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.

Special edition of The Grind - Blood and Balls to the Walls (Bloodbowl Tournament edition).

Just a quick plug for my weekly metal radio show The Grind. Tonight on The Grind I will be broadcasting a special edition of the show inspired by Blood Bowl for Headbangers Ball. Songs about metal, blood, balls, death, and the power of the SKULLS. Tune in at 11pm EST to WIDR fm at 89.1 in the Kalamazoo area or online at www.widrfm.org. PLAY IT LOUD

Progress Report 2/27/12 - Feb Pledge Fail?

Spent a bit of time painting today. Wanted to get some lighter "belly" shades on my Lizardmen Blood Bowl team. I pledged to complete them for the February Stronghold painting pledge though it looks unlikely at the moment. Here is a quick before pic (from a couple weeks back - the last time I did any painting):

Before

And here is where they are at today..

After

I think I am happier with them? Still learning so much about painting... every day. I think a light wash might bring the transition in line a bit better but I am worried about crapping up my already crapped up paint job to the point of frustration. Instead of working on the skin more I started painting more of the details and bases. I was going slow... perhaps because I was listening to this while painting:

I forget that I enjoy painting. I need to do it more often so it is fresh in my mind. Being healthy helps too of course. Oh yeah! I'm just one follower away from 100! I think that is important or something? Until next time..

Painting and modeling motiviation - I listen to metal.

I listen to metal. But what does that mean? What is "metal" to you? It is a word that evokes a lot of different things for different people. When folks ask what sort of "metal" I listen to I find it hard to explain what I mean when using the term. There is a large subculture of "underground" metal bands, each with their own distinct style, and often falling into their own musical sub-genre. 

Personally I like my metal in many different styles - heavy, fast, slow, evil, psychedelic, oppressive, hard, gross, etc....

Since I have decided to post the occasional metal video or music link here on the blog (as it is typically what I listen to while painting and modeling) I thought it would be good to get some education material posted as well. As a sort of metal refresher here is a video which covers some of the early UK/US Grindcore and Death Metal pioneers such as Napalm Death, Morbid Angel, Bolt Thrower, Entombed, and Carcass. Most of the coverage is of Earache and Peaceville bands but it is good representation of what the metal scene was like at the time this was filmed.  

Enjoy!

Life...

The fight.... for LIFE...

I won't bother with "sorry for not posting" apologies. Inhumate does a good job in the video above. It would be a familiar story anyway... a month since my last post... life intrudes...

Sometimes the hobby urge is strong, sometimes less so. I was working on Necromunda models. I blame that for my slow decline into a lack of modeling/posting/painting.

Getting back on the hobby horse though! Just finished up the first new season of KUBBL with my Chaos Dwarf team Dunger Mifflin. Finished with 2 wins, 2 ties, and 3 losses. Not the greatest results but the good news is I also walked away with the team casualty award and the player with the most kills award. In the process I had plenty of injuries of my own - including a dead Chaos Dwarf blocker (Phylis Vance - RIP) and a couple lasting injuries on key players. I didn't manage to sneak into the playoffs but it was a fun season and I am pumped for the next one!

I have a perverse urge to put Mifflin on the back burner and start up my Vampire team the Strigoi Slash. I had a lot of fun playing a limited version of the team at Zlurpee Bowl this year and I would love to see a more developed version of the team in our league. Plus they are kind of like the Ogre team only they suck in a different way (get it?).

Banged up this quick logo which I am pretty happy with...

The models are mostly all done, just need to paint a few more Vampires. The hard part is choosing my starting roster. Right now I am debating between these two options.

Option #1

Vampires x 3

Thralls x 9

Rerolls x 4

Total: 970gp

PRO: More players on the pitch more often with the extra Thrall. Having a little gold left in the treasury gives me some flex in what I spend my earned gold on early.

CON: One less Vampire to start with which means it will take longer to skill up a full Vampire roster.

Option #2

Vampires x 4

Thralls x7

Rerolls x 4

Total: 1000gp

PRO: Four Vampires on the pitch makes for all kinds of interesting opportunities. It really plays up the S4 and A4 madness and opens new avenues for Hypnotic Gaze.

CON: I could easily eat through my entire team in one game with no bench. I would also have no gold in reserve to buy more Thralls.

Any advice on which roster you think is better would be much appreciated. The upfront cost of the Vampires has me shying away from going with 2 although I did compete with some of the best players in the country at Zlurpee Bowl with a roster like that. Hmmm...