A bit of Blood Bowl, and a bit more MiniArt painting...

 

Long weekends...so so good. Today, I met my mate C_ for a second game of Blood Bowl. More specifically, we played a full game of Blood Bowl '7-a-side'. 

We decided to meet at a games store/gaming space called Jolt Games, located in the Northern Canberra industrial/shopping area at Mitchell. More conveniently, the shop is only a 10 minute hop, skip and a jump from my home in the leafy suburbs. 

The space is great, and the owner was very welcoming. There were a bunch of about a dozen or more people playing an Infinity tournament on the larger tables when we got there, but still enough smaller tables left for us to set up our game.

Seeing all the Infinity players gave me a nice warm sense of dejaVu, as there were many obsessive Infinity players at my old club in Darwin.

C_ had dutifully painted up two sides for our encounter. These figures were beautifully painted, I mean just amazing... My photos won't really translate the kind of razzmatazz the figures have. I was really impressed and couldn't keep gushing about them. The interesting thing is that he doesn't show them off online at all...

So I'm gonna do it instead.

My team was a mix of Ogres and Gnoblars, and they had a really interesting mixture of traits. A bit brutish & dim-witted with the Ogres of course - tricky to activate, but consistently solid in taking down the opposition. 

The tiny Gnoblers were a bit more slinkier & agile, but completely mashable.

We are matched up against C_'s Dwarf guys.

These guys seemed a bit tougher & steadfast.

Well. I'm a new player, but thankfully the game played out in a way that wasn't a complete waffle stomping affair. C_ would graciously adjudicate on the many, many cool but stupid tactics I tried through the game.

I really enjoy the mix of strategy and chaos in Blood Bowl. It's a game that rewards risk, and when I say rewards it, I mean that even if your plan goes haywire, really funny dumb & memorable stuff is going to happen. All round good vibes, it's a game that is completely up my alley.

We had a great game and lasted roughly two hours. At one stage the Jolt owner came over and had good geez at what was going down. At first, I thought I was maybe being a bit too rowdy & enthusiastic, but it turned out that he too, loved the game and knew all the nuances about the different teams. 

We had a good ol' chin wag with him about it all.

But back to the game...

More dumb luck. This Dwarf guy got knocked aside, dropped the ball, then my Ogre fell flat on his face trying to pick it up...getting wounded/injured in the process.

Just carnage..but oh so funny.

This Ogre. This guy. He routinely failed to pass his dim-witted test, and got pummelled. It kind of reminded me of watching a 7 year-old's football match at times.

The Ogres had the ability to pick up the little Gnoblars and hurl them around. I tried this a few times with varying - mostly comedic - results.

First blood went to C_, then he scored a second time as more and more of my team were stunned, mashed into a paste by crazed onlookers/'fans'. A second try followed early in the second half...

My bench began to fill up with seriously wounded players that I wouldn't be able to rouse for the game. It looked as though Team Ogre was going to get flogged.

Toward the end of the game - and with a some very generous advice - my bruised and battered Ogres & Gnoblars were able to score a consolation try. The Gnoblars shepherded an Ogre that finally managed to pick up and throw a Gnoblar with the ball over the head of the dwarves, enabling that heroic Globular to scuttle over the try-line.

I had the gist of what I wanted to do, but C_ came up with the formulas that increased the odds. As I said, it was very generous of him to explain and coach me along with the game, letting me take away a little dignity with only a 2-1 loss for my gutsy, but hopeless team.

Having said that, the 'push-your-luck' aspect of the game really came through for me at this crucial moment.

As I said, C_'s painting is really top notch. I'm glad I didn't have to face this thing in the game...I think there would have been a much, much worse scoreline....I mean, what is this thing going to do other than crush, kill and destroy little green things?

So it was great game. I'm really looking forward to playing it more this year, as I'm planning to purchase an army to paint up and use for our games. I don't think they'll look as spiffy as these guys through.

A Blood Bowl team will have to wait in the queue, as I'm currently tackling the extra figures in the box of this MiniArt 'Assault of Medieval Fortress' 1/72 diorama box-set.

This set was just too good to be true. It contains a castle terrain set, plus four separate figure sets from the MiniArt range. Some of these, such as the Swiss Mercenaries, can't be purchased individually anywhere. The set cost me $42, and with postage from Frontline Hobbies in Newcastle being relatively cheap, it was an easy decision to throw a pineapple down and pick these up.

There's 24 pikemen in the set, and I'm just splashing the Contrasts around, and they're starting to come up well. Good enough for the tabletop. 

At this stage of my life, I think I've gone too far down the 'single based' pipeline to really change my approach, so they'll be button-based like my other figures to remain consistent....to be honest, I'd love the lot of my guys multi-based...but as I said, the rabbit hole is too deep & twisted to turn back now.

So there you go. It's been a top weekend so far. A bit of fitness, hanging with the kids, a bit of jamming with my mates yesterday...a bit of painting and gaming.

All good.