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)

NNAAAAHHH...i dont think so...

...the truth is...i cant escape my painting skill roots....and,im not trying anymore.

I tried painting differently from what im used to in Tristan´s Harlequim (the red one on the far right) and now,i was trying the same with these 2ed Dungeon Bowl elves...



As you can see,the first (big) mistake was...no priming...geeessshhh...in what the hell i was thinking in??!!!The paint doesnt stick,thus,making me paint the same thing twice...and i HATE to paint.

Second,i decided to paint them in other colours other than Black and Gold...big mistake also,because,not only im not used to do so,the minis are...huummm...a little cheap in details so...today im gonna buy another black spray can and,tomorrow,they are gonna have another uniform...main colour will be black with a little gold for the shoulder pad.Then,the hair colour will match the base colour.Dont know about the Treeman thought...i bought one from Arthur Inkpen,and im waiting for him,but i guess he will be brown with a helmet or shoulder pad or whatever in black/gold.

Now,about the goblins...I was kind of sad for not be "playing" in this MMN mercenary goblin team (yes,the names of the players will be the names of the ones that painted them)so,i´ve decided to enter the contest,and,i´ve "converted" one little green skin (i still dont know if he´s gonna be a normal gobbo or a big hand gobbo...i guess he can be both since the hand is not that big).Here´s AbraxiS...



He´s a response to the one that Tristan made .He also haves the BIG and spiky shoulder pad,a pony tail and a suspicious big hand (goblins do love a big right hand...some of them are blind nowadays,but they still love that hand)...LOL

The colours that im gonna use to paint him are...surprise,surprise...gold and black (see what i´ve did here...i´ve changed the order of the colours...lol)...plus,thats the pattern required to paint them in order to enter the contest.

And to end this post...heres a paper Drop Pod i´ve made a couple of years ago for my Black Templars (i never did a BT army by the way...i´ve discovered Blood Bowl...lolol).I was letting him stay in his original form so people (when i say people,i mean my wife and kids and Axtklinge...those are the only ones who have saw it in real life) could see that he was really from paper and that it took me like 1000000 layers of it to built the damn thing.

But Axt told me to paint it so,im finally going to do it...not only because of Axt,but also because im noticing some kind of mold growing on the paper...and because of that,i have to protect my "piece of art".

I just wanted to take some pictures of it and show you guys how the drop pod was before the paint bath....im thinking about painting him black....and maybe...silver...LOLOLOL.

Finding time

by Nazgob

Well, I've hit the big leagues here and no mistake! Some of you may know me from various forums, my own blog, or even, and I hesitate to say it, from a real, actual, tournament. I'd like to think that I'm a reasonable coach, but in all honesty, I spend far more time painting than playing, even with fumbbl just a click away. This is why I wanted to talk to you about brushwork.

As a kid, I loved the Games Workshop games; from Warhammer to Necromunda, from Warmaster to 40k, I had models for everything. I was lured in by the purest gaming crack that is distilled from excellent models, engaging stories and wonderful paint jobs. Over the years, I've tried my hand at more or less everything in that list too. I've scratch built models, written (appalling) fan fiction and ruined more brushes than I care to remember.

But until recently, I was eternally dissatisfied with my achievements.

Predominantly, I would play army scale games but I found that what was in my head could never match what was on the table. If you were to pick up a copy of White Dwarf, you could hardly turn the page without finding gorgeous pictures of lovely, fully painted models. From lowliest trooper to mightiest hero, these would be painted without flaw and, when assembled into an army, they seemed to my adolescent eyes to be pure gaming nirvana; visual perfection.

When I looked from the page to my models, assembled on the bare MDF field of battle, I could only be disheartened. My terrain was ugly, my models half painted at best and sometimes (I am ashamed to admit) only partially assembled.

Of course, I was only young at this stage and in the years that followed I longed to play with a fully painted army. Regardless of the game I am playing, whether it is one designed by Games Workshop, Privateer Press or Spartan Games, I have always found it impossible; I have never played a game with a fully painted force.

Now, clearly, this says a lot about me. I am easily distracted and would often start three or four projects in a month. However, the bigger problem, which I have come to realise since I started playing Blood Bowl, is that I am a perfectionist. Everything I paint, I want to paint to the best of my ability.

Click to embiggen

The chap on the right is Master Tormentor Morghoul of the proud Skorne Empire. He took me about twelve hours to complete. To this day, he remains one of only four models that I have completed for my Hordes warband.

Click to embiggen

This gentleman took me around seven hours, conversion time included. He is part of my Daemonhunters force for Warhammer 40,000, which unsurprisingly, is not 100% painted.

Army scale games simply do not lend themselves to this sort of painting style. Recently, I started a Tyranid force with upwards of sixty models to convert, prime and paint. At a rough estimate, given my previous track record and allowing myself ten hours a week of hobby time, I shouldn't expect to finish them within the year, by which time, my interest will have waned. To get this army finished, I am having to force myself to paint in a different way; quickly and with short-cuts. These guys will not be painted to the utmost of my ability, but they will be finished.

Blood Bowl is my saviour. The game, I love. The theme, I adore. The range of models is excellent. And the time to finish a team? Next to nothing.

Click to embiggen

My Harlequins? At least eight hours a model; complete in three months. My Chaos Pact are taking even longer, yet I am confident that they will be finished by May.

This is the moral of my tale. It doesn't matter who you are or what your level of painting skill is; if you're playing one a game with a low model count, you have the time to do your best. You don't need to compromise your abilities as you might with an army scale game.

I'm not saying that you have to spend an inordinate amount of time on a single model, after all, I'm aware that my attitude probably makes me a little strange. Look at it this way, though: if you take your time, spend twice the amount of time on your models than you usually would, not only will they get better and your skills improve, but you'll still be playing with a fully painted team before the army scale gamer has finished priming his army!






P.S. This being Merry Mayhem News, I feel it's my duty to provide you with some form of light entertainment. To that end, I bring you the very best rock band that my home county has to offer.

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??

the "Give him a Goblin" contest

My harlequins "painted by others" seemed to really inspire Abraxis, it was the first thing he'd painted in a looong time (in addition to the orc blood bowl counter) and since he has painted two whole blood bowl teams - dwarves & undead. He loved the idea of each harlequin painted by someone different, and wanted something similar himself.

We discussed it so much he came up with the idea of a "give him a goblin" blood bowl team. A single goblin - painted, isn't too much to ask. Axt begged to have the fanatic and I have pieces to convert a looney. We could think of a couple people who might have been interested but that would only get him half a team. So I thought of a contest and we needed a significant prize on offer to really tempt people into entering. I have offered up a print of a piece my fiance commissioned for my birthday, which features two of my blood bowl teams duking it out! I will get this piece signed by the artist. Check it out on his blog here.

As a runner up prize he has generously offered a coupon for a deal on a commission of your own.

The coupon has been determined to be $25 off your own commission. They are somewhat expensive, but could be nice for a gaming group to band together to get a nice piece for their FLGS!

brilliant piece of 2 of my blood bowl teams by Gavin @ artbygavin.com

Quick Summary
Paint a blood bowl goblin and mail it to Abraxis - submit a photo and whoever's raffle is picked will win the prize.

Rules
1. be a follower of Merry Mayhem News.
2. leave a comment below to which player you want to paint.
3. paint the goblin, team colours are black & gold, leave the base for Abraxis.
4. submit a photo of your completed/painted goblin by April 1st 2012.
5. mail your goblin to Abraxis.

Voting & Prize Draw
there will be a period of 10 days of voting for "best painted" goblin, at the end of the voting, whoever is voted the winner will receive a print of the above piece, with the exception of myself (hahahaha) or Axt.

Axt suggested that we raffle the prize off among all the entries instead of best painted so everyone has an equal chance to win the prize(s) - I think this is a good idea and even's the playing field. Naturally we are excluded from winning the prize.

A thought occurs - perhaps we could make the second prize (the coupon) go to the "best painted" so you'd have a reason (other than being nice) for trying to do a good job... Let me know what you think.

Players Available
1troll --Tristan&Abraxis TOUCHDOWN
2troll --Tristan&Abraxis TOUCHDOWN
goblin bombadier --Arthur
goblin fanatic --Axt #11 TOUCHDOWN
goblin looney (chainsaw) --Tristan #19 TOUCHDOWN
goblin pogo'er --Connexion #37 TOUCHDOWN
1goblin --Paul
2goblin --Nazgob #69 TOUCHDOWN
3goblin --Buggrititeltem #13
4goblin --Thadrin #05 TOUCHDOWN
5goblin --Be4ch #07 TOUCHDOWN
6goblin --Mathias #09 TOUCHDOWN
7goblin --Scott #63 TOUCHDOWN
8goblin --Scott´s daughter :) TOUCHDOWN
9goblin --MarcoPreto #25 TOUCHDOWN
10goblin --Mystery Painter!!! #66
11goblin --JRufer #00 TOUCHDOWN
12goblin --laughingferret #08 TOUCHDOWN
13goblin --wapcaplets
14goblin --hakomike #31 TOUCHDOWN
15goblin --Dalfort #73 TOUCHDOWN
16goblin --neilnickson TOUCHDOWN
goblin apothecary --barnacle111 TOUCHDOWN
goblin cheerleader --Dokumitsukai TOUCHDOWN
goblin with extra arm(s) --Kilowog2814 #04 TOUCHDOWN
goblin with two heads --daloonieshaman #02
goblin with two heads --Lorand
goblin with big hand --AbraxiS #78 TOUCHDOWN
goblin with horns --lerchey #33 TOUCHDOWN

Blitz#3

Yeah,i know this is not new,but,i had to post it.

Blitz#3 is out and for me,this is the best one ´till now.Im really enjoying it.

Download it here: Blitz Issue#03

"Amazingly, we are still finding the time to go through the process each month. I am sure when we took this on, neither Brett or myself envisioned what this would entail. What may seem crazy is our initial discussions were whether it should be bi-monthly or monthly! Wisely we took a "let's see what happens Issue one approach"!

Along with all the stuff you now hopefully are aware of and possibly enjoy reading, you can expect the following this month:

HUGE World Cup II feature
AusBowl Origins article
The Art of Schwager Interview
State updates
Custom pitch wrap
Exclusive Fiction
Hindley Street Bowl and Gathering of Might tourney reports
Plus much, much more!

I hope you enjoy the BL!TZ.

SinisterDexter and Carnivean


BL!TZ is a quarterly e-magazine devoted to the Australian and New Zealand Blood Bowl communities. It is produced by the AusBowl Committee. Subscription is free. You can contact the chief editor on southernstrikeeditor@gmail.com or the AusBowl Committee on admin@ausbowl.com."

Live by the sword, die by the sword!

Yep, that's it, Gladiators...

A few years back, while surfing the web, I've stumbled across a few pictures of gladiator miniatures that really caught my attention.
Not only because they were very nice sculpts and paint jobs, but because they represented a historical period I find particularly interesting (after all the Roman Empire did ruled over these Mediterranean European territories for quite a few years).
Anyway, I've started looking for some 'rules' to try to recreate a few of those cinematographic gladiatorial fights, but despite finding literally dozens of them (most of them free), I didn't quite settled for any until a couple of months ago, I noticed a post in Anatoli's Game Room blog reviewing one of the Warhammer Historical rulebooks - Gladiator - .
[Check the review here, and dont miss some very cool paint jobs and articles on the same (and other) themes].
I already had some of their books that I liked so, with the extra incentive of a 50% discount on the book hey were doing by then, I've ordered it and started my own small 'Ludus' (gladiatorial school).

To start with, I already had in the miniature shelf a couple of gladiators from Crusader Miniatures, and as I liked their sculpts so much I've ordered a few different types to join the 'Ludus'.
While I wait for them to arrive and since I was going to start to paint the ones I had, I've decided to convert (and paint) a few Celtic warriors ('friends' for them to practice with), based on the celtic range (plastic sprues) from Warlord Games (really nice cast, resulting in very detailed miniatures).

[Note: Just wanted to add that I find really cool to see relatively small companies (comparing to 'you know who'), produce such cool and detailed miniatures (both in metal and plastic ranges) and dont charge an arm and a leg for them (and no, I'm not endorsed by any of them).]

So here you have both Crusader miniatures, a 'Retiarius' ('net man') and a Laquerarius ('noose man')...


These are the first two Celts.
They are both holding shields and swords, but the 'red bearded' one is wearing a chain mail, which game wise is considered to be heavy armour, turning him into a 'walking tank'!



These are the last two Celts.
They are both based on the - Barbarians in the Arena - rules (free pdf available here), and they represent different Celtic tribes/troops, as for example the half-naked tattooed Picts.


Hope you like them.
Cheers!