BLOOD BOWL PLAYERS!

We had a World Cup! And what a tournament it was!

It is day 3. The Red Leaf Mercenaries have won every single round so far and we are due to play table 2 this morning. No matter where we came from before this is the most successful any of us has been. For me and Hovring that’s not saying a lot as this is our first official tournament, but that does not lessen the achievement in any way.

Historic and Sandune are at the top of our squad with 4/1/1, and even if they would like to hit their personal records of 6/2/1 from previous world cup they also agree that the squad effort is worth a lot more than any goals of their own. That includes one game from yesterday where Historic lost 4 players in turn 1 but still won. Wood elves eh? Our captain Sean is 3/2/1, and Hercules has 3/1/2. Myself and Hovring have played 2/2/2 so far, and I will play seat 6 for our first game.

We’ve had some time to talk about the match up vs The Mad Hateful Seven and I probably have one of the better chances just looking at the teams, where I’m facing a Chaos Renegade side coached by SirMayans. I am playing one wolf necromantic.

Renegades opt to kick and put troll and ogre on the sides. The troll is their only guard player, so I figure, ok, let’s break their team and take a win for the squad, starting by removing that troll. I set up a wolf blitz and get the troll stunned, and then my team moves into full contact straight off from turn 1. Now he faces three guard vs his 0, coupled with the stand firm and side step and on his turn 1 the ogre goes bonehead. He can’t shake my team at all and on turn 2 I start getting some serious hits in, and he is forced by push both the elf and the rat into the fight just to keep some chance of hitting back. The troll gets back up and is immediately hit by the wolf again and this time it is KO and will not be back for the entire game.

We keep up the fight, gaining a slight upper hand in numbers but a clear advantage in strength. The rat ogre has become isolated and when it fails the savagery I take the opportunity to run to the other side and leave it behind. Turn 7 his only play is to -2d the ball with the rat, which in itself proved some good defensive work by SirMayans to even get that. He hits the ball and gets a push. On turn 8 I need two 2d hits to deliver pushes for the easy path and I get them. I still have the reroll, but that pushback on the ball now means I have a single rush to make for my score. Before I take it SirMayans calls on several of his team mates and they huddle together, watching intently, jumping up and down and maybe praying. Rush roll - 1. Reroll - 1.

First half ends 0-0 and my opponent takes a minute to shake my hand and admit what a terrible stroke of bad fortune that was. But since his troll isn’t back in the game he will start second half at a clear disadvantage. I could hear from the other games that things were hanging in the balance and that this change of outlook has changed the hope of the Seven. The team win seems to be hard fought at every table. Next to me I get the pleasure of watching Hovring perform a Dark elf stall with perfect field control vs orcs, even if the game ends in a draw.

Second half the Renegade soon find out that they are in big trouble. To get anything done they need to trust the big guys, and that is seldom the position you want. He sees the trouble, realises that it will only get worse and goes for the chance. Big guys come through to deliver a kind of gap and the elf goes for it, it is dodge, dodge, dodge, rush rush to get the best chance. I still manage to get over there and hit the ball 2d. Pushes - RR - skull/skull.

Elf scores 0-1 but I have 5 turns to equalise and still no troll. We push through, in what I remember as a convincing manner, scoring a fairly secure 1-1 to end the game.

Now looking up and talking to the others everyone is finishing except Sandune in seat 1. They still have a few turns and the result from the five other tables is 1/3/1 - so everything hinges on this last game. The fight is on, the ball contested in Sandune’s half and things look tense. We think the score is 1-1 but Sandune doesn’t seem fazed by the situation. Then in response to someone asking something, he says loudly ”I’m ahead 3-1!”

So we just all exhale and laugh and realise that we have already won the round! Sandune has told this story and more on the Podcast Powtearoa - you should listen to it, very pleasant retelling of this whole story from his perspective. While at it you can vote for them to win a podcast award!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/791ciRaGNXavuxExNP0wMp?si=e6d617baebe149bf

Seven straight wins! Table 1! COCORIPOW!

It is the dream of any blood bowler really, to play the top table on the final day of the world championship, and versus this amazing team. Life goals I didn’t know I had, check.

Both me and Hovring had draws but I’m now in seat 5 (I guess our SoS changed). Because we had lunch there was at least some time to talk about the match ups. We generally think that Sandune vs Dark elves has a solid chance and that Hovring on the flip side of that has a good chance with his DE vs Lizards. We aren’t especially hopeful about any of it, and for me, facing Undead I feel like that a draw would be a win here. I am facing Bourpif in what turned out to be my favourite game of the tournament, and a brain burning intense two hour ride.

I choose to start with the ball. Blitz! He pushed forward and engaged broadly with my team but on the return I knock a lot of them down, feeling good but then I drop the pick up…into the hands of my other ghoul! I’m totally out of position and his ghouls swarm the ball and the turn ends with the loose ball marked by three of them. We engage in some nerve wracking back and forth during the following turns, the ball bounces but stays contested on the ground. All players stay in the fight, so the growing scrum of 11 vs 11 is just an all out fight for position.

By turn 4 his mummy has been stepping one pace ahead each turn by knocking down the zombie in front of it and is just about to reach the ball when I finally manage to chain push some players with knock down and free the ball of tackle zones. I pick up and screen it. I lose a player and he puts maximum pressure on my team. I have to go for it. Turn 6 I dodge the ghouls out and to the side and get players in between so he can’t blitz the ball, great! But he comes in hard with a mummy blitzing in and trying to cut me off ahead but he was not in position to really shut it down. I need to dodge and hit a 1d push so I can dodge the ball and run and pray. I fail the first dodge.

He attacks the ball, 3 dice, pushes. 3 dice again - now it goes loose. No rerolls anymore, he picks it up but can’t protect the ball. I hit it 2d, I think I rolled pushes, the ghoul remained standing anyway and could easily score a defensive TD on T8.

Going into second things are looking bad. We have our full teams but I’m down by 1 and Bourpif will surely not give me anything easily during his offense. The rest of the squad also seem to be having a difficult time and at least two other games are probably lost already.

The undead remove a zombie on the LoS but then they drop the pick up! I can just rush a Wraith over there to put a TZ on the ball, and I follow up with a ghoul close behind. On their turn they can’t move the wraith and the ball remains free on the ground. He retreats and surrounds the ball. I get the Guard in there and stun one of the mummies and the other is tied up by LoS zombie. Then comes a turn when he gets the hits on my players to free the ball and he runs to the side with it. But it is still a big mess, especially when my zombie kills a mummy on a both down result!

I get a big choice. I can contain the position and get some good blocks in, or I can dodge around his screen with two players to take 2d on the ball - carrier doesn’t have Block. If I fail those dodges it is probably game over. I chose to contain and put the pressure on. On the next turn a ghoul fails to break free with a failed dodge and I can hit the ball. BAM! And I pick it up! Now my ghoul is in range to score right away with two rushes, but I chose not to try. If I score he gets three more turns, mummy regenerated and is coming back and he has multiple rerolls left. Instead I screened to force dodge to get at the ball, and he would also need to roll a POW.

Well, wish not granted. The undead come crashing in, POW! POW! Even so he is in a bad place, but sadly I put a player in the wrong spot, I could have forced another dodge next turn when he goes 2d 2d dodge dodge rush rush to carry the ball into my side of the pitch, but he snakes the final rush and no more rerolls!

Time and rerolls running out for me. I move both ghouls to scoring range while the wolf runs to get the ball, dodge, a hit, rushes, pick up. Turn seven the wolf rushes back at maximum speed and gets within scoring range itself. Sadly the path to hit the wolf is too easy and 2d brings it down. I get a final turn of trying to pass from one ghoul to the other, but it is too much to ask. The game ends 0-1.

This was so intense. For large parts of it we were both standing up playing as the tension was too much to handle while sitting down. Every turn was a puzzle and held everything on the line, all the time. After each of our turns of the entire game we were always, at the least, marking the ball with one of our players. That is insane and not something I think I’ve ever seen in the more than 2500 games I’ve played so far.

In the end, especially second half, I feel that Bourpif took the win on some better coaching calls. Positioning and exploiting the chances where I failed to do that as well, more so when we had fewer players left near the end.

I am very happy that this game happened, and despite getting soundly beaten by 0/2/4 we all agreed that this was a great experience (maybe not as great for Sean who had some truly awful dice going on this game). Our draws were the two games we thought we had a solid chance in! Hovring pulled some elf stunts to surf the only scoring threat near the end to keep the draw, lovely stuff.

For the final round of the tournament we got to play vs the Hakflem Globetrotters, and I faced Dragonborn with lizards in seat 6. He didn’t have a great day 3, and it would turn out that this game wouldn’t be helping with that.

I get good hits right away and apo is gone turn 1. I get another 6 injury rolls next two turns but all the lizards stay in place. He plays a careful game and when I don’t get any real advantage I’m forced to start pushing it. We fight but I’m not getting through. Lizards focus on stopping me so ball has stayed fairly safe. I make the final push and manage to get through on turn 7 and tag as many Saurus as I can. I fail the last dodge of the turn and now there is a double rush to 2d the ball. Pushes! Even with skinks everywhere I need 2d 2d (pushes enough) then dodge dodge rush to score. Failed the first dodge, 0-0 half.

Lizards come out strong and remove my zombies in second. I am in desperate mode so I just push the Wraiths in there hoping for something. My lines are open so he just needs one 3+ dodge to seal the game…crash! I’m swarming the open ball and lizards fail pick up next turn. Now it is a mess and I kill the guard saurus! The ball bounces here and there and suddenly in the hands of a ghoul! But it got down in the fight, ball once again free. Then next time it bounces it is caught by a Saurus, at the end of turn 14. He has 2 turns, no rerolls and still in his own side of the field with the ball in the wrong place.

He opts to defend the ball to take the draw. I make some nice positioning moves if I may say so to set up a 2d hit on the ball by the last turn, all that guard and stand firm and what not really helping. The lizards are everywhere but the bounce goes free in two tacklezones. I need to roll 5+5+3+2+ in the final turn of the game, and I make it. I win the game, on some truly shocking turn of the dice!

Another day ended on 1/1/1 for me, and the team comes through with a final team win - putting our final result on 8/0/1 - meaning that only the world champions got a higher score than us. We end up in 5th place because our tie breakers are the worst of the lot, Cocoripow in 2nd after losing that last fight. And in 4th place there’s All the President’s Men, because head to head is not part of the tie breakers! We really came through as a team, with everyone giving just what we needed to get to higher levels than we could dream.

I’ve written a lot now and my strength is waning. But the smiles from that time and the joy of the tournament makes it easier to go on, not just with this but really anything in life.

The following celebrations were great, for us and for the whole community I think. Thank you thank you to all my opponents and other great people I met. So nice, all of you. I hope we meet again in 2027, wherever it may be.

Blood bowl is our game!

/ Spelledaren