Archive for August, 2011
Hotgoblin Season 5, Round 4
2 – 
1
This was a match I was looking forward too. Not only is Matt a good mate of mine, we always have cracking games. He also plays the most Blood Bowl I’ve ever known anyone to play. He was coaching the Chaos Dwarves of the Diminutive Dictators a team I painted for him. With me missing three players I actually got some inducements for a change, only 60k, so I just took a babe.
This game was hard fought from start to finish. Lucky for me Matt was having trouble cracking my AV7 so I was able to weather the onslaught pretty well. In typical grinding fashion the Chaos Dwarves trundled down the pitch to within Hobgoblin range on the end zone and then made a gap for the pesky greenskin to run through. Rasputin the Mino failed nearly all his Wild Animal rolls this half, so I was spared his wrath.
I went into the second half receiving the ball and need to score to level proceedings. At this point I was having trouble getting through the Dwarves so I was trying to stall for a draw. I started off with a standard pass, hand off, score type play but misjudged the squares and need to go for it to make the pass easier. I made the go for it, but had to use a re-roll to make sure I succeeded. the pass was good…except the player couldn’t catch it and I’d just used my re-roll…..BOO! Chaos Dwarves swamped the ball like fly on honey, and through a pretty nice piece of coach (even if I do say so myself) I manged to re-collect the ball, dodge out and score. I know needed to try and hold the Chaos Dwarves out for 4 turns…..a difficult task, but not impossible.
Things were looking good and keeping the Chaos Dwarves at bay, until in one turn the Chaos Dwarves seemed to remember how to hit and knocked out both Ulfenwerners and Mr.T. These three players were the key to keeping the Chaos Dwarves out thanks to their high strength. Still, I managed to hold him up enough that the hobgoblin had to make two go for it’s to score. Matt had a reroll up his sleeve and I was hoping for two one’s….alas the hobgoblin made it without having to use the reroll. The Diminutive Dictators win 2-1.
Hotgoblin Season 5, Round 3
3 – 
0
Round 3 saw The Chuck Norses face off against The Big Bangers of GT’s Amazons. GT had a massive 630k in inducements of which he hired Helmut Wulf, 2 apoths, a bribe and some babes. We then drew our cards and GT got the Chainsaw card…great I’m facing off against two chainsaws. Even knowing this, for some reason I still put Mr.T up on the line….I have l33t Blood Bowl skillz…not.
The first few turns of the game saw the most number of ones being rolled I have seen for a long time…on both sides of the pitch. On of GT’s chainsaws kicked back and sent Helmut off the game and then the remaining chainsaw let lose on Mr.T causing a badly hurt. I didn’t want to use my apoth this early, so Mr.T watched from the sidelines for nearly all the game. I managed to break an Ulfenwerner down to near where the ball was to force GT to have to dodge away or have the possibility of me scoring. He tried to dodge away, rolled a 3, rolled a 3 again for his dodge re-roll. The Ulfenwerner, not wasting any time picked the ball up and scored. It was only after we had moved all the pieces to set up again that GT realized that that pieces had AG4 meaning his dodges were successful. Not a mistake he was likely to make again.
The remainder of the game saw armour busting left right and center with me causing 5 casualties to the Amazons and them returning the favour with 3, including a kill, which I was glad I had saved my apoth for. GT has a habit of rolling 6, apoth, 6….but not this time as my runner only suffered a miss next game result.
At the start of the second half I wanted to put the pressure on so I scored quickly with a pretty standard two turn pass, hand off, score play. I am really feeling the lack of ball handling skills with this team and am looking at including a second thrower sometime soon. However, being conscious of a sky rocketing team value I might have to look at dropping a player to fit the thrower in…but, who? All my players have useful skills.
With the score at 2-0 GT was trying to get a point of the board, but with only 4 turns to do it, it was having to make some risky plays. In the end a failed dodge left his ball carrier open so I could blitz in, pop the ball free and score in my last turn.
I had won which was great, but, I’d taken a beating with a blitzer and my two runners missing the next game. I was facing off against the Matt Hoskings Diminutive Dicators Chaos Dwarves. This was going to be a hard match anyway and even harder missing these three players.
Hotgoblin Season 5, Round 2
2 – 1
Back to normal Blood Bowl this round! I was quietly confident going into this match as Carwyn’s Vampires the “GFI Globe Trotters” had been mauled in their opening match by 2million + Chaos team. Games against Carwyn are always fun with a lot good natured banter and attempts at some crazy plays. As he mas missing so many players Carwyn had a massive 680k in inducements. As always Carwyn did a great job in his inducement spending. Carwyn has also done a cracking match report so I’ll hand over to him….
“The Chucks ventured over to Electra Fields, limbering up for the expected RHKTTH’s to be unleashed. Mr T was pitying the fools and sharpening his claws in anticipation of the coming bloodletting as the stands filled with Chuck’s fans.
Carman was unimpressed….. and sitting on the bench nursing a hammy injury that was keeping him and Baron Chuck Van Norse from participating in the match. Moly Von Porkchop was having a massage to sort his back spasm’s out whilst Nicholai Fumbleski also sat on the bench just in case Carman and the Baron needed a quick pick me up, with his knee still in plaster.
Down 4 players including two frontline Wamps, Player Coach Carman was hoping his match strategy would see them through but it was relying on “Risky” Stevro marshalling the players and not even Risky knew what Risky was going to do…….
After installing “Journey Thrall” (to be referred to as JT) into the roster, Carman enlisted the assistance of Count Luthor once more along with Wilhelm Chaney to bolster the roster. He also hired a Bloodweiser Babe. Would this be a stroke of genius or would Carman regret leaving the services of another Apothecary and the local Wizard behind or not investing in some extra training and some bribery and corruption? Only time would tell.
I say it was a stroke of genius as these two players made a massive impact on the game, as did the Babe…… Didn’t even use my base Apoth.
Despite the loss to the Bestial Heaven, a strong contingent of GFI fans turned out however they were slightly outnumbered by the Chucks groupies, keen to see their players back on the pitch again. This turned into a great advantage for the Norses as they won no less than 4 additional RR’s during the match due to the fame bonus.
The Chucks won the toss and elected to KO. Two cards were played with Mr T donning a magic helmet which conferred a thick skull and some extra armour. Meanwhile, Lord Taerg Si Oksoh had been training hard and got the Block skill for the game (great 100k card that one – gives a player a normal skill. Oksho was the only Wamp without any skillz).
The Wamp offense has more holes in it than someone who has tried to steal Sir Didi’s Pogo of Awesomeness so the Norse were confident of pilfering the pigskin and putting massive pressure on the GT’s.
And boy did they exert some pressure…………….
However, the GT’s are made of stern stuff and despite losing a thrall to the BH box and 3 more being KO’ed they shifted the ball up field and shot it across to the Count who had blasted free. Being S5 with Sidestep and thanks to the Chucks having over committed across the other side, it was going to have to be one dice risk for the Chucks to get the big fella with a number of dodges and GFI’s too…..
Let’s just say that over the course of the game, GFI was also considering sponsoring the Chucks…… they made a bazillion GFI’s and only failed a couple albeit one was a nasty one on a double 1.
The one dicer didn’t come off and the Count dodged away to score in turn 4 but a Riot from the KO saw the clock turned back a turn.
JT took a pounding from Mr T but he had packed his special armour and the best the bog Troll could manages was a stun result. Go Journey Thrall!!! You can do eet.
With the KO’ed liney returning to the field along with the KO’ed thralls from the GT’s (thanks to the Babe) the Norses made the most of the Riot and ran up the sideline offered to them with both runners and the Ulf’s in tow. The GT’s then stymied the offensive rush by Hypnotic Gazing both Runners and tying the ulfs up in TZ’s. Some sneaky positioning also saw Wilhelm put a Beserker in position to be crowd surfed which he was but he got into an area of the Norse fans and they popped him back into the Reserves box (boooooo).
With no other choice, the Norses runner activated (for those that don’t know this is Sneaky Tactic A – he had to do something before he could receive the ball as a Gazed player can’t catch it until he has been activated) and dodged out, GFI twice to hit the end zone. Boomstick then shot down the pitch, also GFI once and launched a Looooong Bomb…….. and it was good!!!!
The crowd and both coaches went wild!! Turn 4 and it was all square at 1-1.
The rest of the first half saw much fun and frivolity as JT continued to take his pounding like a trooper and frustrating Mr T no end. Some terrible dice from the GT’s saw a number of failed blood lusts at crucial times cost them as Thralls departed to the KO bin and RR’s were sucked up. Geoffwey was sent to the KO bin after a double skulls and Lord Oksoh went in later to see what he was up to.
Somewhere here, Lord Oksoh nailed a quick completion for an extra SPP. On an almighty 2 now…….
Also, Wilhelm became annoying as I rolled a heap of both down results which took him and his opponent down ending his blitzes thanks to Wrestle……… Even a double skulls which couldn’t be rerolled by Mr T couldn’t help the GT’s as a final pass by Risky was stuffed on a double 1. Oh noes!!!!!
Here endeth the half and the KO’ed Vamps came back onto the field after a stiff Bloody Mary with more bloody than mary.
The Chucks were quietly confident now as they had the momentum thanks to stymieing the scrambling offense of the GT’s. If they could nail a TD the GT’s would be chasing the game. Unfortunately for them, defence is the GT’s forte……… it took a Long Bomb to nail the last Norse TD, could they do it again?
Nope.
The ball was kicked fairly long and after a failed dodge or something (I forget) the ball was left on the pitch. With Risky busting a hole, Lord Oksoh and Geoffwey bolted into the Norse half to exert some pressure but it left their own backfield a little light on. Carman was unimpressed……. But was relying on Wilhelm’s speed to help out.
With a runner deep in the GFI half and only being covered by “Silent” Bob Beasovich, the Norses elected to move the ball quickly and try and construct a mid-field cage to rumble forwards. Mr T belted JT once more after JT stood up asking “Please sir – can I have some more?” What a legend. Carman has asked him to keep in touch as he may be hired later on in the Season. Bless his cotton socks.
Boomstick nailed another completion to a waiting line Norse but the silly fellow tripped over himself (a failed GFI) spilling the ball near to Mr T! Thankfully his presence was too disturbing….. Wilhelm belted an Ulf into the crowd then blitzed over to put a TZ onto the ball. Risky decided it was his turn to shine but failed his Blood lust! In anticipation Carman had shouted to JT to get up again and he was close enough to be chomped after a couple of GFI’s.
Needing to get the ball to safety Risky eschewed the TRR and dodged away towards the pill, failed a GFI but RR’ed (phew) picked up the ball and GFI to stand next to JT for a quick suck……. Failed GFI!!! Down he goes, the pill spills next to Mr T and since he is on the ground and can’t feed – Risky jumped up and into the crowd to nail a fan or two. Arrrgh!! Down to two Vamps plus Luthor……..
The liney that originally spilt the pill sees an opportunity and screams at his runner to get into the EZ. “Silent” Bob is blitzed away leaving the Runner free. The Liney rush’s up, grab’s the ball and sends it spiraling through the air……. Where it is picked off by Wilhelm!!!! The crowd goes wild!!! I’m sure he thought it was a Frisbee………
Wilhelm lands, ball in his jaws and the Chucks are left gasping. The first roll was a 2 then I remembered Wilhelm has Catch and the 6 came up!!!! Massive.
Lord Oksoh had just knocked down an Ulf with some assistance from Love Machine Daveski and was wide open.
Count Luthor who was holding a Line Norse and Beserker in his TZ smashed the Beserker to the ground clearing the way for Wilhelm to use his MA8 to the max and hand off to Oksoh. Love Machine bolted upfield to support Oksoh. Baring his fangs Lord Oksoh rushed after him. Carman noted that a single GFI (had 2 RR’s at this stage) would see Oksoh in the clear with only Boomstick (who had been marked up by Manuel) anywhere near him so he urges Oksoh on.
Yep – double ones…… and the ball’s clear again.
Boomstick dodges clear from Manuel (keh?), circles round the prone body of Lord Oksoh, GFI, grab’s the ball, GFI to get clear and pass – fail. Double ones. We both suck.
Mr T continues to push JT around the park.
Wilhelm bolts up in support with a blitz but gets bloody wrestle taking a runner down but hitting the dirt himself. Arrrgh!!! Oksoh gets up, grabs the ball and fails a GFI but RR’s it so has to stay in BTB with the prone Boomstick. Luthor tries to get clear but rolls both down and stays locked with two lineys.
Geoffwey attempts to deal with the Berserker in BTB so he can’t support but fails blood lust (OH NOES) and is forced to dodge away and bite JT sending him to the BH box!!!! Finally the plucky journey Thrall is off the field but at my hand!!
Mr T doesn’t know what to do with himself now JT is gone!!!!
Can the Norses recover…….
In their turn 7 the Beserker GFI to run up in support whilst the downed Ulf also moves towards the developing scrum as do other members of the Norses trying to shake off their confusion following the interception.
Without much else available Boomstick attempts a 2-dice against block on Oksoh but gets a push and skull. RR and it’s two both downs!!! Thank god for that card!!! Oksoh takes the head butt and smiles as he retains the ball.
With one RR left Carman keeps it simple. Wilhelm blitzes the runner off Love Machine who then circles the scrum and stands waiting next to EZ to mitigate a bloddlust fail. Making it look easy Oksoh passes blood lust, dodges away and scores to take the GT’s up 2-1!!!!
Carman looks unimpressed.
With two turns remaining the Norses have a chance to draw the match still. Fortunately for them, the Babe has already left for the day and the two KO’ed thralls don’t return to the field leaving the GT’s to defend with only 9 players!!!
Carman looks even more unimpressed……… but turns to his defensive playbook for inspiration. Knowing he needs players on their feet he sets, Squealy on the LOS as bait for Mr T or a beserker, his AV6 sure to tantalise them seeking an easy casualty, with Alcomishski and Count Luthor spreading them out.
The rest of the players are set deep in the half covering the width of the pitch, Wilhelm centrally. It means foregoing a blitz on the KO but leaves the Norses unable to blitz the GT players allowing them freedom to cover the inevitable advance of the runners and supporting Ulfs.
The kick lands fairly centrally with the Norses picking up their 4th free RR thanks to some cheering fans. A lucky roll sees the GT’s fans equal the noise and grab one themselves.
After laying Luthor low with Mr T and bopping Squealy on the head, Alcomishki got slapped with a handbag and pushed back. The runners and Ulfs bolt up field as expected and Alcomishski was blitzed to the floor suffering the 3rd BH of the match.
Boomstick advanced towards the LOS after picking up the pill.
The GT’s then execute Carman’s tactics with perfection.
Wilhelm blitzes a runner, pushing him back. The runner fends him as expected and this allows Wilhelm to finish his blitz moving into a more advantageous flanking position next to the runner. A thrall moves up to put the Ulf and Runner in a TZ and to provide support for bloodlust. Geoffwey runs in an Gazes the Runner. Booya!
On my LHS, a thrall runs up to put the other Ulf and runner in a TZ plus blood lust support. Lord Oksoh moves across to gaze the other runner – excellent. Risky passes his bloodlust and gazes a supporting liney.
With the defense set, the riskier moves now proceed. Luthor gets up, dodges out and gazes the RHS Ulf in a position to assist any blocks made by that Ulf and to cover the spot the runner could have gone through. Even with the Ulf blocking the thrall out of the way, the gazed runner couldn’t get to the EZ without a dodge through 2 TZ’s, then 1 TZ, then another dodge then 2 GFI’s to reach the EZ. A lot of risk and only one TRR plus Boomstick would have to nail another Long Bomb because of the multiple TZ’s and I’d have plenty of free Vamps to attempt the intercept on a 5+.
Wisely, Chuck elected to use the Ulf on the GT’s LHS to block a thrall away, dodge out the Runner (this one doesn’t have catch) on a 3+ (with dodge RR), dodge through another TZ then GFI, GFI into the EZ. Boomstick then runs up, GFI, GFI and piffs the ball but rolls a 1 – he has pass though!! Carman mentions Risky can intercept as Boomstick didn’t have the movement to go past him and the thrall next to him is gazed so there is no TZ on him…….
BOOM! Risky plucks the ball out of the air and the Norses heads drop as the loss is realized. Poor old Boomstick.
Carman is unimpressed (I however throw my hands in the air in a silent cheer!!) Chuck can’t believe it! What an insane game.
It is here the GT’s realize they still get the final turn yet to play!!! With no-one in a position to score they result to the bash causing no casualties but, after using a TRR, Lord Oksoh get’s his elusive 6th SPP with a completion back to Risky after being given the ball allowing him to skill up.
So once again I score no casualties but have managed to force the opponent to really push to score and it has allowed me to pick up a hard fought win.
There were a fair few failed bloodlusts which I mitigated again or just sucked up (hee hee) with two really stuffing me up. Also, outside of the two timely intercepts, I had very poor dice getting both downs with Luthor and Wilhelm when I really needed pushes meaning I had to scramble, as well as two bad double skulls, one RR to another poor result and two terrible failed GFI on a double 1 as well as the failure that saw Risky off the field early in the second half.
Adam also had poor dice in the couple of failed GFI’s, the double skulls on Mr T (which didn’t cost him at all) and an inability to cause casualties but he did KO me a lot.
Wilhelm and Luthor were instrumental in my strategy and getting me the win, the babe also helped heaps.
Wicked game with lots of laughs.”
Like Carwyn said a wicked game and I lament at what could have been. In hindsight getting my players to do as many GFI’s as they did, when perhaps they didn’t need too handed Carwyn a few opportunities. Still a lineman got the MVP and now has Tackle. This will be handy against the Amazons in next week’s game.
Painting more Warhammer 40,000 minitures: Word Bearers Chaos Space Marines.
I have just finished “Thousand Sons” from the Warhammer 40,000 “Horus Heresy” series of novels produced by the Black Library. Reading this series, and other Black Library novels, has really helped to immerse myself in the Warhammer and Warhammer 40K universes and provides a constant source of motivation to get me painting my miniatures. I’ll often have the audio books playing as background noise whilst I am painting miniatures.
Whilst reading the Horus Heresy series the Word Bearers legion has jumped out at me. They appear to be the instigators of the Chaos corruption within the legions, although they haven’t been featured that heavily as yet. I figure if you are thinking of doing a Chaos Space Marine army why not go with the original bad boys. I painted up a standard Chaos Space Marine miniature as my test Word Bearers marine.
For the red I started with a base coat of Mechrite Red. I then washed the red areas with BadabBlack. Derivan MiNi’s Spartan Red was used as the next layer. I applied this in a few thin layers to get a smooth, even coverage. To avoid the whole “orange red look” I used Kommando Khaki sparingly as an extreme highlight. I wanted a really vibrant red for the armor so I then applied a wash of Baal Red. This also had the effect of giving the Kommando Khaki a reddish tinge.
For the metal areas I used a basecoat of Chainmail. I then applied a heavy wash of Badab Black. For the highlight I used Mithril Silver.
The bone areas were base coated with Khemri Bown and then washed with Badab Black. To save time I applied all the base coats at the same time so I could wash them with Badab Black all at once. I wanted the bone areas to be quite bright so the overall look of the miniature didn’t become too dark. To achieve this I used thinned down Denheb Stone as the first layer. If your paints are thinned down enough you can actually use the same colours as a highlight. This is because the translucency of the pain allows the previous layer to show through and give your current layer a darker tint. That’s what I did in this case and built the Denheb Stone up in two or three layers. I used pure white as the final highlight on the tips of the horns.
This miniature shows the versatility of my basing techniques, as I used brown static grass this time and the base has more of a dead landscape feel too it.
Again I am happy with how quickly the miniature paints and its overall look. The one advantage the Word Bearers project has over the Tau is that I can include daemon units in this army to provide some painting variety. Alas, I am still no closer to choosing a project to continue with….
Painting Warhammer 40,000 Miniatures…..for me!
I decided to take some time out from my commission works and paint some miniatures for me. A group of my gaming mates and I have recently decided to venture into the Warhammer 40,000 universe. I have never really played 40K but have always thought that the fluff behind the game and the miniatures are some of the best around.
Venturing into a new game system is often a daunting prospect with having to learn new rules, purchase all the miniatures and equipment and then find players to play against. However, doing this with a group of mates makes it a much easier process! You are learning the rules together (the other guys finding rules gems that you may have missed), you can share any extra equipment required and you can scale your games up in points values as you all expand your miniature collections. We have decided to proceed in a “Tale of Four Gamers” style where we have a spending budget each month to gradually build our forces. None of us plan on attending tournaments with these armies, so our armies are going to consist of the units / models we like as opposed to those that perform the best on the table top.
For my forces I am torn between Chaos Space Marines, particularly the Word Bearers legion, and the Tau empire. I have painted up a test miniature of each and am still no closer to deciding on what force I am going to collect. 
I wanted my Tau to look different than the usual Tau miniatures seen in all the Games Workshop pics, so I opted for a grey colour scheme with purple as my accent colour. I wanted a light, soft grey and went about painting it as follows. I base coated all the armor areas with a 1:1 mix of Adeptus Battlegrey and Black, even the areas that were going to be painted purple. I then applied a layer of Adeptus Battlegrey to the areas of armor I wanted to be grey, leaving the basecoat only in the deepest recesses. I used Fortress Grey as my next layer and left the Adeptus Battlegrey showing the panel joins of the armor and recesses of medium depth. For the highlight I used an extreme highlight of 1:1 Fortress Grey : White. This was applied only on the extreme edges of the armor.
For the purple I painted Liche Purple of the grey basecoat. I then applied an extreme highlight by adding in some Fortress Grey to the Liche Purple. Again this was only painted on the edges of the purple areas.
With the bases I was originally going to do ruined city style bases, but, decided against it as I couldn’t come up with a colour for the buildings I liked that still let the miniature stand out. Anyway, I reckon the Tau only want nice unspoiled worlds in their empire not war torn husks of worlds. The base was base coated with Scorched Brown with dry brushed layers of Graveyard Earth and Fortress Grey.
This paint combination has quickly become my “standard” base technique as it gives a natural look that is very versatile. Simply apply green static grass and you have spring / summer bases, whilst applying brown static grass give a more wintery feel. If you don’t apply any static grass at all it has an ash waste feel to it. Too easy really. 
One thing I have learned when painting test models is to take note of how easy the technique would be to apply to a whole army. When starting a new project it’s easy to get caught up in the excitement and forget you have to paint another 40 models this way. I am happy that the paint scheme I have chosen is quick and easy to apply and will look great on the table top.
Painting Gaspez Arts Norse Miniatures – The Chuck Norses
I’ve decided that after nearly two seasons of playing Blood Bowl with unpainted Norse miniatures, it was about time I pulled my brush out and painted the team. If you have been reading any of my previous posts, you’ll know I’ve been coaching the “Chuck Norses” Norse team in my local Blood Bowl league. They haven’t had a great season to date, but I’m sure our luck will change and we’ll finish the season off on a high.
I chose to use the Norse miniatures from Gaspez Arts. Fabio at Gaspez Arts produces a fantastic range of miniatures, all of which you can find at WarPuppy. There are a number of things I like about the Gaspez Arts range of miniatures. Firstly, they are of a consistently high quality. The latest miniatures they are producing are beautifully sculpted and come in great poses. Secondly, they don’t come in several small metal pieces which are hard to assembly. A lot of miniature companies produce these fantastic looking miniatures that are really hard to assembly. Sometimes the pieces are so fine its impossible to pin, which leads to many breakages during game play.
Anyway, onto painting the miniatures. I really struggled with a colour scheme for this team. This was mainly because I have panted so many other teams for coaches in out league I didn’t want my colour scheme to look similar. I ended up using a variation of the colours used on the labels of one of my favorite beers (I think this is a very Norse thing to do). The colours are based on the blue, white and gold of “Pure Blonde” beer. However, I’d already done a team with gold armour, so I changed my armour to silver.
The skin has been done in my standard style, the description of which can be found in other posts. However, I am thinking it needs another highlight stage to “pop” properly.
For the blue, I started with a base coat of Necron Abyss. I then layered Enchanted Blue over this leaving Necron Abyss in the deepest recesses. I then started mixing Derivan MiNiS Midway Blue into the Enchanted Blue. I did one layer of 2:1 Enchanted Blue to Midway Blue and one of 1:1 Enchanted Blue : Midway Blue. The final highlight was pure Midway Blue.
The remaining colours are all very neutral in an attempt to make the blue look nice and bright.
The bases were done in my usual style, however, this time I haven’t applied any static grass. I figured in the frozen reaches of the north, there isn’t much grass around, even on Blood Bowl pitches. These bases really highlight how versatile my basing style is, as I think these bases capture a frozen landscape very well.