Blood Bowl OFL Kicks Off

Blood Bowl is a bit of an oddity for me - I've been reliably playing a league at the start of each year since I first turned up at a club, about 10 years ago now. This looked destined to come to an end after the breakup of the last club I was a regular at, Wargamers FC, in April last year.

However, I was approached a while back by JP, one of the elite group of "people I should really try to see and play games against more often" (PISRTTSAPGAMO for short) who had been planning a league of just this group of people, as a way to bring us back together and make sure we don't lose touch.

It's such a nice idea, I didn't even mind JP's not-at-all-subtle method of getting me to be league commissioner, and so the Old Friends League was born.

The league was kicked off on Wednesday night as my goblin team, the Squig Fuelled Stabbers, faced off against Trev's Khemri, The Mummy's Curse. The game was played on Trev's attractive and only slightly confusing custom pitch from Fantasy Fields.

The game kicks off

Having won the toss, I chose to kick off first, as against the low agility undead players this was an easy way to move the ball downfield without having to carry it there myself.

I played my fanatic in the first drive, and watched him spin around cheerfully for several turns without achieving much other than worrying everyone near him on either team.

One of my trolls was much more effective though, and racked up a couple of casualties early on. The gobbos took advantage of the gaps and general milling about and ran towards the ball. Trev then started as he meant to go on, and managed to bring down his own blitz-ra in the process of tackling a goblin. The greenskins pressed their advantage and managed to get the ball away and run in a scrappy touchdown.

With a blitz-ra down, the goblins snatch the ball and run away

As there were only a few turns left in the half, I kept my loony off the pitch in reserve, and so lined up to kick off again with no secret weapons. I was lucky this time and rolled blitz on the kick off table, and was able to push some goblins forward before play started.

Once more, the middle of the pitch descended into an ugly brawl. Goblins were knocked out or injured left and right, but the greenskins didn't manage much in response.

However, once more, Trev's luck failed him and he downed his own players a couple of times in succession. The goblins managed to pry the ball free and ran in another touchdown right at the end of the half, going into the break 2-0 up.

A goblin sneaks out of the melee with the ball

In the second half, more goblins got battered by skeletons and mummies, including the loony, who as usual had failed to achieve anything with his one attack and was quickly punished for his insolence.

The throw-ra, lurking at the back of the field, managed to collect the ball, and a clattering skeleton cage formed up and began to drift down the pitch at a glacial pace.

The same troll that had caused trouble earlier took exception to this, and over two turns smashed his way into the cage and concussed the throw-ra.

The pogoer grabbed the loose ball and was immediately mobbed, but proved his worth by bouncing free and throwing the ball to a teammate waiting patiently in the end zone, taking the score to 3-0.

Bouncy-bouncy-throw-catch-huzzah!

The Khemri team had now lost interest in scoring as the outcome of the game was beyond doubt, and so lined up their entire team to simply attack goblins when the game restarted. This plan was thrown into confusion as the kick went high and was caught by a well placed skeleton.

A few lurching moves later, the Mummy's Curse had the ball and were deep in Stabbers territory.

Surely they must score?

More undead players shambled over and caged the ball right at the end of the pitch, and in desperation a lone goblin ran over to at least distract the ball carrier. He was knocked down for his trouble, and then fouled...

... right under the nose of the referee, who sent off the mummy responsible and ended the game before the ball could be run in!

Oh.

So, a 3-0 win in my first game of the league then! Not at all bad. Can I keep this up? Watch this space to find out...