Cake Bowl 2019 & Lizardmen

This was to be my second Cake Bowl, held at the same venue in Swindon - the Great Western Hotel - hosted by Mike Davies (former NAF president and SAWBBL commissioner).

I had painted up this Star Player Miniatures Lizardman team in anticipation for this tournament as I'm trying to acquire, paint-up and play each of the 24 main races. This would be the 13th race played, so just over the halfway mark. I didn't take Sibli (pictured on the right of Big Red) but in hindsight I really should have done! But hey, I'd not coached Lizardmen before on table top, and I don't think I have faced them too many times either.

The Black Forest Geckos

One of the six Saurus

Hemlock really was the star player of the team across the weekend

Big Red was utterly terrible - Such a Bonehead

The ticket wasn't cheap at £32, which included six games of Blood Bowl, plus lunch both days (Saturday ploughman’s and then a very nice Sunday Roast) and Saturday evening BBQ buffet. However, this year there was a £5 per day car parking charge and the previously £5 breakfast was now £9! The prizes were cakes, printed certificates and a painted team for the best newcomer (shown below - painted by HowlingGriffon), but there weren't any particularly distinguishing traits to this tournament to make it stand out to others, apart from the cakes provided of course!

HowingGriffon's painted human team prize

Lizardman roster

The tournament rules were: 1,150,000 to build the team, with 6 Skill points to allocate each day. A normal skill was 1 point, and a double was 2 points, and a stat increase is 3 points. On day 2 we could use the points to stack an extra skill on any players who already had skills which cost an extra point, with a total limit of 2 skills per player.

My roster was as follows; 1x Kroxigor, 6x Saurus, 1x Hemlock and 4x Skinks. Day One - 4x Block on Saurus and 1x Sure Hands on a Skink. Day Two I had 2 more block Saurus, 1 block Krox and 2x catcher skinks (for hand off purposes!). In hindsight I would have gone with a Guard Krox and not bothered activating him most of the time.

Day One

Game One vs DaPiranha's Lizardmen - Lost - 1-2 (0-2 cas)

This was the first of two same race clashes. Out of 36 races there were 6 Lizardmen coaches, so quite a chunk of us! Dave has a 186.35 rating with lizards and I could tell he knew exactly what he was doing with them. The match started with me receiving and the ball fell to a Saurus on the line of scrimmage... and he only went and caught it!! In retrospect I should have handed off at the earliest opportunity, but I didn't and soon I was in a lot of trouble - One Saurus seriously injured and one knocked out. Strangely enough I was 0-1 down shortly afterwards.

But as it turns out, Hemlock had a thing or two to say about it... and one turn touch down was coming!... Some shenanigans on the line of scrimmage including a 1 dice Saurus blitz allowed Hemlock to sidestep his way into range... unfortunately this left him in more than one tackle zone... but tackle zones are nothing to Hemlock! A hero of a skink picked up the ball, moved into good range and passed... despite 'stunty' it was a great throw, but the catch... oh my... 6! With that the fortunate star dodged his way up the field and scored dashing as fast as he could and breaking Dave's heart. 1-1.

However, despite all of this Dave pushed down the field second half and scored. It certainly wasn't a dull game, with a pitch invasion, me getting extra rerolls from brilliant coaching and cheering fans, but losing the throw a rock roll as my chance to go 2-2 was stolen away with my skink in the backfield taken out. No repeat 1 turn touch down. So the game was lost with only 1 bonus point from a possible 6 taken. I think I was down at the very bottom of the table after this match, however it was a good & fun game. Dave was a classy opponent.

Game Two vs Fisher's Wood Elves - Won - 2-0 (3-2 cas)

I won't say too much about this game. I didn't really win it... Simon's dice won it for me. I've not seen so many 1's on dodges, or take root/double skulls on a Treeman before. 

I could have really beaten up the elves further and possibly gone for a third touch down, but by turn two of the second half Simon had really had enough and we shook hands on the game. I was only 1 bonus point short of maximum, but after the dice he had rolled I had to agree... it was only right.

Game Three vs Canteloup's Skaven - Won - 2-1 (0-1 cas)

Great gurning David!

Sadly Hemlock's stab didn't count towards any casualties which was such a shame as he killed not one but two blodging gutter runners and a linerat. As people that know me might know, where others hate dwarves or wardancers, I hate gutter runners, so I wasn't sorry. However, yet again I failed to get bonus points on offer. The lizardmen just don't hurt opposition unless their dice are hot!

David had fielded the skaven star Glart Smashrip with his Claws, block , grab and juggernaut. He was a threat all game to my Saurus, but I managed to keep him quiet.

David took the loss really well and it was a friendly and enjoyable game which left me 2-0-1 at the end of day one.

Day Two

Game Four vs Nightwing's Lizardmen - Lost - 0-3 (1-2 cas)

Next up was probably one of the nicest chaps around, of 'Anything But a One' podcast fame Matt aka Nightwing. However, he brought his lizardmen too, and he, like DaPiranha knew what he was doing with them.

I received. That's where my luck ended. It wasn't long before Nightwing brought out his special 'can only roll a 10 dice' as he proceed to break armour at will. I was 2 Saurus down, and then, after failing sooooo many activations, my Krox decided to 1 dice block his opposite Krox who had Guard. It should have been called anything but a skull!! Of course, a skull was rolled, followed by 10 on armour and 10 on injury all without the help of mighty blow.

Matt was 0-2 up. I tried for a quick TD in the second half, but despite a dodge skill and reroll in hand I couldn't manage the 5 dodges I needed to score. The skink fell over, Matt reclaimed his ball and took maximum TD bonus points, leaving me feeling very dejected over my ability to roll any dice. So much so Matt was consoling me, which only made it worse! Apart from the dice, the difference was choosing guard on a Krox and not activating him, and having an agility 4 skink. It was a perfectly pleasant game but oh sooooo frustrating! If this tournament comes up on ABaO podcast Matt had better be apologetic!! :) 

Game Five vs Fatboyslimming's Nurgle - Won - 3-0 (0-1 cas)

After Nightwing and Nuffle kicked my scaley bottom last game, Nuffle and Dan's dice made up for it big time. However, it must be said if you're going to take zero rerolls and go all mighty blow on your Nurgle warriors (now known as Bloaters) then blocking will eventually lead to a both down/skulls scenario... and it did... lots of times... along with failed dodges and having a Beast of Nurgle (aka Rotspawn) knocked out for most of the game.

It wasn't a case of me rolling great dice... I didn't have to do much other than watch Dan self destruct. Ironically it was obvious I was playing Nurgle as a great bluebottle fly kept doing a flyby of the pitch! 

Again, a nice opponent if a slightly cringy game where I could only feel sympathy for Dan. Yet again though, no casualty bonus points! What a rollercoaster this tournament had been.

Game Six vs Ronaldbeanio's Pro Elves - Lost - 0-1 (1-2 cas)

Anthony (a pleasant chap) and I eventually found a free board (thanks Thor!) and started to get going already well behind others who had started already. This was the last match of six and frankly my brain was frazzled. This wasn't helped by the slightly oddball skill band colour choice for the pro elves... and my complete inability to remember that one blitzer had diving tackle... a fact that killed one skink! There was a lot of dodge on the elven side, but I was also finding it hard to distinguish the positionals. When you add all that into my complete failure to BH/SI/RIP any of the elves until it was too late and the rather slow play I just sunk lower in my chair.

Anthony decided to kick to me, and stopped me from scoring... actually he got the ball from me and I it was all I could do to stop him scoring. 0-0 half time. When the elves scored early in the second half we were well behind everyone else by this time and Mike was looking agitated as people were hoping to get off home. I had to rush things to score, but I felt nothing was working for me and I just couldn't do it. Ah well. I finished the weekend on 3-0-3 and claimed mid-table mediocrity and finished on a 152.19 NAF ranking which suited me!

Results

Notice 5 of my 6 opponents finished higher than me!! :P

Well done to Hawca and the other winners, and thanks to Mike for running an efficient tournament;

• Winner – Hawca
• Runner Up – SCS.Sam
• 3rd – AndyDavo
• Best Comeback – Canteloup
• Best Local – Canteloup
• Most TDs – Hawca
• Most Cas – AndyDavo
• Best U16 or new NAF – Alchemist
• Wooden Spoon – Nagrom
• Best Painted – Kismet
• Stunty Cup – Hobnail