Wil here again, this time with a little post on my exploits in Vienna in the EurOpen.
For those who haven't played (what have you been doing?) or don't have much experience of Blood Bowl, I'll explain what the deal is.
The EuroBowl is the Blood Bowl ETC equivalent. It is teams of eight players from European nations competing for the EuroBowl itself.
Within those teams, all 8 play a different race and this year the tournament set up was TV105 with between six and eight skills at the start of the tournament, depending on which team you took.
Rounds are played between nations, with 1pt for a match game "win", half a point for a draw and so on.
The EurOpen was an individuals tournament run alongside the EuroBowl with the same rules set.
So I missed out on selection for England this year, but decided I'd tackle the EurOpen anyway.
I took undead, with a fairly straightforward roster. 2 mummies (both with guard), 3 ghouls (2 with block), 2 wights (one tackle, one guard), 3 zombies, 2 skeletons, 3 rerolls and 1 FF.
Here's a brief summary of my games:
Game 1: vs Norse. He had 2 ulfwereners (both block), 2 blitzers (both guard), 1 runner (sure hands), 1 thrower (leader), 6 linemen, 3 rerolls, 1 FF.
Can be a tricky matchup as norse tend to go men up quickly with all their block knocking you down regularly. I won the toss and got stuck in, but wasn't causing much damage. He also fouled one of my mummies into the KO bin, but I broke through around turn 6 and scored in the final turn for 1-0 at the half.
Second half again I wasn't causing much damage against his AV7, but I was layering off in defence in front of his players so he had to make a break through around turn 14, but couldn't get his runner safe. I knocked him over, stole the ball and looked for a second touchdown but a double skulls meant it finished 1-0 to me.
Game 2: vs Dark Elves. He had 3 blitzers (all dodge), 2 witch elves (block, wrestle), runner (leader), five linemen, 2 rerolls.
This is a difficult matchup for undead, as you are usually only given a blitz every turn as the dark elves dodge away.
I was put in to receive, got the ball and KOd a lineman and it was looking good. My opponent moved all three blitzers around my lines to put real pressure on and I had a 2 dice blitz needing just a push to get into the cage and safety, but that went wrong despite a reroll and soon afterwards the dark elf dice went hot.
I was 0-1 down at the half, and had only 6 players on the pitch and although I got the ball loose twice with 6, there was only going to be one outcome and so it was 0-2 at the end.
Game 3: vs Undead. He had the same roster, but one less guard mummy and block/sure hands/wrestle on the ghouls.
Mirror matches are never the most favourite of Blood Bowl games. This was probably the best game I had though of the weekend, a very tactical affair.
I received, moved up and knocked out a mummy which was nice. I then got a bit bogged down as my block dice cooled down and I wasn't making much progress and had to spend my rerolls bailing out underperforming mummies and zombies!
Eventually I had to break through with a ghoul, but needed a 4+ dodge with a reroll to get out of range and that went south. My opponent attempted a cheeky long pass to score against the kick, but my mummy intercepted so 0-0 at the half.
More misbehaving in the second half meant my opponent got through so I forced him to score in 13 or 14, giving me 3 to equalise. I managed it in the end, but had to rely on a skeleton (4+ catch!) and a chain push to get it.
Game 4: vs Norse. Same roster as the first game, but with 2 mighty blow berserkers.
This time my opponent received and I sat off in a layered defence as he moved from side to side. Eventually he had to break through and I could get the ball loose, but not grab it so it was 0-0 at the half.
Second half was a classic undead 8 turn drive for the winner, fouling any player that was in range to blitz from turn 13 or so. 1-0 win.
Game 5: vs Wood Elves. 2 wardancers (tackle, strip ball), Catcher (leap), Thrower (safe throw), 7 linemen (2 wrestle), 2 rerolls.
Bad matchup for undead, especially with a strip ball wardancer.
I was made to receive, and managed an 8 turn drive without too much trouble. Got a skeleton sent off for fouling a wardancer though! That said, I only had 8 to set up for turn 8, and when my opponent got a riot the 1-1 was pretty easy.
Second half, and my opponent overcommitted to the score so I could push my ghoul into range of his thrower and smack him to the ground. Lots of dodges later the wood elves are back in their half, but I manage to score for 2-1.
Again the wood elves come back, and they still have 11 players which is a nightmare. I stop 2 or 3 attempts to pass the ball through, but eventually some AG4 magic gets it done and it finishes 2-2 as my one turn attempt fails on the final block.
Game 6: vs Undead. Same roster, mighty blow wight instead of tackle.
Received again, and this time had a comfortable 8 turn drive for the score, killing a ghoul and KOing a mummy.
Second half it's all him though and he manages a comfortable 8 turn equaliser. I set up to try a one turn touchdown, but a thrown rock removes a key player so 1-1 it finished!
So finished 2-3-1 overall, disappointed with that really as I usually set myself a three win minimum. That said, I played some strong coaches and more importantly Team England won the EuroBowl by just 1.5pts from the French!! Awesome.
Here's the board I won in a dice off against my Italian opponent in the final game!
Thanks for reading, Wil.
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