Blood Bowl- Brewcastle Cup 2016

I participated in the inaugural Brewcastle Cup yesterday, with my new Tzeentch Chaos Pact Team, Changer Zone- (full team pictures in my next post). My roster was:

• Dark Elf with Horns and Leap
• Goblin with Two Heads and Big Hand
• Troll with Guard
• Minotaur with Juggernaut
• Ogre with Break Tackle
• 7 Marauders (2 Sure Hands, 2 Block, 1 Leader)
• 2 Rerolls
• 1 Fan Factor

Changer Zone!

Details: 4 games, Resurrection, Swiss, TV125, players may have two normal skills or one double, strict 2h time limit.

Here's how my tourney went:

Game 1- Simon's Lizardmen, the Southland Salamanders. I could not get going in this game, with his lizards able to outpunch and outrun me. I killed my own goblin trying to throw him... I went down a sobering 4-0, with 4-4 casualties.

The Salamanders run rings around the Chaos Pact

Game 2- Gergy's Goblins, Samurrrai Storrrm. I was concerned about facing this Japanese-themed team, as they had a plethora of secret weapons, including a Hail Mary Pass bomber, and a full roster of replacement players. To add to my disquiet, before the game even started my Minotaur was taken out by a thrown rock!

However, my luck came back, I survived the onslaught, and set about dismembering his team to win 5-0 with 7-2 casualties. My goblin was superbly cheeky here, being successfully thrown about the pitch to score three TDs. Gergy had rotten luck- I got two blitzes against him, and every time he got his Kickoff Return player under the ball, some event would occur that left him unable to catch it. The tourney went well for him otherwise, and he came away with the Stunty King award.

Goblin makes a nuisance of himself downfield- I have no idea where the ball is!

Game 3- Vimes' Beermen, an Arabian-themed Norse team (he knows it is weird!). I always have great fun games against Vimes, whatever the outcome, and this was no exception. I had a shocking start- on my very first action, my Minotaur seriously injured himself and missed another whole game! Then, on my second turn, my Ogre fell over on his first action, leaving Vimes able to waltz in for the easiest TD ever. I was able to equalise, and a gruelling second half ended with Vimes touching down for a 2-1 win on his last turn, with a 3-0 casualty count his way. This was karma after my Halflings robbed him of a win at CanCon in January.

The Beermen push down a flank, whilst the Big Guys smash it out in the middle

Game 4- Richard's Chaos side, Eyescream. He had a wizard, one Minotaur and the rest were Beastmen (no Warriors). We both appreciated the mutual Tzeentch worship here! My goblin and dark elf got taken out (the goblin being burnt to death by the wizard, and the elf killing himself with a bad leap!) so it was down to the big guys and marauders. The two minotaurs ended up in a clash of titans for most of the second half- there can be only one! I got onto a bit of a roll, and by the time the final whistle blew Richard only had two Beastmen on the pitch, leaving me a 2-0 win, 4-2 casualties.

Tzeentch on Tzeentch! Number Eight has the ball, looking at the distant end zone...

I was pleasantly surprised by the Chaos Pact. They are a stronger team than I had anticipated. The Marauders are quite capable by themselves, and the Big Guys have enough tabletop presence to cover for each other when they go stupid. Leap on the Dark Elf gave me many options, but I never used his Horns. The mutated Two Heads, Big Hand goblin is amazing- able to dodge around on a 2+ and pick up the ball on an unmodified 3+, not to mention the ability to be thrown!

There was an impressive turnout of 34 players. Gnome was the overall winner (Chaos Dwarves, I think). With two wins and two losses, I think I came 13th of 34. As usual, it was great to see old friends again.

The one day format worked well, and four games was managed with an on-time start and tight timekeeping, including chess clocks. I think this tourney has a workable format and fills a geographical gap in the Australian schedule, and I foresee good things for it in the future.