Blitzer Bowl II & Nurgle - One day NAF tournament

Having attended the first Blitzer Bowl last year, I was able to make some easy comparisons between the two tournaments. You can see last year's tournament write-up here... and for a start, you'll notice there are far more people in attendance!

This year, there was a preview of all the teams with a brief analysis of each roster which is worth a watch to get an idea... although questionable judgement as they mentioned me as a "contender"... Little did they know! 😂😂

If you want to know all about the rules and tournament distinctiveness, take a look here at the Talk Fantasy Football summary.

There was also a unique weather table to use for the tournament!

Looking around the room there was a good mix of hardened (or rather, quite softened looking!) veterans, new and nearly new coaches, which is good for the promotion of the game and keeping the table-top Blood Bowl scene fresh and rejuvenating!

Have a look around the room for Game 2:

For historical note, this was the weekend when England took on Norway in the 2026 World Cup - managed to get back and see it in plenty of time! - and it was on the back of a week of a genuine heat wave in the UK. Fortunately, the hall was vaulted and airy and the temperatures were slightly lower than they had been, back down to high 20's / low 30's.

Tournament Prizes & Gifts

Some nice thought went into spreading the love through Blood Bowl. From custom can-coolers to random-raffles (with some great prizes), the tournament organisers really had done well!

Nurgle Roster

Making what I thought was a good use of Nurgle being in Tier 3 (with a small dose of not really giving it much thought at all!) I chose a roster with 3x Bloaters with Block and 1x with Guard, 1x Block Rotspawn and a Pestigor with Wrestle and another with Tackle. I doubled up the tournament Blitzer skill of Juggernaut with the Tackle for some reroll-reducing blitzing power. I also had a Sneaky Git Rotter who, frankly was my star player!

Next time I will look more carefully as 6 skills on some tier 1 rosters was more than enough to make them a good team!

Game One vs Steve's Goblins

This was a bit of a smashing for the Goblins. It started with the Goblins opting to receive (and yes, I noted Perfect Weather as we forgot the Weather table!!)... and the game began with a Blitz! which resulted in me targeting and KOing one of the Trolls. 

To be fair, I was rather worried given the amount of Bribes and Secret Weapons the Goblins had, which included 2x Trolls (one with Bullseye for accurate TTMing - and combined with a Doom Diver!), 1 chainsaw wielding loony, 1 Ball & Chain standard goblin as well as Fungus the Loon with his faster Ball & Chain. I had to make a start somewhere to reduce the threat, particularly as Ball & Chains don't care about Foul Appearance!

And I was proved to be rightly worried as I soon lost a Rotter to a whack, but we got our own back by blitzing a ball & chain and killing him (1-1). Shame Plague Ridden doesn't work on stunty players!! 

Steve was too tempted to score quickly and made the first (of many) successful TTM's to score and go 0-1 up by turn 2/3. He then failed an Argue the Call and got sent to the stands himself (which should have reduced the odds of Secret Weapons coming back on to the pitch. 

However, I wasn't going to take that chance, hurting Fungus the Loon on my way to racking up 5-1 casualties by the time I equalised in turn 8/8.

The second half was a slow procession down the pitch for the Nurgle as they either splatted or gang fouled their way to victory, and the game finished 3-1 (8-1) [* Editors note: ALL players ending up in the injury box counted as casualties!].

Game Two vs Mark's Orcs

I merrily sat down on Table 2 shooting to the top part of the ladder given my game one victory only to find some very angry Orcs waiting for me. 

I opted to receive, but it was a turgid and tight game. It didn't help that the first gang foul I did resulted in a double 3 on injury and the Sneaky Git was sent off in turn 1! We struggled up the field and in the end took a risky break away, only to get sacked. We sacked the ball back and had a chance of still scoring... all it needed was a hand off to an unmarked Rotter who was a GFI away from the end zone. But of course, rolling a 2 followed by a 1 wasn't going to help! 

Unfortunately on the way I had lost a Pestigor and a Rotter, and the half ended 0-0 (0-2). Mark had either been rolling 1's or 6's, and this carried on throughout the game.

The second half began, and as it began, the game effectively was lost for me. Within 2 consecutive blocks, the Orcs had killed 2x Block Bloaters... they both regenerated, but it was unlikely they were going to come back for more than a turn in turn 16! I was (0-4) down and up against it. 

The block dice pows and armour and injury rolls kept coming and by turn 7/8 I was 0-1 (0-6) down and feeling rather battered, but still smiling.

We did have some collective amnesia though as I reminded Mark to use his Captain skill to try to recover used rerolls, which he did, at least twice! I on the other hand didn't remember to use Pick-me-Up... although, I don't think I would have had an opportunity as they all seemed to end up in the injury box. I also remembered that I should have used Steady Footing in the first half when I was sacked.... I remembered for the second half but it was too late! Totally my fault.

Game Three vs Steve's Gnomes

Steve had had an apparent mental bruising with his Gnomes last game and came into this one rather rejected to be facing Nurgle again. Seemingly though, the last Nurgle coach did a better job than me, as I failed to make ANY stunty casualties in the first half despite knocking a lot of them over!

I did managed to score by the end of the first half and had KO'd 5x Gnomes. I did struggle with the Gnome roster, but that was all me as Steve had brought a printed roster and had painted the bases and they were a standard GW team and they were all nicely painted. Steve even had several goes at my ball carrier with dodging in the two Guard players and turning a rerolled Skull into a Pow! So, in many ways I had done well to score. However, ALL 5x Gnomes recovered their KOs' and Steve had a full team for the second half. 

By turn 2/3, and despite blitzing the ball-carrying Fox, he ran in to score easily to make it 1-1 (0-0).

It was only in turn 4/5 that I suddenly had a run of inflicted casualties, making 3x in one turn, but the Gnome defence had been too solid and the Nurgle too ineffectual. The 3x Trees (2x normal and 1x Maple Star Player) ensured the ball was covered and safe.

The match ended 1-1 (3-1) and the tournament ended for my pretty much mid-table. I showed those analysts how wrong they could be!

Winners / Standings

Well, as I said, given it was a 3 game tournament, these things usually come down to bonus points, and I believe that was the case this time too. 

This tournament used the Tour Play site/app, so you can see Standings there... I don't have a screen shot, but I finished 22nd out of 48. Congratulations though to Sam who won the whole thing! In fact, Team Redshirts faired well, with Sam winning, Andrew coming 2nd, Darren finishing 8th and Jack finishing 16th. I suspect I'll be dropped!! - and quite rightly so!

However, I did become the unofficial photographer again... Here are the winners, including the raffle prize winners:

SCS Sam - Winner!

Thanks to all my opponents, fellow coaches and in particular the tournament organisers for making it such a good day!