Now the dust has settled, and I’m waiting for my next league opponents to finish their game (and for Glowworm to stop talking), thought some useful time could be spent writing up the weekend’s exploits. I took Necro to Bunker Bowl, partly because they were tier 2 in the ruleset which gave them 115 instead of 110, and partly as a roadtest for the Eurobowl in Sweden, which also gives Necro extra goodies. The weekend started with a bit of a low as HairyPete was supposed to be travelling with us but had to pull out, so Merrick and I squeezed ourselves into the Micra and headed East.
Lovely little venue in an independent gaming store, nice and warm on a fresh Spring day, though it wasn’t quite so fresh by the end of the weekend after a massive 40 coaches fought out 6 tense games. The ruleset didn’t give any skills to start – one normal before game 2, then 2 normal to random players or a double to a chosen, then 3 normal skills before game 4. I went for a block werewolf, then rolled both skills on the same golem (block/guard), then took block on the 2nd wolf, tackle on a wight and guard on the 2nd golem. The ruleset did favour teams with starting skills (and necro), so we ended up with 7 dwarves (and Snow White), 6 Necro and 6 Norse (I think), then no Undead, no Dark or High Elves, no Halflings…
Game 1 vs Cyrus-Havoc, a new opponent for me though someone I had seen around at Albion Coast and on Fumbbl. Norse with no Snow Troll – a pretty tight game until his players started leaving the pitch! Finished 3-0, and 7-1, giving maximum points (7/3/0 with bonus points for TD and Cas, max 3 of each). Fouls and crowd pushes both counted for casualties, and it was a bit of a mess.
On the neighbouring pitch, Yogi’s Norse were making short work of Merrick’s Norse, which earned him maximum points, so I faced off against Yogi in the next round. We’d played before but with Slann v Wood Elves, so this was a very different game-style, with a lot more bash. A lot tighter game, though his armour 7 meant that I racked up 3 casualties again, though only won 1-0. At this point I am regretting not taking my laptop to the tournament as my game memory is really bad and I don’t much like taking notes, so don’t remember much about the game! Sorry Yogi!
A few of the Dwarf teams were rising to the top as well now, so I was matched against Kalten’s standard Dwarf team, a fair bit of Guard and Mighty Blow. The game started badly when my wolf failed to knock over his longbeard with 6 dice, so ended up standing next to him and out of position. Should have gone for the dodge away with hindsight, as the longbeards MB Blitzer came along and kicked him into the dead box. Regen fail, and I was a wolf down. Managed to squeeze him towards the sideline (though a slightly strange pitch design made the sideline hard to identify), but he recovered towards the middle. A nice both down against a blockless runner popped the ball loose, and he didn’t manage to recover it, but the dice fails were evenly distributed and I failed on the next turn too. His runner scooped up the ball and ran for it, meaning that only a werewolf could reach him, only giving one die. Push, then push, and I didn’t reroll it, as a skull would have been an auto-TD. Fortunately, though he managed to push the wolf away from the ball carrier, then frenzy had done enough to put him 7 squares away, and the white line of death did its magic as he failed the GFI over the line.
Finished the weekend on 3 wins, as did a few of the other guys staying at the marvellous Rose and Crown, so lots of banter in an excellent evening of gaming and drinking with new and familiar people. Some weird magic spell casting game, King of Tokyo, then Sheriff of Nottingham with Gigazaur putting in a guest appearance in Nottingham. With his tiny arms.
Refuelled on day 2 after 4 or 5 hours sleep and a fat breakfast, I was up against Be4ch’s Orcs, with both of us Guarded up, making it a challenging first game! I had a few chances on his drive as the ball carrier ended up down a few times, but didn’t manage to stop him in the end. Highlight of my defence was a Flesh Golem dodging to blitz the ball carrier, rolling a push, and then rerolling to skulls. Never reroll a push…
He was a few players down (fear the claw!), and draws don’t win tournaments, so I pushed for the score in 4 turns making it 1-1, and was duly rewarded with a pitch invasion and +1 fame. Some stalwart defence and a failed short pass by a wolf in turn 16 kept it to a draw.
Podfrey’s Amazons next, my 3-1-0 against his 4-0-0, though bonus points put us on the same points. I’d taken a tackle wight in anticipation of the fixture, but knew it was going to be a hard game against his standard guard/blodge assault, with a frenzy blitzer in the mix. I chose to kick, and manage to hold him out, though my heart was in my mouth in turn 8 as he had a 2 dodge, gfi, handoff, gfi, quick pass to score. Naturally, it all worked except the final catch.
Now this is why experience is important in BB, as with a win in sight I started playing like a prat, and against Geoff this is a bad idea. The pressure was intense, and I’m not ashamed to say that the dice saved me completely, as I had a turn where I needed about 6 3+ rolls in a row, then he obliged with a skull reroll skull, and on his very next turn produced a quad skull to hand me the touchdown. Phew. Hopefully I can learn from this and handle the pressure a bit better next time!
What happened next was odd, as there were rumours of Goblins being near the top tables, and indeed my last game of the tournament was against Flossy’s little green men. He was on 4-0-1, but while there were others on 4-1-0 he had made the most of the bonus points, so was in contention for the title. Even more so after his chainsaw behaved very well in the first half, and I was a little slow heading up the pitch, so failed to score on my drive. This could have been troublesome, but again the dice (which I had freshly bought from the good people at 4TK gaming) obliged, and a deep kick followed by Blitz and then some shocking dodging from him put him a whole world of trouble. Other highlights included me half-dicing his fanatic off the pitch (always fun), and a slightly shameful 4-turn stall against goblins. Only slightly…
Very pleased to win my 2nd tournament of the year (out of 2), and to get a 30-man KR case for my efforts as well as a rather large trophy to snuggle up against the Bubba bear. Don’t think Mrs D minds that much.
Thanks loads to Darren for doing an excellent hosting job – it’s a shame it’s so close to ARBBL, as I think I’m going to have to return next year to defend my title! Will hope to bring Pete with me as well, and anyone else who can make it. Thoroughly recommended.