In Da Challenge! Cup, I beat the Rotters 2-0 with Chukko getting both. Then a crazy game against the Forked Tongues. They scored in the first half, and I failed to equalize until the very last turn, pushing it into overtime of another 8 turns. Luckily I got the breakthrough and scored in the last turn to get into the final. In that final I came up against the Stunted Stoutfellas Halfling team. Like the Skinks in the last game, their little annoying gits kept dodging through my line and they took the lead. But I then went about smacking them all over the field and scored in turns 8 and 16 to take the cup. An amazing thing came out of that game, as Speed Demon Lil got lucky for the third time and got +1AG to go with his +1MA and dodge. He's making up for dying on me way back in the 90s in that fated game against Spud's Dwarves.

Up next was the Joy Cup, even though my trophy cabinet already contains it. Odd. Anyway, up first were the quite well developed Champions of Death, a game I thought was going to be tough but ended up real easy, with Lil getting both in a 2-0 win. Then I came up against the Naggaroth Nightmares, and after the last match against them I thought this would be real easy, but it ended up being very hard. They even had 7 players stunned by a pitch invasion at the start compared to my 1, but it still took until the last turn for Lil to get away from their defence and score the winner. The Norsca Rampagers took a beating in the last group game, with two of their players being killed and one seriously injured. They also sustained 14 KOs during the game which ended up an easy 3-0 win. Wee Little Jimmy even got on the pitch for the last few turns and knocked two players out by sticking the boot in, and scored the last one, adding to Zobba and Wagrut's earlier TDs. Zippin' Zobba got +1MA.
The Celestial Comets were the opponents in the semi, and they put up one hell of a challenge. It needed a desperate pass from Splatta to Draggin' on turn 8 to open the scoring. They looked like equalizing in the 2nd half, but Ug The Stupid pulled off an interception, and I then held it in a ruck until the end. I noticed a few odd things in the log during this game, like all their dodges never seemed to be modified by my tackle zones, and Ug's interception was not modified by the -2 interception modifier. He got a 6 anyway so it wouldn't have mattered, but it was still odd. Both my linemen got upgrades, with Splatta getting tackle, and Ug getting pro.
The Nightmares had also made it to the final, and I didn't give them any opportunities. It ended 2-0, with the usual suspects Lil and Chukko grabbing the TDs. They suffered deaths of both a blitzer and a witch elf, and Draggin' gained the grab skill, and Gwapstick the tackle skill, making the team even better against dodgy opposition.

Up next: the Blood Bowl itself, with 4 groups of 6 teams each looking to make it through to the knockouts. Up first, wouldn't you know it, the Naggaroth Nightmares...

So, a much larger Blood Bowl tournament beckoned: the Platinum Arm Trophy.

Before the first game I got my injured players back for some reason. Maybe missed games from serious injuries only count during that individual tournament. Anyway, the Celestial Comets Elf team were up first, and I barely had to do anything. They fell over nearly every turn trying to dodge or go for extra squares. Not even Star Player Jordell Freshbreeze could help them, and I won 1-0 with another late Chukki TD.

The Naggaroth Nightmares couldn't touch me. They did manage to badly hurt my current main scorer Chukki Snotpot, but Chukka Snotrag was there to score easily in the last turns of each half for a 2-0 win. They ended up with just 5 players on the pitch, and Star Player Horkon Heartripper had his ankle smashed by Gwapstik.

Once more I came up against the Oldheim Ogres. I had some luck that hardly any of their KOd snotlings came back all through the game, letting me gang up on the Ogres. Still, I was never comfortable in possession, and it took a last gasp pass down the wing from Chukka to blitzer Speed Demon Lil, who ran in to score, to get the win. Lil got +1MA to go with his dodge, making him an actual speed demon now. Goblin Jimmy got diving catch, after getting the MVP yet again though I hardly ever use him.

Another match with the Bruendar Grimjacks was next, and in a very scrappy first half with many turnovers I managed to push them right back to their endzone like the last time I played them. This time, Wagrut managed to sack the carrier and scored on turn 6. In the second half Splatta caught it right from the kickoff, and the cage tried to grind up the middle but was quickly surrounded. Splatta had to lob it up the left wing to Draggin and Chukka who had made a run. Chukka collected the failed pass on the next turn and ran in to score on turn 14. Wagrut got guard, and Ug got tackle.

Then came a disastrous game against the Galadrieth Gladiators. It looked like things would be easy at the start, as I got a Blitz on the kick off table and then badly hurt three players in the first couple of turns. Then their thrower tried to pass and fumbled it, letting some of my players gather round. Chukka gathered the ball and ran in to score on turn 5. They somehow hit back 2 turns later despite me badly hurting 2 more players. A long pass came in to a player who caught while in several tackle zones, then dodged away to score on turn 7.

I received in the second half and easily punched through, with Chukka lobbing it to Jimmy, who managed to use his diving catch skill to collect it and score on turn 12. Straight away on turn 13 they tried their trick again. Their player caught the ball while marked by two of my players, but this time fell trying to dodge away. I rushed to try and get more players back, but their players were faster, and the side step skill was proving a pain. Their frustratingly skillful ST4 Blitzer managed to collect the ball, dodge, and score on turn 15, giving me no time to score a winner. On their last turn two of their players ran into my half and teamed up on Chukka, and catcher Trciniien Tathron blitzed him and killed him! My idiot apothecary failed to do anything and my most skillful player was gone. In his 32 game career, he'd scored 21TDs, carried the ball 862 yards, got a ST4 increase and a MA6 increase. He was bad ass. I didn't lose, but conceded my first TDs since back playing the game, and suffered my first death with this team. Gutted. I hired Chukko Snotbog to try and replace him.

For my first game post-Snotrag, I came up against the Black Fangs Vampire team. I figured it would be quite easy considering their Thralls aren't great, and the fact they only set up with 2 of their 6 Vamps at the start of the game. However, a cock up in my own set-up saw new thrower Chukko on the line of scrimmage, and his first action as a Stompers player was to get knocked out. They brought the ball into my half, with their 2 AG4 Thralls and their Vamps (one with ST5) proving awkward to pin down, but I managed to surround them all and smack the carrier. The ball scattered into the crowd, who threw it back near my endzone. On their next turn, their ST5 Vamp dodged clear, picked up the ball and scored. Just what was happening to my defence? With three turns left in the half I thought I could equalize before half time, but Chukki Snotpot failed to pick it up. Right from the off in the second half I got down to business. Chukki got the ball as my blockers and blitzers got angry, causing 6 casualties and 2 KOs. With one of their Vamps running off into the crowd for a bite, they were left with 2 players, which I desperately tried to take out, even having 2 players sent off as I stuck the boot in. On my last turn Chukki easily stepped in to equalize. For their last turn, which I was dreading after the last game, Chukko finally came round from his KO, and somehow picked up MVP at the end. So the second game on the trot to both concede and draw, and my fan factor came down both times. Luckily, second in the table Nurgle's Rotters lost, meaning I remained top. Chukki got nerves of steel, and Biffa Bonebreaka got dodge on a double, making him harder to knock down.

Needing a better game to ensure finishing top of my group, I came up against the Rotters next, who would top the group if they beat me. It was a much better game from the boyz, with their Beast Of Nurgle getting seriously injured right at the beginning, Wizzin' Wagrut scoring on turn 4 and 7, as well as him killing a Rotter. In the second half Chukko secured the ball and we stomped up the left wing, smacking all but 6 of their players off the pitch. Chukko got his first TD on the last turn for a 3-0 win, and picked up block as his first skill. Draggin' also got piling on.

This was the semi, and I found my path to the final blocked by Lizardmen team The Forked Tongues. Pretty much my first action of the game was to kill their Kroxigor, who needed their apothecary to reduce the damage to seriously injured. They then hit back by badly hurting Wagrut, and my team got mad. I held them in their half and smacked them about for most of the first half until a Skink broke through with the ball. Draggin' knocked him flat and Lil got the ball. With one turn left I had to rely on a risky pass play, but it payed off as Lil bombed it into lineman Splatta's hands, who ran in to get the TD. The second half was pretty much a breeze, as Chukko picked it up and I drove up the pitch to score on the last turn for a 2-0 win. Draggin' had a grand old time piling on to KO and injure several players, but I didn't like how the computer game made me use that skill, not realizing I had to turn on the voluntary setting in the options. Basha became my second Black Orc lucky enough to get dodge.

The final was a pure grudge match as it pitted my Orcs against the Dwarf Giants team, fully kitted out with Deathroller. I decided to go defensive, and ganged up on the Deathroller from the off, putting it down nearly every turn, and stopping them advancing into my territory. Unfortunately, we had received bribes from the kick off event, and the Dwarves used this to keep the Deathroller on the pitch at half time. In the second half I tried a risky tactic, knowing I needed to score soon to get that Deathroller out of there, as I was spending far too much time worrying about it. I left holes in my line, meaning Dwarf players could get through and threaten Chukki who had got the ball. But this meant there were also gaps in the Dwarf line, and Speed Demon Lil raced through into the endzone, and on turn 11 Chukki was able to plant a real long range beast right into his hands. The Deathroller was sent off at last, and I formed a line for the rest of the game and stopped them getting through. With that, I took the trophy. Up next - Da Challenge! trophy, which sounds like it's gonna suit my Orciness...

Turns out the Blood Bowl competition I was taking part in was a simple 8 team knockout tournament. So my next game was the semi-finals, and I was up against Necromancer team Bruendar Grimjacks. Strange things happened in this game, like their AG2 Golems dodging around all over the place, but overall I had little trouble. In the first half they could not break through my defence, and I pressured their ball carrier right back to their endzone but couldn't nick it.
In the second half I managed to punch a hole down the right wing, and thrower Chukki Snotpot snuck in to score in the last turn, which seems to be my usual tactic.

In the final, I had a tougher game. Sort of. I was against the Oldheim Ogres, which I think was the first time I'd played an Ogre team. It turned out to be pretty damn difficult trying to deal with six ST5 players on the line of scrimmage, especially when in their first turn my top SPP Black Orc, Gwapstik Snotgumz, received a broken jaw, putting him out of the game and the next game. Yet, they had to rely on their little Snotlings to carry the ball, and these proved easy meat. Half way through the first half, Draggin' blitzed, smacked the ball carrier and recovered the ball, able to break away and give me a 1-0 lead.
At the start of the second half I had a bit of luck, with the crowd throwing a rock and badly hurting one of their Ogres. Then early on their Snotlings took a battering and five got knocked out in one turn. But still their Ogres were on a mission, and this time Boffa got his jaw broken, meaning he would miss the next game as well. In revenge, Biffa took an Ogre out and broke its ribs, meaning the Ogre team now was really thin on numbers. Chukki Snotpot had got the ball, and rushed down the left wing against very little opposition, and got another last turn touchdown. The 2-0 win gave me the cup.

The next tournament looks like a much longer affair. There are 2 leagues of 8 teams each, who will all play each other to see who will go through to the knockout stages. Gonna be interesting...

Easily my fave board game ever is Games Workshop's Blood Bowl. I now have a bunch of teams and star players for playing that game, but unfortunately getting opponents is a pain. So it happened that in mid 2011 I got hold of the computer game so I could play when no opponent was available for the board game. I got stuck into a campaign with a team based on my Stompers Orc team, and got 24 games into it, only losing one. Thing was, playing so many games in a short time, against an uninspired CPU at that, drained my enthusiasm, and the campaign went unfinished.
I've just decided to change that...

I'd not played the board game or computer game since late 2011, so remembering the rules was a bit of a stretch for my poor brain, and jumping back into an already developed team made it even more awkward, as I was constantly having to check who I'd upgraded with what skills. Worse than that, my first game was against Nurgle's Rotters, which to my knowledge were the only team that beat me (though it may have been a Skaven team, as I remember them being little bastards as well).

The game started with me on the back foot. I kicked it to them, and they proceeded to smack me about from the off, knocking out 4 players and hurting Chukka Snotrag who is my player with the most SPP so far. They got the ball into my half down my left wing, but I managed to knock that guy down and the ball ended up in the crowd, who threw it back in near the half way line. Then I just got even more defensive, creating a wall with my remaining players and managed to see out the half 0-0.

Only one of my knocked out players got back in the game, so all three subs were called on. But the second half started much the same, with them hurting another one of my players, and three of their players broke through to threaten my ball carrier, Chukki Snotpot. However, things started to turn, with me finally getting two casualties myself, including a death on a Rotter inflicted by Draggin' Dribblesnort. Chukki moved up and lobbed the ball to Goblin Wee Little Jimmy, but the crazy little Gobbo failed the catch. Luckily, their players were concentrated in other areas of the pitch, and Dribblesnort moved up on the next turn and managed to secure the ball. Their players could not get back, and good ol' Draggin' scored on the last turn to give me a 1-0 victory.

Rightly, Draggin' got a skill upgrade, and I gave him guard to make him even more useful against the real hard teams.

As much as I love the game, it really isn't great playing the CPU, so I'm really hoping my attention can be kept long enough to win the Blood Bowl Cup. I currently have no idea how many games or tournaments that will take. Hopefully not too many.
Oh well.