Gaslands and Briscon

I was in Brisbane last weekend, and realised to my good fortune that Briscon was happening. In the nightmare petrol-guzzling dystopian mire maze that was the carpark, I received good preparation for a Gaslands Refuelled particiption game. Ross Williams ran this as well as made all the scenery and cars. The tyre piles are sliced Nerf rounds.

My car with front-facing minigun and molotov cocktails

Buggy with rocket turret and shotgun

Car with turreted machine guns and napalm dropper

The course. Ross proudly told us that noone had made it to the second gate.

Start your engines!

We race to the first gate, which activates weapons.

I veer infront of the buggy and drop a molotov accurately on it

Mayhem! I dodge a rocket; napalm is dumped and the buggy crashes into the other car

Both my opponents blow up, I try to squeeze through the eye of the needle
and we called the game. Great fun!

Other participation games I saw included Lion Rampant crusades and Wings of Glory. There was an impressive 15mm Johnny Reb display game of Gettysburg, but it lacked any explanation or crowd-wranglers. I'm getting crotchetty.

Early evening July 2 1863

Peach Orchard with Little Round Top in the distance

There were a few tournaments going on, including Armada (Star Wars and Mantic), Battletech, Bolt Action, DBA, Team Yankee, 9th Age, Kings of War, Star Wars Legion, and One Page Rules' Grimdark Future.

I had a good time at the bring & buy stand, including an absolute bargain on OOP Forgeworld renegade milita and metal Catachans.

CanCon Lord of the Rings

I participated in a Middle-earth tournament at CanCon last weekend. Apart from that one game a few weeks ago, I haven't played in about ten years.

There were four 500 point games, all running under 90 minutes. My Mordor list was two orc captains, a troll chieftain, and thirty-six orcs including two banners. No cavalry, ranged attacks, or magic for me! I didn't have the desire to get to grips with all the new rules.

My orcs

Heirlooms of ages past

My opponent ran Uruk-hai scouts, and with their enhanced movement he was able to run on the board, find the objective, and run away. 6-2 loss.

Orcs try to close on the scouts

Storm the camp

This was the most frustrating match. I advanced about halfway over the board before being shot to pieces by two (!) Isengard siege bows. Very unsatisfying 6-0 loss.

Distant siege bows pummel the river crossing

Domination

This was an interesting match-up between Isengard wargs and my orcs in constraining urban terrain. I circled in the centre and weathered his charges to a 5-5 draw.

Troll defends against swarming warg riders

Capture and control

I was a bit over things by this stage and threw myself at Gothmog and his Morannon orcs. Not more Isengard, thankfully! Gothmog was way too much for my guys to handle as he stormed a rickety walkway. 8-4 loss.

Gothmog takes the bridge

It was good to dust off some old figures, but I didn't have the energy to learn the new rules tweaks and I was outmatched at the list-building step. It was a long way to go to be hammered repeatedly. I didn't mind playing against all Evil forces. There were 34 players, and I came 32nd.

The terrain was pretty good, the scenarios were fine, and most of the armies were excellently painted.
Here's some pictures of terrain and armies:

Best painted army

Tournament winner- Hunter orcs

I was disappointed in the organisation- a lot of it was run through a private Facebook group which wasn't advertised (!), and it ran about an hour overtime which made me grumpy before a very long drive home.

I'd consider playing again, but am more interested in the warband-size Battle Companies rules.

Eucalyptus Bowl 2019

I took my Slann team to Eucalyptus Bowl 2019 last weekend. This was the 15th Euc Bowl, and there were 61 coaches over the weekend.

The Dunwich Hoppers

Details: 125kGp including skills, 6 matches, resurrection, 2 days, Swiss format. My team: 4 catchers, 8 linefrogs, 4 rerolls.

The winner's trophy has been reimagined in this spectacular shield. The logo is fully 3D. Spoiler- I didn't win.

Day 1.
Match 1. Redcard's Undead.

Redcard is a strong player, with a strong team, and I wasn't surprised at taking a 2-0 loss. I finished with only two players on the pitch... I did kill a Mummy, but it regenerated.

Frogs try to stem the Undead advance

Match 2. Gergiy's Vampires.

Gergiy flew his nerd flag high, dressing as a vampire in evening wear with a white bowtie and cape. His team was a mixture of manufacturers, with some old-school vampires and victims. Vampires can be challenging to coach (as I found at Euc Bowl 2013) and I was a little bit surprised to lose 3-0.

Vampires and Thralls and Frogs, oh my!

In these first two games I just couldn't seem to succeed in any of my dice rolls, which happens occasionally.

Match 3. Luis' Slann.

It's a frogathon! I was looking forwards to this frog-on-frog action, but again, the dice seemed to betray me. I hesitate to blame the dice, as to an extent you place yourself in positions where you need to roll them, but compared to the ease with which Luis was hopping about and hurting me, I was just tripping over and hurting myself. Despite the 4-3 scoreline, it felt a lot more one-sided. I hadn't met Luis before, but he was a good bloke. After three losses, roll on Day 2 and a reversal of dice karma!

It's a Frog-Off!

Day 2.
Match 4. Rabid's Goblins.

Rabid is a very strong coach, and was running the tournament. He had a lovely pirate-theme goblin team. He gets to play the poor inexperienced sap at the bottom of the rankings if noone else is available- and that poor sap was me! He asked me what had gone wrong for me, and I shrugged that the dice weren't really working. Then he watched amazed as I then failed at least half a dozen basic dice rolls... and he took me apart. I suffered a crippling ten casualties... another 3-0 loss.

Arrr! Pirate goblins against all four remaining players on my team...

Match 5. Hypnotoad's Khemri.

Finally, the dice gods got bored with me and wandered off. I had a much more 'as expected' game against Hypnotoad, which was very enjoyable. It was a good match between his slow but strong team against my faster but weak side, and I pulled out a 3-1 win with a cheeky two touchdowns in the final two turns.

Mummies surround the ball

Match 6. Pronax's Humans.

Like the previous match, my dice behaved in a more average fashion and I had the kind of game I had been expecting. I was 3-2 up and got a bit overconfident at the end, and almost gave away a touchdown. I was very relieved to pull out a second win.

Sharknado!

So, two wins and four losses. Overall, I came equal 40th out of 61 coaches. I would have expected better but was relieved it wasn't worse! I don't like blaming dice, but when you literally fail everything you try to do on a 3+ over and over, you get a little demoralised...

It was great to see old friends again. I haven't played Blood Bowl since last Euc Bowl, and was a bit rusty. I'd consider Slann again with some changes- in particular, taking a Blitzer with the Guard skill. I really needed all four rerolls.

Eucalyptus Bowl 2018

Last weekend was the 14th Eucalyptus Bowl. I took my new Khorne team (Hardcore Khorne) for a run. I suffered my first casualty in transit, as one of my pitfighters lost an arm... I'm not a fan of fiddly multipart metal figures. I used some coloured bands to help denote different skill choices- I've disliked this previously but it was quite handy..

Overview: 6 games, 2 days, regen, ~125kgp including skills.

Hardcore Khorne

Day 1
Match 1- Aaron's Orcs, Bigteef's Bruisers

I felt I was the stronger player here, but could not roll dice to help myself. I sustained a meaty six casualties (causing none myself), allowing Aaron to come back and equalise 2-2. This game was played on a thematically illustrated chaos pitch.

Khorne ploughs into Orcs on the line

Match 2- Joekano's Chaos Dwarves, the Sky Bullocks

I was just able to scrape a 1-0 win here, with both of us on 2-2 casualties.

Locking horns! Minotaur vs Bloodthirster

Match 3- Dean's Wood Elves, the Maverick Renegades

I was looking forwards to playing a squishier team, but was wary of the Elve's ability to perform impossible plays. My Bloodthirster finally got revved up and rampaged about the pitch. Despite causing him 4 casualties, Dean came back to equalise 2-2 and almost pulled out a win!

Wardancer knocks over the ball carrier, but is now next to the Bloodthirster...

So, at the end of Day 1 I was doing better than I had anticipated with two draws and a win.

Day 2
Match 4- Glen's Chaos Dwarves- The Masters of Pain

Another Chaos Dwarf team! Joy! Glen played this team well (he came third overall) with a textbook grinding, attritional play to win 2-1. Again, I suffered six casualties... Very nicely painted side.

Chaos Dwarves blunt the Khorne offense

Match 5- Creature's Halflings- Viva la Carnage

I've know Creature for years as a strong player, and I certainly don't misunderestimate the 'Flings. I was 2-1 down and had a chance to equalise but couldn't.

Khorne tries to stop the Flings.

Match 6- Andrew's Ogres- The Dancing Clowns

I really struggled against this fat wall of meat, and again suffered 5-0 casualties. Andrew got his revenge for my cheeky win against him in January by throwing a Halfling in the last turn to win 2-1. Pure Blood Bowl!

Too many Ogres! Can't run through or around them...

Day 2 was nowhere near as enjoyable as Day 1, with three losses. But I didn't have high expectations and my opponents were great fun, so all in all it was another memorable tourney.

Winning team and also Best Painted- Slann

The Bloodthirster, when it gets going, is terrific fun. But if (as happened to me a lot) it is out of action or not performing, then the rest of the team have to lift their game and they don't really have it in them.

Blood Bowl for the Blood Bowl God!

Overall, there were 50 coaches and I came 37th- down from 6th last year! This now means I have played 24 of the official 26 teams- #NerdGoals