Well, I did it! My first tournament after two years of playing online on
fumbbl and the odd tabletop league game and I have to say I loved it! I am amazed that there were 38 coaches in attendance and it turned out to be the biggest Blood Bowl tournament ever staged in Australia...
I played 3 games on the Saturday on a shared ticket with
Anthony Soprano who played the 2 games on the Sunday and I have been reliably informed tonight that together we became the Stunty Champions of the Eucalyptus Bowl!
I don't know exactly how we ended up overall, but I played 3 games with a 1/1/1 record... not too shabby considering I was expecting to go 0-3. For the record, my game wraps are below and I will post a more generalist comment about the Tournament on my train trip tomorrow.
Game 1: vs Goblins (3-0 Win)
My first game was against a fellow stunty team of Goblins and I had mixed feelings going into the game. The models were extremely well painted and my opponent (a nice girl from QLD called Vanessa) seemed to know her stuff. She regaled me with tales of tournaments past as we set up and I contemplated how I would stop a fellow stunty player given my defence is all about tackle zones... She had taken just two trolls and 5 rerolls and given I had 2 treemen plus Deeproot and 2 chefs, I decided to take her up the guts with a power game. She had better AV (7 to my 6) but I thought that the trees would wreak havoc on her.
And that was how it happened with me plowing huge gaps with the trees, isolating her Stupid trolls and running the ball. Final score was 3-0 and I had inflicted 4 casualties to nil. In fact, I never lost a Fling off the field and completely overwhelmed her team.
This left me amazingly in First Place after Round 1 and I was the only coach on maximum points!
Game 2: vs Chaos Dwarves (0-0 Draw)
Going from Goblins to a front loaded Chaos Dwarf team was a real swing in game style. My opponent, Brendon, had loaded his team up with Ripper the Star Troll, a Minotaur, 2 Bull Centaurs and a swag of Chaos Dwarf Blockers. His only two Hobgoblins had both skilled up and he had one with Dirty Player and one with Sure Hands. The downside of this was he only had one reroll which I promptly stole away with my chefs.
When I told him my two skills from Round 1 were Diving Tackle he replied "Doesnt matter to me, I dont dodge!" I started to question the sense of taking Halflings into a tournament...
I received the ball and started well. My trees laid the smackdown onto his line and I concentrated on Ripper and the Blockers. His Minotaur was lurking in the backfield and I decided to not go the one turn Fling Toss and grind it out a little.
Luck was with me and all though the Bulls were blitzing my flanks, I kept them at bay but soon became mired in my end of the field. However, with no rerolls, the Chaos Dwarves failed their fair share of blocks and I then luckily Badly Hurt Ripper who didn't regenerate! A hole appeared and I scampered into the clear. Then a Chaos Dwarf blocker stretched himself in a blitz and double skulled the block! I was away and my little Halfling (the one with the Pot on his head) ran and ran and ran. The halfling was blitzed again by the Hobgoblin who was the lone defender and I survived that and only had to make two dodge rolls to score. But alas, I failed and the half ended at 0-0.
At half time, I only had 4 Flings left as the carnage had been rampant. I expected to be overwhelmed but the lack of rerolls cost Brendon big time as the Minotaur failed numerous blocks and the Bull Centaurs failed blocks as well and one even failed the Sure Feet roll when he was seemingly in the clear.
The Trees got left behind at the Line of Scrimmage and soon enough I had one fling with the ball with about 6 opposing players bearing down on me. I did the only thing a Halfling can do in that situation and I punted the ball downfield to empty space and without realising it was a possible tactic, the Chaos Dwarves had no one back there to pick it up. The lone halfling got smeared, but it mattered not as time expired - 0-0! Casualties were against me 1-6. Ouch!
Game 3: vs High Elves (1-2 Loss)
The game was against my good mate Tommy who is the #3 High Elf Coach in the World (according to NAF rankings) but he was a bit unsure of how to play against Halflings. After explaining how Throw Team Mate works, he set his defence up and left the last quarter of his field empty. I set up, left Deeproot off the Line of Scrimage. Received, Fling next to Deeproot gets the ball and Huzzah! The Fling is flung down the field, perfect pass, runs into the endzone and the mighty High Elves are down 0-1 and they havent moved a muscle!
To Tommy's credit, he never made that defensive mistake again and he ground out a 1-1 scoreline at the half obviously wary of my scoring potential... He kept his Elves clear of the trees and whilst I kept my line in tact for 7 turns, he broke through on the 8th turn and scored. It was a shrewd move as my numbers were getting less and less as his blocks did sting.
Second half, he plays more aggressively and even though I made a good fist of it, Tommy scores in the 4th turn knowing that even if I am successful with a Fling Toss TD, he has plenty of time to take the win.
I decide to give up on the possibility of the win and go for the draw. He sets way back in his own half and I creep forward with a cluster of flings under the branches of the trees. I try to draw him out, but he holds firm knowing what is coming. He pesters me with a few line elfs to prevent me from getting really close, but finally on Turn 7 I throw the Fling and he lands but in 3 tackle zones!
I fall over and the ball is spilled and the game is lost. Final score 1-2, casualties 0-4.... Great game though! :)
