Blood Bowl: Lake Bodom Carmelites - Sheogorad Saints

Tonight, my Sheogorad Saints are being visited by the Lake Bodom Carmelites (proxied by my Sisters of Shallya)!

After our excellently entertaining game against the Griffon Gate Griffons, our lineup is pretty much the same as it was for that game:

#5 Jenassa Samarys - runner (11 SPP, Dodge)

#11 Barenziah Targaryen - witch elf

#27 Vermith Targaryen - blitzer

#33 Raven Dren - assassin (11 SPP, Side Step)

#44 Irileth Targaryen - blitzer (8 SPP, Guard)

#69: Darane Mencele, line-elf (5 SPP)

#71: Hlireni Indavel, line-elf

#73 Brelda Quintella, line-elf

#77: Endroni Dalas, line-elf (1 SPP)

As well as journeyelves #75 Morgiah R'zamenar and #66 Nephithah T'rizaron. The Lake Bodom Carmelites are as follows:

#1 Sister Eleanor Meatpummel, ogre

#2 Sister Consuelo Mandanger, blitzer

#3 Sister Loretta Grundspank, blitzer

#4 Sister Divinia Gulagmangler, thrower

#5 Sister Pearlie Stoneknuckles, thrower

#6 Sister Wilamina Ironbludgeon, catcher

#7 Sister Claire Frankenbarrel, catcher

#8 Sister Cecilia Spitplow, linenun

#9 Sister Geraldine Skull, linenun

#10 Sister Josie Graveberger, linenun

#11 Sister Adaline Trapshard, linenun

#12 Sister Vita Shankcoffin, linenun

With three re-rolls, that adds up to a starting team value of exactly 1,000,000gp, meaning they get a total of 160,000gp in inducements; the Carmelites opted for an extra re-roll and a Bloodweiser babe.

**

I still quite like my Shadowforge minis (I've been painting some of the extra positional players) and I'm inordinately fond of silly Blood Bowl sideline figures, like this lovely Shadowforge Wicked Elf Camera Crew, who I mounted on a Citadel cavalry base.

And this Meiko Miniatures camera-goblin.

I also found this fairly ancient Citadel referee model in my collection, and painted him up; we now have a decently sized officiating crew!

With the media and officials in place, we're ready to play some Blood Bowl!

**

The weather started out perfect, but as the teams lined up for the kickoff, the few clouds cleared and the sun truly blazed down, hindering any passing attempts. Some ten thousand Saints fans showed up, slightly outnumbered by the 12,000 Carmelites fans who had travelled to the Dagon Fel Superdome to see their team's first ever Turboleague game. The Saints won the coin toss and elected to defer.

The ball landed way in the Bodom backfield, and as they secured it, an incautious Carmelites linenun #8 Sister Cecilia Spitplow was pushed into the stands by witch elf #11 Barenziah Targaryen!

Choosing an aggressive offense, Carmelites thrower #5 Sister Pearlie Stoneknuckles passed the ball forward to catcher #7 Sister Claire Frankenbarrel for her first career completion.

Meanwhile, Carmelites ogre #1 Sister Eleanor Meatpummel failed her third Bone Head test in a row. I improvised a suitable marker out of a Team Yankee die, so that project turned out to not be a total waste of time after all!

The Saints scrambled to stop the Bodom offense, and a mêlée developed on their left, with several elves and nuns falling over and the ball bouncing everywhere.

The Saints blitzers managed to secure the ball, but fumbled the handoff; after several blocks and changes of possession, Saints blitzer #27 Vermith Targaryen blitzed Carmelites thrower Sister Stoneknuckles, knocking the ball behind the Carmelites line, where Saints line-elf #69 Darane Mencele grabbed it.

Mencele, who was the Saints MVP in the previous game, passed the ball to witch elf Barenziah Targaryen, who ran it in for her first career touchdown and a 1-0 game.

At the kickoff, the sun's glare subsided somewhat, which bizarrely seemed to cramp the Carmelites throwing game; thrower #4 Sister Divinia Gulagmangler secured the ball, but twice failed to pass it forward to her receivers. In the midfield battle, however, the Bodom ogre finally got into the game, scoring the Carmelites' first casualty by taking Saints journeyelf #66 Nephithah T'rizaron out of the game.

In the closing minutes of the first half, blitzer #27 Vermith Targaryen again blocked the ball loose, but the Saints were unable to secure it and the first half ended with the home team up a goal and down a player.

**

The second half started somewhat ignominiously for the Saints when runner #5 Jenassa Samarys failed to pick up the ball.

Eventually she secured the ball and moved it up the field, and executed a perfect dump-off to line-elf #73 Brelda Quintella when Carmelites ogre Sister Meatpummel blitzed her.

While all this was happening, Carmelites blitzer #2 Sister Consuelo Mandanger dealt Saints assassin #33 Raven Dren such a ferocious block that she was initially feared dead on the spot. Through what was almost certainly Dunmer healing technology so advanced that it only appeared to be sinister necromancy, Saints apothecary Dr. Navaan succeeded in reviving Dren.

On the opposite side of the field, Saints line-elf Quintella managed to escape the rampaging ogre and hand the ball to witch elf Barenzian Targaryen, who ran in for her second touchdown of the game to make it 2-0 Saints.

The kickoff result was Changing Weather, as it was for every single other kickoff in the entire game, and the weather table result was "nice", as it was for every single kickoff in the entire game after the first one. The Carmelites were left with six turns to mount a comeback. To make things worse, the kickoff landed all the way in their end zone, where thrower Sister Stoneknuckles retrieved it.

Back at center field, rejuvenated Saints assassin Dren stabbed Carmelites #12 Sister Vita Shankcoffin, knocking her out. Witch elf Barenziah Targaryen collided with linenun #9 Sister Geraldine Skull, knocking both players down. The frenzied witch elf jumped up to block Sister Skull again and scored the first casualty in Saints franchise history, breaking the Bodom linenun's ribs and causing her to miss her team's next game.

Looking to close up the two-score deficit, the now outnumbered Carmelites sent their catchers toward the Saints end zone, and the Saints rushed back to cover them.

Saints assassin Dren, on an absolute tear, disposed of Carmelites catcher Sister Frankenbarrel by stabbing her; the Bodom player was carried off the field badly hurt. Carmelites blitzer #3 Sister Loretta Grundspank retaliated by knocking out line-elf Quintella. With the Saints clustered in a tight defence, it was all up to Carmelites catcher #6 Sister Wilamina Ironbludgeon, surrounded by dark elves.

Through an excellent series of dodges, and escaping an initially successful shadowing attempt by the Saints assassin, she made it clear of the Sheogorad coverage, and caught a perfect pass from Sister Stoneknuckles for the Carmelites first touchdown!

And so the Lake Bodom Carmelites Turboleague debut ended with a score of 2-1 for the home team, and a casualty differential of 2-1 for the visitors. Winnings were a miserly 20,000gp for Lake Bodom and 40,000gp for the Saints; MVP honors went to Saints blitzer Irileth Targaryen and Carmelites catcher Sister Frankenbarrel.

**

That was a fun game of Blood Bowl, and a real pleasure to introduce the game to another new player. I'm delighted that my witch elf, who's mostly been useless or absent until now, decided to really go all out in this game; two touchdowns and a casualty is a pretty amazing result for a single game, and it means she goes straight from 0 SPP to a level. The completion I luckily got the perfect opportunity for last game's MVP to score means I got two improvement rolls out of this game; both were new skills, no doubles.

The line-elf is an easy choice: I agree entirely with bbtactics.com that the first line-elf to get a regular skill should be a kicker, so Darane Mencele gets Kick. To mark her new skill, I made a running shoe out of green stuff and stuck it to her base with a magnet.

I quite like my skill markers, by the way; especially the Guard one has been invaluable!

The witch elf is a bit tougher; I'd love to have someone with Wrestle so I could bring opposing ball carriers down more reliably, but I've already been fouled so many times this season that I'm not exactly happy about having my witch elf lying around on the Astrogranite! So I think that as boring as it is, this time I kind of have to play it safe and just take Block. I'll think up a suitable skill marker for them for my next game.

That and another fan factor increase bring my team value up to 1,210,000gp, so I'm really hoping some of the other teams in the league get around to playing each other as well, or the team value gap will start getting uncomfortably wide. Still, it's been really good to play Blood Bowl again, and I hope there's more to come.

**

League table [pts, goal differential, casualty differential, fatalities, completions, interceptions, sacks]

Sheogorad Saints (Dark Elf) (2-0-2) 12 pts, 6-4, 1-6, 0, 5, 1, 0

Griffon Gate Griffons (High Elf) (0-0-1) 2 pts, 2-2, 0-0, 0, 2, 0, 0

Reid Death (Human) (0-0-1) 2 pts, 1-1, 3-0, 1, 1, 0, 0

Lake Bodom Carmelites (Human) (0-1-0) 1 pts, 1-2, 2-1, 0, 2, 0, 0

Vindaaagh Pulling (Orc) (0-1-0) 1 pts, 0-1, 1-0, 0, 1, 0, 0

Touchdowns:

Barenziah Targaryen (Saints) 2

Raven Dren (Saints) 2

Bel-Zothius the Beast (Griffons) 1

Harry E Mitchell (Death) 1

Irileth Targaryen (Saints) 1

Jenassa Samarys (Saints) 1

Sister Wilamina Ironbludgeon (Carmelites) 1

Tarec the Artist (Griffons) 1

Casualties:

Barenziah Targaryen (Saints) 1

Ed Ranger (Death) 1

Ernie R Jaurigui (Death) 1

Jay Blanchard (Death) 1

Sister Consuelo Mandanger (Carmelites) 1

Sister Eleanor Meatpummel (Carmelites) 1

VIP#52 (Pulling) 1

Fatalities:

Ernie R Jaurigui (Death) 1

Interceptions:

Irileth Targaryen (Saints) 1

Completions:

Jenassa Samarys (Saints) 4

Ferreha the Particular (Griffons) 2

Sister Pearlie Stoneknuckles (Carmelites) 2

Darane Mencele (Saints) 1

Randall Gnant (Death) 1

VIP#8 (Pulling) 1

Blood Bowl: Sisters of Shallya

When I was making an order from the excellent Eureka Games ages ago, I threw in a Shadowforge Nun Gridiron Team, mostly just for the heck of it, but also, when I was a kid, I did spend two years at a Catholic school still occasionally haunted by nuns. My current team is also made up of Shadowforge minis, and I like them. Now that there's suddenly a veritable horde of people around willing to at least try Blood Bowl, it turns out I have to paint yet another team! So nuns it is.

**

The Sisters of Shallya were originally nuns tending the temple of Shallya in the Ostland town of Salkalten, but when their abbess received inspiration from Shallya herself, or possibly from attending a football game, the sisters took to Blood Bowl to help fund their temple. They wear their monastic habits in the colors of Ostland.

First up, we've got the two guards, who I'm fielding as blitzers. Because I think the blitzers might otherwise be difficult to tell apart from the line-nuns, I'm painting the base edges according to my positional color scheme; the blitzers therefore have light green bases.

And then the throwers; the one reading a book is easily my favorite model in this whole delightful range.

The catchers:

And the five line-nuns.

Finally, foreseeing that I might want to try a human team with an Ogre in the starting lineup, I got one from Impact Miniatures.

Here's the whole team!

**

So, put these models together, and this is what you get:

1 Ogre: 140,000gp

2 blitzers: 180,000gp

2 throwers: 140,000gp

2 catchers: 140,000gp

5 linemen: 250,000gp

3 re-rolls: 150,000gp

That's straight up one million gold pieces with the models I have on hand, so I'm calling this a roster! They'll be in action soon.

Blood Bowl: Griffon Gate Griffons - Sheogorad Saints 2-2

In the third installment of an absolute blitz of Turboleague games, the High Elf Griffon Gate Griffons (proxied by my Tor Achare Titans) will face my Sheogorad Saints next! Here's the Griffon Gate lineup:

#1 Bel-Zothius the Beast - blitzer

#2 Ghoryanus the Mighty - blitzer

#3 Ferreha the Particular - thrower

#9 Ammozalri the Patient - lineman

#10 Shirduzus the Discrete - lineman

#11 Shudris the Sage - lineman

#12 Reidhodi the Poet - lineman

#13 Emmiatidha the Great - lineman

#14 Tarec the Artist - lineman

#15 Aedaentrin the Learned - lineman

#16 Thakevi the Impetuous - lineman

They also start with three re-rolls.

Our earnings in my previous game were dismal, and we lost yet another player, but thanks to the financial windfall that was our game against the Vindaaagh Pulling and their gigantic army of fans, we can finally replace the blitzer we lost to the RagnaRock Ravens. Here's #27 Vermith Targaryen, represented by a Shadowforge Wicked Elf Linebacker.

With this addition to our roster, the current lineup looks like this:

#5 Jenassa Samarys - runner (7 SPP, Dodge)

#11 Barenziah Targaryen - witch elf

#27 Vermith Targaryen, blitzer

#33 Raven Dren - assassin (8 SPP, Side Step)

#44 Irileth Targaryen - blitzer (8 SPP, Guard)

#69: Darane Mencele, line-elf

#71: Hlireni Indavel, line-elf

#73 Brelda Quintella, line-elf

#77: Endroni Dalas, line-elf (1 SPP)

With only nine players on the roster, we're retaining the services of journeyman #75 Morgiah R'zamenar for yet another game, but since journeyelf #66 Lilith Llethri was injured in the previous game, we're replacing her with #66 Nephithah T'rizaron. All this does mean, though, that our team value goes up to 1,150,000gp, and that means inducements for the high elves. Alarmingly, they decided to hire the services of a wizard!

Meanwhile, what with all these pitch invasions, ref-gettings and so on, the Saints have invested in some heavier security for their dug-out.

**

I'm also pioneering something new for this game. I have two blitzers, one of whom has Guard. Wouldn't it be handy and sporting to be able to easily tell which is which? I know there are various magnetic skill markers and suchlike out there, and one league a friend plays in has a sort of color coding. I think I'm going to try making a sort of personal version of that.

It starts with a magnet on the player's base, in this case my blitzer #44.

Then we take some tiny little figures I have lying around, and insert an infuriatingly tiny 3mm magnet.

And now we have magnetic skill markers! Here's a skull, off one of those Chaos Space Marine vehicle sprues because I had one handy, to mark that my blitzer has Guard:

And here's a cute little Anvil Industries rat to let everyone know my assassin has Side Step.

And here are all my leveled players with their skill markers!

So far, I'm using the skull to denote a skill that helps with hurting other players, and rats to denote defensive or otherwise annoying skills; I'll think of more if the need arises.

**

The Saints' investment in better dugout security immediately paid off, when the game opened with a riot! The referees let the clock run while the pitch was cleared, and both teams lost a turn. The streak in lopsided attendance continued, with 11 000 Saints fans to the Griffons' 5 000, and the weather was perfect for some Blood Bowl. The Saints won the coin toss and elected to kick.

Griffons blitzer #1 Bel-Zothius the Beast got things started by knocking out Saints line-elf #73 Brelda Quintella, and Saints assassin #33 Raven Dren retaliated by stabbing Griffons line-elf #16 Thakevi the Impetuous, also knocking them out. While a general brawl raged in midfield, the Griffons pressured the Saints left, while penetrating their defensive line on the right.

The Saints were unable to stop Griffons line-elf #14 Tarec the Artist from making his way to the end zone, where he caught a perfect pass from thrower #3 Ferreha the Particular to score the Griffons' first touchdown.

That left the Saints with three turns to get an equalizer before halftime, so we went for an aggressive setup, and were rewarded when the Griffons kick landed out of bounds and we got to start the drive with a touchback.

Saints witch elf #11 Barenziah Targaryen blitzed up the Saints right and managed to push Saints scorer #14 Tarec the Artist into the crowd, although the high elf was later able to make his way back to the Griffons dugout.

This helped clear the way for Saints runner #5 Jenassa Samarys to bring up the ball, blasting past Griffons thrower Ferreha.

The Griffons regrouped to stop the Saints drive, but Samarys elected to run the ball in herself, dodging past the Griffons line to score her first career touchdown and tie the game at the very end of the first half.

**

As the teams returned to the pitch for the second half, the sheer volume of the Saints fans began to tell: a Cheering Fans result on the kickoff table gave us an extra reroll.

In the fray, Saints assassin Dren stabbed Griffons line-elf #9 Ammozalri the Patient, who was taken off the field and will miss the next game with a niggling injury. Saints thrower Samarys secured the ball and started moving it up the center field.

That was when the Griffons wizard struck!

All of my players hit by the fireball were knocked down, with my assassin KO'd and two others stunned, and the ball was loose!

The Griffons quickly pounced on the loose ball, and line-elf #12 Reidhodi the Poet made for the Saints end zone.

Saints witch elf #11 caught up with Reidhodi for the sack, a stat I have sadly neglected to keep track of this year.

However, the Griffons were hot on her heels, and Tarec the Artist blitzed Barenziah Targaryen and knocked her out!

With things looking bad for the Saints, journeyelf #75 Morgiah R'zamenar made a desperate attempt to grab the ball and hand it to blitzer #44 Irileth Targaryen, only to fail her last dodge roll.

The ball, of course, bounced straight to Griffons blitzer Bel-Zothius the Beast, who took it into the end zone for his first career touchdown and a 2-1 Griffons lead.

So, once again the Saints find themselves down a goal and with three turns to score. The teams line up even-handed with ten players on both sides, and once again the Saints strategy is the same: maximum attack.

The Saints smashed aside the Griffons line and tied up both their flanks while runner Samarys retrieved the ball.

We were able to launch both blitzer Irileth Targaryen and recovered KO assassin Raven Dren into the Griffons backfield while knocking down both their blitzers.

This still left us with so little time on the clock that Jenassa Samarys had to launch a risky long pass to assassin Dren, which she caught in the last Saints turn to tie the game with her second career touchdown.

The Griffons used their last drive to score a completion for thrower Ferreha the Particular and knock out Saints journeyelf R'zamenar, and with that, the game ended as a 2-2 tie.

**

Both teams' post-match earnings were 50,000gp; I banked mine to be able to afford some new players later, so my team value only went up by 10,000gp on account of my fan factor. MVP honors went to Saints line-elf #69 Darane Mencele and Griffons line-elf #11 Shudris the Sage.

The game, though, was simply awesome. This was easily one of the most entertaining games of Blood Bowl I've ever played; a very entertaining, fairly loose brawl, with play going this way and that, complete with dramatic last-second scoring plays and also elves falling over a lot. In short, great fun, and what a privilege to welcome yet another new player into the Turboleague.

With this strong debut, the Griffons enter the league in second place, tied with the Reid Death in points but ahead by touchdowns scored. Next time: nuns!

**

League table [pts, goal differential, casualty differential, fatalities, completions, interceptions, sacks]

Sheogorad Saints (Dark Elf) (1-0-2) 8 pts, 4-3, 0-4, 0, 3, 1, 0

Griffon Gate Griffons (High Elf) (0-0-1) 2 pts, 2-2, 0-0, 0, 2, 0, 0

Reid Death (Human) (0-0-1) 2 pts, 1-1, 3-0, 1, 1, 0, 0

Vindaaagh Pulling (Orc) (0-1-0) 1 pts, 0-1, 1-0, 0, 1, 0, 0

Touchdowns:

Raven Dren (Saints) 2

Bel-Zothius the Beast (Griffons) 1

Harry E Mitchell (Death) 1

Irileth Targaryen (Saints) 1

Jenassa Samarys (Saints) 1

Tarec the Artist (Griffons) 1

Casualties:

Ed Ranger (Death) 1

Ernie R Jaurigui (Death) 1

Jay Blanchard (Death) 1

VIP#52 (Pulling) 1

Fatalities:

Ernie R Jaurigui (Death) 1

Interceptions:

Irileth Targaryen (Saints) 1

Completions:

Jenassa Samarys (Saints) 3

Ferreha the Particular (Griffons) 2

Randall Gnant (Death) 1

VIP#8 (Pulling) 1