Bloodbowl: The First Game

   The festive period saw my first foray into Bloodbowl for a good ten years or so, the last time I played Bloodbowl it was in a GW store with a team I had picked up at Games Day a few months earlier. This time, I picked up a copy of the game with my brother, split the teams and got started with the painting as we decided a strict no unpainted models rule.

   First up then, is my team: I picked the human team from the box, my brother wanted the orcs and the humans fitted me just fine. Once I knew I was getting the human team I then had to think about my team name and colour scheme and that stumped me for quite some time. I wanted a scheme that would stand out, wasn't blue* and that I would be happy seeing every time I played. The answer was so obvious once I realised what it had to be, it had to be the same Empire state I collected when I aimed to start playing Warhammer Fantasy - Ostermark with it's purple and white colours. The Ostermark Yetis were born.

* I always seem to do blue

   The first game was played on Christmas Eve at my in-laws house with my brother. My 'Ostermark Yetis' versus my brother's 'Skullers Friday' orc team. As you can see from my initial setup I wasn't destined to win the opening engagements of the game, but I got my act together, thought through a plan and went for it. The first touchdown went to the orcs on the second from last turn of the first half, he had spent 7 turns battering my guys before he finally managed to pierce a hole in my line to let his catcher through to score.

   The second half started with the Ostermark Yetis receiving the kick, the ball was aimed for the very middle of the field but bounced a couple of squares away from a catcher who was ready to being a run with a blitzer in tow. With the added benefit of free move before the game thanks to a Blitz roll on the random events chart, my closest thrower was able to move to and pick up the ball, the catcher and blitzer were able to get into contact with the only orc in their way, so when the half started proper the blitzer was able to take the orc out, clearing the path, the thrower did a perfect pass to the catcher who had a free run nearly all the way down the pitch, scoring on the next turn after a nerve-racking dodge roll. One all.
    With the kick going back to the orcs two turns into the second half, all that happened was a slightly quicker repeat of the first half orc point leaving the game 2-1 to the Skullers Friday orc team.

   The game has reminded me why I used to enjoy Bloodbowl all those years ago, it has barely changed at all. I need to learn how to do more than just slow down a determined orc push, my team works best when they are actually playing football but I need to get the ball to actually do that, but that's all down to experience.

Thanks for reading