Lone Wolves Challenge Cup Final

Last night saw the final of this years Blood Bowl league, with the Skaven of Th1rt3en taking on the Norse of the Dragon 'Ead Destroyers.

During the season the Skaven had won both meetings, although the Norse did open up pre season with a 4-1 thrashing of their opponents. Even Destroyer's head coach Lordybloke admitted voting for his rivals in the blog poll. It was looking like the writing was on the wall before it began.

It got even more scarier for the northmen as Binx rolled for 2 skill upgrades prior to the match, giving Guard to his Rat Ogre, but also getting +1 Strength on one of his Gutter Runners, Lordybloke was not impressed. He was even less so when he lost the coin toss too!

The teams line up at the start of the game

The whole game was played in Sweltering Heat, and a good start by the Rats saw two of the Norse in the KO box after only 1 turn. The Skaven made their numbers count and by half way through the first half they were up 1-0. The sun really had an impact before the next kick off with both teams reduced to 10 men out of their squads of 14 for the remainder of the half, which didnt see any more scores. The 2nd half did see the Rat Ogre of the Skaven Die! Luckily for them, their apothecary was at hand to patch up the furry beast and he was back on the pitch for the 2nd half.

'Snow Troll' Thrudd decks the Skaven rat ogre

 With the sun still beating down, a 2nd high kick of the game saw the Norse make a slow move down field. The Ratmen did not give up and managed to get the ball on the floor a few times, although the Norse refused to give up and with the last rolls of the game managed to get a short pass down field and into the end zone to make it 1-1 at the end of the game.

After much discussion, it was decided that the game would go to sudden death over time. The Rats once again managed to receive the the kick off but a slurry of injuries and the beating heat of the sun saw them down to 7 players vs the Norse's full team.

This didn't hinder the Skaven and after a couple of turns one of the Gutter Runners managed to break free and was on his own with the ball 2 squares short of the Norse end zone with only one defender within reach.
Then there was a moment of indecisiveness, Binx, the Skaven coach was undecided if he should go for it or not to give himself that little bit of extra room, with no re rolls this was a dangerous move, but eventually he decided he would risk it, after all it was anything but a 1!

The dice came down with one pip showing and the gutter runner tripped and fell spilling the ball and his guts at the same time. With even less players and with hardly any of them standing up the Skaven could do nothing as the Norse quickly scooped up the ball and trotted the length of the pitch for the Championship winning touchdown. A win for the Norse, a 2nd consecutive league championship for Lordybloke, who has now won 3 out of the 4 challenge cups.

Lonewolf Challenge Cup Result.

Overall Championship winner  - Dragon Ead Destroyers
League Champion - Th1rt3en
Wooden Spoon - Orcland Raiderz ( equal on points with Black Moon Rising but a far inferior TD differential)

Player Stats


Most SPP's - Prazsisk - Th1rt3en - 44...... 2nd: Firedrich 'Fang' Wolf - Black Moon Rising - 35
Most Touchdowns - Prazsisk - Th1rt3en - 11.... 2nd: Azhquol - Th1rt3en - 10
Most Casualties - Cnut Ylarson - Dragon Ead Destroyers - 8.... 2nd: Graz Nulhug - Orcland Raiderz - 4



See you next year Blood Bowl fans, with rumours of this the next league being done online, and maybe even in a dungeon, we shall wait and see what transpires.

What can be confirmed is that four of the league participants will be off to Warhammer World in May for the 2nd NAF Championship so stay tuned to see what happens there.

Challenge Cup 2011 Update

With all the Bloodbowl games for 2011 done and dusted, I thought I would give you all an update on the league standings.

There are two more rounds to be played in January and February before the grand final in March

Remaining fixtures:

January:
Black Moon Rising vs Orcland Raiderz
Dragon 'Ead Destroyers vs Th1rt3en

February:
Th1rt3en vs Sinful Bliss
Orcland Raiderz vs Dragon 'Ead Destroyers

Halfway House

Well, we're halfway through the 4th annual challenge cup and here is the league after 4 games

The fixtures for the 2nd half of the season have been published and games are due to get under way any time soon.

Other stats of note (including pre season )

Most TDs Scored: Prazsisk, Gutter Runner, Th1rt3en - 7
Most Casualties Caused: Cnut Ylarson, Ulfwerener, Dragon 'Ead Destroyers - 5

Challenge Cup 2011

At the request of Lordybloke, here is the league table after 3 rounds of the 2011 Lonewolves Challenge Cup.

With 7 rounds to go ( 5 games for some 6 for the others) there is still plenty to play for, at present its the Skaven and Norse in position to play in the final.

Three for all!

The final game of round 1 of the Lonewolves challenge cup is over and here are the highlights.

Under a sweltering heat an almost capacity crowd of 24,000 fans witnessed a classic encounter between the Skaven and Necromantics.
Last time out the Rats demolished the Undead 5-0, and it appeared history might repeat itself as Th1rt3en took a 2-0 lead after only 4 turns. The relentless heat hindered both teams, especially the dead guys as they had their Golem, a Werewolf and Zombie in the dug out suffering from exhaustion as the 2nd score went in.
With a full 4 turns remaining and 3 of the Skaven team off the pitch suffering from the temperature the Undead managed to grab a late score before the end of the 1st half to keep the game respectable. Meanwhile the Rats were the 1st team to suffer an injury of any note as Lineman Rhiak suffered an injured back and will miss the rats next encounter with the Dark Elves.

As the 2nd half began, so the sun went behind a cloud and perfect Blood Bowl weather greeted the teams, with the Necromantics receiving the ball this time, they slowly marched down the field, helped by a good pass from the crowd, to level the tie up 2 a piece.

With still a good number of turns remaining the Skaven knew they could still take the lead, but a dodge too many saw them drop the ball on half way, seeing their chance to come back from 2-0 down the undead attempted to scoop up the ball and run free to an opening game victory, however, a misjudged go for it saw their defences left wide open and the Skaven were soon 3-2 up with 2 turns left to play.

The Necromantics weren't out of it yet and with the Skaven fielding a very defensive set up, sent every skill player deep into their opponents half hoping they all couldnt be marked. And they were right, as the time ticked away on the game, a surge by a ghoul through the centre and a final push from a werewolf saw them level the game 3-3

A cracking game leaves the Norse at the head of the league after one win out of one.

Next round sees the Dark Elves begin their season against the Skaven and the Orcs take on the Necromantics. All games to be played by the end of May.

Hawaii 5-0

Last night was the final warm up game for Th1rt3en and Black Moon Rising, and what a belter it was!

The Necromantic's received the ball at the start of the 1st half and made a swift run down their right flank, this was blocked by a swift covering move by the Rats causing the ball carrying werewolf to double back to the centre of the field. Here he was set upon by a posse of 3 Gutter Runners who nabbed the ball off him and ran away out of reach to the endzone.

A similar thing happened when the Undead received the ball again and at half time it was 2-0 and the Rats hadn't even received the ball.

The 2nd half started with the Rats missing 2 line-men to injury and a Ghoul was on the sidelines for the Necro's.

2 turns later despite some heavy 2 on 1 marking it was 3-0 as the Skaven went the length of the field for the score with a pass and hand-off affair. B.M.R didnt have the ball for long again after the next kick off as two 1 dice smashes got the ball on the floor again and soon enough it was 4-0.

With only a couple of turns left and no re rolls the Undead made an attempt to salvage some pride but a 1 dice skull left a gaping hole in their defences through which the rats swarmed, taking out the ball carrier and scuttling in for a 5th score.

The Necromantic team didn't play badly and didn't do anything wrong but there isn't a lot you can do when you have the ball in your hands for only a few turns out of the 16 and the Skaven have all the luck.

Only one skill to report, a 3rd gutter runner gained Block even though he rolled 11 which gave the potential of agility 5.

One game left in the warm ups and then the season starts proper. The 1st week of the season sees the same match ups as the last games of the warm ups. Will the Necromantic team be able to get their revenge?

Warm Ups Pt2, subsection B

The second game of the second month of the pre season warm up games for the Lone Wolf Challenge Cup saw the Norse line up against the Necromantic abominations.
A wave of hysteria was following the Norse after their 4-1 win over the rats in the previous month, could they live up to the hype?

The first half saw the Norse receive and after an unforced and largely pointless "go for it" (classic 1, re roll, 1 situation!) Freykell the star thrower tripped over his ego and left the ball in the open in the Norse half. This was pounced on by the lurking Werewolves (Movement 8, really!?) who ran in an early score.
Necros, 1-0
The re set saw the Norse play a little more conservatively and got involved with a bit of bashing but not to any great damage. Suddenly a tag team of ghoul and werewolf saw the ball carrier knocked over and a ghoul racing for the Norse end zone!
It was looking like another score with only one norse player able to get anywhere near the ghoul.
Not only did he get near but he smashed the undead blighter to the ground spilling the ball into the crowd.
Luckily the Norse fans got a hold of it and threw it back up towards the Necro end zone. With a bit of dodging and help from the team the Norse Berserker, Harald Enoga, was able to grab the ball and race for the line. Several Undead threw themselves at him but with the Runners causing interference Harald made it in as the half came to close, and a riot broke out!
Halftime; Necro 1, Norse 1

Second Half
Both teams had players in the KOed box leaving 10 Undead facing 9 Norse with the Necros receiving.
An early shove saw an Ulfwerenar into the crowd leaving a massive hole on the Norse left flank. This was duly exploited by the ubiquitous ghoul and werewolf combo.
A few turns into the second half and a werewolf was standing, ball in hand 8 squares away from the end zone.
It was at this time that a shout came from the sidelines "give it to the ghoul" as the Necro coach wanted the ghoul to gain all the glory (and SPPs!).
The Werewolf looked at the coach, looked at the clear run to the endzone, then back to coach, confused.
Then the moment was gone as a Norse player barrelled into him freeing the ball.
The rest of the half consisted of a mad scramble from both teams (the Norse reduced to 5 men for most of it) to try and actually hang on to the ball, one brief moment of joy from a short lived breakaway by a Norse Runner and a lot of scattering and fumbling.

Final Score
Necro, 1, Norse 1

A draw and a valuable lesson learnt for the Necromantic coach (score when you can!)

Warm Ups pt2

With the arrival of February, came the 2nd round of pre season matches for the 2011 Bloodbowl Challenge cup. Only one game took place after the postponement of the game between the Necromantics and the Norse due to some late team meetings in the crypts of the undead.

Meanwhile the Skaven and Orcs took each other on whilst the head coach of the Norse watched on, taking notes and spouting tactics from the stands.

The Orcs received the opening kick off and after a quick snap managed to batter the front line of the Rats. Being a little too far from the ball the Orcs decided to leave it on the ground and concentrate on the beatings.By turn 2 they had regretted this as the Skaven went 1-0 up.

Despite the Orcs Troll spending most of the game picking his nose the Orcs continued to pile into the Skaven, keeping most of them on their back for the majority of the game.

1-0 soon turned to 2-0 but the Orcs continued to resort to fighting rather than scoring. The Skaven managed a few crazy one dice blocks to knock over the greenskin ball carrier but eventually the Orcs managed to get a score of their own with 2 turns left in the game.

The rats weren't finished and in the final turn of the game they scored their 3rd touchdown, scored by the third different gutter runner that game. It all finished 3-1 in TDs and 3-0 to the Orcs in casualties.

4 skills were granted after the game, 2 gutter runners secured block and an Orc blitzer gained tackle with the troll learning guard.

Warm Ups

The Lonewolves Challenge Cup started last Wednesday and with a change to this years format it all began with some warm up games.

This season there will be 3 months of warm up games (1 a month) between myself (Skaven), Cortez (Orcs), Lordybloke (Norse) and Cyrus (Necromantic) with Tomarse (Dark Elves) joining us in April for the league proper.

This Wednesday saw defending champion (and 2 time winner) Lordybloke take on me ( 1 time winner) in what turned out to be a very one sided affair. With Lordybloke rolling almost perfect armour rolls and me rolling more 1's than ever before, the Skaven struggled to hold back the torrent of abuse they were getting and it ended in a 4-1 win for the Norse.
With probably a world record amount of SPPs amassed in one game, the Norse Thrower Freykell learnt how to be more accurate, something that will come in useful next month against the Cyrus's Necromantic team.

In the game between the Orcs and the Necromantics, there wasn't too much between the teams, once the Orcs had realised that if they go too near the edge of the pitch they would get pushed off it by the Werewolves. (2 were beaten up by the crowd this way) 
Cyrus took a 1-0 lead into the 2nd half and never lost it as the Orcs struggled to get to grips with the ball, time ran out on them just as they were making progress.

Next months its winners vs winners and losers vs losers, but with only SPP's counting for anything its more about getting in some practiceand those new skills prior to the season proper.