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

My last painted mini of 2013

This year, much like it happens every year when we enter in Christmas season, all national TV's changed their program schedules and grid, in order to accommodate more thematic entertainment, including family shows and movies.

One of these movies really caught my attention because we've mentioned the book that inspired it, here in the blog more than once. In fact, not only we've mentioned the book but we've also showed a lovely set of miniatures, representing the main characters of that book (and movie).

By now you've probably guessed I'm talking about Carol & Max.

Well, after watching the movie (again), I felt inspired to get some painting done, and fortunately for me I had just the right pair of minis to get my brush work on.

 So here it is my version of Carol & Max painted minis, probably done in a record time since I enjoyed the minis so much that I couldn't bear myself to stop until I had it all done.
 Hope you like them too.


Thank you John (Bound For Glory) for making these meaningful lovely figures happen and get available for those of us lucky enough to get a set.

Carol and Max where commissioned by our friend John (aka Bound For Glory), and sculpted by Rykar for The Thursday Night Heros tournament, held in honour of his friend and cousin Mike (co-founder of the club), who was unfortunately killed in Afghanistan.

 

Merry Christmas!

May your Christmas be filled with warmth and good cheer!

Wishes from Merry Mayhem News staff to you all!

Merry Christmas!

Worst miniatures ever made?

Today I've stumbled on a link that lead me to a particular post from Chest of Colors blog, the 25 Worst miniatures ever made?

Truth be told, I haven't ever seen some of the figures in that list and while in my opinion some don't deserve to be in such list at all, there quite a few funny pieces right there for sure.

For what is worth within this "worst miniature" theme, the miniature making process has evolved hugely (sculpting, casting, etc.), and from amateurish easy going garage companies, the business has evolved to what we know today with highly professional production lines, miniature mass production and very big businesses with considerable amounts of money involved.

What I mean with all this rambling is that it might not be all that fair to compare the quality of some miniatures made with a completely different spirit (lets say in the eighties or early), to whatever is done nowadays.
With that out of the way, my vote on that list would go for those plastic GW "Minotaurs" (entry #14), followed very closely behind by Mantic "Darkon Riders" (#24).
What's the deal with dragons with rabbit teeth?


Feel free to share you view on the subject, or just add some link to a particular mini you think it should be on the list, and why!

NABBO Tea Cup 2013

Another year, another tourney...

Last weekend NABBO League crew gathered for their (so far) yearly tournament.
It's the third year in a row, and so far it has been a whole lot of fun!
As I mentioned in a post about it's first edition (here), while the core of the crew that attends to the tourney are the Blood Bowl League "regulars", every year we manage to have some old league mates to join us in the fun, and what a fantastic opportunity that is to remember old stories of legendary games and teams...


This year's tournament fluff was based on the global climate changes, and to reflect that into Blood Bowl game terms this would mean that despite whatever "Weather Table" result you'd roll during the match, in the beginning of each half, one (out of two) random weather phenomenon would take place and stay in for the rest of that same half.

This weather phenomenon were represented by a template (that stayed on the table), and it had a 'Zone of influence' of a square (center) plus three squares in every direction. The modifiers described below would apply if the action attempted was inside this 'Zone of Influence'.

The two different phenomenons were "Tornado warning!", and "Everything Frozen??".
The first one meant that all Pass, Catch, and Intercept actions were influenced by -1 modifier, and every time a ball was dropped or touched the pitch (for whatever reason), it would bounce one extra square directly away from the center of the Tornado template.
The second phenomenon, would influence the Go-For-It's, and Dodging attempts (by the same -1 modifier) as if the ground was completely frozen, inducing players to slip.

As in past events we had a thematic custom pitch and dice (pic above), which were a great success especially whenever the dice rolls were 'convenient'.
On all other occasions the dice were just 'pretty'... ;-)


The games

A total of eight different races (Amazon, Human, Elf, Dark Elf, High Elf, Norse, Vampire, and Undead), with almost as much different tactical approaches, granted a good challenge for every coach in the event.

Graveyard Diggers (Undead) vs Yokai Buntai (Dark Elves), one of the games from the first round, and the first tie of the tourney (2-2 TD, 1-1 Cas).

Frost's Frost Fangs (Norse) facing the Innsmouth Oceanics (Elf), in a game that proved to be rougher than what the Norse armour could stand, soon leaving them outnumbered and loosing the match unable to hold off the agile elves (0-3 TD, 1-4 Cas).

Garlic 'n Mirrors United (Vampire) overpowering The Buffs (High Elf), in a day that the odds didn't favoured these particular pointy ears (3-1 TD, 1-0 Cas).

The beautifully painted Pink Buccaneers (Amazons) in a tough match against the cyber-looking Mini Skull Crushers (Human), for a marginal win in the last few turns of the game (3-2 TD, 0-0 Cas).

In the end of the day, the Innsmouth Oceanics (Elf), ended up snatching the tournament "Champion" trophy with three wins, of which the last two where very close games: one against the vampires (2-1 TD, 2-4 Cas), and the last one against the amazons (2-1 TD, 1-2 Cas). 

Also congrats to the Garlic 'n Mirrors United vampire team for the "Most violent" trophy!

A blast of a day as usual.
Have fun!
A.

CACK Bowl Charity Pitches

I've been kind of busy lately and this obviously translates into very few time to keep up with forum and blog news. Today I've finally managed to spend a few minutes checking out "stuff", and found something I believe it's very worth to give a shout out to.


Quoting JT-Y, fellow TTF'er and Chairman of Coppull and Chorley Knights Wargames Club :

"(...) Final version of the CACK Bowl pitch below. 
The idea is that it plays on the club name; Coppull And Chorley Knights, and represents a jousting tilt being used as a football pitch with a nice, medieval look to the dugouts/ dungeons.

There will be a special one for the winner of CACK Bowl 2013, but we're also offering these to anyone who wants one. They'll have ''CACK Bowl 2013'' in the left hand endzone and will cost £50 for the hard jigsaw type. £45 to anyone attending the tourney. 
Very reasonable considering the standard pitches cost €45 from Comixininos.
All profits (we expect to make between £5 and £10 per pitch depending on numbers) will go in support of the charity, Help The Homeless.

If you are interested, say so below and I'll PM you with payment details.

If you are attending CACK Bowl you can collect your pitch from there, otherwise I'll post them after the event and we'll cover costs (within reason!) from club funds rather than charge more or donate less."

You can check the original in TFF forum here: link!

The pitch looks great, the price is quite reasonable, FF Fileds pitch quality needs no introduction, and if that wasn't enough, it's for a very worth and needy beneficence subject.
Give yourself an early Christmas treat and help those guys to help who needs the most!
Cheers!
A.

What to do with asshats?

As I've said here many times, I love the game of blood bowl and just about everything to do with it.
I belong to a very successful league, THE THURSDAY NIGHT HEROS, which is composed of guys I've known since I was a kid. Just a big bunch of friends that play 2 leagues twice a year. We mess around a bunch, but theres no cheating.

When ever we can, we get more people to join up. Sometimes it causes trouble. Like Chris...
Chris is a guy we've known since our D&D days. He's a bit of a pain. He has played in our league a few times in the past. He always quits when his team starts doing bad. He tries to cheat sometimes, and he is not above "miscalculating" his roster.
 Well, he talked me into allowing him back in our club, and after last night, I'd say his chances of rejoining us is nil. Here's what happened.


 My chaos team, the Deathvalley Destroyers, where playing his dark elf team, The Kill Machine. we had been forced to play extra time, due to a very close game, tied 1-1.
 My minotaur, Blight Headsmasher, had gotten very lucky, and grabed a loose ball and had to make a dodge to get past one of his lineman. I rolled a 6, and Blight barrelled on towards the goal line.
 It's now chris's turn, and he sends his blitzer after my mino.
I was nervously playing with a dice and just as he was going to roll for a 2nd go-for-it roll to catch my mino, I dropped the dice I was playing with. I bent down to retrieve the missing die, when he rolled his go for it roll. I then got up and his purple dice was showing "6". he said "success!". My wife was sitting there watching, and she said ,"It was a 1". I looked at him and said "What did you roll?" he just gave me a weird smile. I told him to reroll, and he picked up the die and he rolled a 1 again. He started to bitch...
 I then said, "I was gonna just win this game, but now I guess I will just destroy your team, which I proceeded to do. I lost the game, but his team is ruined.

I don't like being cheated. I play our game because I love the game.
I won't play with rules lawyers and I won't play with power gamers.
My wife does'nt lie. I gave him the chance to say "just kidding" or "you got me", but he tried to cheat.
That does'nt float in our friendly league, so what I'd like to do is give chris the giant foot in the ass, but I'd rather get him to stop cheating.

We have 18 players in our league, not counting Chris, everybody gets along well, and we've had to ask people not to come back. But what to do with a guy you've know for 15 years?
Guess I'll have to think on it...