Bunker Bowl 2009
This Sunday was the Bunker Bowl 2009, the now annual Blood Bowl tournament for the Chelmsford Bunker club. We had thirteen players signed up and ready to play on the day and I persuaded Luke Henderson to join in with his Dark Elf team so we could have an even number of players (he'd intended to build some models during the day while everyone else was playing). Gareth Williams took over data entry duties on my laptop so I could get on and play some games - I just ran the even last year which meant I couldn't play. It was a cracking day of gaming though - here's how I got on!
Game 1 - Bunker Bunnies vs Altdorf Cowboys.
In my first game, I was up against Neil Cooper's human team. Neil is a very, very good Blood Bowl player and I've faced against him a number of times at the club. He's quite clinical and rarely makes mistakes. The first kick off of the game was a "Get the Ref!" which meant we could foul as much as we liked without having to worry about players being sent off. I spent the whole half knocking over his Ogre and fouling it as many times as I could! I wasn't able to get him out of the game but he spent most of the first half on the floor so it worked out well for me. I was able to block Neil's cage most of the time but not well enough to stop him from scoring in the second half. I scored fairly quickly to equal though and it ended up a 1-1 draw.
Game 2 - Bunker Bunnies vs Skaven Blackhearts
In game two, I was matched up against my old mate Phil Staines who was down from Leeds for the day. Phil's coached Skaven for as long as I've known him so I wasn't that confident that I'd do well. Phil hasn't had much practise at Blood Bowl over the last year though so there was a chance I could get a win. Phil showed me how Skaven should be played. When I'm using my Warpstone Wanderers, I tend to dodge as few times as I can but Phil did it every chance he could - and the amount of times it paid off was eye-opening! He cheerfully dodged a Gutter Runner through multiple tackle zones numerous times. I got a break in the last moments of the game and scored to win the game 2-1 although it was a hard game as you can see from the photo below!
Game 3 - Bunker Bunnies vs Dead Alive
My third game matched me up against Andrew Thear's Undead team. Andy won last year's club Blood Bowl league with an Undead team so I knew I was in for trouble and facing against two ST5 Mummies with Mighty Blow meant my poor Amazons were sure to die in droves. I concentrated my blocking and blitzing on the only players likely to score and I'd soon knocked out both of his Ghouls and swamped his Wight. I'd also killed a number of his Skeletons so I had a numerical advantage over him in the second half. Towards the end of the game, one of his Mummies intercepted a throw and trudged off towards my end zone, only to fall over on a go for it! I tried some razzle-dazzle in the last turn to try to score but it didn't pay off and the game finished 1-0 to me.
This meant that I'd won two games and drawn the third - it all depended on the outcome of the game between Luke's Dark Elves and Paul's Dwarf team to see who'd lift the trophy. Both of them had won their first two games...
Their game ended as a draw - which meant that all three of us had scored seven tournament points (three for a win, one for a draw and nothing for a loss). It meant the tiebreaker would come down to who'd scored the most touchdowns and that was Luke's team.
So - Luke was named Bunker Bowl Champion 2009 and awarded the trophy! I was very happy with my performance over the day. There was even enough time left after the tournament to get in a league game with the Bunnies against Ian's Chaos team - and the Bunnies won that 2-1 on the final turn of the game. A good day all round really :)
Game 1 - Bunker Bunnies vs Altdorf Cowboys.In my first game, I was up against Neil Cooper's human team. Neil is a very, very good Blood Bowl player and I've faced against him a number of times at the club. He's quite clinical and rarely makes mistakes. The first kick off of the game was a "Get the Ref!" which meant we could foul as much as we liked without having to worry about players being sent off. I spent the whole half knocking over his Ogre and fouling it as many times as I could! I wasn't able to get him out of the game but he spent most of the first half on the floor so it worked out well for me. I was able to block Neil's cage most of the time but not well enough to stop him from scoring in the second half. I scored fairly quickly to equal though and it ended up a 1-1 draw.
Game 2 - Bunker Bunnies vs Skaven BlackheartsIn game two, I was matched up against my old mate Phil Staines who was down from Leeds for the day. Phil's coached Skaven for as long as I've known him so I wasn't that confident that I'd do well. Phil hasn't had much practise at Blood Bowl over the last year though so there was a chance I could get a win. Phil showed me how Skaven should be played. When I'm using my Warpstone Wanderers, I tend to dodge as few times as I can but Phil did it every chance he could - and the amount of times it paid off was eye-opening! He cheerfully dodged a Gutter Runner through multiple tackle zones numerous times. I got a break in the last moments of the game and scored to win the game 2-1 although it was a hard game as you can see from the photo below!
Game 3 - Bunker Bunnies vs Dead AliveMy third game matched me up against Andrew Thear's Undead team. Andy won last year's club Blood Bowl league with an Undead team so I knew I was in for trouble and facing against two ST5 Mummies with Mighty Blow meant my poor Amazons were sure to die in droves. I concentrated my blocking and blitzing on the only players likely to score and I'd soon knocked out both of his Ghouls and swamped his Wight. I'd also killed a number of his Skeletons so I had a numerical advantage over him in the second half. Towards the end of the game, one of his Mummies intercepted a throw and trudged off towards my end zone, only to fall over on a go for it! I tried some razzle-dazzle in the last turn to try to score but it didn't pay off and the game finished 1-0 to me.
This meant that I'd won two games and drawn the third - it all depended on the outcome of the game between Luke's Dark Elves and Paul's Dwarf team to see who'd lift the trophy. Both of them had won their first two games...
Their game ended as a draw - which meant that all three of us had scored seven tournament points (three for a win, one for a draw and nothing for a loss). It meant the tiebreaker would come down to who'd scored the most touchdowns and that was Luke's team.
So - Luke was named Bunker Bowl Champion 2009 and awarded the trophy! I was very happy with my performance over the day. There was even enough time left after the tournament to get in a league game with the Bunnies against Ian's Chaos team - and the Bunnies won that 2-1 on the final turn of the game. A good day all round really :)