The Greenboyz mega catchup post #2 (52 minis weeks ???)

Back for more of that GREEN!?

Okay well let us get right to it with a quick recap from Legends Cup.

And there you have it! The Greenboyz had a final record of 0 wins, 1 tie, and 2 losses. Lost the first match vs Underworld Creepers. Came down to a failed GFI and tripping over the goal line for a tie. Second match was against the Bright Crusaders who pulled ahead early for a 2-0 lead but didn't count on the scrappy Goblins of the boyz coming back to tie it up 2-2 in the end. Last round was a brutal game against the Grudge Bearers who dominated the field and finally outscored a tie in the last turn of the game.

Overall a really fun event I am look forward to the next one now that I have a bit more practice with the team and know the rules a bit better (like you can't throw a Pogoer... oops!).

Hot on the heels of Legends Cup the boyz headed to Chicagoland for Chaos Cup 17. With the theme this year being GOBLINS it seemed like a no-brainer to bring a less than stellar version of The Greenboyz to the pitch for 6 games of Blood Bowl action.

Chaos Cup 2017 - Goblin Power!!

Round 1 vs Khemri (Coach aenir)
First game of the tournament started way up on table 10 or so versus... Khemri!? Got bashed around good and the fewer goblins on the pitch the easier it was to score for some reason. Managed to shut out the Khemri for a 2-0 win and secure goal #1 for The Greenboyz at Chaos Cup 17 - take home at least one win!

Round 2 vs Undead (Coach swerve)
Playing on table 4 (what the) after round 1 The Greenboyz got utterly trounced by the Undead. Not even a close matchup from a player perspective. Ended in about 1 hour or less. Nice coach though! I look forward to playing a proper match sometime in the future.

Round 3 vs Skinks (Coach bluedaybreak)
Finally a good match up for the boyz! At least on paper... this one turned into a snooze fest with the goblins failing every roll they made. It was a disaster but at least I was drinking heavily at this point! Ended up losing 0 to 3.

Round 4 vs Skaven (Coach gaddockteeg)
Ending the day somewhere in the middle/back of the tables (mid 20's) the boyz ended up matched against a Skaven team. I fully expected this to be a blowout but the boyz surprised me by going head to head in a shoot out with Gutter Runners?! Failed a final TTM attempt to tie it up on the last turn of the second half and ended up losing 2 to 3. A really fun game!

After a full day of Blood Bowl it was time to relax and unwind with a little SRG Supershow! Dr. Skullface made his XCW premiere and was promptly smacked down by everyone he went against (mostly by rolling Agility on the dice over and over and over again...). Luckily The Right managed to win the whole thing and bring home the tiny championship belt to Kalamazoo! Alright!! Then it was on to day 2 of Chaos Cup.

Round 5 vs Dwarves (Coach bigstraycat)
Dwarves. How are they even down here on the bottom tables!? Broken. I don't remember much from this match outside of being very pissed off as my opponent decided to stall out after being in the lead by 2. Playing for all the marbles at the bottom tables... good game bro? Just to spite their beardy faces managed a TTM 1 turn score on the last turn to get on scoreboard. Lost 2 to 1.

Round 6 vs Dark Elves (Coach sargon)
Deep into the bottom tables now last match is against... Dark Elves?! I mean wtf... can't I play at least one more fun team? The boyz failed all their rolls, coach hated himself and the game, probably was a dick to his opponent, and finally lost 3 to 1.

Somewhere in the second day I put up The Greenboyz for the Chaotic Brush painting competition. I have entered every year since it began and each year I paint a new team for the event. And each year I received no awards. Now I don't think of myself or my painting as your traditional "painting competition winner" type but I also don't think of myself as a total shit painter. Here's the team.. you be the judge?

The Greenboyz with sideline bits and stuff. One of these minis I did not paint (the Ogre). 

Well surprisingly a couple things happened. #1 - I saw a few new teams and not the same teams which seem to be entered each year and continue to win awards.

#2 and #3 I won two awards!? Fan Favorite (hell yes!) and Best Theme (Green!). I may not look like it in the photos but I was (and am) super excited to finally win my first miniatures painting awards! Heck it's only taken me 10+ years to get here. Thanks to everyone who voted for and appreciated The Greenboyz! We're already adding new pieces to the team for the next time out.

Time to vote!!

It's time to vote! Not for that silly US election, it's time to vote for the far more important Deathroller contest! Vote for me! Number 3! Or vote for whichever one you like I suppose...

Vote here! - http://bloodbowlmayhem.blogspot.com/2012/10/and-voting-for-best-deathroller-starts.html

Progress Report 10/21/12 - Gnoblar Groincrusher complete.

Behold! Groincrusher! A Gnoblar crewed Deathroller!

Groincrusher - crewed by many, lived by few.

Whattya doin' down there?!

Just a slight turn to the left...

We got beer and extra gnoblars... just in case!

The view of our next victim...

Yellow lightning makes us faster!

Still working on the details but I wanted to get photos done in time for the Merry Mayhem competition! Really had a lot of fun building and painting this monster. Hope to see it on the Deathroller track some time next year! A bit of the old "fluff" on Groincrusher:

"Crewed by Honcho Sleckbick the Groincrusher is the ultimate in Gnoblar reveng-eineering. Crafted from the bronze remains of a Dwarf Deathroller crew, this steam and rune imbued device has gifted Sleckbick with incredible luck, allowing only half of his crew mates to die each time it takes to the field. Sleckbick and his crew return to salvage wreckage from each race in an attempt to build and even bigger (and thus tougher and stronger) shiny metal crushing device. Some say Sleckbick's uncanny luck is the result of a magical talisman he took from a dead Dwarf Engineer, though it has been rumored that he actually recovered the talisman from a latrine. Reeking of blood, skunk ale, and filth both Honcho Sleckbick and his Groincrusher are truly a savage sight to behold!"

Update:  Bits used - two bourbon bottle stoppers, one small plastic bag roll, two random yellow plastic thingies from a construction site, jewelry chain, plasticard, a bunch of Ogre Kingdoms bits, some Ork bits, some Vampire Counts bits, and a few Gnoblars!

Also stole some of the fluff info/ideas from the Gnoblar Armies fan made army book! So thanks to those who worked on that Gnoblar masterpiece!

A merry Deathrolling compeition begins!

Why hello there poor neglected blog! I've been cracking away at some non-hobby projects which have eaten up some of my gaming and painting time, but I just came across something that literally had me drop everything and start scrounging in my bits box:

The Merry Mayhem Deathroller build contest!

Ultimately the goal is to have a Deathroller model for use in a Deathroller race of some kind (some rules and ideas on that here as well) and what better way to encourage the building and usage of these deathmachines than holding a competition?

Here is where I have started after about 10 mins work with my bits. Still have a ways to go but the basic structure and idea are coming together:

A Gnoblar driven scrap heap begins to take shape...

So what are you waiting for!? Dig into your bits box and start scrappin' together a rolling deathmachine worthy of the name.... DEATHROLLER.

Fun vs Competition - WTF is this s#!t?

A comment to Stelek's response to my Skrag ramblings in this post caught my eye and I wanted to respond in kind. (Stelek has since posted this comment as its own post here as well)

Endre Enyedy wrote:

As the one who originated the Skragg topic, I just have to chime in at this point. I've been reading the debate back and forth, and is great - helps me understand Skragg and the army all the better. But there's something that just doesn't sit well with me:

"I think for the most part we agree on things, especially trying to make a "competitive" list for Ogres. But I love my fatties (my first army and lucky for me I don't really give a crap about winning. If I want to win I just play my Vampire Counts. :D Besides where is the challenge or fun in playing one of the "broken"and "competitive" lists? Seems boring to me ..."

What? So let me get this straight, I spend hundreds of dollars and man hours putting together an army, so then I can get the real fun of losing all the time? How is that fun? Not only that, but look at the entire tone of the paragraph. I love my cutesy wootsie fatties, they're so silly and fun! They're the army I play when I just want to have a laugh!

In the words of Sarah Silverman: What the fuck is that shit?

I get it, GW has a sense of dark humor spread in its armies. But what am I, as a consumer, supposed to take out of this? I like Ogres because they're a pretty dark army, brutal monsters who will eat you as easily as help you, with a very dark, blood splattered imagery that's straight out of horror movies, tempered by the amusing wickedness of the Gnoblars. The models can be amazing, they're full of detail thanks to their scale and beg for rust, blood, and other weathering effects to make them realistic and grungy. For god's sakes, we're discussing a crazed giant carrying around a cauldron full of corpses and offal, who cut off his own hands and attached knives to the stumps!

I hate that people justify the fact that the army book is crap by making it seem like it's ok, as if GW purposedly created them to have floppy shoes, a red nose, and go around making people go "yuk yuk". Like somehow there's something noble about not playing the game for real, but rather you're there to be the class clown and make people crack up when they play you.

Well, I'm sorry, I'm not a teenager any more, I don't get fulfillment out of that. I don't want to show up to a tournament and say "Hey guys, look at me, woooo". I don't want to play a campaign where I'm basically free land for my neighbors. My game store charges for use of their tables. Why would I pay for my opponent to dance on my army?

I want to think my army is cool. I want to look at my models, read the fluff, then turn around on the battlefield and enjoy what I'm doing. I don't want to find the "fun" in getting reamed. I want to feel like a have a chance, I want to know that if I fail it's because *I* failed as a general, not because I showed up to the knife fight with a bag of cotton swabs.

I'm sorry Randall, I don't mean to attack you, I'm just venting my frustration at this bullshit "losing is its own kind of winning if you make them laugh!" attitude I see all over forums when it comes to Ogres.

I play 40k Necrons, which are just as much ass right now, but you know what? Nobody ever denigrates the army the way people denigrate Ogres...and it's usually the Ogre players while defending it! Orks and Orcs, they have a lot of silliness and humor, but in the end people respect them as armies, people find the models really cool, and people take them seriously. Nobody says "I want to play Orcs because they're so silly, ha! I want to have fun!"

Look at Stelek on his Goblins: "I enjoy my goblin army very much. They are much maligned but I've done well with them." He doesn't say "I enjoy my goblin army very much. I lose all the time, but damn it's funny when all my stone throwers misfire! I never win, but damn if it isn't satisfying to roll all those animosity dice!"

So yeah. Just had to get that out there. I like the tactical discussions and the back and forth, I like the ideas to make them work. Just don't undermine any serious tactical discussion stating that they're for "fun", and if you want to actually win a game you play another army. Because that's just a kick in the nuts to those of us without that other army.

First - thanks for commenting Endre I appreciate it.

Second - my comment that you took offense with was made in jest, a bad joke. I haven't even finished my Vampire Counts army so there is no way I could "win" with them!

My apologies if my off-the-cuff comment upset you (they certainly seem to have struck a nerve) but the fact of the matter is I play WHFB for fun (shit I hope we all do). I don't think of the Ogre Kingdoms army as a "just for fun" or "laughs and yucks" type list, but at the same time I don't consider myself to be a "competitive" gamer - it simply isn't my focus. I haven't been playing long enough to consider myself "good" and honestly I dislike the majority of the tournament scene and most of the people involved (Stelek does a good job of outlining those issues on his blog so I won't go into it here).

I chose Ogre Kingdoms as my first Fantasy army for almost all the reasons you state in your comment. The giant flesh eating monsters, covered in blood, living in caves, fighting and drinking their short lives away. That was the army I wanted to collect, model, paint, and play on the tabletop. I knew going into it that the army wasn't considered "top tier" or "competitive" among most WHFB vets but I never worried about that. You win some you lose some right?

Shortly after playing my first few matches I grew discouraged. The army I had set out to collect and play was not living up to my expectations on the tabletop. I was frustrated but never considered dropping the army, by that time I had grown to love the look of the models even more.

Over time, with plenty of practice and patience, I have learned how to play my OK force. One of the biggest helps for me was connecting with other Ogre players at the Ogre Stronghold - a must view for any serious Ogre general. I've been reading and posting on the Stronghold forum every day since I found it and even now I still learn a thing or two about playing Ogres.

Am I happy about the situation that GW has put the army in? Hell no. But what can be done about it at the moment? With next to nothing in way of fan-support or outreach how is a frustrated customer to get their view into the "right" hands? All I can hope is GW is planning on releasing an updated book that fixes the major problems they created with the OK list when it was released. Removing all of the seemingly arbitrary restrictions would be a great start (I dare you to find another army book with more restrictions).

I don't expect massive change though. Looking at the Chaos Ogres in the new WoC book gives me an idea of what to expect and it is nothing to write home about. Sadly, I could still make a better Ogre army list out of the WoC book if I wanted to.

So I do what I can; I keep playing my Ogres, constantly trying out new combinations and army lists, hoping to find something that "works" in the competitive scene. I try and keep track of my wins and losses, what did I do right and what could I have done better?

If I had it to do over would I still start my Ogre Kingdoms army? Absolutely. I love my fatties, they are a blast to play with (even when they are frustrating the hell out of me) and I don't think I would be half the Fantasy general I am now without the experience of playing with a "low tier" army.

So in closing - Endre I understand where you are coming from. It is frustrating and I don't really have great advice for dealing with the whole situation aside from "try not to take it so seriously". Join the ranks of Ogre generals trying to find a way to "make it work" and banging their heads against the OK Army Book. Talk tactics, what works and what doesn't. Experiment and play the "stupid" or "worthless" things - nothing is off limits.

I'll be here doing the same thing and hopefully winning a game or two in the process.

Thanks,

Randroid