Progress Report 5/12/14 - Bangin' heads and balls.

Back home after a fantastic one day Blood Bowl tournament at Headbangers Ball IV. This year the event was held at Draxtar Games in Batavia/Aurora Illinois. Cool store with lots of gaming space and a healthy mix of tabletop games, card games, board games, and miniatures/painting supplies. 

The tournament ended up being a 3 round event due to a change in schedule (store opened later than originally anticipated) but I was fine with one less game (having to drive 3 hours there and 3 hours back makes for a long day). 

Played 3 great games of Blood Bowl against 3 fantastic opponents. I brought out my Ogres with a roster that looked like this...

Meet the GORE GRINDERS!

Ogre - Block, Sure Hands
Ogre x 2 - Block, Break Tackle
Ogre x 3 - Guard
Snotling - Leader
Snotling x 5
Rerolls x 2

First round I went up against the foul forces of the Chaos team known as Feel The Noize coached by Sickness. We had played once previously at ZlurpeeBowl 8 when I had a team of all Zombies. This time around our teams were a bit more evenly matched. Game began with the Gore Grinders receiving the ball only to stall out on the line after crashing into a wall of Chaos Warriors. While the Ogres kept their wits about them (very few Boneheads) they didn't manage to break armor or inflict any KO results in their drive to score. After 7 turns of bashing helplessly into one another the first casualty of the game was scored by a Double Skull result thrown by the Noize Minotaur who killed himself on the outstretched first of a nearby Ogre. Hurr hurr hurr...  Second round was a bit more bloody with the Noize bringing the noise to the Gore Grinders in an attempt to score for the win. After much smashing and crashing about 3 more Noise players wound up dead while the tricksy snotlings of the Gore Grinders managed to hold up the Chaos offense by throwing them into several moshpits on the pitch. Final score was 0-0 with 4 casualties for the Gore Grinders. 

Second round saw the Gore Grinders matched up with the veteran coach BCH with his brand new Orc team here known as the War Pigs. Once again the Ogres received the opening kickoff and proceeded to bash quite a few Orcs off the field but failed to inflict any casualties until after losing one of their own Ogres to a Black Orc block. The Ogres returned the favor and crushed the head of the offending Black Orc then proceeded to hand the ball to a snotling for their first score of the day on turn 8 of the first half. The War Pigs returned fire with a quick score on turn 3 of the second half allowing the Gore Grinders a chance to score for the win on turn 8 of the second half. After a daring Ogre dodge and pass through traffic the ball was dropped by the receiver who was just squares away from the end zone. Final score was 1-1 with 1 casualty for the Gore Grinders. 

The third and final round pitted the Ogres against the recently returned Necromantic forces of the Nawlin Nightmares coached by Darkstar70. Darkstar70 and I have played a few times, most notably in a Nurgle mirror match during Chaos Cup 2012 where he managed to out gross me for a win, and he is always good for a fun game. This time the Ogres kicked off to the Necromatic Nightmares from Nawlin but managed to draw the ire of a very judgmental referee who proceeded to eject any player after they rolled doubles on any injury roll (just like a foul). This left both teams frightened to make any blocks but the Nightmares decided to give it a go and quickly lost one of their Wights to a successful block on a snotling who was stunned in the process. Happy with this trade the Ogres let the Nercomantic Nightmares score quickly on turn 3 in hopes of driving away the eagle-eyed referee so they could get back to bustin' dead heads. And bust them they did! After a few stumbles, and turns spent staring at shiny rocks on the ground, the Gore Grinders came on strong and quickly sent 2 zombies to their final-final reward. While the Nawlin crew did crush a few snotlings underfoot they were unable to keep the Ogres from rolling forward and making a score after a daring Ogre dodge into the end zone. The second half brought more ball flopping madness with both teams positioned to score but ultimately failing to do so when it counted. Final score was 1-1 with 4 casualties for the Gore Grinders. 

With a final result of 0W-0L-3T the Gore Grinders brought home the War Pig casualty award after choosing not to take the Iron Man Best Defense award with only 2 TD allowed all day. A fantastic trio of games with a fantastic trio of coaches and nothing but fun, metal, and laughs to top it off. Can't wait for next year! 

Me with the War Pig skull trophy.