Game 3 of 5, and that meant something special for the Vanguard...we got to play in The Stadium!! Made by Graeme, the tournament organiser and BloodBowl fanatic, the Stadium is a fold up BB pitch complete with dice tower commentary box, stands , proper 3D dugouts and hilarious BB themed sponsor notices all around...not to mention the field is felt turf that makes a very pleasant change from the Astro Cardboard of the standard pitch....I will do a seperate entry with pics on the stadium, but for now, the game...
We won the toss, and following some advice from the BB Tactics blog that Tas has linked to before, I elected to kick off. The idea here is when faced with a team that is bigger and stronger than you, the first drive is the only time in the game you will have a full team to oppose them so you may as well kick to them...sounds great in theory...
so anyway, Turn 1 and I manage to KO his chainsaw orc with my Witch Elf Blitzer, which meant he was out for the rest of the game..a good start I thought...Graeme then formed up his ball carrying thrower with two blitzers in what would become a familiar formation, and started marching down the pitch.
He warded off several attempts of mine to block and tackle from behind to NEARLY score on a straight drive, only to have my Assassin sucessfully stab his ball carrier, allowing a lineman to pick up the ball and then throw it to another DE Lineman in the middle of my half...sadly there were too many orcs and not enough DE by this stage and my elf was thumped to the ground, the ball coming loose and snatched up by an enterprising Orc Blitzer (is that a contradiction in terms??) who ran it in for Orc TD 1. Score 1-0 Orcs..
With only 1 turn left in the first half we let the clock run out, and had a well earned half time break...fortunately for me all 4 of my KO'd elves recovered for the 2nd half, and the 2 lineman substitutes were able to come on to replace the 2 lineman with Dauntless (remember them?) who were badly injured and out for the game..
As I had kicked off at the start of the game, I received for this half, and in 4 turns was able to score my first touchdown. It would have been 2 turns, but some last ditch tackling by the orcs saw the ball come loose, snatched up by an orc, who in turn was tackled, losing the ball to an Elf, allowing another to snatch it up and sprint twice to score.1-1 !
4 turns to go, and I thought 'you beauty', all I have to do is delay him long enough and run out the clock....after setting up my team I was dismayed to see a rock hurled from the crowd hit my Assassin fair square on the noggin.Down he went, out for the drive, and leaving a big gap in the middle of my defence....(clearly a fan of the Orc he had stabbed earlier...)
Still, for the next three turns I was able to make Graeme work hard to gain field position, putting the elves just out of range of his Black Orcs (he had 4 by the way...) and not allowing him easy blocks to knock my guys down...Turn 7 and all I had to do was keep a few Elves in the path of his ball carrier and he wouldn't be able to make the distance in the two remaining turns....I went to stand up one lineman then changed my mind as I thought he would be better dodging out later, so I moved another one towards the ball carrier instead, and then ,in a mad flash of impetosity, went for an extra square (A 'go for it')I rolled the dreaded 1, and with no re rolls remaining, had to let the DE trip over himself, causing the turnover...with that Elf down, and the other one remaining on the ground (remember I had decided against standing him up? Yeah, I didn't...) the Orc ball carrier had a clear run to the endzone, with only a single go for it required, which he made...2-1 orcs, 1 turn left....aaaaagggghhh!!!!!
So annoyed was I at myself that I didn't take any pics of the last few turns.... As the Witch Hag on the sideline started warming up the Cauldron of Blood to sacrifice the two lineman who had failed to stand in the right place, my Witch Elf captain grabbed the ball and screaming obscenities raced down the sideline past 2 orcs..she was never going to make it, but Witch ELves don't have a history of rational decision making...she was duly tackled, and in true Orc style, Graeme surrounded her with 5 orcs and fouled her, rolling a Dead for the inevitable injury...the Witch Hag was appeased.... I wasn't !!!!
Couldn't believe how after such a hard fought game I managed to snatch defeat from a certain draw....still, them's the breaks in BloodBowl, and I'm still sitting 3rd overall in the comp mainly on score difference, as I havn't lost as badly as other teams :) 2 games to go, must win both, especially as the one against the Skaven will be against the 2nd Placed team...Dec 1st is my next game against the Humans....Cormorragggghh!!!
I've been eyeing these rules off for a long, long time - who doesnt love a good SF campaign after all?
