COSH Team Tournament II & Chaos Renegades (Pact)

Preamble

Okay, so firstly... I've been a naughty boy and have let this hobby diary blog slip. This particular entry is for a 3 person team tournament held in Colchester back in May 2022, and I have only just gotten around to writing it now. Sorry to my regulars for the lack of updates.

Also, bearing in mind the months that have passed since this tournament, I'm really relying on my sketchy notes, a few photos, and a mild recollection of past trauma to form the match reports... so please excuse any lack of detail! If nothing else, the reports may be based a bit more on emotion than facts!

The tournament rules

As per most Blood Bowl tournaments, the organisers post the rules on TFF, and COSH was no exception - COSH rules. Essentially coaches had 1.1 million to spend on their rosters, and the races were tiered. The 3 person team would discuss which race to coach each, and this combination would decide on the number of skills per roster that was available. With LastTimeLord sitting this one out, it fell to the remainder of Team Redshirts (namely me - Wotfudboy, MrFrodo and Howlinggriffon) to fly the flag. Having gone all Chaos Dwarves in our first outing, we decided to carry on the Chaos theme and go with Chaos Renegades. If you want to see the team, take a look here. There were 30 players making up 10 teams on the day...

Roster

From memory, Howlinggriffon and I went with pretty similar rosters. I had a Claws Minotaur, a Guard Troll and a Claws Ogre, a Dodge Dark Elf, Block Orc, Sneaky Git Goblin and Block Skaven, along with 6x Human Linemen - one of which had Wrestle. I also had 3x rerolls and one each of assistant coaches and cheerleaders. MrFrodo incorporated Glart Smashrip into his roster instead... Would this be a winning tweak?... let's find out...

Game One vs Touchdown's Chaos Renegades

Okay, so I don't know which team James belonged to (EDIT: please let me know in the comments here or on Facebook and I will update!), so apologies. However, he had brought a special helper along to roll some key dice.

It was a same race face off... and the game started in Perfect Weather with my crew turning up with more fans. After calling the coin flip correctly and choosing to receive, Get The Ref was the kick off result.

James had brought along Hakflem in his roster, known for his speed and agility. He was going to be something I had to halt... somehow...

Things started well as I managed to get to their Ogre and kill him, and knock over the Troll and foul him to death! Two big guys gone in the first turn!! Absolute game changer. By the end of turn two I had also injured his Orc, and my Minotaur crowd surfed his Goblin, which the crowd cheerfully injured. The injury box was burgeoning! It didn't get much better for James when Hakflem was his own worst enemy as he left himself prone to a foul after failing a dodge and go for it in quick succession. He was only knocked out though, and the bribe was used.

By this time James was pretty disparaging about his chances in this game, and I couldn't really blame him. It had been a dream start for me. I had only just made it to the half way line by turn 4 after a big scrum, but with more strength in the mix I was likely to win that fist fight. Finally, I got too carried away and my Sneaky Git Goblin was sent off after rolling double 1 on the injury roll in turn 6, but this didn't stop me scoring in turn 8/7 to go 1-0 (4-1 cas).

However, with Hakflem coming back for the 2nd half, I knew it wasn't a done deal. Unfortunately, there wasn't much of a team to back him up. We managed to chase him down and score a second to win 2-0 (6-3 cas) with James throwing some desperate last stand blocks that cut through my guys towards the end.

From memory, Team Redshirts all started with wins and we were in dangerous nose-bleed territory!

Game Two vs Cudasquarius's Halflings

These Halflings had brought some serious back up, with Deeproot and his +2 Mighty Blow joining their ranks. There was also the sweet aroma emanating from the food cart of the Halfling Masterchef! 

The Flings won the kick off and chose to receive, with the Chef stealing 1 of my 3 rerolls. Deeproot managed to Knock Out my Troll in turn 0/1.

The game was pretty scrappy, and I managed to sack the Fling ball carrier with my Wrestle lineman and managed to run back up the field to score in turn 6/6 - 1-0 (1-1 cas). The Troll returned from the dug out along with my Skaven. 

The Halflings began their drive again this time with a gusty Changing Weather. The highlights of the match for Tom came in the remainder of the half, with my Minotaur triple skulling against a Halfling, and him landing a Throw Team Mate to end the half 1-1, (1-1 cas). I was gutted!

I managed to really apply the pressure in the second half and slowly progressed up the field and scored in turn 7/7 going 2-1 up (4-2 cas).

But this still left a TTM threat. A Halfling picked the right spot for the kick off and plucked the ball out of the air, and the TTM was on - and was successful, but I still had a turn to sack him... so my Skaven blitzed him with 3x block dice... Skull, Skull, Push.... Reroll... Push, Push, Push.... Nooooo!!!!!!

However, Nuffle wasn't done. The Halfling was clearly so shocked that he failed his dodge and the game ended with both coaches hearts pounding due to the excitement. 

Game Three vs Purplegoo's Old World Alliance

My Camdubs team mate, Phil had joined forces with PeteW & Son to form a very strong team. Phil won the kick off and received in Perfect Weather, and started proceedings off by blitzing and killing one of my linemen.

By turn 3/4 Phil's Treeman had killed my lemming Orc, but took root in doing so. The imposter Dwarves and team tried a two step shuffle, moving their attack from one side of the field to the other and were rewarded by scoring in turn 7/8... 0-1 (0-2 cas).

The half ended when I double skulled against the Treeman. It hadn't been a successful half for me!

I had to capture Phil's roster below (yes, this is classic Phil - buys a hodge-podge prepainted team off ebay, turns up on the day and writes his roster on the back of a fag-packet, and sets to trounce everyone! 😆😆.

The second half began as the first half ended, but this time my Minotaur double skulled against the Treeman, who was clearly earning his acorns today. My defence just fell apart and the OWA sacked my ball carrier in turn 3/3 and went on to score in turn 5/5 - 0-2, (0-2 cas).

I tried a TTM in turn 6/5, but failed the landing and the game ended on the same scoreline. I think I was more annoyed I couldn't give Phil a proper game as my dice were woeful... probably making up for my first round to be fair though!

Game Four vs VultureSquadron's Khorne

Jack was out for revenge for my last turn shenanigans at Camdub where we last played, that saw lucky dice earn a tournament victory.

I won the kick off coin flip and received and managed to KO a chaos Marauder in the first turn through a foul, but it was a double 4 on injury and the Sneaky Git Goblin was sent off... probably not a good trade in hindsight...

However, but turn 2/2 my Minotaur was dead and by turn 3/3 Jack had the ball. My game had gone to the (chaos) dogs. It was no surprise to anyone watching that the Khorne team scored in turn 6/6 to go 0-1 up (0-1 cas).

The second half was pretty scrappy, but the despite noting the injury of a Str4 Bloodseeker I clearly had given up on note taking too, and the game ended 0-1 (3-2 cas)... and Jack had his revenge! 😉

Results

Team Redshirts gave a good showing overall, and were leading the way early doors, but it all seemed to fall apart by game 3 and 4. MrFrodo turned out to have the better choice roster, or used them in the best way, leading our team. 

Congratulations to TeamW for their win!

Thanks especially to SCSSam and Myrmidon for an excellent tournament!