Wycombe Warband BBL - Season 1 Game 1

Wycombe Warband Blood Bowl League

Season 1 Game 1

Our league has kicked off and I'm fielding the orc team Scary Wunz. Their first opponent was William's lizardmen Sotek's Scalies who have left orcs lying broken on the ground in earlier games. With their fast and strong sauruses and kroxigor, and the lightning quick and light-footed skinks this is always a challenge for the lumbering orcs.

*Photo credits mostly to William Martin
** the orc linemen, thrower and a couple of blitzers show paintwork damage caused by GW Purity Seal (tm) spray varnish 😡

Setup

The orcs won the toss and elected to receive the kick. The Scalies set up a strong right drive, the orcs deciding on a deep deployment to contain the speed of the Scalies.

Unfortunately the Scalies kicked too high, allowing the orc thrower to move under the ball and catch it.

1st Half

The right wing having collapsed and the centre barely holding ground, the orc thrower caged up and the maul rolled down the left wing hoping to bypass the two saurus warriors and bust open the juicy skink line behind them

With their backs uncomfortably close to the drunk and and violently angry crowd, the orc cage succeeds in pushing the saurus pair out of the way, and trundles down to the visibly nervous trio of skinks.

Hopelessly overpowered, the skink line can't help but fall back, though they do a tremendous job of slowing down the orc cage.

Disaster strikes as the middle skink falls, leaving his mates open to assisted abuse from the orcs!

All three skinks are down, two of them stunned, and the orc cage is free to rumble down to the end zone - touch down orcs!

With several turns remaining in the first half, it's time for another drive. The orcs are kicking and set up first. Wary of how every lizard is faster than every orc (except the blitzers), they set up with a deep defensive spread. The lizards set up a strong right wing, eager to bash their way down to the end zone, and angry kroxigor leading their charge deep into the orc half.

In a flash the skinks have recovered the ball and are caged up with their saurus team mates.

The orcs foolishly try to wrap around the cage and exploit the sides and rear, running foul of the tremendous blocking power the saurus and kroxigor possess. The lizards bash straight through the front line and sprint down towards the end zone, a lone blitzer and soft thrower standing in the way!

By the slimmest of chances, a pair of blitzers and even a black orc blocker manage to join the maul. After a ridiculous number of finely timed dice rolls, the orcs are able to up-end the ball carrying skink, spilling his precious cargo to the ground a scant seven squares from the end zone.

The scrum for the ball grows intense as two more black orcs, a lineman and a kroxigor join in the shoving, heaving pile of players. With that many tackle zones on it, the ball is surprisingly safe from being picked up by anyone, and time runs out for the lizards. At some point a skink was badly hurt and had to leave the field, his match clearly over.

2nd Half

The orcs turn to kick off again, and they choose a fairly non-committal lineup, hoping not to get bogged down in blocking match-ups. The lizards go for a powerful left wing, hoping to repeat the blitzkrieg in the previous half, leaving a skink in the backfield to collect the ball. Should be fine, right?

The ball scatters deep into the right field, and the skink hares off to collect it.

So then this guy showed up. With his cousins. And their cousins. Poor skink couldn't pick the ball up even with team re-rolls.

Sensing his panic, the unmarked orc blitzers charge forward to intercept him before he cages.

Finally, the ball under control, the skink scuttles across the field to the safety of his big buddies, caging up deep in centre-field.

The orcs attack the cage, and the dice let the lizards down again. The orcs succeed in sacking the ball carrier, and it scatters into the open (via most of both teams fumbling their catches) for the orc blitzers to scoop up. A new cage is built, green this time.

The lizards assault the orc cage with renewed ferocity and crack it wide open, the ball carrying blitzer somehow left unscathed in the carnage.

With a ridiculous combination of blocks and dodge roles, the blitzer manages to blitz his way out of the enveloping lizards and heads for the end zone! He goes for it to get past the final square...

and this guy shows up again. The orc trips over his own flat feet! A lone skink heads over to try and collect the ball, or at least prevent the blitzer from picking it up again.

Final act of the second half sees the lizards go on a blitz fest, trying to injure orcs and score valuable SPP. The skink meanwhile tries to pick up the ball, and fails, triggering a turnover.

The orc blitzer's final chance is to risk his team's blitz, he gets up, smashes the skink away, picks up the ball and risking another Go For It roll - touch down orcs!

Final Score: Scary Wunz 2 - 0 Sotek's Scalies

Blood Bowl 2016 - Match 3

Blood Bowl 2016 - Match 3

So far the Scary Wunz orc team have recorded a victory over William's lizardmen and a shock defeat against John's skaven (dirty rats!). The lizards, with six huge blockers, nippy little runners and the best big guy in the game, demanded a rematch and the orcs are always up for a fight. Pictures supplied by William Martin, lovely camera on his Samsung mobile. 

Team lists:

Scary Wunz: 

• 4 x black orc blockers
• 4 x blitzers
• 2 x linemen
• 1 x thrower.

Lizards: 

• 1 x kroxigor
• 6 x saurus
• 5 x skinks

First Half: 

The orcs won the toss and elected to kick, setting up for an aggressive drive. The lizards chose two very strong wide zones, hoping to force one or both to fold for their skinks to exploit. 

The first touch down came embarrassingly quickly before the fourth turn, the sauruses forcing a gap between the orc left wing and the sidelines for the ball-carrying skink and his interference runners to dash through.

Set up for the next drive with the lizards setting up a heavy left wing. The orcs chose a more defensive setup than usual, hoping to build a cage quickly and rumble up the field with it.

It seems kroxigors don't follow the rules around big guys being slow. Battering his way through the black orc line, he came screaming across the field, aiming for the cage around the orc ball carrier hoping to avoid him by going up the other wide zone. Using his sauruses to peel away the defenders, the kroxigor successfully sacks the orc thrower holding the ball, despite all the assists against him.

The ball spills out, and with the dreadful ball skills you normally find in a cage, bounces wildly from player to player before settling behind the kroxigor - where else eh?!

The Scary Wunz look towards their coaching team for guidance, 'ow do we get da ball now boss?

 Coaching orcs there's only ever one plan: block em! Rallying the black orcs around the kroxigor, and almighty scrum develops, and not entirely for the ball either. The kroxigor suffers a match-ending injury, somehow making its way to the medical dugout. The sauruses don't give up, successfully sacking the thrower again, the ball this time unbelievably being caught by the tackling saurus! The orcs mob him, knocking him to the ground, and a cheeky blitzer breaks away, heading for the lizard's goal area.

Laughing at the three skinks heading him off, the blitzer had no idea he was moments from joining the kroxigor with a nasty injury. The skinks grabbed the ball, heading back down field. 

The remaining orc blitzers pursued, but a trip by a saurus left the only one who could catch them sprawled out on the field - touch down lizards!

Final result

Lizards 2 - 1 Scary Wunz orcs

Darth gets his choke on

I've succumbed to the meta, and ordered a pair of ships that have had some success if forums are to be believed:

DECI-MATES

99 points

PILOTS

Commander Kenkirk (56)

VT-49 Decimator (44), Ysanne Isard (4), Gunner (5), Rebel Captive (3)

Patrol Leader (43)

VT-49 Decimator (40), Darth Vader (3)

Game 1

First up was Phil with a Scum list that I've tried to duplicate from memory and looked a lot like this:

PHILS LIST 1?

96 points

PILOTS

Kavil (30)

Y-Wing (24), Autoblaster Turret (2), Unhinged Astromech (1), Push the Limit (3)

Binayre Pirate (14)

Z-95 Headhunter (12), Dead Man's Switch (2)

Tansarii Point Veteran (29)

M3-A “Scyk” Interceptor (17), Push the Limit (3), “Heavy Scyk” Interceptor (2), Heavy Laser Cannon (7)

Syndicate Thug (23)

Y-Wing (18), Ion Cannon Turret (5), BTL-A4 Y-Wing (0)

Setup and Phil's fleet deploys opposite two small moons...

First turn, and the fleets nervously edge towards each other, Kaval swinging left to join the rest.

The Patrol leader breaks to port to engage Kaval while Commander Kenkirk banks to starboard away from the kamikaze Z-95. Kaval pushes the limit preparing to pound his target. 

Meanwhile in the middle disaster strikes with the Y-Wing slamming into the back of the banking Z-95 and loses his action. The Scyk barrel rolls right and targets Kenkirk, earning him a stress token - thanks Rebel Captive!

The Decimators bank towards each other, turret guns hurling death at the Scummy Villains. Kaval and the Y-wing tag each other and switch targets. The Binayre Pilot in his flying bomb tracks Kenkirk enjoying a complete lack of return fire. The Decimators have taken damage but this gives Kenkirk an evade dice and a free evade action. Disaster strikes as the Scyk takes critical hits disabling his Heavy Laser Cannon and reducing his Pilot Skill to 0. (We both agreed afterwards this was the determining factor for the outcome.). He is reduced to moving 1 ahead to clear the accumulated stresses of targeting Kenkirk's ship.

Kaval, his shields down and ship damaged, takes enfilade fire from both Decimators and is blown to pieces. The annoying Binayre keeps chipping away while the Scyk carries on reducing his stress. The remaining Y-Wing hammers in firing both primary and secondary weapons. Unfortunately a single ion cannon token does nothing to Decimators. 

The Scyk is well on his way to pulling a Maverick, as this stolen footage taken from the Scum Battle Control Systems shows:

Despite having 9 square feet of playing space another traffic jam develops, even the M25 would be impressed by this.

The Scyk banks slowly as his allies scream at him to get back in the fight

With inspirational 80's battle music in his ears, the Scyk goes head-to-head with the Russian Mig Patrol Leader's Decimator, forcing it to fire on the Binayre instead.

Meanwhile the Binayre manages to cause his patented "crash for cash" scam on Commander Kenkirk, forcing him to target the Scyk.

Kenkirk hits the Scyk and blows it to pieces. The Patrol leader hits the Binayre, taking it to one remaining hull point. Vader strongly considers force choking the Scyk into the hereafter, but doing so will destroy the ship he's on as it only has two hull points left. The resulting explosion from the Dead Man's Trigger would harm Kenkirk too.

Disaster for the Empire as the Binayre lines up the Patrol Leader and shoots him down.

Kenkirk lines his guns up and shoots the Binayre down, victory for the Empire!

Game 2

Phil agreed to a second game, and his revised Scum force looked like this:

Ha! No really, it went something like this:

PHIL'S LIST 2?

98 points

PILOTS

IG88-B (51)
Aggressor (36), Veteran Instincts (1), Sensor Jammer (4), “Mangler” Cannon (4), “Hot Shot” Blaster (3), IG-2000 (0), Stealth Device (3)

IG88-D (47)
Aggressor (36), Veteran Instincts (1), “Mangler” Cannon (4), “Hot Shot” Blaster (3), IG-2000 (0), Stealth Device (3)

Deployment and four large ships hit the table from opposing corners. They edge towards each other even more nervously than before.

The IG-88's are extremely manoeuvrable, running rings around the lumbering Decimators. Disaster strikes again as Phil mistakenly chooses a red action for a stressed ship and I get to choose the movement instead, which is why the one bottom left is bugging out.

One of the 88's loops around gently avoiding the table edge while his compatriot harries Kenkirk but builds up stress from shooting at a Rebel Captive.

Looping around the Patrol Leader manages to knock an 88 down to one hull, and Vader gives his ship two damage to finish the 88 off. One down one to go!

The remaining 88 lands up in a crossfire, reduced to one hull too and Vader makes it two for two!

While Vader isn't always a wise choice (particularly if the enemy has shields) in this case he certainly was worth his 3 points and earned some light approval.