Blood Bowl Slann: Staff and Stars

Has it really been two years since I last painted my Slann team for Blood Bowl? Yes it has, other Barks, yes it has.

I have now finished the Coaching Staff and Star Players from J-Bone's crowdfunded Fantasy Football Frogmen. I may go back and add some transfers. There are a few cheeky pop-culture references in these lovely metal sculpts.

Here's the whole team:

The Dunwich Hoppers

Coaching Staff

Team owner/ manager

Apothecary

Wizard

Cheerleader

Mascot

Star Players

Big Guy

Guard Star Player

Assassin/ Catcher Star Player

Blitzer Star Player

Ninja/ Catcher Star Player

Chainsaw Star Player

I am looking forward to getting these frogs to the heights of sports glory.

PS: ALL HAIL HYPNOTOAD!

Blood Bowl Orcs

The Green Streaks

I finally finished my Blood Bowl Orc team, The Green Streaks. These were meant to be done for Eucalyptus Bowl in April, but that got canned due to COVID-19. I really struggled with these due to the multiple stages. The shoulder armour trim, for example, is dark grey then white then dark grey then metallic. Repeat times a million...

The figures are resin, from RN Estudio.

Orc Blitzers are some of the best players in the game. Unfortunately, they've all been sculpted with the same face.

Blood Bowl Orc Blitzers

The Black Orc Blockers are on 30mm bases.

Blood Bowl Black Orc Blockers

I like both these throwers, and can't decide which I prefer. Maybe the mad scientist goggles, by a whisker.

Blood Bowl Orc Throwers

I don't mind the orcs with hair.

Blood Bowl Line Orcs

As a rule, I don't add blood to weapons- these are the exceptions, using Army Painter Glistening Blood Effect.

Blood Bowl Orc Star Players

I've filled out the team with some cheerleaders from Shadowforge, and some squigs.

Blood Bowl Orc Cheer Skwad. Hubba hubba!

I think squigs are a great GW invention. Three are from GW, and the helmeted one is from Goblin Guild. I plan to use these as game markers and tokens.

Blood Bowl Squigs

I'm very glad that these are finished now.

Eucalyptus Bowl 2019

I took my Slann team to Eucalyptus Bowl 2019 last weekend. This was the 15th Euc Bowl, and there were 61 coaches over the weekend.

The Dunwich Hoppers

Details: 125kGp including skills, 6 matches, resurrection, 2 days, Swiss format. My team: 4 catchers, 8 linefrogs, 4 rerolls.

The winner's trophy has been reimagined in this spectacular shield. The logo is fully 3D. Spoiler- I didn't win.

Day 1.
Match 1. Redcard's Undead.

Redcard is a strong player, with a strong team, and I wasn't surprised at taking a 2-0 loss. I finished with only two players on the pitch... I did kill a Mummy, but it regenerated.

Frogs try to stem the Undead advance

Match 2. Gergiy's Vampires.

Gergiy flew his nerd flag high, dressing as a vampire in evening wear with a white bowtie and cape. His team was a mixture of manufacturers, with some old-school vampires and victims. Vampires can be challenging to coach (as I found at Euc Bowl 2013) and I was a little bit surprised to lose 3-0.

Vampires and Thralls and Frogs, oh my!

In these first two games I just couldn't seem to succeed in any of my dice rolls, which happens occasionally.

Match 3. Luis' Slann.

It's a frogathon! I was looking forwards to this frog-on-frog action, but again, the dice seemed to betray me. I hesitate to blame the dice, as to an extent you place yourself in positions where you need to roll them, but compared to the ease with which Luis was hopping about and hurting me, I was just tripping over and hurting myself. Despite the 4-3 scoreline, it felt a lot more one-sided. I hadn't met Luis before, but he was a good bloke. After three losses, roll on Day 2 and a reversal of dice karma!

It's a Frog-Off!

Day 2.
Match 4. Rabid's Goblins.

Rabid is a very strong coach, and was running the tournament. He had a lovely pirate-theme goblin team. He gets to play the poor inexperienced sap at the bottom of the rankings if noone else is available- and that poor sap was me! He asked me what had gone wrong for me, and I shrugged that the dice weren't really working. Then he watched amazed as I then failed at least half a dozen basic dice rolls... and he took me apart. I suffered a crippling ten casualties... another 3-0 loss.

Arrr! Pirate goblins against all four remaining players on my team...

Match 5. Hypnotoad's Khemri.

Finally, the dice gods got bored with me and wandered off. I had a much more 'as expected' game against Hypnotoad, which was very enjoyable. It was a good match between his slow but strong team against my faster but weak side, and I pulled out a 3-1 win with a cheeky two touchdowns in the final two turns.

Mummies surround the ball

Match 6. Pronax's Humans.

Like the previous match, my dice behaved in a more average fashion and I had the kind of game I had been expecting. I was 3-2 up and got a bit overconfident at the end, and almost gave away a touchdown. I was very relieved to pull out a second win.

Sharknado!

So, two wins and four losses. Overall, I came equal 40th out of 61 coaches. I would have expected better but was relieved it wasn't worse! I don't like blaming dice, but when you literally fail everything you try to do on a 3+ over and over, you get a little demoralised...

It was great to see old friends again. I haven't played Blood Bowl since last Euc Bowl, and was a bit rusty. I'd consider Slann again with some changes- in particular, taking a Blitzer with the Guard skill. I really needed all four rerolls.

Blood Bowl Slann

From Slaanesh to Slann- these are the last things to come off my painting queue before I knuckle down for the Analogue Challenge.

Blood Bowl Slann- The Dunwich Hoppers

This team was a true crowdfunder by a fan (J-Bone) rather than a company, and they are an absolute delight. They're single piece white metal with a variety of poses and distinguishable positional players. You'll recall I did a frog referee as a test a few months ago. It's an added painting challenge to prevent greenskinned players from blending into the pitch.

Slaan Blitzers

Slaan Catchers

Slaan Linefrogs

Slaan Linefrogs

I've never played them, but I've got my hopes really high that they will suit my crazy risky playstyle*.

I've still got a few more staff and star players to finish off, but will leave them until after the Challenge.

*froggystyle

Blood Bowl Frog Referee

I'm still dabbling in different things- here's a Slann referee from JBone miniatures. I've done him as a test of skin colour. He came out a bit more subdued and not as cartoony as I wanted, but I'm still happy with him.

Eucalyptus Bowl 2018

Last weekend was the 14th Eucalyptus Bowl. I took my new Khorne team (Hardcore Khorne) for a run. I suffered my first casualty in transit, as one of my pitfighters lost an arm... I'm not a fan of fiddly multipart metal figures. I used some coloured bands to help denote different skill choices- I've disliked this previously but it was quite handy..

Overview: 6 games, 2 days, regen, ~125kgp including skills.

Hardcore Khorne

Day 1
Match 1- Aaron's Orcs, Bigteef's Bruisers

I felt I was the stronger player here, but could not roll dice to help myself. I sustained a meaty six casualties (causing none myself), allowing Aaron to come back and equalise 2-2. This game was played on a thematically illustrated chaos pitch.

Khorne ploughs into Orcs on the line

Match 2- Joekano's Chaos Dwarves, the Sky Bullocks

I was just able to scrape a 1-0 win here, with both of us on 2-2 casualties.

Locking horns! Minotaur vs Bloodthirster

Match 3- Dean's Wood Elves, the Maverick Renegades

I was looking forwards to playing a squishier team, but was wary of the Elve's ability to perform impossible plays. My Bloodthirster finally got revved up and rampaged about the pitch. Despite causing him 4 casualties, Dean came back to equalise 2-2 and almost pulled out a win!

Wardancer knocks over the ball carrier, but is now next to the Bloodthirster...

So, at the end of Day 1 I was doing better than I had anticipated with two draws and a win.

Day 2
Match 4- Glen's Chaos Dwarves- The Masters of Pain

Another Chaos Dwarf team! Joy! Glen played this team well (he came third overall) with a textbook grinding, attritional play to win 2-1. Again, I suffered six casualties... Very nicely painted side.

Chaos Dwarves blunt the Khorne offense

Match 5- Creature's Halflings- Viva la Carnage

I've know Creature for years as a strong player, and I certainly don't misunderestimate the 'Flings. I was 2-1 down and had a chance to equalise but couldn't.

Khorne tries to stop the Flings.

Match 6- Andrew's Ogres- The Dancing Clowns

I really struggled against this fat wall of meat, and again suffered 5-0 casualties. Andrew got his revenge for my cheeky win against him in January by throwing a Halfling in the last turn to win 2-1. Pure Blood Bowl!

Too many Ogres! Can't run through or around them...

Day 2 was nowhere near as enjoyable as Day 1, with three losses. But I didn't have high expectations and my opponents were great fun, so all in all it was another memorable tourney.

Winning team and also Best Painted- Slann

The Bloodthirster, when it gets going, is terrific fun. But if (as happened to me a lot) it is out of action or not performing, then the rest of the team have to lift their game and they don't really have it in them.

Blood Bowl for the Blood Bowl God!

Overall, there were 50 coaches and I came 37th- down from 6th last year! This now means I have played 24 of the official 26 teams- #NerdGoals

Blood Bowl Khorne

Tomorrow is the sporting event of the year- Eucalyptus Bowl! (FIFA eat your heart out!) I'm taking my Khorne team- Hardcore Khorne- these are the Ares Demons from MK1881. They were a pain to put together- I'm getting a bit sick of multipart metal figures. I didn't want them to have the typical red armour as I thought it would blend with the daemons' skin, so I went for white and I'm pretty happy with the colour scheme. The red skin was shaded with a mix of red and brown wash, and I like the final appearance.

Blood Bowl Khorne

I'm indebted to the Scalecreep team for the term 'haemoerotic'.

Blood Bowl Khorne Pitfighters

Blood Bowl Khorne Bloodletters

Blood Bowl Khorne Bloodthirster

I thought this terrifying familiar from Reaper would make a great coach:

Reaper familiar

And this is a great point to show these resin skull piles. I have had them for about 20 years, I think, and they're indestructible and versatile. I commonly use them in Blood Bowl for reroll markers, but I'm sure you can find a use for them in many games. They're still available from Eureka, and I can't recommend them enough.

Eureka Pile of Skulls

In other Blood Bowl news, my Ogre team paintjob has been used among some examples for a crowdfunding campaign to get these teams released in resin by Impact! Miniatures. Tom, the one man team at Impact!, helped keep Blood Bowl alive in the decades it was otherwise neglected. The crowdfunding campaign can be found here, and at time of blogging has a few days to run.

Blood Bowl Ogre team