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"• Two team showcases: Axtlinge's Three Chile Burrito Bandits and Mancaver's Terracotta Terrors;
• So You Want to be a T.O..., part one of Virral's how-to guide to commissioning a tournament;
• Vain shows you how to use your gaming for good, not evil, in Gaming for Charity;
• Tournament reviews from Cane Toad Cup, Sandgroper Cup and EucBowl;
• A review of the Feudball novel;
• An interview with the feisty gingers from BothDown;
• Part 2 of Hacker's Misery in an Ale Tankard;
• The 2012 BL!TZ Magazine Hall of Fame.
Plus the sub-mags, NAF Final Siren, news and the Last Word. Also, keep your eyes peeled for the winners of the BL!TZ Fifth Birthday Prize Draw and two special BL!TZ/AusBowl events coming soon that you could be involved in: The Road to Glory and the Ironbowl Challenge."
I've been rather quiet recently, so I just thought I do a bit of publicising for someone else; the marvellous FF Fields.
They're having an auction in favour of charity and I wanted to make sure everyone is aware of it. If not, you should be because there is some truly amazing stuff up for grabs.
There are models for a variety of games (with a strong emphasis on Fantasy Football), including a few limited edition or special release pieces. There are also brilliant tournament specials, such as the patch below.
For me, the best stuff are the sketches donated by Pedro Ramos. I would love to hang these things on my wall.
So get yourself over to their facebook page and browse the auction. All you have to do is to message them with your maximum bid. There's a live auction at a 24 hour tournament in Italy, but you have every chance of winning.
Sorry for how long this has taken me to put together - have been super busy lately and I wanted to really give a summary of the whole weekend because Xtreme (@XtremeBBer) really put a proper "weekend" of fun together.
pre-party
The canucks made excellent time driving down to Naptown, I think we arrived around 5ish. Checked in at the lake house which turned out to be plenty big enough for 8 guys (they mentioned we might be cramped but the closets were big enough to hold our an air mattress - and Alex (@alexmatusiak) did sleep in the closet hoping for a bit of quiet, though it didn't work out that way as Hickling stayed up watching one of the american pie movies.
So once we dropped our stuff off, we headed over to Xtreme's place which was about a 20 minute drive. Got there and Hickling immediately dove into a game of the BB team manager, while the rest of us hung around waiting for our beer to get cold. Thankfully Sol and the mad dawgs showed up with a cooler and shared the wealth. This party was a huge blast, everyone just hanging out and drinking, we all played silly games like rat ogre bowl (which Alex won) and space bowl (which Alex's team won - even despite my terrible efforts as the hive mind)
spacebowl broodlord vs. sergeant - that's me pointing!
Jeff was one of the 'mericans crashing with the canucks at the little lake house we rented. Appropriate we got to play each other! Jeff brought a FTLOTG (and was eventual FTLOTG champion) counts as lizardmen team (no Saurus!) that was comprised of a giant robot for the kroxigor and a bunch of tiny robots for the skinks. Very cool looking team.
game 1
In the first half I won the coin toss and chose to kick. I used Boomer right away hoping it would force Jeff to try to score early. Didn't work out that way and Boomer didn't have much effect as his skinks were so spread out - but I did manage to nip the ball and score late in the half. Second half Jeff played a brilliant drive that very nearly succeeded in scoring down one flank, but fortune wasn't with him and he lost possession late (bit hazy now but I think it was a failed dodge or gfi) and even though I was planning to _not_ win by a lot (an early big win will have you playing stronger opponents sooner!) in the end I just tried to make a late scoring drive and ended up scoring a second touchdown without even using a reroll. Should've saved some of that luck for later games!
Game 2 vs. Al 1-0 win
Al was _originally_ going to crash with us, but fortunately a cancellation let him stay in the house with the other mad dawgs whose team he was on, and was travelling with. I'm sure that was nicer in the end for him. Al also did a great job with the grill saturday night at the live after zlurp party. He was the second lizardmen team I played, although he did have saurii (sp?).
game 2
Again I kicked to Al and used Boomer immediately. Boomer had a much better impact in this game - I think it frustrated Al quite a bit. The game was definitely a learning experience for Al, I'm not sure he was very familiar with the dangers of frenzy. I warned him about being near the sidelines but I think the second hit threw him for a loop. Fortunately for him the crowd only KO'd his tackle saurus. Quite a back and forth game, where I managed to pull out a 1-0 win. I think it wasn't until the second half that I scored but don't quote me on that, after the pre-party at Xtreme's Friday night the games from day one are tough to recall!
At the same time, Alex and Jonny P were playing right next to us, here's Jonny's #1 absolute favourite pic from the entire weekend. Alex's Krox looming over his blitzer (or linewoman or whatever, ther're all blodgers - who cares!!)
NOM NOM
Game 3 vs. Tom 1-2 loss
Angry Tom! Septuple Burger Buddy Award winner! THE Tomcat Rummery.
I have played Tom twice before, and with a win and a draw under my belt I figured a bit of smack talk was in order. He got his revenge in this game but the look on his face was priceless!! Tom is part of the mad dawgs crew and ended up winning Zlurpeebowl! He came in 2nd for the RPS tournament, but he cheated me by waiting to see what I chose first! ;) He was also the 3rd lizardmen team in a row I faced.
game 3
Made my first big mistake of the day here. I won the coin toss and should have kicked, instead I chose to receive hoping to really cash in on Boomer, but it ended up costing me as Boomer caused a couple turnovers with fumbles. AV7 started to cost me as well. This was a very fun game as Tom and I traded smack talk the whole time. Unfortunately as he was generally doing well (and there were young children nearby) didn't manage to drag out a proper Angry Tom performance but it was still a blast. We both scored in the first half, and then in the second I couldn't hold him as the casualties started to mount.
guessing I just insulted Tom in this pic
waiting for retaliation??
Game 4 vs. Ezzard 1-2 loss
Ezzard is another American who crashed with us, so throughout day 1 I basically played people I've been connected to somehow, with Tom the only one I'd previously played - that's always nice! I felt for the poor guy, his allergies were going crazy and I am usually the same, but my allergies didn't bother me at all in the States, weird!
game 4
YAY not playing lizardmen! BOO playing guardspam dwarves! Double BOO, he took Boomer too so neither can use him!! Made another huge mistake in choosing to kick to him, that's what I wanted to do if I had Boomer, so once I lost Boomer I should have immediately realized that would be suicide. AND it was. I think Ezzard got like 7 casualties against me but I still managed to score a TD and I think if I had received it could've been a different game. Not surprised I made this mistake though as by game 4 of day 1 your mental fortitude is really what is tested the most. Ezzard won 2-1 and he ended up winning Most Casualties (you're welcome!)
live after zlurp party
Well this was a BLAST. Definitely the highlight of the weekend, if you have listened to Episode 36 of Zlurpcast you have already heard all the best stuff. I missed hearing Hickling's interview live as I was scarfing down food, but I joined the crowd just as Jeff was doing his "Go For It". It's always a blast chatting with Main Guy and Other Guy, and I had fun doing my own "Go For It" - especially because Jonny just wouldn't give up until I got a skill roll and (as it had all night) giving away SPP just bugs Bryan! I'm sure if you are reading this you've listened, but as a recap I started as an Orc blitzer and with a few "correct" answers ended up with 6SPP and took Mighty Blow as my first skill, time to crack a few skulls!
mustard vs. ketchup!
There were tons of games and such going on, so much that it was impossible to follow everything that was happening. I think we called it quits sometime around 1am to head back to the lake house for a bit of sleep before the second day. Thankfully for us, our location was much closer to the venue than everyone else, so we were able to sleep in quite a bit even though we had to be all packed up before we left. The folks at Indy Lakes were super nice (if you are ever there, say hi to James for me!) and I wouldn't hesitate to go back even though it's mainly for fishing, it was just overall super convenient. Next year will probably try to do a bit more planning so we can just eat breakfast there, since we really barely used the facilities - it even had laundry!
DAY 2
Game 5 vs. Josh 0-1 loss
Josh was part of the OWFUL crew, and was the guy who told the hilarious Jake Lloyd selling weed story on Zlurpcast Episode 36. A really great guy and we had a super epic game. This was easily my most fun game of the tournament - which always says a lot when you lose!
game 5
I chose to receive and used Boomer and right away was super pumped as the kickoff result was "Get the Ref!" giving me a bribe to attempt to keep Boomer around for both drives!! KICK ASS I thought. Boomer really tore into Josh's orcs, mostly just knocking them down - however did get the odd KO here and there. In the end, I should have just tried to dodge away on my turn 8 with a reroll to score, but instead I tried to blitz his player off and had to burn the reroll on a gfi in the process. Then the blitz didn't knock his player down so I had to dodge anyways (stupid!) and of course I failed. So we went in at halftime with no score. To make matters worse I rolled a 1 for my bribe, so I didn't get to keep Boomer. NOOOOOOoooooooo. Fought tooth and nail to keep Josh from scoring, but he managed to score on the last turn of the game, where he failed his catch roll from a hand off and the game literally came down to a single 3+ roll. He made it and deservedly won the game 1-0.
A man needing no introduction. If you don't know who Jonny P is - I don't understand why you have read this far through this post! Looks pretty soft in this pic eh???
game 6 vs. "soft" jonny
"I put dump off in dis bag" - your face says it all main guy
Another pretty epic game, though mostly for Jonny! Boomer again was a force to be reckoned with since Jonny's entire amazon team were blodgers! Really helped to knock his team down, though I gotta say I also rolled a fair amount of open POWs as well on my drive. I scored late but didn't really do enough damage to Jonny's team.
Second half JP made a nice push and tied the game up, then after kicking to me again - all of a sudden he started breaking armour like nobody's business around turn 5-6 and in two turns he had KO'd 3-4 and CAS'd another 2-3. It was brutal!! In the end I had like 2 players on the pitch, and all I could do was draw his players close, then run up the field and throw it as far as was safe to do and pray to not fumble. I managed it and JP couldn't manage to score with his chance so the game ended 1-1.
check out the beating I took!
GRUDGE....REMAINS
Awards
The "Eh" Team did pretty well overall.. in fact much better than anyone (even Xtreme) thought because after the fact I determined that we actually should have won "Best Team"!!! This was mainly due to the bonuses from Alex winning best appearance for his lizardmen team (this was what Bryan forgot) and for Hickling being on a top table in the final round. At the event it went to the Legion of Boom from Wisconsin - so we will actually be co-champions. Waiting to hear from Xtreme about possible prizes and I know we are getting certificates! There's a blurb about this in Zlurpcast Episode 36 which is pretty funny!
Hickling ended up with 3rd place. If he won his last game he would have won the tournament. He was the only player to beat Tom (who won, going 5-1) - the results list shows him in 4th, but basically the top 2 tables in the last round make up who places 1-4th, so even though Petre won his last game (the last American who stayed with us at the lake house) and leapfrogged him, Mark still took 3rd. As you can see he spent a lot of time on the top tables! PS. This is the Mark they called "Chops" on Zlurpcast Episode 36.
"First off…. sorry for getting this out late. I had issues with the length. That’s what she said. And actually since we’re talking about it…. this thing is about 3 and a half hours long. Yeah, I know. Fuckin sucks. We had a ton of great footage from the LIVE episode at Zlurpee Bowl VIII, plus we had to do a wrap up afterwards with results. It would have been tough to just edit out certain spots of the live show, so I left it all in! This is a lot to swallow — I know, it’s also what she said again. Here is some direction. Listen to the first 2 and a half hours. That’s the live show. It’s fun, it’s all over the place, but most of all, it will help you feel like you were at hanging out at the Zlurpcast Afterparty with us. Then, but only if you absolutely must…. go ahead and finish the other hour. The live episode sees the return of the Go For It Trivia Game with guests Sarge, Josh, Mark x2, Tristan, Randal, and many others. You get to hear Xtreme and Jonny fight about how many SPPs questions should be worth, and we find out why Jake Lloyd of Star Wars fame might want to sell you some Bantha Fodder…but only if yer cool. Enjoy!"
"Both Down Episode 8. Team Ginger takes an in depth look and breakdown of the Chaos Dwarfs… Just joking this episode features segments like “House Rules” spotlighting the Al-Kohrn Cup, “Behind the Fluff” hear an interview with Golden Toe Joe and some “Tournament Talk” about team selection and breakdown for Chaos Cup. Also listen to them boast about league Championship victories, birthdays, fireworks and various other Ginger related topics. You know you love it now go listen.
Episode Breakdown by time:
"This episode takes a second look at the Chaos Dwarves with guest coach, Nate
Ponce, and while the subject might be short, the discussion is our longest one
yet! Once you've survived all that, it's a quick hit with a Star-Push-Skull
segment about league required dice towers. And no time at all is wasted moving
into Cheering Fans and local league standings!"
"The EVIL version of the little guys! And they have slaves… how else are you supposed to get shit done?! Nathan and Shawna, AKA, Bumblefuck and Friend dissect the Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarf roster in detail. They discuss what skills to take, strategies for certain players, and of course what Star Players are most useful. Chaos Dwarves are a popular and feared sight on the pitch, so make sure you do your homework and listen to this episode of Zlurpcast Tactic Zone!"
... but only if you play Blood Bowl in NABBO League!
I just found it in here (TFF thread) and really had to post it!
It's Hasslefree's "Summer" cheerleader mini, and was painted by our friend, and fellow NABBO League player Marco Preto (you might remember he painted a goblin for the GHAG contest).
I had the chance to see it painted last week's game night, and WoW, what a superb paint job!
Kudos for another fine model for your "Conquerers" team Marco!
I've been away this week (more on that later) but home in time this week for Miss Lass's 15th Birthday celebrations, and go with Right Stuff to the biggest Blood Bowl competition in Australia: The Eucalyptus Bowl! (http://eucalyptus-bowl.doubleskulls.net/index.php)
Despite that I am more an Agility style coach by style (not that I've ever played pointy ears though!) I decided I should give my Terrorcotta Tearers their first outing. Actually, this was the first time I've ever played a Khemri team, or indeed played in any tournament. So it would all be a good learning experience. We also caught up with a bunch of guys we know, including Paul Deacon (who came from NZ to play!) who told us all about his experience at Three Die Brawl in Ohio, which sounded fantastic.
Anyhow, EucBowl is a 1.15million resurrection tourney with no double skills allowed. My team roster was:
4 Tomb Guardians - all with Stand Firm (I really debated taking this vs Guard)
2 Blitz-Ras, 1 with Strip Ball
1 Throw-Ra with Leader
1 Throw-Ra with Kick Off Return
5 Skeletons with no skills (giving me 1 spare player)
2 ReRolls (making 3 with the Leader ReRoll)
1 Fan factor
EucBowl is a 6 match Tourney held over 2 days, but as I mentioned Saturday was Miss Lass's birthday. However, they do allow 1 day entries so we did the right thing and spent Saturday spoiling our young Lady, then had ourselves a Blood Bowl Sunday!
Game 1 vs Highgarden Hornets (Humans)
This was one of the most beautifully painted teams I have seen - wonderfully detailed in yellow and white.
I gave away +2 FAME, Weather was nice, and I won the toss and elected to receive.
I got under the ball, formed up into a cage and then started to march down the pitch.
The stand firm on the Tomb Guardians was fantastic and though it cost me some casualties not having mighty blow it kept my cage nicely intact - especially against the Ogre (who had Break Tackle and was hard to hold down). It took me the whole fist half, but I finally ground down to the other end to be 1 up at half time.
The Hornets came back in the second half with a vengeance, but my Tomb Guardians got their blood lust up and started really taking some pieces off the pitch. When the Ogre departed badly hurt the humans really couldn't stand up to the strength of the Tomb Guardians at all. I managed to turn the ball over and started sprinting to the end zone for a second TD- and yes he tripped over the line! The sting was taken out of that by winning 1 nil though.
Samples of the wonderfully painted Human team
Game 2 vs Southern Country Bloodletters (Ogres) I got +1 FAME for this game, the weather remained nice and once again I won the toss and elected to receive (it worked last game so what not try it again?).
The intimidating Ogre lineup!
The ball stopped bouncing just inside my endzone and 5 nasty looking Ogre bore down on me - quite intimidating! He had taken Guard on two of them (which was just nasty), Multiple Block, Strong Arm, and Juggernaught. I found this tough to counter with my four Tomb Guardians and it was a very different game to the first one when I could mass strength whenever I wanted. But the Ogres were determined to get some blood and really wailed into the tombs, so I broke a Blitz Ra and 2 Skelies down the right widezone in a cloud formation and did something unexpected - launched a long pass into the middle of them from my backfoeld! Typically, it was inaccurate, but it dropped in the middle of them half way in the opposition half. The Ogres continued to beat up my Tomb Guardians (supported by a horde of snotlings) which gave my guys the time they needed to pick up the ball and move down to the back corner. 4 turns to go in the half and I was having a real dillema - grab the score or delay and risk my Tomb Guardians gettting killed? Amazingly, they stood up to all the pummelling and fouling, with nothing worse than a stun so I prayed to Nuffle and stalled it out to score on Turn 8 with all Tomb Guardians still on the pitch. He still has a turn 8 to go though, so I set up for a 1turn TD defence and was fortunate that the ball dropped into the back corner in the endzone so he just wailed on the skeletons.
Even ganging up 3 to 1, the Ogres couldn't take down the Tomb Guardians
The second half started with Ogres getting a Quick Snap and after a bit of beating around, a snotling got tossed to score in turn 3 and make it 1 all. I received and drove up the rightwide zone. I broke through pretty well with a cloud formation holding out the Ogres and hitting any snotlings in range. I was ready to turn burn again when the initiative shifted dramatically to the Ogres when they KOed two Tomb Guardians in a single turn. That got me pretty rattled I must admit so pushed it over the line to be up in Turn 5. That gave the Ogres 3 turns to equalize, and only 1 Tomb Guardian returned from the KO box...
The disturbing OGRE Cheerleader!
The opening turn of the next Ogre drive started badly for me: of the 3 skelies on the line of scrimmage tow were KOed and 1 went to the casualty box!!! The snotlings grabbed the ball, got it up to the Ogres and another snotling went airborne. He landed POK, but because he had scattered backwards 1 square he ended up 1 spot short of the endzone after sprinting. I got a Blitz-Ra back there for a desperation block and got the *Pow* result I needed to put him down. The ball scattered out and got tossed in in my back field 3 or 4 square in them the TD line with 1 turn to go. I decided to play it safe and out 5 tackle zones around the ball, only to have an Ogre throw another snotling into the fray. Amusingly, the snotling landed on the Ogre that had rushed down to help and then ricocheted around to knock down two of my players as well! But time was up and I took the Win with 2 TDs to 1. Phew - right down to the wire!
Game 3 vs Raging Wood (Wood Elves) Having unexpectedly pulled off two wins for the day, I was amazed to find myself on the 'top table' for the Sunday only players. Against Wood Elves? Right Stuff summed it up well with a smiling "Well it was a good run while it lasted" (note that this Wood Elf team had just destroyed Right Stuff's team, but he can write about that later). We tied for gate this game (thanks to my 1 Fan factor!), the weather stayed nice, and yet again I won the toss and elected to receive (third time is a charm right?).
I hate those leaping Wardancers!!!
This was a tough, tough game. I drove down the centre in my cage formation, only to have those darn wardancers leap in twice to knock down the ball carrier (I hate those guys!) I managed to recover it each time though and get right up to striking distance only to get pounced in the end and fail to score. It was really tough elf defence and I just couldn't smash my way through.
Another of my ultimately unsuccessful cages against the Woodies
The second half started and pretty soon I found myself resetting to receive after some typical elf magic and a 2 turn touchdown. 1 nil down, all the KOed Elves came back and I was on the wrong end of a Blitz. Nuffle's luck was turning. I got turned over by a Wardancer once again and then was defending again, determined to hold him to only a single TD win. As he broke though a channel I hadnt seen though, I got my chance for my own magic - blocked down the ball carrier, some clearance blocks with other players to make a lane (expending my last reroll to recover from double skulls) and then the hard stuff Khemri dont do well - pickup with Blitz-Ra, handoff to a Throw-Ra and a run down and across field. A skellie ran down after him to provide some cover. The elves got a catcher and a linelf back there to jam me up and it all came down to the last few moves with no reroll left - I got another player up there to cancel the assists and the Throw Ra had to blitz his way free - Double Pows! Just have to sprint twice to score - surely I would be tripping over the line again? No!! He scores and the game finishes as a 1 all tie!!!
So 2 wins and a Draw! WoW! Not too shabby given that I showed up and just hoped to to go home with 3 losses (but quite prepared to, new team and all). And the same record for my final opponent too... After some kinds of number crunching by the admins, I was surprised and proud to be awarded a medal for the Best Sunday Coach!!!! And my prize? A band new Greebo Chaos Dwarf team! Totally Sweet!
A massive thanks to all my opponents - as you can see it could have all gone the other way if Nuffle had decided - and to Andrew the EucBowl organiser who put in a huge effort to put on such an awesome Tourney!\
