COSH Bowl VIII, Colchester 31st August 2024

On Saturday, I made the trek up to 4TK Gaming in Colchester for what I think was my fourth visit there. Events are put on by Sam (scs.sam) and Coutney (myrmedon) and are always enjoyable and attract a strong group of coaches. Recently I've taken to working out "Seeding" for events based on coaches maximum ELO on the NAF database - for this all of the top 10 coaches had at least one race at 180 or higher. For anyone who doesn't understand the ELO system, this is a blog for another time - suffice to say that it is a good ranking.

This was the 6th event out of 11 in the South East Tournament Series, so we're past the halfway point, and we've been thinking about next year. Dodge22, TSO for the Midlands Series was here and we had a good chat about our series for next year. We're looking to align rulesets, although more of that in the near future hopefully.

I picked up DimmyGee at Ashford on the way and a couple of hours of chatting about BloodBowl made the time pass quickly. I had picked Underworld Denizens for this event. Even after the removal of the swarming trait, they still seem like a strong team and so I thought this would be a good event to take them to. Anyone who has read one of my reports previously may be aware that I'm playing through all the races in tournaments (23 out of 30 and counting), and I figured taking a strong team to a strong event was a good idea. 

My build was a rat ogre with block, a blitzer with guard, a gutter runner with two heads, three clanrats (one with wrestle and one with dirty player), a thrower with leader, six snotlings, three goblins, three re-rolls, two bribes and a coach. You can get a LOT with Underworld. 

Round 1 v Darren (LastTimelord)

I think I may have seen Darren in passing at events but hadn't spoken to him properly. He had amazons and after my experience playing them at UKTC last week, I figured I would probably know their strategy reasonably well. 

I kicked and got a couple of knockouts. There were three occassions where Darren had his ball carrier on the sideline and it would have been possible for me to surf the ball carrier with an uphill block (a 44% chance of a successful surf, or around 70% if you have a re-roll to throw at it). However each time I went for it, I rolled snake eyes dodging a snotling to get in position to allow the possible surf. 

The pressure meant that Darren opted to score in turn 6 allowing me 2 turns to score back but I don't put anyone in range when I again fail a dodge meaning I've not got the change to equalise befhore half time. 

I received the ball and continued with removals, even with my rat ogre rolling double skulls and then wasting my re-roll. There were just four amazons on the pitch when they manage to knock the ball loose. I look to surf a linewoman and in doing so, the player gets pushed onto the ball which makes it go out and into my backfield. 

I send a linerat back to attempt to recover but they fail the rush for the hand off. A lot of successful amazon dodges (my players needed to learn from them) even away from my rat ogre and through tacklezones put a lot of pressure on me. They managed to grab the ball and score a second sealing the game.

I wasn't to be deterred - I had one turn left and a team good at one-turning. Goddammit, I was going to try it even if the game was lost! Everything went my way and I scored my first ever tabletop one turn touchdown! A reason to celebrate even if the result didn't go my way.

I was a little bit disapointed to not get something out of the game after having the ball and being up against four players, but it's a dice game and that's sometimes the way it goes. I've almost certainly been on the other side of a result like this, and there's not point letting it get you down. Learn from any mistakes you make and move on. This might apply in other games during the day...

Round 2 v Ben (fiskey7)

I'd chatted a bit to Ben online as he runs the events at Alpha Games but had missed the one opportunity to chat to him in person when we were both at an event in Ipswich last year. It was nice to be drawn against him, at least for a few minutes. 

He had orcs and removed my entire line of scrimmage before I'd even rolled a dice. The orcs did fail to pick up the ball and it bounced into my half so I decided that it was worth a shot at trying to steal it. I used my rat ogre to remove one tacklezone from the ball and sent my gutter runner in to pick up on a 4+ with a re-roll. They didn't manage it and somehow actually survive the hits back which force the ball even further into my half. 

This time the gutter runner grabs it and tries to hide behind his team mates but running out of numbers I am unable to hold onto the ball. The orcs retrieve it and score, removing a lot of my numbers. I even resort to using my apothecary on my dirty player as I was running really low on numbers and it was probably my best chance of evening them up. 

I did casualty a big un and a blitzer through fouls, but I was still seriously down on numbers. I had two turns to reply before half time but I was unable to do so.

On my drive I try for more removals but I only manage to get the goblin that had been fouling my rat ogre (REVENGE!). I find a way to get a screen of snotlings and goblins down one flank to screen off the gutter runner with the ball and I'm hopeful of getting a score back. His frenzy blitzer however managed to dodge past my snotlings and knockdown my gutter runner sending the ball loose. I still have a shot at an equaliser with my gutter running dodging and pushing a tacklezone off the ball, dodging again, picking up the ball and rushing. Gutter runners are supposed to be able to do this sort of thing, right? Apparently not. The first dodge is snaked and the orcs recover the ball and make it 2-0 just before time runs out. 

I'm up to 6 snakes in 2 games. This seems disproporationately high. I might have been starting to get a bit annoyed by this.

Round 3 v Carl (charlemange800)

Carl was playing in his first ever tournament and had khorne. I kicked and before I had rolled any dice, two of my players had been removed on the line of scrimmage. When I did roll dice, my snotling snaked a dodge. Sometimes you can really start to feel like nuffle is against you. 

I'm unable to stop him scoring and I set up to attempt to do a one turn touchdown. No prizes for guessing what I rolled when trying to pick up the ball - 1 re-rolled into a 1. I had managed three by half time and I really started to think about what I might have done recently that had cursed me to badly.

However the second half was an entirely different story. From this point on in the day, I didn't roll a single snake (after 9 in 2.5 games). My armour and injury dice caught fire. I remove 6 players to casualties - I am sent off in the process but I doesn't really hinder my team. There are 5 khorne players standings when I go in for an equaliser. None of them were knocked out, so Carl sets up with just 6 players. 

The snowball of all of these removals continues and Carl is down to 4 players when I steal the ball after he dodged away from my rat ogres and tried a pass but it was fumbled. I have a relatively easy pick up and I'm able to shield the ball for a 2-1 win.

Round 4 v George (pinballgeorge)

Having spoken to George online a fair bit, I met him in person for the first time that morning. We'd been discussing his roster which he hadn't quite finalised, but when our names were called out, I knew I was going to be up against a hard hitting dwarf team. 

Again I kick the ball. I lose a LOT of players - it was 7 casualties across the whole game. I can't remember how many were in the first half, but I do remember that on my turn 7 my three remaining players ran away as far as they could. I had fouled off a blitzer, though, so by the time George scored he was down to 11 players and had to field his deathroller that had annoyingly been successful in arguing the call. 

I couldn't suss the 1 turner - I didn't have many players and the stand firm deathroller was always going to be a problem on the line of scrimmage. Fortunately it is sent off at half time and the dwarfs are down a player. 

I recevie and I try to get some more removals but I don't manage it. I then try to sneak around the side with my gutter runner and screen off with some snotlings to score in my turn 7. I had intended to give myself 2 turns to attempt a recovery and a winner but I miscalculated. Geoege obviously tried for a 2-turn score with dwarfs but he couldn't make the pass to try to get further up the pitch so it ended as a 1-1 draw.

Conclusion

I finished 1/1/2 which is my worst record for a while. I didn't enjoy playing Underworld, and not just because of that. The number of snakes might have had a factor in it, but also the fact that there is really only one strategy makes it not really an enjoyable team to play. My opponents were all great (and LastTimelord won an award for it) and the COSH events are always well run with a great crowd, but my games brought me down a bit. For me, even if the team are strong, they are very much a one trick pony. I don't think I'll be playing them again any time soon. 

If and when I do, I don't think I'll go with a two heads gutter runner. It is needed so infrequently that there is probably a better way to use the skill. That - and if you take juggernaut on the rat ogre - are really playing into one key turn in the game, which I find to be a rather boring way to spend 2 and a bit hours playing a board game.