NAF Cup report - Part 2

Okay, with a spot of grub inside us, we geeked on into the evening. My third opponent, mark_turner, was much more entertaining and I began to enjoy myself again. He'd brought another of the NAF sanctioned, but unofficial by GW standards, teams - Underworld. This is a mix of goblins and skaven, so pretty slippery. I failed a Go For It into the end zone to score at the end of turn 4 (I only needed a 2+, ), and that was definitely where the rot set in. I got two Blitzes against me on kick-off etc. To give Mark his due, he took clever advantage of the luck going his way when it did (it wasn't all one way) which left me unable to capitalise on the good dice I got from time-to-time. That was something that really became apparent to me over the tournament - a new/underdeveloped Pact team hasn't much resilience or ability to change tack, at least with me on the coach's bench!

Mark, with his Deep Down Dodgers. They had a fabulous display stand as well, which I forgot to snap.

It all started well. This is just before I start my ultimately doomed dart down the left flank.

Game 3 (vs Underworld)
Score: 0-3
Casualties: 1-0
Result: Defeat

A good night of silly card games and a beer or two, then a slap-up breakfast of truly gargantuan proportions, and back to the gaming.

My first opponent of the Sunday was Simon, probably my favourite of the weekend. We had pretty much the same sense of humour and there was generally a good feeling of jollity not only on our table but on those nearby; everyone was having fun. My notes for the game start with "Simon rolled lots of ones" and while it didn't carry on that way (I got my share as well), I did have the better of the luck, something I needed against a well-developed orc team being handled rather well.

Simon, with one of his very short moves. Rolling ones tends to do that!

 Game 4 (vs Orcs)
Score: 2-0
Casualties: 1-1
Result: Victory

Then came lunch (weird timing, I thought, but something to do with contracted catering hours), and on to game four pretty sharpish. Opponent five was a viking, a genuine mountain of Scandinavian with the nickname netsmurf.

netsmurf using his dice tower to power his orcs into my little lead fellows

Yup, that's my minotaur in the dead box. My apothecary failed to bring him back. It just got worse from here.

This was a truly brilliant and chaotic game in the true spirit of bloodbowl. In a desperate attempt to hold on for the draw with less than half a team still on the pitch I pulled off my favourite turn of the weekend. I managed to dodge an isolated troll out of a tackle zone, run across the pitch, go for it twice through more tackle zones and into his cage. I then did exactly the same with my isolated ogre. I thought netsmurf was going to either have a heart attack or punch me. He was standing and bright red. He then managed the score and saw the funny side, congratulating me on my risk-taking.

Game 5 (vs Orcs)
Score: 1-2
Casualties: 0-4
Result: Defeat

And then onto the final game, desperately hoping to get a victory to balance my weekend, only to find I had chaos dwarves at the other end of the pitch. el_afable was a top bloke and it was a very pleasant way for the weekend to finish.

A rather demonic picture of a thoroughly nice chap.

 More silliness in this game. I was being rather reckless by now, and the same story as last game (conceding five casualties) meant there was little else I could try after about halfway through the first half. I managed a pretty good score, linking players and even with a dummy run but that was it and he got a well-deserved victory. As a sop to my pride I'd like you to know that I had the ball and was on my way deep into his half at the end of play.

Game 6 (vs Chaos Dwarves)
Score: 1-2
Casualties: 1-5
Result: Defeat

In the car on the way home the four of us chatted and pretty much came to the conclusion that, although there had been some great moments, we enjoy gaming time much more where we're actually playing against/alongside each other so will put more effort into organising days where that is possible.

Happy geeking,
Rab