Stunty Cup Victory!
There we go. The famed Stunty Cup! Puggy Baconbreath brought the cup home to the Moot...
As I mentioned in my previous post, my club's annual Blood Bowl tournament took place this weekend; the Bunker Bowl II. We had thirty coaches taking part ranging from multiple tournament winners right though to first timers in their first tourney. We even had three guys who came from Australia to play - they are doing a European tour working towards the NAF World Cup taking place in November.
Out of those thirty coaches, only two of us were using stunty teams so I would be battling against my old mate Rid to see which of us would lift the Stunty Cup. Rid was using his Goblin team - the Crap Town Sods. It was all to play for!
As the games kicked off, I was randomly drawn against my friend Tom who's an excellent Lizardman coach. My cunning decision to load up on fan factor and cheerleaders / assistant coaches in addition to the Halfling Master Chef meant he had far less rerolls to use that he would have liked. It also meant that when the kick offs resulted in the "Throw A Rock" result (which happened four times!) that my hobbits had far fewer standing opposing players than normal. It was looking like the game would end 2-2 but a sneaky skink managed to get a last gasp touchdown to give Tom the game. A very close game but still a loss.
For game two, I played my only game against a non-club member, a great chap called Craig Andrews. Craig was using Dark Elves with only 11 players and they took a real thumping in the first couple of turns with them being reduced down to only 8 before he knew what hit him (quite literally!). Despite that, the elves natural agility and Craig's skillful coaching helped them to keep their heads and the game finished 2-2.
Game three and it was Halflings vs Wood Elves in a titanic clash against my friend Darren Lysenko. He paints the most amazing models and he rightfully won the Best Painted award for his team. He won the Best Painted award last year too with a diffent set of Wood Elves - he can't get enough of them! With three treemen on the field, it was always going to be a battle of the giants - and that was a battle that Darren won when his treeman killed one of mine stone dead! He was 2-1 up and I had one final turn left with his backfield sporting a long line of elves hoping to defend against a one-turn touchdown. I had one reroll left ready but managed to pick up the ball, give it to a halfling next to a treeman, have the treeman lob him down the field and see the hobbit stick the landing. All that was left was to try to get through the line of elves so I had to call over some of the other coaches to watch me try it as it was getting tense by then. The little fellow scampered through them without needing a whiff of dodging... The game finished 2-2 and the crowd went wild (well - they pointed and laughed at Darren...) With that last game, my Halflings had two tournament points and Rid's Goblins were still on zero as he'd lost all three games.
After a good sleep, everyone was back on Sunday and ready for action. My game four saw me lined up against another club member known as Shape with his Skaven team. Well - I took a bit of a spanking on that one which was all the fault of the Master Chef. He only took one reroll off him the whole game which was pathetic! He should never have baked that cheesy mash pie I guess... Shape also managed to get lots of kick off results in his favour with lots of Blitz and Perfect Defence appearing. I just couldn't do anything about it as his team was so fast... The game finished 5-2 and I was lucky it hadn't been more although on the bright side, Puggy had scored a touchdown. Rid had a better game with his Goblins managing to get a draw so he had got his first tournament point...
After lunch, I was drawn up against Rid himself - it was a Stunt Off! Rid's gobbos was heavily stacked with secret weapons and he had a fist full of bribes to try to keep them on the field. In the first turn of the game, he blitzed Puggy with his chainsaw player and sliced him apart! Poor old Puggy... Still - with Puggy out of the game my Halflings had to dig really deep - before I knew it the hobbits had scored! Rid used all three bribes and managed to keep all the secret weapons on the field but before the end of the half I'd scored again and they were out of the game. Phew! With that, Rid was fighting a losing battle and could only field three players at the end of the match. We finished 4-0 to me and I was assured of the Stunty Cup. Excellent!
Game 6 came and I was ebulliant. I'd won a game, Puggy had got a touchdown and I'd won the Stunty Cup. I was already happy with my weekend. How better to finish the weekend off than a game against Barry Pittman? Barry is someone I admire and respect - he's a great guy and it would be the first time I'd played Blood Bowl against him. The only problem was that he was using Orcs with lots of Block players and a blitzer with Tackle. Oh dear... The Master Chef cooked up some tasty treats though and Barry didn't get very many rerolls to use, especially as I'd managed to get FAME +2 so when we got a Cheering Fans kick off, there was no chance he could win it. I ended up with six rerolls at one point! My Halflings did brilliantly, especially the Diving Tackle guys who caused Barry no end of problems. Puggy was at his annoying best and took all the punishment the Orcs could throw at him without taking so much as a scratch. At 2-1 to me, Barry had to try to throw a pass to get a draw but the lack of rerolls and a thrower in the dead and injured box meant that he fluffed it. Another win for the Halflings and they were on 8 tourney points! Rid got his sole win of the tournament in his last game so at least one game went his way.
So - the Stunty Cup was lifted by Puggy. My team finished 14th out of 30 which I was very happy with and, something I didn't realise until later, they finished 4th highest for both Touchdown Scored and Most Casualties! What an amazing weekend for the hobbits :)
Running the Bunker Bowl is a lot of work. A LOT of work. I think I've been working towards it on and off for about seven months and the weekend itself is especially hectic. I think everyone who attended enjoyed themselves though so that definately makes the effort worthwhile. Anyway - I can look forward to some time off before I start thinking about the Bunker Bowl III!
