Blood Bowl League at the Outpost - Part 2 - Skaven-a-go-go

I managed to get in another couple of league games down at the Outpost in Sheffield last week. Both of which were rematches. The league allows teams to play each other a maximum of twice to avoid people playing too many games against the same opponents and racking up a silly number of league points. Both of these games were also against Skaven who are quickly becoming my nemesis!

Game Six vs. Martin Collins' Skaven 

I hoping to get another game in before playing Martin again but the last game had been great fun so I didn't mind so much. The game couldn't really have started much better for me. The first half was almost a perfect half for a dwarf team. I managed injure two of his players, knock out three more and score an 8th turn touchdown even though I'd kicked off.

I did say "almost" perfect though. I got a little greedy on my final turn of the half and decided to try a foul which only managed to knock out his player and resulted in a sending off for me. Looking back I should've never bothered but I had a reserve and wanted the maximum numbers advantage in the second half. I then had a guy injured on Martin's final turn of the half and then to really top it off Martin managed to get all of his knocked out guys back (with help from the Bloodweiser Keg he'd got as a result of the stadium we were using). Turning what should've still been a decent numbers advantage into 10 players each. 

Nuffle was decidedly displeased with my foul play and punished me by making Martin's block dice red hot. I had a decent opportunity for a second touchdown with my blitzer but Martin sent one of his gutter runners in on a desperation (two-dice in my favour) blitz. He got a double defender stumbles and my hopes of scoring disintegrated quickly. He quickly turned this into a score for him to tie up the game.

Still, I was feeling pretty good about my chances of getting a game winning TD when my runner managed to break through his lines. Unfortunately for me his blitzing gutter runners were at it again scoring a "knocked down" on his single block dice. He managed to scoop up the ball but couldn't get it far. I therefore had a chance to try to steal it back but could only push his gutter runner.

This proved fatal as his gutter runner easily dodged out and ran up the field to hand of to another rat who legged it down the pitch out of my range. I at least managed to put his rat ogre out as a casualty only for him to use his apothecary to prevent his death and put him in the reserves box. The final insult came when I tried a two-dice block and it came up double skulls which I re-rolled to another double skull (1 in 1,296 chance or 0.08%). Unbelievably my next roll of the block dice (on my subsequent turn) was also a double skull which is a 1 in 46,656 chance or 0.002%! 

The game ended 1-2 to Martin with me scoring three casualties to his one. A massive blow to my play off hopes and a game I really felt like I threw away with some poor decision making.

Game Seven vs. Ashley Rodgers' Skaven

My first game in this league had been against Ash and I therefore felt reasonably confident. I wasn't thrilled that he now had an AV8 AG5 gutter runner and a recently purchased rat ogre though. Ash surprisingly elected to let me receive and set up asymmetrically to limit my punch early on. He rolled a "Blitz" on the kick off table too which saw him dash behind my lines and get pretty close to the ball.

What followed, thanks in no small part to the torrential rain, was a comedy of failed pick up attempts and knocked down ball carriers that burned all of Ash's re-rolls and ultimately resulted in me only managing to make a break for it by an incredibly risky pick-up and throw from my Troll Slayer to one of my Runners. That meant if everything went right I'd be in a position to score on the final turn of the half. Of course, it didn't all go right. Ash was able to use his Rat Ogre to blitz down one of my players to free him up to mark the runner. I then elected to make a risky dodge to get a Blitzer to Blitz the rat ogre out of the way to free up the runner. I'd still got a chance of scoring but only a turn to do it.

On the penultimate turn of the half Ash was able to stun my ball carrier and get players back to mark the ball. I knew I had no chance to score now as none of my players were in range so, knowing I was kicking to Ash to start the half I decided to do as much smashing as I could. That resulted in another couple of injuries and knockouts. Unfortunately there was still a gutter runner standing near the ball. 

Here's where I was a little foolish. Ash was convinced he couldn't now score a TD but I helpfully pointed out he could make a somewhat risky play that involved dodging through, picking up the ball then passing to a gutter runner who already have needed to dodge out from my players with Tackle to wait in the end zone for the long bomb from the half way line. He was just about to declare the pass action when my second bout of foolishness hit. I reminded Ash that he probably ought to stand up the gutter runner he intended to throw to and get him to the end zone before he declared his pass. I felt pretty confident that I was going to be punished for my generosity and sure enough Ash made all of his dodges and completed a 5+ pass and 3+ catch without any re-rolls to score a touchdown just before the half!

Whilst I felt gutted that it had worked out the way it did at least I'd probably earned some good karma for the second half right? When I managed to cage up and grab a pretty solid position for a touchdown I certainly felt like things were going right. I had two options at this point. Hold onto the ball and play for the draw or score straight away and hope to be able to capitalise on my numbers advantage and score again before time expired. At the point where I was about to score there were very few skaven still standing and I was pretty well covered. However, I know from bitter experience (and the first half of this game) that the rats' speed lets them quickly turn a loose ball into a touchdown the other way. I also knew that my best chance of making the playoffs was to win the game. I therefore decided to score straight away.

That gave me four turns (might've been three) to score a game winner. I was feeling pretty good about this when I managed to drive a kick quite far into the Skaven half of the field. I put another rat out of action and knocked all but the gutter runners down. That quickly proved to be my undoing though as the gutter runner with the ball handed off to another at the line of scrimmage who was able to make a 4+, 4+, 3+ and 2+ dodge roll (all of which had Tackle on them I think) and break free into my half. A further two GFI rolls (one of which needed a re-roll) and he'd managed to put a runner in a position where all I could hope to do was put a tackle zone on him (and one without the Tackle skill at that). I positioned myself in case something went drastically wrong but unsurprisingly the gutter runner easily dodged away for the score. My only hope now was for a riot that never came. I did a bit more smashing up but I was looking at another 1-2 loss to Skaven albeit with 5 casualties to his zero.

Conclusion

I certainly got greedy in the first game. The foul was completely pointless and ended up leaving my short-handed when Martin injured one of my players. I should've also burned a re-roll to try and take out his gutter runner with the ball rather than simply pushing him back. He wouldn't have had the movement to manage the play that lead to his winning TD and I might've even managed to get the ball back for my own score. Ultimately the odds balanced themselves out. My dice had been great in the first half and Martin's came hot in the second. Still, an enjoyable game against a great opponent. 

The second game was frustrating for different reasons. Sure, I felt good knowing I'd helped my opponent out and not just watched him make a significant mistake. Doesn't help me make the playoffs though. I think ultimately this has always been my problem with any table top game. If I'm playing anyone other than Matt I don't play ruthlessly. It's been between me and tournament success for a long time. I don't like the thought that you can't win without being a bit cut-throat but experience tells me otherwise. I'm not saying I'd have definitely won the game had I not done what I did but we'll never really know.

Still, there's potentially plenty more games to be had in the league so I still have a chance of making the playoffs with another couple of wins. I have mixed feelings about my Dwarves. I really enjoy bashing other teams up but their lack of mobility frustrates me. I think I'd rather be playing with a team that can cover ground better and score plenty of touchdowns. Maybe a little more fragile but more exciting when things go right. I suppose like Dark Eldar in 40K. They can be amazing when things fall right but incredibly brittle when they don't.

Blood Bowl League at the Outpost

It's been quite a while since I posted here. I'll be posting about NMTBW straight after this (although I'll schedule it for Monday probably) but I wanted to update you on what I've been up to during my absence. My enthusiasm for 40K is at a low ebb at the moment. I'll go into more detail in another post but it means I've directed my attention to other games for a bit of a break. Absence makes the heart grow fonder or so I'm told....

I've always put off joining a BB league because I didn't think I could commit to playing games regularly enough. However, the latest one at the Outpost is pretty laid back. You can play as many (or as few) games as you like with the only limits being a maximum of two friendlies and two league games against each other coach. It's a typical TV1000 league but using the rules for Stadiums and Sponsorships from DZ2.

I've had five games so far so here's a brief rundown of each. Oh and I'm using a pretty standard Dwarf team consisting of 2 troll slayers, 2 runners, 2 blitzers and 5 blockers. You'll notice from the pictures that these are the old metal models (3rd edition I think).

Game One vs. Ashley Rogers' Skaven
I fully expected a baptism of fire in my first ever league game but Ashley was great to play against and patient when I was taking my time to make sure I wasn't doing something stupid as a rookie. He was also kind enough to get a couple of his rats knocked out when trying to dodge out of my tackle zones. I'm pretty experienced against Skaven as Matt uses them most of the time so I knew my Blockers' Tackle skill was important. He scored pretty quickly though and I fully expected to end up in a hole pretty quickly. Quite a few rolls went my way though and I somehow managed to equalise before the half and add a second shortly after half time.

On the ensuing kick off it started raining too which made it difficult for Ashley's players to get their hands on the ball. My players were able to capitalise on this and score a third touchdown to give me a 3-1 lead. Oh and kill a linerat in the process! When a Riot happened on the kick off and cost us both a turn, Ashley had pretty much no chance of getting back into the game, especially when he had something like 5 players left on the field! The game ended 3-1 (I caused 3 casualties too).

I managed to give one of my Blitzers the Guard skill and collected 50K which allowed me to add an Apothecary too.

Game Two vs. Mitch Henson's Undead
Well, it's safe to say this was more like the kind of league game I was expecting. Mitch was just as friendly but clearly a competitive player. I've never played Undead before so I did a bit of research beforehand. He'd only played a single league game so I'd hoped he'd only have a couple of Ghouls at this point and no skills. What I didn't realise what he'd played 4-5 friendlies first and had gained a couple of sponsors too. That game him plenty of cash to have all four Ghouls with skills on them and Guard on one of his Mummies (he had one killed in a friendly though - ouch!).

I never really felt like I was a contender in this game. Mitch got right down to just outside the end zone in his first drive but held off scoring as I had no-one in range. He proceeded to bash my team into the ground. I ended up with 3 players injured (though thankfully just two Badly Hurts and a Miss Next Game). The game quickly got out of my reach and despite a well caged attempt at a touchdown I never quite made it and the game ended 0-3 with Mitch also scoring two casualties (one of my injured players was the result of a Throw A Rock! kick off). Still, the Stadium gave us an extra D6 winnings so at least I got 50K gold.

Game Three vs. Steve Ashton's Orcs
Well, I say his Orcs, they're actually mine. I'd invited Steve down to join the league and gave him his first game. It was a pretty close game with the expected low number of touchdowns from a pair of bashy teams. My biggest problem was that three times in this game my Troll Slayer rolled a 1 for his Dauntless against a Black Orc (which costed me a re-roll) I then rolled a double skull (which I couldn't now re-roll). This pretty quickly made me regret giving me Troll Slayer the Mighty Blow skill instead of Pro!

Still, I managed to keep Steve out of the end zone and squeaked out a 1-0 win despite Steve's Orcs causing two casualties, one of which was the death of my Guard Blitzer after I'd already used my Apothecary to prevent a Troll Slayer from losing AG. In hindsight I shouldn't have cared too much about the loss of AG as it isn't like they dodge or touch the ball much!

Game Four vs. Dan Tolley's Chaos
With a fresh Blitzer in the lineup I moved straight into the next game against Dan and his Chaos team made up of Horrors as proxies for Beastmen and Warriors. This game was the story of the S4 Blitz from his Beastmen (Blue Horrors). There were several times when I had a runner through into a good position with the ball but then regretted leaving him so exposed when the two-dice block came in. I did at least manage to keep the game close and very nearly tied it up.

My Blitzer getting blitzed by a Beastman (Blue Horror). I still scored when I got back up though!

I managed to get a touchdown but Dan scored twice giving him a 2-1 victory. However, I did manage to make his victory bittersweet as with pretty much the final block of the game I killed one of his Chaos Warriors.

Game Five vs. Martin Collins' Skaven
Another game against those pesky rats and the forever irritating Gutter Runners. Martin had played three league games to my four so he'd managed to get the full four Gutter Runners and give them all Wrestle. This proved to be a pain!

He elected to receive first and quickly made it down to near the end zone. I had a choice between either trying a risky Blitz to take out the ball carrier or use my numbers advantage to smash up his team to make my life easier later. What swung was the decision was the though of him holding onto the ball and not scoring to run down the clock. That gave me most of the first half to try and equalise which I did within a couple of turns.

The problem was that I simply wasn't getting anywhere with my blocking game. I'd gotten through the rats' armour with reasonable ease but kept stunning them. When I did manage a couple of knock outs it was just before my touchdown and they came straight back. I scored on T7 which gave us a T8 where I tried to massacre the only three rats on the line of scrimmage. That proved fruitless as again I could only stun. I even fouled since we'd been given a bribe each from Get The Ref! earlier in the game but another stun! Fortunately for me Martin was having similarly bad luck with a couple of 1s re-rolled to 1s on his dodges.

Still, Martin managed to score again pretty easily in the second half and again I had to find a way to equalise. I ended up in the situation you can see above but still broke my way out and used a couple of GFIs to get into the end zone. That tied the game up at 2-2 but with 4 turns left it was still anyone's game. I'd considered holding onto the ball near the end zone to run down the clock and hopefully put some more rats out of action but I decided it would be more fun to play for the win, no matter how slim my chances were.

On the ensuing kick off I suffered another Riot (there'd been one in the first half too) which gave us both just three turns to score. My kick off was fortunate to stay in bounds on the right side of the field and when Martin continued to have some awful luck and couldn't get to the ball I spied my opportunity for an unlikely game winning score (see below).

I managed a Push on a two dice block to free up the Blitzer on the right of the picture to go and grab the ball. He needed a re-roll to pick it up but successfully passed on a 4+ to the other Blitzer in the centre who succeeded on his 3+ catch. I could almost taste victory but having burned my re-roll I knew what was coming. He needed two GFIs to get into the end zone and fell down on the first and ended up a square from home! So near but yet, so far!

Still I'd managed to score twice and almost a third time which isn't easy with Dwarves. It was a great game but mainly because both of us had some rotten luck. I think it's probably the first draw in the league too.

Conclusions
I've now got a TV of 1,270 with a smattering of Guard, both runners with Block and Mighty Blow on a Troll Slayer. Not only that but I've got both an Apothecary and a 12th man to give me some resiliency.

I'm learning something about playing Dwarves with every game and experimenting with different setups and tactics. I'm glad I took the plunge into league play and I only hope I can keep managing to get down to the Outpost for some games.

MASK Blood Bowl League - Day One

We've been meaning to get a four player Blood Bowl league started for years. We'd tried to run a league in the past but whilst Matt and I were interested, the other two just weren't feeling the love. The new boxed set at the end of last year was a great excuse to kick start the search for a couple more players. We found them in the form of Steve (from my work) and Kern (a friend of Matt's). Neither of them own any BB stuff themselves so Steve would take my Humans and Kern would use my Orcs. Hopefully if they stay interested they'll fancy picking up one of the new teams that will have hopefully been released by then.

Anyway, that left us with our four teams (3 re-rolls each):

1. Alex - Dwarves (2 troll slayers, 2 blitzers, 2 runners and 5 linemen)
2. Matt - Skaven (rat ogre, 2 blitzers, 3 gutter runners, 5 linerats)
3. Steve - Humans (ogre, 4 blitzers, 1 thrower, 5 linemen)
4. Kern - Orcs (4 black orcs, 4 blitzers, 1 thrower, 2 linemen)

My warmup game against a wall of orcs

No prizes for guessing where the league name comes from! Anyway, Steve and Kern have barely played a turn of BB between them so we started out with a half game as a warmup. I played Kern's orcs and got to feel what it's like facing four black orcs! One of my runners did have a pop at one of them though and managed to injure him!

Game One - Dwarves vs. Humans
We then kicked into the league proper. We randomly determined the pairings for the first game and I was up against Steve and his Humans. After the warmup game we'd had some debate about whether the ogre was a better option than a couple of catchers but Steve decided to stick with what he'd got and maybe pick up some catchers later on.

Steve won the coin flip and decided to receive first (after I explained it probably wasn't a good idea to kick to Dwarves). The early play involved a lot of smashing at the line of scrimmage but Steve left the ball in his own endzone where it had ended up after the kick. I tried my best to get a runner through to it but he spotted the threat and stopped him in his tracks. When he eventually did go for the ball he smashed through the middle of the field with his ogre at the front of the cage and came within a turn of a touchdown. Fortunately I was able to get a runner through to him and stop him in his tracks. A few turns later and this was the scene:

I'd managed to drag the ball out to my right wing and set up a partial cage to give Skag (one of my runners) a pretty much unmolested run down the wing and into the endzone for a touchdown. That pretty much wrapped up the first half but I'd be receiving to start the second half. By this point Steve had a handful of guys knocked out (though frustratingly none injured) and only two of them woke up for the start of the second half. This gave me a slight numbers advantage which I managed to exploit to give Skag another touchdown that pretty much sealed up the game.

A standard skill upgrade meant Skag would have the Block skill for the next game. I also added an apothecary to try to prevent any brutal early player losses.

On the other end of the table, the Orcs had taken a brutal defeat to the Skaven. When I'd looked over in the first half it was 1-1 but by the end the Skaven romped to a 4-1 victory with an orc thrower dying in the process. Needless to say, the Orcs didn't take too kindly to the embarrassment...

Sadly, all of the rats survived with just one who'd miss the next game...

Game Two - Dwarves vs. Skaven
We randomised it again which meant I would face Matt for my second game. There's no love lost between us so we decided to use Illegal Procedure for this game (although agreed not to bother for the rest of the league). Apologies in advance for not taking any pictures but I wanted to concentrate on the game as much as possible.

Matt won the flip and obviously elected to receive. With pretty much the opening block of the game he broke Yadri's (one of my troll slayers) leg and put him out for the rest of this game and all of the next. That evened the numbers up briefly but it wasn't long before he failed a block with his rat ogre who was promptly knocked out. He did, however, manage to get within spitting distance of my endzone with the ball in the hands of one of his gutter runners. Fortunately I managed to stop him just short and was able to get the ball to good old Skag who legged it over to his favoured right flank and headed for the endzone. I decided not to rush and make sure I smashed up the rats as much as possible before scoring. I even took the gamble of handing off the ball to Kragg (my other runner) so he'd get the SPP for the touchdown. Probably silly given that this was turn 7 but hopefully worth it down the line. I felt pretty good with a 1-0 lead going to the half.

The second half didn't start well for Matt either. He rolled throw a rock on the kick off table and I won the roll off (neither of us had FAME modifiers). The rock must've been a big 'un because it hit one of his blitzers in the skull and put him down permanently. I wasn't complaining but it's a shame it didn't happen at the hands of one of my dwarves! In fact, the game had been pretty frustrating on that front. I seemed to be getting through the rats' armour with no difficulty but I think I only caused a single injury (another fractured leg). Of course stunning and the odd knock out helped but long term it wouldn't hamper Matt as much as I'd like to.

The turning point of the game was another instance of Matt having a gutter runner near my endzone with the ball. My runners were playing some deep defence and managed to snatch the ball away. I was pretty sure he'd be able to recover it again next turn as I had no back up from the other much slower dwarves on the line of scrimmage. I therefore decided to try to pass down the left wing to one of my blitzers. If nothing else I thought I'd get the ball out of my half and give myself a bit of breathing room. That was until Kragg fumbled the pass and Matt's gutter runner gleefully scooped up the ball for an equalising touchdown.

Unbelievably Matt rolled another rock to be thrown and I again won the roll off but with just a stun this time. That coupled with a couple of knock outs meant the numbers were in my favour. Unfortunately the dice weren't. Matt managed to get his gutter runners through into my backfield fairly easily and when he managed to get the ball away from Skag I knew things weren't going to end well. With only a few turns to go he got the winning touchdown which didn't leave me enough time to equalise. I did my best to smash up the few rats he had to put on the line but despite having a big numbers advantage for most of the game his gutter runners had won the day.

Meanwhile, Steve's Humans had managed to hang onto a nail-biting victory against Kern's Orcs. At one point one of his blitzers managed to make a 5+ dodge followed by a 4+ and then a 3+ dodge to get to a lone orc blitzer who was making a break for the endzone. He could only manage a both down result though leaving the orc standing. Fortunately, he failed his dodge roll and Steve narrowly avoided an equaliser to win 1-0.

Conclusion
We'd hoped to get a third game in but it was now after midnight and we decided to call it a night. There's no doubt the stars of my team were my runners, Skag and Kragg, who not only got all three of my touchdowns but did some sterling work on defence. Gutter runners are so frustrating to play against. Starting with AG4 and Dodge is insane! Obviously they're pretty flimsy but pinning them down long enough to hammer them is nearly impossible. I didn't help myself much though as I underused my blockers' Tackle skill to try and keep them in check.

I also concentrated far too much on smashing things on the line of scrimmage. I tended to have a numbers advantage but this left my runners needing to do all the work in the backfield. This was partly caused by the loss of my troll slayer but having my blitzers or maybe a couple of blockers back to help would've been sensible. Trouble is, with my piddling MA the rats can run circles around me.

Matt tops the table then with two wins from two. That leaves me in second thanks to my touchdown margin over Steve who also has one win. Kern is currently winless at the bottom of the table but I'm playing him next and I'm not feeling good about playing all those black orcs with just one of my troll slayers! He's back to full strength too as he was able to afford a new thrower to replace the one he lost.

Not sure when the next session will be but it's looking like June/July so I'll hopefully have both the Orc and Human teams painted up and we can have some much more photogenic games! Looking forward to painting something other than DE to be honest. Shame the Humans are purple too!!

Gaming Garage(TM) Conversion - Part 3

Another 3 weeks where I've been almost completely AWOL. Sorry for that! I've been keeping pretty busy though with the garage conversion. Last time I posted we'd sorted all the walls with insulated plasterboard and the Velux window had been installed. Well I'd inadvertently set myself a deadline of Sunday 15th because I'd arrange a big X-wing game between Matt, Scott, Sam & I and we'd need a venue! With my old gaming room dismantled the new one needed to be ready. That meant a solid weekend of work getting the roof done and the gaps filled and then a week of evenings decorating:

Difficult to get my phone to play but as you you can see, we successfully created the skylight. The whole ceiling was boarded out with 12 mm plasterboard before I donned a protective suit, goggles, mask and gloves and set off into the new loft space to install some insulation. Getting around in there wasn't much fun but it'll be worth it.

Now we could start working on all of the joins and screw holes with some filler. Once that had dried sufficiently I went at it with an orbit sander:

It was hard going because I kept having to stop to let the dust settle so I could even see what I was doing! Obviously I had a mask and goggles but still wasn't much fun again. You can just about make out the lights I've installed, two sets of three LED spots to light up the table and over toward the desk. The desk will have some daylight lamps too when I get round to sorting that.

Once the dust had cleared (the next night), I set about giving the entire room a layer of Basecoat (see this is hobby after all!). This should hopefully make for a better finish. The filling isn't totally perfect but I don't really want to fork out for a plasterer on what is still essentially a shed!

Finally, I threw some Ceramite Whi... ahem... Dulux Brilliant White at the ceiling and some cream colour on the walls. I'd toyed with different colours but figured it's a small room so plain, bright walls is the way to go to maximise the light.

My Dad came round for another session last Saturday which saw him assembling the units whilst I laid the carpet tiles. I originally planned on lino/Karndean but carpet tiles are significantly cheaper (I'd given up trawling gumtree/eBay of people selling off boxes of Karndean). They're also easy to fit. I still managed to make things look difficult mind you! With the carpet in we brought in the units but didn't have much time to do anything else. The good news is my old tabletop fits over the two units (fitted with castors) perfectly with a reasonable amount of space around it.

As you can see, we were able to play some X-wing in there on Sunday but I'll do a proper report of our epic game (my Tantive's first outing) in a separate post. I've since cleared everything away and covered all the furniture/carpet so I can put a second coat on the walls. I think the ceilings are passable but will check again in the natural light in the morning when I'll be painting the walls. I did manage to get the blind installed on the window though but I didn't have my phone on me so you'll have to wait for a picture of that.

Hopefully next time I post it'll be all but finished and I'll take plenty of pictures so you can see all the bits and pieces I've done. It'll take me a while to fully decamp into there though as I'm using it as a chance to sort through all my stuff and eBay what I don't need.

In other news, I've also made a start on my Blood Bowl Human team:

I'll post more about the team soon but at least I'm doing some painting. Incidentally, the base isn't going to be icy, it's just grey primer and I painted the rim black to tidy up a little. I've also invested in some new brushes from Rosemary & Co. so I'll let you know what I think of them. Seem pretty good so far. The garage will hopefully be done in the next couple of weeks so I can get some serious hobby progress made.

Where Have I Been for A Month?

Woah it's been a long time since I posted. Been struggling to motivate myself to blog recently. I've had trouble finding inspiration before but not normally for this long. Here's a quick round up of what I've been up to.

Blood Bowl
The biggest thing recently was the re-release of Blood Bowl. I've loved this game for years and in fact it was the first GW game I played back when I was in primary school so must've been early 90s. I was excited for the re-release but didn't intend to pick up a copy. Trouble is, at Fluffageddon the Outpost had an open copy and I was suckered in by the pretty new pitch, templates and models. I always intended to paint my human team from the old box but never got round to it. I'm planning on painting the new ones though for my Nuln Oilers team. I've picked up an extra sprue from eBay because we all know I'll need some reserves!

The problem I've always had with Blood Bowl is that it's much better if you can get a league going. I've toyed with joined various club leagues but never have done because I can't commit to a regular night. That's meant trying to organise mini-leagues amongst my friends. We had a fun day in a pub once playing a mini-cup and managed a couple of sessions of a 4-man league but whilst Matt and I were still keen the others lost interest. We're hoping to try again though with two different people. We'll start with a 4-team league and then maybe get a second team each if the new guys are more bothered.

I've already had a few games with just the core set. My sister-in-law's boyfriend was over from Ireland for my son's birthday so we got a game in before he left. He really enjoyed it and picked it up quickly (and beat me 2-1) but obviously I'm not going to get regular games in with him for geographical reasons! I also played my colleague Steve a week a go and he seems interested. I've told him to pick up a copy of the PC game to learn the rules and see what he thinks.

I really hope we can get something going. I think Matt and I will resort to just having three teams each if we can't get others involved but it'd be a shame.

X-wing
I'm still in love with this game and finally got around to getting some games in with Matt this week. I tried out a new squadron with Corran, Poe and a bandit with some new upgrade from the Heroes of the Resistance set. Trouble was, Matt was playing an Imperial Aces list (Darth, Ryad & Delta) that had high PS and cost lest than my list so he gave me initiative making my arc-dodging tricky. His first roll against Poe was lucky too stripping all his shields before I'd even gotten a shot off. In the second game I tried my first Scum list using mostly stuff from the Most Wanted box and the Starviper (yes, I bought it for Autothrusters like everyone else). He was running a Palp Aces list and I simply didn't have luck on my side. Was a bit stupid with my Y-wing and ended up in too close to use the TLT but was pretty one sided anyway.

That's the trouble I have with X-wing. Since we moved into the realms of competitive play I want to try out lots of different lists but I simply don't get enough games in. I'd like to play more tournaments to get a feel for how good my lists actually are. It's the same as with 40K, Matt runs strong lists and plays them well but they aren't necessarily representative of what I'd play in actual events. It'll probably be in my resolutions to play more X-wing (I think it was last year mind you, I suck at keeping my resolutions).

Gorechosen
After our games of X-wing Matt and I had a quick game of Gorechosen to round out the evening. Matt managed to get a painted set from eBay for a reasonable price so we took two heroes each and set to it. After my X-wing losses I was pleased to kill both of his champions before losing either of mine (the second one died to a decapitation). I then fought mine to the death of course!

It's a fun little game and makes a nice break from playing other stuff. It'd be good with four people and the mechanic is well thought out. GW can really make some excellent standalone games when they set their mind to it. I wish they wouldn't churn so many out instead of fixing 40K but still, they're enjoyable nonetheless.

Garage Conversion
I'll post separately about this on Sunday but work continues apace on my gaming garage project. I'm really looking forward to it being finished now which should hopefully happen in the new year. I'd hoped it'd be done by Christmas but since I'm working this weekend and then in Ireland for Christmas week that isn't going to happen. Anyway, as I say, I'll post more about it on Sunday.

Clearout
When I dismantled my old gaming table I realised just how much stuff I'd been hiding under there and around my spare room. I'm determined to sort through everything before I move into the garage. That means getting rid of some stuff too. There's tons of bits still on their sprues that I'd like to trim off and sort though. Maybe I'll stick some of them on eBay. I'm also having a debate with myself about my DE army. I really struggle to want to play with them with how useless they are right now. Sure, there's lists that work but they really aren't much fun at the moment. It'd be a shame to get rid completely. There are still days when I lament selling my Eldar army and I've put a lot of work into some of the units. Maybe slimming down the army is the way to go.

Right, that'll do for tonight, I've got presents to wrap whilst the missus is out. I'll post again over the weekend about the garage but hopefully I can find the time and inspiration to post more again over Christmas. I've at least got to write the obligatory review of the year and hobby resolutions but that'll be pretty depressing affair I think! Roll on 2017!

First Gaming of the New Year

Matt was over today for our first gaming session of the new year. We managed to fit in two games of 40K and two bloodbowl matches. Here's a brief rundown of the games.

Game 1 - SW/GK vs IG/Daemons (40K) - 1500pts
As testing for the Battle Brothers tournament at the end of the month we pitted our Titanic Fenrisians against IG with daemon allies. The game was The Scouring on Hammer and Anvil deployment. I took the first turn with the SW/GK.

A drop pod slammed down near one of the traitor guard's chimeras. The occupants made short work of the transport and the occupants took casualties in the explosion causing their nerve to break. The two dreadknights teleported forwards and incinerated further heretical infantry. The bloodthirster and daemon prince arrived in Matt's first turn. The bloodthirster scattered leaving him impotent for a turn. The daemon prince incinerated 5 grey hunters with its Breath of Chaos. Fire from the guardsman wounded one of the thunderwolves.

The purifiers who'd been advancing up the centre failed to blow up the remaining chimera meaning the thunderwolves were forced to charge it to destroy it. The grey hunters in the centre managed to shoot down the deamon prince and cause it a wound as it slammed into the ground. The dreadknight set it alight but caused no damage. The resulting combat saw the dreadknight defeat it over a couple of turns. The other dreadknight incinerated a heavy weapons team. The thunderwolves took casualties to the guardsmen who'd been evicted from the chimera. The bloodthirster then easily finished off one of the dreadknights. A little while later it did the same to the other dreadknight.

The thunderwolves only killed a single guardsman in combat and somehow managed to die in the process. This would be the turning point of the game. The plaguebearers arrived on a 4 pt objective controlled by some warrior acolytes. Over the remaining turns the vendettas arrived and dealt some damage. The bloodthirster killed off the purifiers and with the grey hunters struggling to shift the plaguebears the match was comfortably won by Matt's army.

Game 2 - Orks vs Humans (Bloodbowl)
As a bit of a warmup to remind ourselves of the rules we played the classic matchup of humans and orks. My humans struggled from the start with me failing crucial rolls left right and centre. The orks scored one touchdown in each half and I struggled to even make a consolation point. The problem I have is that I'm simply not used to playing games with passing teams as I usually favour dwarves or orks.

Game 3 - DE vs IG/CSM - 1750pts

Matt fielded a typhus zombie horde, 57 strong, with a heldrake, obliterators, daemon prince, vendettas and plenty of guardsmen in support. I'd be fielding my current favourite DE list with Duke Sliscus and trueborn in a raider, 2 wych raiders, 3 kabalite venoms, 3 ravagers and 9 reavers. I managed to get a free pain token for my Combat Drugs and also seized the iniative which filled me with hope, at least at first....

The ravagers did what they always seem to do for me and missed most of their shots (I think the forget they're BS4). They could only wound the daemon prince once. The trueborn and the venoms were equally pathetic and only managed to kill a handful of zombies. The return fire from the guardsmen killed a venom and two raiders but with minimal casualties. The wyches were charged by the daemon prince and failed to cause any wounds resulting in their deaths after a second round of combat.

In their second turn the reavers swept from their position on the left flank and hit the guardsmen on the quad gun with bladevanes wiping out the squad. The ravagers continued to be pathetic but between them and the kabalites they did at least kill both of the obliterators. The rest of the army continued to chip away at the zombies. The remaining wyches had managed to avoid being charged by the second horde and therefore easily wiped out an infantry squad. They were then successfully charged by the horde and finished off over a few rounds of combat. The reavers were easily eradicated by the daemon prince and things were starting to look bad. Duke Sliscus and co. were evicted from their raider and hit by the heldrake's baleflamer. The remaining trueborn managed to kill more zombies but little else before they were wiped out by a second blast from the now hovering heldrake.

The DE vehicles were slowly picked off by the guardsmen and with me now lacking the firepower to kill off 30+ zombies in time the relic was safely out of my reach. The only consolation might be that Duke could kill Typhus in combat if he made enough Shadowfield saves. Despite taking Typhus down a couple of wounds Matt kept passing 5++ saves and eventually Duke's shadowfield flickered out and he was instantly killed.

Game 4 - Dwarves vs Skaven (Bloodbowl)
Hoping to at least come away with one victory from the day I was pleased when Matt failed on two successive turns to pick up the ball. I was able to keep the rat ogre down with my troll slayers (though kept failing to break through his armour) and capitalised on Matt's fumbling by scoring a touch down.

Over the next few turns I was able to smackdown more rats and things were looking good as we neared half time. With the final act of Matt's turn 8 he managed to pick up the ball within 4 squares of his endzone, run forwards and throw a long bomb (needing a 6 which he did thanks to a Pass re-roll) to another rat who unbelievably caught the ball despite being in two tackle zones and then dodged out of the tackle zones and went for it twice to score! That's a pretty ridiculous amount of luck on Matt's part and at the half way point I was shocked that the score was tied.

In the second half more gutter runner shenanigans saw me going a goal down. Sadly we ran out of time shortly after but by this point Matt had injured both of my runners and I was struggling to keep on top of his agile rats with 9 men.

Conclusion
Well that's a hell of a start to my gaming in 2013. Nothing from 4 games! I think the Bloodbowl games were actually pretty close on reflection and both were pretty enjoyable with some great moments. It's made me more determined than ever to get my dwarves painted up and start playing more games. They're nearly finished so hopefully I'll get photos up this weekend if I managed to get them done.

It's a shame I couldn't have won with the dwarves. The main problem was with armour rolls. I put down rats left, right and centre but you know things are going badly when you've got more dwarves injured than skaven!! Back to the xbox for some more practice I think!

The 40K games were prett demoralising really. Both felt like they were promising early on but reached a turning point after which I felt like I had no chance of winning. Granted this is normally me attitude in 40K and I accept that it's part of the problem but still I can't say I enjoyed the games.

The zombies have met a mixed reception on the internet. Some think they're brilliant whilst others see them as a gimick that doesn't work in competitive play. I have to say that particularly in games with minimal objectives (especially Relic) they're nigh on unstoppable. If you don't have templates of some description then you'll struggle to chip away at them. Granted I was using mostly 4+ poisoned fire so some armies would find their T3 less of a problem. My wyches really needed a bit more punch to deal with them in combat and S3 didn't really cut it.

As with any horde they require a large volume of fire to put down. The difference with these guys is not only do you have to shift 30 bodies but also they're Fearless. Now, I think the changes to the Fearless rules are the biggest mistake in the 6th edition book. Allowing units to gain a significant benefit from a rule without an obvious downside is always frustrating. In 5th edition you could hope to cause a lot of casualties in combat but now you can settle down for a looooong slog to try and whittle them down.

Well let's just hope that my second day of gaming in 2013 (tomorrow with Jamie) works out a bit better or I might have to rethink this hobby malarky!!

Hobby & Blog Resolutions for 2013

Following on from my review of 2012 I thought I'd share my plans for the coming year. Here then, are my hobby and blogging resolutions/plans for 2013.

Attend More Tournaments
Last year I went to Jolly Toys, Open War, Blog Wars 3 (I didn't play at BW4), Summer Skirmish and two GW doubles events. That's 4 singles and 2 doubles tournaments. I'd like to attend more this year as, especially with 6th edition still being fairly new, I think they're the best way of learning the rules and improving my army. Not saying that I don't have a decent grasp of the rules but even towards the end of 5th edition there were still things coming up at tournaments that I wasn't sure of (or had forgotten).

In this spirit I've been looking to see what tournaments are on offer for 2013. This led me to discover The Outpost in Sheffield. I was aware of its existence but didn't realise they held tournaments. Sadly the first one of the year is sold out but I'm hoping to attend one in February. Not only will this be a great opportunity to try out some army list ideas but also hopefully to meet some new, local, opponents who I may be able to get a game with on a semi-regular basis.

My first scheduled event for the year is Battle Brothers at WHW at the end of the month. This is GW's new version of their doubles event. The system seems a bit daft to me because instead of two separate equal points armies you now have one FOC between the two of you. This basically means people can write a nasty list and just play it with two people. Kind of defeats the point if you ask me but there's always a good variety of people at these things and we've never failed to enjoy them.

Blog Wars 5 & 6
As you may have already read, there's going to be a further two Blog Wars tournaments this year in June and October. Details are to follow but I'm planning on trialing a few new things again. This time around I'm looking into some sort of pre-tournament seeding system to try and avoid those horrific first round matchups than can really make or break the day for people. Anyway, we'll wait and see what I can come up with but I'll not try and go into detail at the moment.

Paint More Models
Now I'd like to say that I'm pledging to not buy anything new until I get everything else painted but with the DA codex arriving imminently we all know that isn't going to happen. What I would like though is that by this time next year I've got at least two of my four armies (DA, SW, DE, Tau) finished. By this I mean painting to a high standard and properly based. Either that or 1750pts of all four races finished. This is probably more likely as I can set myself deadlines in the run up to tournaments. For example I'd love to field my DE at BW5 in their fully painted glory but I've said that before....

Basing is certainly something I'd like to improve on. I've often toyed with the idea of resin bases but I don't think they're worth the extra cost per model when I can concoct something myself. That being said I lack the motivation to actually try making my own!

I think my main problem with painting is that I'm too keen to play with a new army. This means I tend to assemble them quickly, spray them black and then not paint them for months. I'd like to say my DA will be different but as soon as that codex hits I know I'll be gluing shit together like crazy!

Not my table.... yet!

Finish My Gaming Table & Scenery
Since moving house I've not got a much smaller space to game in. This might sound a bit backward but despite the house being bigger it doesn't have the attic that our old one did and hence I'm in a spare bedroom at the moment. I'm grateful to my wife for putting up with one room of the house given over to gaming but space is at a premium.

Therefore I need to get crafty with my table. My plan is to create something akin to these bad boys. Now I'm no master carpenter so I won't be quite to that standard but I'd like it to provide a similar range of functions. I've got some plans in mind which should make for an awesome table. I'll share these in a couple of weeks and keep you updated on my construction progress.

Hand in hand with this is my desire to get all of my scenery fully painted. Every time I play 40K I cringe as I break out the grey plastic buildings and craters. My Citadel Woods are painted but that's about it. I'm determined to get everything done this year, sooner rather than later. Scenery really doesn't take much effort to paint as it's largely spray then drybrush the f**k out of it. The trouble is persuading myself to paint scenery instead of units for my armies. Jamie has expressed an interest in helping me with the scenery project and we've brainstormed some ideas for the table too. Watch this space to see if I actually get anywhere with it.

Bloodbowl
As I mentioned in the last post, Matt and I would desperately like to play in some Bloodbowl tournaments. We're having a bit of a gaming day tomorrow which will involve a game or two of BB so I've been painting my dwarves all day. Sadly I haven't managed to get them finished but when I do I'll post some pictures up on here of course. As I've mentioned, neither of us can really commit to a league so I think we'll be restricted to weekend tournaments. It might also be possible to arrange some friendlies with some of our friends from 40K tournaments.

One idea that I'm interested in exploring is the idea of a Bloodbowl ladder. Those of you who play squash, badminton or even chess will be familiar with the idea but basically it involves a continuous league. Now, I'm not sure how normal BB leagues work but its my understanding that you meet fairly regularly for league games. With the ladder system people would simply challenge each other to a game in the hope of moving up the ladder. Obviously this will create issues in terms of ranking up if people aren't playing an equal number of games but hopefully it will remove the need to play a fixed intervals and also can be done with only a minimum of two people meeting for a game at a time. I might see if there's interest in Sheffield for one so again check back for more on this.

Other Specialist Games (Space Hulk, Dreadfleet, Horus, Necromunda, Malifaux)
I'm determined by the end of the year to finish Matt and my Space Hulk campaign with both of us having played the terminators. Similarly I'd like to play through the Dreadfleet and Horus books. I'm sure this is achievable and with Matt now having a daughter, it may be easier to get the odd evening of specialist games in rather than a day's 40K.

Necromunda and Malifaux are a different kettle of fish. Our Necromunda group hasn't met for a while and when we do I'm not sure whether it'll be that or Malifaux that we play. As I said, I haven't got a Malifaux gang (or whatever they're called) at the moment so that's very much a back burner kind of thing.

Blogging
Last but not least, the blog. As I said before, it's not exactly a Space Wolves blog anymore as the banner would have you believe. This is especially true since I'm starting an army of their rivals the Dark Angels. Therefore at some point in the coming weeks/months I'll be giving the blog a bit of a revamp. The name will stay the same (wish I'd picked something more generic now!) but I'd like to revisit the layout and make it a bit nicer on the eye.

I've currently got 150+ followers, something I'm pretty proud of as a solo blogger who doesn't do any SEO or gimmicky follower competitions to get readers. By the end of the year I'd like to see this rise to 200+. The way I'm going to try to achieve this is to post more often and try and include more hobby content as well as returning to the roots of the blog and posting more battle reports. This means I'm going to have to remember to take photos of both my painting and my battles which isn't something I'm particularly good at.

I'm not going to spend a fortune on a fancy camera and lighting set up to achieve decent images but rather a budget version that uses my existing camera to achieve comparable results. I'll post about this as I develop it (no photography pun intended) but hopefully it will be of some use to others out there who want to take better photos of their miniatures and battles.

Conclusion
Big plans for 2013 then. This wordy post can be pretty much summarised in TL:DR form as "play more, paint more and take photos while doing it". Hopefully as the painting progresses so will the photography and hence more interesting content for you guys.

I hope all 156 of you will stick with me for the year and that you'll be joined by at least 44 others! Thanks for reading my ramblings up to this point!

Blood Bowl: Meet Gork's Krushas

We've been planning on starting a blood bowl league for a ling time now. Well, since Matt got the box set for Christmas anyway! I plumped for the Orcs that come in the box and Matt's got a Skaven team from eBay.

Whilst we've both played the Xbox game a fair bit, we've only had a couple of proper games. We're going into the Chaos Cup tomorrow with a few friends who play pretty regularly. Should be fun no matter what happens.

The thing I like most is the simplicity. There aren't many things to remember. Even when the special skills come into play they mainly give re-rolls or modifiers. Combined with the 4 minute time limit this means games are fast paced. Unlike 40k there isn't anything to argue about. Thanks to the living rulebook pretty much everything is properly clarified. That and movement is by squares so there's no sneaky inch pinching.

Anyway, I'll write a full report of the cup later in the week. If you haven't played it, I thoroughly recommend it. Like Necromunda it's cheap to get into too!