Blood Bowl League: Match #1 - Gnarly Gobbos versus Los Sicarios (Halflings!)

I played my first league game on Monday versus RJ and his Luchador-Halflings - Los Sicarios! I'd played against the team on Friday when Vera, who had painted them for RJ, decided she wanted to try them out before handing them back over to RJ! 

The weather was fine at the Halfling's pitch and the coin-toss determined the Gobbos would receive the first kick-off... and off we went!

The Gnarly Gobbos received he first kick-off!

#69 Jean Klean - the Goblin Ball-and-Chain Fanatic lurched into the halfling lines knocking Halfling left and right! 

#15 - Fungusface - the Goblin Chainsaw Lunatic - also surged forward, swinging his chainsaw about like a maniac! 

I realized #13 - Frankie Sweatscab had somehow snuck into my carrying case and ONTO THE FIELD despite not yet being hired by the team?! Whoopsie! Luckily he hadn't done anything at all and was quietly escorted off the field by security... well... quiet for a Goblin Blood Bowl player! Three of the security guards were stabbed in the incident and one bled out on the pitch... BUT THE GAME WENT ON!!!

Someone brought the ball up the field and tried to convince one of the Trolls to throw him (and the BALL!) up the field... unfortunately, the troll picked the poor lineman up and slammed him into the ground, knocking him out entirely and scattering the ball between the goblin and halfling lines... 

There was a LOT of goofy back-and-forth nonsense with one team trying to pick it up in the middle of the scrum only to get knocked down or trip themselves up trying to get OUT of the giant clusterfuck in the middle of the field... 

Both Fungusface and Jean Klean were knocked out of the game early in the first half - damaged by their OWN secret weapons when rotten little halflings tripped them up (I think mostly from throwing exploding pies at them?)!

Ever so slowly the ball made it's way toward the Halflings end zone... even if it wasn't always in the Gnarly Gobbos possession! 

One of the "Treemen"/Giant Cacti thumped #4 - Leon Cankersore - pretty good and he was out for the game... and would be out for the following game and developed a lifelong hatred of giant cacti, and, honestly, any sentient flora of any sort... I mean... there are cactus spines up in there that are never coming out! 

#7 - Bill S. Pestmaim - fouled one of the Halflings... and killed him DEAD!! (which apparently does NOT get you Star Player Points! I call bull shit on that! I mean, HOW are Goblins supposed to ever get ANY Star Player Points if they can't through taking opponents out via fouls!?).

Piles of players all over the field... ball, slowly rolling towards the Halfling end zone... 

It was a little ridiculous. I think it was the fastest first half I've ever played. I feel like there wasn't a single turn played where either team actually got to activate more than half of their team because SOME IDIOT would self-down themselves, or try to pick up the ball and fumble it because they were in the middle of SO MANY tackle zones of other players all trying to grab the ball (which would mean a turn-over) or they'd pick it up and try to move and get tripped up or tackles trying to dodge out of opponents tackle zones... 

The Gnarly Gobbos Team Captain, #1 Hotlicks Wobblespot briefly had possession of the ball and tried to dodge out of the scrum and got tripped up and fell so hard he STUNNED himself!?

Other #3 - Norg - one of the Gnarly Gobbos Trained Trolls went toe-to-tow with one of the Halflings Giant Cacti... or... Toe-to-Root...? I don't know... 

Eventually the game timed out and the whistle blew marking the end of the first half - No goals scored - but one halfling dead, so there was that! (Goblins are vicious little bullying curs!) 

Starting the second half the Gnarly Gobbos kicked off to the Los Sicarios Halflings! 

Head Coach RJ wondering how to unfuck this situation...!

(he looks pretty serious in this picture, but this game was 90% hoots of laughter it was all so completely absurd...) 

A Hafling picked up the ball and ran it up to hand off to another halfling that tried to get one of the Giant Cacti to hurl them down the field... but either the hand off was fumbled...? or the Giant Cacti fumbled the Halfling and we were back to a giant scrum in the middle with the ball bouncing here and there and players knocking each other down and rolling around in pain... 

Seriously... some of the rolls we had... THIS was after a troll tried to swat a Halfling lineman... with more than double the strength the troll got three block dice and on the first roll rolled TWO Self Down and one Both Down... so I used one of my two re-rolls that weren't stollen by the halflings... and above is what I rolled... a Self-Down and two Push-Back!? It was a minor improvement to push someone back and NOT get knocked down themselves (which would have ended my turn right there...) but it was frustrating to roll SIX DICE and not get a single POW! 

Somehow the ball got over to the other sideline and a Halfling got it and ran it up the side. #48 - Lil Bopper - the Goblin Pogoer - gave chase and tried to keep him hemmed up against the sidelines and stuck in his tackle-zone (necessitating dodging OUT of said tackle-zone to move forward)

But move forward he did and scored the first goal of the game!! WOOO!!!

The Gnarly Gobbos received another kick-off! 

Lil Bopper had bounded up the field with it and tried to hand if off to a Goblin Lineman for Dagadyr the Troll to hurl up the field... but the hand-off was fumbled and bounced and landed at the Trolls feet... who... PICKED IT UP!? 

The other troll, unfortunately, forgot why he was there and the Goblin Linemen had to gang up on some Halflings themselves to knock them down... 

Dagadyr trundled up the field and tried to pass the ball back to Lil Bopper, but they were swarmed by Halflings and a giant cacti and they lost possession and it bounced... and grabbed by someone else... 

Who was knocked down and it bounced again... 

Norg going toe-to-root with the giant Cacti again... this time the Cacti got the better of him and knocked his ass out cold. 

What a mess... 

Somehow, someone on the Halfling team picked up the ball and hurled it down the field.. 

.. where another player actually caught it... and was able to hand it off to another player... 

Who ran it in for a SECOND GOAL!!! WOOOO!!!!

This was on their last turn of the game... 

The Gnarly Gobbos had ONE LAST TURN... and were down 2-0... 

Recieving the Kick-Off, Lil Bopper, the Pogoer, bounded up the field and handed the ball off to #16 - S. Maulfart! 

Dagadyr the Trained Troll, not only remembered why he was there, AND managed to NOT EAT Maulfart, AND hurled him (rather inaccurately) up the field, where Maulfart managed to land on his feet and not shatter his kneecaps! 

Maulfart took off down the field like a Cave Squig out of a bathtub, sprinting straight at the line of defence the Halflings had established.  

He dodged through two tackle-zones and rushed once to get past the line... 

and then had to dodge OUT of the tackle-zone and rush once again to make it into the end zone and score a single goal for the Gnarly Gobbos!

and the crowd

WENT 

FUCKING

WILD!!!!

WOW!!! what and insane series of successful dice rolls that had to happen to pull that off - and all without any Team Re-Rolls!? (one Dodge roll was failed, but re-rolled because the Goblins all have the Dodge Skill!) 

POST GAME SEQUENCE...

We went through most of the post-game sequence. 

First was recording the outcome and collecting the winnings - the app we're using kind of did all the recording. The Halflings won, scoring two Touchdowns and the Gnarly Gobbos scored the one. 

Leon Cankersore will be out the next game due to injury and thereafter will have a "Niggling Injury" (any future Casualty rolls - to see how serious a serious injury is - will be done with a +1)

Trampa De Miel, a "Halfling Hopeful" (lineman) died of his injuries... 

The Halflings gained another thousand Dedicated Fans. I did not LOSE any... because you can't drop below ONE Thousand!? 

#48 Lil Bopper was determined to be the MVP for the Gnarly Gobbos (it's kind of random) and gained four star player points. While not actually scoring any goals or beating anyone up, he was probably responsible for the most forward movement of the ball during the game, having gained possession of it one multiple occasions and running it up the field before, ultimately, being brought down by those sneaky, nasty halflingses (or... as was often the case... his own HUBRIS!!)

As MVP, Lil Bopper gained four Star Player Points and I decided to spend three of those on a Random Primary Skill and ended up with Safe Pair of Hands - which essentially means if ever he is knocked down or falls down, he can CHOOSE an empty square for the ball to fall into, rather than it randomly scattering... 

#16 S. Maulfart gained one Star Player Point for safely landing after being tossed and three more Star Player Points for scoring a touchdown... so I also spent three of those on a Random Primary Skill and ended up with Quick Foul... which means when he's fouling... like hitting during a Blitz, it DOESN'T stop his movement, he can foul a downed player on the run and keep on going!? (assuming he's NOT kicked out of the game!) 

In retrospect, I'm not sure spending the star player points on random skills was a great idea. Instead I could have waited and spent six to PICK a primary skill (or ten to pick a secondary skill) ... (or fourteen to have a random characteristic improved). The skills I got aren't the most useful, but with gaining skills, the VALUE of each player increases by 20,000 gold for a Primary Skill - regardless of whether you picked a useful skill or took a random one that ended up being not-so-useful! 

#1 Hotlicks Wobblespot and #3 Norg the Troll both gained two Star Player Points for injuring opponents

The Halflings took in 80,000 gold crowns and the Gnarly Gobbos took in 70,000 (so they now have 145,000 gold in their treasury!).

I'm not entirely sure WHAT to do with all that gold? I now have 145,000 gold in my treasury!

I could get a Doom Diver and either an Apothecary... or an 'Oolingan... or a Bomma... or TWO more Linemen...? 

I don't know... we'll see.. 

Forest Shuffle and Doom Diver Catapult

 I bought a board game today. I haven't bought a new game in a while. 

Amanda and I saw this game in a game store in Amsterdam and Amanda thought it looked interesting, but it was the dutch version and I figured I could look it up when we got home and pick up from our FLGS - Dragon's Den Games. 

I did look it up and saw it was on the BoardGameGeek top 200 games (currently 151 out of some 179,400 games ranked on the website!?) and it has a few expansions already. I'm not all that interested in expansions... but if a game HAS expansions, it suggests it was popular enough that the publisher decided to capitalize on that and MAKE MORE of it! 

So I picked up a copy from the Den... 

While I was out and about, I also rode out to the Warhammer Store...

...and picked up the Doom Diver Catapult!

I mostly picked it up to add a Doom Diver to the Gnarly Gobbos blood bowl team... I was looking for older metal Doom Divers on eBay and most of the individual ones were going to cost me $50+... for ONE Doom Diver... (and would arrived somewhere between mid-August and mid-September...). Then I noticed that Games Workshop has rereleased the old Warhammer Fantasy Goblin Doom Diver Catapult... IN METAL... with TWO Doom Divers... AND a catapult... for $65 and could be shipped to the local store in a couple of days... so I did that. 

Now I have a Doom Diver to assemble and paint before my next game! 

AND a spare one...

AND a catapult I could put together and use in my generic goblin army!? 

Is the addition of this Doom Diver going to revolutionize my team and make me win any games!? I severely doubt it... Is it going to be silly and fun to launch goblins about the table and watch them crash and cause chaos!? By all the gods of Chaos and Order, I sure hope so!! 

(I also picked up some Green Stuff... I don't LOVE this Army Painter "ribbon" bullshit... but they never seem to be able to get the much more economical Gale Force Nine product anymore... I may have to look into getting some elsewhere next time I'm running out... or... maybe start looking into it NOW... BEFORE I run out again and just dash over to the den to grab more of this...) 

Blood Bowl: Tomb Kings Test Models

I've been working on the Tomb Kings Blood Bowl team that came with the Third Season Edition box. I'd assembled and primed them all before I went on vacation. I had an idea for a colour scheme, but wanted to test it on a few models before I fully committed to a production line... 

I LIKE IT! I'm pretty happy with how these turned out (as happy as I can be with anything I paint!?) and I'm going to paint the rest like this! 

#12 Sitdjehuti and #13 Ahmose - Tomb Kings QUEENS Linemen...? 

I've not settled on a name just yet... I was thinking of something inspired by the Valley of the Queens and name all of the team members after ancient Egyptian queens, princesses, goddesses and such... 

I do like alliteration... so one idea I had was Malekāt Matrons (Wādī al-Malekāt being where the Valley of the Queens is located...)

Could also use Ta-Set-Neferu, the ancient name for the Valley of the Queens...? Maybe I'll compress that into Tasetnefru.

Tasetnefru Tumblers? Tasetnefru Tacklers? Tasetnefru Tacticians? Tasetnefru Ta-Tas? Tasetnefru Terrors? Tasetnefru Tornados? Tasetnefru Townies? Tasetnefru Tsunamis? Tasetnefru Talons? 

Tasetnefru Tigers would have been fun... but I feel like I'd need to do them in orange with black stripes... and I ALREADY HAVE A TEAM LIKE THAT! 

Or Malekāt Marauders? Malekāt  Murderers? Malekāt Monkeys? Malekāt Magicians? Malekāt Mashers? Malekāt  Mavericks? Malekāt Missiles? Malekāt Mustangs? 

If anyone else has ideas, I'd love to hear them! 

I also finished up two of the ball tokens that acame with the team

Canopic Jar Footballs!? I have to say, I think these are kind of fun! 

I actually saw a few Canopic Jars on my recent trip! 

The Canopic Jars are along the bottom. 

For those that are not aware, during the mummification process, the organs were removed and placed in Canopic Jars - at least, the organs that they thought were imporant, like the Liver, Lungs, Stomach, and Intestines. I think the heart was left in - as it was the MOST important... and the brain was discarded...? Because the Ancient Egyptians didn't think it did much...? 

I'll include more about where we encountered these in another post... at some point... maybe... 

Blood Bowl Tokens and Goblin Fanatic!

In preparation for my first league match, I cranked out these assorted status tokens for Blood Bowl...

They don't look like much, but wow were they a pain in the ass to paint. I did not love it at all. 

Instead of painting them the suggested colour, I see now why Vera and others chose to just spray paint them a metallic colour and just fill in the recesses with the colour the token is mean to be... That would have been SO MUCH less work trying to paint these all be hand... both sides... without them sticking to the table and tearing off the layers you just finished... 

Anyway, I did what I did and they don't look great... but they're DONE!!

I also knocked out this ball possession token.

It's made to be two sided and the other side says loose ball, or something... and the ball is meant to be removable and can be slotted into a hole on either side... I hate that... the tab on the ball, I am certain, would eventually break off and/or the ball would be LOST... so I just glued it onto the possession side and when it's NOT in possession, either this token can sit in whatever empty square it ends up in (because if it is NOT in possession of a player that's in a square, the ball bounces out into an adjacent square, and just keeps bouncing until someone catches it, or it lands in an empty square!) 

I have separate loose ball tokens I'm working on if anyone feels like they need a separate token to sit in a square to denote a loose ball (each team comes with a few... some of the Tomb King ones are canopic jars!)

it goes under the player who has the ball to show that they have the ball.. It's very handy and I like it SO MUCH BETTER than the stupid little balls that you got with second edition and had to try and keep on the players base (and, ultimately, because they were SO FUCKING SMALL would eventually be lost!!) 

I still have a few scatter templates and ball tokens to finish up...

When I sat down to finish these up, I realized I had NOT finished painting my Goblin Ball and Chain Fanatic!? so I quickly finished that off as well!

Blood Bowl - Hammertown Tiger-Rats

I've finished touching up one of my old Blood Bowl teams from when I played 35 years ago. I'm not sure I ever played this Skaven team... I'm not entirely sure HOW I ended up with a Skaven team. I think I won it as a prize somewhere...? I very hastily painted the entire team up before running one of the leagues for a friend to borrow and play with. I think he dropped out of the league after one or two games... 

The name, Hammertown Tiger-Rats, was a play on the Hamilton Tiger-Cats an actual football team in the Canadian Football League (CFL). I pay so little attention to actual sportsball, that I have no idea if they're still a team... 

(I checked! They ARE!)

In addition to touching up the bases, and adding positions and names to them (originally the rims of the bases were colour-coded; red for blitzers, yellow for catchers, white for throwers, grey for linemen, etc) I kept the colours for the letters of the position they play. There are not Skaven catchers anymore, but there are runners... and they seem sort of similar... so I used yellow for them. I wrote the positions on the bases as opponents may not be familiar with the old metal miniatures, so I wanted to make it absolutely clear which model was playing what position! 

The linemen on Skaven teams are called "Clan Rats", which I like better than "lineMAN", so that's why I've used that term on the bases. 

The other touch-ups were painting their feet, noses, tails and ears (which had all just been done brown) and adding the numbers and touching up any orange bits that had chipped. One of the Clan Rate was completely newly painted, as was the Rat Ogre, a second Clan Rat which had been about half done was finished. It was a month ago I was working on these, do I forget which ones... probably later ones in the numbers (17,18...?) 

The Hammertown Tiger-Rats

This is not "The Team", per se. I haven't figured out what the starting team would look like. You start with 1,000,000 gold and need to hire a minimum of eleven players and can have a maximum of sixteen on your roster.. and I have nearly TWENTY here! 

#1 - Thrower - Krillik Boltthrower - Team Captain

#2 - Blitzer - Quillit Blaedzur 

#3 - Blitzer - Rust Skritflay - Blitzer

#4 - Clan Rat - Tollik Fütsor - This used to be a Kicker model... but there are no kickers anymore... Clan Rats (linemen), however, can potentially gain a Kick Skill...? so... if ever Tollik gains some Star Player points, they will be used to get him any and all Kicking related skills so they can be my KICKER! 

#5 - Thrower - Qenq Spitfang

#6 - Runner - Tatquee Gotchrot

#7 - Runner - Ratlik Poxball

#8 - Runner - Buttlik Queezur

#9 - Runner - Snitch Footgnaw

#10 - Clan Rat - Trik Bonetapper

#11 - Clan Rat - Pinqtung Gashlik

#12 - Clan Rat - Rizzik Squigbite

#13 - Clan Rat - Filtch Nashear

#14 - Clan Rat - Queek Felblek 

#15 - Clan Rat - Thanquof Kraktail

#16 - Clan Rat - Skrittar Bentclaw

#17 - Clan Rat - Pisturd Nurglak

#18 - Clan Rat - Xokch Ashblood 

#73 - Rat Ogor - Kargark

I have a pile of old Warhammer Fantasy metal Skaven of the same era. I have far too many heroes, so I may take a few of those and paint them up in team colours to use as coaches, assistant coaches, apothecaries, etc... 

Not sure I'll ever use these in a league... I do like my GOBLINS! And if I decided to take a break from them, there are the new ones that came in the box set (Tomb Kings and Brettonians)... and so many others that look like they'd be really fun to build and paint and play (Halflings and Nurgle, mainly...). I'll keep there handy as a loaner team.