Dark Fire Bowl 2, St Albans, 23rd November 2024

 On a rainy Saturday morning, myself and Dimmy Gee took a trip up to St Albans for an event run by Chicken, 23rd of his line. Chicken (some people seem to call him 'Tom') was running his second event with the first being called, unsurprisingly, Dark Fire Bowl.

The satnav took us to an industrial estate which I thought was a mistake (the satnav on the car can often do crazy things) but Dimmy assured me was the right place and we found the venue, tucked away down a small turning. I dropped Dimmy along with my stuff, and everything that Tom has ever owned (he may have left it in Folkestone previously. A funny story that has definitely not been brought up in every conversation since) as I found a parking spot round the corner.

I had decided to play amazons. One of my Blood Bowl goals (I'll probably share them all at some point) is to get a team above a 200 rating. As I've been having a reasonable amount of success with zons I thought that they'd be a good team to try that with. Tier 1 teams only got 5 skills, so I went for block and wrestle on the blitzers, guard on both blockers and block on a thrower. I have previously liked having a strength 4 blodger, but guard is much more useful for the team as a whole. 

After getting some coffees ordered through the table service that was on offer and chatting to others there, we set up for round 1.

Game 1 v 'Graham' (dimmygee)

That's right, after 2 hours of listening to Dimmy tell me all his tactics in the car on the way up, we were drawn against each other in the first round. It wasn't the only matchup of this kind - GreenskinPhil and Pagan Agent were also playing each other, so we set up next to each other for all of the Banta. 

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Dimmy had elf union - a team that I played a lot back in the day. He had two blodge blitzers, dodge on two catchers, a wrestle strip catcher and a wrestle lino, with players to 12 and an apothecary. 

The dice were very much with me in this game. After getting a blitz and a blitzer deep into his backfield, Dimmy was under a lot of pressure. I was able to casualty one of his blitzers with a foul early on. They were apothecaried but were most importantly off the pitch.

Dimmy moved the ball down my right flank with a screen, which allowed me to manoeuvre and dodge a blitzer in on a 5+ for a hit on his ball carrier. With the dodge succeeding, I only got a push. I spent a while debating whether to re-roll it (GreenskinPhil later said he saw me deliberating and would have slapped me had I not done so!). With two sides of the dice knocking down the ball carrier, I choose to do so, get a pow and push the ball carrier next to the sideline. I get lucky with the scatter which goes out and is thrown a couple of squares in front of one of my players who I'd not yet activated. She scoops it up and runs off to go one up midway through the half.

Running out of re-rolls and a perfect defence scuppering his plans, he is unable to get anyone in scoring range. I try to steal the ball back and get a second before the break but don't manage it.

Receiving the ball, I decide to try to score quickly. I usually think this is sensible with lower armoured players as you don't know how long they'll manage to stay on the pitch. I foul casualty a blitzer again and with a couple of other elves leaving the pitch and not many amazons I have a significant advantage. 

The strip ball catcher does knock the ball loose, but the elves aren't in a position to recover. I manage to collect it and I go for a pass to get out of a range, but the thrower rolls a 1 into a 1. Fortunately the safe pass skill means she kept hold of it, and I was able to slightly regroup around her to shield off the ball. With Dimmy's other blitzer snaking a dodge to get a hit on her, the game effectively was over. I moved out of range and passing his remaining turns, I was able to easily stall out for a 2-0 win and just one point short of maximum bonus points.

Game 2 v Iain (InKnights)

Iain Knight Knight Knight! had been chatting to those in his car and said he hoped he got to play me. His wish was granted. He had a nurgle team with a lot of block and guard. Kicking to him, he manages to punch a hole in my line and he sends a pestigor with the ball through into my backfield. I'm able to send a blocker at him and get the pow to knock him down and push him next to the sideline. 

My players were out of range to recover the ball, but they were able to screen off to prevent any of Iain's players supporting the pestigor. With not many options, the pestigor blitzers free, picks up the ball and scores to put the nurgle ahead.

I score back on my turn 7 after moving slowly up the pitch. A knocked out pestigor, a surfed rotter and a rotspawn fouled to death give me an unexpected numbers advantage. 

Receiving the ball at the start of the second half, I drop back with it. The nurgle come and me and clog me up and the dice turn against me, not allowing me to get my ball carrier free and away from his players. For a turn or two, I am concerned that the ball will get knocked loose and a pestigor will score, but on my final turn with the ball in hand, I do manage to get free by dodging my thrower out. A pass to the online linewoman in range is inaccurate and falls down at her feet. 

With no re-rolls left, Iain tries the crazy low odds play of a pestigor dodge and pass, but fortunately for me it doesn't work and we end 1-1.

Game 3 v Will (willzif)

Will had been identified by my spreadsheet as the number 1 seed for the event (based on highest ELO with any race) so I knew this would be a tough match. He was playing orcs and as I'd learned from a previous zon v orcs match, being too aggressive is not the right strategy. It was raining throughout this game (even when the weather changed) which didn't help either of us with ball handling. Will mentioned after that he thought I'd forgotten about the rain. I think I just didn't let it change my strategy and stuck to my game plan.

The orcs obviously had a lot of guard and block, as well as a tackler. It was definitely going to be a difficult game for me if the tackler could do his job.

I kick to the orcs and amazingly I come out on the better side of the casualties. I knock down a big 'un who I foul a couple of times to no avail, but 2 orc linemen end up in the casualty box. With the ball near my endzone and a lot of pressure on, the orcs feel like they have to score fairly early. 

I have a good few turns to move the ball forwards, and despite being surrounded, I manage to surf the tackler which allows my thrower to blitz the goblin, dodge away and rush twice for an equaliser.

The dice were definitely favouring me and event though the orcs get a perfect defence and manage to dodge away for a 1 die on my ball which is re-rolled into a pow, I manage to recover it and with a 4++ pass and a 4+ catch due to the rain which required a re-roll, I'm able to shift the ball away and out of range from his his players. The orcs manage to free up enough to pressure me into feeling like I needed to score as I had no re-rolls left and so I defend deep against their two turn attempt.

I'm able to mark up or push back with a blitz all the players they send in range, without some unlikely chain push shenanigans, the win is sealed. 

Conclusion

A 2/1/0 record put me third overall which I was very pleased with. Amazons are one of the teams that the try hards like at the moment and I can really see why. With dodge all around, 2 strength four players with access to strength skills, a couple of movement 7 players and throwers with decent starting skills they have a lot of options. I'll probably take them for both my other events this year - although I've not read the rulesets so might change my mind when I do!