For the past few weeks I've been trying to raise some interest in other games that we maybe played years ago, or that I own and have never really played. But mostly we've been back playing that damn addictive League Of Legends. I think rather than take it any kind of seriously, we've just been farting around trying all the free champs and trying different things with ones we already own. We're not a bunch of nutters that learn all the champs and items to max their chances of winning like most people who play the game. There's not enough time in my life for that.

Speaking of champs we own, I've unlocked Nidalee and Blitzcrank, JIK's unlocked Miss Fortune and Fiddlesticks, and Scoob has been tempted away from the lovely Ashe and is now using Draven and Vayne a lot. Though we don't play proper PVP games, we have had a couple of PVP games just amongst ourselves, where Scoob and his ass kicking Draven always clear up.

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But I have managed to install some of my older games, always a fun task on Windows 7, and we recently gave Star Wars Galactic Battlegrounds a run out. We used to play the hell out of that game once upon a time, but we really did struggle to get back into it. Yes, we couldn't remember what the hell was going on, but it was just so very slow compared to RTS style games we've played in more recent years. Also, we put it on easy thinking we would need it due to our lack of practise, but we stomped all over the enemy. I'll be quite surprised if we play it again, but hopefully I'll keep some interest in it as I never did the campaign, and could do with going through it.

Been having some pretty cool games of Dark Crusade recently. First, had a single player skirmish where my Eldar allies ran riot over the enemy, and I decided from then on to give the pointy ears a try. Scoob joined me for a 4v4, and we both went with newish armies, with me being Eldar and him running Chaos. In a monster of a battle that took quite some time, we eventually pushed through to take the win against the Necron and Guard enemies.

Then JIK joined us for a couple of beastly 4v4 games with us going against full Necron enemies. I ran Eldar again, with JIK Chaos and a Marine CPU ally. For the first game Scoob took Guard. We were under pressure right from the start as 4 Necron Lords tanked the hell out of our few troops, allowing their Warriors to attack unmolested. My base was at the front of our diamond and it soon fell. I started to build another at the rear of our formation but before it was up and running we were overwhelmed. In the second game Scoob switched to Marines. It went pretty much the same as the first game for a while, with my base falling. This time I managed to get the second base up and running, as Scoob with his favoured army and JIK getting back up to speed managed to hold out. I built up a big army and threw them in. It seems that masses of Dark Reapers, Wraithlords and the Avatar can turn a fairly balanced fight quite quickly, and most of their attackers were killed. However, with 4 armies worth of Tomb Spiders and Necron Lords constantly resurrecting in our bases, our defence had to be constant. It took just one lull in the fighting, and I charged my surviving Wraithlords and Dark Reapers at the enemy base, managing to take out one of their Monoliths. From then on we completely steam rolled them. But it was a long, awesome game.

The poor Naggaroth Nightmares faced me for the fourth time in recent history, and once again I gave them no pity. They had 700,000 gold in petty cash, and came with Horkon Heartripper and a wizard for assistance. The game started in the rain, but my guys cared not, for within two turns five of their players were already off the pitch. Black Orc Basha Brainbursta even had the chance to claim a hand off and run in to score my first Black Orc TD. The weather cleared up for the second half, and Chukko easily got in to score the second, and also got MVP, allowing him a new skill which turned out to be +1MA.
Then came a game that made me think the computer was desperate to see me lose, against the Amazon All Stars. I'd got four of my players KOd and one badly hurt within the first three turns, and their players were constantly dodging away and even knocking down my Black Orcs with little effort. My block dice were constantly push backs and both downs, and with pretty much all their players with block and side step, they were very difficult to deal with. I had received in the first half, but nothing I could do kept them out, and they scored in turn 8. My one stroke of luck came at the start of the second half when their player fumbled their pick up. Lil was close enough to pick up the ball, blitz their player away, and run in to equalize on turn 10. They came on again and I just couldn't get the ball off them until turn 14 when they were within range of another TD. Chukki managed to pick it up and bombed it as far as possible into their half and I held on for the draw. Damn those ladies were tough.

Then another game where the dice were against me, but thankfully the result was in my favour. The Khemri team Nehekhara City Chiefs were the opponents, and their four Tomb Guardians were definitely up for a fight, all coming with guard and one even had an upgrade to strength 6. Not only that, but these four low agility players seemed to constantly be able to dodge and even pick up the ball in tackle zones with little effort. It didn't help that my troll failed his stupid roll on four consecutive turns (5-8) when I really could have done with his strength. However, I got pretty lucky myself in taking the ball away from the Tomb Guardian that had it, and Draggin' broke away to give me the lead on turn 8. The second half was a more normal affair, with Chukko keeping the ball as I drove up the left wing to score on the last turn. Biffa became the last Black Orc to get guard, a little late for the party but never mind.
I was worried going against the Skavenblight Scramblers as those Gutter Runners can be evil to catch, and they had a bunch of upgrades on their's. Luckily I had no real troubles, and kicked them up and down the pitch for the whole game, after which they had suffered 8 casualties and 11 KOs. Couldn't kill anyone unfortunately (thanks to their apothecary), but all went well, with Lil and Zobba scoring. My troll got lucky with doubles and finally got the block skill. It was a tough choice between that and pro, which would help a lot with his stupidity, but block's the beast man. Gotta have it.

Going into the match against the 2nd placed Black Fangs, I didn't know how many from each group would go through to the knockouts. If it was top 2 I was safe, as the 3rd place team could not catch me. However, if it was only the top team from each group, the Black Fangs would go through if they beat me, so the pressure was still on. For some reason they only started with one of their 6 Vamps, and I smashed several of their Thralls off the pitch early. I came away with an easy 2-0 win, with Draggin' and Lil getting the TDs. At the end of the match Basha Brainbursta got mighty blow.
I needn't have worried about losing, as I then found out it was actually the top 4 of each group that go through, which in my opinion makes the group stage a little pointless, if only 2 from each group get eliminated. Top teams to fall included the Amazon All Stars, who must have stopped trying after playing me as they lost their remaining games; the Forked Tongues, who were the only team with more prestige than me coming in to the tournament; the Champions Of Death, and the Oldheim Ogres.

Anyway, the first knockout game was an interesting prospect, as it put me up against a fellow Orc team for the first time, in the shape of the famous Orcland Raiders. I was expecting a tougher game, but other than the first few turns where our front lines pummelled each other, it was a pretty easy 2-0 win. For most of the first half my troll and their troll stood staring at each other with confused expressions, but eventually good ol' Granite slapped their troll down and injured its back. After Lil and Zobba got me the TDs, Wee Little Jimmy came on for the last turn and stuck the boot in on one of their blitzers, injuring that dude's back as well. Their team might need a good physio after this one.

It was the Reikland Reavers in the quarters, the second game on the trot against pure classic GW teams. In the first half they put in a stellar performance, not allowing me to get out of my own half. Mind you, my rolls were awful (all 5 of my re-rolls gone in the first 5 turns), and Granite continued his recent trend of getting really stupid. Not good when their ST6 ogre was on a rampage, knocking out 2 players and breaking Boffa's ribs and putting him out of the semi. In the second half they received and four of their players immediately broke through my line. I was not confident at this point. I risked not sending many players back to defend, and instead smashed my way through to their ball carrier. Sub Ug The Stupid took him down, and caught the ball at the second time of asking as it bounced around between the players in the area. They were now the ones under pressure with so many players downfield. Ug was able to run in to get the TD on turn 14, and they could not break through again in their remaining 2 turns. What a close fight.

The only other undefeated team so far, the Norsca Rampagers, were my semi final opponents. I have no idea how they were undefeated, as they were awful. Not even their ludicrously lucky dodging could help them, and I battered them into submission from the start, killing a player on turn 2. By the end of the match they had 3 players on the pitch and had suffered 7 casualties. The ladz took another 2-0 win, with Chukko and Chukki (both on the pitch at the same time for the first time in ages) taking the TDs.

So, in the last game the Dwarf Giants were once again my opponents in a final, and there was no bigger final than the Blood Bowl itself. Remembering the awkward game I had with them last, I pumped 200,000 gold into my petty cash for the match, purchasing inducements for the first time in ages. I went with an extra apothecary and two Bloodweiser Babes, thinking these would keep the ladz on the pitch. With their 260,000 gold, they went with a wizard and an extra re-roll.

I received at the start, but a pitch invasion threatened to throw my plans into turmoil. Though I had more fan factor, they'd got the +1 FAME for the match, and four of the ladz were stunned compared to their two. However, Granite was about to have the game of his life. With the first block of the day, he smacked the deathroller and killed it, and their apothecary was needed to heal him. I wasn't that fussed, as it got the thing off the pitch and out of my hair already. Chukko got the ball and we drove up the left wing. Granite continued his good form and turned Blitzer for the drive, sprinting up the wing in support and smacking Dwarves out of the way left and right without failing a single stupid roll. By turn 6 they used their wizard on Chukko but it failed, and he opened the scoring on turn 8. For their last turn of the half, there was another invasion. This time I got six players stunned compared to their one. Lucky that there was no time for them to do anything.

I took Granite off at half time now his strength wasn't needed. They received, but left their ball carrier wide open at the end of their first turn. Draggin' blitzed him, killed him, picked up the ball and set off down the pitch in one fluid motion. As cool as this looked, he had no support at all and was soon smacked onto his ass. A ruck ensued that the ladz took the upper hand in, badly hurting two Dwarves and knocking some out. In return, they killed Boffa in his return match, but thankfully my apothecary healed him. By the last turn Chukki had easily recovered the ball and scored to make the final score 2-0, giving the Stompers the Blood Bowl trophy!

Though there's not really an end to the campaign, as it will just go round and round season after season, after 50+ games and winning the Blood Bowl, I think this is as far as I can go with this team, and have completed the game as far as I think is needed. However, I've got a bit of Blood Bowl fever right now, so will probably be trying one or two single tournaments with teams I've never played before. Bumping up the difficulty from normal to hard will also make it a tougher challenge and more interesting.

It's been bang on a year since I started blogging about computer games, and this is only the 13th game I've actually finished in that time. Wow, I dread to think how few games I'd have completed without this blog as a driving force.

Today me and Mr. Gallear had some games of Dawn Of War to try and remember how to play it properly. As usual I went with the Tau and their amazing plasma firepower. Gallear tried something different than his usual Necrons or Eldar, and went with Guard.

Up first we did an 8 player free for all, with 6 CPUs to fill things out. At first we each had our struggles against CPU players, but forged through them and started to fight each other. As the battle went back and forth, the last two CPU players sat staunchly in their bases, whereas they could have been attacking us and causing problems. Instead, they waited for me to grind Gallear down, and then I was easily able to finish them off.

Up next was a 4v4, and we teamed up to take on the Chaos scum and their traitor Guard allies. This time Gallear chose Eldar, and dominated the enemy from the start with his Wraithguard and Warp Spiders tearing it up.

It had been such a long time since we had played it multiplayer. It was good fun just going nuts on the game again.