12 games of Christmas blow out pt.1

Happy new year one and all.

Nope I'm not dead and my dance card has been fully stacked over the Christmas break.

Strap in for the 2019 / 2020 12 games of Christmas.

Positive signs for the future. Blitz bowl and Space Marine Adventures

I was really pleased to read this week that GW are returning to producing kid appropriate, entry level board games.

Even with the great nods GW are giving to their past (as well as realizing how profitable it is!!) it seems they have re-realized how important the 'game in a box' products are in getting fresh blood into the hobby.

My introduction to GW was via 'Dark Future' (1988). The game itself was shit but the important thing was my best mate and I could walk into a GW, put down a tenner each and we were 'in' the hobby.

Blood in the Badlands. Game two.

Captain Guthook surveyed the battle field and snorted at the pitiful sight of the Skaven horde before him. How had this walking buffet bested his Slaughtermaster?

Surrounded by his personal body guard he felt invincible. Soon the Badlands would be added to his growing empire. All the world would tremble at the approach of the Guthook tribe. First he just had to get his remaining hand on that bloody flying tower thingy!

When Bloodbowl and Dragon Rampant collide . . . Everyone has fun . . . . again

While at BOYL I got a call from my brother wondering if a game of soldiers was on the cards? 

With BOYL winding up and my only playing one game I decided to head back early to squeeze in a game with Kris.

Having been on the road since 7am and been giggly and silly all day there was no way I was in the right frame of mind for a knife's edge game of Mordheim so I channeled the Oldhammer spirit and wondered what silly game of soldiers I could play?

As the miles rolled by I decided it had to be a 'bring and bash' game of Dragon Rampant and then a really silly idea entered my head . . . . . .

Captain 'Rikky' Longspeare of the winning Bifrost Berserkers, Bloodbowl, team was sinking his last victory beer before rounding up the rest of his team and heading through the cart park towards the waiting long ship to head back north. 

A sudden movement caught his eye . . . a flash of green heading towards the inn door doing their best not to be seen by the celebrating team . . . . could this be trouble . . . could the home fans be planning a little going away present?

There was only one way to find out. . . . . . . . !

Bloodbowl Rampant

So like every other Wargamer of a certain age, I have bought this. . . . .

I have started buying rule books as a way to wean myself off buying miniatures. I also really missed playing with my WHF Empire army AND I saw this as a way to play LOTR with a load of GW LOTR miniatures I picked up cheap at a bootsale.

Of course as the book lands on my door mat Lano starts a whole WHF revival at the 'Legion'. Typical!

The book has some nice old skool, style illustrations but it has not really grabbed me!

That is until now!!!

Tis the season . . . . . for Smashmouth Bloodbowl!!!!!

While wearing a Reindeer onesie.

Yep thats me!!!!

It's Christmas and that means only one thing. . . . . My brother and I pulling out the Astrogranite for our festive (since 1988!!!!) game of Bloodbowl!

We still play 2nd edition rules and I recieve the kick off and make a break down the right wing.

Worlds collide in the middle of the pitch as our Blockers lock horns to dominate the centre of the pitch.

H(el)l Smashico. Bank Holiday Blood bowl game

Today I got a text from my brother. Despite being the bank holiday he had just had a maths test (fingers crossed) and needed to escape into miniatures for an hour or so. Despite only having a couple of days before going back to work I am easily distracted (again) and it's another Bank Holiday El Smashico game of Bloodbowl.

No fancy commentry on this one as I really need to get back to work!

See all those papers at the top of the picture? I am supposed to be reading that!

Kris is eager to give his new team a run out so it's a new classico of The Orc Team Vs the Bifrost Berserkers. 

Despite the Viking look we continue to play them as 2nd Edition Humans.

The shernanigans start early and Kris tries to field 14 players on the field. I know Orcs are poor counters but even I work out something is wrong with this picture!

Grim Ironjaw. three birds, one stone

A psychopathic Nutcase, with a death wish .... Perfect!

"Where is he?" Red asked as he walked into the dilapidated Roadhouse.

The Inn keeper just grunted and jerked his head towards the snoring, mass of orange hair in the corner.

As Red approached the dank corner the smell of booze, stale sweat, pig grease and troll was almost overpowering.

They had all agreed.......

Only a psychopathic, nutcase, with a death wish would ever want to join their band after word got out of their first two debacles into Mordheim!

And then it struck them..... a Troll slayer!

A painted Bloodbowl game 26 years in the making!

So 26 years after buying Blood bowl my Brother and I finally got round to playing a game with two fully painted teams!

Unfortunately it looks like the camera lens got condensation or turkey fat, or double cream etc on it as most of the photos are out of focus or whited out or just plain crap

I think my brother took the term "28mm photo porn" too literally and smeared the lens in vaseline for a classic 70's soft porn effect.

Thankfully there were two decent photos to record the event!

The Mauraders line up for the kick off

An action shot just before "the Gentlemen of the Realm" send one over the top to equalise.

The game ended one all and it seems my brothers fiance is a much better player then he is!

Hopefully we will get another game in before going back to work as he is starting to construct his own stadium and it is a sterling effort for his first attempt!

My brother's dice tower as a WIP. A cracking effort.

Introducing "Her Majesties Gentlemen of the Realm" Blood bowl Team. Victorian Human Blood bowl Team.

Painting my brother's malformed Willy ............................................................ (minatures)!

It's been a crap week and I am just desperate to paint something to get into a Zen state.

I don't have much spare time and

1) I don't want to batch paint
2) I don't have access to any Reaper Bones so I'm stuck for options.

That is until I spot these on the window ledge (I keep hoping they will get the message and jump).

Abominations and not of the Chaos sort! 

My brothers Malformed Willy .......... minatures!

He bought them just on the basis of the web site pictures and the abominations which turned up leave a lot to be desired.

Web pic

reality

Willy hang your head in shame!

The good news is it does not matter what kind of half arsed, speed paint job I do on these it can only make them look better.

So an hour of slopping about with paint and..................

 I decided to make the middle fella look like the Joker from Batman and it seemed to work well.

The thing on the left reminded me of the awful Prince August abominations of my childhood.

At least I felt I had blown out the painting cob webs.

Say what you want about GW but these pieces for crap would never have been released if GW still held the reins of Blood Bowl.

Orctober. The Green streak 'ooligans

So its ORCTOBER a celebration of all thats green and good!

It starts innocently enough. If I have a bloodbowl team, I need some bloodbowl fans, Right!

It also gives me the chance to buy any miniatures I find interesting which I would not have an excuse to buy otherwise.

I LOVE ORCS!!!!

Power tools and 28mm hobbying. How it should be!

Today I am a man!

Power tools............... Check

Metal Ruler............... Check

Hammer.................... Check

Blood Bowl pitch...... Eh Check?

So I've had this crazy idea bubbling about, pretty much since Christmas. 

If I have two Blood Bowl teams (I do now), I REALLY need a stadium for them to play in. Don't I?

The answer is YES!

So I have a bit of down time at work as the year 11's have left and we are in the process of moving schools so all the old tut is up for grabs, including all the wood etc in the CDT dept.

A quick word with James who runs the dept and a couple of funny looks on his behalf  "James I want to build a 28mm scale stadium so a team of Orcs and Humans can play a game of Bloodbowl on a 6 foot gaming board! Whats so hard to understand!" and we are golden. 

Time to break out the power tools and the PVA glue.

I have played around with a couple of ideas and like the look of this

The idea is, its a shared stadium between the Orcs and humans.

The Orc side will retain most of the original features of the original Bloodbowl Stadium which has stood there for millennia.

The other half will be the Human half and has been built on and updated up to the Victorian age.

The hope is I can magnetise most of the terrain bits and be able to use them for other battles. It will certainly make things cheaper.

Anyway back to the build.............

The original idea was to have the whole thing fold away and place the terrain bits in the middle for transportation. It was soon more then evident that I did not have the 

1) skills, 

2) patience, or 

3) time frame (the whole room gets cleared out in 3 weeks!), to pull this off.

Plan B then, Build the Stadium onto the base board and then construct a lid with handles to go over the top.

Job done!

OHHHH....Tools! and a brass and wood scrappy thing

So all the bits were cut to size using one of these.........

yes its a Bandsaw. Man points mounting!

Which I then had to use this.......

electric sander....... more man points!

to sand down the bits and get them square.

You know the old adage. Measure 3 times and cut once. In goes the board again and it's looking good.

Next job, construct the lid. The idea is to use toggle latches to clip the whole thing together for transport and use KR foam trays or simular to place the terrain bits inside as well.

Also got to make extensive use of this. Safety goggles were compulsery.

Blow me. It actually fits!!!!!

Not bad for a days work! Just need to get hold of some toggle latches and handles and then the case is finished. Of course then there is the fact I have to build the whole stadium.

How hard can it be!

Blood Bowl. Damn the Gentlemen of the Realm.

Alister has become a bit of a Blood bowl fanatic and so we played a game this Thurs.

KICK OFF

I kick off and plonk the ball smack in the middle of Al's line.

Al collects the ball and makes charges down both flanks. I go strong down the left and plan to use my catchers to tie up the opposing blockers with tackles .

I go stompy of the left and try to channel the Gentlemen into the centre of the pitch to create a bottle neck.

I go in heavy against Sumo Sam but the asian sensation refuses to go quietly and my roll of double one sees two of my boys off to the stunned box.

I try to sandwich Al's left wingers to stall out the attack.......

................... while boots tries to run down Chun Lee.

With pressure building on Al's kicker he decides its time to send one over the top.

A roll of double one sees Chun Lee fumble the ball from his own square. Is a reversal on the cards?

Boots collects the ball and gets the kick off to the "Green streak" but the whistle goes before he gets a chance to cross the line...........so close................ so close.

SECOND HALF

So nil - nil and I'm receiving the ball. Got to fancy my chances.

I receive the ball and start legging it up the left wing. Hopefully no one will drop dead of a heart attack while sprinting this week!

I go blocker heavy at the front and decide to force my way up the left flank by fair means or foul.

Then it is my turn to suffer at the hands of the Dice Maidens as I roll a six on the sprint and my blitzer heads for the injury box, dropping the ball in the process.

In a series of disastrous rolls I see my Orcs dropping like flies as Al claims one scalp after another.

With only 4 Orcs left on the field I send the ball over the top and just hope to run down the clock.

No such luck as my Blocker is brought down and Al runs in the only touch down of the game to claim the win.

Well played Al.

Showing he's a coach after my own heart Al takes great pride in fulling my dug out with wounded!

I think I am going to need a bigger stunned box for next game!!

LESSON LEARNT

1) Al loves the up and under. I am going to have to either krunch the catchers as they bolt for the holes or break through the line and break Al's kicker deep in his own half.

2) Might be time to resurrect my 5 - 4 -2 formation from my 3rd edition games. It might leave me more vunerable at the front, but will stop the runners and maybe allow the blockers to break through and get to Chun Lee.

3) STOP SPRINTING YOU WALLY!!!!!!

MEGC Spike Fans Trophy cup. Part 1

Blood bowl fever has truly hit the MEGC as its Bloodbowl league started this Friday.

Lano has taken over as commissioner (thank goodness for that) and we are kicking off with the "Spike Fans Trophy cup". 

Random rolls were made for the draw and I got stuck with Lano. Its got an added edge for me as Lano is the only member of the MEGC I have not beaten in one on one play yet!

KICK OFF

After the experience of Monday with his Skinks shooting in left, right and centre, I try a new formation of three lines (5 - 4 - 2) which will smash any runners which try to break through. It does leave me a little vunerable at the front but with all the pushing that happens now I'm not too worried.

This seems to do the trick as Lano keeps his Skinks back behind his big fella's, so I decide to push my Blitzers forward to try to channel the skinks down Lano's right flank where I can smash them into the crowd!

It seems to be working...........

.... now time to see if I can break the little sods..............!

This seems to work as Lano lobs the ball over the top. He completely fluffs the pass and it drops close to Nigel the half orc.

Nigel runs over and picks up the ball......

Then I really cock things as in my excitement I rush my Blitzer through the gaps into an opening and then realise I can't throw the ball now!! 

And yes thats two bloody great lizards behind him. This can only go well!

Its no surprise that Nigel disappears under the trample of lizard feet and when the dust finally settles the ball pops out of the scrum which is run in by a skink.

And thats the half.

We should be playing the second half at some point over this weekend as I'm taking my Dad to the Elite masters Football tournament tomorrow at Leyton Orient and we will see how the rest of the weekend plays out.

Still despair at the lack of damage done to each other and was heard muttering "stupid bloody 3rd edition" several times, especially when a three player block resulted in a skink only being PUSHED BACK!!! and at the end of the half there was only one player in the casualty box and that was from being caught fouling another player! 

Jervis what have you done?