Ok here are mine. Please correct me if anything is wrong, i write this completly from my blurred memories!
My team was Chaos dwarfs:
1 Troll
4 Hobgoblins (Dirty Player after Game 2).
2 Bull Centaurs (Surehands after Game 3, Block after Game 4)
6 Chaos Dwarfs (Guard after Game 5)
3 RRs, 1FF
I chose this roster over the 11 Player variant with 4 RRs or an apothecary because i believe in roster depth and some strategic fouling (swapping 40k players vs. more expensive ones).
Game 1: vs. Death Squad (Arkhandzar), Undead
I won the toss and received the ball. One of his mummies left the pitch early KOed, the other one got tied up by a Chaos Dwarf on the right side of the pitch, while the larger part of my team slowly forced the way down the pitch via the left side scoring in turn 7 with a Hobgoblin.
Arkhandzar desperatly searching for a move to stop this offence
This game was dominated by Skull and Pow/Skull block results. Having 6 block players helped a lot and gave the main advantage, as his Ghouls never were able to spread out and use their speed advantage. Skeletons and Zombies never managed to hold the line, falling down all the time, on their blocks and mine. A lot of quick turnovers (tons of ones) in the second half kept both of us from scoring.
The game ended 1-0 (1-1 Cas) for me. I ended up around table 10 for the next game. Good and solid start with not too much action in the game.
I picked PileOn for my Troll to be able to deal out more Casulties esp. against one of the plentyful Orc teams.
Typical dice for this game
Game 2: vs. Waaagh Wild West (Joker), Orc
Ouch, 4 Bobs, 4 Blitzers and an Ogre touched up with a thrower and two Gobbos! Not a single lineorc ... good test for my Troll.
Again i received and after some turns i managed to clear the left side of the pitch by injuring one player and pushing a Bob out of bounds. My Troll tied up plenty of players (did not manage to injure one though), while i managed to build a nicely safe position that allowed me to score around turn 5 with a bull centaur. Right before that i got a chance to stick a boot into one of the gobbos, injuring him and by this reducing the chance of a TTM action.
Another left wing attack
I managed to defend my endzone for the rest of the half, with the help of some good dice rolls on the blocking. Kicking i went into half two and he tried to force players down to my right side. However, all players were very concentrated and weren't able to break out after i gained the advantage in numbers and sent the second Gobbo into the KO box.
Take a picture whil there are still players on the pitch
When the pressure got too high in turn 6, he threw the ball to an empty square close to my endzone. With 3 turns left, the time of the Bull Centaur had come. He went to the ball, picked it and charged down into the endzone, running his 26 squares in 3 turns, for the 2-0 win.
The path is cleared, but veeery long! My Bull Centaur with the ball just a few squares from my endzone in turn 6.
Another very good game with solid blocking and good ball handling. Casulties was 2-1 for me i think. Next skill was dirty player on a Hobgoblin. His task was to take care of 1 or 2 expensive opponents per match, but he got more effective in the rest ofthe tornament than i ever could dream of.
Game 3: vs. Beautty Ladies (Tarra), Wood Elfs
Wow, i worked my way up to table 3 for a match against the 2003 Blood Bowl Champ. I have a very bad record against wood elfs, so i needed some luck to get through this game.
I lost the toss and kicked the ball. On the kickoff, my lonely fan "got the Ref" against Tarra's lonely fan, so got a full half of free fouling *harhar*
Btw. i played this 3-5-3 defence for almost the whole tournament and it worked very well.
My typical 3-5-3 defensive setup
Tarra blitzed a hole into my right side (i noticed that somehow most players -including me- had a strange tendency to the left side). One short pass and a few blocks later, a Wood Elf was standing in my endzone ... unstoppable as usual. I only managed to KO two of his players who returned both.
Now i was going for the offence and started to injure his players, mostly with fouls i have to admit. My dirty player went from elf to elf, esp. hunting for the wardancers, of which i could injure one for the first time, but he used the apothecary on him. Unfortunatly, ball handling didn't go very well and Tarra found a whole in my defence, leaped through and snatched the ball away from me scoring a second time in turn 4.
Tarra playes so fast, you can't make a good photo of him
Another time all 3 KOs came back for the kickoffs, but he had only 8 players left. In the third drive, my ball handling was better and the casulties kept poring in, injuring the wardancer for the second time and injuring both catchers. I managed to score in turn 8 with my Bull Centaur.
Tarra had 6 players left for the the second drive, 4 of them lineelfs. With the referee back in duty, the fouling stopped, but i managed to score some KOs and finally a real casulty as well as a quick score in turn 3.
The leftovers of a once proud Wood Elf team at the beginning of half 2
4 Elfs set up for the next drive, and Tarra found no way to defend the ball against a full Chaos Dwarf defence. He managed to injure a Hobgoblin, but finally i got the ball and ran for a touchdown for a third and final time.
A 3-2 win with coming back from 0-2 against Wood Elfs is something that only works through a high number of casulties. The official cas count was 1-1, the real one was 8-1 (6 foul casulties, 1 failed dodge). Very tough game for me, without getting the ref i would have lost big time after having to concede the second touchdown.
Next skill was Sure Hands on one of the Bull Centaurs, as there were plenty of Wood Elf teams with strip ball around the top tables. I chose the Bull centaur over a Hobgoblin because the hobgobs have a higher tendency to go down vs. a lonely Wardancer.
After day 1 i was one of 3 unbeaten players, in second place with 15 points, only a few touchdowns behind Del's (Longfang's) Humans, but one touchdown ahead of Redfang's Dwarfs.
Game 4: vs. Longfangs Dambusters (Longfang), Humans
Finally on table one, had to go against Longfang's unbeaten humies. He went for a RR heavy lineup without an Ogre and didn't look too happy when i was facing my lineup. I also had the advantage of some more hours of sleep and quite less alcohol on the last evening
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And then there's Nuffle of course ...
At this point everything was open ...
Longfang never had any chance in this game. He received and nothing worked at all. Ball handling was bad (tons of 1s) and almost every armor roll of me was at least a ten. My Troll cleared out 3 Blitzers (one apothed) in the first 4 turn and finally i had the ball on a Bull Centaur who went for the 1-0 in turn 6. I didn't even see any use in stalling the game as already half of the humans were either injured or KOed at this time.
Two handed player movement ... wow, that's an experienced Blood Bowl player!
I could keep him from scoring easily as his dice didn't allow him any better actions. He failed a pass to a touchdown possibility and i scored more casulties (all blitzers gone for half 2). Half two went very quick with almost no changes to my incredible luck, i scored two more (Bull Centaur and Hobgoblin) and scored more Cas and KOs, so finally the Cas count was 8-1 i think (4 alone for my PileOn Troll). Not a challenging game, not too much fun for me, absolutly none for Del. Redfang didn't manage to win as well, so i was the only unbeaten player at this point.
Block on the other Bull Centaur seemed to be a good idea (not really sure about this).
Game 5: vs. The Tribe Of Zy-Nox (Zy-Nox), Wood Elfs
Playing Zy-Nox was my biggest wish for this tournament as i had a great game against him at the Blood Bowl, which i lost big time (even the cas count and that hurts). Now i got the chance of a revenge.
Left side offence again ...
Once again i lost the coin toss and saw the elfs receive. Zynox went for a heavy left side setup. He blitzed a Dwarf to the sideline and built up a bulk of 8 Elfs just within my players. I've never seen a offence like this before, but it worked for him, as my players were too slow to build a defence in front of the bulk. He managed to open the path, for him and cleared out the players that interfered with his bulk. A pass, a run, another easy 2 turn touchdown ... damn those Elfs!
More agility than a Chaos Dwarf can stand.
Now i had to strike back and my fans really helped my by getting the ref again. This time i also managed to secure the ball and went out to clear the pitch of wood elfs. My Troll helped alot, my dirty player did his job quite well, too. So when i went for the 1-1, there were 4 elfs left on the pitch and the strip ball wardancer was dead for a second time
In half two, all KOs returned (the only rolls my opponents were REALLY lucky this weekend), so he could set up 6 against a full team of mine.
It looked easy, but a sudden turn of luck made this half one of best and most intense Blood Bowl experiences. I failed the 5 pickup attempts in a row (4 of them with my Sure Hands Bull). I managed to injure two more elfs, but i just could not secure the ball. His catcher was running circles around my players running, dodging into 3 TZ, picking the ball, falling down again ... it was crazy, both of us were only one dice away from a certain touchdown once or twice, and both we failed (with a RR). In turn 7 i finally had him down to 2 players and secured the ball. But i needed to do a long pass from a Bull Centaur to a Bull Centaur in turn 8 and fumbled the ball.
What a game! Final result 1-1, again with something like 5 to 0 official casulties (9-1 with fouls and self inflicted). I knew the tie was good enough to lift my to the final! Guard on a Chaos Dwarf was my last skill pick, as i was pretty sure to play a bashy team in the final.
Final: vs. Heidhusir Sticky Bits (Grep-V), Chaos Dwarf.
Arg! Another Chaos Dwarf team in the final with an almost identical roster. He had 2 Hobgoblins less, but an Apothecary and 4FF. HE also had a pile on Troll and 3 guarding Chaos Dwarfs, but no dirty player. This was really looking like a bashy game.
With an evil look, Grep-V scared my luck away ...
I won the toss and chose to receive, but the game started with bang. His crowd threw a rock at my dirty player, sending him off the pitch KOed.
I had some good first blocks, but my Troll wasted my blitz action (failed 2+) after i set up for a blitz to take his Troll out. Again, my Bull Centaur failed a pickup. He started bashing my players and my only guard went into the injury box. both Bull Centaurs charged in to put pressure on my back field. I tried to secure my position, but this time a hobgoblin failed the pickup early in the turn. Another full round of bashing and piling for him and another Chaos Dwarf and a Hobgoblin dropped out KO. He went for the ball, but didn't get it as well. In turn 3, my Bull Centaur was 1 square ahead of his two, finally picked the ball and went away 9 squares, so he could not blitz him. However, in the next turn i did not manage to get away and dropped the ball into the crowd. It was thrown back in and bounced to a square next to his endzone. In the mean time, my last Troll and my Chaos Dwarfs withstood a lot of bashing, but beeing outnumbered and outguarded could not help me at all. I managed to injure one of his Hobgoblins on an 1 dice skull/pow block, but while my Hobgoblin was stunned, his apothecary healed the injury, keeping him in the game in an important position. In turn 7 he went for a desperate long pass from bull centaur to bull centaur and managed to make it inaccurate (5+), bringing the ball out of the range of my players. In the last turn, he made the pickup and sprinted into my endzone for the 0-1.
The pregame huddle did not help very much.
Of course my KOs did not return, so i was outnumbered by one at the beginning of half 2, and still without my dirty player. I had to kick now and for the second time, the crowd interfered with my plans. A pitch invasion ran over my players and stunned a Chaos Dwarf and KOed a hobgoblin. Then his players flooded over me and i didn't really stand a chance to defend. My last hobgoblin (KO) and another Chaos dwarf (injured) went out, while my Troll managed to kill one of his Bull Centaurs, while the other one went out on a 1 dice block against mine (Block skill paid off). However, this was not enough to stop him, and he scored the 0-2 with 4 turns left for me.
2 turn scoring is possible but very difficult with Chaos dwarfs. esp. if you lack players. 2 of my Hobgoblins (including the DP) returned so i set up for a fast offense with both Bulls on one side. A perfect defence ruined my plans as suddenly a Troll and several guards were right in front of them. I failed some rolls to free up the Bulls and had to concede the game in turn 6 as there was no way to score. I went for the easy 4 turn score, but he even managed to hold up this, although my Hobgoblin was just a 3+ dodge away from it.
Not the nicest way to lose a final, but after all i had plenty of luck to be there anyway! Congrats to grep-v (Alessandro)!
Wow ... i have too much time. I could have painted two minis instead of writing this
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