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.

A Minotaur Mess

I was inspired by Lou Rollins' recent post, A Harlequin Miss, about the restoration of a retro Eldar Harlequin miniature and decided to talk about a little project that I'm undertaking. I have had a Chaos Blood Bowl team on the workbench since the start of the year, back to when I made a post about basing some chaos warriors. My local league is currently finishing up its season for the Spike Magazine trophy and will start its Dungeonbowl season within the next few weeks. In preparation for the new season, I have resolved to finish my chaos team, The Brawnx Bleatboys. With my beastmen just a few touches from being complete, I only need one more player to finish filling out the team: a minotaur. The miniature that I've had in mind for my frenzied team muscle is an old Games Workshop minotaur from 1987 which is currently suffering under a caked on paint job that I gave it in that same era when I was in middle school. I thought that it would be fun and nostalgic to restore this miniature and put it back in to service on the table top. Before giving it a long Simple Green bath and stripping it down for a repaint, I thought that it would be fun to snap a photo for the archives. Stay tuned for a future post where I'll show the final results alongside of the complete Bleatboys roster.

Fond Underhive Memories

Necromunda was released in 1995 as a specialist game by Games Workshop while I was still in college. My circle of friends immediately found a passion for this wonderful skirmish game that was set in the seedy Underhive of the Warhammer 40K universe. There has always been a special place in my heart for Necromunda. It was both approachable and had depth to make it long-lasting to play. The small number of miniatures needed to field a gang created a low barrier to entry, especially for cash-strapped college students. The rules system was pretty easy to digest and there were not any gaping rules differences or power imbalances between the rival houses. But, where it really shined for me was in playing a campaign. The ability for gang members to gain experience and new skills or be wounded from session to session gave me a wonderful affinity for my gang and created a cohesion to the campaign story arc that I never received from battles in 40K. Having a close-knit group of friends and playing a semester long Necromunda campaign is definitely one of my fondest gaming memories of all time.

This trip down memory lane was courtesy of a handful of photographs that I found in a shoebox a couple of weeks ago. These photos are from 1997 and were taken at a house that my friends and I lived in while working on our degrees. The miniatures are my House Cawdor gang shot against the Underhive that consumed our kitchen table for the better part of a year.

Clempzen Razorcats vs Undead as a Doornail

The Clempzen Razorcats climbed one step closer to this season's Spike! Magazine bowl playoffs with a 1-1 tie against one of the league's most rotten teams, Undead as a Doornail. Undead as a Doornail currently holds the league's all-time records for longest win streak and longest undefeated streak at 9 and 16 respectively. Considering those kind of numbers and a strong team played by the most calculating Blood Bowl player that I know, escaping the match with a tie is somewhat of a moral victory. The lighting wasn't great for photos, but here is one that I snapped during the game which shows off my buddy's cool paint job on his undead team. Check out those gruesome bases.

Being the underdog, the Razorcats were able to enlist the aid of The Mighty Zug, a valuable strength 5 addition to help go head to head with the undead mummies. They also picked up a Bloodweiser Babe and a dirty trick to keep up their sleeve for an opportune moment. Losing the coin toss, the Razorcats had to kick off to the undead in the first half. Doornail had one of their ghouls pick up the ball and they aggressively pushed the right side of the field for a quick score. The 'cats were able to get a lucky shot on the ball carrier and pop the ball lose. It bounced out of bounds and the crowd hurled it back into the Razorcat's end zone. The Razorcat +AG blitzer, Brian Blockins, was able to scoop it up and rush it to the other, less pressured side of the field. This move left the slower part of the undead team out of the action, but the fast, dodge-happy ghouls were able to respond and caught up with Blockins as he was a few squares from scoring. Doornail recovered the ball, but neither team was able to come up with a desperation turn 8 score and the half ended 0-0.

In the second half, the Razorcats got the ball first and a quick snap on the kickoff gave them excellent position to punch open the Doornail defense. Brian Blockins raced through an opening that gave Doornail a downfield threat to contend with while the human thrower grabbed the ball and advanced towards the line of scrimmage. Blockins was mauled by a wight but there was still a scoring lane open on the field. The Razorcats made a couple less than optimal plays to advance the ball to the waiting hands of Ceejay Splitter who carried the ball into the undead end zone for a quick, two-turn score.

Doornail then went to work to make sure that their undefeated streak would not come to an end. They pressed the right side of the field and did a tremendous job blocking Razorcats near the sideline and crowd-surfing them. With the player numbers to their advantage and the clock running down, Doornail switched sides of the field. In the Razorcat's last turn, they clawed to try and stop Doornail player Augustus the Strong from scoring. They threw a custard pie in a zombie's face, and their ogre, Brains Haddums, blocked open a path to the ball carrier (after succeeding on a sketchy loner reroll to shake off an initial bone-head result). Unfortunately, Augustus the Strong was able to shrug off a hit and Doornail got the 8th turn TD for a 1-1 tie.

Clempzen Razorcats vs Couronne Crusaders

My spirited Clempzen Razorcats faced off against the Couronne Crusaders last night at our weekly Blood Bowl league night. The Crusaders are another human team coached by a veteran and well-respected friend who puts his fantastic painting skills on display at Lou Rollins Miniatures. There is also a blog post over there called Hobbyist vs. Gamer that features some more pictures that were taken during this match. The Razorcats are still pushing to get enough games under their belt to qualify for this season's Spike! Magazine bowl playoffs. They were around a 300K underdog to the Crusaders and spent their inducements on a team training reroll, a Bloodweiser Babe, and three dirty trick cards.

The Razorcats had to kick first and immediately played a Kicking Boots card on their lineman, Dakwan Bowzers, for more accurate kickoff results. The Crusaders scooped up the ball and began a push to their right. They looked to be in position to make a quick score when the ref was distracted and a 12th man, Nuke Dabomb, snuck on the field (Illegal Substitution card) to add an assist. The Razorcats were able to pop the ball out, recover it and switch sides of the field. The Crusaders backpedaled to halt the counterattack. They pressed the Razorcats towards the sideline, but the ball carrier, Taj Void found an opening and made a lateral move across the field. He was pursued by the Crusaders' nasty, break-tackling orge, Kalidorgrom, but ended up just out of his grasp. With the clock running out, Taj handed the ball off to an open catcher, Nuke Dabmob, for an almost certain go-ahead score. But there are no certainties in Blood Bowl. The catcher fumbled the hand-off and suffered the insults of 11,000 booing fans.

In the second half, the Razorcats got the ball first. The thrower, Taj, had the ball and the offense began probing the left side of the field for weakness. However, the line soon collapsed and the pocket was flooded with Crusaders. The Razorcat line was in disarray but was able to push defenders away from their thrower. Taj scrambled from the pocket and completed a pass to their strongman blitzer Ceejay Splitter who made a break for the end zone. The Crusaders made a last ditch effort to stop Splitter, but were unable to tear the ball from his grasp and Splitter blitzed his way into the end zone for a score.

The Crusaders lined up to receive the kick-off and went to work on the right side of the field. A bulldozing Kalidorgrom roared down the field and pummled Taj Void into the turf. The Crusaders botched picking up the ball though and the Razorcats began to believe that they would be victorious. The Razorcats were probably too aggressive in trying to pressure the loose ball as it stretched their defense a little too thin. The Crusader thrower snatched up the ball and completed a pass to their blodging catcher, Marneus, who rushed up into scoring position behind Kalidorgrom. The Razorcats' Taj had a chance at knocking the ball from Marneus, but was unable to pull the ball away from him. After that, the best that the 'cats could do was to create tackle zones that Marneus would need to dodge through for the score. On the final turn of the game, Marneus paid homage to the deceased Crusader Katica as he dodged through traffic and found his way over the goal line for a touchdown. The game ended in a 1-1 draw. A most enjoyable game.

Chewie Races to Han's Rescue

I got another game of X-Wing in over the weekend with my friend that had bested me earlier in the week. In that earlier game, his two bounty hunters managed to get the upper hand on Han Solo. After we selected our 100pt lists for our battle, it looked like the story would continue. I was playing Chewbacca in the Millennium Falcon with some upstart pilots in an x-wing and a b-wing. My opponent had Boba Fett supported by a couple of heavily armed TIE advanced fighters. The backdrop for the encounter was set. The bounty hunters had delivered Han Solo over to Boba Fett to deliver to the Empire. Chewie broke into an Empire impound yard to retake the Falcon. After blasting his way out of impound, Chewie chased down Boba Fett and his escorts in an attempt to rescue Han.

The early game plan for the Empire was to zero in on the b-wing with the heavy ordinance carried by the TIE advanceds and try to dispatch of it and its heavy laser cannon. As they came into firing range, the b-wing deftly rolled out of the firing arc of one of the two TIEs allowing it to trade shots rather than be instantly vaporized. Chewie raced along the mat's edge, maneuvering into the Empire's blind spot and adding support fire to help dispatch one of the TIEs.

The b-wing tried to navigate around the side of an asteroid in an attempt to get additional protection from the remaining TIE, but still was unable to survive the volley of shots aimed at it. Chewie and x-wing pilot then finished off the remaining TIE and turned their attack scopes towards Boba Fett who was altering his course to keep from flying off the table edge. The final turns of the match played out a story of Chewie and the x-wing chasing Fett around the edge of the mat. Some unfortunate piloting decisions helped Fett in taking down the Falcon, but the x-wing was able to remain fairly hidden outside of Fett's firing arcs and was able to knock the bounty hunter out to secure a win for the Rebels. Ah, sweet redemption.

The Bounty Hunters Found Solo

I got a few new minis for X-Wing Miniatures in yesterday and had a chance to try them out on the table top last night. I decided to field Han Solo in the Millennium Falcon with a B-Wing and HWK backing him up. My opponent brought a pair of bounty hunters in Firesprays with two supporting TIEs. It ended up being an incredibly close match with a few exciting swings in momentum. The TIEs were quickly destroyed in rounds 2 and 3. Eventually, Han and one of the Firesprays went down. It proved difficult for the B-wing to close on the remaining Firespray and finish him off. They traded shots, and though the B-wing was lost, the bounty hunter's ship was in critical shape and had the potential of exploding on any subsequent round. Hoping the critical damage could finish off the remaining hunter, Kyle Katarn in the HWK tried to put distance between himself and the bounty hunter. Alas, the Firespray survived the odds on his continuing critical damage and made a lucky range 3 shot on the HWK to end the game. Fun stuff even though I'm something like 1-3 in my Star Wars dogfights so far.