Team Redshirts take on the Beast from the Beast... and win!

Trophies galore at Beast from the Beast 2022

[Editor's note: Before eagle-eyed readers comment on this, I am very much aware that the naming of this tournament seems in question. It was either Beast from the Beast, Beast of the Beast, Beast from the East... or something similar... but you get the idea!]

Beast from the Beast Facebook advert

Team Redshirts rode again... this time, out to the Shire of Cambridge, to a town named Peterborough. This was the first time I had been to a Beast of the Beast tournament, run by Justin Easby and his many helpers!

From the outset, this tournament was run like it was a major, with sponsors & vendors, a free gift for attending (an excellent Star Player Ogre), free dice, loads of raffle ticket spot prizes from great sponsors, a charity raffle, a coach-voted best-painted competition, on-site catering, on-site free parking, free tea/coffee/doughnuts and (importantly for some) an on-site bar! You seriously couldn't ask for more from a tournament and it's organisers. More tournament organisers should take note. Clearly Justin's reputation precedes him, as he has been asked to organise the London Grand Tournament too. On this basis alone it might be worth getting a ticket! Check out tournament sponsor SJE Miniatures (who supplied the awesome Star Player Ogre) and Black Orc Down.

Some team shirts being proudly worn in a light, cool & airy hall.

Tournament Background

This was a 3-person Team tournament. There were 3 rows of tables and each team mate would play opponents from that row (I think) randomly. Each team would accrue cumulative points and be ranked against each other. As with many tournaments, there was race tiering and the number of available skills were dependant on this. Star Players were allowed, but with special rules if the same star player turned up to the game... which made you think twice about taking one!

Roster

I decided to go with a Skaven roster. Regular readers of my tournament blogs will know that I've been on a long road of owning, painting and playing each race... but I've played all my painted races... so I went back and chose the rats which I have only fielded for 4 games at Foul Bowl 3 back in 2019.

The squad... not the selected/fielded team

The roster I deployed included a Rat Ogre with Block, 2x Storm Vermin (1x Tackle/MB & 1x Guard) and a Block Thrower. I had 3x unskilled Gutter Runners and some line-rats too.

My team maters were HowlingGriffon and Mr_Frodo, who took Wood Elves (with a Treeman) and Dwarves respectively.

To get things under way, we consulted the matchups that were pinned up on the wall. My Skaven were drawn against DazBrode's Khorne team, while HowlingGriffon's Wood Elves faced a Chaos team and Mr_Frodo's Dwarves faced a Lizardman team.

Round One vs DazBrode's Khorne

Darren admires the carnage

I've not played that many games using the 'new' 2020 rules. I still have a very old-skool mind set and facing a 'new' team with differing skills to the old Khorne team was going to make my brain hurt.

I had broken the cellophane on my 2016 Skaven pitch (and large dugouts). I had painted my miniatures bases to try and reflect the warpstone cracks in the pitch too.

We both had the same number of fans show up, in some fine weather... and the Khorne team won the kick off roll and decided to receive, eager to lay some punches into that thin Skaven armour.

One thing worth noting for the whole tournament, was that we rolled a D16 to see what, if any, special pitch rules would be in play. For this match (13-14) the Squid Sandwich was in effect..:

Seemingly my kicker had been practising a little too much as the ball landed 1 square off dead centre of Darren's half, and the Khorne team quickly gathered it up and provided the ball carrier with a running defence. There was a lot of shoving, but in turn 2/2 my Mighty Blow blitzer struck down a Khorne Dog... er... Khorngor... and injured him, but this was avenged as a Bloodseeker double 6 on injury a poor little line-rat, and another KO'd another unfortunate line-rat. 

However, I think the Khorne team got a little carried away in their blood lust and we were able to successfully blitz the ball carrier (using a reroll!). An opportunistic Gutter Runner ran around, eyes intent on the ball... but snaked the pick up... ackk!! By turn 4/4 the ball was still loose, with another Gutter Runner getting in on the act of being blooming useless and failing both a dodge and a pick up... leaving me with no rerolls (had 3 to begin with). There was a bit more pushing and shoving and general frustration for both sides, but one of the offending Gutter Runners made up for previous misdemeanours and managed to roll a 5+ pick up!... and promptly shot off with the ball in hand, squeaking away in delight. He was given chase by a Khorngor who promptly failed his rush (we we're both out of rerolls by now) and we were clear to score in turn 7/7. 1-0 (1-1 on cas so far!).

With nothing really happening thereafter, the second half began. The rats received, with the Thrower successfully picking up the ball... but other team members got carried away and a line-rat was sent off for dishing out a tame gang-foul on a Bloodseeker. However, turn 2/1 saw the Rat Ogre come alive and injure the only Marauder with a skill (Sure Hands). I thought this would give us the upper hand, but any ideas of that melted away as the Rat Ogre was blitzed and hurt by a Bloodseeker. There were so many high strength/block Khorne players everywhere, and it was just a matter of time before the Rat Ogre was targeted! 

By turn 4/3 there were just 6 rats left on the pitch. By turn 5/5, the Khorne team fouled the Skaven Thrower into the injury box too. It was getting crowded in there!  I did benefit from the pitch rules as a surfed rat had -1 to his injury, so where he would normally have been hurt, he ended up in the KO box.

More rats off the pitch than on it!!

However (and I forget the details), the rats managed to dance their way through to score again in turn 6/5 and go 2-0 up (2-4 cas), but then 4 out of 5 KO rolls failed!! Ouch!

Despite this, our defence hung on and the game finished... 2-0 (not sure of final casualties - I think it was 2-3).

Elsewhere, HowlingGriffon's Wood Elves beat their Chaos opponents 3-2 (0-4 cas) and Mr_Frodo's Dwarves beat the Lizardmen 1-0 (cas?). We were delighted to learn we had all won when we gathered together as the round ended. Nose-bleed territory!

Round Two vs AlloAllo's Imperial Nobility

Whilst HowlingGriffon was matched against Undead, and Mr_Frodo was up against Goblins, I was drawn against Imperial Nobility. Another 'new' 2020 team... with so much Fend, Wrestle and other shenanigans all over the place.

Rene shows distain for the Rats

I had +1 Fans who also enjoyed fine Blood Bowl weather. The pitch was also a normal pitch with no effects on play. I won the kick off roll and chose to receive.

Mid-action shot (yes, I almost forgot to take the photo!)

Again, eagle-eyed readers may have spotted Griff on the pitch. This was not actually the revered Star Player, but was instead a stand in Thrower miniature.

We managed to KO a lineman (always nice to get a numbers advantage early-doors!) and the furry Thrower secured the ball. We did have to reroll an early double-skull though. It's worth mentioning at this point that coaches across the room had been shouting "Double One!" and "Double Skulls" (and in round 3, both!) and a very busy lady (I think from Black Orc Down) came and handed out raffle tickets... There was a chance of earning a raffle-spot prize later!

Rene found that is Ogre failed to stand up after BoneHeading (he wasn't much use all game actually), and in turn 2/1 I rerolled a 2x both down which, of course, became 2x both down! Turn 3/3 saw a line-rat smeared across the turf - stewards had to use shovels to scrape the remains off the pitch. It was only until turn 5/5 that the rats ventured into the humans half after injuring the Ogre. We scored in turn 6/5 - 1-0 (1-1 cas at that point). Despite the weather threatening to change, it remained perfect weather and the last couple of turns were uneventful, with it staying 1-0 (1-1).

The second half was a frustrating half for the Imperial Nobility as the tried moving the ball from one side to the other. They did however manage to injure the Tackle/MB Storm Vermin Blitzer in turn 3/4. The skaven defence was getting stretched, and the humans tried to surge down the left wing. Unfortunately for Rene, a re-rolled blitz on a Gutter Runner remained as a both down, and we managed to push someone off the pitch and move the ball back out of threat-range. The game finished 1-0 although again, I think I was too busy writing the results on the Results-Slip rather than note down the casualties in my notes!

Elsewhere, HowlingGriffon scraped a draw against the Undead 1-1 (2-5 cas). Mr_Frodo delivered a crushing 2-0 win as he took out a number of Ball & Chain guys. Overall, 5 wins and a draw was still awesome, and we though we must be up there in the rankings.

Round Three vs AdsTheFiend's Black Orcs

Thumbs and a grin of cheese - We approve!

Addison was next up with his Black Orcs... yet another new-2020 team. However, I had coached these guys fairly recently on Fumbbl and was much more aware of their skills and capabilities.

The Black Orcs brought more fans, again in perfect weather on a normal pitch... and they also won the kick off roll and decided to receive. On kick off I got Solid Defence and move 5 players in to better defensive positions. The Black Orcs came loaded with some mighty blow and guard Str4 players and a Troll, and as you can see the ball landed on the right wing.

The game got off to a slow start with more pushing and shoving, but in turn 3/3 a Gutter Runner snaked a dodge. Admittedly my notes were quite sketchy in this game, so forgive me. I did note that in turn 6/6 we hurt a Goblin after rerolling the hit on him and the ball was loose. By turn 8/8 we scored, 1-0 (1-1 cas). The most significant thing to happen going into the second half was that his Troll and 2x Black Orcs failed to recover from their Knock Out blows.

The half got off to an odd start with my Tackle/Mighty Blow blitzer getting a Stiletto as part of Cheering Fans. Not much use really. By turn 2/2 a Black Orc blitzed and hurt him... he must have fallen on his blade awkwardly! Things didn't get much better for the rats as a line-rat failed a dodge and hurt himself too. The rats maintained a defence, fouling and hurting a Goblin in turn 5/4 and we scored in turn 6/5. 2-0 (2-2 cas). And again, the Troll and a Black Orc stayed KO'd.

The kick off result saw a Time Out! and the turn counters were moved backwards. Addison's misery was complete when a Goblin failed a pickup in the back field, and was promptly pounced on my Gutter Runners who picked up and ran away to score. The game ended 3-0 (Cas?). 

Again, elsewhere, HowlingGriffon romped home against some hapless Dark Elves 4-1 (7-1 cas!!!) and Mr_Frodo completed a hattrick of wins winning 2-0 vs some Chaos Renegades.

Results

We had finished earlier than some others, so it was a nervous wait to see how we did overall, but I think the final set of wins, and Darren maxing out on bonus points really helped us... and we ended up winning the Team event, much to our delight! Darren also picked up the Most Touch Downs award too!

Smiley happy people! - and an Orc photo-bombing!!

I will post more details as and when I get them, but the individual rankings appeared on Facebook:

Individual Standings

We finished 3rd, 4th and 7th, which was excellent!

There was a Super Six award too... denoted as (6) in the table above as coaches handed back their rosters and took a random team instead:

Super Six Teams

The coach-vote for Best Painted went to Jason Cunningham for his team:

Crazy conversions and awesome paint job!

I'll post more info as I get it from Justin...

I hope you enjoyed the blog - Any comments or questions, please ask. Thanks for now!