Summerslam 2, 19th July 2025 in Westerham

Last year we ran a wrestling themed pairs event in Folkestone where each pair switched teams after each game. 

EyeballPaul loved it so much (him and his two Blood Bowl playing sons are both wrestling mad) that he volunteered to take over running the event. Due to a wedding forcing us to move venues, this one took place in Westerham Village Hall. 

The format was changed slightly from a pairs event where each coach played a team twice to a trios event where you played each team once. Each squad had to take a team from each tier, and we rotated around. 

Myself and Oli, runners up last year, reprised our Optimisers team, and added in The Lord of Kent himself, dimmygee. 

Along with RedFaced Goose, Willdebeast and Star Ferret, there were 2 SKABB teams at this event. 

One of Paul's favourite things from previous events that we've run is the Silly Hat rule. If you were a silly hat, you get a re-roll. Hence the lovely headwear in the photo below. 

[l-r RedFacedGoose, Willdebeast, StarFerret, DimmyGee, EldritchFox, Stewbacca)

For our teams, we wanted to pick races that we all felt comfortable playing. The stunty team was quickly chosen as Ogres with Dimmy being the Stunty Lord of London playing them recently. Vampires were the standout choice in tier 2, and we all liked the idea of playing skaven so our three races were locked in. 

Of the three teams we picked, two (ogres and vampires) benefit greatly from having as many re-rolls as possible, so they worked with with the free re-roll from wearing a silly hat. 

Neither Oli or Dimmy liked the idea of playing vampires game three, and as I've been playing them a lot I was happy to do so. Due to the way the rotation worked, this meant I'd be starting off with ogres.

Round 1 v Will (gotrekgrumble, BBBL Fabulous FreeBees) 

We were drawn against a Bromley team first, and I was playing against Will who I had previously played at OctOgre last year where my nurgle had drawn 1-1 against his humans.

This time we were playing my ogres against his amazons. We had 3 guard ogres, 1 with block and 1 with sure hands along with a leader runt punter. 

I received the ball - which was his choice- and I try to remove as many ladies as possible. Having played quite a lot of zons, I thought I'd have a good idea about how to play them, and when they are down numbers - especially key players - they can really struggle. 

I got a few off the pitch and I slowly marched towards his endzone. Will doesn't have a shot at the ball but keeps getting in the way, which is rather annoying of him. 

One ogre, named Gary, got knocked down early in the half and boneheaded repeatedly when I asked him to get up and try to rejoin the action. 

When I'm just about to score on my turn 8, I have two options of getting through. Both require 2 die block with a push needed, but one with our block ogre, so I went for that option. The ogre knocked down the linewoman and promptly got out of the way. I would just then need another ogre to move and a rush for the score. With 2 re-rolls, I was pretty confident. The ogre that needed to get out of the way boneheaded... re-rolled into another bonehead. I could still score, but I now would need a dodge as I couldn't go through the optimal square. The ball carrying ogre successfully makes the dodge and rush and we go in 1-0 up at half time. I did put 3 gnoblars on the line in case Will was able to try the amazon one turner, but he didn't know how to and instead just whacked some gnoblars.

On Will's drive, he potatoed the ball carrier but with a slight bit of luck, I was able to get a 2 die hit on them, and got a pow after a re-roll. The ball bounced out and was thrown back towards the halfway line just in front of a gnoblar. 

This is where I made a mistake. Almost all of both teams was drawn to the left of the pitch. My gnoblar picked up the ball and ran to the opposite side - I had figured that I would be able to get away from more of his players. What this actually meant was that I was far away from any support, so when the gnoblar was routinely and unceremoniously knocked down, I had no one in support to try to stop the amazon recovery. They still needed to get a long way down the pitch though, and I was able to get bodies in the way, forcing a blitz and a dodge for them to get the equaliser. 

I had a one turn touchdown attempt and everything went right, even though I was unable to clear a tacklezone away from the ogre who was throwing... the handoff, throw and landing were all perfect... but the gnoblar was just one square short of being able to score. This game, as my previous game with Will, ended 1-1. 

In this game, Will repaid the triple skulls I rolled in our last game by rolling some of his own. This might be the first time I've taken a photo of an opponent's triple skulls. 

As a team, Dimmy's vampires defeated _the_ghost_ and Oli's skaven defeated JimChungus to mean that we won the round 2/1/0.

Round 2 v Adam (cptoats, AAA Gaming)

For the second round, we were drawn against a team from London and I was playing Adam, who I had only previously played online (where he destroyed me). This round I moved onto the skaven and he was playing gnomes with Maple Highgrove.

I've played against Maple a number of times now, and haven't struggled too much against him. However, in this game Adam used him to great effect. 

Our skaven build was a juggernaut rat ogre, tackle and guard blitzers, three gutters - strip ball, wrestle and sidestep - and a thrower. 

I received the ball and I removed a player turn 1 with the tackle blitzer. Things then got really quite tricky. We were vastly overpowered by the three trees, who kept basing us and got a casualty on the rat ogre (fortunately saved by the apothecary)

I ran around to the right flank, looking like I might be free but the gnomes keep getting after me and things aren't going great, especially with Maple's tentacles getting attached to key players. The ball is popped loose and I manage to hand it off and get near the endzone with it but I'm again knocked down. I'm saved by the fact the gnomes can't pick up the ball and I'm left without any re-rolls needing a 4+ pick up with a gutter, who would then need a 3+ 2+ dodge to score. This is slightly more likely to fail than to succeed (42%), but it goes in my favour.

I've started checking the odds on plays just to understand whether there were better options available to me at the time. I have no idea if this will help me to play better in any way. 

The gnomes are unable to make the one-turn attempt work and so we again go in at half time 1-0 up. 

On Adam's drive, he bunkers up and seems content to slowly move up the pitch and not push for the win. The first few turns don't give me many opportunities to even think about the ball, but we have a slight comfort break and I spend a few moments considering where we are. Adam has set up without guard at the front of his cage, meaning a gutter runner could 6+ into it for a one die block on the fox with the ball. 

I think that it is worth a shot rather than playing for the draw and when we resume I declare my blitz, after moving a few players. The strip ball gutter runner succeeds the dodge and knocks the ball loose (27%), even stunning the fox for good measure. Another gutter runner recovers the loose ball, hands it off to a third and they run away. A thrown team mate attempts to stop the score but doesn't manage it. 

Obviously the gnomes need to score quickly now to get anything out of the game, and a failed pass attempt actually allows the skaven to recover and get in for an undeserved third.

This game was very much won by the dice coming good for me at the right moments, and after the sack the game was effectively over. Adam said as he came over when I was relaying the game to Tofu "are you telling him about the dicing?" My response was that I was just getting to that bit!

There was a win for Oli's vampires and a draw for Dimmy's ogres meaning another 2/1/0 win for the round.

Round 3 v Ross (redfacedgoose, Hat Trick)

For the final round, we were on the top table against the team with the other SKABB coaches. This was my vampires (2 dodge runners, block and leader thrower and frenzy and strip ball blitzers) against Ross's necro (guard on golems and wraiths, block wolves, sure hands and block on the ghouls with a bare 11). 

I don't think necro is a great match up for vampires. I don't think it's the worst, but I don't think it's a good one. The sidestep and stand firm, whilst it can be turned off is annoying and can halt progress, and that amount of guard can't all be turned off.

Ross is relatively new to the league and we'd not yet played, so it was nice to have an opportunity to do so.  

I kick to Ross and despite a casualty on a wrath that regenerates, I'm not able to stop him scoring quickly. I score back on my turn 7 leaving him just one turn, but he doesn't go for the one turn attempt.

I had knocked out a couple of positionals but the turn 7 score (I couldn't have held off to turn 8 safely) meant that there were two chances for his knockouts to come back, which they do, so we're 11 v 11 when I'm receiving. 

I fail the pick up which is near the line of scrimmage and decide not to re-roll it. This was a definite mistake as the necro have the ball by the end of their first turn. We keep trading the ball, each of us knocking it loose and recovering it. I'm considerably low on players at this point and running low on options. I decide it's time for some vampire nonse.

I have a thrower who can dodge out, pick up and pass the ball to a runner who will catch in a tacklezone. They then dodge out and hand off to the blitzer who catches in a tacklezone. He then needs to dodge into a tacklezone to blitz a ghoul away to dodge out and double rush to score. All of this is when I am out of re-rolls. There is a 6% chance of it happening. I'm sorry Ross. This was one of those 6/100 times. 

The necromantic have 2 turns to score though, as I scored on my turn 7. They are also out of re-rolls but they successfully get the ball to a werewolf in a cage who would need to rush twice to score. My plan is to hypnotise the two front cage corners with two of my three remaining vampires and blitz in with the third to push the wolf back one square and seal the win. 

The first hypno gaze works, but the runner bloodlusts. I have to accept it and send her off to bite a thrall and take a 1 die blitz instead of a 2 die blitz. It's not the end of the world... until the runner snakes the dodge leaving the path to my endzone wide open. Three 1s in a row, probably payback for my extremely luck touchdown. Unfortunately for Ross, one of the two dice he needs to roll is a 1, and he falls over the tripwire to give me a probably undeserved 2-1 win. 

Dimmy's skaven and Oli's ogres both draw, meaning the round is a 1/2/0 win. As the only team who won all three games, we were crowned champions! 

Myself and Oli finished 2/1/0 with Dimmy on 1/2/0 (so 5/4/0 as a team). Our races finished:

Skaven 2/1/0
Vampires 3/0/0
Ogres 0/3/0

I'm already looking forward to the next one. It makes it quite interesting to change teams each game and much more of a challenge.