Darkland Decimators

Thought you all might like a team photo of my newly completed Greebo Chaos Dwarves, the Darkland Decimators.

Check out all the players here:
http://tasmancave.blogspot.com.au/2014/04/darkland-decimators.html

CanCon 2014 Blood Bowl Tourney

My son Right Stuff Reilly has written a blog post about his matches in the Aussie Championships over the weekend.  You can see it here:
http://tasmancave.blogspot.com.au/2014/01/2014-cancon-blood-bowl-tourney.html

Zombie Man Cave Paul

Second to last, here is Paul - of The Man Cave fame.  This was actually the inspiration to do "us" as zombies.  You may not be aware, but Paul is a honest to goodness real life ships captain/commander in the Australian navy.  In fact he just shipped out on a new mission called SLIPPER.  Anyways as soon as I saw this body (it was the only one where legs/torso were attached) with the long coat all I could think of was a ships captain (obviously the ship this zombie was commanding was a bit different to the one Paul commands now!) so as soon as I thought "ship captain" I equally as quickly realized "MMN crew zombies"!

zombie Paul

As with the others I built up the base, and then instead of using flock I just attempted to paint a wooden deck using various browns.  One side has a line of tin paint to make it look like an edge or something like that.  I also used my now pretty common style of painting reddish/ginger/orange hair which involves starting with orange, and using washes of both a reddish/metallic colour as well as simple red wash.  The reason for the metallic choice is it gives a bit of sheen to the hair, without actually colouring it metal.

dual posted on GWpertinent

2013 Australian Championships

Right Stuff is writing up his match reports for the tournament, but in the meantime I'll bore you briefly with mine. Actually, I didn't enter the tournament per se but helped out the Commissioner with the seemingly endless array of things to do.  However, there was an odd number of coaches so I stood in for two matches so there wouldn't be a 'bye' round.

I was there for a giggle and a bit of fun, so what did I play? Ogres.  Not just any Ogres though, here was my 'death or glory' 1 million gp team build for my Capital Crushers team:

6 Ogres, 

5 Snotlings, 

Apothecary 

and No Rereolls!

Game 1 vs Cody's Vamps This whole game was played in a Blizzard - the first time I've had to deal with that!  The Vamps elected to receive and came scooting down the pitch with the ball, when  Blood Lust kicked in and an Ogre punished the ball carrier badly.  A Snotling scooped it up and was tossed down the pitch to  scramble into the end zone- 1 up to the Ogres! The second half saw a bunch of Thralls entered the KO and Cas box and the vamps got isolated, but impressively did not fail a single blood lust roll all half.   Surrounded by big bodyguards, a snotling ball carrier made it over the line again to put the Ogres 2 up with just 2 turns to go.  The vamps lined out for a push down the left side, pulled off a good passing play and squeeked over the line as the siren blew. A 2:1 Victory to the Ogres!

Game 2 vs Conan's Slann Just as things went well for me in game 1, this was where Nuffle took his revenge and my crafty opponent took every advantage of it.  After a promising start Badly Hurting the only Slann Blitzer with a well timed snotling foul, I was totally shut down by the leaping frogs who made every advantage of Boneheaded Ogres and their lack of TZs.  After they scored first, I managed to fling a snotling during play to equalise, but the Slann scored again ebfore half time.  In my turn 8 I pulled off a dazzling array of rolls (no rerolls remember?) for the 1 turn score, only to have Nuffle spit in my face when he tripped over the line! The second half went worse, with no casualties coming despite my best efforts and the Frogs scored twice more.  In the dying stages of the game I took 3 Slann off Badly Hurt (one was done by a Snotling who took down the Slann Linefrog who blitzed him and ended up with a Both Down result - Awesome!)  but it was all too late and Conan took a well played 4-1 Victory.

 At that point I wasn't needed any more as a sub coach and I scuttled gratefully away with my 1-1 record proclaiming that  "Real men don't need re-rolls!!!"

Eucalyptus Bowl 2012

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!\

Blitz Issue 4 released

The free Blood Bowl e-zine BL!TZ issue 4 has now been released and can be found at:

http://blitz.ausbowl.com/blitz_issue_04.pdf

Awesomely, Right Stuff's Team "Odinn's Champions" get a nice pic on page 30 in the CanCon 2012 article! Here is what the authors have to say about this issue:

Well we really have to say that this has been the most trying so far of  
the issues. Real world issues really do have a way of interrupting  
anything. Add into that our first real technical issues with the process  
and we have overshot by about 3 weeks!

On the plus side, and this is purely by coincidence, the first registered  
user was me.  That was on the 9th May 2007 at 1:42am.  So in a little over  
2 hours, AusBowl is 5 and we have something special in the giveaway  
department this month thanks to AusBowl members and Good Games, but more  
on that later . . .


So other than the trials and tribulations we have experienced, the 5th  
birthday and the good work suggested by Alex, what do we have on offer  
this issue?
Team focus and a painting focus from AusBowl members
Tons of Dungeonbowl action
A tale of Blood Bowl rediscovery
State updates
Custom pitch construction article
More photography tips and a CanCon pictorial
A MASSIVE 5th birthday giveaway
Plus much, much more!

This issue is big people!  I hope you enjoy the BL!TZ.

SinisterDexter and Carnivean

Terracotta Tearers

Last week I was thrilled and delighted to win second place in the FF Field competition in the Original Concept category.
As promised, I have posted a range of mini closeups and background fluff at the Man Cave here

Congratulations to Paul of the Man Cave !!

Wow, I really wasn't paying enough attention!  MMN's own Paul of the Man Cave has placed 2nd for "best original concept" in the FF-Fields "Team Too Cool" contest!!  Congratulations mate! He has earned himself a custom pitch for his team "Terracotta Terrors".

FF-Fields

Here is the photo he submitted (or at least one of them - what superb Tomb Guardians those buddha figures make!!)

I haven't been able to find any other pics or information on this awesome team of Paul's, c'mon pal - give us the goods!!  Closeups and what stroke of genius inspired this team??

The A to Z of Blood Bowl

You may have heard of the April A to Z challenge, in which participants make a blog post each day on a topic starting with letters in sequence and thereby completing the alphabet during the month.

This year the Man Cave is ponying up, themeing every post around Blood Bowl.
I wont spam up MMN with them all, but if you care to see them, come take a look here:
http://tasmancave.blogspot.com.au/search/label/A%20to%20Z%202012

A Dog ate my...Goblin?

Trying to leverage off my success in finishing off Tristan's Spire Brat Harlequin, I was going full bore on my little gobbo to make to deadline for the preview comp.  There he was, all cleaned up, greenstuffed and drying in his new undercoat, when disaster struck...

...and yes I am very well aware how much this sounds like my son making an excuse for his homework...

Yep, the Dog ate it! Literally.  Sadly there is precedence for this, but it was some years ago and I thought he had grown out of nit.  After all, many other minis had been safe and sound.  But in the end he is a beagle, and they come with the Always Hungry skill...

So at the end of the day, I was left with a bit of a mess and no gobbo.  And he was my last one!  So I'll zip down to the hobby ship tomorrow and see what I can find, but I'm out of the mini-contest.  Poo.

Monster Dice Counter

Love this guy!  Like our Dragon Dice, this is another Blood Bowl turn or re-roll counter by Fantasy Bowl Dices

 Again, we put a bit of felt on the bottom surface so he doesn't scratch up the pitch or dugout

DragonDice

This is the limited edition (only 140 made) resin Dragon Dice counter made for the Australian Blood Bowl Championships. Right Stuff wanted his done up as a Red Dragon, like the old D&D 'red box' artwork!
Underneath is a small piece of felt so it doesnt scratch up the dugout and field.

Blood Bowl Australian National Championships

The Man Cave experience of them anyway...

One of the many events at CANCON is the Australian National Blood Bowl Championships and this year saw 57 coaches enter.  It is progression tournament, starting with 1.0 million gp, playing 7 games over the 3 days and chosen MVP after each match.

The Turney in Progress (Right Stuff in lower right foreground, obscured)

Of course, I couldn't enter because we were committed to running our Dark Ages participation game (more to follow on that later).   A few days before hand I got an email inviting me to sit in for a few games so there would be an even number of coaches (and thus nobody would miss out on a game).  Right Stuff was dead keen and took along his new Norse team (in this case named "Thor's Thunderers") for his first ever tournament - indeed his first game of Blood Bowl against anyone but me.  To be honest I was a bit concerned he would be utterly crushed (noting he was at least ten years younger than the next youngest player, and much then that for the majority of coaches)  That didn't turn out to be the case...

Game 1 vs Matt's Team Carnage (Orcs)
The Lad's face was a picture of concentration as he setup to kick, and he couldn't have had a friendlier opponent then Matt who had a very mentoring approach, offering advise up front.  That naturally started to dry up after Reilly blocked down his ball carrier, snatched up the ball and dodged away to scored the first TD of the game.  Great I thought, at least he wont get smashed without scoring.

Right Stuff's first TD of the Tourney

Right Stuff went on to hold off the Orc grind for the rest of the half, then received in the second half and went on to score again! Matt squeaked a TD in in the last turn of the game to make it 2:1 TDs and 1:0 casualties to Right Stuff.  A Win to the Lad! Wow I thought, at least he wont be going home having lost all his games...

Winner are Grinners!

Game 2 vs Darren's Blu Funda (Orcs)
This game started as a replay of game 1, with Right Stuff up 1 nil at half time.  He got ground away more during the second half though, with his opponent scoring late in the match to tie it up 1 all.  Right Stuff won the casualty battle 2 nil (no deaths).

The look says it all as he fumbles a catch next to the end zone! (he scored next turn though)

Game 3 vs Linda's Lady Dwarves (Dwarves)
Hmmm...Dwarves are a difficult for Norse as they do everything the Norse do, but better and tougher.  OK, a loss coming up I though but going home with a 1-1-1 record is a great feat!  He kicked off to the Dwarves, rode out their grind, dove on the ball when the opportunity presented itself and was off like a shot.  Outpacing the stunties and out of rerolls he played it safe and didn't go for it, stopping 1 square short of the end zone when he ran out of MV.  Cue Dwarf lightning bolt - ouch!  Nil all at half time.

The second half saw Right Stuff receive, get messed up in a scrum around the midline, then manage to dodge out with the ball and shoot through to score.  The last few turns were insufficient for the Dwarves to score and Right Stuff pulled off his second win of the day!  He also inflicted an unbelievable 5 casualties to 2, with each team suffering a death.

Game 4 vs Cody's Barak-Var Sea Dragons (Dwarves)
So Right Stuff started Day 2 with a remarkable 2-1-0 record.  He was up against another Dwarf team, but had less trouble with this one, winning 2 nil and inflicting 2 casualties, receiving one himself. It started off the same as the first two games 1-0 to him at half time and 1 casualtie each. then in the second half Right Stuff scored again quickly and just tried to kill dwarves the rest of the half (he wasn't lucky enough to kill a dwarf but casualized a Runner).

Yes, the helmet did bring him Thors' blessings...and 5 casualties!

3 wins! I just couldn't believe it!


Game 5 vs Leigh's 'Sinned Bad' (Undead)
For this game Right stuff moved up to table 4 - which meant he was placed 7th or 8th at the time and starting to get some very serious opponents.  Leigh killed one of the Norse Lineman in the first turn, and rubbed salt into the wound by bringing him back as a Zombie.  This really threw Right Stuff and he went after the 'traitor' with a vengeance - charting him twice (he regenerated after the first time).  Headhunting aside, the Undead ground away the first half to be up 1 nil, then Right stuff struck back to tie it up with only a few turns left.  Leigh pulled off some great combo moves to score in the last turn of the second half and take the win 2:1, while the cas score was 4:3 in the Undead's favour and with 1 death apiece.

At this point one of the other coaches had to pull out of the tourney and thus Right Stuff wasn't needed as a sub anymore.  He was disappointed over retiring after 5 of the 7 games but his match record was something to really be proud of (I would have been stoked if it was me!) and we bought some Tourney swag to celebrate.  Overall he recorded:

3 Wins, 1 Draw, 1 Loss
TDs For: 7, TDs Against: 4
Casualties: 14 for (incl 1 death), 6 against (2 deaths)

Other highlights of the tourney for us included:

 a very cool Cthulhu inspired Beast of Nurgle

Meeting Paul Deacon, who has been interviewed on a few 3DB podcast episodes.  Here is a picture of his Beast of Nurgle "Jervais Johanssen".

Paul informed us that the beast's nipple chain double up as his tentacles!

This awesome Chaos Dwarf team, all converted from plastic beastmen, and which won the Conversion Prize

Watching a Halfling coach send a Yeti corwsurfing with one of his little fellows, and follow-up in a later game with an uphill 3 die block on a Troll and charting him!

...and Leigh (from Game 5) showing up on Day 3 with a new zombie fig named Reilly, including a Norse helmet on the base!

Overall Results for the Nationals were:
Champion- Iain Fisher (High Elf)
Runner Up- Bradley Milner (Norse)
Third - Anthony Williams (Undead)

I would like to most sincerely thank Gavan the Tourney organiser for giving Right Stuff the opportunity, his opponents for being such great sports, and for everyone there who generated an incredibly friendly and welcoming atmosphere.

(Dual posted from my Blog here: http://tasmancave.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/blood-blowl-australian-national.html)

Welcome Paul...

Welcome mate...

Paul is not really new to the blog, he's been very active on the comments section since we changed the language of the blog from Portuguese to English so,it was kind of natural for us to join efforts.

He also has this awesome blog that you probably know already and that you can check here: The Man Cave

So Paul... here's a little of what you can expect for being a part of the Merry Mayhem News crew...



Pretty cool huh??