Are you ready for some football?

Monday night under the lights, the Reikland Reavers stepped onto the grid to face Nurgle's Rotters. A win for the Reavers would bring the league into a three-way tie heading into the season's second half.

The Rotters won the coin toss and their pestigor turned on the jets and pounced on the ball, with his blockers trailing behind. Reikland's quarterback bravely sacrificed himself in an effort to make a score-saving tackle, but the Rotter ball carrier was unmoved and put the first touchdown on the board. 

Whatever wind Reikland had in its sails was gone, and their ship was dead in the water.

Play after play, they struggled against a slower, harder hitting Rotter team.

And then it was deja vu all over again for Reikland.

A short pass, followed by an after-catch run, ended shy of the endzone, courtesy of a brutal hit from a Nurgle lineman which forced the ball loose.

The gun sounded a second sudden death loss for the Reavers,

While the Rotters rode out high atop the standings, the Reavers, outscored 12 - 2 in Monday's game  and 32-12 this season, have a lot of soul-searching to do if they don't want to end the season at the bottom of the pile.

After three games, here's how the league stands:

1. Nurgle's Rotters 2 - 0
2. Skavenblight Scramblers 1 - 1
3. Reikland Reavers 0 - 2

Saturday Night Lights

The Reikland Reavers and the Skavenblight Scramblers collided under the lights Saturday night, in a bone-crushing, fast-paced game.

The Reavers came out strong - setting their hopes on the passing accuracy of their star quarterback. Knocking on the door to the endzone, it was slammed shut soundly by Skavenblight's linebacker and defensive powerhouse.

Injured frequently in his team's last match-up against Nurgle's Rotters, he came into Saturday's game in good health and determined to dish out brutal hits to the opposition and erase any doubts about his abilities.

On offense, the rats refused to risk the ball and relied on hand-offs, short passes, and ample blockers to dominate the possession time.

The aggressive Reaver defense had several opportunities to stop Skavenblight but ...

 

... the Scramblers had the edge on speed and put up the first touch-down of the day.

With the pressure on, Reikland again turned to their QB's arm - a decision that paid off in a touch-down to cap the drive.

Undeterred, the Scramblers managed to run up the points, and sadly, for Reaver fans, they proved to be the more consistent of the teams, both on offense and defense.

Facing a Sudden Death loss, Reikland's QB orchestrated a thrilling last-ditch drive for the end zone, reminiscent of the team's first touch-down of the day, but they came up short, literally within an inch of staying in the game.

When the gun sounded, the Scramblers won 20 - 10, putting them 1-1 for the season, The Reikland Reavers go into their match against Nurgle's Rotters at 0-1.

***

I really love the board for Blitz Bowl. The entirely flat board looks uncannily three-dimensional. So even though it's a board-game with minis, it still feels like you're playing on a field with obstacles.

Once all the teams have played each other on this side of the board (what I call round one), I'll play another series using the other side, which features two trap doors and a multi-ball possibility.

With only three teams, it's quite possible the season will end in a three-way tie. I suppose what that really means is that I should ask Santa for another team this year.

Season Kickoff

Saturday afternoon, the 2024 Blitz Bowl season kicked off with the Skavenblight Scramblers vs Nurgle's Rotters.

Skavenblight's fast moving, big-play offense saw little opportunity, as the plodding, hard hitting Rotters gained possession early and opted for a conservative ball-control offense. 

Skavenblight Blitzer takes on Nurgle Bloater

Nurgle's team maintained near continuous possession for the duration of the game, recovering fumbles with success and beating up the Skavenblight defense at nearly every opportunity.

Patience was the order of the day for the Rotters. Moving more laterally than forward and choosing hand-offs over risky passing, they oozed steadily towards the goal-line.

Nurgle Lineman carries the ball into the End Zone

Despite being held to a single touchdown (their first ever under my coaching), the Rotters handily scored a Sudden Death victory, 13 to 2, thanks in large part to their successful completion of multiple challenge cards.

Skavenblight's blitzer suffered multiple injuries on the day but is expected to be ready to go again in time for the team's next outing, according to their coach.

That match-up will pit the Scramblers vs the Reikland Reavers.

Completed: Nurgle's Rotters!

Over the weekend, I finished my Nurgle bloaters and pestigor, thus completing my Nurgle's Rotters team for Blitz Bowl. 

This time I was extra heavy on the dry brushing and very little additional highlighting was needed post-Strong Tone.

They still look dirty/grime-y as opposed to shadowy, but it fits their theme.

I'm rather pleased with the bruising.

And here is the complete team:

With only 6 figures, Blitz Bowl teams are a nice bite-sized project to take on. It's satisfying knowing the team is DONE. There are no more figures to add, no options to paint up (although I still have six on the sprue if I want to make a complete Blood Bowl team, but I don't. Yet.)

Nurgle's Rotters Linemen

Earlier in the year I picked up a box of Nurgle's Rotters for Blitz Bowl - the box was damaged, so the price was well below retail and I couldn't pass it up. The figures inside were fine.

I made a mental commitment to get all of my Blitz Bowl teams assembled and painted this year (the two from the boxed game, and the Rotters). 

With time left in 2023 running out, the Nurgle linemen are ready to take the field

Their skin looks a little dirty as opposed to highlights/shadows but I am not going to correct it at this point. I tried a technique that was new to me (found on youtube) and it was a learning experience. Frankly, they look comparable to the ones I painted "the Citadel way" previously, with about 2/3rds the effort.

The technique, such as it is, involves using fairly bright colors for your base coats,then heavily dry brushing with an even brighter version of the color, before washing with a dark wash. The idea is that the wash will bring the bright colors down to a shade in the recesses, a middle tone in the middle areas, and the super bright highlights will wash down to a normal highlight color.

Indeed, it does work.

However, in many spots I did not dry brush heavily enough (that's the lesson learned), and so many of my highlights ended up too muted. I did touch the figures up and spot washed those areas i felt needed a highlight, but I'm not gong to redo the flesh to be less grimy looking. They're Nurgle's Rotters after all (even if you don't know who Nurgle is, Rotter tells you all you need to know).

I have three more Rotters to paint (two Bloaters and a Pestigor) and I'll probably use the same technique just for a consistent look for the team.

The bright green pools on the bases are supposed to be slime/nuclear waste-type stuff. It's just PVA mixed with some Moot Green (Citadel) and Lime Sherbert (Apple Barrel). It was then gloss varnished to give it a wet look. It looks a little more like spilled paint than I'd like but my son thought it was really cool, so that's good enough for me!

Blitz Bowl Pre-Season Game

We got home from vacation on Saturday, and because I just couldn't wait any longer, Sunday saw my first learning game of Blitz Bowl. Because it was a learning game, I consider it more of a scrimmage or pre-season type of affair.

My son was busy, so it was a solitaire outing, and I was glad to find the game plays well this way. 

Blitz Bowl is basically IGO-UGO (limited to three actions each per turn) although if you claim a Challenge card,  some bonus plays (on the back of the Challenge cards) allow for an interruption, there is no hidden deployment, there are limited number of actions a player can take (the miniature,the person playing the game is called a Coach) and the outcomes of some of them are dependent on a die roll.

Most helpful of all to a solitaire player, I think, is the randomized behavior of the ball in the case of a fumble or bad pass or when a player moves into a square with the ball as a result of a push, sidestep, or anything other than a movement. It's difficult to play for every contingency in that case.

While I have heard that compared to Blood Bowl differentiation between teams and players on a team are limited, I felt like there were enough differences to be interesting. With repeated play I may feel otherwise, but for now it works. It does keep the mental requirements for learning the special abilities down which I am always grateful for these days!

Finally there are also some interesting/difficult decisions to make. 

Very often, I found myself debating whether to bring a player in from Reserve, or try to eek out something with the players on the field. Similarly, it costs an action to stand up a downed figure, and that has to be weighed against the other things you are trying to accomplish (primarily, get the ball if you don't have it and score if you do). And should you take three actions with one player or spread them around?

The game was a lot of fun to play- which, having heard all sorts of negative things about other Games Workshop games, surprised me a little. 

It reminded me of a game my friends and I played with a football in our backyards, called "Fumble Rumble" when I was a kid. When we moved when I was a teen, I learned another name for the game in use in that region: "Kill the Man with the Ball" which is pretty apt for a game of Blitz Bowl too.

I'm looking forward to giving it another go with the advanced rules and I'm hoping to pick up some paints next weekend for the Nurgle team, too.

Skaven Take the Field!

Despite thinking otherwise, I managed to finish my Skaven Blitz Bowl team before I left on vacation (which I'm currently still on - but we're just hanging around the hotel today)

I'm pleased with the results. 

I'm even more pleased that it means we can start playing when we get back. The game includes a set of drills to teach the basics, so that's where we'll start.

Here's a brighter picture with a less busy background:

I have a Nurgle team to paint as well, but I need to pick up some paints first.

In other news, we have been playing D&D in our hotel in the evenings and it's been a great time. He is very into it, which is more than I can say for most of the things we've done on the trip outside of D&D. 

It's an old school game of dungeon exploration and liberating treasure from a dangerous locale. We're using Moldvay/Cook Basic/Expert D&D as the base, along with some Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion and some things I've found from other publishers (like a b/x artificer class). It's designed to be a drop-in/drop-out campaign, so other members of our regular gaming group can join from time to time if they would like, but also so my son and I can just pull out the maps, character sheets, and my notes and start playing whenever we want, even if no one else is available.

We'll be home Saturday, so I'll see if it works as planned once we've been back a bit and it's not one of the only options available. So far though it's been great just getting to play and see him so excited. 

State of the Painting Queue

As I've mentioned many times before, more as a reminder for my sake than for anything else, earlier this year, I put a moratorium on purchasing unpainted figures. 

What this has lead to, rather unintentionally, is renewed interest, if not enjoyment, in painting.

Perhaps I have swung too much in the "other direction" - here is my paint queue as of this morning:

For the curious, yes that is a very old Duncan Glow Imperial that I've had since the late 70s or very early 80s. I still can barely yo-yo.

 

Scales represented in that picture are 1/72, 28mm(or 32 mm?), 1/50 (the T-34 hull), and 54mm. Butterfly? Me?

I don't often share close up WiP shots, but I'm pretty excited about the progress on my Skaven Blitz Bowl team. As of last night, they are almost done with the base colors. I still have green, black, and a bone-like color to do yet (for their incisors). Then comes the wash, then a 2nd layer, and highlights.

This picture is a good deal brighter on my phone.

I'm following along with a YouTube tutorial, like I did for the human team. Same instructor - I find his instructions easy to follow, although I sometimes wish he'd show more of what he considers "armor" or where he applies a color because, as they are fantasy figures, I can't tell what's supposed to be what on these figures half the time.

It's possible I'll finish these over the weekend, but, I am also trying to ready a megadungeon-style campaign for my son (per his request) to have ready to take with us on vacation next week.

Fortunately, I really only need to have the ruins and upper level done. 

Of course, the ruins are three separate areas of multiple buildings/areas, two of which have their own mini-dungeons beneath - one connects eventually to the main dungeon. The third ruin connects directly to the main dungeon.

I'm using a number of freely available one-page dungeons to fill these areas, but I need to reskin them to the theme (Lovecraft tropes galore). The goal is to allow some exploration above ground as well as below, so he'll have choices about where to explore, creatures/NPCs to engage with, multiple ways in and out, that kind of thing.

So yeah, maybe finishing the Skaven this weekend is a little optimistic!

Painting Update

Late Friday night, well technically early Saturday, I finished my first Blitz Bowl team.

This is "the human team". 

Painting was done by following this tutorial:  (10) How to paint Blood Bowl - Human player for the Reikland Reavers - YouTube

As paint jobs go, I'm pretty happy with it. Several new techniques involved for me - but I mostly paint toy soldier style, so that's not surprising.

I decided to dress up the basses a bit more than usual. too.

 When I did the first three human players, I used coffee grounds and flock for the bases. But, while decluttering the other day, I found a container of "steppe grass" which is longer/taller than flock. I decided I wanted uneven grass heights, like when you have crabgrass growing on a manicured lawn and applied some to all of the bases.

Heading to the paint table next: the skaven team.

I also did a little experiment last week.

Despite my resurfaced love for unpainted "army men" figures, and with an eye towards a future plan (far far future), I decided to paint two of my son's Timmee or similar brand figures but using the plastic color for the uniform. 

I've heard mention of this technique but never tried it myself.

Here are the finished products:

Easily some of the saddest bayonets I've ever seen.

To prime the figures, I used Mod Podge. 

Then, I painted the flesh, webbing, guns, and boots. Once the paint was dry, I followed with some Army Painter Strong Tone to cover the entire figure. 

This darkens the painted bits considerably. Using a technique garnered from the Blitz Bowl figures, I repainted the flesh and webbing again, while leaving the recesses the darkened color. 

I sealed it all again with Mod Podge. 

That looked OK enough, but I felt there wasn't enough contrast between the shadows and the lighter bits, so I dry-brushed the figures with Nubbly Linen (as close to a "buff" shade that I have).

I think that is a better effect on the tan soldier. The green soldier looks like his uniform has been beaten  on rocks - I probably should have used even less Nubbly Linen than I did. 

Nevertheless, for minimal effort (maybe 5-10 minutes total prime/paint/seal/dry brush time for both figures, not including the drying) they look more than passable for some Little Cold Wars, Sout American or African Imagi-nations, or similar.

Training Camp Opens!

 The first of the Reikland Reavers have arrived at training camp for the coming season of Blitz Bowl!

Total paint time wasn't very long, but other things conspired to make it take two weeks to complete them.

I followed a YouTube tutorial, albeit with considerably less skill (and one paint I don't have). None the less, I am satisfied with the results, despite it being distinctly not-toy-soldier style. Though, I'd hardly call it realistic either. 

Numbers would be nice, but the box set doesn't include a decal sheet(though if you buy individual Blood Bowl team boxes to expand, they do) and I am not going to attempt hand painting them.

I see lots of things in closeup that bother me, but at gaming distance, they look good and it's easy to tell which positions they are. 

I have three more to assemble and paint, then onto the Skaven. I have a Nurgle Blood Bowl box as well (so I can field two teams of Nurgle if I feel so compelled), but I need paints for them that I don't have and money is tight to be buying Citadel paints right now (to put this in perspective, I spent more on paints for the Reavers and Skaven, than I did on the Blitz Bowl box).

As a reminder, for those unfamiliar with Blitz Bowl, it's the lower figure count / smaller pitch size / lighter ruleset version of Blood Bowl - just six figures per team and games play in 1-2 hours. 

Hoping to complete the Reavers over the next week or so.

Blue 42! Blue 42! Kill-Kill! Waagh!

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, I stumbled on an issue of White Dwarf that had an account of something like American football, with orcs. It was, as you probably know, an account of Blood Bowl. 

I loved the concept (I love American football and fantasy) but never saw a game played or even heard of anyone playing it outside of that. Indeed, the only football game I had ever seen or played (and still own) is the one by Tudor with the vibrating playing surface and the figures that went everywhere but where I wanted them to go (which was indeed, much of the fun!).  

This looks much sleeker than mine. Mine was acquired in the late 1970s, and featured the classic rivalry of the Pittsburgh Steelers and Dallas Cowboys. Years later I acquired the entire AFC East, including the then Baltimore Colts

I had yet to grasp the idea of playing non-video games as a solo gamer outside of well, Solitaire.

Flash forward 20 years and I started wargaming. I immersed myself in solo gaming with abandon. I even saw solitaire rules for Blood Bowl although by then, I knew perfectly well how to make an enjoyable solitaire experience with most games.

But, while it sounded fun, it never crossed my mind to actually get the game or figures.

Until recently.

With my son spending hour upon hour immersed in the Warhammer video games and watching endless YouTube videos about the game and the lore of Warhammer fantasy, I found myself drawn back the idea of Blood Bowl- something different from all of my other figure games that could easily justify the change of scale.

As it turns out, there's a smaller version of the game called Blitz Bowl - it uses only six figures per side, has simpler rules, and games can be played to completion in an hour or two.  

Simpler? Few figures? Count me in!

So, for a Christmas present to myself, I picked up a copy from Barnes & Noble.

Even better, my son is eager to play AND one of his favorite factions in Warhammer, the Skaven, have a team in the box!

Here's a picture of the contents:

 You could, of course, play as is, no paint required. 

However, I decided I would go all in and paint mine. Using GW's paints no less. And following their painting tutorials on YouTube, more or less.

The paint order has just been placed and please excuse me while I pick my jaw off of the floor.

I spent more on paint than on the game!

My son also really likes Nurgle, and I stumbled on a discounted box of the Nurgle team (a Blood Bowl box provides enough figures for two teams in Blitz Bowl) which for the price, I could not ignore. The paints for those will wait for my birthday.

There have been recent talks with him about how some of the kids at school play W40K and he seems interested. If he decides he wants to give it a try, resisting the temptation to buy myself some Sisters of Battle is going to be neigh impossible.

What can I say, I have a thing for space nuns.