This weekend Christian (Silentknight) and I travelled to Sheffield for the Blood Bowl Open, AndyDavo’s tournament. Andy draws in a strong field with ~100 competitors including quite a few of the English, Welsh and Scottish National teams, an Italian contingent with multiple members of their National team, a group of Spanish players from the Barcelona league, plus Americans and Canadians including the streamers Runbad and Giraffe. Tough.
My first ever NAF tabletop tournament was the first iteration of this tournament, the Davotational (The Bang Average Chicken Bowl 1), as a nice bit of symmetry this weekend was my 50th NAF TT tournament.
My Team
Eurobowl rules. I decided to try something new, Elven Union. This was the team I won as a prize for winning Gauntlet bowl last month. I’ve enjoyed painting them up and figured it was a good chance to try something new. My roster was full positionals, 2x blodge Blitzers, 2x Wrodge (stack) Catchers, Leader Thrower and two Wrestle linos. 2RRs (+Leader). Lots of Wrestle but nothing funky.
I’ve played 4 TT games previously with Union in the old rules. They’ve gained a few random passing skills and lost a Catcher. I was hoping for a gentle start to feel out how to make them work…
Here’s them WIP, will replace with a team shot at somepoint.
Game 1: Andy Davo – Imperial Nobility
Hardly the opponent you want to work out a new team.
The game started filled with hope, especially when a pitch invasion stunned three of Andy’s LOS and then his Thrower failed to pick up the ball. We swarmed through on both sides and get a Blitzer into contact with the butter fingers Thrower but failed a 32 dodge through with a Catcher to complete the screen and create a full team split. If that had worked Andy would have been in all sorts of trouble. But still there was work to do and the ball was a long way from safe. An Ogre 1/27 almost made it instantly 1-0 only for the Loner to succeed, then the tackle MB blitz didn’t shift the blodgestepper forcing the Thrower to dodge off to pick up the ball. This used up Andy’s last RR on T2. Still, It was just a 4+ with Dodge from 1D with Block vs the defenceless Thrower… nope the Blitzer went down and the following turn, just when it looked like there would be a chain for another 1D Andy’s dice suddenly were perfect and most positionals left the field. So close to 1-0 on more than one roll and suddenly I had a toothless defence and was just looking to stay in the game. Nuffle can be fickle.
The rest of the drive consisted of my trying to force some risky rolls, while also preserving RRs for the OTTD and, ultimately, maintaining a team for the second half.
At 0-1 down, we set up for a tough but very doable OTTD with 9 elves and a couple of RRs in hand, and a solid plan for how to get 4x 2D hits into a 322 finish…. And the kick off event was a Charge!
Going into the second half with 10, I carefully considered all options and decided you can’t win a game by playing for the draw. I scored relatively early, retaining RRs ready to go full aggro defence. Sadly all 3 of my KOs stayed out, and so what might have been a tricky short drive became a lot easier vs 8 Elves. Despite the numbers disparity, there was a couple of dive opportunities, but Andy is too good a player to not dominate when ahead and the best we got was a 5+ for -2D.
2-1 Loss.
It’s always a fun game against Andy. We talk through our plans and options during the game, and we always have a very useful post-game reflection. Those first few turns were huge; he was very unlucky and then I was unlucky and I was left rueing what might have been. However, my bigger take away was my ream felt underpowered once the drives had stabilised… my build was quite vanilla and I felt the lack of options.
Game 2: GingerStarLord69 High Elves
My next game was into a super jovial Liam (NAF Gingerstarlord) playing High Elves, with a Frenzy Lion and Tackle Lion. He put me in to receive, and I pushed up field cognizant of the risk of the multitude of options available… reinforcing my feeling that trading a Lino skill to have something else to give my team more defensive power would have been better… My drive went reasonably well though and we got it done with a final turn 2/2D/(2)22 with a RR to spare. Just as I was congratulating myself and looking at my blodgesteppers to stop the HE one turn, a riot happened and we had to defend a two turn. Thankfully having the steppers on the line allowed them to be forced into range to sack (and KO) the ball carrying thrower deep in the backfield. HT1-0.
Liam pushed early in the second half, and although I had the option of rolling numerous 3+ dodges to go for the sack I ended up cancelling when I popped Dodge on the first one and contented myself by forcing him in. 1-1 and my short drive was going fine until a big HE turn followed by a 1/9 into 1/9 wrestle blitz by my catcher meant I couldn’t set up a screen to stall anymore, instead having to jump over the downed wrestler to go 2-1 up. All HE rerolls were gone though, and with a 2 turn it was hard to get down the blodgestep column. The only HE who made it through ended up on the ground. I was able to scoop up the ball deep in the HE half, survive the desperation attempts to recover, and score again for 3-1.
Game 3: Shanba – Chaos Dwarves
Game 3 into Chorfs with 4 Guard, 2 Block Break Tackle Bull Centaurs. Shanba put me into receive and I did a little bit of lefty/righty/lefty swinging back and forth with the team to wind down the clock while attempting to pick off some Hobos. It felt fine; I was always able to get a multilayer screen, so the BT bulls weren’t able to do their nonsense and got downfield when we needed it. Cruising. Until, of course, we weren’t. I got forced into a narrow column and then Shanba had a very nice, multi-rush turn on T7 that blocked all routes to the line. In the end the “best” option was a 1D, (32) with 2RRs, and it was at this time that I rolled my first snake of the game. Boo. 0-0 at HT.
I did have most of a team through. So, the second half was all about generating the right opportunity, even if it cost some elven blood to get it. The goal was to separate some of those Guard pieces away from the cage and I took a multi-turn approach to peeling first a couple off and as the game turns was beginning to become relevant, finally risking exposure to hold the last ones in place. This “worked” as it left a 5+ for 1D in the front. Sadly, pushes into pushes and Shanba was able to restabilise again and then survive another 5+ for -2D, then score.
My OTTD was tricky with all the Guard around, but we got the 1D push to get things going and raising the hopes until the final hit failed on RR, with “just” a (32)22 needed.
Loss 0-1
Again, this left me seriously questioning my build. I was getting/generating defensive chances vs strong opponents, but those chances were hunting for good dice when I made the already tough dive.
End of day one 1-0-2. Feeling a bit sad at what might have been in the losses. Thinking maybe push hard for most TDs on Day 2.
Day 2
Game 4: A. Lopez – Humans
What I didn’t want to see was a team equipped to kill elves. So, I wasn’t super happy to see Humans with 2x MB biltzers. This looked like a team explicitly designed for Elven Union. As it happened, there was a load of stuns throughout the game, but the Elves mostly tanked the hits. At the same time, my hits on human linos kept generating damage, such that by the end of the game we had amassed an improbable 4 CAS (one of whom was a lino). Elves up players vs humans feels a bit like easy mode, as we were able to selectively control more and more pieces, forcing more and more difficult rolls. The pressure generated clean chances and we got a 2D sack on T4, only for it to be caught by a nearby Human Blitzer, I then 2D sacked that Blitzer on the next turn only for it to be caught by a nearby Human Catcher. Nuffle was toying with me. However, I did get the Catcher down too using my last RR on his 2D, and this time the ball scattered into the crowd and landed in my endzone. A couple of turns to go the length of the field… just roll 2s. Multiple scoring threats were put in and 2s were rolled. The final score play will become one of our puzzles sometime soon. HT 1-0.
Going into the second half ahead, it was just going to be a matter of pulling the defenders out of position and scoring when it was safe. Simples. And, of course, the kick off was a Charge and we were suddenly under pressure. Dice were rolled; ball was secured but the following turn needed more scrambling to get to stability. However, one key roll and we could break through into a full screen and get it to 2-0 without rolling any more dice.
As I was of the mindset that perhaps I could push for most TDs on the resulting short drive I committed to a line that would generate a 1D with wrestle of the ball carrier at the expense of some defensive cover. The -2D needing pushes+ didn’t come off and we gave up the consolation score.
Win 2-1.
Huge shout out to Andre – Super happy guy, despite the dice falling my way early and often. Full respect to him for travelling to the UK with somewhat limited English and having a great time. One of my early tournaments was Reva Bowl in Valencia and I have some great memories of a row of people helping to translate the stuff that I wasn’t understanding. Blood bowl really is a great way to meet people and travel the world.
Game 5: Ikkit – Skaven
My second Spanish opponent in a row, Albert Maestro is another guy who clearly loves the game. It was a real honour to share the pitch with him.
Two AV7+ teams facing off and it was my team that came out ahead on damage again. It was helped by KOing the ROgre turn one and then a Blitzer removed himself soon after. Repeated failures of the Rats to pick up the ball deep, then split their team for me. I slow played it a bit, using the team separation and resultant localised numbers advantage to generate hits on the now increasingly depleted rats. As that pressure cranked up higher eventually the chances came, and we were able to sack and recover. The last rat RR was used in getting the counter sack, with Strip Ball on the rat Blitzers coming in clutch, but the recovery GR couldn’t get away, so we sacked him again and scored. The zero RR Skaven short drive is very possible. He made a hole but left a chance, only for a snaked rush from one of my catchers on his way to 2D the ball carrier, meant the route to the line to score on 7. This left me with a 2-turn. Three scoring threats were sent straight away but one Catcher got killed by a new very angry Rat Ogre. On my T8, I was able to clear a route to pass to the other, and using his Nerves of Steel to catch in contact then dodging to the line. 2-1 up at HT.
Second half, we were again in the rarified air of being able to slow play a drive and score whenever we want. We banged a bit, fed the ROgre pieces pushed back and forward and generally avoided rolling any dice with the ball carrier. All good, until a sneaky stab attempt almost undid everything. That pesky GR was smacked away, and we returned to a measured advanced while popping off Linerats left and right. Yes, the ROgre did get involved when I started running low on line elves, but by then we’d moved into scoring range and only needed to survive a final 6+ stab dive to go 3-1 up. And that’s how if finished.
Game 6 Dimmy Gee – Chaos Chosen
Dimmy is another well known name on the circuit owing to his involvement in Streaming BB2 and commentating on Jimmy Fantastic’s channel. He’s a strong coach and fun character and this was a really enjoyable end to the tournament. When I saw his set up with a deep Warrior as a ball carrier, he pointed out that the lower speed was only really an issue when there was a deep kick. The ball promptly landed in the endzone. Oh, and I got a Charge result. He had set up to protect against the Charge but a few dodges and there was a cadre of Elves with sacking skills in the backfield. Dimmy responded well, getting multiple pieces between my team and the Warrior standing on the goal line. I turned down the (3332)2 -2D surf chance and instead elected for plonking a blodgestepper on top of the Warrior and challenged him to roll pows all over the pitch. Those pows were not forthcoming, and the end state had a cage with based corner. A handful of dodges saw the corner removed and a 1D with Wrestle sack followed by 3(2) recovery and dodge out to score. 1-0 on turn 2. The early score gave the freedom to play a conservative still, keeping a multilayered elf screen with annoying blodgestep/wrodge pieces in the way of the advance while hunting down any attempt to give an out. By the end of T6 the Chosen were barely across halfway and discretion was selected over valour with the Chosen turtling up. HT1-0.
The Elves had even out bashed the Chosen in the first half, so we went into the second half with the ball, the lead, and 11 vs 10. This allowed me a drive of trying to avoid rolling ball carrier dice with layers of screen and sending through scoring threats to spread the Chosen out. Eventually the constant pressing-in forced the issue but one dodge for a Wrestle 2D created a route out for handoff to Catcher and the pieces sent through early could screen. Dimmy did make a 4322 to get a 2D on the ball carrier into full pow, stun and the little goat that could even caught the scatter, but there was no way to make it safe. A snake here could have thrown the game away by my 2x 2s and a wrestle blitz got the ball down again, and we rolled a couple more 2s to recover the ball and make it 2-0 on T16. It felt like a good drive with only a couple of critical 1/36 being rolled, right up to the point where the quite unlikely sack came off!
Final reckoning
In the end I finished on 4-0-2 and 14th overall, which was very much a surprise given where we were and how I felt about the team after Day 1. I also scored 12 TDs, 1 short of most TDs, but I did win the best Elven Union tankard. That particular award felt dirty as Torquemada and SickasEggs were both playing on the higher boards all weekend and just lost late.
Union were fun when they worked and I’ll definitely get them out again someday. But on that day they will have some extra X factor (strip ball, frenzy, DT, some agency to make things happen when needed).
Christian also had a good weekend. His was sort of the opposite of mine with a strong Day 1 and a tougher Day 2. He finished 3-0-3 and winning best with Khorne.
Good times, and a great way to bring up the 50.
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