Northbowl '11- Game 3

Time for another quick round of highlights of the Group North Northbowl Bloodbowl Resurretion Tournament. This week a special shout-out to Kaz's Mum, who is a regular follower of The Mancave ,especially as this week I played Kaz and her Vampire team :) As the two teams prepared to go onto the pitch (we were lucky enough to be playing in the Suut-Kase Stadium owned by the League Commissioner himself) the Dark ELves were drawn to a delicious smell from the Vampires dugout..and there, between the two teams was a Halfling chef, cooking up a storm! Unable to resist the temptation, my team gorged themselves foolishly on the delights the Halfling served up, and promptly lost a team reroll to the snickering Vampires (who had hired the Halfling for 300,000 gold for this express purpose...) After that little feast, we join the action shortly after kick off, as a round of Dark Elf blocking managed to punch a hole in the Vampire lines and free up my Blitzers and Star Player Hubris Rakarth to gang up on the luckless (and Thrall-less) Vampire in my half... Despite some rather judicious use of Hypnotic Gaze, my Blitzer was able to knock down the Vampire Ball carrier and run it in for the first TD...1-0 Dark Elves... But then the seductive power of the Vampires kicked in, as Kaz used her Vampires Hypnotic Gaze to paralysing effect, effectively neutralising all my defenders between the half way line and the Endzone...Touch Down Vampires.....1-1...... At Half-time, some of my more greedy players snuck over to the Halfling Chef's stall again and had themselves second helpings of his fare...once again sacrificing a Team Reroll to the Vampires. This time Kaz kicked off to me and I was set to put this one 2-1 ahead...after a clean pick up my Runner headed for the small gap the two blitzers had created in the Vampires line... The Runner made it all the way to 2 squares from the endzone when she was blitzed by a particularly aggressive and non-Twilight like Vampire, knocking the ball to within a square of the endzone..but fear not, Hubris Rakarth had followed the Runner down the pitch and was poised to blitz and recover the ball for an inevitable Touchdown.... ...except I hadn't counted on Hubris 'Little Thing' for girl Vampires...a Hypnotic Gaze was all it took to reduce the Dark Elf star blitzer to a drooling idiot and he totally ignored the ball for crucial seconds to allow the Vampires to scoop it up...luck was against Kaz however as the less agile Vampire tripped over as he tried to dodge out of another Dark Elves tackle Zone, spilling the ball behind a wall of thralls and Dark Elves.. Hubris regained his senses temporarily, only to be hynotised again by the same Vampire, as her Vampire lord boyfriend cam barreling across the field to blitz Hubris into the crowd..a jealous Vampire is a dangerous thing..... What folowed then was 6 turns of Hypno gazing ball carriers and potential tacklers,and Vampires who couldn't dodge to save themselves...the clock ran out and the final score was....1 all... Great game which kept going back and forth in the second half, amazing defence by Kaz and her Vampires, who held the ball within 1-2 squares of the Endzone for 6 turns straight despite many desperate attempts by the dark Elves to pick it up and score...and even poor heartless Hubris left the game a little heartbroken...... Slann next week....tune in then for a hopping good time! :)

Northbowl '11 - Game 2 Highlights

Game 2, and my Coromandel Nightmares were totally outclassed and outplayed by the Chaos Warriors, suffering a 4-2 defeat.... After winning the toss, I elected to kick off, figuring I had a better chance against the 4 St4 Ag3 warriors ,St5 Minotaur and the claw and horned Beastmen...sadly...I was wrong :) An opening in the Chaos defence.... EVENTUALLY leads to a TD for the Dark Elves.Chaos scored 2 in reply.... Highlights of the game included the attrocious casualty rate suffered by my team: at one stage, 4 players were Badly hurt and another 4 Knocked out, leaving only 4 players on the pitch. "Highlight??!!" you say...well yes, because it was at this stage that Hubris Rakarth managed to double dodge into 2 tackle zones, pick up the ball, and then dodge twice again out of a press of Beastmen, avoid a potentially devastating tackle by the Minotaur rolling Double Skulls on a blitz, and running it in for a 2-all equaliser... Hubris starts his run for the ball.... ...grabs it, dodges through 2 tacklezones and starts racing for the endzone.... ..the Minotaur tries to stop him.... ...and rolls double skulls...TD Hubris! Thats when it all went horribly wrong....half of my Knocked Out Dark Elves found that condition inifintely preferable to going back out to face the Minotaur again, and so I played the rest of the second half with only 7 players each drive...thats BloodBowl though, and I was glad to come away with only a 4-2 loss! Full kudos to John for his masterful player positioning and use of skills as he shut down every attempt to make a scoring drive, and avoided what was left of my defence each time... Now, if only I can beat those Vampires next game I'll crawl off the bottom of the league ladder!!

Northbowl '11- Game 1....

Welcome Bloodbowl fans to the ManCave's EXCLUSIVE web coverage of the annual Northbowl Resurrection Tournament held at sunny Group North Historical Wargaming Society in Adelaide....this year's tourney sees the return of the Coromandel Nightmares Dark Elf team, and 4 of the 5 coaches from last year, with their new teams. Tourney 2010 Winner Hugh is coaching a Slann team this year, and managed a 2-1 win over rookie coach Karen and her Vampires last night in their first game.....the Orcs and Chaos are itching for their first game but todays featured game will be the Coromandel Nightmares vs "The Russian Bears" Dwarf team playing in the sensational Suitcase Stadium....stay tuned..... This year the Nightmares have 8 lineman, (1 with Sure Hands); 2 blitzers both with Block and one with Dodge, the other Fend; a runner with Dump-off and Sidestep and after much negotiation (and chats with Paul and The Lad)the Star Player Hubris Rakarth condescended to lend his services for the tourney....due to the last minute signing of his contract, Hubris didn't have a uniform in time for the game (I was lucky to have him glued and undercoated by game start!!) The Nightmares won the toss and elected to Kickoff, as the Dwarves revealed their Secret Weapon, a Deathroller, which would expire after the first drive.Sadly, the only thing expiring in the first half was the Nightmares team members, as a solid turn burning strategy by the Dwarves saw 5 Dark Elves in the KO and Badly Hurt dugouts by the end of the half,and a Dwarf TD in the dying turn of the half. Before the end of the half, Hubris managed to break through the line of scrimmage and throw a blitz at the ball carrier, stripping him of his ball ...but the Dwarf managed to recover the ball next turn and Rakarth was sent sprawling by the Dwarven guards....Rakarth was then brutally fouled on the very last turn of the half and knocked out....so hard was the hit that he failed to wake up for the rest of the game, failing 3 attempts to revive him.... The second half started with the Nightmares receiving the kick off, and here we had high hopes for a revenge TD....the Death Roller had been ejected from the game, and 260,000 gold pieces worth of Star Player was snoring in the dug out, so the Dark Elves blood was up... Kaledor Maglen, the Sure-Handed Lineman, picked up the ball and ran to the line of scrimmage,looking for someone to pass too.... ...but Maglen was knocked down before he got the chance to pass to the runner Maliketh Fellheart, and despite Duriath Hellbane the Blodger and Ganeth Shadowblade the Linemans' best efforts, the Dwarves recovered the ball and ran down the pitch for the second TD... The re-start was interrupted by a Pitch Invasion of furious Dark Elf fans and drunken Dwarfs, knocking down and stunning 2 Dwarves and 2 Dark Elves at the line of scrimmage....sensing an opportunity, Kaledor Maglen grabbed the ball and moved cautiously forward, this time protected by two linemen... Three other Dark Elves broke through the gap in the Dwarven defence, including the Blitzer with Fend, Khaleth Mournweaver. Maledor ran up to the line of scrimmage and lobbed a Long Pass at the Blitzer, but the pass was inaccurate and bounced into the crowd.The cheering fans threw the ball straight back in to the middle of the Dwarven backfield, closer to the Endzone than before..before Mournweaver could run to pick up though the Dwarven Trollslayer came lumbering in to blitz the Dark Elf Blitzer.... ....and promptly rolled Double Skulls. With no Dwarven rerolls remaining, the Trollslayer went down, and Mournweaver was able to easily dodge away from the remaining Dwarf defender, scoop up the ball and run it in for the Nightmares first TD of the tourney....the resulting cheers were enough to wake the Undead(just as well as their game was next)...although apparently not Rakarth.... The remaining two turns of the game ended with a 6 Dwarf "stacks-on" foul on Lineman Shadowblade, resulting in him being Stunned..apparently settling a Grudge from when he tried to stop the game winning TD earlier in the half... So final Score Dwarves 2, Dark Elves 1, and 3 casualties to the Dwarves. I was stoked to have reduced the TD difference from 2-against to 1-against, as this is used as a tie breaker at the end of the tourney. Learnt lots about being more aggressive, as 7 surviving Dark Elves managed to pull off a TD when 11 with a Star Player couldn't earlier, and all because I played to my teams strengths in the end...oh, and the Troll Slayer Double Skulling kind of helped a little.....till next week BB fans!!

Group North Blood Bowl Tournament 2011

You may recall that around this time last year fellow Man Caver Comrade James (of the South Australian Man Cave Annex) participated in the Group North Blood Bowl Tourney, pulling off a highly respectable third place.  Well its on again this year and Round One starts tonight.  I know you'll all join with me and The Lad in being Cheering Fans for the Comrade's "Coromandel Nightmares", a Dark Elf team


The tourney includes six teams and is run as a 5 round Resurrection style league, with Rosters of 1.2 mil, and adding 4 skills extra at 20k each.  The best 2 teams will play off in final.   Aside from the Comrade's Dark Elves, participants include Vamps, Dwarves, Slann, Chaos and one other, as yet unknown...

Lots more to follow and the Comrade promises lots of Man Cave exclusive coverage of this esteemed event!

GO NIGHTMARES!!!!

The Nightmares roll in a TD in their win against a Human team in the 2010 Tourney

Game 4- Finally, a win!

Been a while, but finally got another game of Bloodbowl in for our 5 match competition. This time, my Coromandel Nightmares Dark Elf team faced off against a Human team which included an Ogre ,2 catchers, 2 blitzers and a thrower, as well as the ubiqtious linemen. I lost the toss, and my opponent elected to receive.After working his way up the field in a cage for 5 turns, I finally gave him the break he needed, and underestimated how fast a catcher can run...a snappy hand off and the catcher was able to sprint down an alley 2 squares wide that I failed to spot, and needing only a single Go For It sprinted in for a touchdown...1-zip Humans... Dark Elf pride was salved quickly however, as in the dying turns of the first half my witch elf launched a Long Bomb pass from within her own half to a blitzer standing near the end zone, and with her Leader re-roll was able to make it a perfect pass...the agile Blitzer caught it easily and ran it in for the Nightmares first TD...1-all, halftime... I received first in the second half, and was gratified to see the Nightmare's fans in the stands respond to the touchdown by throwing a rock at the Humans, knocking out a blitzer lined up for the kick off..with only 10 men/ogres, the humans were hard pressed to stop another DE drive, and this time 2 Blitzers got to the endzone, and after being tackled just before scoring, managed to regain the ball and run it in for TD 2...2-1 Dark Elves...

My kick off to the humans miraculously landed the ball in their endzone, forcing their thrower to run all the way back to pick it up..mean while he began his now familiar one sided drive with 2 blitzers and 2 catchers...I thought a bit of warfare strategy was needed here, and so refused the flank...I let his 4 drive halfway into my half and bottled them up with some linemen, my assassin and a blitzer..meanwhile I broke my Witch elf and another blitzer through his scrimmage line into his half on the other flank to put pressure on his thrower...sadly for him, his attempts to dodge out of the tackle zones of my linemen on the line of scrimmage meant he couldn't get enough guys back to stop the WE, who was able to tackle and regain the ball from the human thrower and run it in for touchdown 3....3-1 DE....

The remaining turns were spent trying to injure each other (in true Bloodbowl style) as casualties are used as tie breakers in the tournament...In the end, a 3-1 victory, and I could count 3 casualties caused against none for the Humans..

SO, last game is tomorrow night, against my arch enemy, the SKaven...to get into the grand final against the Orcs I must beat the Skaven (who are as yet undefeated) and they must also lose against the same Human team...anything could happen :))

Game 3....Da Orcs!!!

Game 3 of 5, and that meant something special for the Vanguard...we got to play in The Stadium!! Made by Graeme, the tournament organiser and BloodBowl fanatic, the Stadium is a fold up BB pitch complete with dice tower commentary box, stands , proper 3D dugouts and hilarious BB themed sponsor notices all around...not to mention the field is felt turf that makes a very pleasant change from the Astro Cardboard of the standard pitch....I will do a seperate entry with pics on the stadium, but for now, the game... We won the toss, and following some advice from the BB Tactics blog that Tas has linked to before, I elected to kick off. The idea here is when faced with a team that is bigger and stronger than you, the first drive is the only time in the game you will have a full team to oppose them so you may as well kick to them...sounds great in theory... so anyway, Turn 1 and I manage to KO his chainsaw orc with my Witch Elf Blitzer, which meant he was out for the rest of the game..a good start I thought...Graeme then formed up his ball carrying thrower with two blitzers in what would become a familiar formation, and started marching down the pitch. He warded off several attempts of mine to block and tackle from behind to NEARLY score on a straight drive, only to have my Assassin sucessfully stab his ball carrier, allowing a lineman to pick up the ball and then throw it to another DE Lineman in the middle of my half...sadly there were too many orcs and not enough DE by this stage and my elf was thumped to the ground, the ball coming loose and snatched up by an enterprising Orc Blitzer (is that a contradiction in terms??) who ran it in for Orc TD 1. Score 1-0 Orcs.. With only 1 turn left in the first half we let the clock run out, and had a well earned half time break...fortunately for me all 4 of my KO'd elves recovered for the 2nd half, and the 2 lineman substitutes were able to come on to replace the 2 lineman with Dauntless (remember them?) who were badly injured and out for the game.. As I had kicked off at the start of the game, I received for this half, and in 4 turns was able to score my first touchdown. It would have been 2 turns, but some last ditch tackling by the orcs saw the ball come loose, snatched up by an orc, who in turn was tackled, losing the ball to an Elf, allowing another to snatch it up and sprint twice to score.1-1 ! 4 turns to go, and I thought 'you beauty', all I have to do is delay him long enough and run out the clock....after setting up my team I was dismayed to see a rock hurled from the crowd hit my Assassin fair square on the noggin.Down he went, out for the drive, and leaving a big gap in the middle of my defence....(clearly a fan of the Orc he had stabbed earlier...) Still, for the next three turns I was able to make Graeme work hard to gain field position, putting the elves just out of range of his Black Orcs (he had 4 by the way...) and not allowing him easy blocks to knock my guys down...Turn 7 and all I had to do was keep a few Elves in the path of his ball carrier and he wouldn't be able to make the distance in the two remaining turns....I went to stand up one lineman then changed my mind as I thought he would be better dodging out later, so I moved another one towards the ball carrier instead, and then ,in a mad flash of impetosity, went for an extra square (A 'go for it')I rolled the dreaded 1, and with no re rolls remaining, had to let the DE trip over himself, causing the turnover...with that Elf down, and the other one remaining on the ground (remember I had decided against standing him up? Yeah, I didn't...) the Orc ball carrier had a clear run to the endzone, with only a single go for it required, which he made...2-1 orcs, 1 turn left....aaaaagggghhh!!!!!

So annoyed was I at myself that I didn't take any pics of the last few turns.... As the Witch Hag on the sideline started warming up the Cauldron of Blood to sacrifice the two lineman who had failed to stand in the right place, my Witch Elf captain grabbed the ball and screaming obscenities raced down the sideline past 2 orcs..she was never going to make it, but Witch ELves don't have a history of rational decision making...she was duly tackled, and in true Orc style, Graeme surrounded her with 5 orcs and fouled her, rolling a Dead for the inevitable injury...the Witch Hag was appeased.... I wasn't !!!!

Couldn't believe how after such a hard fought game I managed to snatch defeat from a certain draw....still, them's the breaks in BloodBowl, and I'm still sitting 3rd overall in the comp mainly on score difference, as I havn't lost as badly as other teams :) 2 games to go, must win both, especially as the one against the Skaven will be against the 2nd Placed team...Dec 1st is my next game against the Humans....Cormorragggghh!!!

Game 2....Ogres hurt....

Well, Game 2 didn't go so well....if you read my earlier post from last week you know I'm in a 5 game mini tournament for Blood Bowl, and after a 2-0 victory , my Dark Elves were pumped for a repeat performance. Except I didn't count on meeting 5 big smelly Ogres and their annoying yet nimble Snotling team mates....

I received the kick, and after a riot burnt a turn off each sides clock, was able to pass and run the ball in for a touchdown on Turn 3. 1-0 to me, all good so far...my opponent managed to sneak a snotling into 5 squares from my endzone on turn 7, then tried throwing the ball to him from another snotling on the half way line,but little snotlings aren't the best throwers (little arms, you see...) so the ball fell short.My turn and I thought I better smash the snotling about to try and score, so proceeded to throw a 3 dice block against him (that's as good as it gets) and only pushed him. Now, the thing about snotlings...they have side step. Which is an annoying little special rule that allows them to choose which adjacent square they will be pushed into...so of course, my opponent chose the square with the ball...surprise surprise Mr Snotling succeeds in picking up the ball, and then dodges out and then into the endzone for the equaliser...1-1...half time.

After Half time I had to kick off as I received at game start, and the bounce put the ball into the crowd, allowing my opponent to give it to any of his players. SO what would any self respecting Ogre team coach with 5 ogres and 6 snotlings on the pitch do? He gives it to his ogre in the middle of course...what followed for 6 turns was a demonstration of what happens when a coach remembers he has hulking brutes with Mighty Blow...I lost 7 of my 13 players to the injury dug out in as many turns, including 3 out of 4 blitzers and my assassin....needless to say, the big Ogre with the ball lumbered his way to the end zone, sending Dark Elves flying in his path...2-1 Ogres...2 turns to go.... My brave 6 remaining players, including the Witch Elf Blitzer Captain, dusted themselves off, and with a characteristic sneer lined themselves up to receive the kick off as best they could.In true Bloodbowl style, they managed to position themselves with a bit of deft dodging to have the Witch elf blitz a snotling ball carrier (he got the ball after my original ball carrier was tackled) and then pass it to the only Dark Elf still on his feet and not stunned (Those Ogres wouldn't let up!) who was a mere 3 squares from the endzone and in the clear...however, even her agility couldn't compensate for the presence of two ogres looming over her (-2 tackle zones) and she fluffed the pass (needed a 6). The ball sailed over the head of the lineman and bounced frustratingly into the endzone...turnover...game over.... Loved it, I was amazed I got anywhere near looking like a draw after the pummeling we received throughout the second half, but the Bloodbowl dice gods are fickle and filled with...a sense of humour...MVP for me would have to be the two linemen with the Dauntless skill, that enables them to match up to a stronger opponent using an equal strength (after a die roll to see if they can use their skill) more than once these guys were actually able to block and even knock down an Ogre or two in the first half, which made them Ogre Enemy No.1 in the second half....the apothecary says they should recover in time for the next game....

Orcs next week, and my team are already planning how to poison their drinking water.....speaking of the orcs, after they defeated the same Dark Elf team I did last week , also 2-0, they went down 3-1 to the Skaven team last night...and yes Tas, there is a Rat Ogre in that team!

Game 1:Painted Figures Play Better.....

After 15 years from the day they were painted by a friend of mine and Tas's (Matt), my Dark Elf BloodBowl team finally had their first 'proper' game. Each year my games club, Group North Historical Wargaming Society, holds an internal Bloodbowl tournament. The tournament is run over as many nights as needed for each player to play each other, and this year I was hoping to do better than my win-less last placing last year......

So on Wednesday night, the Coromandel Nightmares faced off against a rival Dark Elf team, the SOmething Something Revenge.... I lost the toss and kicked off, but through some bloodbowl luck was able to get the ball from my opponent and run it in for a touchdown. For the uninitiated, Bloodbowl Luck is when everything is going spiffingly then you fail a sure roll and your opponent (me) is able to snatch an interception... The remainder of the half was simply dark elves beating up each other for no score, which again was very Bloodbowl-like.... I received the kick off in the second half, and was able to create a corridor with no opponents in it to try and intercept my linemans pass to my blitzer who was in the opponents half. She (I was using a Witch Elf as the blitzer) raced at full pelt for the endzone, and managed two 'Go for its' to run it in for Touchdown no.2... I nearly handed my opponent a chance to make a come back after tackling and getting the ball, attempting to pass it clear of my half only to have it intercepted by his fastest player, who stumbled on his second 'Go for it' literally one square short of the end zone...another of my players grabbed it up and we kept it for the remainder of the game to run out the clock.

So Game one and I'm already doing better than last year...next week I'm up against a mystery team and will report as soon after I can..