Griff & Ogres at Pitch Invasion! - March 2022

 

The Ogre Squad... the actual chosen team had fewer Ogres and needed one more Gnoblar!

Introduction

You'll be delighted to know, dear reader, that this post signifies yet one more Blood Bowl team painted & played and ticked off the list. I've still got to paint & play my first Halfling, Slann and Vampire teams. Also, although I've coached Wood Elves, I hadn't painted a team myself, so that's still on the list. Add to that Brettonians (now Imperial Nobility) and Khorne and Black Orcs then you can see I still have a bulging cupboard o'shame still to get through!

The Ogres and their annoying Gnoblar underlings decided to take to the field at the Pitch Invasion! tournament in only my second ever NAF tournament with a Stunty team.

Looking back at my posts I've got a little behind in my hobby diary. Contrary to the blog record here on https://wotfudboy.blogspot.com/ I have been hobbying! Honest!! I've only just started painting a Halflings team, and I also finally got around to clipping something off the spru of the 2020 Blood Bowl boxed set, in the shape of superhuman star player - Griff Oberwald. 

A freshly painted Griff joins his Ogre team mates

Roster

Upon reading the rules for the tournament, I thought I'd give them a go, so I pretty much stole a roster Howlinggriffon had previously used so well... sadly they didn't quite have enough rub of the green for me to win with though! :)

Granted, taking Griff meant I could only field 4x Ogres, but I did get a full roster of Gnoblars (only had 10 - so pinched a GW Snotling to sit in either the Reserves or Casualty box (you can guess which one!!), and a couple of rerolls.

The Ogre team roster & chosen skills - 5 primary & 2 secondary

Anyway, enough rambling... Let's get into the game...

Game One vs Myrmedon's Halflings

A dignified pose? Showing off the COSH shirt I think! :)

I've faced Courtney a couple of times previously and they've been tight games, and this one was not going to be any different - but it certainly was eventful! His 2x Block Treemen were accompanied by the titanic Deeproot treeman star player, and his deadly +2 Mighty Blow. 

Stay away from Deeproot!!

The pre-match sequence led to me gaining more fans, and there was Perfect Weather (which was pretty much the case each game except one!). However, the Halfling Chef had clearly cooked up a delight in the kitchen as the wonderful "Ah! Bisto" effect stole away 3x Rerolls... well... I he took the only 2x Rerolls I had (with the exception of my Leader Reroll!).

I won the kick off roll, and decided to receive. The Ogres made a gradual start and tried to take out a couple of Treemen (and steer clear of Deeproot!). Griff managed to gather the ball up and then it was a case of trying to work him up field. By turn 2/2 Courtney had a good chance to knock Griff sprawling IF he made an accurate Throw Team Mate... but unfortunately for the hapless Halfling, he ended up in the crowd!

Griff and his screening Gnoblars ran up the left wing, although one Gnoblar snake-eyed a dodge and injured himself! By turn 4/3 we scored a TD to go 1-0 up.

Turn 4/4 began with a kick to the left edge of field, so Courtney was sweating a little over a possible pick-up failure... not the case though. The ball was brought back behind a defensive line of Treemen... but they weren't ready for the first of Griff's dodging/blitzing masterclasses of the day! So, turn 5/4 featured Griff making a 10 space successful blitz (and pick up) on the ball carrier. However, turn 5/5 saw some Star on Star action as Deeproot blitzed Griff, splatting him.. but failed to put him off the field. The Halflings secured the ball, and then gang-fouled Griff which resulted in a Knock Out. 

Unfortunately for me, despite some valiant defence, Courtney rolled a superb throw, which scattered even closer to the end zone, and resulted in a perfect landing... 1-1.

Unfortunately this is where we lost the game... Griff failed to come back for the second half!!. Booo.

We did get a Blitz! on kick off, (after the Chef stole 1x Reroll) but my Gnoblar 1'd a Rush (GFI in old language!). Deeproot killed a Gnoblar on turn 1/2 and frankly the Ogre team's defence crumbled from there, leading to a turn 7/8 score... 1-2. We then failed a TTM attempt for an unlikely score and the match ended with a defeat to the Ogres. 1-2 loss (3-4 casualties).

Game Two vs Daimatt's Skaven

Daimatt, upon request, giving an extra cheesy smile!

It was Daimatt's first table top NAF tournament, but clearly he had been playing friends or online because he wasn't a clueless beginner at all! His most skilled player was a Dauntless/Wrestle Gutter Runner which was likely to cause Griff some problems.

An action-shot as the game was already underway (yes, I almost forgot to take the photo!)

We lost the kick off roll, but the sly-skaven coach decided that I should receive... He was probably hoping to make full use of those nippy Gutter Runners and apply some back-field pressure... and they did, as they rolled a Blitz! 5x rats moved into position with a Gutter Runner looking up at the sky ready to catch the plummeting ball... which he then caught!

Turn 1/0 priority was to get the ball back, so we manoeuvred an assist into place for a Griff-blitz. Fortunately this worked, with the ball spilling and being picked up by Griff.

In the meantime we did our best to try and take out the Rat Ogre, but between Ogre blocks and Sneaky Git Gnoblar fouls he just wouln't do more than stun.

Turn 7/6 saw a Gnoblar foul a Gutter Runner to death and we scored in turn 8/7... 1-0.

Nothing happened in turn 8/8 so we moved on to the second half.

Now, my notes get very vague from here (seems I forgot to record anything), but we did manage to take out the Skaven ball carrier and ran in for a turn 8/8 score, winning 2-0 (3-2 casualties).

Game Three vs thatasianguy's Orcs

More cheesy smiles...

When Mohamed produced a chess clock, I did start to wonder if I was now facing a deadly serious opponent, but a big smile for the camera put pay to that idea. After the prematch stuff, I won the kick off roll and decided to receive...

"That's no moon! - That's a blooming Troll!!"

The converted Warhammer 40K Orc team and their giant Orc-in-a-can Troll lined up... and got a Blitz! against me. With 4 Orcs moving into my half, he managed to roll a triple-skull against a Gnoblar! This game was already mad!!

With lots of block and some mighty blow on the team, we knew we were in for a pounding... so we decided to get some in early, and the Sneaky Git Gnoblar fouled a prone Orc Blitzer... but got sent off for a double 3 on the injury roll. Not good.

We did manage to gather the ball up, but on turn 2/2 Griff was sacked... but the ball bounced into the hands of a Gnoblar. By turn 4/3 Griff was running up the right wing, whilst an Ogre killed a Mighty Blow blitzer. We delayed as much as we could and scored in turn 8/7 after Seriously Injuring one of the two Goblins in the Orc team. However, the Orc turn 8 led to a fouled to death Ogre Runt Punter and a dead Gnoblar. We ended the half 1-0... but looking a lot weaker now.

The injured Ogre players mounted up in the second half. By turn 4/5 we had 5x injuries and 3x in the KO box. However, Griff was still on the field. He had been a constant thorn in the side of the Orcs, and once again, produced some a fine display of dodging and blitzing, sacking the Orc thrower on the right wing, and running back (with the ball) behind a defensive screen of Gnoblars.

The Orcs pressed forward, deeper into the Ogre half. Griff ran from right to left parallel with my own end zone, with a rag tag line of Gnoblars trying to make it difficult for the Orcs to get a clear shot at him. Turns were running out for the orcs... but then Griff snaked a Rush up the left wing as he tried to break clear of the pursuing Orcs. He stunned himself just shy of the half way line to the delight of Mohamed who whooped with delight... and an almost won game turned into a draw as the Orcs overcame all their animosity, pass and catch rolls and strolled in for an equaliser in 7/8. 1-1.

Our 16th turn saw Griff fail to catch a High Kick... but he did manage to pick it up, but the handoff to a waiting Gnoblar failed and any TTM hopes went with it. We finished 1-1 (2-6 casualties).

Last game - Game 4 vs Mysterioushandle's Ogres

"I'm a little tea-pot!" :)

I was told that this was likely to be a Stunty Cup final, as we were ahead of the other Ogre and Halfling teams. Gaz has brought a different roster to mine, with Morg'n'Thorg and his +2MB, Str 6 and Ma 6 statistics. With only 1x Reroll he was hoping for some good rolling.

Morg'n'Thorg rubs his hands together at the prospect of an 'Ogre-off'

We received, and to cut a long story short, Griff got the ball and we just about made a turn 6/5 score... 1-0... but not before Morg'n'Thorg had injured 1x Ogre and 3x Gnoblars. I had only inflicted 1x measly KO.

Turn 6/6 saw a Perfect Defence for me, but a desperate defence simply could not stop Morg and the team as they KO'd Griff on turn 7/7 and set up a perfect 6 TTM pass and landing, along with a good scatter to equalised 1-1 on turn 8/8.

And that's how the rest of the game went really. Morg'n'Thorg is an absolute brute. He caused the majority of the 11 ... yes... ELEVEN! casualties we suffered as anything he touched seemed to fold up in a crumpled heap and die.

As the second half progressed in the Pouring Rain, we lost player after player... but this seemed to encourage my remaining players to resist even harder. 

We managed to sack the ball carrier on the left wing, midway into Gaz's half and the ball shot straight back across the other side. One of my few surviving Gnoblars managed to pick up the ball and scuttle away down the right wing... but then, a second vital Rush failure occurred and player & ball went sprawling. Calamity! Had we made that last Rush the Gnoblar was in range of the end zone in the next turn or two and more importantly out of reach of any pursuers. 

For the second game in a row a snake-eyes Rush attempt had lost me a win, and earned me a draw. The game ended 1-1 (1-11 casualties). Gaz went on to win Most Casualties, unsurprisingly!

Results

Here are the results from the tournament (thank you for taking the pictures from here on Darren W!):

Pitch Invasion! - March 2022 - Results table

Obviously the most important award of the day was the Stunty Cup... and I won it!! (only by 1x TD difference!!).

Stunty Cup - Wotfudboy

Apparently someone won the tournament, and there were other awards... but obviously you aren't bothered about that are you dear reader?... Oh... You are?... Oh well... here they are then:

Best Painted - docminiature - Underworld Denizens

Most Casualties - Mysterioushandle

Most Touchdowns - orcster - Slann

Runner Up - TheShepherd -Wood Elf

Winner - Atlas04 - Lizardmen

Thanks for reading! Feel free to comment. :)