Wesdt Coast Quake Tournament Report

[dwbailey]

I was anticipating such a great time at the West Coast Quake this year that I thought I would try to take some notes and do a full fledged tournament report following the tournament. Having moved to Wisconsin earlier this year, this would be my first Quake as an “out-of-towner” and I would have little to do with running the event other than helping out where needed. I have said I would do this each year but I never remember to actually take notes and this year I did, so it here it is. Sorry that it turned out to be SO LONG.

I was debating between playing Dwarves or Chaos Dwarves leading up to the event. I had previously won the Quake with Dwarves and I believe they are my best and by far most reliable team. However, since this was a quick trip back to California I was really looking to just relax and have fun and not stress too much about the results so I decided to go with my Chaos Dwarves, The Volcanic Violence. This almost changed when I arrived and saw there were absolutely no Dwarf teams in the field and I felt I should represent, but ultimately I stuck with my original decision and played Chaos Dwarves. Just as a note, I was shocked that out of the 22 teams there was not a single Dwarf, Wood Elf, or Undead Team in the field!!!

The build rules for the tournament called for a 1.1 mil team value which included the costs for any upgrades to your team. The only restriction being that you could not give any single player more than 50k in upgrades. While I believe that the most reliable build would be a 2 Bull Centaur build with no Minotaur, again I decided to just have fun and bash so my build had the Minotaur, 1 Bull, 5 Dwarves, 4 Hobgoblins, and 1 Reroll. For upgrades I gave the Minotaur Juggernaut & Claws, 2 Dwarves Mighty Blow & Claws, 2 Dwarves Guard, 1 Dwarf Leader, and the Bull Block. My intent was to try and 2-1 grind each game and cause enough casualties that the Bull Centaur would actually have enough time to pick up the ball. The Hobos had no skills, would only touch the ball when they had to, and were there to just gum up the works. (Which they did phenomenally) The tournament also gave each coach 100k in cards for each game. I took 2 dirty tricks each time and was relatively pleased with how it turned out.

So thanks to an airline crew not making it in, my flight from Wisconsin was delayed, I missed my connection in Denver, and was forced to fly in Saturday morning so I missed the start of round 1. Luckily the tournament organizers were prepared for an odd number of players and the fact that some players were only able to make it for 1 day. I was able to make the game up with Mike (One of the organizers) that night, so my Round 1 game actually finished at like 2 am Sunday morning.

Round 1- vs Mike’s Dark Elves, The Fallen Angels.

Mike is a great coach and was one of the coaches I learned to play from. We had not played in a while and we reminisced about our old teams and previous games as we were setting up. I had two concerns going into the tournament, one being that I would have a game where I just couldn’t pick up the ball and the other being that I would have a game where I just wasn’t able to hurt my opponent in any fashion. This one turned out to be the latter. If I remember Mike’s build he had 2 blitzers with sidestep(his stars of the game and SUPER annoying) a witch with wrestle, a witch with block, and a runner with leader.

I kicked to him and the game was on. He drove down, was able to set up a good cloud cage and ultimately score in a few turns before kicking to me. Time to injure some elves right….wrong. Don’t get me wrong, my hitting was solid throughout the game and the whole tournament. Except for a triple skull by the Minotaur nothing bad really happened the entire weekend, but while I kept knocking him down he kept getting back up. The only casualty I caused the entire first half was a hobgoblin throwing a block just hoping to push a lineman off my cage. He kept getting one of his sidesteppers into my cage and did a great job of stalling and making me deal with them. Ultimately I bust through his defense and my Bull gets downfield with the ball and a line of dwarves between him and the elves. Mike then answered the age old question as he put it, “ How much Dodge could a Witch Elf Dodge if a Witch Elf could Dodge Dwarves?” She dodged through the entire line (4 rolls all with tackle) went for it for the 2 die uphill block and double pow’d the bull to pop the ball. On my turn I could only push her with the block I was able to get and to make everything worse she was able to dodge out pick up the ball and throw it down to a blitzer for a turn 8 score putting me down 2-0 at the half. And he now had 2 chances to roll for knock outs and they all came back. So I am only up 1 lineman and have to score twice in the second half.

I tried to score as fast as I could and still keep the ball secure and I scored on my turn 5 before kicking off to him. I pressed my defense in the second half and drove him back towards his own endzone. He finally made a break for it and got the ball up to a lineman on my side of the pitch and I had one last chance to tie it up. With a hobgoblin down the field waiting for the pass and a hobgoblin available to try and throw I blitzed the ball carrier. Now before I blitz I say, “watch me knock the guy down, pop the ball and then have the stupid line dwarf catch it.” Totally out of habit and being more worried about the upcoming chaos dwarf aeronautics, I followed up after the blitz, the ball bounced directly toward the dwarf and apparently impaled on his spiky hat as he caught it to end the game. Would have still taken some crazy rolling, but my own blunder prevented me from having the chance to draw. Fun game against a great opponent. By the end of the game I was able to casualty 3 line elves but it was definitely too little too late after being down 2-0. Final Score 1-2 Loss.

Round 2- vs Morgan’s Nurgle Team (Sorry I forgot to write the team name down)

Morgan is a local player who started playing just before I left. He is a good guy but this was just a bad match up for his team. The only ball handling I do is picking it up so disturbing presence has limited impact and 3 MB/Claw players worked against his durability. He had a very unique build with 2 warriors with Wrestle, the Beast with Stand Firm and Leader, a Pestigor with Extra Arms & Sure Hands, and a Pestigor with just Extra Arms.

I elected to receive in the first half which is unusual, but I was not concerned with Nurgle scoring quickly and I wanted a chance to bash on some of his guys early. This worked as I started the game injuring one of his warriors and he failed his regeneration. The first half was just me grinding his team as I slowly moved down the field to score. I had a large player advantage heading into the second half and was able to get the ball back from him after kicking. Ultimately I was able to Pitch Clear his team. Morgan had a great attitude despite the way the game turned in my favor and fought to the very last. His last player continued to try to blitz out of the ring of players I had surrounding him until he finally took himself out. I did have a triple skull at one point with the Minotaur but even that went well as he made his loner roll and killed the Rotter with the reroll. I ended the game with 6 Casualties and 2-0 Win.

Round 3- vs Eva’s Dark Elves, The Sisters of Mayhem

Eva is a good coach and a great person from Northern California!! She won the Best Sportsmanship Award for the tourney and it was well deserved. She had a team with 3 Blodging Blitzers, Leader on the Runner, and a Witch with Wrestle if I remember correctly. All of her players were female minis and I loved the look of her team.

This was your quintessential 2-1 grind. She received and proceeded down the sideline. I pressed in on her cloud of elves and was able to get a 2-die blitz on her blodger with my Bull but could only push her due to my lack of tackle. I did not reroll because if I only pushed her again (the likely result) she would just dodge out and score and I always prefer to have a reroll for my bull to pick up the ball. She dodged out to score and kicked to me. I picked up the ball with my bull, formed a cage, and started to hunt Elves. The Sisters ran as any intelligence elf will do when facing a bunch of slavering Chaos Dwarves. She played the Olé defense and I proceeded to try and run down any poor elf that stayed in range as I marched down the field. I was able to score while getting a couple of elves off but due to the intelligent retreat she still had most of her team for the second half.

Again the bull was able to get the ball and take his place at the center of the cage and again The Sisters of Mayhem ran away from any dwarf looking to mow them down. I told Eva that if it were a league game I would go ahead and score and fight it out, but in a tournament I couldn’t risk giving her a second chance to score with elves, so the half was going to be a slow grind. She was totally cool and said she knew that was what I had to do. She was so nice about it I began to get paranoid. She had a Dirty Trick Card left. Oh God what was it? Was she going to catapult me into the stands with a Trampoline Trap or just make me drop the ball with a Pit Trap? She had to have something up her sleeve. She was too sweet and there must be a devious Dark Elf plan behind that twinkle in her eye. I almost scored on turn 7 of the second half just in case, but I knew that would give her two turns to score, so I waited for turn 8 and expected the worst. I did have a few Hobgoblins available should I have to try and handle the ball again. Her daring plan (which should have been foreshadowing for the round 1 game I would play later that night) was to dodge through my cage and throw a 2die up hill block against the bull. She actually pulled off all of the dodges but was only able to push me with her blitz. A 3 die blitz pushed her off of the ball carrier and I was able to score on turn 8. Even with the strategic retreat, I was still able to get 4 casualties and won 2-1.

Day 1 Recap- So I finish Day 1 with 2 wins and a loss to go along with 13 casualties. I still have a chance to win the tournament but all margin for error is gone. At the top of the leader board is Gary with his Amazon Team followed by Brian also with Chaos Dwarves at 2 wins and 1 Draw. It just speaks to the quality of the coaches that there is only one 3-0 coach after day one. I am anxious to get my hands on Gary’s Amazons, not only is he a great coach but he is a friend from the local league and I would love another chance to play now that I live half way across the country.

Round 4- vs Lee’s Norse The Blizzardale Snowbowlers

Lee had also come down from Northern California. His Norse team featured a Snow Troll with Mighty Blow, a Catcher with Dodge, a Blitzer with Tackle and a Blitzer with Strip Ball. No Norse Werewolves on this team. Lee wins the flip and decides to receive. He plays his first card which lets him decide which way the ball is thrown in from the stands in the first half. A card I always consider useless but would actually play a part in this game. He also plays the card that allows him to bring a 12th man onto the pitch figuring that he probably won’t have 12 available for the next kick.

He grabs the ball and heads down the sideline building a loose cage just on my side of the field. He injures a hobgoblin right off of the bat and for the first time in the tournament I am down players. Due to our relative strengths and skill this game would feature a lot of one die blocks. I press in on his cage some, but the Minotaur decides to yell and scream instead of blitzing a path to the ball carrier to Lee is still in good shape. He advances some and pushes me off of his cage, but a skull reroll skull one die block lets me press hard and put a body on his ball carrier and block off his path to the end zone. I may have pushed in a little too hard as he is able to open a hole for his ball carrier who dodges out and breaks down field while he gets a body to every single player that can reach him. I am going to blitz the end of his line of defenders with my Minotaur so the rest of my team can press down the field and put pressure on him to make him score but once again the minotaur decides to scream at the opponents instead of knocking them down so I am forced to just knock a couple of guys down and move as best I can in position for some next turn craziness if he stalls. Then I remember I have a trampoline trap and he is 2 squares from the corner so I have a good chance of sending his ball carrier into the crowd. The trap somersaults him into the crowd. The dice say he is knocked out but I think he was just drinking with the fans because he comes right back for the next drive and my opponent had +2 fame so there is no way they would hurt him. AND he gets to decide where the ball is thrown back in. He chooses straight down the goal line where his guy just dodges out picks it up and scores. Down 1-0 and I only have 4 turns to score before the half…time to get a move on. The Kickoff goes deep into my half but luckily the bull picks it up first try and start s moving. I don’t have enough turns to slowly roll the cage down the field so I try and cut off one side of the pitch that I can make a run down. My hitting starts to work and not only can I start to push his guys in one direction but I get a couple off of the pitch as well. A poor hobgoblin is tasked with standing next to the Snow troll every turn and just takes it for the team. I am able to break the bull and some hob goblins down the field on my turn 7. He is where even if he gets pushed back he can still make it in and one of the Gobo’s can make it on 2 Go For its. Lee is able to get in with his Strip Ball Blitzer for a two die uphill and pushes me back and strips the ball. Damn I will have to handle the ball again, something Chaos Dwarves are not known for. I blitz him off with a dwarf and then grab the ball and triple go for it into the end zone to tie it up 1-1 at the half.

The second half sees the block dice really turn in my favor. Armor 7 starts to take its toll and as I push down the field I start to build on my player advantage. The Hobgoblins do a great job of keeping the Snow Troll busy and I am able to push my cage up the sideline. Having injured 1 blitzer in the first half, and with the troll tied up with Hobos, I only had 1 frenzy piece left to worry about, so when he was lying on the pitch I took the opportunity to step on him and the foul resulted in another casualty. So Lee just doesn’t have enough players left to really stop the cage and I am able to go down for the score on my turn 8. This was the one game where the Minotaur really didn’t pull his weight and at least knock out a few players. He failed his Wild Animal roll at least 5 times when trying to hit or blitz, but all of my other hitting went smashingly (pun intended) so I was still able to get the 2-1 victory with 4 casualties.

Round 5- vs Ed’s Norse, the Wolven Raiders

(If I win this one I should make the top 4 and play with a chance for the championship but if I lose or draw I am out)

Ed had also come down from Northern California and had a very different team then Lee’s. Instead of the Snow troll he had 2 Norse Werewolves both with Block and 3 rerolls plus a leader reroll, for a total of 4 rerolls. He also has a kicker!!! Though he only has a single Dodge skill on his team, this was the dodgiest Norse team I have ever seen. Their ability to dodge all over the place kept me from really gaining a player advantage and would result in a truly crazy game. I win the toss and with no Snow Troll I am not as worried about casualties against me and elect to kick off counting on armor 9 to keep me alive.

He does injure a Hobgoblin on turn one (might have just been a concussion from getting knocked around so much by the troll in the last game) and grabs the ball to start heading my way. Again I press in around his loose cage but he just does a little hitting and then dodges everyone away while KO’ing my Leader dwarf so I am down to 1 reroll for the half. I am able to base his ball carrier the next turn but again he just dodges away and ultimately scores to go up 1-0. I proceed to push down the sideline with the intent of tying it up before the half. I keep moving my cage up but am still not able to get a player advantage as we each have one player off and he had a 12th guy. Ultimately I decide that I need to score on turn 7 because he is putting a lot of pressure on my cage and I have only knocked out 1 guy so the fact I will be giving him 2 chances to come back is worth the score. So after basing all of his players in case things go horribly horribly wrong and a blitz with a dwarf, my Bull has a clear path to the end zone with 2 go-for-its to score. I promptly double 1 the first go for it, but not only that, I apparently hit a rock and stun myself so I can’t even get up and try to score on turn 8. I spend turn 8 hitting and do actually manage to kill a lineman.

So now I am receiving in the second half and I have to do something Chaos Dwarves are not meant to do, score quickly. Luckily my Leader comes back because I will definitely need that reroll. Remember he has a kicker right? So he kicks the ball all the way back one square in front of my end zone and then he plays the Sprinkler card, that’s right all ball handling is now at -1!!! Luckily the kick off gives me a reroll and I give the Bull one chance to pick it up with a reroll and of course he fails so next turn the Hobgoblin gets it and starts up the pitch. This will be the first drive the entire tournament where my Hobgoblin was the one carrying the ball. I force the issue and move the goblin as far as I can each turn and bring the cage up around him. I have to win for a chance at the title and to do that I have to score twice so move, move, move!!! I am able to grind a little as I move so I finally get a small player advantage and kill one of his werewolves. I score on my turn 5 with some go for its and leave myself 3 turns to try and get the win. I kick to him and he promptly cages on his side of the field. I run a hobgoblin down just to make sure I have someone in scoring position and bring players into position to pressure his cage while not leaving the other side of the pitch completely open. He moves the cage up a little and hits a little on the line of scrimmage. I press in on his cage and base 3 of the 4 corners. Then I play my cards, I use a pit trap to place the ball carrier prone and give my dwarf in the middle of his entire team disturbing presence and anyone within 3 squares of him are boneheaded for the turn. So his entire team except the werewolf is boneheaded and the ball is on the ground inside a cage I have surrounded. That is about the best I could hope for. I mentioned earlier that this was the dodgiest Norse team in history right? He proceeds to push me around with some one die blocks, dodge a lineman down the field as a receiver, pick the ball up, dodge out of the cage and get exactly one square outside of my disturbing presence for the pass and completion. Luckily, on my turn I am able to knock down most of his players that can affect the play and blitz the ball free from his ball carrier. On his turn, he makes a valiant effort to dodge his remaining werewolf through a tackle zone for the blitz but fails his dodge with a reroll. It all comes down to the heralded hobgoblin passing game that we all hear so much about. I have to pick it up, go for it to make it a short pass and then catch it and run for the TD….time to shine hobos or no dinner for you (actually you might be dinner for the minotaur) I got lucky and made my rolls to score on my turn 8. This was a really close game that came down to having to pull off a pass on my final play of the game. I only caused 2 casualties in this game, the least of any game in the tourney but was still able to get 2 scores in one half for the 2-1 victory.

Round 6- The Top 4

So with the come from behind victory my record is 4 wins and 1 loss so I am the 2nd seed going into the top 4 with Brian’s (Grither NAF ID) Chaos Dwarves, Doug’s (Daht NAF D) Orcs and Neb’s (HighElfMage NAF ID) Lizardmen. Gary who started 3-0 after day one lost out on making the Top 4 on tiebreakers after a rough game against Brian’s Chaos Dwarves. I ended paired against Neb’s Lizards while Brian faced off against Doug’s Orcs. Ironically this is the exact same match up I had in last year’s Quake where Neb beat me 2-0 and took home the title. Hopefully this would be my chance for revenge.

Vs Neb’s Lizardmen, the Chosen Ones

Neb’s build is very similar to the on he played last year, Krox with block, 2 Saurus with Block, 1 with Block & Leader, 1 Saurus with Guard and a Ag 4 Skink. He had 2 Saurus and 3 skinks with no skills. So my plan is kill the skinks, especially the Ag 4 guy, but I also want to take shots at the Saurus when I can because 3 Mighty Blow/Claw players means I might be able to get some of his strength 4 off the field. Neb wins the toss and elects to receive.

I set up with Hobos on the front line so that my tackle dwarves will be free to play defense and he grabs the ball and starts knocking guys down with his saurus. On my turn I am able to blitz and knock out a skink with a dwarf so 1 down and 3 to go. He then switches field to my left but keeps his skink with the ball on his half of the pitch. I push that way a little. I have to keep my dwarves spread out to cover the field and keep my bull as a safety that can react either way. The Minotaur decided that this was the game where he would be a hero and starts by blitzing the guard saurus and causing a casualty. Neb switches the field again and goes to my right, just crossing midfield with his ball carrier in a loose cage of Saurus. Meanwhile I knock out a skink who was tied up with a dwarf on the other side of the pitch and start to press a little harder. He moves up into scoring position with his skink and knocks some dwarves down, but at this point he is as spread out as I am since neither one of us can really dodge and I am able to get a hit on the ball carrier, popping it out but the skink is ok. Now we are in a scrum and I am thinking I might actually be able to keep him from scoring. I knock his tackle zones off the ball and go in with a hobgoblin to try and punt the ball back down field, but the ball slips out and the hobgoblin fumbles back into the scrum. At this point I use my Pit Trap card again. He has one skink standing and I don’t want him to be able to grab the ball and run out of my range, so by placing him prone, it means that even if he can get up and get it he can’t score and he can’t get out of my range. He is able to run one skink down into easy scoring range, but the other skink fails his dodge out to get the ball so it is still in the scrum. Even better, the skink knocks himself out falling so there is only 1 skink left on the pitch and he cannot run back get the ball and still score on his turn 8. I am pretty well tied up so I do some gratuitous hitting with no real result and at least get one guy on the ball just in case. At this point I am thinking that I am in decent shape, where he will have to either run a saurus into the endzone and throw a pass with the skink, or pick up the ball with a saurus and handoff to the skink. Neb is able to clear the ball and declares a hand off action…….and the Saurus grabs the ball!!!! The Saurus grabs the balll!!! And hands it off to the skink for the easy TD!!!! I thought I had him stopped, but once again I realize I will be going into the half down 1-0 and have to score twice in the second half for the win.

Luckily I did get one turn of hitting before the half and I was able to injure another Saurus….If I can keep the player advantage going my way, I might have a chance. So I receive and again I start the hitting while the Bull goes for the ball. He only has 2 skinks for the second half but one of them is his Ag4 Skink. This is where things really begin to turn in my favor. He double 1’s a go for it with hi Ag4 skink and knocks himself out while the claws/MB finally start slicing and dicing, I am able to get down and score in 4 turns while taking off a number of his players. The Minotaur ends up killing his Leader Saurus and Injuring his Krox!!! Go Fanghorn!! He sets up to receive with just 4 players and 1 skink. The skink grabs the ball and makes sure to stay out of Blitz range while I advance in a line down field so that there is tackle anywhere the skink can get to. I also take two more saurus off of the pitch so he is down to just 1 saurus and 1 skink, but he still has the ball and the skink has ran all the way into the very corner of the field out of reach. I advance so that I can hit anywhere the skink can get to and pass the turn. Now comes the make or break moment of the game, Neb blitzes the last saurus free of tackle zones, getting him down field far enough that he can score next turn and declares a pas action with the skink!!! What!?!?!? At least he needs a 6 for it to be accurate and with my line of dwarves I will get an interception attempt. He runs out and throws over Zhagrakh Blackhand, the Mighty Blow Claw Lineman who has been my star of the tournament. Can he pull off the last minute heroics?? The ball is in the air and sticks up his claw and…..impales the ball for the Interception!! Blackhand has it and is just 6 squares from the end zone with 2 turns left. I move the ball carrying dwarf down towards the end zone and immediately blitz the skink with a dwarf to get him down and surround him with players as the Hobbo comes over and steps on him with a foul that stuns him and puts him down for the rest of the game. I am breathing a sigh of relief thinking that I will actually score twice in a half for 2 straight games as the lone remaining saurus is well out of reach. BUT WAIT!!!! Neb says he is using his last card….oh no….what it is…He gives the Saurus Bombadier!!!! He needs a 6 to be accurate….can he do it….no, he fumbles and I walk into the end zone to win the game!!!!

2-1 victory with 6 Casualties. Thank you Neb for the great game and never getting down when the injuries really piled up. I am totally ok if we play in the final 4 next year with the winner being named champ!!

Final Results:

So I end up with 5 wins and 1 loss and am the Tournament Champion. Brian and Doug drew their game so Brian ended up with 4 wins and 2 draws. Tough to not lose a game all tournament and not win but he did finish 2nd and is a really great coach. Rich’s Orc Team was voted best painted by patrons of the store where it was held and Eva was named Best Sport!!

As far as my Team went, #7 Zhagrakh Blackhand the Mighty Blow/Claw Blocker, was my tournament MVP. Not only did he have the winning Interception and Touchdown in my final game but he wracked up 8 casualties including 2 deaths throughout the tournament. My other Mighty Blow/Claw Blocker, Fartan Hollowhat, wracked up 6 casualties including 1 death and the Minotaur Fanghorn had 5 casualties including 2 deaths. I will say that except for the one game against the Norse, my Minotaur did very well and despite only causing 5 casualties he knocked out more than I can count. Overall I scored 11 touchdowns while allowing 6 and I caused 25 casualties including 6 deaths.

Again I would like to thank Dennis and Mike for hosting a great tournament and for all of the other coaches for making this such a great event!! I also want to say that the resin cast dugout that each coach received is AWESOME!!! I plan on posting a pic when I get mine painted. Next year they say there will be bleachers that connect to the dugout and are where you can track turns and score. The coaches were all great and I hope that Blood Bowl continues to grow on the West Coast!

I wanted to say that I really like this build system. You do not quite get as much as you do with a 1mil build and 6 regular skills (1.12 mil value) but you get a TON more flexibility and it allows things the like the build I brought with 3 MB/Claws players. If I had brought dwarves I think the only difference would have been that I had a reroll and leader instead of two rerolls and I would have had a Block/Dodge/Sure Hands Runner and 3 Guard instead of 2. Still pretty standard. I am still shocked that the were no Dwarves, Wood Elves, or Undead teams in the tournament at all!!