This weekend I drove down to Pennsylvania for a pretty big Blood Bowl tournament. This is the biggest Blood Bowl event I've been to with 58 coaches ready to do battle on the pitch. My friend Kent told me about the tourney and it was a good opportunity to finally meet him in person. 

I ran Grubsnik's Greenskins (my orcs) since that was my most painted team and we made the decision to go last minute. Normally you number your players differently so you can tell them apart. However someone said the number 7 was lucky and all the orks were fighting over who got to wear that number. Rather than start with some injured players after what was sure to be a massive brawl, the coach decided to give everyone the number 7 and just have different colored jerseys to tell them apart. This lead to some amazing marketing cause then fans could support the team in the color of their choice!

Here's my roster: Grubsnik's Greenskins

Game 1

My first matchup was vs Clyde/King Tut playing as Khemri. He had four strength 5 players so he out-strengthed me.  But I had better armour and agility on my side. Plus Bomber Dribblesnot was able to do some serious work tossing bombs at the low agility players and knocking them over. A mummy finally had enough and put Dribblesnot on his back. It was a tough match up but my armour held out and I was able to secure a 1-0 victory after knocking out a few of his low armour skeletons.

Game 2

My second match was vs Jay/Some Kind of Eagles and he had a beautifully painted Human team. He is also a former Gen Con Blood Bowl champion. A friend of his found out I was going to be at the tourney and told him to track me down to say hi. I gave him my HBS business card and he took a couple pictures as proof of the completed task. I think the friend's name was Val? If so... Hi Val! If not, ping me with your name so I can say hi appropriately.

I prevented him from scoring in his first half, knocked out four guys and was 1 pip away from a counter score. During the second half I managed to march the ball down field but time was running short. Right after the 10 minutes remaining mark I decided to run it in even though the ball was completely secure. I just wanted to make sure time wasn't called before I officially ran it in.

I wound up accidentally throwing the win away though because my opponent said, "Let's hurry up and setup so I have a chance to equalize." I thought he meant just throw a bunch of blocks and earn a few points that way so I said sure. I quickly setup my guys leaving the sidelines completely open. He passes it up the field and we manage to squeeze two turns out giving him the chance to score. I try to stop him but my orcs are too far out of position to stop him. GAH! >.<

Game 3

My third game was vs. Jacob/What the Frog playing as Slaan - bunch of speedy leaping jerks and it looks like I forgot to take pictures. Playing defense vs them was extremely tough. I started wearing them down in the first half, but even still, they managed to leap right over my boyz and score during their possession in 4 turns. However, I almost managed a counter score but couldn't quite pull it off. I did manage to put about half his team in the KO and Injury box though.

For the second drive, I was able to score pretty quickly and nearly cleared the pitch of his players. He was down to only 3 people on the field and I still had a full roster. I was expecting an easy time of it but I forgot he had Long Bomb. My orcs were unable to pickup the ball down in his field and he managed to stand up, snatch the ball, dodge out, and throw a hail marry pass down to the opposite side of the field!!! 

I wound up having to blitz the guy a very particular way to even have a chance of scoring. I succeed and the ball scatters into the exact correct spot. Then my blitzer scoops up the ball and hands it off to my thrower. He runs up the field and makes a go-for-it roll to pass to my goblin. The pass is accurate and the goblin has to use his Catch skill reroll but manages to snag it. Then he runs it in for a touchdown. Victory 2-1! Someone made the comment - I hate it when elves dress up like orks.

Summary

Overall, I placed 6th out of 58 and I'm pretty proud of the outcome. There are quite a few high-tier players that make the trek to Four Diamonds. Plus we wound up raising overr $6500 to help fight childhood cancer. And I finally got to meet my buddy Kent in real life. It was an awesome day.

Here's a link to the tourney page: https://www.facebook.com/The4DiamondsCup/

And here's a link to the Battletech Game Developer journal I wrote this week: https://www.gamedev.net/blogs/entry/2267185-battletech-developer-journal-05/