Monday, December 04, 2006

Mountain Bowl Review

Sunday I played Blood Bowl at the inaugural Mountain Bowl at the Blaxland Tavern.  In a nutshell, it was great fun and I had 2 wins and a draw to see me tie for 4th (out of 13 coaches) but I was disappointed that I couldn’t play the Saturday because of cricket (I was awarded 3 “draws” to compensate so effectively me record was 2/4/0 and hence my 4th place).

Because I didn’t think I would win the comp and didn’t want to actually win it over a player who had played the first day, I decided to play a race I had never played before – so I borrowed a Khemri team from co-coordinator Brendan and went out to bash some teams.

Khemri for those who don’t know are an Egyptian styled / themed team who principally have 4 big Mummies and a bunch of Skeletons and essentially win by beating the other team senseless and walking it in when there are no opposition left.

Game 1 was against a Dwarf team and it was a really close game.  The Dwarves are very resilient and I just couldn’t get through their high armour and my drive to the end zone was stalled because of this.  In fact the Dwarves were able to knock the ball from my hands at the death and throw a long bomb pass down the field and whilst the catch was successful, the little dwarf fell over when he tried to dodge away.  0-0 at the half with the Dwarves to receive.

The second half again was very tight but they tried to play an expansive game rather than the traditional dwarf running game and it eventually came unstuck and I was able to retrieve the ball.  I then ground down the field and this time did manage to score on the last play of the game and won 1-0.  Unfortunately, very un-Khemri like, I lost the casualty count 1-2.

Game 2 was against an Orc team and this was a great game.  End to end stuff, and the Orcs had hired a wizard who fire balled me in the first half and they turned me over for a 1-0 lead at the break.  The Orcs had an AG4 and an AG5 blitzer and were playing like elves and I thought I would lose but some great play by the Khemri saw some casualties and a fair number of KO’s happen and suddenly we were up on the numbers and tied the Orcs up on a sideline.  The ball was spilled deep in my own half and we were able to luckily pick it up with some goblins pressuring us and then it was effectively all over.  1-1 draw, but we won the casualties 4-1.

Game 3 was against High Elves and I was looking forward to this game against some lighter armour.  Finally the dice worked and at half time we were tied 1-1 but the casualty count was 6-0!  The elves only had 5 players left at half time and I was to receive the kick.  I ground out the win and stalled my way to a 2-1 win.  The only bad part of the day was that the opposing coach (who shall remain nameless) had a few too many beers at this stage and got a bit stroppy about stalling.  But why would a Khemri team give Elves a chance to score back… no way José, and I’ll take a 2-1 win (7-0 casualty count) any day.

I finished out of the prizes, but the prizes were very good with a full Vampire and full Lizardman team for 1st and 2nd and plenty of Ogres, Minotaurs and Treeman and Trolls for the painting, sportsmanship prizes.  Also a lucky door prize of a full Witch Elf team from Shadowforge minis was also handed out… and every other coach scored a mini as well – I got a goblin referee holding up a yellow card… nice little mini that!

Great tournament, venue was excellent (blood bowl, the cricket on a plasma and beer on tap and 5mins from my house) and a good number of coaches (13) made it a good day.  The Blaxland Tavern were happy to have us back and there is talk that Blood Bowl will be a monthly / quarterly event there.  Also met some new local coaches and we’ve decided to get a league up and running…

1 comment:

Chunky said...

Boo! Name the weenie so we can tease him mercilessly at his wussiness.