Brick by brick

 A lesser spotted blog post no less! I do have plans for some fairly lengthy posts as I'm running a Warhammer campaign at Welwyn Wargamers from later this year. A lot of work has gone into that from my end, and I'm up against it to get things ready in time, so expect more to come.

In the mean time, here's a little write up of a Guild Ball - remember that game? - tournament I went to on Saturday just gone down in Gillingham. It's still one of the best rulesets I've played in a tabletop game, and despite Steamforged no longer supporting it, there is a community group attempting to continue the game and even bring out the remaining minor guilds that were never completed.

As I know a couple of the people in that community group - I try and get to events where it's not too far from me and these days Gillingham is only about an hour by car. I hadn't realised until the day before the event that this tournament wasn't using the latest errata that the GBCP has put out. It didn't affect my team at all, but there would be a couple of players on other guilds to be aware of.

This was a Halloween themed event, and we would be playing 3 or 4 games. It was held in the nice little Ragnarok Hobbies store on the High Street in the town - plenty of room in the shop for gaming and some products to browse through in between games.

I decided to take my Masons again as I hadn't played tabletop Guild Ball for about a year and felt I'd be rusty using the clock and remembering to bring all my widgets too!

My 12 consisted of:
Honour, Corbelli, Marbles, Wrecker, Brick, Flint, Granite, Harmony, Vet Harmony, Chisel, Vet Chisel, Tower

Round 1

I was playing Louise Packham and she was running Cooks. This can be a tricky matchup for Masons as the Cooks' deal is their opponents count as -1 defence when being targeted by attacks. Masons have mostly defence 3 anyway, although armour to get round that, so there are vulnerable if ganged up on.

I lost the toss and was made to kick, which seemed reasonable. The teams were:

Masons: Honour, Marbles, Chisel, Flint, Granite, Harmony
Cooks: Wellington, Pepper, Cinnamon, Spice, Sugar, Roast

The box 6 for Cooks are pretty decent so I had to be careful of Spice in particular. A good kick off by Flint though meant although the Cooks could retrieve the ball I was quite some distance away for Spice to get into me. Roast was holding the ball and because he is resilient (ignores first attack or character play that hits him) getting the ball was going to be tricky.

Honour put superior strategy (2 activations for one model in a turn) on Chisel though, and as Spice was a little overextended it meant she could take out Spice in turn 1, and then Louise brought her back on close to that side of the pitch, so Honour could remove her again in turn 2.

The game snowballed a little from there unfortunately as with captain Wellington over on my right and out of the action, the Masons could just beat down on the Cooks and wrack up points with takeouts.

Honour was pretty close to be removed herself, but dice weren't really favouring Louise in the game either and she hung on with 2 health as the final points were scored along with Flint who just didn't seem to want to get hurt despite being only defence 3.

Result: 12-0 win

Round 2

This time I was up against Wayne Wilkinson and his Blacksmiths. I've played Blacksmiths a fair bit myself so knew what to expect. One of their squaddies, Cast, is very very strong before the errata so I had to have a plan to deal with her.

Again I lost the toss and had to kick, which doesn't feel so good in this match up. The teams were:

Masons: Honour, Marbles, Brick, Granite, Chisel, Harmony
Blacksmiths: Farris, Bolt, Hearth, Alloy, Ferrite, Cast

No Furnace was a good thing for me - he makes Cast even better and can strip my armour. Only one sentinel master (gives additional armour to some players) which was also handy.

Granite kicked centrally for me, which scuppered Wayne's plan to pick up the ball with Hearth. The ball was passed to Alloy but he would have to run a gauntlet through the Masons to get to goal and after Cast had done some damage to Granite I was able to counter with Honour and Harmony and generate enough momentum to go first. 

That allowed me to take out Cast and Alloy before they could activate in turn 2 and Bolt followed soon afterwards. Apprentices (Cast, Alloy and Bolt) do most of the work for Blacksmiths and losing all three left them struggling. It was only shortly afterwards that Harmony finished off a knocked down and surrounded Farris and then scored the winning goal to end the game.

Result: 12-0 win

Round 3

So after a lunch break there were 3 of us on two wins and I was selected to be in the 'pair down' in round 3. This meant I was playing Tim Gatward-Warner and his Butchers! I enjoy games against Butchers, you know what they're going to do - hit you pretty hard - but you know they can be pretty fragile themselves too.

This time I won the toss and chose to receive, thinking my opponent would likely pick Fillet as his captain. He didn't though, with Ox taking to the field!

Masons: Honour, Marbles, Chisel, Flint, Granite, Tower
Butchers: Ox, Princess, Boar, Boiler, Brisket, Shank

I picked up the ball and passed it along the Masons line before dodging Flint forward and giving him superior strategy. This allowed him to activate twice and comfortably score a goal to put me 4-0 up.

Because I'd been passing the ball around that gave me momentum to go first in turn 2 and Honour wasted no time in taking out Shank to put me at 6-0. Boar got some revenge though by immediately removing Flint - so 6-2.

Chisel and Honour then set about the Butchers lineup, removing both Boiler and Boar fairly quickly and although Flint was again removed by a marauding Shank as he came back on to the pitch, Chisel had enough friends in the centre to remove Ox at the start of turn 4 to seal the points.

Result: 12-4 win

Round 4

And so to the final, against one of the London crew Valerian Langton and his Union team. I've not actually played Valerian that often, but have faced his brother Francois enough times. He's a strong player, very good at clock pressure, and I knew this would be a difficult game. He'd been jesting about taking Minx, who before she was errata'd was another very strong player, and specifically keeping her back until he faced me.

I was hoping to win the toss and receive, and thankfully I managed to do that so I would again be getting the ball.

Masons: Honour, Marbles, Brick, Flint, Granite, Tower
Union: Vet Rage, Coin, Avarisse & Greede, Fangtooth, Grace, Minx

The usual superior strategy play got me a goal in turn 1 although I did push Flint too far forward allowing Minx to get in and damage and snare him. It didn't stop the goal, fortunately.

The kick out for the Union left Valerian in a real situation. If he left the ball on the ground, Flint scored again for 8-0. If he recovered it, Minx didn't take anyone out (or score for that matter). He was thinking about it and considering leaving it, but in the end went for the safer (and probably right call) option and recovered it with Minx.

That scatter though meant although Rage came flying in and badly damaged Granite, he didn't manage to take her out and after popping his legendary Honour took the decision to just remove him herself. 6-0.

Valerian exacted some revenge by taking out Marbles for 6-1, but then the Masons removed Fangtooth and it was looking bad for the Union at 8-1.

Back came Valerian though as quickly removed Flint twice and Marbles for a second time, but his clock was not helping him and as he ran out of time Honour could pop her own legendary and remove Avarisse and Coin to put me 11-6 up.

There was still time for the Union to finally remove Granite (they'd been trying all game) for 11-8, but at this stage Valerian was out of clock and that gave me the final point I required for the win.

Result: 12-8 win

So, I'd managed to go 4-0 and win the event - my first tournament win in Guild Ball! I was pretty pleased with how I'd played, especially after so long not playing tabletop and crucially not playing on clock. I never really had an issue with the clock - I think playing games online has at least sped up a lot of the less crucial decisions.

The final was a good game, in which I had probably the rub of things, but didn't put a foot wrong either and it was enough to get me over the line.

It had been a nicely-run event and I'll definitely be considering more Guild Ball events at Ragnarok - they hold them fairly regularly!

It being a Halloween themed event I won a pumpkin and carving kit as part of my prize, along with one of the coveted GB gold coins and dice and certificates. A great end to a good birthday week for me!!

Thanks for reading

Pitch Invasion!!!

I'm so bad at updating this blog. Sorry, again. I blame the house move.

Anyway! I got to my first Blood Bowl event in nearly 2.5 years, and my first of the new 'edition' at all in the last weekend. This was a fun one-day event at the Tabletop Republic (see pic) run by good friend and Team Wales stalwart nonumber, or Tom to his pals. It was in High Wycombe, a town I used to work in some time ago, and it's only about an hour by car from my new house so along with two fellow Welwyn Wargamers members I made the trip!

I've played 3 practice games of the new edition over the last few weeks to familiarise myself again with the rules. I had found for the most part not much had changed, some skills had new names, there are a few more skills, and there are rosters that have differed and even new teams. Joemanji in his post on tournaments had said he was looking forward to learning the new edition again and that's very much the take I had after this event. A lot to get your head around and work out.

This was a TV115 event, and you could pick either 8 primary skills (singles to veterans like me) or 6 primary and 2 secondary. As it was my first event in the new edition, I went with my first ever tournament team, orcs. They seem pretty good now, with MV5 Big Uns (not Black Orcs, Wil...). But animosity was a new thing, more on that later.

I had: 4 Big Uns (4 block), 4 Blitzers (3 guard, 1 mighty blow), Thrower, Lineman, Troll, Goblin, 3 Rerolls, an assistant coach and a cheerleader.

Solid enough, I couldn't decide between mighty blow and tackle for the 4th blitzer so rolled a dice and it came up mighty blow!

Game 1 - vs Boatpig (lizards)

A tricky draw first up, that speed and plenty of strength is an issue, as is the krox. My opponent had 6 Saurus (1 x frenzy, 1 x block+mighty blow, 3 x block), Kroxigor (block), 4 skinks (1 sure hands), 3 rerolls.

I lost the roll off and had to kick in this one. I was managing to break the saurus armour early doors, although only stuns resulted. The pressure was able to tell on the lizards though and I managed to force a turn 5 score. My reply started a bit iffy with a failed pick up on a deep kick, but I managed to remove a saurus and get my goblin in range when the time came, and animosity didn't bite as he scampered in for the equaliser.

Second half I got numbers up and although I'd lost a guard blitzer, the saurus were always marked and armour 10 (still 9 to me, sorry GW) held up enough to get me the win.

Result: 2-1, 2-1 CAS

Game 2 - vs hekdar (undead)

Another tricky matchup, and I began to regret my decision to take mighty blow with 4 blodging ghouls lurking. He had: 2 mummies (guard), 2 wights (guard), 4 ghouls (4 x block), 5 zombies, 3 rerolls.

This time I won the kick off roll and chose to receive, hoping to remove some players. I did manage to cause some damage as my drive progressed, including chain surfing a ghoul to the CAS bin. However, a stupid troll allowed my opponent to get a 1 dice hit on the ball carrier and he got a POW, knocking it loose. It was tricky to recover after he made dodges to mark the ball, so I decided my best bet was to push his player on to the ball and hope it moved to a better location. It bobbled about and went off the pitch and 11 squares towards my endzone. Oh dear.

I managed to recover and sack the ghoul ball carrier running through, with 3 tackle zones near the ball. However my opponent without a reroll made a 4+ dodge, 5+ dodge and 5+ pick up but waltzing out to score on my drive. Ufff.

Second half I had to play pressure as he didn't need to score, and in turn 3 I had him in a real pickle with the 3 remaining ghouls and a wight pinned to the sideline. His first move was to 1 dice blitz with the ball carrier, and dodge out. If that failed, 4 players got surfed. It didn't, so 0-2.

I had a goblin and was hoping to get an early reply to give me a chance, but that was scuppered by a kick into the endzone and a failed pick up. I was able to remove a guard wight permanently and did enough damage to eventually score a consolation.

Result: 1-2, 3-0 CAS

Game 3 - vs Juck101 (ogres)

My first game into stunties, but these ones had no star players. Still, if he didn't bonehead, and mighty blow worked, I could be in trouble. He had: 6 ogres (2 block+break tackle, 1 guard, 1 leader, 1 juggernaut, 1 other?), 6 snotlings, 2/3 rerolls.

We got pouring rain in this one so I chose to kick when I won the toss, and the ogres struggled to pick up the ball early as I applied the pressure.

That said, I lost a Big Un turn 1, but was happy to remove an ogre shortly afterwards. The ogre drive was floundering although bonehead wasn't too bad for him, and eventually he opted to go for a TTM in turn 7 as he was still a distance from the end zone. That worked out, so 0-1.

The two turn TD in the rain was looking tricky, but I managed to get 3 in range and animosity didn't bite again to see a blitzer scoot in.

Second half and the orc line up got on top, killing a second ogre and removing all the snotlings pretty quickly. It was a fairly comfortable 8 turn drive as thrown snotlings failed to hit their mark and with only a few on the pitch the one turner became a real problem when I rolled quick snap (or whatever it's called these days).

Result: 2-1, 5-1 CAS

Game 4 - vs Mr_Frodo (khorne)

One of the new rosters, and a frightening amount of claw! He had: bloodspawn, 4 bloodseekers (2 x block + claw, 2 x block + mighty blow), 4 khorngor, 3 bloodborn marauders, 2 rerolls, 1 assistant coach?

I had to kick in this one, and was fearing the worst with that bloodspawn. Fortunately it failed it's unchannelled fury in turn 1 and only managed a stun in turn 2. So I knocked it out to put it out of its misery. I also injured a bloodseeker which was a big start for me.

That said, I started to see my fairly reliable block dice change with 4 double skulls in the first half in this game - including 1st action of one of my turns when I chose not to reroll as I was already down to 1 reroll remaining.

My opponent wasn't having all that great dice either and I was breaking armour, but he managed to score in turn 7 or so.

My two turn attempt saw me get players in range (3), and although he marked them the best play was to make 2 rushes (GFIs, come on now) to mark the thrower. Out of rerolls, I made a 3+ dodge out and was about to throw to the goblin for some more heroics, when finally animosity came back to bite me. Well, fine then.

Second half, another deep kick saw me fail to pick the ball up for 3 turns in a row. So the score early and look for a winner option disappeared fairly quickly and I shoved it up my orc jumper and smashed my way up the pitch to equalise in turn 16.

Result: 1-1, 3-0 CAS

All in all, a 2/1/1 record was ok. Few rolls went against me at key moments, but that's tournament Blood Bowl. It was lovely to see some old tournament friend faces again and roll some dice after such a long time. I really do need to properly look through the rosters and start having a play with teams again, almost like learning the game all over again!

The best bit was seeing a member of the club, Ben, win most TDs with his goblin team!

Thanks for reading!