COSH III - 3 player Team Tournament & Nurgle

Me (Wotfudboy), Dankin & Mr_Frodo

Preamble

So, no tournaments for four months and then two in two weekends! It was great to celebrate the third iteration of this team tournament with my Redshirt friends... but, due to family commitments, Howlinggriffon wasn't able to make this one. Fortunately, Daniel aka Dankin was pleased to step in... we're less 'Team' Redshirts and more 'Squad' Redshirts these days 😆.

Call the fuzz!

We arrived (no, we didn't beam down) bright and early at 4TK only to find that they had been broken into during the early hours that day. With a door kicked in and glass everywhere we really felt for the owner, Andy. It seems that the scumbags were mainly after the till, so at least no vandalism inside the store. On that basis we were allowed to proceed with the tournament, particularly as it was upstairs and away from any forensics.

Not the best angle to see everyone... but you get the idea

The tournament rules

You can find the full tournament rules here, but the main points different to other tournaments was that the roster budget was only 1,100,000 Gold Pieces and there were different levels of skill packages/quantities available depending very much on what races the three team members choose. Team Redshirts decided to go all-chaos (we've done something similar before in previous years), and plumped for all distinct tier-2 teams. This meant we had 6 Primary skills & 2 Secondary skills to select.

The main draw for me was that this tournament was brave enough to ditch ALL Star Players. I could hug SCSSam and Myrmedon for introducing this rule!

So, in the end Dankin went with Chaos Chosen, Mr_Frodo with Khorne and I went with Nurgle.

Roster

With 6 primary and 2 secondary skills, I was able to give the Bloaters 3x Block and 1x Guard, the Rotspawn Guard, and Sure Hands and Wrestle to the Pestigors and Sneaky Git to a Rotter. My Nurgle team post. 

My Nurgle roster

Game One vs Nippylongskar's Skaven - TeamW 

Okay, so the one draw we didn't want round one were the reigning champions... but, unfortunately the randomiser had other ideas. Every year so far, TeamW has been led by petew and joined by his son thomasw. However, purplegoo didn't join his Team England mate this time around, so ex-Team Englander Nippylongskar stepped in to the fray. 

Big grin - The rats sense a win!

As a Nurgle coach today, facing one of the fastest teams (and agile with those Gutter Runners) was frankly an uphill task, but when you throw in the pedigree of the coach too I knew I was in trouble.

We rolled off, with the same fans, perfect weather and Nippy winning the kick roll and opting to receive... and rolled High Kick on kick off...

"kick to the sweet spot please"... Nurgle defence

...which a Gutter Runner caught. Nothing much happened in Nippy's first turn other than general manoeuvring. One of my Bloaters hurt a rat lineman (1-0). Nippy replied by snaking a GFI/Rush with his Blitzer, and I rolled double one on the armour!

We traded blows, with a Rotter being KO'd, and a Rat Blitzer being KO'd (apoth used), and then a linerat being KO'd in turn 5/5. However, Nippy scored in turn 5/6 0-1 (1-0), and I didn't have long to try to reply.

My drive began with Brilliant Coaching (I got a reroll), with me getting my Rotter back from KO and the rats staying safely out of it in the KO box. We added to that box with a Wrestle linerat and hurt another linerat (2-0), but with a deep kick to me the half ended with no further mischief.

The second half began with 11 Nurgle vs 7 Rats as 3 of the 4 rats in the KO box stayed out. Clearly our stench offended their twitchy noses! Another skaven deep kick saw us under pressure from the off. We did manage to pick it up in the end zone and start to make our way forward, braving some rushes to get caged, under the watchful gaze of all the Gutter Runners.

My Sneaky Git started to put some fouls in, hurting another linerat, but the Rat Ogre got a nasty punch in on my Guard Bloater (3-1). Frankly the Guard Bloater wasn't vital against the skaven in this situation though. By turn 5/4 we had fouled and hurt a Gutter Runner and KO'd the Rat Ogre (4-1) and we shuffled in for a score in turn 8/7.

With 3 rats coming back from KO, including some Gutter Runners and the Rat Ogre there was a threat of a one-turn touchdown, given that there was both a Frenzy Rat Ogre and a SideStepping Gutter Runner... but the combination of a lack of numbers and importantly a 1'ing Rat Ogre meant that I was safe! and the match finished 1-1 (4-1). 

With Daniel and Andrew both losing against the other members of TeamW we lost the round (0/1/2).

Game Two vs wabbe2009's Elven Union - IBBL 

Next up was the son of MEvans whose Elven Union had taken a bit of a pasting (apparently) in the first round. In Perfect Weather I had more fans and won the kick off and decided to receive. 

Parental approval for the photo was obtained! :)

For the second match in a row I won Brilliant Coaching and obtained a reroll. We didn't waste time getting some hits in either, hurting a lineelf and fouling a Guard lineelf. However, it wasn't all one way traffic as an elven block saw a Bloater fail his armour, get hurt and fail his regen! (2-1). 

A deep kick...

Things hadn't been too bad for the elf coach, but then something switched on turn 5/5 as the Kick lineelf dodged and died trying to stop my score, and I scored 1-0 (2-1), sensing I could make the most of the numbers advantage.

Going to the kick, Time Out was rolled and the game went back a turn each... giving me enough time to pile more misery onto the elves, KOing another lineelf and racing away to score a second, making the most of elven dice-failure. 2-0 (2-1).

The second half continued in the same vein, with me managing to break down the elven defence and scoring a 3rd by turn 5/5 2-0 (3-1). With another elf being carried off the pitch in a crumpled heap after a skull block (4-1) we managed to inflict one further injury before the game ended 3-0 (5-1). A flattering score line against a morally deflated elven coach.

Daniel won his match and Andrew lost his second, so overall a round win for Team Redshirts (2/0/1)... although due to a late drop out, we weren't all playing the same team this time.

Game Three vs chucklehead's Dark Elves - KFC

Ok, what's going on here... I was prepared to face a lot of bashy team, but this was the third agility/speed team I was facing in a row... this time Dark Elves, with Blodging Blitzers and a Witch Elf...

Prepare to blodge!

It was like Nuffle heard my cries of anguish, and the weather roll ended in a Blizzard! I had more fans but lost the kick off, and they nominated me to Receive... and then, of course, rolled a Blitz! (4x DE moved) after the kick landed deep in my half. So, Nuffle gives, and then he truly takes away!

Give us a break... another deep kick!

Turn 1 I managed to pick up the ball but then promptly failed a risky Rush with a Bloater to try and cage up. Nothing notable happened until turn 4/4 when the Dark Elves saw a chance to blitz my Pestigor ball carrier... but snaked the rush (reroll used... would have been 3+ in blizzard, but 1's anyway). In response to that threat I fouled a prone Guard Blitzer (1-0), but the Sneaky Git was send off on a double 6, and I rolled 1 on argue the call and was promptly sent to the stands myself!!

By turn 7/6 I hauled my bloated carcass in for a TouchDown 1-0 (1-0) with a lineelf and Witch Elf returning from KO. With no further action, the second half began with 11 chaos vs 9 elves... with the half beginning with a High Kick. We managed to hurt a lineelf in turn 2 (2-0) but the elves simply could not be stopped... I rolled a quad-push blitz on the blodging ball carrier and they scored in turn 4/5 1-1 (2-0). However, I did manage to prevent a counter-attack and hang on to the ball, and the match finished in a draw.

Daniel won his match and Andrew drew his third, so overall a round win for Team Redshirts (1/2/0)...

Game Four vs farleybear's Nurgle - TeamXXXXX 

It was a Nurgle-off! I was thrown by the fact that we both had the same positionals and rerolls but Farley had one more Rotter than me... Turned out (thanks to some late-PeteW analysis I had chosen to spend my remaining 3500 gold on two cheerleaders and an assistant coach instead of a 13th rostered player (a Rotter). I think overall, looking back at the previous matches, this was actually the right choice.

The difference between the rosters were the skills. I seem to remember Farley had a Frenzy Pestigor and all Block Bloaters... I can't remember the other differences.

Thumbs up for a Nurgle-off

We had the same number of fans enjoying the game in Perfect Blood Bowl weather, but I lost the kick off and Farley decided to receive.

The crowd didn't like the overwhelming smell of rotten-eggs on the pitch!

I don't have too many notes from here on in, but same race slow-moving bashy-games aren't always too event-filled. I did note that I inflicted a casualty by turn 4/4 (1-0) and managed to make the most of an opening (I think from a dice failure) to score against the run of play in turn 6/6 1-0 (1-0).

The subsequent drive started with a Pitch Invasion and three of my players were proned... however we prevented an equaliser.

The second half was a cagey affair, with plenty of block and blitz dice being rolled. I managed to inflixt a second casualty in turn 6/5 (2-0) but Farley's Bloater regenerated. Our defence remained solid and I think we managed to get the ball and move it away from a possible equaliser. The game ended 1-0 (2-0).

Daniel won his final match and Andrew also won, shooting us up the leaderboard with an emphatic 3/0/0.

Results

Team Redshirts gave a good showing overall, finishing 3rd. 

Team results

Team members 

Pitch Invaders       torquemada, greenskinphil, cptoats
TeamW                 petew, thomasw, nippylongskar
Redshirts               mr_frodo, wotfudboy, dankin
Barrel Scrapers     monkeyrage, legion_uk, vulturesquadron
Alpha               farleybear, mevans, wabe2009
KFC               touchdown, chucklehead, myrmedon
IBBL              onyersix, misterbrock, kowabungachunga
TDS              scs.sam

As individual team members we came 3rd, 6th and 16th... and Daniel won the Most Casualties Award, inflicting 20 on a mix of hapless elves and stunties with his Chaos Chosen bullies! :)

Individual standings final table

I was pleased to see my Nurgle elevated from 154 to 163 in their race rankings.

Awards

A nice collection of plated awards

The winners

Rustmoster (Sportmanship award): mevans

Top CBBBL Placement: legion_uk 

Most Touchdowns: greenskinphil (9)

Most Casualties: dankin (20)

Top Individual: torquemada

Team Wooden Spoons: Team IBBL (kowabungachunga, onyersix, misterbrock)

Team Stunty Cup: Team Barrel Scrapers (legion_uk (not stunty), vulturesquadron, monkeyrage)

Top Team: Team Pitch Invaders (in order of success - Narrowly beating off reigning champions TeamW) - (torquemada, greenskinphil, cptoats)

Team Pitch Invaders wins! - with Myrmedon presenting

Congratulations to torquemada, greenskinphil, cptoats and a big THANK YOU to Sam and Courtney on such a well run tournament as always. Lovely awards too.Lots of effort especially when having to do all the rounds/score/draws by hand!