The Waaagh Cast Cup! Season 2!!!

Well folks, the time has come!

Are you ready for some BLOOD BOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Announcing Season 2 of The Waaagh Cast Cup! on-line Blood Bowl League!

We are now officially taking sign-ups for Season 2 which makes us super happy!  We're not playing favorites either.  While we really appreciate everybody who participated in Season 1 this is totally a first come, first serve deal.  We are accepting 11 teams for Season 2.  (12 Counting my own)

The League will be divided into two divisions of 6 teams, with each team playing everyone in their division twice.  This will result in a minimum number of 10 games per team.  At the end of the 10 weeks the top 2 teams from each division will play for their ticket to the finals where the top team from each division will play for the overall cup.  It’s very exciting.  Each game will consist of 16, 4 minute turns with no overtime.

Participation in the League will require a few things on your part.  We play every week for 10 weeks straight and expect you to make your absolute best effort to do so.  You need to contact your opponent through e-mail and schedule your game.  I should be carbon copied on all correspondence so that if a player makes an attempt to contact for a game and is not responded to by their opponent I can give a due forfeit.  Also, players must talk amongst each other to pick one of them to write up a small article going over the games that they play.  The purpose of this is that I will be releasing a weekly newsletter just like in season 1.  The Weeks will start on Monday and run through Sunday.

Even more exciting is that according to Cyanide Studio, the Chaos Edition of the game will be entirely compatible with the Legendary Edition.  You must own at least Legendary Edition to participate in the League.  If the League is entirely setup before release of the Chaos Edition (supposed to be this month) we will roll on without the expansion.  Should it release however please know that while we are aware a lot of people may like to play some of the teams from the Chaos Edition such as the Underworld Pact or the Demons the only team we will be allowing into the League from this version of the game is the Chaos Dwarfs.  The reason for this is that we are attempting to stay equivalent to the actual tabletop which contains no Demon team and Underworld Pact is not part of the actual rules but a N.A.F. addition.

Anyone wishing to enter the league must choose one of the following two options.

A: Build a brand new team and enter into the league.

B: If you played in a previous season of the league (we know, small number as we've only ran one season) you may bring in a previously participating team.  The only restriction here is that a previous team must have a team value of no more than 1500.  If your team is above this number you must make cuts to bring it under that value before signing up.

That's it everybody!  I'm looking really forward to Season 2 and a ton of fun!

To sign-up please send e-mail to: waaagh.cast.jf@gmail.com with the Subject Line: Bloodbowl Season 2 Sign-up!  The body of the e-mail must contain your first and last real name.  After I have all 12 players a form letter will be sent out with instructions on how to get into the league.

Thanks a lot and I'll see you all on the pitch!

The Stirland Update...

So you can tell from looking at the dates between this post and the last (almost 20 days) I've been hitting a small wall.  Still, I've been slowly plugging away on things and I've managed to get something together to show for it tonight.

I've completed my unit of Knights Panther.  Nine guys with Full Command.  Also an ad-hoc Warrior Priest on Warhorse out of some stuff I had in the bitz box.  Finally an old school Mortar and Crew.  I hate the fact that the Knights don't line up perfectly on the movement tray because they just weren't made to fit right it seems.  Big pelts on their backs, as well as all the feet that basically bump into eachother.  I even made the tray larger than standard on purpose to give a little extra room and it seems like it just isn't enough.

Excitedly I have played the army in a small 1,600 point tournament since my last post.  I performed amiably winning 2 of 3 games.  Win against High Elves and Skaven but unsurprisingly yet another loss to Ogre Kingdoms.  Still, I'm happy that the army seems able to perform.  I'm also still completely undecided on what Lores to use in magic.  I had built the army with intent of Shadow, but ran only Fire in that tournament and did well.  I've also used Metal with some decent results.  Nothing says love like Spearmen with a 3+ armor save.

Anyway, I am now left with very little to paint before pretty much finishing the army up.  I have a unit of 21 Greatswords with a 4 man Unit Filler in it.  A War Machine Crew (I'll have 4 crews and 5 machines oddly) and an Engineer with Repeater Handgun.  I imagine the Crew and Engineer will be done quite soon, like a week soon.  The Greatswords however require a TON more work.  They all have to have their tabs cut off and then get pinned into the wooden bases I'm using for the ship.  After all that I still have to build a display board.  Sigh....  Back to the grindstone.

ToTG: Joe & Ryan 2k!

Joe vs ryan 2k

So Ryan and I got together last night as we’ve been doing every other Monday for a while now to play a game.  As its August we were running our 2,000 point lists; not to mention there is a 2k tournament at our local store this Saturday which we wanted practice for.  Sadly my i-phone broke last week and there are no photo’s.  Bummer…  So the lists:

Joe – Empire

Wizard Lord – Level 4, Power Stone (Shadow)

Wizard Hero – Level 2, Channeling Staff (Fire)

Captain – BSB, Full Plate, Shield, Banner of Discipline

Warrior Priest – HA, Shield

Warrior Priest – HA, Shield, Warhorse, Barding, Tormentor Sword

14 Handgunners

37 Spearmen – Banner, Musician

9 Knights – Banner, Musician, Inner Circle, Rangers Standard

20 Flagellants

Great Cannon

Hellblaster Volley Gun

Steam Tank

Ryan – Ogres (I may not remember this 100% correctly)

Slaughtermaster

Bruiser – BSB

8 Ogres – FC

8 Ironguts – FC

4 Leadbelchers

3 Mournfang – FC

3 Sabretusks

Stonehorn

We rolled for scenario and got Meeting Engagement.  Ryan will end up deploying and going first.  This is a really bad scenario for me as I really need a turn or two to shoot at Ryan before engagement happens, but with him starting so close he can easily make turn 2 charges.  Not helping me and making me just practically give up on turn 1 was the scenario.  Ryan’s entire army showed up but I ended up not getting my Spears, Knights, Cannon and Flagellants so huge chunks of my army were missing.  This left me to bunker all of my characters inside my Handgun unit for the first turn.  I put my Priest on Horse on the far left flank to counter Ryans 2 Sabretusks and hope that when the Knights came on he would be able to join them.  My Tank I put out on the right side pretty close to Ryan’s Ogre unit.  I was hoping for early combat and totally screwed up not seeing the Sabretusk behind the woods next to the tank.  Everything else started in my back corner.

Turn 1:

Ryan

Ryan charged his Sabretusks in; two into the mounted Priest and one into the Tank.  His Leadbelchers move into the building in the dead center of the board while everything else moves up.

Turn 1:

Joe

My Spear block comes on next to the Handgunners and all the characters jump ship except for the level 2 Mage.  The Flagellants came on just to the left of the Spears and the Knights came on near the mounted Priest.  From there I threw some magic which was negligible.  The Hellblaster tore into the Ironguts doing some decent damage.  The Tank killed the Tusk and the mounted Priest sat stuck in combat with the others.

Turn 2:

Ryan

His Stonehorn and Mournfang duel charged the Flagellants.  Ogres charged Tank.  Leadbelchers shot at Handguns and killed a few.  Tank and Ogres sat.  It looked close, but the Fangs and Stonehorn killed the Flagellants.  The Fangs reformed towards the Spears and the Stonehorn at the Knights.

Turn 2:

Joe

I go for Mindrazor on the Spears but don’t get it.  I do reduce the Strength of the Guts.  Knights hit the Stonehorn but don’t break.  The Tank wins and the Ogres run.  Mounted Priest wins combat and runs Tusks down.  Volleygun shoots the Guts again killing another.

Turn 3:

Ryan

Fangs and Guts charge Spears and I lose and break, he reforms Fangs to go after Cannon and Guts reform to go after Handguns.  .  Stonehorn combat draws.  Ogres continue to run.

Turn 3:

Joe

Knights finally win combat and Stonehorn runs but I fail to catch.

Turn 4:

Ryan

Ogres rally.  Guts charge Handguns who flee, he redirects into Volley Gun and kills it overrunning the Handguns.  Fangs charge the Knights who flee.  Leadbelchers kill mounted Priest.

Turn 4:

Joe

Tank goes south into the Guts and kills the unit.  Slaughtermaster lives and flee’s.  Level 2 fireball’s a Fang off.  Cannon fires at Stonehorn and does 2 wounds.

Turn 5:

Ryan

Stonehorn charges Knights and catches them from their flee.  Fang moves towards Cannon.  Slaughtermaster rallies.  Leadbelchers shoot Level 2 to death and Ogres rally.

Turn 5:

Joe

Tank fails to hit Slaughtermaster.  Cannon kills Fang.

Turn 6:

Ryan

Slaughtermaster moves away from tank.  Everything else basically just moves around.

Turn 6:

Joe

The tank fails to hit the Slaughtermaster again, but fires the hull cannon finishing the Stonehorn off.  The Great Cannon then fires a cannonball straight at the Tank which the Sluaghtermaster is in front of and kills the Slaughtermaster.  It was crazy!

Take Away:

That scenario sucks.  No, really it does.  I completely didn’t get to see what would be the general full effectiveness of my Knights with the Priest in it.  The Flagellants and Spears were engaged on my board edge instead of open field where I could run away if I lost combat.  It just sucked.  That said I actually only lost this game by roughly 200 points.  One of the things Ryan pointed out is that even though I’ve been losing to him consistently it has always been low losses where on the 20-0 scale I would be getting decent scores even though I’d lost.

I’m actually pretty satisfied with the way the army functioned.  There were some definite screw-ups on my part.  Misplacing the Tank so Ryan could throw a cat at it on turn 1 was a big mistake.  I’m still really okay with the Engineer not being used on the Volley Gun.  In fact, in every turn of it firing it never misfired and I don’t think the higher BS would really do much extra.  My magic phases in general were pretty cruddy as well.  In fact the turn that I went for Mindrazor I had rolled snakes, channeled 1 and used the Power Stone to manage the value, but didn’t get the IF I needed and Ryan just scrolled it.

The only thing that I keep wondering is if I should change the magic Lores up in the list and if so, what to.  I’m mostly happy with the way things are going, but I also wonder if there is a better character configuration I could be running.  Just the usual questions.

For the 2,000 points I just have to paint my Knight unit which I should be able to finish by this months end.  The problem is I finished the 1^st test model last night and I really dislike how it came out.  I’ve also painted a Mortar up so I can try it some time.  Its extremely situational but with Shadow if I ever manage to get a -3 Toughness on someone it’d be nice to have it.

Ryan G: Tale of Two Guys: Firebelly

     July went zooming by, but I did manage to get a couple of things painted for the Ogre Kingdoms. The main model was my Firebelly.

       I really like the GW Firebelly, but I have never been great at painting fire so I chose to use an alternate model for my Firebelly. I tracked this guy down from a company called Titan Forge. They have some great models, and if I can find a way to fit some of their other Ogres into my army I will. I just wanted to start small to make sure the scale was correct. This guy is a little taller, but fits in just fine.

      I have used him a few times now, and I do like the Firebelly character. I don't think he fits into every army, but I have found him great for low point games.

      Next, is one more sabertusk. This now gives me three and I am happy with that. I have yet to use 3 Tusks in a a game, but we'll see how it goes. I dislike the fact that they can cause panic, and they may just cause me to start tripping over myself, or just plan getting in the way.





      I have two local tournaments coming up over the next two saturdays, but not sure what list I will be doing for the 2000 pts this month. Both my Firebelly and extra cat will be in my 1600 pt tourny list, but does not look like either will be in my 2000 point one. Either way it should be fun, and I am considering a few different things to do for next month. I really should do my Ironblaster because they are awesome, but I really want to paint up a Giant, which are fun, but far from awesome. Only time will tell.

Cheers,
Ryan G

ToTG: Joe F. VON ZEPPEL!

I've nearly completed my Tank.  Well, it is completed, just missing its base at the moment.  I went for fluff here right?  LOL!  There are 14 Shields on the tank itself.  Well 15 if you count the small one on the back of the boiler.  I painted one shield in the colors of each of the 14 provinces including those that no longer exist (Soland and Drakwald).  The 13th is the colors of the Church of Sigmar and the last is the colors of the Stirland River Patrol since that's my army.  That is also what I did the rear shield in is Stirland Patrol.  I dig it a lot myself.  Hopefully you'll all agree.