Hobby Update – Beasts, Hobbits, Dwarf and opening Blood Bowl game.

Beastmen

I’m a bit late posting pictures of the first of the models considering that, for me, I speed painted it in order to field it in my last battle report.

Skegi One-horn, the most recent Wargor to emerge from the ranks of the Bestigor, disdains the use use of his own feet and will only ever take to the field mounted on his Razorgor (‘chariot’).

He is another Mierce Miniature model that I picked up a while ago and again is a great example of their range. Nothing much to say on the paint scheme, he pretty much just followed the same colours as the rest of the army.

Hobbits and Dwarf

The second bit of painting I managed to complete was part of my mums Xmas pressie. Last year I’d painted up a few GW lord of the rings minis for her and since then she had picked up a few more (in the form of Frodo, Samwise and Gimli). I once again popped on eBay and grabbed duplicates in order to paint them up (and so I had them for myself too).

Blood Bowl – 2019-20 – Opening league game

In the previous season, I had been knocked out in the quarter finals by Michaels Dwarf team but had managed to score the most touchdowns in a season. With that concluded, I had the choice of bringing forward the team (complete with star players etc.) or starting afresh with a new team. With limited play time and many teams, I made the decision to start afresh and not only that but taking on a Vampire team.

Although not as challenging as using one of the stunty teams (Goblin, halfling or Ogres), they are rated just above these, in so far as they are a challenging team to play. This is mainly down to the fact that there are two positions to choose from.

Thralls are standard humans, with no skills and a rubbish armour of 7 (not too different to the Norse linemen but without block).

The Vampires are excellent with S and AG of 4 and a raft of skills but have one small drawback. Whenever you want one to take an action, they basically have to test like any of the big guys. In a roll of a 1, after they finish their action, they must bite a thrall in a square next to them or else they run off the field to feed on a member of the crowd (and are placed in the reserves box). If they bite a Thrall, then you make a straight injury roll (though the worse they can get is badly hurt). This means you must really think about movement and placement of your team before committing your Vampires and this is what makes using them so challenging and the more vampires you field the greater the challenge!

With the race chosen, I then had to pick the team. Knowing the inherent flaws in the team and my normal lack of friendlies, this year I knew I had to have a number of rerolls from the off and settled on 4. This is about the maximum I would ever take as it’s rare I’d use more in a half and should help cover any mishaps, especially with no block in the team. The team then got the compulsory fan factor of 1. This game to 290,000, leaving 710,000 left to spend on players/other options. With Vampires coming with regeneration and thralls being expendable, I decided to forgo an apothecary and instead took 3 Vampires (330,000) and 9 Thralls (360,000). This would give me 12 players and 20,000 left in the bank.

With the team chosen and submitted I found myself in a group with the following players/teams:

Simon – Dark Elves (who had been in my group last year but who was also taking a new team). Delfs, like other elf teams, are a good team but struggle in early games due to their high cost and lack of skills. With limited players, this should make him think twice about laying in the boot (something he does like to do in true Blood Bowl fashion!).

Michael – Dwarves – the player who had beaten me in the knockouts. This would be a returning team so his team has a number of skilled up players in an already tough team, so this would be a hard match, especially with the difference in team value.

Pete – Lizards – another ‘fresh’ team as Pete had won the competition last year with his humans. I’ve only played Pete once before in a first season friendly, where my Norse obliterated his Skaven. He’s done well in both the last two seasons so this could be a challenging game.

Game 1 – Blood Roses vs Barracuda Bay Buccaneers

Both Si and myself were looking to play opponents with fresh teams, in order to hopefully get some skills without our teams taking a complete pasting in return, so in a carbon copy of last season’s opening game, we agreed to play and make it our opening league game.

Again following the trend of our last game, the score ended up 3-0 in my favour. The difference was this time my team went to town on him, causing 4 casualties with his almost unable to break through my armour. Virion the Grim (Vampire), was the man of the match having scored 3 TDs, causing a casualty and getting the team MVP. This was enough to level him up twice, gaining Block and Dodge. The winnings also allowed me to pick up another Thrall. This maxes out the number I wanted to take on the team, so unless any are killed, future funds will go on an apothecary and more Vampires. Definitely the start the team was looking for!