OK after showing my latest Blood Bowl team it’s back to historical stuff for this post. I have a good collection of medieval knights but you never can have too many. So this post shows 7 more bases of late period knights that I have finished. These are for the Wars of the Rose period but will work for mid to late European force in the 15th century period. So they could be used for the later half of the hundred years war at a push as well – but not really the earlier period for my understanding.
First are 5 charging bases, so all action with these models. I believe all these are Peter Pig models from their wars of the Roses range.
These as mentioned are depicted in a full charge, lances down etc. I painted them with the various different lance and leather etc colours. Some of them have flags on their lances but not many and none are in a position to be really visible.. To be honest these are pretty easy to paint as they are mostly dull metal of the armour.
I do like that even thhough they are charging the lances do not come that much over the end of the bases. This means that they can match up to their opponents on the table without major issues.
These will be great for the nobles and the key mounted warriors of the 15th century. The different colours do not specifically map to specific nobles but I tried to ensure that they kept to the various correct colour combinations for heraldry. I am not sure (and doubt really) if they had coloured leather and harnesses but at the same time they needed some colours for identification so it may have been used.
I said there were 7 bases and so there are two more needed after the 5 above.
So, here are two extra bases.These are again from Peter Pig and I believe are mostly their mounted bodyguard pack figures. These can be used as an included commanders for ADLG rules or as bodyguards in the Bloody Barrons etc.
The models have even more armour if possible and I will say I really like that these models have a little more character in their poses. These also have a variety of colours and different types of horse armour.
That item – the horse armour is a mix and different on the bases. I purposely mixed bu the horse armour types on the bases. That means these bases do have a bit more variety than might have been expected at first glance.
These just add to my collection and give me sme more flexibility for the use of the different rules and forces. I admit it was niicce to get back so some more simple 15mm figs with these as well.
As I have mentioned the underworld team I just showed is 3D printed and I am not that confident on the durability of the rat figures. They have some very small and thin legs etc so are easy to break. It just so happens that I have some extra positional Skaven players on GW spures – as I got an extra spure for the additional linemen for a Plastic Skaven team I plan on doing soon. Skaven need additional 3 linemen but that extra spire gave me 3 positional’s as well as the additional 3 for that team.
So here are an additional set of the 3 key positional players who can be used for my Underworld team Skaven positional players. These are plastic and from the GW current Skaven kit.
First the Gutter runner. This is a key player and a fun pose. The big difference I did with this model is I painted the cloak orange/red. To be honest this is a nice model and pose. However, even though this is plastic I still wonder if this has a few too many key thin bits to it. But that is the Skaven style and as plastic it likely will hold up better than resin,
Next is the GW thrower model. I must admit although not great I like this better than the 3D printed one who has a gun like thing for throwing the ball. Other than the tail holding the ball I think this is quite a nice model and I may end up using this model for the thrower in the team.
Lastly for this post, is the GW Skaven blitzer. Again I really like this model. It is the best of these three models in my view. I painted it up in a fairly simple style to match the team and other nodels and it works. It is a clean and basic style model which does what it needs to. That is what I like about it – just a cool decent model with too many ‘flash’ bits.
So there we are. All these painted up well and they were actually included in the team shot I showed last time. These three will be alternatives for the other models I have already shown. Some of them (as mentioned) may even get used as the 1st choice figure for the position on he Underworld team, But, only time will tell on that. Still is was a good use of these ‘extra’ models and they will find a use in the Underworld team even though they are not needed for the Slaven team.
A quick one this time – the final star for the underworld team, and a final shot of the full team. I believe this is meant to be Hackflem but could be any Skaven gutter runner with 2 heads. It is an odd pose wiith the figure turning and ‘sidesteping’ ‘but a vey action related one. I painted this with a different colour cloak as it will stand out even more in games when used.
It’s not the greatest weather day here so the lighting is a little off but I think this still looks ok.
After that, a quick shot of the full team. I have yet to play these guys but they do look the part for an underworld team. It’s just whether they will hold up on the field (both as a team and as models) which is the question. They are not the best team in blood bowl but do have a lot of character and can d well in the right circumstances.
Note all my photo’s here are just as taken from my phone but I thought I would try the inbuilt AI photo enhancer of wordpress with another shot of the team. This is the final result. It’s not bad but something I could do likely do myself with apps etc but does help the clarity of photo.
At least now I have a fully painted to to use for underworld when I so desire to play them. It’s more likely in a tournament than league I suspect but we shall see.
A key part of the underworld team are the 3 Skaven linemen. These add some strength, speed and a bit more (but limited) lasting power to the team which is lacking in that. So here are the 3 model which came with the 3D printed team I am painting. I have a few photo’s of the models from different sides in this post
Overall, these are nice models and great poses. Although, again as 3D printed resin models I feel they may be a little brittle for heavy gaming, but only time will tell on that. I do like how they have painted up though and they have real character. They look scrappy and less together than the normal Blood Bowl team players – prefect for an underworld team.
I used the brown and red colour scheme for them and that matches the snotlings and goblins I have shown previously for this team. They should fit into the overall team nicely and will get a lot of use in games they are player positions which are always on the underworld team..
Note, I have started using clip on numbers for teams and that means that I do not paint them on the bases. That helps me make the bases clean and also makes me happy as the numbers clear and visible which is good. I may do a quick post on those at some point.
So there we are. A few more players ready for this team.
It’s taken me a while to get this one written up – real life kind of got in the way.. Various things happening which I have had to deal with – some good such as spending a lot more time at the cottage, other not so fun things. But I like doing these type of interesting posts so let’s try something different again.
— SKRYE CAST COACHES CORNER INTERVIEW SHOW —
Quillchewer: Hi Sport Fans, thanks again for joining us. In this weeks show we joined on the Skrye Sports by Coach ‘Chaotica’ the coach of the Last Chosen. The Last Chosen had a great season’s run in the new league, with them ending up at the top of the league standings. That’s was with a record of 5 wins and 2 draws. However, their post season ended quickly with a disappointing loss vs. the Altdorf Bite Club, a vampire team they had defeated in the season.
Quillchewer: Coach thanks for joining us on this session again sponsored by Chaos Vision Eyeware – glasses where you can ‘See the World from a New Perspective’. So before we discuss the play off game, what were your thoughts on the season?
Coach: Well thank you for having me and overall we had a good season – as always blood bowl continues to show it is one of the best games to play. The league format allows for team building and lots of ups and downs over time. The league this time had a great set of coaches. There was a variety of skill levels in those coaches in the league but they all played well and I at least did not have an easy or boring game all season. You can see that from the previous game reports. So thanks to all those coaches in the league and I hope we have more fun next time.
Coach: In reality though, we never expected to be in first place in the league. That was quite a surprised when that happened. It really came about as some of the other teams ran into issues, as is usually the way. However, it was our defense which allowed us to get that lead position on tie breakers, as there were several teams at the same results level.
Quillchewer: Yes, your teams defense over the league games seemed really strong – allowing very few scores against you. However, as a Khorne team, the casualty was not good.
Coach: Oh and we know it. In fact you can see the blood god’s hand in the die because of this. As we did not inflict many casualties on opponents he instead gave those on us instead. The team suffered a lot of injuries instead. We had one of the highest casualties against levels in the league. But such is the way of the Blood god.
Coach: However, that also caused another problem for team development. Over the season we lost multiple skilled linemen players to permanent injuries or death. This really limited the team developing a solid bench of players and a skilled group of linemen. This really started to show at the end of the season when other teams had been developing better.
Quillchewer: Were thee any other problem and issue you saw in the team?
Coach: Well very early on the major team sponsors Khorne-a-Cola – “the drink with the tang of blood in every taste” decided that we would field a Minatour as the big guy in the team. Unfortunately after getting block skill from our preseason and the first game he achieved absolutely nothing in the other matches. Yes he may have been a target of opponents, but all through the campaign he never did another injury. In many ways this highlights how the lack of casualties was a problem. We were expecting him to make waves and open up opponents and it just did not happen. As this happened across multiple games really hampered the team developing.
Quillchewer: Ah, but even with this you came top of the league. Any thoughts on that?
Coach: Yes, we got lucky and although we played some very good coaches things tended to break our way on the ball handling side of things. That really helps when playing. Once the wins started to come in the season seemed to get on a roll. I think that helped the players and took off the pressure, allowing us to play a more open.
Quillchewer: Thats interesting, so all in all a good season for you and the team. Do you have any regrets in play or team building?
Coach: We never used the apothecary once in the league. The doctor and I were always saving it for a big injury which never came. If that had been used then maybe we could have saved some of the injured players. That may have given us more skilled players in the field in the end. But you never know – the Blood god is cruel in such things…
Quillchewer: OK, lets now move to the playoffs. You were drawn against the vampires. How did you feel about that?
Coach: To be honest it was a one of the worse match ups we could have. They have a whole set of dodge players and our poor development (previously mentioned) had meant that the Chosen had no tackle players and few who could really be trusted to take down the vampires. Their ability to ‘switch off’ players as well and their large bench also worked against us. The lack of team development meant we came in the game with only 12 players as well.
Quillchewer: So what tactics did you plan on using in the game?
Coach: The game plan was fairly simple. Play it safe and bash the heck out of the vampires. If we could not get the vampires down then the thralls would have to do. A vampire team without thralls runs on the edge and risks failure at every move.
Quillchewer: The weather for the game was extreme heat – how did that affect the game?
Coach: In the end a lot. After the initial kickoff the Chosen were always down at least one of our blockers – the heat seemed to effect them more than most players. It also meant with our small bench that we were down extra player numbers on the kickoff every time. Meanwhile, the Bite Club only lost vampires on a single drive and always had enough players to field 11 players. Those two factors were huge in across the whole game.
Quillchewer: The Chosen had their opportunities though – the game started ok for your team it seemed.
Coach: Yes thats true. The vampires started with the ball but we held the line of scrummage well initially, They moved the ball to midfield and we got a good blitz on the ball carrier. Unfortunately, the goat could not take the blodging vampire runner down though, even after using a reroll.
Key block of the ball carrying vampire fails to take her down
Coach: We had the up field moves well covered but the speed and skill of the vampires then came into it’s own. On their next turns and they quickly moved the ball to the other side and down field for an early score. Although the the line goats tried to recover they were just not fast enough and so the bite club were 1 up by the middle of the 1st half.
Quillchewer: This is where the weather really affected things from an observers view.
Coach: Yes, you are correct. It was pretty much a 9 or fewer Chosen vs 11 players from now on. What was worse is that included our Minotaur and a blocker who were out for our drive. Added to this the Chosen had not managed to remove any of the Bite club players from the game at this point, but the Bite club had killed a goat lineman!
Quillchewer: So it’s fair to say that the game plan was not working?
Coach: Correct. It was not at present but that did not mean that it could not all change in our favour. The heat was really impacting the Chosen team though and our hitting was just ineffective at this point,
Coach: The Chosen goats did collect the ball on the kick off but rather than playing safe they tried to push up the left hand sideline to get the equalizer. The problem with this is that this made us too aggressive. Rather than letting the play develop we tried to push too much for the score. That left a point where the Chosen cage was exposed and marked. If the Bite club could not take advanage the pay would be great – if not then the Chosen could equalize.
Chosen cage which was not safe – trying too hard to push for a TD
Quillchewer: The problem was the Bite club did take full advantage of this, as quickly knocked the ball loose and into the crowd. The crowd throw in was short though and near your players., so it looked like things may skill go your way.
Loose ball, which was quickly picked up by the bite club and run in for their second score
Coach: That’s right, but it did not in the end. The Bite club had no issues kncoking the Chosen players aside and gathering up the ball. It was then a simple matter for them to run it in for a 2 to 0 lead. The key issue here was that the Chosen hitting continued to be completely ineffectual while the Bite clubs was ever effective. The whole team Chosen team managed a single KO all half – who quickly returned to the game. Meanwhile, the chosen had a line goat killed and the Apoth used, as well as, as a goat in the KO box.
Quillchewer: So you were 2 down scores and multiple players at the half way point – was there a change in your game plan at this point?
Coach: Knowing how luck goes we decided to just keep with the bash and slog game. Really that is the first and last game plan of the Chosen, as we don’t have a second style. We knew we now had to take risks though. The only option was to try to score early to have a chance to draw the game. So it was time to trust in the Blood god…
Quillchewer: Well that may be the case but that dd not seem to work out well for you.
Coach: You are correct. He and Nuffle I believe had ordained for us to suffer this time. In fact from this point until nearly the last roll of the game the Bite Club never failed a roll (skill or block) or a bloodlust check. They had to used a couple or rerolls but it was really a master class of vampire play. So the die favour and player skill to capitalize on this was definitely on their side. With such rolls and great coaching their play was dominant in all aspects of the game.
Quillchewer: The Chosen did get the ball after the kickoff though and it looked initially like you might have a chance to draw one closer.
Coach: yes I was jumping to the end there. We had the ball until the vampire thrower injured the ball Chosen carrier out of the game. But that vampire could not pick up the ball as it bounced out of reach. That left a small chance. If the Chosen could knock open a path there was a chance for a pickup and handoff to allow a goat to be in the open and able to score.
Loose ball with the Chosen trying to move secure the ball and get a score back
Quillchewer: That would have helped a lot but it was not to be.
Coach: Very true, we needed to get the vampire thrower down to allow for a 3+ handoff and no dodge. The first hit result did not help so it was rerolled – into double skulls. That left the ball free and an easy move for the vampires to collect it and run in for their 3rd score. It summed up this game really of failed execution.
Double skull after the reroll leaves the ball open for the vampires to collect and run in their 3rd
Quillchewer: So now is was 8 vs 11 for the next kickoff and only a few turns left in the game.
Coach: Correct – finally the Chosen blockers started to get a better and in the next couple of turns we finally managed to injure a couple of Bite club thralls – but it was too little too late. Maybe it took all this time for them to adjust to the heat but the game had been lost by this point.
4th kickoff but the game is pretty much over by this point
Quillchewer: The vampires even managed to score one more.
Coach: Correct. They are very well coached even with the Chosen blockers managing to remove a couple of thralls they quickly broke down the Chosen screen. There was little we could do to stop that really, being so down on players at this point. The game was well over by this point anyway – but we tried to hurt as many of their players as possible, which did not achieve much.
Quillchewer: So a 4 to 0 loss and a disappointing knock out of the playoffs. Was there any lessons or positive items from the match for your team?
Coach: Well we had a great season and Vampires when ‘on form’ and run by a great coach are a tough team to face. But the team problems seen all season really were the issues here. The inability of the Chosen team to get reliably get removals and casualties in play was the biggest thing. Not having any tackle skilled players or a big bench also did not help, as the blodging vampires were at an advantage.
Coach: However, I think we tried to push too hard in the first half which put us way behind and was a mistake. Not being so aggressive to get that score in the first half may have been the difference in the game. I have an issue of being ‘too aggressive’ at times in games and this was definitely one of them. But the small bench plus the heat really hurt as the Chosen. That meant we were always down players and under pressure from the start. So we were trying to force things and that rarely works well in Blood Bowl, especially when facing a good coach. The lack of failures in the vampire’s rolls just compounded those issues.
Coach: However, all that aside, I can’t say enough about how good Bite Club were. They played an excellent game and their coach earned the victory with controlled but effective play.
Quillchewer: Will we see the Chosen again next season?
Coach: No they will take some time off for a blood quest. Khorne’s high priest has suggested a long and grueling trek to the Chaos Wastes as a cleanse of the team’s spirt. They likely will play some games but if they do it may be with even more of a Khorne focus.
Quillchewer: Ok, I know you have already announced you are not leading the team on this quest. and so what about your future plans coach?
Coach: I am not sure what will do next. Only time will tell on that one…but it will be leading another team I am sure.
Quillchewer: Well good luck coach for the future and thanks sports fans for staying with us for this show and season.
A key item in the underworld team are the three skill positions players. The skaven thrower, gutter runner and blitzer. In this post are those 3 from the printed team I have. The only issue I have with these models is that they are a little ‘fragile’ with thin parts. Their legs and arms are thin and there is not much contact with the base. So I am not sure how well these will hold up a true league season or tournament . But I guess time will tell on that.
First the gutter runner. This is a nice model and has it running – an action post and so easy to spot on the table. I did the cloak in grey and I think that worked out really well.
Next is the thrower this model. It has a gun type contraption and I’ll be honest is my least liked model. It’s ok but just does not scream blood bowl to me. It also has a lot of top heavy model on thin legs so will be especially prone to breakage I suspect.
Lastly, is the blitzer. this is a nicer model but again looks prone to breakage. The metal nose ‘made from’ a drill bit is interesting to say the least.
Overall these are decent models but I have to say not inspiring ones to me. They are key players on the underworld team though and so here they are as they do the lions share of the work on this team really.
Something different and quick this time. I had these resin pieces of swamp terrain kicking around and so decided to get them done. So below are the 3 bits of terrain. These will be useful for various games – either in a pulp, Sci-fi or fantasy setting. I added a ghoul on a 20mm square base so you can see the scale.
I did not add static grass or anything in the hope to keep them as generic as possible.
One bit of these I am happy about is the way the bubbles came out. Although not perfect, when seen on a gaming table they look reasonably realistic – I think.
Things like this are always useful to have. I really should have more of them – but each bit I add only helps.
Last week a friend and I played an ADLG-R game using some of my English Civil War figures. So I thought I would do a quick write up of the game. This is still my favourite period in history – even though there are a lof of other interesting periods as well, that I play as well.
ADLG-R is an unofficial extension of the ADLG V4 rules and a nice way of playing ‘big battle’ games in the period. I took the Royalist forces and they faced a Parliamentary New Model Army (NMA) army which had slightly more troops, but not as many elite units.The Parliamentary force was the defenders and deployed with their main cavalry wing on my right and the rest being infantry regiments. Their smaller cavalry force was in reserve on the left wing behind their infantry units.
In response my deployment was upset by some field in my deployment zone, which caused me to separate my commands initially. On the left I had a mixed force of cavalry and a couple of infantry regiments in a single command.
In the center were the best royalist infantry regiments. They were slightly outnumbered but hopefully would be more than a match for their opponents. On my rght was another mixed conmand of a couple of foot regiments and a small but elite group of Royalist shock cavalry.
My plan was to aggressively move forward to join the two groups so avoiding issues of the split commands. Then to use my supposedly better cavalry with infantry support to win on the wings while the central foot held out vs the expected larger numbers opposing it. An easy plan in theory, but one unlikely to be that easy to pull off. This is especially the case as the NMA cavalry were much closer in skill level to the Royalists versions than their earlier armies. So would my late Royalist cavalry be up to the job I assigned it?
In the first moves, the left of the Royalist army expanded and the cavalry moved up to try to turn the NMA flank,. In response the NMA deployed their cavalry reserves and moved multiple infantry regiments onto the hill on that flank. Winning on this flank looked a lot harder than it had been.
On the other side of the battle, the Royalist cavalry supported by infantry was facing a NMA cavalry force which was not backing down either. The NWA horse was also 6 units vs the Royalist 4 in horse, and so had the possible advantage in mobility.
In the center, my command pip’s had failed me and the units in this command were moving up but not as fast as the flanks. This was the general plan but the slow centre of the Royalist army was more by the lack of command and control than design as it turned out. Maybe the central Royalist commander had taken the plan to heart a little too much…
On the left the Royalist horse had charged into the NWA reserve force. But the NMA infantry had imposed and stopped the Royalists getting any numerical advantage in the fight. The Royalists horse did not charge home vs the fresh infantry units, but stood off and in the end they may have been better getting into the fight.
Muskets kicked out big clouds of smoke across the battlefield though, as units of sides started to fire off shots at each other.
The use of shot was also seen by now in the centre where the slower royalist units had moved to engaged the NMA forces as well. This was the first softening up before they really got engaged.
On the right, the two cavalry forces had clashed already. It was down to luck of the combat die and how good the Royalist supporting infantry regiment would be in helping in the fight.
After several turns of fighting the right flank saw losses from both sides (2 each), but the Royalists had a slight advantage. Their infantry were continuing to also put pressure on the NMA cavalry. This had made sure the more numerous NMA cavalry could not really gain any advantage and had driven them back from the cavalry fight.
The center had become a real grind – with the forces by now in hand to hand fighting. Unfortunately for the Royalist, their lines had become entangled and so they ended up with one regiment which was not really helping in the fighting. It could only provide support and assists in rallies for the other engaged troops.
This meant that a single Royalist regiment was fighting a unit of shot and a more typical Pike and Shot regiments. Because it was elite Cornishmen though, it was holding out well. Another Royalist regiment was also moving to get into the fight and help them as well.
On the left flank the cavalry fight on this side had become a real ‘nail biting affair’ with neither side getting any lasting advantage. Unfortunately for the Royalists their cavalry which had faced an NMA infantry unit had not done well though and were quickly routed.
This lead to a bigger problem for the Royalists. That was that it was here where the NMA infantry regiments had massed to give them a numerical advantage. It was not in the center where the Royalists had expected. So it was 2 Royalists infantry units vs 4 NMA ones. Luck was with the Royalists though, so although they were taking damage they were dishing out significantly more than they had taken. So luck was helping offset the better NMA positioning… but would it last?
Well it did continue for a while, so although severely damaged one of the Royalist units had destroyed one of their opposing NMA one. Luck was also with the Royalist horse which finally destroyed the last of the NMA horse on this flank – and also killed the commander on this side as well. That gave the royalist the command advantage and if their pike and shot regiment could hold they would hit it in the rear!
Back in the centre, the ‘grind’ was favouring the Royslists as well. Support had arived in time for the elite troops fighting 2 regiments and so this had more than stabilized, it seemed it was swinging in the Royalist way. However, in a near distant one of the elite royalist regiments then broke…
In the end it was the right side, where again the dice went in the Royalist way and in the final flights/shooting. The Royalists bested the NMA cavalry units. This was enough to break the NMA army and so the Royalists won – but it was a close run thing. If a couple of the rolls in the last turn had been the other way then this would have been an NMA victory, or mutual destruction with both armies breaking.
So a close victory for my Royalists – but it was an edge of the seat things as it could have gone either way right unit the last rolls of the game. My plan was ok but not really a Great one. I got lucky in some of the combat rolls and it could have gone the other way.
Looking back, I think we both played our cavalry wrong- they are the mobile elements of these forces and in both cases we ended up with key mounted units facing pike and shot units – a fight they are unlikely to win. But is as a fun afternoon of dice rolling and tactical moves.
Overall, ADLG-R gives a fun game which like the ancients game it is based on. It gives a tactical game, with good twists and turns but it can be finished in 2 to 3 hours. On a side note, I just picked up Sam Mustafa’s new ‘Scourge of Princes’ game which covers the same period. So I hope to give that a couple of plays soon and will report those battles as well. We will see which game I prefer for the period.
I recently showed the goblins for my Underworld Blood Bowl team. The other green skins in an underworld team can field are snotlings. So, here are 6 of them. These are 3D printed but are I think the best figures in the team. They are all very characterful and really show the craziness of the underworld team. They are small figs so have ‘blown up’ quite big in these pictures.
I really like this first couple of figures – who are ‘dealing with the rat issues’… One is hiding/playing as a rat – ,maybe trying to avoid getting hit by opponents. The other is being bitten by one. Great fun models.
The next two are really in action poses – but may be more realistic for the Snotlings work in the team. One looks to be taunting an opponent. The other sitting down for a rest!
The last pair have one maybe trying to throw a block or maybe just running for his life. It’s not really clear which. The other has a makeshift weapon, whichh is a broken bottle and using it for defense. It’s not cheating and he already looks injured so who can blame the little guy.
So there we are. Six models for the team and I think these will get a fair amount of use – after all they are dirt cheap and do have their uses on the field of play.
So onto the last regular season game of our league for my Chaos Chosen team. This time I was facing Gordon – a good coach who has a really nicely painted Necromantic team. He has a nice mat which fits the team as well, so lots of pictures of this game in the report.
His team has developed and faired well over the season. I expect we both will easily get into the playoff’s. In fact my team is challenging for the top spot in the league at present! His Necro team has a couple of skilled up wolves and ghouls as well a block skilled flesh golems. They only had guard on one of the ghosts though – so my Chosen had the advantage in strength. Even so, I was getting a lot of inducements -205k before the game. This is the first time this season my team has got inducements for a game this season.
I was tempted to take a star – either Max Spleenripper or Scyla Anfingrimm to give more hitting power in my team. A wizard was a tempting option as well…
In the end though I decided to use the money the team had to buy an extra re-roll and then use the inducement to take a mercenary line goat and a keg. This is basically was getting a little more ‘reliability’ in the team vs better but risky offense.
The weather was good and the Chosen won the toss so decided to receive the ball first. The kick was short and on the line of scrummage in the far wide zone. The Chosen made short work of putting the Harvester’s players who were close to the ball on their backs – which allowed a simple secure of the ball action to collect the ball, in a good cage of players. The Chosen Minotaur though decided to go for one of the Ghouls but after a wild frenzied blitz into the Harvester’s back field he had just left himself in a very exposed position!
Chosen cage at the top of the screen and the exposed Minotaur blitz
Of course the Harvesters focused on the mino and took him down. They then tried to gang foul him – but luckily his armour held.
Minotaur down and the Harvesters block the advance of the ball
The Chosen slowly moved the ball up the far side of the field and tried to extend their screen to also offer some support to the Mino. This worked to a level but allowed the Harvesters to reposition and stop the forward progress of the ball. The gang foul of the Minotaur continued of course – soon stunning him.
The Chosen still tried to slowly move up this side, but two failed blitzes by the Minotaur plus failed foul appaancce rolls all worked to stymie any progress. The Minotaur was still on the floor and the ball was retreated back to the line of scrimmage due to the pressure from the Harvesters.
The only good points for the Chosen was they still had the ball and a failed dodge by a skilled ghoul had caused it to be injured (only by the arm bar skill) and so was out for the rest of the game. The Chosen took hope as the Harvesters had used all their rerolls by now – so we’re hopeful for a failure by them which may help them out.
No progress of the ball by the Chosen with failed blitzes and blocks
In a dramatic turn the game swung potentially in the Harvesters favour, with a successful foul injuring the Minotaur. That evened up the player numbers but removed the chosen’s big threat. With that the Chosen decided they were not going to make any progress on the far side and so moved the ball into the center of the field, behind a screen of players.
The Chosen move the ball to the center behind a screen of players
The Chosen continued to move the ball and soon it was on the near side with another screen for cover. But the problem was they were just not fast enough to really exploit this. So could they hold off the Necro counter play…
The ball moves to the near side with the Chosen screen
The loose screen held for 1 turn as the Chosen moved the ball up.
However, the Harvesters were still in contact and that meant the screen was poor. It provided several possible options for them to get to the ball carrier. None could offer more than a 1 die block, but with frenzy on their side this was a real threat.
The ball carrier is so exposed as the screen in pressed by the Harvesters
As feared with good Necro play a wolf took down the ball carrier and knocked the ball loose. They only needed the 1 die blitz to get the ball lose. Luckily for the Chosen the ball bounced away from the Harvesters.
It left few options for the Chosen who had to try risky plays and single die blocks – which of course failed.
So now with 2 turns the Harvesters had a chance for the defensive touch down. They just had to remove the single Chosen player marking the ball and then pick up the ball and run downfield.
The ball is lose and marked by a big guy from each team
This is where that lack of rerolls came to bite them though. The Harvesters failed rush by their ghost to provide the assist for the key block. So the opportunity to score slipped through their claws…
In their last turn the Chosen in turn tried to score. It too required knocking down a player marking the ball and then picking up the ball. But it also needed a handoff to a marked player – who would then have to dodge out for the score. Nuffle seemed to be with them though, as they did not fail an action and so scored in their last turn. Multiple 4+ rolls were made without issue.
In the final turn of the 1st half the Harvesters did injure a line goat but did little else.
So in the end the Chosen got a score on their drive – more by luck than judgement it has to be said. The failure of the Harvesters take away at a critical moment was the key factor. But they still had everything to play for in the second half.
That started with the Harvesters doing a traditional drive of their own. A wolf collected the ball and moved up to the line of scrummage behind a scrum of their players.
Kick off of the second half
But they failed to cage up perfectly and left a path for the Chosen to blitz the ball carrier – which they did. That blitz failed to take the wolf ball carrier down, but left it marked.
In their turn the Harvesters blocked that player away but with a failed dodge their turn ended early and again failed to build good protection around the ball carrier.
This allowed a second turn with a Chosen Blitz on the ball carrying wolf – this time which did take him down. The ball bounced out of play and into the crowd. That section of the crowd was obviously full with the Chosen fans. I say that as they threw the ball back in play just behind the Chosen lines.
The Chosen quickly collected the lose ball and moved away from the mosh pit of players. So now the Chosen had got control of the ball and had it in the open, away from most of the Necro team.
the Chosen collect the ball after it is thrown in from the crowd
The Chosen goat ball carrier was running as fast has he could at this point. The rest of the team worked to hold up the Harvesters fast players. This worked out and soon the Chosen were 2 to 0 on the score board.
The ball carrier sprints down field while the Chosen try to hold up the pursuing Harvesters
By now it was the middle of the second half. The teams set up again with the Harvesters getting the ball again. This time the Harvesters spread out in a wide style play – more like elves than a traditional drive for the undead. It was clear the Harvesters were going for a quick score if possible.
The Harvesters 2nd drive of the second half – very open positions getting ready for a passing play
The Chosen tried to stop this – but one of the wolves ‘escaped containment’ and ran into the end zone. It then caught a ball thrown to it by the Ghoul. They made it look simple.
This brought the score to 2 to 1 and gave the Harvesters a hope that with a take away on the next drive they might be able to get a draw out of the game.
The Chosen tried to stop the throwing option but not well enough…
So the Chosen had to hold the ball for 3 turns ( 2 of the Harvesters) to secure the win. The kick was very short – and ended up just behind the line of scrummage. It was so close to the line that a secure the ball action was not initially possible. Luck was with the Chosen though and their blocks were good. Those took down the Harvesters who were blocking the action – allowing a secure the ball action. The whole Chosen team had caged up around the ball carrier.
The chosen cage up in the center with the ball for the last couple of turns
The Harvesters surrounded the Chosen cage and tried to put maximum pressure on. But they could not find an easy way to the ball carrier this turn. They were set up for the next turn trying to break the cage and get the ball for the tying score.
This pressure had given the Chosen one option. If they could take down a ghost and a flesh golem they could make a hole in the Harvesters net and escape. The die were rolled and all the hits went the Chosen way. So suddenly the ball carrier was rushing down field -and even had a screen. Due to the maximum pressure move the Harvesters had no safety or ability to recover from this. They could not do nothing to stop the Chosen running in for a 3rd score as the game closed.
The breakout is on – the chosen ball carrier heads out to score their 3rd
So a good victory for the Chosen and also one where they got a number of casualties – all but the key one on a Ghoul were regenerated straight away. This will help the team in their drive for the post season and also getting 1st place the league play. I will workout the new skills to get in the team when I hear my next opponent.
As for the game, looking back we both had good and bad die luck. I played the Minotaur wrong and lost him for the game early on. That is something I need to improve on and have not made that mistake in other games.
However, the Harvesters failure to get the defensive score in the first half was a huge factor in this win. The stand firm on the flesh golems never allowed me to create a safe screen for the move across the field. I just did not have enough players to do good positioning of the screen vs. the fast moving wolves. Maybe different positioning would have helped – but I am not sure of that. However they were unlucky they could not really take advantage of that. If they had done that then they could have played the second half differently.
In the second half I played that well – although I should have done a better job defending the quick score. I was not really expecting the ghoul pass – which I underestimated. I was lucky to get the 2 blitz’s on the ball carrier early in the second half – and those made a huge impact in the game result as well.
Well that’s it for now – another fun game of blood bowl and full of twists and turns.
Adventures in painting miniatures 
