Chaos Dwarves vs. Humans, League Game - Blood Bowl AAR

I've had something of a shakeup in the past couple weeks. A new job, a new home, and with that, new game stores and groups to game with.

One of the local shops has started up a Blood Bowl league, which I was lucky enough to find out about just before it started. I also had a Chaos Dwarf team ready (though unpainted) to go, and so joined the league with the Zharr-Angkor Immortals.

My first opponent was Bruce and his Humans.

I won the roll off and elected to kick the ball in the first half.

With an Ogre in the center of the field, the Humans manage to knock down a Chaos Dwarf Blocker. The Human Thrower made a successful pass to a Catcher. A Lineman, however, rolled a both down result on a reroll against a Chaos Dwarf Blocker, and ended up as a casualty.

The Immortals struck back hard, knocking down the ball carrier and surrounding the dropped squigskin with players.

A failed attempted to pass the ball by the Thrower ended up as a fumble.

The Immortals go for the ball again, but the Hobgoblin was unable to pick the ball up.

Another grab and pass by the Human Thrower resulted in another fumble.

A couple turns of maneuvering, and the Immortals had a chance at the ball.

One of the Hobgoblins finally managed to pick up the ball, and made a break for the endzone, with a Bull Centaur as backup.

The Humans managed to push the Immortals around a bit, but couldn't make an opening for someone to go for the ball carrier.

And the Hobgoblin went in for a touchdown!

During the previous drive, the Humans lost two players and casualties, while the Immortals lost a Blocker. The kick scattered the ball off the field, and the Humans got the chance to move a free square before the turn started.

The Humans launched a strong offensive blitz, quickly moved a Catcher close to the endzone.

A pair of Hobgoblins managed to mark the Catcher, but couldn't get the ball away.

A Human Blitzer knocked down one Hogoblin, but couldn't get past the second one, tripping and dropping the ball.

The Immortals shifted their lines and ended the turn and the first half.

The second half started with the Humans managing to get a blitz during the kickoff. The Ogre attempted to reach the ball, but was tripped during the dodge, ending up stunned.

The Dwarves formed a cage, with the Bull Centaurs forming a guard.

The Humans attempted to break through the cage, but the strong armor (and stronger smell) of the Chaos Dwarf Blockers held the attacking players back.

The Hobgoblin managed to dodge away, and the Immortals formed another cage.

The Humans managed to get the ball loose from the Immortals' ball carrier. The ball wobbled lose and was picked up by a Human, who threw the ball away to an empty space.

The Immortals managed to recover the ball, but the carrier was left out in the open.

A quick turnover from the Humans meant they couldn't go for the ball.

A trio of Hobgoblins and a Bull Centaur moved the ball up the pitch, while the Blockers covered the Ogre.

The Humans shifted their lines, pushing around the Immortals and looking to intercept the ball carrier.

The Immortals cleared the way for another touchdown.

The Ogre was beating up the Blockers, but the Immortals couldn't do anything to reach the ball carrier.

And the Hobgoblin ran the ball in for a touchdown (his second!). 2-0 for the Immortals.

The teams were reset, with the Humans looking for an offensive push to quickly reach the endzone.

And it seemed to work, witht eh Immortals losing a Bull Centaur and another Blocker as casualties.

Like the last time, a pair of Hobgoblins marked the Humans' ball carrier, but couldn't managed to knock him down.

And, like last time, the ball carrier went down. The ball was thrown far into the pitch.

While the Humans recovered the ball, no one was close enough to reach the endzone by the end of the game. The result was a 2-0 victory for the Immortals. While one Bull Centaur ended up with a Missing Next Game result, the two Blockers were fine, and the team earned enough winnings to buy a sixth Blocker. The double-scoring Hobgoblin picked up Sure Hands, cementing him as the ball carrier for the team.

Trunk to Trunk - ADLG AAR

Bob and I met up at Stomping Grounds for a game of L'Art de la Guerre, with thanks to Chris for hastily assembling enough terrain and a mat for us to play on. 

I was the defender, and failed to place either the river or the village on the table. The terrain for the game ended up being three fields and a gentle hill.

The game was an Indian civil war. Bob was running a Classical Indian list, with a bunch of elite elephants and mixed medium swordsmen/bowmen units. I had a Tamil Indian list, with ordinary elephants, impetuous medium swordsmen, and a few mediocre bowmen.

For the first turn, both sides simply advanced. Bob and I quickly realized that this game was going to come down to dice rolls - neither side had the command quality or right types of units for any fancy maneuvering.

As the gap closed, Bob's mixed units opened fire, causing disorder in my battleline.

Undeterred, my generals forced their units forward, and the two lines clashed. Bob's dice were hot, and my units took the brunt of the damage in the first turn of the fighting.

However, the dice turned to my side, though the fact that Bob's infantry units were mediocre quality in combat helped. Holes started to appear in both sides' lines.

Units on both sides continued to rout, but the majority were on Bob's side. And with a break point of 24 to 19, my larger force could hang on longer than Bob's smaller, more expensive army.

Finally, one last round of combat saw enough units routed on Bob's side (including disordered tokens, which we had sort of forgotten to count until this point in the game) to pass his army's breakpoint. However, my Tamil force had also seen a high amount of routed units and disorder tokens, so we decided that the game ended with a minor victory to my side.

Tricks, Treats, and Terror, Part 2 - Empire of the Dead AAR

Last week I showed the creepy cast of characters made up of all sorts of ghastly ghouls and goblins that Gary populated his second Halloween Spooktacular with. This week we'll take a look at the carnage wreaked upon a poor, unsuspecting English town!

The Necromancer got into the game early, summoning his Zombie mob that turn a civilians in chewy giblets.

The Cirque du Noir and Field of Screams warily eyed each other, with the Cirque retreating in the face of the scarecrow's advance.

The vampires raced off into the streets, enthralling as many townspeople as possible.

Civilians and circus freaks scattered as the Field of Screams made its way into the outskirts of the town.

Death and its ghostly followers drifted out of the graveyard, terrorizing the townspeople and drawing the attention of the police.

The Mechanics kept an eye out for rogue Clickers, while keeping their distance from the police and vampires.

A poor bobbie is spooked to death by a group of banshees.

And an old lady suffered the same fate!

The werewolves and Cirque du Noir engaged in the woods. The werewolves performed predictably from experience, ripping the Cirque to shreds. Tattoo, the vampiric leader of the Cirque, was killed in the first round of combat.

Van Helsing and his vampire hunters finally confronted the bloodsuckers in a vicious melee, as a potential suspect for Jack the Ripper was arrested by the police.

The police were somewhat baffled by the unnatural abilities of Death and its spirits. The Mechanics decided discretion was a better choice, keeping a safe distance from the specters.

The Cirque put up a valiant fight, but with fangs, claws, and hot dice, the werewolves couldn't be beat.

With the Cirque out of the way, the scarecrows had little trouble in gathering civilians for their fertilizer.

And the necromancer had to deal with the smell of wet dog as one Packmaster from the werewolves crossed the river.

The game ended with Jack the Ripper winning with 80 Shillings (20 for each kill). The Field of Screams came second with 60 Shillings (10 for each captured civilians). My Vampires were third, with 55 Shillings (10 for each Enthralled civilian, and 5 for each death caused).

Once again, Gary put on a fantastic game. The miniatures and scenery made for an incredibly viewing experience. The only area for improvement might be in streamlining the rules. With so many players and factions, Empire of the Dead quickly bogs down. When gangs started interacting with each other, I was able to walk away for twenty minutes or more between my own turns.

That said, I'm looking forward to next years Spooktacular.