And so the Dungeonbowl Dust-up kicked off today and I decided that I would give my first NAF tourney a go. For it I really wanted to try out Brets, I have played a few random league games with them and quite enjoyed how they play and have a new found love for fend but I wanted a competetive field to see how they fair.

Roster Creation
Because Brets come with good core starter skills (Block on Blitzers, Wrestle on Yeoman) I decided I wanted all 8 and then rounded out 11 with peasants. I would love to have had a bench so I could foul with abandon but I found that I coped well with just 11 and I could still do key fouls if they were favourable. I took 3 rerolls because AG3 and an apo. The idea being the apo any Badly hurt in the first half of the Knights or Yeoman and it was like a 50k sub.

For skills I took Dodge on 2 Blitzers (Dodge on the other ones for Day2) and 1 Guard yeoman (with another guard yeoman for Day 2)

I debated a lot about taking surehands or tackle/frenzy but i decided to stick with what had worked for me so far with Blodge and if the pick up didn't work I could throw a reroll at it, I just didnt want to face strip ball Woodies.

So with that the Spamalot Spamhammers were born! We were drawn into Euro Group A, the only Bret team in the group.

Game 1
Prematch thoughts - A pro elf team with no rerolls (most likely a leader), 2 Blodge SS blitzers and Jordell Freshbreeze
the Star Player. I knew that if I forced them to make mistakes I could take this game as long as no blitz!

The game kicked off and I received, caged up nicely and then began grinding up the pitch breaking elves, including a lovely foul cas on one of the blitzers. The Black Knight also got badly hurt but exclaimed "It is a mere flesh wound" and returned for the second half. A double skull block left the ball exposed and a pow knocked it down but we managed a pass play in Turn 8 to score and then the elves managed a 1 turner with Jordell which really annoyed me, so many dice rolled!

Second half elves pushed up the pitch, a failed catch with Jordell left the ball free but then the elves Pow'd my guy away and Jorell ran in again. We then received and began working up the pitch consigned to a draw but Jordell kept jumping in and 1D Powing my blodger ball carriers but we managed to scramble it over the line only after some nice blocking and filling in gaps to get rid of the side steppers.

After the game I saw that I rolled 6 1's in 30 and my opponent rolled 7 1's in 77 rolls. When you're playing elves and everything for them is 2 plus it is mighty hard and he did fail very very little with no rerolls. I'm glad I got the draw with those numbers and a tasty bit of cas!

2-2
Position after 1st round: 25th of 56

Game 2
Prematch thoughts - a standard bash chaos team, blocked up Warriors and a sure hands goat. Meh... hopefully dauntless will do some work for me.

Chaos received and goat picked up forming up and pushing down the sideline. We tried our best to keep our distance while looking for good blitzes to remove players. Opponent grinded up the field, cage on the sideline but towards the end of the half he left a corner in contact with a peasant and a quick guard yeoman in, peasant pow and blitzer pow on the goat carrier took the ball into the crowd. The crowd threw it just behind my line, not 5 squares from where it had gone out!

My French Taunter picked up the ball and I just screened as best as I could as the chaos put huge pressure on us in a big scrum. It didnt help the ball carrier was calling the Chaos players mothers 'hamsters'! Due to the press on the sideline I managed to surf and KO a few goats before the Taunter 'bravely ran away' down the other side of the pitch. 1 of my blitzers dodged out into the endzone and my peasant passed to him but he failed the catch annoyingly and all the enemy KO's came back except 1!

Second half we scored quickly, we tried stalling but there was too much pressure on us and we got spread out and locked in. We scored and then weathered another Chaos grind, which saw him cage up and again leave a corner in contact which meant we could get to the ball after a few blocks to send it back into the crowd who threw it back behind my line instead of towards my opponents Endzone! We picked up and then just held back for the game to end weathering everything he threw at us!

1-0 Win to us!
Position after 2nd round: 17th of 56

Game 3
Prematch thoughts - Humans. With a bench and some nice skills. This was the only one I didn't think I could win before kickoff.

Opponent kicked to us. We grabbed the ball and cas'd a lineman on the line and then formed up. His guard proved so hard for us to counter and he quickly spread us and locked us in place, especially after I didn't see a catcher with B who stopped my advance. We managed to get around the side and attempt a handoff to a bliter who would have then run it away to the other side of the pitch but the catch failed but luckily it bounced back into the handoffers hand!? Opponent got the ball down, scrum ensured, a double skull for my opponent stopped him from scoring but he had also halted us.

Second half, we formed our famed 2 line defence, the peasants soaked up a lot of blocks on the LOS, fend is so good on the LOS, before dodging away and reforming the line. We also managed to KO the Tackle blitzer who had been such a pain in the first half. Opponent moved to the near side of the pitch and formed a line of players with guard, we dodged away again somehow and then pushing forward my opponent commited to pressing us and a scrum ensued which gave us a shot at the ball carrier and we brought it down and it bounced towards their Endzone. Some more scruming, a failed dodge for them and we ended up picking the ball up in a TZ and dodging away. We then just sprinted off and screened. Opponent was super unlucky, but I will take the victory. The peasants performed so well in that second half.

1-0 Win
Position after round 3: 8th of 56


So I end the Day on 2W 1D 0L with a 2plus TD score and a 1plus CAS score. And I finish the day in 8th place which is crazy and I'm super happy with. Looks like my next game will be against Amazons. The apo has been a great purchase and has kept me players on the pitch I would otherwise really miss. The Guard has also been vital, i nearly went 3 Dodge but changed it before the tourny started and I'm so glad I did.

It's been super fun, and a nice mix of races to play against. We will see what the second day holds for us in our quest for the Dungeonbowl Grail!