Cambridge Double Trouble VI

The Cambridge Double Trouble VI (or CamDub as it is affectionately known) was to be my penultimate tournament of 2018. It was a standout tournament in the year because of two things; Firstly, this was a team/pairs event. Secondly, team selection allowed coaches to only choose skills normally obtained by rolling a double... so no all-Guard Dwarf or all-Block Saurus teams. Upon registering I didn't have a partner, so Purplegoo (Phil) the co-tournament organiser kindly agreed to pair up with me as he was a loner too, and so Wotfudgoo was born.

It's important for the success of any tournament to have a good venue with a bar, plenty of parking, a spacious games room, and food & accommodation options nearby. The Golden Hind in Cambridge ticked all the right boxes. We were even able to watch England vs Australia in the rugby on a projector screen in the tournament room. Good stuff!

My roster

My thinking around the roster for this Chaos Pact team was to have a guard Orc who would get knocked down, but with AV9 should get back up again to provide an assist to his team mates - particularly useful for hitting opposition big guys!

https://wotfudboy.blogspot.com/2018/11/chaos-pact-chaos-renegades.html

The Troll and Ogre went with Block - actually despite having pretty dreadful dice across the weekend it would have been soooooo much worse had I not taken block on these guys as I rolled A LOT of skull & both down combinations. Unfortunately I did this for the Minotaur too who I don't think got through a game without being stretchered off the pitch, normally in the first half! His claws were rarely devastating, often making casualties when it was already a lost game. I personally didn't have a good weekend of results, finishing 2 wins, 1 draw, 3 losses, and the team never really stopped rolling poor despite some careful positioning... but Pact are known to do this.

Day One - Game One vs team Howlingfrodo
The day hadn't got off to a great start as I arrived 10 minutes late for the first game. My team mate Phil (Purplegoo) had managed to draw us against team Howlingfrodo - yes, my team mates from Eurobowl Cardiff!!...

...with Phil going up against Andrew (Mr_Frodo)...

...and me facing Darren (Howlinggriffon) - nice t-shirt Darren!
With the obligatory blog photos out of the way, I got ready to face Darren's nicely painted Norse. The secret to beating Norse is to thin their numbers down by bashing their thin armour and not giving them a chance to use all that block skill, especially against a generally block-less Chaos Pact team. Secondly, it was to stop the hard hitting snow troll from doing any damage. I achieved neither of these things. Darren was already looking apologetically in my direction by the second half, and I knew my tournament had got off to a bad start. I lost 0-2, with 1-3 on casualties. Fortunately for team Wotfudgoo, Phil's skaven danced around Andrew's goblins for a 4-0 win. A winning draw for the team.

Game Two vs team Slannruckuss

I was facing Mark (M_Ruckuss) who I believe is fairly new to tabletop tournaments, although he plays in a league with his team mate. Facing another block heavy team, this time Chaos Dwarves featuring a catch-Bull Centaur, a claw-dwarf and an opposition Minotaur this was going to be a nasty game, and so it turned out. My luck in game one turned completely and the dice I rolled broke dwarven armour regularly. Like a game of chess Mark and I exchanged pieces, with 5 casualties each in the end!! but I managed to press home a 2-1 win. Phil also won - a team win!

Game Three vs eventual winners team Bestersquadron

I must admit, I wasn't expecting to face many lizardmen teams for a change. With the Saurus's not having block access Jim (Besters) decided to field a blodging skink and two (very charmed) guard skinks and a wrestle skink. Normally I focus on taking out the skinks to minimise the scoring options, but my dice and team disintegrated in front on my eyes. Even on the rare occasion I managed to not stand there looking dumb or angry (the players - not me!!) I couldn't seemingly roll more than 5 on skink armour. Jim rubbed salt into the wound as he merrily picked up in tackle zones, dodges freely (giving the occasional fail on the first dodge of course!) hand offs and so forth. I'm starting to hate those blasted skinks more than skaven gutter runners, and that's saying something! In the end I was soundly beaten 0-2, with 2-4 on casualties. [EDIT] Phil pulled off a draw against Jack (Vulturesquadron) after a tough game. Their team won the tournament and came 2nd and 3rd in the individual standings, so they were a tough combo. A team loss.

I finished Day One with a personal result of 1/0/2 but a team score of 1/1/1. Phil and I agreed we stood a chance of 'submarining' on Day Two... but I wasn't happy with the uncomfortable feeling of letting Phil down... his catchphrase to me of "I believe in you" wasn't sounding quite as good by the end of the day! I returned to the Travelodge a little sorry for myself.

Geoff (BillyDee) - who was working on his 26 team patch after just getting his 24 patch recently - shared a taxi to the restaurant to meet the others... unfortunately it took us to a similarly named but ultimately wrong one! However, after a hurried phone call, a cab returned and took us to the right curry house free of charge... but we were a little late! After a damned-fine Lamb Biryani and a couple of pints in the nearby Castle pub (and a rather odd made-up dice game that involved 'clearing the flash' and other such nonsense as well as some funny conversations) we made our way back to rest and prepare for day two...

Day Two - Game Four vs team zedsbbear

Dan (Circusbear) brought his dwarves to the table, and I maintained an internalised groan. What picked up my spirits was seeing the team feature a leaping Troll Slayer - he splatted himself not just once (killing himself, apothecarying successfully) but then took himself off the pitch on the second attempt. I was 0-1 down by the end of the first half, and I produced a desperate play that relied on the dwarves failing to roll block dice on an Ogre... some pushes meant I could run my goblin up the field for a score. The match finished 1-1 with 1-2 on casualties. Phil won his game - a team win!

Game Five vs team StickWarka

One thing I could say about the tournament so far was that I had been facing a good variation in races. Ian (Stick) brought Amazons with him along with Str4 star Kara. Again, another team with a fair amount of block on them. However, despite me receiving, a marauder died and the Troll KO'd by turn 2. This set me on the back foot, and it took blood, sweat and tears to stop Ian from scoring in my drive. At 0-0 I had a chance, but my 2x KO'd marauders and 1x KO'd Troll failed to come back onto the pitch leaving me 9 players against 11. By my turn 14 Ian had manoeuvred his team into an almost unstoppable position near by end zone... I needed to dodge in with my elf on a 5+ and roll a 2 dice uphill blitz to take the ball carrier down. The crowd fell silent as I rolled a 6 for the dodge... then a splat... and skull. Oh so close. I lost 0-1 with 1-0 on casualties. Phil won. The team drew.

Game Six vs team The W's

I had faced PeteW many times on FUMBBL many years ago in the White Isle League, but it was his young son, Thomas, who was to be my adversary in my final match. While Phil set about humiliating Pete's goblins, I had a horrible match up to get through... If I lost I would be in the BBC club (beaten by children), and if I won I would be a mean old man. It was the latter. That being said, by no means was this plain sailing... not even close to it! I have faced grown men that couldn't play half as well as Thomas... the Padawan learner had been taught by team England's very own Jedi master in PeteW. Not only this, but after only stunning a Saurus, Thomas's block-Kroxigor outright killed the Minotaur in turn 2. Later he knocked out my Troll. Despite this the half finished 1-1 with Thomas receiving. Everything was going well but he overcommitted his ball carrying skink and friends, and I was able to spill the ball, collect it and scrabble up the field. Thomas had a chance to take down the ball carrier with a both down, but with the Goblin so close to the Dark Elf he was worried the elf would simply collect it, so he rerolled only to get pushes. I managed to chain push my goblin up the field further who made two dodges and a gfi to score. Sadly this put Thomas out the running for best young coach, which didn't go down too well... and with shouts of "Bad man!" from the spectators I sheepishly retreated away and hid. A 2-1 win with 1-2 casualties for me and a win for Phil meant a team win!

The tournament ends...
Results
With Phil topping the individual coaching charts he effectively dragged me along and team Wotfudgoo finished in 2nd place (no thanks to me!)...

...with team Bestersquadron winning (Congratulations gents!).

I finished 14th out of 22. We collected our runners up medals and I chose a chaos-themed Spike magazine as my prize.

Other winners were:

• Best Painted - zedsdead
• Best Yong Coach - wwe2015
• Stunty Cup - GORGOROTH
• TDs - Purplegoo
• CAS - howlinggriffon
• Wooden Spoon (an attractive Duke and Dutchess of Cambridge magazine - see below!) - BillyDee / DeeKay

(sorry - my camera didn't focus well despite taking two photos!!)

Team Standings:

1. Bestersquadron

2. Wotfudgoo

3. ZayWitt

4. StickWarka

Joint 5th - GORGOR2015 / howlingfrodo / SpankDon (in that order on Strength of Schedule)

8. The Ws

9. zedsbbear

10. Slannruckuss

11. BillyDan

Individual Standings:

And finally...
Thanks must go to Phil for not only jointly running a great tournament, but also for being such a forgiving team mate who played so well himself. Furthermore, thanks must go to the other organiser and for running such a good Saturday night - Schmee. Lastly, thanks to all my opponents for some hard fought matches and generally fun times! Until next year.

However, don't expect me to field my Chaos Pact team anytime soon! Too frustrating.