Beantown Barking Spiders: From Bones to Blood Bowl #1

Last year, I backed the Reaper Miniatures Bones Kickstarter and when the Bones finally arrived I was a little overwhelmed by the volume of little white plastic minis that had ended up on my doorstep. When I backed the project I didn't actually have anything specific in mind for what to do with the miniatures. I just thought it would be reasonable to kick in support at the Vampire level to get enough cheap miniatures for almost any conceivable fantasy role playing scenario that I might come across in the future. However, without being currently involved in an RPG campaign I opened all of my Bones to take a closer look at what I had received and then boxed them up to wait for their turn on my workbench.

My local Blood Bowl league runs through four seasons annually that represent the same four major championships (Chaos Cup, Blood Bowl, Spike Magazine Cup and Dungeon Bowl) that are detailed in the Blood Bowl background fluff. With the start of each new season, I usually get motivated to start a new hobby project that will help me get a new team on the pitch that I haven't played before. Looking through the list of teams in the league over the last year showed zero representation for the litte, green-skinned cheaters so I thought maybe it was time to introduce some goblin mayhem into the mix. It's fitting for goblins to try to infiltrate the kingdom of the dwarves by any means necessary. A plan for a motley band of gobbo lunatics, the Beantown Barking Spiders, to play some Nuffle Amorical Football matches and earn their way into the underground dwarf stadium at Barak-Varr seems like the perfect way for them and their hooligan fans to overrun those hallowed dwarven halls.

With my goblin team in mind, I pulled out my box of Bones to see if I had anything that might be fitting. Inside I found the Pathfinder Goblins which look like they might be a perfect fit for the Barking Spiders.

If there's one thing that a goblin team in Blood Bowl needs it's a lot of players. I only had the 9 Pathfinder Goblins that came with the Reaper Vampire-level package, but I stopped in at a nearby game store last night and found that they had a blister-pack of Pathfinder goblin warriors in Bones plastic. The Bones plastic is very inexpensive and I picked it up for less that $3 USD to round out my team with 4 more goblins. One drawback to this material is that it is very common for the miniatures to warp. In the picture for the additional goblins that I bought you can see that one little fella looks like he is suffering the effects of an all-night bender. You can also see that some of the spears are a bit bent. I'm not at all concerned about the weapons since I'm going to snip them off to make the figures suitable for the Blood Bowl pitch. But, for our little friend with the hangover, I'm going to have to try giving him a hot water bath, repose him and dip him in ice water to give him new memory.

Next to a lot of players, the other thing goblins need for Blood Bowl are secret weapons. I plan on converting a few of the goblins into a looney, a fanatic and a bombardier. At the game store last night, I saw this pathfinder goblin and thought it would make a perfect pogoer. It isn't available in Bones plastic, but it was still pretty cheap and, being metal, I think will actually be easier to repose and convert into a proper pogoer.

And last, every goblin team needs its two trolls. I really couldn't find anything suitable in my box of Bones for these big guys, but I did notice that there is a troll from Reaper available in Bones plastic. In keeping with my Bones-inspired goblin team, and at only about $2 a pop, I decided to add two of these guys. I'll post more as this project continues.