Sunday, January 26, 2014

2014 Black Hole Brawl Report

The inaugural Black Hole Brawl Blood Bowl tournament was held on Saturday, January 25th, 2014 at Event Horizon Games in Raleigh, NC. This NAF-sanctioned tournament was smoothly run, Event Horizon had wonderful accommodations, and 18 coaches showed up with their teams ready to battle for dominance on the pitch to earn top bragging rights and hold the championship trophy aloft. Almost half of the coaches were from outside the Raleigh area, most of them from Virginia, and one traveling all the way from Florida.

The team roster creation rules for this tournament were interesting. Each team was to be built at a 1,190,000 value with star players and some inducements allowed as options. The other wrinkles in roster creation was that no more than 2 of the same skill could be added to a team and no more than 40k of improvements could be given to a single player. I had agonized over which team to bring to the event. In this format, humans looked like they could be a solid contender and I also considered pro elves. In the end, I decided to play my Khemri team, Bone Machine. This tournament was only counting casualties resulting from blocks towards the Most Violent award, which would make contending for that title a long shot. The Khemri also have other serious drawbacks, namely scoring, that would make contending for top placing and other awards difficult. But, I always have such a good time stomping four tomb guardians around the pitch and since I have not been playing them in my league this season it was a perfect opportunity to bring them out of their tombs before they decay to dust.

Match 1: Bone Machine vs. Sexually Transmitted TouchDowns

Even though there was a good showing of coaches from outside the area, the tournament pairings I ended up with were all from my local league, the TABBL. My first match pitted Bone Machine against a Nurgle team called Sexually Transmitted TouchDowns. Even though the other coach, Chris, and I share enrollment in the TABBL, this was the first time that we have taken the field as opponents. It was also the first time that I have ever seen Nurgle in play. Going in to the match, I felt like this was a favorable match-up for me. The innate inability of the Khemri to pass and catch pretty much negates Nurgle's usual advantage to disrupting the opponent's passing game and the Khemri have more strength with their 4 tomb guardians. I won the toss and elected to kick first, trying to set up for a controlled 2-1 grind that usually suits the Khemri. At first, things were going to plan and my block dice were pretty good even though I could not get his players off the pitch. I think it was around turn 3 where I pressured the ball carrier and managed to knock the ball lose. I was not in a position to recover the ball, but I left small lane down the right sideline of my defense hoping the opposition would try to score resulting either in time left for my team to tie the game up in the first half or that he would botch moving the ball up the field and I could recover the ball. They scored and it looked like I still had enough time to even the score. On my possession, a blitz result on the kick-off was unfortunate for me. I started moving the ball down the field with my block-skilled thro-ra (my leader thro-ra was occupying the KO box) but as I was trying to make a break for a tying TD, my ball protection collapsed, he was blitzed and was thwarted from scoring. The second half was somewhat of a blur but I remember a second kick-off blitz going against me. I was losing the casualty/KO war, coughed the ball up and was unable to get it back. Eventually, STTDs recovered the ball from the scrum and won with a well-earned 2-0 victory. Despite the loss, the combination of playing against a new coach and new team made this match very enjoyable.

STTDs (left) vs. Bone Machine (right)

A Bone Machine Thro-Ra Trying to Reach the End Zone

Match 2: Bone Machine vs. Tor Achare Titans

After my round one defeat that earned Bone Machine a measly 4 standing points, I was paired at table 8 against my friend Rawlin who authors the Lou Rollins Miniatures blog. He is an amazing painter and also offered his time and talent toward providing one of the tournament prizes, Agememnon the Troll. I was unsure how a match-up against his High Elf team, the Tor Achare Titans, would turn out for me, but I knew that it would be a visual feast for the eyes with nicely painted figures.

The Titans received the ball first and quickly scored in elfish fashion. On my first possession, the ball was kicked out of bounds so I gave the ball to a tomb guardian as the ball carrier. It was fun watching a huge mummy rumble down the field with the ball! This match ended up as a textbook 2-1 grind in my favor. Had I not lost the first match, I probably would have tried scoring more expediently to try for a 3rd score, but at this point I was just trying to go home with at least one win on the day. The game was marked by a phenomenal plague of 1's that infested the d6's each time that Rawlin rolled them against my dice that could do little wrong. I think I might have only used a single re-roll in the second half. Nuffle can be so cruel sometimes.

Tor Achare Titans (left) vs. Bone Machine (right)

Tomb Guardian Ball Carrier!

A Wall of Tomb Guardians Clearing a Path for the Thro-Ra


Close-Up of Some of the Titan Players

Match 3: Bone Machine vs. Vindictive

My last match-up was against Kai and his team of Amazon vixens named Vindictive. His team is a sharp looking set of figures that he sometimes fields as a high elf team and was painted by my previous opponent and documented in this post at Lou Rollins blog. The pink and cream team colors are outstanding and the paint job is top-notch. Amazons can make a formative tournament team with their across the board dodge skillset. That is, unless they run into dwarves loaded with tackle skills. Even though we had 18 coaches at this tournament, there were no dwarf teams (yay!) and only a single chaos dwarf team. Unfortunately, Vindictive was paired with the chaos dwarfs in the 2nd round and was massacred. It is a good thing this was a resurrection tournament! We were at one of the middle tables, and I think tournament awards were out of reach for either of our teams so this game kind of felt like a scrimmage. We must have spent the first 10 minutes of the match taking pictures of our teams on the pitch rather than rolling dice. The media opportunities and some slow play caught up with us and I pulled out a timer in the second half just to try and keep us on schedule for finishing in the allotted time. For all that Nuffle smiled upon me in the 2nd match of the day, I was unable to punch through the Amazonian armor and get those girls off the field. Even though this game ended as a 1-1 tie (which honestly should have be a 2-1 loss for me), there were two events during the game that were highlights of the day for me. First, my only goal of the match resulted from a skeleton, who had caught the kick-off, successfully handing the ball off to a MV7 blitz-ra and being able to slip him past the defense and into scoring range. It was satisfying to see a hand-off succeed (moral victory for Khemri) and to see a move-boosted blitz-ra running down the pitch. Second, I managed the tie by having a skeleton stand up in a tackle zone, dodge out on a 6, GFI and then 1-die blitz a blodger (using a re-roll) to knock the ball out! That's why we play Blood Bowl, for moments like that. As always, an enjoyable game with Kai.

Bone Macine (left) vs. Vindictive (right)

Vindictive Standing Up to a Tomb Guardian

Vindictive Preparing to Bash Skeletons on the LoS

Results and Awards

There was an array of juicy prizes at the Black Hole Brawl. Trophies and awards were presented for the top three team finishes and several other superlatives. First prize was a fully painted Nurgle team. Second place took home a custom Blood Bowl pitch call The Rock. The winner of the Stunty Cup was presented with a fully painted human team. There were also gift certificate awards to accompany the superlative trophies along with raffled off items like dice and painted star players (two which I painted, Jordell Freshbreeze and Reg Gashnier, and the aforementioned Agememnon by Rawlin). When all was done and the results were tallied, Bone Machine finished 11th out of 18 teams. A little disappointing since I've had favorable finishes in the past with this team, including a third place finish at the Bash 'N Dash Classic and sixth place and taking home best defense honors at the 2013 Atlantic Coast Charity Cup.

One of the superlative awards was the Joely Richardson Award for Best Appearance and it was presented to none other than my own Bone Machine. I take this as a real honor since it reflects the votes of coaches in attendance and there were many beautiful teams on display. I enjoy the hobby aspect of table top games like Blood Bowl as much as the game itself (and maybe more) so being selected for that award really is a real joy.

With the 2014 Black Hole Brawl in the rearview, I have to give a thankful shout to Rick for organizing and running the event. Events like this do not just happen spontaneously and his diligence to giving everyone in attendance a fun day of Blood Bowl is much appreciated. Also a hearty thanks goes to Event Horizon Games and its owner Paul too for hosting and providing prize support. And, thanks to all the coaches near and far for coming out and playing competitive Blood Bowl with top-notch attitude and sportsmanship. I hope to see you on the pitch soon.


2014 Black Hole Brawl Trophies

First Prize: Painted Nurgle Team

Second Prize: Custom Blood Bowl Pitch

Stunty Cup Prize: Painted Human Team



Raffle Prizes: Painted Stars (l-r) Reg Gashnier, Agememnon, Jordell

A closer look at Agememnon



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