Blood Bowl Cup Semifinal Recap: Red Anvils vs. East City Giants XII

Semifinals saw two very different matchups:

The "Bashing" Semifinal
Red Anvils (Chaos Dwarf) - FC East City Giants XII (Lizard)

The "Running, jumping and passing" Semifinal
Kallio Noble Killers (High Elf) - Intergalactic Offspring (Slann)

Winners of these games go to the final and reach for the Cup Trophy, losers meet in the Bronze game.

The "Bashing" Semifinal RECAP
Over thirty thousand somewhat Rowdy Fans (Special Play Card for Chaos Dwarfs) were in the audience for this Semifinal. (15k Dwarf fans and 16k Lizard supporters giving +1 Fame for the East City Giants.) A lot of bloodletting was expected from this hard hitting match up, but regular game time saw only two casualtys: one Skink from the Lizard team and one Hobgoblin was taken out of action. Lizards scored pretty fast on their third turn, and after that the Chaos Dwarf cage tried to break thru the defenses of Saurus blockers. Hobgoblin number 12 managed to to reach the endzone in turn 15. After 16 turns of pretty uneventful grinding the score was tied 1-1. After that the new Overtime House Rules were put into the action. So this recap mainly focuses on the events of the Overtime.



First kick-off table result gave the Lizards much needed re-roll, it would be the used right in the first turn, this Overtime saw a lot of ones rolled on the dice... Coin flip gave the ball to the team Lizard who setup in left side heavy attack formation. Kick was served to the right side and Skink fumbled the ball in the first pick up attempt: first roll 2, re-roll used: result 1 - turnover.




Chaos Dwarf Centaur tried to capitalize this error: but only to roll 1 on the first Go-For-It, re-roll 1 again... This would be the picture of the game: not so much who is the hero with nice rolls but everybody messing their rolls with double ones.

After some tossing and turning the Lizard cage finally starts to form. But there is some unusually blood thristy Hobgoblin around: number 9 manages to kill a Saurus on the midfield! And to add the insult to the injury: this Saurus has already leveld up with Block skill, apothecary opens his bag to save the day - but just speeds up the killing with wrong medicine.

On the next turn the same Hobgoblin Casualty rolls again, this time for Skink: Smashed Knee and Niggling Injury for the poor little guy. The Lizard team now two players short, leaves hole in the cage where Strip Ball Centaur manages to knock the ball from Skink.
Ball scatters for a bit - and now the odd six is rolled: Saurus ends up with the ball.



Saurus not knowing what to do with the ball runs away from the crowd: only to be knocked down. On the turn 5 of the overtime the ball changes hands to the Chaos Dwarf team: Hobgoblin number 10 picks it up from the midfield.



There is virtually no Lizard defense left: only one Skink stands between the endzone. Centaur needs one Go-For-It to make the blitz: well, you guessed it right, double ones again...



Lizards have one change to stop the hobgoblin on turn 7, but no luck: double skulls.



The last defense falls with "The Mad Hatter" Saurus failing the Go-For-It, number 10 hobgoblin is the star of this Semifinal scoring the 2-1 touchdown for the Red Anvils and sending the team for the final!

Blood Bowl Cup Semifinals Overtime House Rules

During the regular season games can be finished with tied result, but now that Semifinals are (finally) played out we needed some rules about the Overtime. So, here follows our House Rules for Overtime play:


OVERTIME HOUSE RULES

If score is even after regular 16 turns of game, Overtime is played. If the game is still tied after the 8 turns of overtime, Sudden Death overtime starts with Golden Goal rule.

OVERTIME
Overtime is extra 8 turns of game, with regular setup, kick-off and scoring in place. In other words, it is like setting up for third period of game with following exceptions:

1. No re-roll regeneration
If teams have any re-rolls unused from the regular game they do carry to the overtime. Note: players with Leader skill do not generate re-rolls for the overtime.
Kick-off table results may increase the re-roll count as usual.
(Fluff: it is assumed that the break before the overtime is somewhat shorter than regular interval between periods. Gameplay function: More fails means faster turnovers.)

2. New Coin flip is made to see witch team kicks the ball
(It does not mater who made the last kick-off or touchdown on regular game time, new coin flip is made to determine who setups for defense.)

3. No new cards for the third period
Note to the House rule where it has been customary to draw one 50k Special Play Card for each period: no new cards for the overtime. If there are any Special Play Cards left from the regular game time (still unplayed in hand or played cards that have a effect for the whole game) they carry to the overtime.

SUDDEN DEATH
If the score is still even after the overtime period, Sudden Death overtime starts. This means that a new setup is done, and new Coin-flip to determine the kicking team. All exceptions for the first overtime period apply here too. Sudden Death period is played till either team scores, thus winning the game and ending the overtime.

Blood Bowl Referee Stripe Base

Our Blood Bowl Cup has been lost in the limbo for few months now: semi-finals are in semi-coma. But to keep this blog from slipping into coma too I put up some old pics of referee minis.




Used bottle cap for the human referee base to keep him easily recognized from the player figures. Some would say dull grey, I would say good old Astrogranite feeling.

Skaven Standard bearer painting - start

Some basic colors in, but still white undercoat showing at standard.

Jingle Bowls Blood Bowl Cup Recap

Had this Jingle Bowls Blood Bowl Cup running for a few months now. There has been six teams taking part:

1. FC East City Giants XII (Lizardmen)
2. Kallio Noble Killers (High Elf)
3. Intergalactic Offspring (Slann)
4. Red Anvils (Chaos Dwarfs)
5. K-Orcs (Orcs)
6. Turska Pojkar (Norse)

Finally starting to get all regular-season matches done - there is only one game left. Best four teams get to the semi-finals, matchups arranged so that team to win the regular-season meets the fourth team and 2nd and 3rd battle it out also. Then the winners of these matches meet in the actual final and losers play for the bronze medal in 2nd final of the cup.

Cup standings and some statistics before the last game:



There are still some stats missing, but the standings are correct although some minor details like number of fans attending (Gate) and Winnings info is still to reach the cup organization headquarters.
The last game of the regular-season is fought between High Elfs and K-Orcs. The season almost done but there is still room for some speculation. If the Green Skins manage a win they get to the semis, with a tie result they are out of the finals with 5 points. If the team value and experience of the coach give the expected result - and High Elfs win the last game they also win the whole regular-season with 11 points. So there is a lot of excitement in the spring air, who are going to play in the finals...

Skaven standard bearer conversion for Blood Bowl

Green stuff banner and bell build on top of the wire mesh.


Changing the sword for huge bell, left the handle then drilled and glued some wire for the basic structure. The extra weight on the lower part of the figure is gonna help with the balance too.


The sword looks little out of place on the Blood Bowl pitch sidelines, so it has to go. Few cuts with cutters to start the removal, then finishing touches with knife and file.


Starting point for Turn marker or Re-roll counter - Old Warhammer Battle figure standard bearer.

Stone Blood Bowl Pitch

Stone pitch for Blood Bowl has finally arrived!



Really heavy stuff, the sturdiest tabletop board I have ever seen. Comes in two parts, with dugout info on the side. Line of scrimmage is elevated and endzones have a bit longer squares.



First match on the stone stadium is fought between Dark Elf team and Skaven ratboys. Elfs have the home team advantage with 13 k fans, Skaven have 10 k supporters. First kick-off lets the Ratboys have an extra turn with Blitz! but the little finks can't manage to get more than push-back of the elf line.



Skaven defense is not the toughest in BB, but with a help of Stolen Playbook card and one lucky intercept they manage to postpone the inevitable. On the turn four Dark elfs score the first touchdown of the new stadium. Home crowd gets wild and wants to see more.





Teams get ready for the second kick-off and Skaven score fast two turn touchdown with duo of Gutter Runners on the front line. End of the first period sees skaven defense getting thinner: unlucky fouling (snake eyes) leaves the rats three players short.



Even more skaven leave the stone field by getting beaten up by the angry home crowd full of blood lust elfs. Dwarf referee can't do little more than count the bodies. Elfs stall the game with cage near the end zone. Just when the Rat Ogre muscle is needed - he gets the Wild Animal fit... Elfs score the 2-1 TD on turn 14. So, skaven got the two turns left to make it even. Some bad rolling and too thin lines end the game with third Dark Elf touchdown on last turn. So it goes, 3-1 TDs and 2-0 casualtys for the elfs leave no room for explanations. Great new stone stadium had it first game, looking forward to many more.