Blood Bowl: Snotlings Vs (Canberra Raiders) Norse. More Friday Fistful of Lead..

Back to Blood Bowl this weekend. My first full game, rather than the Blood Bowl 7s we have been playing over the past few months.

C- hosted the game and fielded his splendid and freshly painted Snotlings side.  There was much fun to be had with this bout, as there were so so many of these little fellas slinking around the pitch. I took my one & only Canberra Raiders Norse.

I won't go into a blow by blow recount of the game, but I will start with my typical excuses. 

I was hell rusty on the rules, sleep deprived, exhausted from the working week, and rolling terribly. Given all this, my Norse walked away with their dignity somewhat intact, only losing 2 -1...and I might add, turning 14 or so of C-s little blighters into green mist...

There were the usual highs and lows - the agonies & ecstasies - that you get with Blood Bowl. Being a full game, I got to field a strong compliment of players and was a little excited to put two Valkyries, my Yeti, plus one of my little Beer Boars on the field.

You won't find a good photo of those Beer Boars because they were rubbish, and are barley worth mentioning truth be told. I think I counted perhaps two occasions in which they added their special ability to give my players a free 'jump' up. That little piggy of mine was pretty much a speed bump, or at best, a supporting element that enabled my Bezerkers to level up when facing some of C-s bigger elements.

My Yeti - the big fluff ball - was equally disappointing. It only managed to slash one Snotling the entire game, and was pummelled senseless by C-s Troll.

And knocked over again by The Snotling Pump Wagon... and didn't see out the game after that.

Although the Yeti is very photogenic...I would have preferred a little more of a gusty performance, after all it has the 'Claws' special rule that enables it to tear through armour, something I well and truly needed to take on C-s Troll.

My Valkyries were utterly abysmal in this match. They were supposed to be my more agile and speedy players, but between the two of them, there must have been half-a-dozen failed agility tests. Time and again, they fell on their faces, dropped the balls, failed to even pick up the ball.

My rolls were so bad, but at the end of the day, I do blame those little plastic figures. It's all their fault.

C- was having a gleeful time and made multiple fouls, and as I recall only got caught once. At one point his Snotlings came up and stove one of my Ulfwerener's head in, and got away with blue murder.

All in good fun, no harm no foul as they say...although a foul is only to be encouraged in Blood Bowl. The cheeky carnage and chaos is definitely a big part of the why I love this game. 

My Norse Bezerkers and Linemen really earned their keep and took a lot of punishment. They managed to dust themselves off consistently and get back into the muck. They too had a few wins on the day by squashing a number of snotlings. 

As I previously mentioned, there was a lot of little green things getting stomped on during the match. My Bezerkers - units I pretty much had under-utilised until now - really brought their brute strength to the contest.

The match was longer than our usual 7s games and ran for about three hours. It was a good, satisfying game. It's been a little too long since I last played Blood Bowl, so I was fairly rusty with the rules but happy to get back into it. There are so many little brain burning decisions and options available, but when that unpredictable element is added, it just makes it so much more enjoyable.

Likewise, the sways of fortune in Blood Bowl bring a real sense of engagement. Playing experienced players in other systems can sometimes feel demoralising, particularly with a system full of modifiers & special rules, but with Blood Bowl there are just so many crazy, funny moments to keep you engaged.

At one moment in the game C- took his Troll and attempted to throw a Snotling - with the ball - across my line. The Troll fumbled the pick-up and dropped the snotling, which proceeded to bounce around, and knock the Troll down.... and out.

It was... what it was.

The other great thing about the game was that I got to play with my good mate, see his superbly painted collection, and get a few little painting tips along the way.

It was a great Saturday of gaming that came off a Friday of gaming Fistful of Lead with my students at School. 

We've been meeting on Fridays for quick fire sessions of the game, and there seems to be regular group of about 8 players, give or take the comings and goings of your typical high school.

This week was our fifth session, and essentially I've been ever so slowly adding complimentary rule elements.

This week we had a four player continuation of my 'Band Of Brothers' GIs vs Germans. Each player has two figures, they all start off board and have to enter the village, search and find the 'intel' and scamper off with it.

The game usually plays to conclusion within the 40 or so minutes we have. It's just enough time to move a few figures about, shoot up each other, roll some dice and trash talk. 

The set up has to be quick and dirty, so the tables are fairly rudimentary. The students are familiar enough with the system so they just instinctively grab the tape measure and the dice, and get to the table edge to check line of sight.

It's enough to give me a warm fuzzy feeling, seeing all the young folk wargaming away...