Red Trophy VI & Orcs

Orcs

Anyone with any history in Blood Bowl will know that Orcs have always been the "go to" starter team for new comers to the came. They've appeared in more than a few boxed sets as the starter team, and the slightly cockney sounding "Right, Let's get'em ladz!" green skins have appealed to more than a few coaches.

For some reason, I have only coached them at one table top tournament... ever... Back in 2012 at the STABB Cup II in St Albans. I did alright with them, getting 3/1/2 in my 3rd ever NAF tournament.

Now scroll forward a decade. I thought it was high time I dug the old 3rd edition metal models from the back of the cupboard. I had painted them, and I remember being quite pleased with them at the time. Looking at them now, they were awful. The bases has scrawled numbers on, the skin was all bright green, and they were in red/yellow/black Watford colours. They hurt the eyes - Something had to be done. 

So, the day before the tournament I sorted out their bases, colour coded the base rims for the Blitzers (red), Black Orcs (ok, they are Big 'Uns now) (appropriately - dark green), Lineorcs (grey) and the Thrower (white). A thorough application of static grass, a wash of Nuln Oil and some yellow highlights and suddenly they looked like a team. It was enough to not feel thoroughly ashamed to field them, but I'm not showing a team photo here yet as there is still a lot of work to do on them!

blurred faces to protect the guilty!

I don't really get why I didn't field them more. Perhaps it was the paint job, combined with the attempt to get to 24 races badge, so they always were at the back of the line. I know I've got a Hungry Troll Broken Jaw Pirates team and the "new" GW rather spikey Orc team that came in the boxed set still to paint, but these 3rd edition models were just special in their own right. Anyway, enough pondering... on with the report.

Preamble

This report brings me up to date (finally!) on my tournament write ups. Again, this tournament was held at Tabletop Republic in High Wycombe on the 20th / 21st August 2022 - Yes, a two day tournament! I dug out the Orcs because I wanted an all round team that could square up against most opposition. They have the movement to counter agility teams and the armour and strength to go up against bashy teams. Sure, the 'Animosity' rule makes them a little unreliable on occasion, but the extra movement on the Big 'Uns (sorry - I'm going to have to call them Black Orcs - I can't cope with the new names!) makes them so much better.

Tournament Rules

We had 1.2 million to spend, and either 8 primary or 5 primary and 2 secondary skills. No Stars for non-stunty teams. Rules are here for anyone interested. 

Roster

As casualties of any kind counted, I decided a Sneaky Git Goblin was the way to go. I had a Guard Troll, 2x Block and 2x Guard Black Orcs, and one stacked Blitzer with Tackle/Mighty Blow to be a threat to those lightly armoured agile teams. I also had 3x Rerolls, 2x Cheerleaders and 1x Assistant Coach too. I therefore had to supplement my 3rd edition Orcs with a Willy Miniatures Troll and stomping Goblin.

DAY ONE - Game One vs _Mags's Norse

Lost in thought already!

_Mags, aka Lauren, was participating in her first table top tournament, and came armed with the newly GW'd Norse. With no beer-boars in sight, _Mags won the coinflip and nominated me to receive. In hindsight, probably a rookie error, but the Orcs made the most of it, injuring an Ulf and the Goblin fouling and knocking out the nasty looking Yeti... however, he was sent off for a double 4 on the injury roll, with the ball still on the floor.

I managed to fail the pick up on the second turn and only finally succeeded in turn 3, and started to push up the left wing. Clearly overconfidence set in and I left my ball carrying Blitzer exposed to a 1 dice blitz from a Valkyrie who made the 2x GFI to get to him... and hurt him!! The ball scattered away and suddenly my outlook on the game changed. However, the Orcs managed to recover and score by turn 7/6.

Unfortunately for me the Yeti recovered from his daze, but we did injure a Valkyrie in our last turn. The Norse KO'd my Troll but fortunately he also recovered for the second half, which ended 1-0 (2-1 cas).

The second half was a fairly turgid affair. There was a Time Out on kick off that should have sped things up but Lauren was still getting used to the game and so allowances had to be made. We played into lunchtime and managed to score again. I did show Lauren how she could get a 1 dice on my ball carrier instead of the 2 dice uphill she was planning, which of course ended in a splat! But Nuffle was kind and the ball bounced into the outstretched arms of an awaiting Black Orc and he wandered in for a 2-0 (3-2 cas) win.

Game Two vs Gooseknight's Chaos Dwarves

Yes, it was warm enough for vests!

Andrew won the coinflip and opted to receive and before I knew what was going on I had not one but two Guard Black Orcs sat in the Knock Out box!!

Some swift re-jigging of the thin green line defence allowed us to get a blitz on the Hobgoblin ball carrier. We picked up the ball and scurried up the field as far as we could and managed to score in turn 4/4 - 1-0 (0-0 cas). But much to my chagrin both Black Orcs stayed knocked out! 

To make matters worse, in turn 5/6 our Troll was hurt and failed to regenerate!, but the half ended without further incident. 1-0 (0-1 cas). But of course the two Black Orcs remained knocked out - Clearly they were faking it now after seeing what happened to the Troll!

After a stern team talk at half time the second half got underway, and we hurt a Hobgoblin in turn 2/1 and scored in turn 3/2 to make it 2-0 (1-1 cas), and this time one of the Black Orcs was brave enough to return. A 1 in 6 success rate! Booo. We had to score fairly quickly as the strength of the Chaos Dwarves was starting to tell. I think however, this knocked the stuffing out of the dwarves and we managed to grab a third touch down and the game ended 3-0 (1-1). 

Game Three vs Gr4nol4's Slann

Not you again! :)

Ricardo is such a nice chap, and a true gent... but I was not particularly pleased to see him across the table again so soon after facing him at both the NAF Championships AND Pitch Invasion! June 2022.

I was looking for revenge, but my intuition told me I wasn't going to get it unless the dice favoured me. Sadly, they didn't. I did win the coinflip and received, and even managed to pick up the ball at the first time of asking, but despite carefully placing my Guard players and maximising the anti-Pogostick hopping cage, it was simply not enough.

Ricardo had gone with an all-Catcher and no-Blitzers roster, with 5x rerolls. From memory he had 2x Guard and 2x Dodge Catchers, and Tackle, Strip Ball and Wrestle linefrogs. 

By turn 4/4 we had lost the ball. We did manage to foul and injure the Wrestle linefrog in turn 6/5 but my shoulders slumped as yet again by Sneaky Git Goblin managed to get that 1 in 6 chance of getting sent off on a double injury roll yet again. By turn 7/7 it was 0-1 (3-0 cas). I wouldn't have minded so much but Ricardo hadn't used any of his five rerolls by that stage!!

The second half began with an aggressive Orc attack, but some careful counter attack and a flurry of rerolls later saw my Tackle/MB Blitzer pushed into the crowd and hurt. The Slann weren't messing around and were 0-2 up by turn 1/2.

Unfortunately from there it continued to be a frustrating game but we did manage to grab a consolation score in turn 6 - 1-2 (3-0 cas) but a deep kick and some poor ball handling prevented any chance of a TTM to equalise and the game ended on the same score line.

Day One summary

I finished the day on 2 wins and a loss. Overall, the Orcs had performed well enough, but the Goblin needed to be more careful of the ref, and my team needed to stay out of the KO box and pick up the ball better. The Slann knocked any thoughts of a tournament win right out of me and I did look at them and reconsider how good they actually can be at countering an agile team... but Pogostick is broken, especially on Ag4 players who use it so well after the hop.

DAY TWO - Game Four vs TheShepherd's Wood Elves

Great! After a good night's sleep I awoke with some recovered enthusiasm, but then I discovered I was facing more agile shenanigans in the shape of Wood Elves!

You can call me, anytime!

I did at least get to put destiny in my own hands and won the kick off and received, but of course, that was short lived as David rolled a Blitz! on the kick roll, with the ball landing close to the half way line. To compound matters further, the Troll was Really Stupid, gormlessly standing there offering no help to his team mates and refused to hit the Treeman.

And then I burned a reroll trying to pick up the ball, but a StripBall Wardancer soon removed it from our grasp, and by turn 3/3 it was 0-1 (1-0 cas) to the Wood Elves. My mood was quickly darkening!

Well, I thought, this could have gone better... and I set up for 5 turns of slog to try and score... which became 4 turns as Time Out was rolled on kick off. We managed to hurt a Wardancer in turn 6/5 (3-0 cas by this stage), and David's apothecary was used up, and it took some blood, sweat and orcy tears to force an equaliser in turn 8, to go 1-1 (4-0 cas).

There was a ray of hope for the second half. The elven numbers were gradually being reduced, and I was finally able to neutralise the Wood Elf Catcher threatening my endzone by turn 5/5 (6-0 cas by this stage). David decided it was time to run backwards into his half and protect the draw, but with all his rerolls used it was a 1 on the dodge for the elf thrower that undid him. We managed to grab the ball and push as hard as we could to score (the orcs were also out of rerolls!) and with my heart thumping we managed to score in turn 8/8 to win 2-1 (7-0 cas).

It was tough luck on David, but I felt it sort of levelled off my first half dice. 3 wins and a loss meant, worse case, I couldn't lose more than I won, so, I could play my next game with a little more freedom!

Game Five vs GColeman76's High Elves

Thumbs up if you like High Elves!

I'd last played Gavin's High Elves back at Quick Snap! in December 2021, but that time I had Nurgle. I was hoping I could offer a bit more of a challenge with the Orcs this time. Again, I won the coin flip and chose to receive, and the kick began with a "Get the Ref"... and I wasn't going to say no to a free Bribe!

However, after securing the ball, my Troll decided to roll a both down on the LoS, and I foolishly left my Tackle/Mighty Blow blitzer too close to the sidelines, inviting a series of blocks and a blitz to push him into the crowd, which killed him! My elf threat was gone!

We did however slog our way up field, fouling and injuring an elf Blitzer in turn 6/5 and eventually scoring in turn 8/7 to make it 1-0 (1-1 cas). Unfortunately I hadn't put enough thought into preventing a one turn touchdown attempt, and Gavin was pleased to get an extra reroll on kick off, which he quickly used with his first blitz... from then on however he made the three squares he needed through a series of chain pushes, made the throw and catch in a tackle zone and made the go for its to score. 1-1 (1-1 cas).

After berating myself for such a sloppy set up we began the second half but I simply couldn't contain the high elves. They had numbers with them and my lack of a sweeping blitzer meant they easily scored in turn 1/2 to go 1-2 up. 

We managed to hurt a line-elf in turn 2/2 but the high elves defence remained solid and that blasted dice tower kept rolling everything Gavin needed to hold out for the win. The game finished 1-2 (3-1 cas).

Game Six vs Howlinggriffon's Chaos Dwarves

I've seen you somewhere before, haven't I?

We always seem to end up facing each other at these tournaments, which is no bad thing I suppose. It did make for a fun last match of the weekend at least but we both knew we were playing for the rights to banter! 😆

I won the coin flip and received and despite the dwarves sacking me, I managed to slowly progress up the field and score in turn 8/7 to go 1-0 up (1-1 cas).

Despite Darren's despondency from leaving himself open midway through the second half, I could see my defence was vulnerable after having sacked his ball carrier, and the CD's didn't disappoint him. He managed to use all that Guard and with a little help from the Bulls came out with the ball from the midfield scrum. The Chaos Dwarves scored in turn 6/7 to make it 1-1 (2-1 cas) and after a deep deep kick, I couldn't even try a TTM.

It had been a tough game, and honours were even, with us both finishing on 3/1/2 for the weekend.

Results

It was no surprise, given the amount of cursing aired around the room throughout the day that Ricardo won the tournament as his Slann did a number on all his adversaries, winning an impressive 6-0.

Ricardo pictured without his Pogostick... looking like he's about to club Tom over the head! :)

The final table looked like this, with me grabbing 8th spot...

Red trophy VI final standings

... and with Gavin's High Elves and Ricardo's Slann winning 2nd and 1st place respectively, I got the Most Touchdowns award with 10 scored and a healthy 4+ touchdown difference. I also managed to score the highest Net Casualties as well with a difference of +14. I was pretty happy with that as you can tell from my manic grin!

Surprised?, happy?, slightly mad? 

...and my trophy...

Most Touchdowns... sort of.

Thanks to all my opponents for making it a fun event, and to Tom once again for hosting in his store. Congratulations to Ricardo! I will have my revenge one day!... possibly! 😆😆