Following on from UKTC 2024 Day 1 and UKTC 2024 Day 2, what better way to wind down than a day of Blood Bowl in Bristol! Well, many ways, but this is the one we chose, to bring the numbers up to 14 at a lovely little gaming store – Bristol Independent Gaming. Some pretty decent players in amongst them, with members of Teams England, Wales, Scotland and the mighty Sann Clan in attendance.
I took pro elves (Elf Union) to this one as the first tiebreaker was most touchdowns, so it seemed a bit of a no-brainer to take elves, and mine had been sat on a ranking of 149.99 for a while. Mulled over a few options on the 115 roster, and went with 4 Catchers, 1 Thrower (risky!), 2 Blitzers and 4 Line, with 3 Rerolls and Apo. Dodge on 3 Catchers and 2 Blitzers, and a Guard stack on one of the Blitzers.
Alex had a decent weekend with vampires and tried a non-Vargheist roster this time with 6 vamps and 3 rerolls, 2 dodge runners, dodge/block throwers and dodge/block blitzers.
Game 1 was v 8ulldog’s orcs and he couldn’t buy a break on elf armour, which made life hard, ending in a blizzard GFI over the line without a reroll, which he made. I then one-turned with a couple of rerolls, which the blizzard made a little tricky but the dice helped! Second half I had 9 elves, and a couple of orcs left the pitch, so despite trying to block my own path to get enough assists I was able to get the 2-1 win.
Game 2 was v Jip’s Slann, who were looking for revenge after I put them away after the last tournament and managed to break one. They had snuck the final of the league against Alex’s underworld though, so there were scores to be settled on both sides.
I let him move down the pitch to either force the turnover or early score, and taking more blocks than required meant that there was an easy 2 dice on the ball. Pushes ensued, and he scored in turn 4. On my drive I failed the pickup and didn’t reroll, and Jip threw everything at the recovery to get the 2-0, using 4 rerolls in a turn. He got in a reasonable position with me needing 2 3+ and a 2+ to blitz the ball carrier, which didn’t come off, so I was 2-0 down, but with rerolls to help. Sadly the dice let me down, and I went in 2-0 at the half with an uphill battle to come.
I scored quickly, then looked for the turnover, and Nuffle provided a blitz. Didn’t catch the ball, but had enough players to do the damage, and it became 2-2. One failed pick up later by him, and it was 3-2 to me, though I did give him 2 turns to score back with no rerolls. Time Out! He failed a hand off, and I was about to scoop up the ball and head off for the 4th when a 1 in 81 reared its ugly head. 2+,2+,3+,2+ and it was 3-3. Time for another one turner!
3 on the line, and a back line of 7, so the 3 pushes were reasonably straighforward, though did eat both my rerolls, unfortunately, meaning that the white line was able to do its thing and trip me over it. 110 after two games, but with a healthy number of touchdowns, I needed the only person on 2 wins to draw or lose, as Alex and NoNumber had fought out a draw on the next table.
Jip had a better TD difference than me, with the same TDs, so played Doglobro’s Khorne, who were on 2 wins, and I faced Alex’s Vampires in a possible title match. Tense!
The pro elf armour held, and between us we decided that 3 rerolls were not enough for a vampire team, so when the thralls started leaving the pitch it became difficult for the vamps, and I pulled out a 2-1 win. The frogs and Khorne drew, so with 2 of us on 210 the trophy was mine. And boy, what a trophy! No NAF shield as not enough players/games, but I now have NAF wins with 9 different races, which is quite nice.
