Sunday 12 April 2015

Crumb Bowl - April 11th 2015

It was the annual Crumb Bowl 1 day tournament this weekend and as defending champion I had lot of pressure on my shoulders.  The Undead boys had performed really well last year when they snagged me the top prize so I was thinking that maybe they should get a chance to defend their title.  Then again, maybe the Gouged Eye should get a run out, they had earned it and could probably do a good job for me. On the other hand, maybe I could get an Elf team and really power game that title defence, show the world (well the 50 or so people in the world that were at Crumb) what a magnificent coach I am.  All were great ideas and I could put together a really strong roster for each.  So, in the end, I decided to throw those ideas away and take on the challenge of playing with a Human team.  The most average team in the whole of Blood Bowl and, to make it more interesting, I ditched the traditional build and hired the mighty Griff Oberwald for the tournament.  Sure, it meant I could only take 1 RR but it's Griff Oberwald, the greatest Blitzer to ever step on the Blood Bowl field, what could go wrong? eh?


The Roster I eventually decided to go with was 4 Blitzers, 1 Thrower, 6 Linemen, 1 RR and Griff.  The skills pack for Crumb was quite interesting this year.  You could have 6 skills comprising of 5 Normal skills and 1 Double skill or, if you wanted, you could trade the double skill for 2 Normal skills on the player in the no.4 slot on your roster thus giving you 7 skills in total.  I decided to trade the double straight away.  The roster I had chosen didn't need it but would really benefit from being able to stack a skill.  So, I took Guard on 2 Blitzers, Frenzy on a Blitzer, Leader on the Thrower (to give me 2 RR for the tournament), Kick on a Linemen (giving me the opportunity to control the game a bit better) and finally I gave my 4th Blitzer Tackle and Mighty Blow.  My thinking was twofold.  Firstly, Tackle can be a bit hit or miss - come up against a team with no Dodge and it's essentially wasted - but if that player can also take a Mighty Blow then even in games where I faced no Dodge, he would still be a threat.  Secondly, if I am facing a player with Dodge, it's usually the low armour, agile teams and the players with the Dodge skill are usually a threat to me.  If I could take them down with tackle then, with their lower AV, the Mighty Blow would help make sure that they stayed down if not take them off the pitch altogether.  That was the thinking anyway.....

The team itself was the Grim Bay Hackers Based in the small town of Grim Bay, at the mouth of the Black Gulf in the Border Princes territory of the Auld World, the Hackers are developing a reputation for themselves. They are a strong team at their home stadium of Lonecrow Field but the real test would be how well they travelled to deepest Wiltshire and the village hall ground of Christian Malford.  The players that made the journey were:

#52 - Clayton 'Slay' Matthews (Blitzer)
#56 - Julius 'Hot' Peppers (Blitzer)
#27 - Edward Laces (Blitzer)
#44 - Jim Stark (Blitzer)
#12 - Aaron Dodgers (Thrower)
#70 - T.J. Clang (Lineman)
#30 - Jack Boom (Lineman)
#69 - Dave Backery (Lineman)
#90 - B.J. Argy (Lineman)
#50 - A.J. Eagle (Lineman)
#21 - Ho-Ho Dixon-Clint (Lineman)

and, of course, they were joined by Griff.


So, with their 1 re-roll in hand and the second re-roll relying on the fact they had to protect their Thrower, the team set off to play.

1st game was against a team of Amazons, the Callous Cowgirls, coached by Cornish.  I've only played against Amazons a few times and I've never really been able to get a handle on them.  His was a strong roster that included [the obligatory] Roxanna Darknail.  I won the FAME and the kick off and elected to receive.  One thing I knew I would have to do was play conservatively, I couldn't afford to be rash and waste the precious re-rolls I had so the Blitzers did all the heavy lifting, Griff swept up behind them and the Linemen just tried to get in the way.  It worked really well in the first half and, helped by the fact that Roxanna rolled something like 4 consecutive 1s to fail leaps & dodges, I went over in T8 to go ahead 1-0.  Second half started really well with a deep kick and I quickly corralled the Amazons onto one side of the pitch, their Thower was forced to run back deep into their half and for 4 or 5 turns I held the line.  During this period, Griff was lurking in the backfield, an ever present threat to any Amazon player that wanted to come into my half.  Then, for reasons I don't even understand now, I committed Griff to the attack and he was hopelessly out of position.  A 1 dice block knocked him down (so much for being a Blodger) and Roxanna raced off with the ball.  I tried as hard as I could to get back to her but she was just too quick and she went over the line to make it 1-1.  I had a few turns to try and get the winning score but it wasn't to be and the game ended a draw.  Overall, I was very happy with how the game played out and the team performed very well.  One silly mistake on my part cost me the win but it was great experience and Cornish was a lovely bloke to play against.  Sadly, I already knew that my defence of the Crumb Bowl title had fallen at the first hurdle but there was a lot more to play for.

Game 2 was against the Wood Elf team of the Glade Runners coached by Speedingbullet.  I won the FAME but lost the kick off and was forced to kick to the Elves.  My Lineman with Kick sent the ball deep and my MB/Tackle Blitzer set about putting Elves off of the pitch.  An early KO to a Wardancer certainly helped but the Elves scored in about turn 4 to go 1 up.  The Wardancer felt he'd had enough that half and decided to stay in the KO box which was good for me and having received the ball I caused a few casualties and scooped the ball up.  Unfortunately, it all went awry and before I knew it Elves had flooded into my half of the pitch and Aaron Dodgers was stranded on his own, with the ball, and 5 or 6 Elves breathing down his neck.  The Frenzy Blitzer pushed one Elf out of the way leaving a narrow corridor for Dodgers to run into and attempt to throw the ball.  Griff was down field, hand in the air signifying that he was open and A-Dod cocked back his arm and flung the ball with all his might.  At this point I should say that I only wanted to get the ball away from the Elves.  Anywhere but where it was at that point in time.  I wasn't looking for accurate, I was looking to move the ball.  It was a desperation play, a million to one shot (well, 1 in 6 but that doesn't sound half as exciting).  I shook the dice cup, slammed it down and said a little prayer - "Please be a 4 or more" - lifted the cup, slowly, eyes' half closed, and heard an audible groan from my opponent above the background noise in the hall.  A 6! Get in you beauty! There's a reason that Dodgers was chosen as the Leader for this team and that was it right there. The ball spiralled through the air tightly and Griff caught it with ease before sprinting off into the corner where he hung around for a bit before crossing the line to make it 1-1 in T8.  The second half kicked off, the Elves were back up to 2 Wardancers (for a short while anyway) and I had 8 turns to thin the numbers and get a second.  Griff once again proved his worth as he rolled back the years and rampaged around the pitch.  The MB/Tackle Blitzer got himself in the mix and the Elves didn't know which way to turn.  I managed to split the Elf team up and Griff again ran free.  A-Dod lived up to his name and dodged free of coverage before launching a long pass to the waiting Oberwald.  I needed a 5 and, of course, I rolled a 5.  Griff made the catch and soon scored the second.  I had a chance for a 3rd later in the game but it wasn't to be and the game ended 2-1.  A great victory against a strong team with a good coach.

One strange thing happened in game 2 that I've never had before.  Both of us lined up for a kick off with 11 players on the pitch.  I had +1 FAME for the game and I rolled the Kick Off event.  Double 6 came up, Pitch invasion!  I hate that event as it can totally turn games around.  Anyway, I only had to roll a 5 to stun some Elves, my opponent had to roll a 6 to knock down my humans.  We rolled 22 dice, 11 each, and not one single player was knocked down!  Not one, I was amazed.  The worlds worst pitch invasion.....ever.  I'm glad though, like I said, I hate the event and I was happy that it had no effect on the game at all.

So, with a record of a draw and a win game 3 came round and I found myself facing The Melvins, a Chaos Dwarf team coached by FistyPete.  This was a tough, tough game.  Dwarfs are hard to beat at the best of times and with the addition of a Minotaur and 2 Bull Centaurs it was never going to be an easy game.  Again I won the FAME and lost the Kick Off so kicked deep to try and slow the Dwarfs down.  My tactic was to hold them up in the first half, stop the score, get the ball in the second half, score in about T6 or 7 and hold them up again.  The first half of this plan worked to perfection and it was 0-0 at half time.  I had managed to take out a couple of Hobgoblins but the Dwarfs were resolute and I had lost both my Guard Blitzers.  I worked the ball up the field but without my Guard and with thinning numbers it was proving rather difficult.  Finally , I had a chance.  A Blitzer was free, A-Dod had the ball, what could go wrong?  Dodgers forgot what it was to dodge and failed the first part of the play.  Balls!  I had a RR though and it was promptly called upon.  This time he successfully made the dodge and set off on his passing run.  His arm came back and again he launched a high, spiralling ball across the field.  It was beautiful, it really was.  Slay Matthews looked up and I don't know if he was blinded by the sun, confused by the fact that he wasn't hitting something or if he was distracted by the Bloodweiser Beer concession stand he could see out the corner of his eye, but either way he fluffed the catch and the ball was on the floor.  It was a disaster but we could get it back......maybe.  The Chaos Dwarfs played a dirty trick at this point and Griff, noble Griff, was smacked in the face with a custard pie.  I was outraged!  To make matters worse they then picked the ball up with a Bull Centaur and ran away!  The devils!  Fortunately he couldn't get far and, with 2 Turns left, Griff hauled himself off the ground, wiped custard off his face and Blitzed the defenceless Centaur for a 1 dice block.  Griff has Block, the Centaur has nothing so, obviously, Griff rolled a Skull.  He then failed the Loner roll and hit the dirt hard.  So hard in fact that he broke his armour and was stunned for the remainder of the game.  That was it, game over.  The Bull Centaur sprinted off to try and get in scoring range.  Last turn of the game and a failed blitz meant that the Centaur only had to Go For It 3 times to score, with Sure Feet.  He ran his full 6 squares, then made the first GFI, a 1!  Sure Feet Re-roll succeed; second GFI was a success and he was standing on the brink of greatness.  He lifted his head high and flared his nostrils, filling them with the sweet, sweet aroma of victory.  He had single-handedly downed the great Griff Oberwald, picked up the ball and now he was on the verge of winning the game for his team.  It was probably this train of thought that led to him losing concentration for a second but, in Blood Bowl, a second is all it takes.  his feet tangled up as he crossed the line and he went down in a crumpled heap.  the game ended 0-0.  I nearly won it and then I nearly lost it,  all in a couple of turns.  Sums up what's great about this game.

It was a fabulous day and I finished 17th from 46.  Not quite the title defence I had hoped for but, then again, not the abject disaster that I feared either.  I won one game because I rolled a 6 on 1 dice roll and I avoided defeat in another because my opponent rolled a 1 on 1 dice roll.  I'll take that.  As they say,  I would rather than be lucky than good.  I'm certainly not good so the luck is all I have.

Congratulations go out to HungDonkeyMan for taking the title this year, to darkson for coming second, Rubick for his third place and to Dionysian for taking the coveted International Glowworm Award in 4th place.  The Stunty Cup went to Shortarse and the Wooden Spoon to Tully.

Crumb Bowl is a really great tournament and has been the biggest one day tournament in the South West, if not the country, for the last few years.  I understand that next year it may move towards being a two day tournament and I would encourage everyone that plays Blood Bowl to attend.  It's well run, the food is great, it's very friendly for newcomers to the game and those with little tournament experience, and because of all that has a great atmosphere.  The more that play next year the bigger it will be and we get to keep one of the best tournaments on the circuit.  Who knows, you might even get to face the Grim Bay Hackers with Griff and it's got to be worth it for that alone.

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