It’s spoooooky season, and therefore what better time than now to discuss the brand new Vampires that GW have gone and released? I wonder if they planned that?
We’re also talking about the upcoming election for the captain of Team England.
Can you believe it’s been four years since the last Blood Bowl world cup? Neither can I. A lot has happened since then, from Covid-19 to a whole new version of Blood Bowl (Second Season, O Future Readers).
Like last time, I’m going to assume you know what Blood Bowl is. The World Cup is a team tournament runs once every four years. There’s a huge ceremony to decide who runs it, with bids, committees and all sorts. This year, it was Alicante, Spain that was chosen to be the venue. The organisers put up their website, and all was quiet for a while… All of a sudden someone realised that a few people were signing up for this event. Quite a few. Lots, even. Then it was announced that not only was Alicante looking to exceed the respectable 1400 or so coaches that attended Dornbirn, but they were looking to exceed it by nearly a thousand coaches! By the time registration was over, there was to be over 2200 coaches attending the tournament.
That’s insane!
I was proud to be flying the flag of one of the ten (!) Squad Chaos teams, and what was better is that I wasn’t captain, or even vice captain. That meant I got to do what players normally do and wander around getting lost and turning up late while the captain pulls their hair out and sends abusive text messages.
I was, of course, bringing los chicos huesudos, which Bing reliably tells me is the right translation for The Boney Boys. Khemri are my one true Blood Bowl love (apart from Elves and Goblins, and Ogres, oh and Slann…), and I am lucky enough to count myself quite highly placed with them in the global rankings. I thought this would be a good opportunity to see if I can break through and settle myself on top of the great pile of golden skulls that is the Top Khemri. That, and I just like playing them.
My roster was: 4 Guard Tomb Guardians, 2 Block Throw-Ras*, 1 Tackle/Mighty Blow Blitz-Ra*, 1 normal Blitz Ra*, 7 Skeletons, 2 Rerolls and an assistant coach.
*I’ll be long in my sarcophagus before I start calling them anointed!
You might look at that and frown, and who can blame you? “Fifteen players, Alex?” I hear you say. “Who hurt you? Was it Merrick? Surely you should swap some of those useless skeletons for some lovely rerolls?”
The answer is that I play my Khemri as safely and conservatively as possible (which is also why I like playing Goblins because it gives me a chance to go bananas). Playing them like this means that it’s quite often that I don’t use both of my rerolls on a given drive. It also means that I need to maintain the numbers, regardless of what happens, so a deep, deep bench means I am always setting up with the full 11, no matter what. It also lets me foul, throw away skeletons etc without having to worry about it.
The skill setup is what I consider to be the standard when playing Khemmers at a tournament: Guard up the wazoo, Tackle/MB, Block on both Throw-Ras. Block on the Throwers is vital IMO, as is Guard. Without it, you’ll struggle.
I was flying the flag for Team Khorne (each of the Squad Chaos teams was named after a Chaos God, so we had the usual suspects plus some more exotic ones like Morr and The Horned Rat). With me was Nazgob, our halfling-toting leader, Landrover and his all-frenzy Khorne, fallingdownjoe and his terrifying Skaven, Maverick and his disgusting Chaos Pact and lastly but not leastly monkeytrumpet and his Underworld. We were all planning to bring our A-game, and have all had some success individually in the past. We were hoping to achieve big things in Alicante this year! (Spoilers, we didn’t win. Sorry to burst the dramatic tension, but I thought you deserved to know!)
Travel
Travelling to Alicante was a fairly straight-forward affair for me, thankfully. I finagled my way into getting a lift to Bristol airport on the 6pm flight direct, landed at around half nine, got a cab to the AC Marriot and went to bed like a rockstar. Not!
I arrived too late to see the opening ceremony sadly, but not too late to enjoy a few rounds of Cockroach Poker and Zombie Dice. Full disclosure: I’m not a massive fan of Zombie Dice. It’s fine, but I lose interest after about one round. Cockroach Poker, on the other hand, I will play for hours.
The hotel was nice. It had a pool allegedly, but I never saw it (I left before it opening and arrived after it closed.) The breakfasts were typically hotelly, but that’s fine be me. So long as I can get beans and bread plus coffee, I’m happy.
Before retiring to bed at the relatively sensible time of 1am, I confirmed what time we needed to get up in the morning for the bus. How I laughed when my captain, the old joker, told me the bus left at 7.15am. Haha, I said, hahaha. He wasn’t laughing however, so I dragged my sorry ass downstairs at quarter to 7 for a quick breakfast then a short stroll to the bus stops.
Note: I invented a new dish on Thursday morning. I accidentally sprinkled a packet of sugar on my baked beans, creating what we dubbed ‘sweet beans’. While it makes a cool NAF name, it makes a gross breakfast.
Day One
07.15 buses are no fun for anyone, and as a person, I didn’t have fun. However, moving this many people around is a feat in and of itself, and the organisers made it very simple for me and the other hundreds of people to get the venue. Everywhere you looked you saw busses that said “NAF V World Cup” on them, and I have to say I found it a little exciting. There’s something about being part of an event like this that gets the blood flowing. It’s times like this I wish I was into sport.
We arrived at the venue nice and early with plenty of time to dedicate myself to Khorne, our patron. When I was suitably daubed, the sheer size of it finally hit me. There were a lot of Blood Bowl coaches here. A LOT. When I’d lifted my jaw off the floor, I used the opportunity to scope out the bathrooms, various stands and stalls, ref station and breakout spaces, then, before I knew it, it was time to start…
Game One: Table 87. SquadChaos – Khorne VS Dopebowl Rats.
Black Orcs ~ Coach: Xiao (NAF Rating 164.23)
What we realised when we turned up is that we were behind the Dopebowl Rats in the queue to get in. What are the odds? As we got chatting, their captain (a lovely chap called also rocking Tomb Kings calle Lewishm) agreed with us that the early start was a killer, and that he hadn’t even managed to get any breakfast. You don’t get to my BMI without always having food on you, and as I had smuggled some fruit from the hotel that morning, I offered him an apple with the proviso that he throw the game. His honour remained true, however, and the spoilsport declined to commit fraud for an apple. (I gave him the apple anyway, I’m not heartless, but someday, someplace, Lewishm, I will call upon this favour.)
I was playing Xiao (Heather). The team were based in Scotland but had gathered a few randomers, but Xiao was definitely from our celtic brother-nation. She was rocking Black Orcs, which I’m fine with (despite having a modicum of PTSD after a certain final game at UKTC). A fairly standard Blorc team, with a few block, a few mighty blow, a few goblins.
The first half was a grindy punch-fest, as you could imagine. I was able to walk it in by turn 8, though, so that’s one thing crossed off my tournament bucket-list (score at least once). The troll tried to throw a goblin and failed. This would be a recurring theme.
The second half started and the punchfest continued. Xiao tried to break free, but all my horrible Khemri were in the way. Eventually she tried to throw the goblins again, but the Troll decided that throwing team-mates was beneath him, and flubbed every time. We had Really Stupid rolls fail, Always Hungry ones fail, Fumbles… basically everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. With that, I was able to cause enough mayhem that Heather wasn’t able to score, and I was able to secure a win. (That’s another thing off the list!)
Result: Win || 2-1, 2-4c
Lunch! I’m not sure what it was, but the tortillas were tasty. Aubergine something?
They had a huge line outside where they were making the largest paella I’ve ever seen, but for us fussy types, we had a special desk indoors where our name was checked off of a list and we were given our dietary needs. It all seemed fine, except for the time it took to queue. At Dornbirn the queue for lunch was surprisingly swift, but not in Alicante. Plus, I queued all the way up in the paella queue only to find out I was meant to be in the other queue. Drat and rackum frackum…
Game Two: Table 37. SquadChaos – Khorne VS Unikhornes.
Underworld ~ Coach: Meradanis (NAF Rating 176.16)
Bastien lured me in with his kind words and warm smile, then dashed my hopes against the rocks when he let me know he was using Underworld (urk!) with Varag (URK!). I haven’t tested myself against the new Underworld yet, but had heard they had been making waves on the tournament scene, due to a couple of factors.
Gutter Runner
Snotlings allowing >11 players on the pitch
Excellent Star Player access
Cheating horrible goblins
Bastien’s team was scary. Varag is a monster these days: S5, Block/Mighty Blow, a once-per-game +1 to armour rolls. My Khemri did not like.
The first drive was mine, and I tried to grind my way up, but struggled. It was a combo of having enough chaff to mark up my useful players (despite my Tackle/MB removing three snotlings in a row), and the fact that Varag could rip my TG’s a new face-hole whenever the mood took him that led my drive slowing and stopping, so I was unable to get the score. It might all be okay though, with a little bit of luck…
So anyway we rolled a ridiculous pitch invasion. It’s not like in the old days, where in theory your whole team could go down, but just look at this:
Three of my players went down: Three positionals, all right next to one another. Lovely big Gutter Runner sized gap, anyone?!
Stopping a Gutter Runner is not an easy task, and Basiten played this half correctly – instead of charging through the gap, he waited and waited, slowing pulling apart my defence until the right moment arrived, then just rushed his GR down the side, miles away from where anyone could stop him. My team started leaving the pitch at a rate of knots. I was never able to threaten him, and so the game ended 1-0 to Bastien.
Just look at my poor, poor Dead/Injured box. This is why I bring 15 players!
Result: Loss || 0-1, 5-4c
Game Three: Table 86. SquadChaos – Khorne VS HELLDICE CLUB.
Dark Elves ~ Coach: drannakh (NAF Rating 181.16)
Argh! Dark Elves! I find the Dark Elves/Khemri match up to be particularly hard, but also relish the challenge. You have to play perfectly, but DE will exploit that one single positional error and capitalize on your failure.
Drannakh was playing fairly standard DE: Dodge blitzers, Block/Wrestle Witches, Apothecary… oh, and two Assassins. Two? A little part of me felt good about this. Assassins used to be considered a joke positional, only good against Amazons and Wardancers. And my opponent took two? This would be easy.
It was not.
It was all going so well… I received, and was able to create a hefty cage without difficulty. I took my blitzes carefully, and got ready for the big push. My opponent had been playing a tight screen, but even Dark Elves struggle when the Khemri Pain Train gets a-chuggin’.
I blitzed open a path and marked everyone up, meaning the only change he had was to dodge away or take uphill blocks.
Or stab.
After thinking about it for a few minutes, Drannakh announced he would stab my Tomb Guardian as his first action. He would have to break armour for it to have any effect, which was a 10+ roll, no modifiers.
A few moments later, as I was placing my poor Guardian in the KO box, this gap meant that with a few dodges he was able to engineer a 1d block on another Tomb Guardian, who also went down, who also got KOd. Ouch.
As you can imagine, the rest of the drive descended into chaos. My Tackle/MB Blitz-ra got stabbed into, you guessed it, the KO box. My cage got deleted. Eventually, he was able to get a -2db on my ball carrier, which was done by… an assassin. Who took him down. The ball bounced away, and there went my hopes and dreams!
It could have been okay, but a series of lucky breaks scuppered it. I managed to retrieve the ball, but couldn’t protect it. Drannakh had one turn, and it all went right… he had to knock the ball down, plus it had to scatter off the pitch, plus it had to be thrown towards my end zone, plus it had to be thrown a small distance so his one and only receiver could reach it. It all worked, and I ended my opponents drive 1-0 down… uh oh!
This drive was a much more defensive affair for my opponent. He stayed way back, letting me come to him. Thankfully, my Tackle/MB had come back, and was taking out his frustration on Blitzers, removing elves with alarming speed. It was getting clear that Drannakh had to do something soon, or the wave of Khemri would overwhelm him.
He tried to break free, but an inopportune failed dodge robbed him of his chance to go 2-0 up. I had one turn left, one reroll left, the ball was on the floor and my one guy in scoring range was being marked:
What followed was a sequence of dice that, if it worked, would reverse all my bad luck that I had received this game. Here’s what needed to happen…
Two blocks with skeletons to get the elves off the ball
Blitz with a Tomb Guardian to free up my Blitz-Ra
Prone Throw-Ra picks up the ball, makes two GFIs to make a short-pass to the Blitz-Ra
Blitz-Ra needs to catch, then make two GFIs to score.
To my astonishment, it almost worked. The thrower had to use Pass, but did so, making the 4+ throw. My heart was in my mouth, but then the Blitz-ra failed the catch! Bummer!
Unless…
We scattered the drop, which, with a 1-in-8, landed on my Tomb Guardian. He failed to catch the bouncing ball, and it scattered again. It scattered… with a 1-in-8, onto my Blitz-Ra… Who caught it on a 5!
I had no rerolls left, and so just charged forward, make the two GFIs, and walked it in for 1-1 on Turn 16. What a rush!!
My opponent laughed with me, because what else could he do?
That put me on 1-1-1 for the day, which, while it’s fine, I was a little disappointed with. Thankfully, there was much still to come…
Result: Draw || 1-1, 2-0c
That evening we went to a nice bar that served what I think was considered tapas, but I’ve never seen spring rolls on bread before.
It was quite cool how you ordered. A server would walk around with plates of gubbins, and you’d help yourself to whatever you wanted. When you were done, you just paid for the number of sticks you had left over.
Either way, it was tasty, and we watched rugby on an itty bitty phone.
Day Two
The view from my room was stunning.
Game Four: Table 91. SquadChaos – Khorne VS Team Drop Bear.
It’s always a secret hope in these events that you will play someone who travels from a long distance away. It sucks when you travel halfway across the world and you’re matched against someone from your local league or tournament scene. We were delighted therefore to be paired against Team Drop Bear, hailing all the way from New Zealand! (Joking, they were Australians.)
Before the game started, their captain, Zagor, stood up and addressed Squad Chaos. He had brought gifts, which was nice enough, but the gifts he had obtained were of the agricultural variety. Nazgob was given a bag of spinach (to give his little guys strength), Maverick was given an assorted bag of root vegetables (to go with his assorted bag of positionals), and I was given, to my astonishment and joy, an enormous watermelon with a face on.
Why? Well, as anyone who attended thrudball this year will know, there was a bit of a theme, and I may have been involved in making it a little more melony than it would have been had nature taken its course. The melon naturally became my mascot, and indeed the mascot for the whole squad, and spent the next couple of days always at my side, spectating the games, getting gradually more and more khornate as time passed. First, the symbol of Khorne appeared. Then the eyes went, followed by the symbol… then the mouth… it started getting creepy.
Anyway, the game.
My opponent was playing Chaos Renegades, which I’m fine with. Lots of high strength, lots of death potential, lots of power. I like bashy games, because Khemri work best when they’re in a tight knot.
The best part of this game was when the troll tried to projectile vomit, was sick on itself, broke its own armour, died (as in, a 16 on the injury dice), then regenerated. The second best part was when I asked “Hey, has your Rat Ogre killed your orc yet?” and my opponent said: “No”, then immediately killed his orc with his rat ogre.
During his drive, my oppo held me off as long as possible before having to make a desperate elf-passing play. It almost went perfectly, but ended up being a Wildly Inaccurate pass, throwing it right into a scrum of my players.
We had rolled Really Sunny for the kickoff, and we thought, hey, Pact vs Khemri, who cares? But afterwards, we realised that were it not for that weather result, there’s every chance the game would have been a totally different result. Firstly on that elf pass (which, if successful, would have put the ball carrier way out of my reach), and second with a Throw Team-Mate that failed by a single pip.
In the last turn, my opponent had the one turn opportunity, but I got a perfect defence, and so just slapped TGs on him. He had a chance to push them off, but it would have involved using the Mino to block instead of blitz, which he did, but rolled double both downs, and thus couldn’t use Juggernaut as it was a block not a blitz.
It was a great game, but I would say luck favoured me, and I was able to walk away with the win. It was a fantastic match though.
There was a booth that was doing photos like this, which is great! And they were free!
Result: Win || 2-1, 4-4c
Lunch time again, and we decided not to queue up right away, and instead play a fun game of Rat Ogre Ball. We introduced the aussies to it, and soon we had five people playing at once.
What is Rat Ogre Bowl, I hear you cry? It’s a game of deep tactics and steeped in tradition. Nah, it’s not. It’s basically: who can score first. Everyone gets a Rat Ogre, and that’s it. Good luck!
Lunch for me on day two was a stir fry situation with a sort of flatbread flour pancake thing. It was fine, but I still don’t understand the flatbread.
Game Five: Table 49. SquadChaos – Khorne VS Equipe Des Francs.
Norse ~ Coach: Osskpo (NAF Rating 191.61)
Norse! Again, I don’t mind Norse. My opponent was playing a sensible looking roster with the Big Guy rocking MB, a Block and a Dodge Valkyrie, Block Ulfs and Guard Berserkers.
Now, sometimes Nuffle decides before you roll any dice that you’re going to lose.
However, sometimes he decides you’re going to win!
My poor opponent couldn’t catch a break. I killed the Yeti on turn 2. Everything he did he failed, poor sod, so it was simple enough for me to just steamroller over everything and walk it in on turn 8.
Always watching.
He failed to pickup literally 4 turns in a row on his drive, and I was applying pressure everywhere. He had 0 rerolls left, his team in bits… all he had was a hope and a prayer. Thankfully, Nuffle often has a sense of humour, and so while at the start every dice was a load of hit sick, all of a sudden the dice exploded. Every dodge worked, every GFI worked, every 1db worked. Even mine, with one exception.
(Skeleton, what are you doing with the ball? This is ridiculous)
I was dodging with Blitz-ras to get one dice blocks, dodging skeletons for assists. For three turns in a row, I was able to blitz the ball carrier… but I couldn’t knock him down. Did he have Dodge? No. Did it matter? No! I By turn 16, his random lineman was one square from the end zone and marked on every side bar one. All he had to do was make a single, final 3+ dodge, with no rerolls, to go 1-1 on turn 16. Nuffle blessed him, and I can’t be upset, not with the dead Yeti on turn 2…
He looks closed in, but this norseman is slippery!
Result: Draw || 1-1, 4-1c
Game Six: Table 82. SquadChaos – Khorne VS MBBC.
Orc ~ Coach: Redlantern (NAF Rating 151.23)
Sebastien is a french coach with a sense of fun. Their whole team was stuffed full of stunties, so I was pleased to learn I was going to be facing the one orc team in their squad (boo!). However, he did have three goblins, so there is that!
Poor Sebastien. He told me up front that he doesn’t like bringing the thrower… words that will haunt him. He also came in under budget, which one of his friends (also a ref) told me with a smile. What a guy.
So, the game started, and, like before, it was a slow, grinding game full of back and forth. I was able to break through, but only just, and it was a real close cut thing to score. Thankfully, I was able to, and walked it in on turn 8.
The Throw Team-Mate failed, and we were on for another 8 turns of punching.
What happened though is my poor opponent couldn’t pick the ball up for love nor money. He did once manage to lift it, but, due to some shenanigans from me, he dropped it. Each player was tied up, but I had just enough bodies in the way that he had no clear run through. If Sebastien had been able to pick the ball up even once, we probably would have drawn, but we watched time and time again as his goblins flubbed pickup after pickup after pickup. I bed he wished he’d brought a thrower after all!
Also, their team gave us another fantastic gift: a bottle of wine!
Result: Win || 1-0, 0-3c
That evening we went off to find more rugby. Remember the faces of those in the back. What do you mean they’re too blurry to see?
Squad Khorne drinking off a tough day of hard work. Or something.
Just like home.
Day Three
Getting the taxi to the venue was more expensive, but that extra hour in the morning was divine.
Game Seven: Table 47. SquadChaos – Khorne VS All star cryers.
Norse ~ Coach: Viking634 (NAF Rating 150.03)
More Norse! A very similar roster, but this time with Block everywhere he could stuff it.
Now, I started to feel ill during this game. Spain is a hot country anyway (no duh) and putting that many people in one room can make things warmer (though I will say the air con in the venue was great). However, I started to get sweaty and groggy, and confused, and generally feel absolutely dreadful.
It turns out that I had managed to contract covid somehow. Probably on the flight over. Last time I had the dreaded virus, it hit me like a tonne of bricks. This time… well, I didn’t know I had it until I got back, and I still have it as I write these words. It wasn’t as bad as last time, but it was by no means good. I’m just thankful I had a team full of wonderful people that cared for me, including pling me with drugs and helping me cool down by finding a huge basin and dousing me in water. So, thank you to landrover in particular, but also to everyone else who helped and asked how I was doing. You guys are the best.
Anyway, the game. It was a good one, just like all of my other games, and Nuffle favoured me where it mattered. No dead yeti in this one (boo!) but the luck fell on my side where it mattered, and I was able to score and turn my opponent over before he had a chance to get started.
Result: Win || 1-0, 0-2c
All those tasty looking sandwiches… I like cous cous, but those sarnies looked good.
It might have just been the illness, but I was starting to get a little narked at all the smoke. I usually don’t care about smoking, but there was nowhere I could go that was 1) outside, 2) had shade, and 3) didn’t stink of smoke. Oh well.
Can you see the illness beginning to form? It’s subtle, but the signs are there.
Game Eight: Table 29. SquadChaos – Khorne VS Cry Maluzos.
Dark Elf ~ Coach: Eki (NAF Rating 227.32)
I was really feeling bad by this point, so I was delighted to be faced against more blooming Dark Elves. Aargh!
Another fairly normal roster, thankfully only one assassin this time, but also a Leader Runner.
My opponent’s half started carefully; he received the ball and ran back, forming a wide screen with no obvious way through. Sensing deja vu, I responded in kind, and we had a tense few turns of us literally moving barely any players. I was waiting for him to make his move, and he was waiting for an opening.
This all suited me fine as I didn’t have to engage my brain. I was too busy hallucinating pink elephants and dreaming of cool streams.
The temporary shrine.
When he did seize forward, he was able to break through and score on his turn 8. We finished the whole half in easily 40 minutes.
Okay, no problem, thought I… A draw was still on the cards.
Stinking elves!
The second half couldn’t have been more different. I had to press forward, and my oppo resisted. The first half had been tense and standoffish, and this was a slug fest worthy of an orc game.
By the end of it, it was a game of many small conflicts, and I had my single Throw-Ra, marked by two elves, with the ball on the floor in the end zone, marked by an elf.
I had a long think about this, and my team were all done and spectating. I could either do a 2d uphill blitz, followed by a dodge, and a 4+ pickup, or a 4+ dodge, then a 5+ pickup. Both are pretty crappy, but I elected for the dodge and 5+ pickup. I had a reroll for the dodge, which I needed… Then I walked onto the ball, rolled a 1, picked up the dice… rolled a 6. 1-1. What a game!
Result: Draw || 1-1, 3-1c
Landrover showing us how to ‘open’ a bottle of wine ‘with nothing but a shoe’.
Even Khornate Champions enjoy the odd tipple.
Game Nine: Table 54. SquadChaos – Khorne VS The Brave Potatoes.
Skaven ~ Coach: camelchops (NAF Rating 205.37)
Skaven… An interesting matchup, and one I have won, lost and drew, so I had no idea what was going to happen. I was full on in the fug of disease here though, so as far as I’m concerned it’s a miracle I didn’t collapse. I know, I’m so brave.
Anyway, another Scot today, and the team contained my good mate Pedda. What was fun is the Brave Potatoes were a team we bumped into in the pub on the Saturday night when we went to go and find the rugby. What are the chances?
Anyway, so, Skaven…
It started so well. I ground down the pitch for a squeaky TD on turn 8. It wasn’t easy, and involved having to blitz my way through on 1d with the Ball Carrier for the score, but I’ll take it.
Just look at that beautiful Khemri cage. Brings a tear to me eye, it does.
Turn 8, my oppo set up for the one turner. He had kept a GR in reserve just for this, and his Juggernaut Rogre meant he had a good chance at it. I took this opportunity to go get some fresh air and pop to the gents, so after about 15 minutes, my oppo was ready to go.
Unfortunately, fatigue is a very real thing, and after rolling a dice or two, he announced that he had set up 12 players. Argh! In the new rules this means I can choose a player to get sent off, and I chose the Rat Ogre. The OTTD failed, and I was 1-0 going into the second half.
The blessed air con.
Similar to the last game, my oppo took the ball and literally ran back to within 5 squares of his end zone. I moved to within 8 squares and waited, letting him make the first move. In hindsight, maybe I should have pressed on, but I think I did the right thing. We had literally four turns of us going “End turn, yours. End turn, yours,” which we both had a laugh about.
On turn 6, he started racing down the pitch, and my patience paid off. I was able to hem him in and squash him against the side. Without a glut of turns to play with, Skaven (and other high speed teams) don’t have the time to remaneuvre.
I almost had him, but Skaven are slippery buggers, and one of the little so-and-sos broke free and ran it in on his turn 15. I was happy at least that he had no chance to score again, so, barring a riot, worst case scenario was a draw, which we were both very happy with.
I had two turns to score again for the win, and with both rerolls and a full team, I decided to go for it. My oppo set up shallow with the intention of making it hard for me to break through, and I set up very shallow to try and break through as much as I could.
Then we rolled a blitz on the kickoff. Oops!!! Remember what I said about fatigue?
My oppo did 100% the right thing and ran his four players around by undefended flank, under the ball. He failed the catch, but the damage was done. I tried to get as much as I could around it, but I just couldn’t. A lucky Skaven thrower did a dodge, a 1d blitz onto the ball, and it bounced favourably, right into the hands of a Gutter Runner who ran it in on turn 16 for the win. Nuffle has a sense of humour, remember!
Result: Loss (and what a heartbreaking loss!) || 1-2, 1-1c
Total NAF Ranking shift = -0.39
Aftermath
I was too ill to party that night so went home and went to bed like a rockstar. I finished on 4/3/2, which, while it could have been better, was still respectable. Some of those draws should have been losses, some should have been wins, some of those losses should have been draws, and some of those wins probably should have been draws as well. So, basically, if it weren’t for all my results, my results would have been different. How profound!
I came 425th out of 2232, mostly thanks to a surprisingly buff Strength of Schedule of 98, meaning my opponents on average scored 11 points, like me. The squad went 4/1/4 and came 157th out of 372, with a SoS of 82, meaning our opponents again scored on average 9 points each. Fair play to them.
Huge thanks to all the many, many organisers. The event was a triumph, as far as I was concerned. Yes, there were the odd thing, like long lunch queues, or perhaps not always enough toilets, but there was free water, lots of space, plenty of downtime and, crucially, a metric ton of Blood Bowl.
This week we’re talking about the upcoming NAF World Cup V held in Alicante. What are we expecting? What are we taking? Is cannibalism okay when it’s vegan on vegan?
00:00:00 – World Cup Discussions
01:54:55 – End
Shirts and Stuff: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/abao
Ethics is on the menu today. We’re revisiting when and how its correct (in our opinion) to concede during a match. We’re also touching on Thrud (I know, quelle suprise), then having a few cryptic crossword clues, before rounding off with nobodies favourite: Bloodblusters!
What could go wrong?
00:00:00 – Does anyone read these?
01:56:44 – End
Shirts and Stuff: https://teespring.com/en-GB/stores/abao
Today we’re talking Gutter Bowl, the newest expansion released by GW. It’s not Street Bowl, don’t be absurd. Totally different thing. We’re also doing a bit on Thrud, because that is tradition by this point, before rounding off with an episode of Bloodblusters. Think you know your skills from LRB4/6? Then play along, why don’t ya…
Anything But A One! 