A 4-Player BloodBowl Sevens Mini-Mini-Con.

My painting table was put into low-gear and full throttle over the past two weeks. It was a last ditch attempt to get my Norse 'Canberra Raiders' ready for today's four-player Blood Bowl Sevens 'Mini-Mini Con/Tournament'.

My mate C_, gentleman gamer and master painter, held a Blood Bowl 7s get-together for four of us at his place. We had a great Saturday arvo's gaming. Four fully painted teams, a lot of laughs, snacks, warm cups of tea and a few beers. We played a round robin of 3 games each. 

We had - Black Orcs (painted by C_ and pictured above), Dwarves (another of C_s), a Necromantic Horror team (beautifully painted up by A_) and my own painted-up Norse 'Canberra Raiders'.

    C_s Dwarves.

A_s' Necromantic Horror.

There was a stack of rampaging carry-on, typical for Blood Bowl games. Full of crash tackling, head stomping, goblin throwing good family fun.

I'm still very new to the game, and not being an 'ultra-competitive' type (read...a rash, impulsive, slightly inattentive type, just bloody terrible with rules, tactics, finesse, skill and luck...) I did not do as badly as I was expecting...

I came dead last.

My dudes got crumpled and thrown aside, just like an old carton of Raider's Lime (and yes...I did try it back in the day...and yeah...let's just say I'm not that much of a die-hard fan..).

My Raiders needed a lot more skill and understanding to be little more competitive. For Sevens, I ran 2 x Valkyrie, 2 x Ulfwerener (affectionately deemed  'Wafflestomper' & 'Vienna Schnitzel' after a few turns) and a couple of Raider Linemen.

But my Canberra Raiders did manage to score a point or two and even managed a draw of 1-1 against C_s Dwarves (to be fair to him...he did slightly coach me a little to get that point...but you take the small consolations where you can).

Games on the table in progress.

The Raiders went down 2-1 in their first match against the Necromantic Horror...although I think this was just a warm up bout for A_'s guys, as his Werewolves and Zombies went on to win the pennant for the day. 

His Werewolves in particular were troublesome, as they had longer bounds and were very difficult to hold down. Once they had the ball you couldn't give them any space as they'd easily brush past any lightly defended zones.

Meanwhile, C_ and S_ were facing off in game of Dwarves vs Black Orcs.

The Dwarves and Black Orcs had a good ol' punch on, knocking the stuffing out of each other and eventually concluding the bout at a 1-All draw. 

The games cracked on a nice clip throughout the afternoon. I was a little too busy trying to stave off defeat and to keep my gaming head above water to notice that A_'s Necromatic Horde had brushed aside the S_s Black Orcs 3 - 0. 

S_s was a bit miffed at his big ol' troll, as it had hardly managed to activate from its docile stupor for the match, giving those bloody Werewolves the opportunities to push through.

At this stage, I was playing against C_s Dwarves....tying 1-1, although C_ brutally injured and wounded a bunch of my guys & girls and came away as the crowd favourites. I did come away however, with the 'moral victory'. 

A couple of his players were caught and sent off for stomping my players while they were knocked out. Something I wish I had done more of in my own games, truth be told.

It was right-on, dead-set, bareknuckle bust up. So much fun.

C-s 'Lawnmower' went in on old mate Waffle Stomper and came off badly.

Good pass, bad catch.

My Valkyries had some handy skills but most of the time I just couldn't sequence and time their runs. With more games I reckon I'll get a better hang of the game.

My last game of the arvo was against the Black Orcs, and I frankly was woefully unprepared. I got flogged  3 to zip. 

Still, I was having a good ol time by this stage and thought I'd try and do some funky stuff that *just*made*absolutely*no*sense*...like trying to make my own patented 'Viking Horn' pincer move to try and pinch the ball behind the wall of Orcs....leaving a gaping hole in the centre...

Yeah, it didn't work out.

More-so...the Orcs were just too brutal for my poor old Raiders. By this stage of the day, my attention was flagging and my little Green-Machine men & women got walloped. The big troll-like Orc just activated every time...even S_ was pretty chuffed, given that finally the activation dice had started to turn in his favour. 

I say all this but in fact, I was just playing too impulsively and so, so, so badly by this stage. 

That scoring marker..it just wouldn't budge. 

The final ranking...

1st Place. A_s Necromantic Horror with 3 Wins. (2-1 vs the Raiders, 3-0 vs the Black Orcs, 1-0 vs the Dwarves)

2nd Place. S_s Black Orcs with 1 Win, 1 Draw and 1 Loss. (3-0 vs the Raiders, 1-1 vs the Dwarves, 0-3 vs the Necromantics)

3rd Place. C_s Dwarves with 2 Draws and 1 Loss. (1-1 vs the Raiders, 1-1 vs the Black Orcs, 0-1 vs the Necromantics)

Wooden Spooners...my Raiders, with 2 losses ( vs Black Orcs and Nercomantics) and 1 Draw (against the Dwarves).

Well, now that I've painted up my team and have even swapped a couple of beers for a Yeti, I can safely say that I will be playing Blood bowl some more this year. It's just too good to refuse.

Hell, I might even win a game someday....

All the best.