Bloodbowl: A Game that can Turn on a Sixpence

 Lately I have been competing in a Bloodbowl league, with the added intention of starting a league for my friends. As such I have been painting spare teams (that will decorate this post to break things up) and while I haven't been recording my exploits, tonight's game was so staggering I thought "I gotta record this shit for posterity"

Now I have seen some staggering one off bad luck. A tie game, but my player is in the corner in a cage, he can walk across the line, and the only thing my opponent could do was put a gutter runner in his path to try to force a dodge roll. Not having a reroll left, I wanted to blitz the gutter runner out of the way first. As I said, no reroll, so to make sure, I sent some assists. I then sent a blitzer with block and tackle to do a 3 dice blitz to clear the path for the TD. As I rolled the dice my opponent yelled "Triple Skull" and his Jedi mind trick fucking worked. ANY other result on ANY of the three dice and he is out of my way for the TD and the win, but no. But that was one roll.

Imperial Nobility, with Griff

I've also seen a staggering swing of fortune as a scrum in the middle saw my ball carrier felled, and my other blitzer catch the ball despite 4 tackle zones. He then one dice blitzed the opposing werewolf, leapt over his prone body and raced for the end zone. My opponents only gambit was to send his sprint sure feet werewolf after me. He couldn't use his frenzy as he wouldn't have enough movement, so he had one shot at a one dice block. He nailed it. The ball then bounced into the crowd and to add insult to injury, was hurled 12 spaces towards the opposite endzone, landing one square away from his unmarked ghoul runner. I managed to catch him and twice almost fight my way back to the line but it just wasn't to be and I lost that game 1-0, my first and thus far only loss.

Human Team. With... an ogre. No, not that one. He's got a new model, so this is just an ogre.

Until tonight. Up against Elves. He brought a Zoat star player but overall plan, squish the elves, outnumber the opposition. And the first half went well. But not superbly. I was putting elves down, I was cracking their armor... but just wasn't getting the injuries. Plenty of KO'd, but nothing to earn SPP. I feared it may come back to haunt me.

Second half, 1-0 up. His players didn't wake up. But he HAS managed to injure 2 of mine annoyingly. Nothing serious but, meant I didn't have the numerical advantage I was hoping for, and there were plenty of gaps for quick elves to exploit. Critically, the sun came out, and it was a scorcher. He ducks and weaves through, well played to him, gets a TD. We lose 3 players each. I lose a Blitzer, a blocker and a Lineman. He loses his star player and a couple others. But critically, damn near all his Ko's wake up. It's 6 vs 9 against me, bad start. He kicks to me, and the ball bounces perilously along my back line but refuses to bounce out for a touchback. He also gets to blitz and knocks out a black orc. Bad start. So I send my goblin to grab the ball. He fails. with a reroll. And the ball bounces along the line, doesn't even have the decency to throw it into the crowd in the hope they'll hurl it up the pitch for me. He positions his player a bit further forward but doesn't over commit just yet.

This time I decide to do some punching first, and after a black orc merely pushes one elf, the troll takes a swing. Double both down. I don't have block on him, but I chance a reroll, and succeed, he can reroll the dice! Gets double skull. Cracks his armor. Knocked out. At this my opponent takes the opportunity to surge through and pressure the ball.

Knowing it's a critical moment, the goblin tries to pick up the ball again. Fails again. Drops it along the line and not into the crowd. So my opponent casually pushes the goblin into the crowd (badly hurt) and scores a TD. We lose 1 player each, my troll stays out cold, I'm setting up 6 players against 11. Kick off comes my way... and my black orc gets into a fight with the ref and is stunned.

Chaos Chosen Team

I have honestly never seen such a staggering turn of events. I still nearly managed to pull off the equalizer. My ball carrying blitzer needed a dodge and 2 rushes to score... he made the dodge... so we rolled both dice knowing I needed 2+ on BOTH to equalize. Snake Eyes! It really was not meant to be.

More shockingly, against a team of squishy elves, who had thus far lost a player (Dead) to every opponent, against my team with 5MB and most casualties in the entire league across all divisions... nothing on the casualty list. It was staggering. What happens when an irresistible force meets a flimsy object? The irresistible force bounces off apparently!

Painted a couple refs too

Sadly that probably puts my attempts to reach the playoffs to bed (I was 4th, needing to play 2nd, 3rd, and 9th. It's a tight league and I figured I needed to win all three games to make it, as last weeks 2nd lost his game and dropped to 5th it's that tight. With the elves now beating me, I doubt I can catch the probably 4 teams ahead of me by now. One or two maybe. But not the three required to make the playoffs. And with the other two divisions having a few runaway leaders, the two wildcard spots will almost certainly go to those divisions rather than our far more viciously competitive league. So it's back to my original aim, which was to top the casualty charts. A feat I was managing until today, where I suspect I will have been overtaken. And with a playoff run unlikely I'm likely to be overtaken even if I did regain that lead by the end of the season. Sad times.

You can probably see what I was trying to do with the dwarf... but I shouldn't have done it from memory. The colour scheme is upside down...

We shall see how the league pans out and critically, what next seasons rules are. I like my team, but it is a pricey team. If I can't bring back most of the players... is it even worth bringing back the team at all? If I have to clear the roster for a fresh batch of players it will barely seem worth it - the same team in name only apart from one or two players. Here's hoping I can find a way to keep the squad together. I bought a lineman today to avoid the risk of making an expensive mistake (plus mean no journeyman required for my next game) but I am beginning to think I may have been better to save the funds and risk the financial mismanagement... IF the funds in the kitty are of any effect on the post season. But they haven't published their rules yet so I'm winging it in the dark...