Progress Report 9/23/13 - Alive and kickin' (butts).

Another month almost done and in the books without much to show for it on the hobby front. Spent most of the month away from home.

Attended Chaos Cup 9/7 and 9/8 with the Trailer Orc Boyz. Had six great games against six fun opponents and came away with 3 wins and 3 losses for my first 6 games playing Orcs. Pretty happy with that especially due to some terrible (very bad) dice luck throughout the whole tournament and being quite ill for the duration of the event. Finished 34 out of 75 coaches and beat the coach of my first Orc game loss! Not too shabby. Didn't manage to snag too many pictures but here is one of me on my second to last game of the tourney (and last loss) against Majortusk's Dwarfs. 

Hi Tom.

Now back on the painting train. Working on commissions, gangers, terrain, ratmen, dirty elves, and more. Gotta get back into painting mode!! On the gaming front I had a great KUBBL 5 season going undefeated with the Khorne R'Backs, winning my playoff game, and the championship game will be played today. With any luck I will have my first KUBBL  championship under my belt with more to come. Until next time...

KUBBL 5 - Week 4: Glade Running away...

Damn dirty Wood Elves!! They were too slippery to splat effectively and we almost lost with a tie due to their crazy Agility! Lucky for the KRB the eyes of Khorne were watching and allowed a few timely armor breaks and KO rolls to even up the score and give the Khorne R'Backs the win. 

Going into this game the KRB roster looked similar to this (except with some dead weight and a lack of Guard):

Glade Runner took A Wizard, Halfling Chef, 2 x Wandering Apoth, 2 x BB, and a RR before kicking off to Khorne R'Backs. Though they tried hard to crush the elf magic of the Glade Runner the minions of Khorne only managed several KO before scoring on Turn 8 of the first half. Glade Runner finished the half with a pass for SPP.

Khorne R'Backs kick to Glade Runner going into the second half, who get a quick snap, and use their elf agility and speed to quickly score on turn 2 of the half. The Glade Runner kick to the Khorne R'Backs who fumble the ball around a bit before smacking down an elf and taking it back with Wobbledog breaking away from the elf bad touch to win the game 2-1.

Lots and lots and lots of 6s and 7s were rolled on 2d6 and very little was done in terms of casualties.

KUBBL 5 - Week 3: The Devastators get Devastated.

Actually got in two games this week as I have a bit of catch-up play to do. This week's game was against Coach T Rex and the Detroit Devastators. It was the first time we have played together and I was really looking forward to going up against this team. I have a hit or miss record against Human teams and with massive inducements for Coach T Rex it really could have been anyone's game. The KRB gameplan going in? First eliminate the Ogre, then work our way through the Strip Ball and Guarding pieces until we only have a few others to crush. Here is the KRB going into the match:

Rolled doubles for Maim Fist'r after the win against the Lads. Initially thought about going for Dodge to make him a truly obnoxious force but with him being a league casualty leader I felt Jump Up would be better for his next skill of Pile On. So that's what I did!

Detroit Devastators kicked off to Khorne R'Backs to start the game, feeling confident in their Wizard, tons of rerolls, multiple Apothecaries, and Bloodweiser Babes on the sideline. The kick landed in the corner after nearly bouncing out of bounds but was quickly scooped up by Bitescum for a pass to the Sure Hands of Gorefoul. Caging up the Khorne R'Backs came out of the gates swinging, dealing a few badly hurts right away and immediately knocking several players into the KO box (including rookie Ogre Doc Savage  “Titan” ). While waiting as long as they could in an attempt to bait the Detroit Devastators Wizard into attacking the Khorne R'Backs finally scored on turn 7 of the first half to go up 1-0.

Detroit Devastators took the ball back and made a quick pass for SPP before calling it a half.

Khorne R'Backs then kicked to Detroit Devastators who performed a nice hook and ladder play in an attempt to break away from the sheer killing madness the Khorne R'Backs were bringing to bear against them. A drunken Wizard fizzled his spell but this did not dissuade the peppy Stretch Johnson as he made a long pass out of traffic and to his chosen receiver down field. It might have worked too if not for the nimble reflexes of Spittleslash who snatched the ball out of the air as it was sailing to an open Catcher in the Khorne R'Backs backfield. With this the Khorne R'Backs were able to regain control of ball and possession of the pitch, spending round after round trying to tear apart the Detroit Devastators before finally scoring on turn 8 of the second half.

KUBBL 5 - Week 2: Two weeks late is not late enough for ELF VIOLENCE

Yup. Time for ELF VIOLENCE. Courtesy of this week's matchup between the KRB and the disgusting Dark Elf flavored GrymmLurke Lads. This is the second season for the Dark Elf variety of the Lads and they are shaping up nicely. He's managed to spread around the SPP and skill up some of his Linemen, Blitzers, and Runners while not taking a heavy toll in the bash game. UNTIL NOW?!

The combination of Claw+Mighty Blow should make swift work of the AV8 Elf paste in pants and I expect up and coming KUBBL legend Bloodgutter to make a very special appearance and decapitate a pointy eared head or two. Don't believe me? Check out this write up on Bloodgutter over on the Spiked Ball and see what they have to say!

POST GAME UPDATE:

GrymmLurke Lads received the first kick off and got a quick snap. Bitescum makes a two dice two headed cage busting blitz with a reroll but only gets two pushes and two more pushes for his trouble. GrymmLurke Lads score on turn 2.

Khorne R'Backs get the return kick and proceed to drive their meatgrinding bus down the field sending most of the GrymmLurke Lads to the KO box and score on Turn 8 even after coach Max blasts 3 of 5 caged players with a Wizard's fireball.

Khorne R'Backs receive the kick after a perfect defense is rolled but Gorefoul drops the ball on his pass. While the GrymmLurke Lads attempt to pressure the lose ball a few failed dodges and GFI keep them on their backs. After some positioning by coach Max the Khorne R'Backs are able to retrieve the ball and chain push Wobbledog into scoring position with his MV7 and two successful GFI for a two turn Chaos score.

GrymmLurke Lads receives the ball again but quickly loses it due to failed dodges and GFI giving the Khorne R'Backs the opportunity to capitalize on their mistakes. Spittleslash breaks away from the GrymmLurke Lads and manages to run down the clock for the last turn score finishing the game 3-1 for Khorne R'Backs.

KUBBL 5 - Week 1: Time for amphibian blood...

It's that time again! Time for a new season of Blood Bowl in our local KUBBL league. Brought back the Khorne R'Backs for their third season and as you can see they are developing quite nicely...

A few teams decided to go all out on bounties on the KRB even though they didn't actually play against the team in any meaningful way... the joys of being a bashy team I suppose!?

For a full run down on the local league action check out The Spiked Ball - a blog run by one of our co-commissioners  Furry. He has some crazy season predictions that mostly allow for the KRB to crush all opponents and take the whole bloody enchilada. We'll see how that goes as the blood thirsty minions of Khorne face off against the agile alien amphibians of the Lethal Leap today! Our record going into the match is quite telling... 3-0 on TD and 12-1 on casualties. Let the good (head) times roll!!

(POST GAME UPDATE)

Blood was spilled but the frogs managed to sneak by once early in the game for a turn 2 TD and then capitalize on a bad pass to break away headed into the second half. The KRB fought back and brought out the big +AG guns and answered back with two TD of their own to tie up the game and gave themselves time to crush the opposition even among the army of apothecaries and babes on the sidelines. Final result 2-2 with KRB dishing out  a hefty 7 causalities  (3 coming from one player - Maim Fist'r) while sustaining no damage themselves.

Progress Report 3/25/13 - Stuck between a rock and a lobsterman's hard place.

What the heck!? March is almost over!? Where does the time go...

It has been a very busy few weeks here. Still finishing the new house buying process, still trying to get my Necromunda Goliath gang built up, still working on terrain, and now I have a new Lobsterman themed Halfling Blood Bowl team in the works?! All while trying to pack up all my stuff so I can move it to a new nerd cave? Oh yeah and I played in Headbanger's Ball III last weekend and took something like 5th with my Vampires. That was cool. 

On to the photos! First up we have some primed terrain that I want to paint. Added a couple more pieces since the last photos I posted.

Pretty happy with how they turned out. Can't remember who I stole the idea of staples as ladder rungs from but thanks for that! The super glue "rivets" are passable but not fantastic. Still some areas I could touch up but I am okay with the medium level of quality on these. 

Next up we have the miniature I am painting to add to the Big House! I figure a big dumb Ogre/Troll is just what the stands need with all those drunk Dwarfs hanging around.

Got this guy from Ramshackle Miniatures last year and have been wanting to paint him up for awhile. Didn't really have a reason to until now! Gotta figure out how to work in the Maize & Blue.

"But wait Randroid... you said something about a lobsterman's hard place!?" Why yes... yes I did. On a whim I picked up enough small Lobstermen from Tor to make a Halfling team for Blood Bowl. Got them in the mail and giddily ripped them open and started gluing them on bases.

The bigger Lobstermen are the "Treemen" of the team and they represent what the smaller fellows grow into (assuming they survive that long) later on. I have a special mini coming in the mail to represent Deeproot but I will save that for another day (it's a mini I have wanted a reason to paint since I first saw it). Got them all built and primed so I thought I would do a quick test model too...

Pretty happy with how this looks and it was super quick and easy to do. Might still add a bit of highlights to the back carapace but otherwise I think this is a go! Going to add some water to the bases later on but you can see my attempt at "faking it" with gloss varnish on this one. 

So that's what I have been up to! Oh... and also playing in a D&D 3.5 game too. I'll have some minis for that coming sometime soon. Tonight is the first game in the KUBBL 4 season and it's KRB against... ELVES. There will be blood, oh yes, there will be blood.

KUBBL 3 - Khorne R'backs Season 1 Finish.

Today was the day... the end of the third season of KUBBL. The Khorne R'backs played their last game of the season (to secure fifth place) against the Human powerhouse of the Red Cedar Riots. While the Humans were down an Ogre, and had a few less players due to their playoff games, the Riots beat KRB in the regular season and this time the forces of Chaos were out for blood!

Sadly they brought pillows instead of powerful claws. Though they managed to break armor many times in the first half of the game the KRB only did 1 KO and no casualties during the first half. A short rash of KO rolls came in early on in the second half but the one and only casualty for the KRB during the game was towards the end of the game by "new" player Bloodgutter the Minotaur. 

After scoring to secure a skill up for the Chaos Warrior Gutsqueeze Gnarloc, the KRB had to fight the Riots back in order not to tie. A last ditch effort on the part of the Riots almost allowed them the score but the final pass was inaccurate and scattered out of bounds leaving the KRB with the 2-1 win and only 1 casualty for the entire game. The KRB finish their first season in the league with a 5-1-3 record and a total of 24 casualties for the mighty KHORNE.

On to KUBBL 4... hopefully this time with more SKULLS and BLOOD. 

KUBBL 3 - Round 6 Results.

Played round 6 due to some schedule shakeups. Round 5 still to come!

The game started with a kickoff to the Red Cedar Riots which resulted in a touchback - moving 6 spaces from the center of the pitch and over the line. This was after the weather was rolled which came up as Sweltering Heat (this didn't come into play again until the second half).

The Red Cedar Riots quickly moved up the field and positioned their receivers to score. A few pillow handed blocks by the Khorne R'Backs put the pressure on the Red Cedar Riots and eventually caused them to throw a not ideal long pass. The pass was almost fumbled but then thrown then almost caught and then dropped. After a timely injury on Sharpuss the Red Cedar Riots used this advantage to recover the ball and score on turn 7 of the first half. After rolling on the heat a couple Red Cedar Riots players were exhausted but came in after the half ended. The kick off result was a RIOT brought on by the rowdy Red Cedar Riots fans which left the Khorne R'Backs with only one turn to score. With nothing to do they passed the ball around a little and took some blocks but their gentle hands failed to do any damage.

The second half began with two Khorne R'Backs players leaving the field due to the heat - Maim Fist'r and Bloodgutter both watched from the bench for the entire second half. Meanwhile the Red Cedar Riots brought all their players back and were at full strength. Then kick off and the weather changes back to nice. Despite being down two players the Khorne R'Backs still managed to punch a hole through the Red Cedar Riots lines and make for the end zone with Eyecankhorne handling the ball. The Red Cedar Riots managed to scramble back to defend after a second (in two turns) double skulls block from Gutsqueeze Gnarlroc left their left flank open and they lost the ball. After a couple maneuvers the ball was easily taken back by Spittleslash who was then knocked down in the open as he made his way towards the end zone. Another pick up and almost dropped pass by Captain Kirka Sins to another almost caught but dropped ball left the Red Cedar Riots in a good position to score. Outmanned and unable to do a single KO or Armor Break the Khorne R'Backs were easily handled and lost the match 2-0 with only 1 measly casualty to show for their work.

KUBBL 3 - Round 4 Results.

Khorne R'Backs versus Fancybottom Lads started on a very sunny day with the initial kick going to the Khorne R'Backs. While the first block from Bloodgutter didn't go well (skull, both down, reroll, two both downs) the Khorne R'Backs still managed to beat down the Fancybottom Lads and get away with a cage. At one point there were 7 Wood Elf players in the KO box. Frustrated by the lack of remaining blocks the Khorne R'Backs score on Turn 7 and give the Fancybottom Lads their own two turns to return the score. After some quick maneuvering by the Wardancers the Fancybottom Lads tied it up and head into the second half with most of their team returning from the KO box.

The Fancybottom Lads receive a quick snap and quickly move into scoring position on turn 1. The Khorne R'Backs manage to push around the elves near the sideline but cannot keep the Blodging/Side Stepping madness of the Woodies from scoring again on Turn 2. After dropping a high kick the Khorne R'Backs manage to drive in a passing score on Turn 5 to tie the game after a few choice casualties (including Wardancer Colonel Hurtstrong with a -AG). Left with 3 turns left to score again for the win the Fancybottom Lads drop the ball near the line of scrimmage and give the Khorne R'Backs a chance to blitz in and take the ball. After 3 turns of balls bouncing out of and into the hands of the Woodies the game ends in a tie.

KUBBL 3 - Round 3 Results.

Match started odd with sweltering heat coming up right away. Khorne R'Backs received Fan Factor +2 but lost the option to receive. The Elfa Males opted to receive but due to a couple of failed rolls quickly lost that advantage after moving the ball to the line of scrimmage. The Khorne R'Backs capitalized on this advantage and quickly took out the Elfa Males +S Catcher, then a few choice Knock Outs with chain pushes, and finally took possession of the ball before grinding the Elfa Males for another 7 turns. The Khorne R'Backs did take a cas due to a both down block that could have been a push (two dice uphill, Khorne R'Backs Coach Randroid opted for the chance to see BLOOD) which put them on the back foot a bit for a couple turns.

Second half the Khorne R'Backs received the ball but lost two players to the sweltering heat, leaving the two teams tied and losing their man advantage. After almost losing the ball due to a daring Elfa Males blitz Bitescum was able to break away with the ball and get into a safety position near the end zone. The Elfa Males began throwing their weight around, focusing their elven anger on the remaining chaos warriors, but failing to do any additional damage with the exception of a beastman. After another 8 turns of grinding the Khorne R'Backs scored again and clinched their victory.

KUBBL 3 Round 2 Results.

Progress Report 1/13/13 - The Khorne R'Backs are ready for blood!

Wow that week went by fast! It seems like time has a way of speeding up when you least expect it. Last week I didn't manage to get too much done on the table. Finishing up the Khorne R'Backs for their KUBBL debut tomorrow against a team of dirty Norse known as Trondheim Steamroller coached by Tridriscoll. Not what I would have loved for a first match (looking at you squishy Wood Elves) but I am hoping I can hold out against the Block and get some CAS with the lower armor of the Norse. 

This season is turning out to be a potential bash-fest. We've got...

• A second season Lizardmen team coached by Thorn one of the consistent league record holders and multiple champion of the KUB Bowl. This is the team that crushed my Vampires in my first season game last time around, forcing me to restart them right after the game. And that was without any skills! Now they have Block and Mighty Blow and Jump Up all over. Ugh.
  
• A first season Undead team coached by Beaux who has won the last two championships with 1 season teams (Dwarfs and Skaven). He's a good coach who doesn't often make mistakes and has crazy good dice rolls and he's playing one of the best teams around in Blood Bowl... but for the first time. We'll see how that shakes out.
  
• A second season Human team coached by Furry who has also won the KUB Bowl and also rarely makes mistakes. Furry usually loses to his own bad dice rolls which are almost as bad as mine at times. His team is skilled and looking pretty specialized. Hoping he loses a few of the key playmakers or  his team could be one to take it all.
  
• New Norse, new Skaven, new Wood Elves, and new Dwarfs round out the remainder of the team. My record against Skaven and Wood Elves is spotty.. maybe 50/50. Against Dwarfs it is down right miserable.. probably something like 10/90. Plenty of Block and other nasty stuff in those remaining teams. 

So where does that leave me? Well... my models are mostly painted and my roster starts with no skills! That's a good thing right??

Kinda hard to read that... select the image to zoom in on details. The gist is this... started with all four Chaos Warriors and seven Beastmen. That left me just enough for three rerolls which should last me for quite awhile and help off-set the lack of starting skills. No Apoth and no Minotaur but my plan is to level up the Warriors ASAP, focusing on skill development over winning if need be early in the season.

Here's what the Khorne R'Backs looked like on the painting table this morning (as usual, apologies for the shoddy cell phone camera photos... I will get real ones once the are finished I promise):

Chaos Warriors as played by old Bloodletters with some modifications.

WIP Minotaur butt.

Blurry WIP Minotaur front

Beastmen as played by blurry Bloodletters.

Also on the painting table are the almost finished Horusburg Hackers my Khemri team. Just need to finish the bases and I am calling these guys done. 

Tomb Guardians with big weapon hands.

Blit-ras on the left and right and the Tho-ra in the middle.

Skeledudes looking tough and stuff.

And that's what we look like at the moment! Hoping to get some models sealed and the Minotaur done today. Then it's on to the final bloody details of the Khorne R'Backs but probably not in time for their first outing tomorrow. Wish them luck!