Block Around The Clock 28/29th May Newcastle :- Pippy wins

[Ironjaw]

I've had 4 hours sleep and on reflection I can safely say that this was the worse experience of my life.

By game 8 against Geggster I had lost my love of Blood Bowl and started re-evaluating what I was doing.

By game 10 vs Barney I had regressed to playing like I did in my first tournament, starting every turn with the Minotaur just so I could get the game over quickly.

Thanks for all your efforts Stan- but I want to die.

[Lycos]

Great fun! Just got back (about midnight) from having pretty much two nights solid without sleep! Thanks to Stan (and Mum) for hosting and it was, as expected, a tough thing to do for many. By 3am I could see some normally jovial characters really struggling.. (yes, Leon, I am looking at you!! At least we found the envelope). Well done Pippy and basically everyone as it was pretty hard going.

I am not sure if everyone who did it would do it again.... but I would!! Off to "power down"... it is needed I cannot deny.

[Joemanji]

wHuh? Not long woke up after going to bed at 5pm yesterday. Still feel pretty groggy. Thanks to Stan for his efforts, loads of nice little touches to help us make it though. I generally enjoyed it, though there was no doubting it was painful at times. But you can't go wrong with 11 games of Blood Bowl, and we amused ourselves with how few games those at the Cakebowl tournament had played in the same time.

[sann0638]

In the south next time please!

[Glowworm]

wHuh? Not long woke up after going to bed at 5pm yesterday. Still feel pretty groggy. Thanks to Stan for his efforts, loads of nice little touches to help us make it though. I generally enjoyed it, though there was no doubting it was painful at times. But you can't go wrong with 11 games of Blood Bowl, and we amused ourselves with how few games those at the Cakebowl tournament had played in the same time.

...Strange, we amused ourselves getting drunk and eating takeaway whilst watching a football masterclass.

[Hudson]

Don't forget the bowling and lasagne and sleep we all got.

[Joemanji]

...Strange, we amused ourselves getting drunk and eating takeaway whilst watching a football masterclass.

Indeed, because beer, takeaway and TV was banned at BATC ... oh wait, no it wasn't.

[Glowworm]

...Strange, we amused ourselves getting drunk and eating takeaway whilst watching a football masterclass.

Indeed, because beer, takeaway and TV was banned at BATC ... oh wait, no it wasn't.

can i book for the next one, you had it all !!

[Don__Vito]

Anyone able to edit together anything semi-watchable from 40 minutes of camcorder nonsense? I could try and have a go, but I have no idea how to or when I'd get the chance to?

Awesome tournament, for a number of reasons. The sheer number of games was completely different, but the attitude of the guys there was superb! I hardly had to wait around for a game at any point as everyone was keeping to time perfectly, and even if tehre was a wait there was always someone different to have a chat too and endless amounts of free coffee.

Great hosting, brilliant atmosphere, and enjoyed all of it! Eleven superb games with some dicings for and against. Well done to the top three who I think where at least a game or two ahead of the field, especially Brenda for another magnificent GBBL win! Told you the Geordie Juggernaught keeps on trucking!!!

Oh, and massive respect to Marley for bringing Flings despite us ALL warning him what would happen...

[Deathwing]

.....and we amused ourselves with how few games those at the Cakebowl tournament had played in the same time.

Is there a slight hint of elitism amongst the 'hard core' that could be inferred from that comment?

[Pipey]

Great tourney. Thanks Stan!

At times I doubted my sanity. But stepping back, I had an awesome time. Crazy shit!

[Don__Vito]

It's all over, but did the predictions go quite the same on the day, or was I way off the mark? I'd love to give an in depth match report for all eleven games, but I was far too tired to remember anything and I simply can't be arsed! Here's what I do remember...

Game 1
Stan - Norse
Thought he'd smash me off the pitch, turned out his Snow Troll was wearing kid gloves and his armour wasn't on the team bus yet! Got myself one nil up on his drive and was looking good for a 2-0 win until my idiot catcher 1/9'ed his dodge for the score. Then compounded it by getting the ball back again and tripping over the turf on the goalline and failing a GFI for the score. Of course Stan gets the ball back and runs the length of the pitch in four turns for 1-1. Bugger!

Game 2
Alex - Skaven
Went quite well actually, don't remember a great deal but think my tactic of hitting the Rat Ogre in turn one meant he spent at least 6 out of the first 8 turns rolling around either being fouled to a stun or complaining about being a wild animal. We then went on to nobble Gutter Runners for fun, and took a slightly dicey victory, huzzah for Humans!

Game 3
Stick - CD's
The Chaos Dwarves just absolutely smashed the shit out of my poor humans first half. Early apo went to keep a Blitzer for the second half, and then we got pounded. Stick took his time moving forward while destroying all in his path, and left himself a cage with a Bull ball carrier needing one GFI to score in his last turn. With nothing left my lone Blitzer made a 6+ dodge into said cage, half diced him for a double POW, and the cry of shenanigans went up as I went through his armour without using Mighty Blow! This set up a tense final turn, where a Chaos Dwarf had to pick up and hand off to the other Bull Centaur who was barely in range. he did, 1-0 at the half, booo! Second half was a bit of a blur, but we put it in quickly for 1-1, then got lucky when we put a bit of pressure on the CD's and Stick rolled a one dice skull reroll skull to start a turn, and skull reroll push to start the next. Turnover came, ball spilled and couldn't get secure by either side until we jammed it over the line turn 7. A very surprising win.

Game 4
Jimmy - Skaven
I recieved, got a little overconfident and bombed forward with a catcher, knowing only a strip ball gutter could catch me and that I had backup in the form of a tackle blizter should things go wrong. A both down caused us both to be flat out, but no armour broke and I was looking fine for a TD anyway. He failed the 3+ pickup with a reroll however, and the gutter did a bit of fancy dodging and handing off and I was scuppered! The fight between fatty and rap dog that I wanted never really happened, neither did me killing his team, which was a shame! Easy win to Jimmy in the end.

Game 5
Cragus_Maximus - Lizardmen
No predictions here, as Craig was a late minute addition after Food decided he couldn't be bothered with the flight. This is where my memory gets a bit hazy, all I know is that Craig's dice where on fire, and I struggled massively with the wall of ST4! A fairly standard 1-1 ensued, with both teams scoring on their drive and no-one really doing anything of significance. The start of the bore draws...

Game 6
Pippy- Wood Elves
Brenda was feeling it by now I think, my FUMMBL brain was keeping me semi-competent but he was unusually aggressive! The leaping frenzy wardancer turned me over in my turn 2, jumping into a cage and one dice POW'ing my Sure Handed Thrower. Ball bounced around, Catcher made a 4+ pickup, goodnight Vienna! Similar thing happened on my second attempt, could have been a bitz or a deep kick or something, I forget now, but end result was 2-0 down! I started going apeshit with my Ogre and MB Blitzer, and started taking players off. Not sure how, but jammed my way back to 2-1 down, then he set up with 6 (7?) players, and started running away. Came down to a T16 sacking and pickup to make it a slightly undeserved 2-2 draw.

Game 7
Leon - CD's
Wow! Never seen a zombie play Bloodbowl until Leon shambled over to the table for Game 7. Seriously, he was actually dead I’m sure of it! Tried to talk to him a bit, but then started dicing him so decided playing in silence was the best option! Smashed him all over for 1-0 on my drive, then he returned the favour and we finished 1-1. Love you man!

Game 8
Jeeves - Dwarves
Hmmm, kind of a game until my Turns 5 and 6, where I managed to roll nothing (literally every single one) but POW’s followed by 10’s, 11’s and 12’s. SIX dead dwarves later and it turned into an effort to clear the pitch and run in a big score. Finished four nil, sorry Jeeves…

Game 9
Schmee - Chaos
Only played Schmee once before, and his total lack of care to probability and chances of success still take me by surprise. It’s when everything succeeds that there is a serious problem! He went one nil up fairly early on, and I was in serious trouble with his Clawotaur (Minoclaw, I never know…?) bossing me all over. So I killed it with my Ogre! He apo’ed him without a thought, and I went 1-1. So I killed his Mino again for god measure, and won 2-1, all’s well!

Game 10
Marley - Halflings
Marley started the game asking me, “Are you scared?” I reply honestly, “Yeah”, cause all tourney he’s had a few close scrapes and probably should have won one or two, picked up some impressive draws vs quality coaches, and had been threatening to dice someone all day! I fully expected it to be me, and by this point was genuinely having problems seeing, I actually couldn’t cope with stunties dodging where they wanted and had no idea how to stop a triple treeman line! Marley started well, I made the mistake of man marking his trees early and he made me pay, then pulled off some TTM action for 1-0. At this point I was really panicking! He over-committed on my drive and I got round the back with all four blitzers. Knowing I could likely stall all game, I thought wrongly or rightly I’d put it in early and go for the win. Decision paid off, as I started getting the Flings off the field, and a failed TTM left a ball on the floor which my Thrower gobbled up and dispatched to a waiting Catcher to run in a lucky win.

Game 11
Phil - Skaven
Last game, I was out the running, and I didn’t care! Prediction 100% correct! Think Phil would agree that he had one of those games where the Gutters could do no wrong, Blitzes, failed ball handling and Armour 12 rats meant we got stuffed, not sure on the score but was something like 4-2 to Phil? Was 3-2 down and failed a rerolled 3+ pass for 3-3, but made plenty more in the tourney so can’t complain.

It was emotional…

[Joemanji]

Is there a slight hint of elitism amongst the 'hard core' that could be inferred from that comment?

No we geniunely thought it was weird/funny that we had played 10 games before we'd have started day two at most tournaments. And there happened to be a normal 2-day event running at the same time for immediate comparison. It wasn't a dig.

[Purplegoo]

Good work getting through chaps, enjoyed the Tweets in a wet Leicestershire field.

[Glowworm]

Is there a slight hint of elitism amongst the 'hard core' that could be inferred from that comment?

No we geniunely thought it was weird/funny that we had played 10 games before we'd have started day two at most tournaments. And there happened to be a normal 2-day event running at the same time for immediate comparison. It wasn't a dig.

TBH at cakebowl we wondered how the "Hardcore" BBer's where holding up, also wondered if Buggritt had gone up north would he have survived, most people said no