early, which I had done. You could select a few skills depending on the team tier, or roll randomly and get an extra skill. I choose to do the later – and will mention if/when that had an effect on the game. I always took a random strength skill on the Rat Ogre and a random general skill on one of the line rats.
Game 1 vs. Vampires
The Vampire team had 4 vamps (2 runner’s and 2 thower’s) and 3 thralls. This was an interestingly modeled team, using werewolfs as the vampires and wood spirit as thralls. I won’t say what the wolves might be doing instead of biting the thralls but it was quite thematic. 🙂 Of course I did not take a picture of the team though…<Sigh>
In the game my rats received the ball first and were pushed to score mid way through the first half. The Vamps then scored to even up the game going into half time. Unfortunately, the key thing though was Vamps hardly ever blood lusted in the first half but did injure 3 of my players. To add to the pain my gutter runner failed a dodge and injured himself as well…
So I had 3 players facing 7 for the start of the second half – things looked bleak. But the die turned on the Wolfy Vamps and if the first 2 turns the second half their bloodlust took out their 3 thralls to the KO box. That meant that with the spirited defense from my rats, and continued poor luck for the Vamps there was no score in the second half. That allowed me to walk away with a very lucky draw at the end of the game.
Game 2 vs. Lizardmen
I played young Gordon (the son of the organizer) next, with his 3 Saurus, a Big Krox and skinks lizardmen team. My Rat Ogre got Juggernaut skill for this and I used it to the max, injuring a Saurus early in the match. The rats received the ball and worked up the pitch to score. But the fast and strong lizards put on pressure and so when I scored, I gave them 2 turns in the first half. The Lizards collected the ball and although the lizard cage was surrounded by rats, a skink ran around Rat Ogre to score before half time. This was an impressive set of die rolls he made multiple 4+ rolls and one 5+ – I think it was 4 or 5 of them a row!
The lizards received the ball in the second half and tried to cage up on the sideline in midfield. This ended up with a scrum, but this time the ball carrying Skink could not dodge away to escape and he was taken down. This allowed the Skaven gutter runner to collect the ball and run in to score for the win. The key here was the early injury of the Saurus and a couple of key bonehead failures for the Krox.
Skaven vs. Lizards in the second half
Game 3 vs. Black Orcs
After a burger for lunch at a local fast food place, I faced a Black Orc team with 3 bigun’s, a troll and 4 goblins. I must admit this is the one game I remember least for this write up – nothing against my opponent but there we go. It’s all a bit of a blur…
The game did go the way rats wanted, with few removals on either side but a fast and open game. I used the Rat Ogre a lot here to ‘bully’ the block orcs and to keep them isolated and out of position. They had to be careful to avoid the sides of the pitch, as the rat Ogre frenzy as a threat. That helped me open uup the other area’s of the field. I used the other rat’s speed to keep my players safe and avoided the trap which was getting close to the troll with the Rat Ogre. I won this 2-0 but was down a single rat on casualties. This is a tough matchup for the Black Orcs unless they start to get some removals – which they did not.
Game 4 vs. Ogres
Next was an Ogre team – with 3 Ogres. The line rat got frenzy, which meant I had 2 frenzy players for this game. The rats again received and I worked the ball from side to side with an open cage to keep the Ogres away from the ball carrier. The biggest note of the half was that although I rolled 35 block die against gnoblar’s (the little str 1 players for the ogres), I got a single POW, and that did not break armour! Yes I tracked it as it was getting silly. There were a lot of frenzy hits pushing little guys around he field to no result… The gutter with the ball did the only POW to open up a hole in the Ogre lines and so he ran in to score. That gave the Ogres 2 turns to score before the half ended, but their throw team mate failed, so the rats were up at the half way point.
In the second half the Ogres put a good drive together and scored before the middle of the half. An Ogre got the ball there was little my rats could do to stop them. They had also started to remove rat players which meant I was done in player numbers…
The Ogres next kickoff was a blitz, so they got their own ball back as well. Things started to look like this was going to be a loss as again I was seriously down in player numbers But the rats ‘never say die’ defense again kicked in. That was helped as rats finally starting to remove gnoblar’s to even up the player numbers as well.
With the game drawing to a close it was again just 3 rats on the field (one being the rat ogre) vs the 3 Ogres and a gnoblar. The Rat Ogre blitzed and knocked the ball out of the hands of the gnoblar and it bounced into the open. After a risky dodge a line rat got the ball and ran it into his own endzone, as he could not escape the range of the Ogres. Standing there I was at least hoping to stop the easy Ogre score. The Ogres did blitz him – and removed him off the field, but the ball bounced into the crowd. Unfortunately for the rats, it was thrown back in such a location that a throw teammate score was possible . But that required another Ogre to move and pick up the ball (which it did) and double rush to hand it over to a gnoblar (which again worked). Luckily for the rats the thrower failed his bonehead roll so rats defense held and they again walked out with a draw. Luck favoured me here, as I thought I had lost this one several tiimes in the second half…
Skaven thrower with the ball moves toi the ioither side of the pitch while the ogres defend in the first half
Game 5 vs. Union Elves
So going into the last game I was 2-2-0 in results. I was informed that this was the joint best record and the same as one other player – the Wolfy Vamp’s coach from game 1. As we had already played we faced other opponents. This time I was facing Union Elves, run by a very experienced and good coach, who has beaten me before in tournaments. The elves had 2 blitzers, a catcher and a thrower as well as 3 line elves. My Rat Ogre got guard as his skill and the line rat got kick – both came in handy in this game.
The Skaven received and caged up to score mid way through the half. The rats were removing elves into the KO box but the side-stepping blizter’s were too threatening to stall for too many turns. Of course all the elves came back and the elven catcher tied the game up before half time.
The second half kick was a blitz for the rats and the ball was in midfield. So they surround it and claimed their own kicked ball. This is one difference in 7’s than 11’s – that this can happen. The elves swarmed the ball carrier but luck was not on their side and they failed some dodges and leaps to get to the ball carrier. The Rat Ogre not only blitzed but also with his guard skill really helped in assists. But although the rats put the elves on the floor they could do nothing more. So, elven pressure forced the rats to score and again kick to the elves. The elves had 3 or so turns left, in theory more than enough time for them to get the drawing score.
The elves put a good move together and looked to even up the game, but a single die blitz after 2 rushes from a rat blitzer took down the ball carrying elven thrower. Then an unfortunate failed block result in the next elf turn allows the rats to thwart the elven touch down attempt. In fact only a failed pickup by the gutter runner stopped the rats getting a 3rd touch down as the game ended.
Final Thoughts
So my final tally was 3 wins and 2 draws. I was surprised and very happy with that result. The ties especially were memorable, as both included multiple serious white knuckle defensive stands when down multiple players. Both times it worked and I stopped opponents scoring. Above that though, ignoring the results I had fun a set of games and faced 5 different opponents, 4 of which were new to me.
Overall, the event was friendly and well run. I enjoyed it and played some fun, challenging and interesting games. It made me think but I also had fun in a friendly social environment with new people. That to me is the whole point of playing the games anyway. So a great Saturday of gaming.
Note, for the record the Wolfy Vamp’s also won their last game, and they had the tie breaker in having more casualties etc, they won the event. I was very happy to come in second and with the same set of results though, and all credit to them for the win.
Adventures in painting miniatures 
