Betrayal in Bretonnia - Turn 2 start

 

The blare of trumpets has sounded the start of turn 2 in our Warhammer Fantasy Battle campaign, and things are hotting up nicely in Bretonnia as armies move closer to each other.

Here is the hex map we're working off - with a few pointers to make it clear what's happening!

Pink = Dark Elves
Yellow = Vampire Counts
White = High Elves
Dark Green = Empire
Blue = Dwarfs
Red = Orcs
Brown = Wood Elves
Bone = Tomb Kings

Currently the orcs hold the wizard's tower (G4). The dwarfs and the tomb kings have built mines (axe symbol), whilst the orcs have built a ramshackle castle in I2.

The star symbol is a stone henge - currently being investigated by the forces of Khemri. The red temple is an abandoned mausoleum. Fozrik's Flying Fortress is currently in tile A1!

Battles this turn include:

Dark Elves vs Wood Elves (C2)
Dark Elves vs Vampire Counts (E1)
High Elves vs Orcs & Goblins (G2)
Empire vs Orcs & Goblins (G5)
Dwarfs vs Wood Elves (K8)
Tomb Kings vs Orcs & Goblins (K5)
Tomb Kings vs Empire (challenge)

There is a possible alliance between the dwarfs and the empire to try and rid the goblin scourge from the lower foothills. Lots of relics to be fought over, so we shall where we are at the end of turn 2!

Betrayal in Bretonnia - Turn 1

Schemes have been hatched. Battle lines drawn up. The flying fortress is looming over everyone and it was time for fortune and glory.

Yes the first campaign turn has finished for the 8 races clamouring to get hold of the secrets from the mystical castle. Plenty of fun has been had, some ignominious defeats and some glorious victories, and even some wood elf teleportation shenanigans.

Here's a summary!

Dwarfs

Belying their usual cautious approach, it was the throng of Karak Ziflin who surged forwards first, seizing a moment in a lull of scouting patrols to grab hold of more territory close to their hold and sending out their three armies to claim more.

The dwarf thane wasted no time in issuing a challenge to the Druchii, hoping to secure some magical relics that might point to a way inside the flying fortress. Alas, another grudge had to be added to the Dammaz Kron as the cunning dark elves got the better of their diminutive opponents. Thane Tygron will no doubt seek to avenge this defeat.

In penance, a dragon slayer lost a point of movement and the dwarf warrior unit in the army will not take part in the next battle as they dye their beards and take the slayer oath in shame!

The dwarfs are flanked by the Empire on their right side, with orcs and goblins in front of them based at the Massiv Orcal and off to their left the tricksy wood elves around the Oak of Ages.

Vampire Counts

The vampire kindred were next to act, sending forth their undead legions to investigate an abandoned mausoleum and to get as close to the flying fortress as they could.

Who knows what foul deeds they are planning, but their first target was the men of the Empire as they issued an early challenge to human folk. Again their dastardly schemes were thwarted as the resolute humans held them off and drove them away from the mausoleum to rethink their next move.

One of the undead coven's necromancers was struck a heavy blow to the head which appears to have addled his brain (stupidity!), but the vampire lord seems to have gotten stronger despite his defeat (+1 to one of his stats - uh oh).

Here you can see the vampire counts (yellow) surrounded by Druchii and Asur from their city of Mousillon. Perhaps it's all part of the vampire lord's 'master plan', but we doubt it.

Empire

Not to be outdone, and despite the gauntlet laid down by the vampires, the men of the Empire moved out from Marienburg and into Bretonnia proper.

One of their armies moved to investigate a wizard's tower in front of them, while another kept pace looking for suitable territory to grab.

Fortunately it was the non-dead who were victorious on the battlefield, defeating the vampire and his foul thralls and sending them into (shambling) retreat.

The Empire could not revel in their victory for long, however, as a goblin army marched over the horizon to threaten their position at the wizard's tower...

... and there were humiliatingly routed by the goblin forces in a crazy Storm of Magic game, driving them away from the tower to regroup.

High Elves

Next to march were the Asur, who moved to investigate two nearby cities in search of lore and knowledge.

The high elves also discovered a magical banner along their route and scouting the nearby Khemri forces issued a challenge to the tomb king himself. Foolish elven curs!

Despite the preternatural swiftness, it was the Asur who were crushed beneath the bronze wheels of Khemri chariots and that magical banner was lost, perhaps forever.

Dark Elves

Their evil kin, not to be outdone, advanced rapidly towards the nearby city of Couronne and seizing territory along the coast to hold off any incursions from the Vampire Counts.

The Druchii had been challenged by the dwarf thane, and dispatched his forces with ease, driving them away and capturing many slaves for their torture pits.

Thanks to their success, the dark elves claimed Couronne and land along the coast, no doubt to plot daring raids further to the south.

Wood Elves

From the depths of the woods came the Asrai, making use of the mystical paths of the ancient roots to send one of their armies amongst the dark elves and vampire counts.

A second of their forces advanced into the territory of the orcs, keen to push back their foes and prevent them from generating the deadly Waaaagh might.

The subsequent battle was a true clash of arms, with neither force able to secure a victory - the game finished with about a 60VP difference! The wood elves retreated somewhat, but undaunted.

This allowed them to claim a woodland tile at the opposite end of Bretonnia - shenanigans I tells ye.

Orcs and Goblins

With a blare of horns and hollering orc brutes, the greenskin tide swept forwards. 

An army of night goblins descended on the wizard's tower, intent on despoiling it and nicking all the shiny stuff. 

A second army swept down towards the coast, hoping to scrap with the pointy ears or maybe the skellies, who knows.

It was a successful start for the gobbos - drawing a close battle with the wood elves, but vanquishing the men of the Empire at the wizard tower and seizing it for their own benefit!

They were also able to grab land near the coast, and construct a crude, orcish fort to better defend their land.

Tomb Kings

Finally it was the Legion of the Brass Scarab who advanced cautiously, years of experience of warfare informing their every move.

First though, Tomb King Lahmizzash I had to deal with the Asur, and it was his own chariot legion that did the damage crashing through a unit of White Lions and running amok behind the High Elf lines.

This crushing defeat allowed the Khemri to seize two more areas of land, and he ordered his heirophant to immediately build a mine to help support their drive for glory.

As a result of this triumph, his chariot legion earned the armour piercing special rule, but that was all down to Lahmizzash's glorious prowess, nothing to do with impact hits or anything. Be quiet you.

Current state of play

It's all about those relics, and here's the leaderboard:

1. Orcs & Goblins, Empire - 4
2. Tomb Kings, Wood Elves - 2
3. Dark Elves, High Elves, Vampire Counts, Dwarfs - 1

The Legion of the Bronze Scarab rides

The tomb king was irate. Despite his clear instructions to animate his beloved warsphinx Hatshepshut first, the mortuary cultists had failed to do so. No, instead they had worked on the heirotitan Imhotep and seemed bewildered as he raged at them for their failings.

He was going to have to degrade himself and use a simple chariot instead to carry him across the battlefield. This was unacceptable. Lahmizzash I made a mental note to have at least two of the liche priests ritually sacrificed and their withered organs stored in canoptic jars buried at the site of their landing in Bretonnia.

His mood soured further as he recalled the news from scouts that a high elf force had been spotted approaching his army position near the coast. Of course, the scryers had told him the asur were here, along with several other armies including those damned vampires. But still, he had hoped to gain a bit of ground before being challenged.

In the distance, Fozzrik's Flying Fortress slowly rotated in the sky, pulsing with aetheric lights. Lahmizzash didn't really care about the fortress, although his heirophant was desperate to get hold of the secrets inside. No, his only purpose was to stop the foul vampiric kind from gaining access. Settra himself and given him this order.

No puny high elf was going to stop him...

Here's a match report from game 1 of the campaign, a 1,200pt pitched battle between the tomb kings and high elves. No magic items for me! Keeping it simple for the first game, here's the lists:

Tomb Kings

TK: Tomb King: Chariot, HW, Shield
LP: Liche Priest: Lvl 4, Heirophant, Nehekhara

Arch: 20 Skeleton Archers: Full command
WAR: 23 Skeleton Warriors: Full command, shields
HOR: 5 Skeleton Horsemen: Musician
HOR: 5 Skeleton Horsemen: Musician
C: 3 Chariots: Full command

H: Heirotitan

High Elves

AM: Archmage: Lvl 3, High

A1: 10 Archers: Champion
A2: 11 Archers: Champion
S1: 10 Spearmen: Champion, Musician

WLo: 15 White Lions: Full command
S2: 10 Swordmasters: Full command

GE: Great Eagle
BT1: Bolt Thrower
BT2: Bolt Thrower
BT3: Bolt Thrower

For spells, my liche priest got desert wind, protection, cursed blades and desiccation.
The high elves got soul quench, tempest and hand of glory

Deployment

I won the roll off and chose to deploy second. I figured my chariots were about the only thing I had against the White Lions so wanted them as close as possible. The brave heirotitan started behind a building with 3 bolt throwers staring him down.

Both skeleton horsemen units vanguarded forward as I attempted to threaten bolt throwers or divert those nasty White Lions.

I won the roll off, and the tomb kings surged forward!

Tomb King Turn 1

Both horsemen units moved up further and the rest of my army shuffled forwards slowly.

In the magic phase I got 5 dice, which was to become a theme. Fortunately the Heirotitan helped me out with some extra dice so I had 8 to cast with. Andy wisely dispelled desert wind, but I did get a boosted protection of giving my units a 5+ ward save.

In the shooting phase, my unit of archers managed to bring down 2 swordmasters and the chariots excelled themselves by killing 3 archers, panicking the archmage's unit! Fortunately for Andy, he rolled 4" so they stayed on the board...

High Elves Turn 1

It was the turn of the high elves to react, and the eagle wasted no time in flapping in front of my chariots in an attempt to redirect their charge. Fortunately, the archers rallied and turned back to face the tomb king lines.

In the centre, both the spearmen and swordmasters marched forwards.

Magic didn't amount to much as the archmage was out of range of most units.

With a withering rain of arrows and bolts on my right flank, my skeleton horsemen were cut to pieces. 3 of my archers were also slain by bolt throwers.

Tomb King Turn 2

Crunch time! My horseman charged the eagle, who chose to flee but could barely get off the ground before he was speared by the rampaging cavalry. The White Lions remained unbowed. My chariots also declared a charge, figuring impact hits might be the way to shift the elite elven infanty. Lahmizzash scoffed, as his wheeled unit smashed into the White Lions with an 11" charge roll!

In magic, I healed up my archer unit with desert wind and my heirotitan cast Burning Gaze which killed one of the right-most bolt thrower crew.

The skeleton archers dropped another 3 swordmasters with some fine shooting. Well done skellies!

Combat was pretty brutal on both sides. Impact hits killed 8 White Lions and up stepped Lahmizzash with a challenge to the elven champion. The lions were going first and destroyed two entire chariots with swings of their axes, with the champion also inflicting a wound on my tomb king. In reply the tomb king cut down the champion with ease and his unit also inflicted a couple more wounds. It was enough to break the elves and they were trampled and run down by the marauding chariots, who overran into the bolt thrower. The shock at the White Lions' defeat was enough to send the left-most bolt thrower crew running.

High Elves Turn 2

Ouch. The asur needed to come back strong after that devastating chariot charge. The remaining swordmasters charged into the skeleton archers, eyeing up my heirophant. The archmage and his unit shuffled past the chariots and took aim at my horsemen. On the right, the archers moved down the hill to stare down my skeleton warriors. The bolt thrower crew ran off the board!!

Magic saw a soul quench devastate the skeleton horsemen, leaving one alive. Shooting from the remaining bolt thrower failed to wound the heirotitan and 3 skeleton warriors were shot down in a hail of arrows.

In combat, the swordmasters killed 5 skeleton archers, but lost two of their own. I crumbled a little. The chariots ran over the bolt thrower crew, and reformed to face the flank of the archmage...

Tomb Kings Turn 3

In went Lahmizzash and his remaining charioteer colleague. Both the heirotitan and the warriors attempted long charges, but both failed.

Magic again saw me regrow a few archers in the middle, and give them a ward save. The heirotitan failed to cast Burning Gaze on the right-hand bolt thrower.

No shooting - we is in combat!

The chariots smashed 7 archers to the ground and Lahmizzash made short work of the archmage with 3 wounds. The archers broke, but managed to get away by 1"!

My archer unit finally overwhelmed the swordmasters, who fled only to be caught and slaughtered by a rampaging skellie unit. An 11" pursue!!!

High Elves Turn 3

Things were looking bleak for the asur, but there were points to be won on my right flank. The spearmen lowered their hafted weapons and charged into the skeleton warriors, intent on revenge.

In the centre, the remaining archers rallied, and turned to face the rampaging chariots.

No magic, and shooting failed to cause any wounds to the heirotitan - the poor bolt thrower's remaining crewmember being too terrified to aim straight.

In combat, the high elf spearmen slew 4 warriors, losing only 1 in return. My skellies crumbled a little.

Tomb King Turn 4

Once more, Lahmizzash willed his skeletal steeds to charge the remaining archers, crushing them beneath his wheels and briefly leaving the battlefield.

The heirotitan attempted a charge on the distant archers, but rolled a double 1! My archers turned in the centre to threaten their elven counterparts.

Magic - I healed a wound on the heirotitan but did little else.

Shooting saw a few archers cut down.

My warriors lost another 3 men, and again only killed a single spearmen in return, crumbling a little more.

High Elves Turn 4

Time for a final act of heroism from the asur? Perhaps not.

The remaining archers moved forward a little, hoping their arrows and the bolt thrower might remove the pesky heirotitan at last.

This time the bolt thrower hit with its single shot, wounded.... and rolled 1 to wound. Not to be as the remaining arrows pattered off the statue.

In the combat, the spearmen's resolve finally broke and they fled. My warriors, taking lessons from the skellie archers, then pursued 11" and slammed into his remaining archer unit... Breathtaking speed.

We called it there, with just a handful of asur left alive on the table

Lahmizzash sneered at his grovelling liche priest. "Let that be a lesson to you minion, do not forsake my orders again. Now, go an polish my chariot."

A glorious victory for the Legion of the Bronze Scarab, that Flying Fortress was as much as his already.

The game hinged on that chariot charge. Without impact hits, I'm not killing the White Lions really and that decided the game. Fortune favoured my khemri! Leadership tests weren't great for my opponent, including the archmage unit running away turn 1 and nearly off the board. My pursuit rolls were also incredible all game. Something in the (Bretonnian) water?

My forces managed to capture 2 relics with their victory, with the high elves getting 1. Relics are the key to getting into the fortress, you see.

I also earned 5 empire points, so will set about claiming new territories or building stuff once the first campaign 'turn' is finished. Couple more games to go yet, but a good start so far. Finally, my chariot unit earned the 'armour piercing' upgrade after their fine performance. Lahmizzash argues it was all him, but no one is listening.

In other games played on Monday night, the orcs & goblins fought a very close draw with the wood elves. Highlights of that game were an orc giant headbutting a treeman repeatedly and the goblins falling foul of tricksy steadfast elves!

The Empire and the vampires also faced off, with the sneaky humans emerging winners after injuring the vampire lord. Will post an update once the campaign turn proper is finished - thanks for reading!!

Betrayal in Bretonnia - the campaign begins!

 Hi folks - so after 6 months of planning (and mostly map painting) the Warhammer Fantasy Battle campaign is finally getting under way on Monday (30th). Eight of us will be battling to win the right to unlock the secrets of Fozzrik's Flying Fortress over 12 campaign 'turns'.

I've included a link to the rules pack I made for the players - we're all going through the preliminary stages for the first 'turn' proper, including moving our armies, issues challenges and experiencing a random event.

It's the 'spring' season in the campaign, which means difficult terrain tests are slightly more tricky and those using Lore of Life magic get a bonus.

It's my intention to use this blog to chart progress of the campaign, not least my own Legion of the Golden Scarab tomb king force, as we battle our way to uncover the relics needed to unlock the gates of the fortress and seize it's magical contents for ourselves. Expect treachery, mediocre artillery guess ranging and hopefully a few stories along the way.

The first battles will be fought on Monday night - keep your eyes peeled for updates as we go!

Rules Pack!

Betrayal in Bretonnia...

 

They were all gone. Every single one.

The streaming banners and pennants were still there, fluttering in the light breeze above the ramparts. The horses were there – you could hear the occasional whinny or the stamp of a hoof.

But the people had just… gone. It was unbelievable.

He partly unsheathed his blade and strode through the eastern gates. The wide boulevard should have been lined with market sellers and hawkers, and bustling with peasant workers heading to the fields outside the city walls.

The stalls were still there, produce left abandoned and spoiling on the wooden crates or stacked neatly alongside.

He shuddered. The rumours were true – something horrendous had befallen Bretonnia. But what?

It was as if everyone had just vanished.

He moved further into Parravon, hoping to see some kind of sign of what had befallen the city. There were no bodies, no evidence of any damage to the buildings. Nothing even out of place.

As he entered one of the squares, he dismounted and tied up his destrier.

Steps led up to a guard post on one side and he climbed, stiff from his time in the saddle, a growing sense of dread inside him.

At the top of the wall, he stared out across the peasant fields, the neatly tilled land stretching out before him, abandoned. It didn’t make any sense.

How could all the people just vanish?

And then he saw it.

Slowly revolving in the sky, looming over the distant coastline with a myriad of coloured ashen clouds swirling below it.

An entire… castle. In the sky.

He looked away, unable to believe what his eyes told him. But the edifice was still there, pulsing with ethereal power and malevolence.

He felt sure it was this – thing – that had something to do with the disappeared people. This castle.

There had been legends of a flying fortress, all over the Old World, but they were just simple tales told to entertain children. Weren’t they?

His thoughts shifted. This news had to be spread. Who knows, perhaps there was treasure to be found inside that fortress, if you could find a way inside.

And his lord would most definitely want a part of it. After all, it wasn’t every day that Fozzrik’s Flying Fortress appeared above the land. Before long, other armies and lord would hear of the potential spoils and there would be Betrayal in Bretonnia, that was certain…

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!