The Amaze-Zings!

It's been a while since I talked Blood Bowl here. Last year, I mentioned my halfling league team, the Shinkickers. Unfortunately (due to people having babies and getting new jobs and moving away), our local league has fallen away (although there are rumours of some newbies being trained up ready to be unleashed upon us...) so I've not played any league-style games since. Which is a shame, because league play is different to tournament play and a different type of fun.

The other team I've played in league and hope to bring forth is my Amazon team, the Amaze-Zings. I can't find their roster just at the moment, but I can tell you a bit about the team.

Husbit, who oversees the league, encourages us to choose a suitable sponser for our teams, giving us the incentive of an extra 10k after a game if we mention the sponser in our write-up (I particularly recommend Rumble's, if you follow this link to our forum). So...

Dwarves and elves even love it sober, the happy world of Haribogre!

Haribogre are proud to announce their latest celebrity face: Bertha Bigfist. To celebrate the acclaimed Blood Bowl player's taste for the most popular sweets in the Empire, Haribogre have put together a team of staff members. Many put their names down to try out, but only female members of staff actually showed up (ignore the rumours of men being found tied up in states of undress in various supply cupboards) and so, Haribogre are the pleased to announce their sponsorship of the new amazon team, the Amaze-Zings!  

From that background, I gave myself the restriction that if I could afford to induce Bertha for a match, I had to. She's a great star player: strength 5, movement 6, agility 2, armour 9. Yes, she suffers the ogre bone head flaw, but in addition to the usual ogre skills (thick skull, mighty blow and throw team-mate - no help here) she has dodge and break tackle, which means she can terrorise the pitch... when she doesn't forget what she's doing... But I found when I took her, even though she generally stood there doing nothing, things went better for my team. Maybe her presence intimidated my opponents, or maybe it gave my players encouragement to impress their heroine! Either way, I had enoough fun with her that she's made a regular appearance when I take ogres to tournaments (and is a large part of why I've been considering ogres for the World Cup).

For models, I've been using Impact's Timberline Elves - the same models I use for my wood elves - because there are enough female characters to make a team, and their posing is overall pretty good. Well, I like them anyway.

Strictly Come Wardancing. Sorry about the poor quality

Cat is sitting on me so I can't take a photo of the 'Zings

For names, I sought inspiration from friends, family, cartoons and Joss Whedon TV shows, pairing up with Roller Derby-style nicknames. Erinaceous, Tempestuous Tarn, Ana Star, Stormin' Sarah, Wily Kit, Whomping Willow (a double geek trip there!), Iced Gem, Rockin' Rose, - I can't remember the rest, although I remember some of the other people I named them after.

Erinaceus is a blitzer, named after my little sister. She's one of the fastest, strongest and fittest people I know (I'd say the fastest, strongest and fittest, but I know her husband too...) so it seemed right when the player scored both a strength and movement increase, making her a pretty terrifying player in her own right. The name comes from my sister being called Erin, and her always being the one to spot the Erinaceus europaeuses (europaei?) that would scuttle past the kitchen window during late night storms when we were little. 

They were a great fun team to play and had some really nice skill-ups, so I hope the roster isn't lost for good, and hope the rumours of a forthcoming re-league'ing are true.

The Shin Kickers

So the Exiles 2014 Spring League has come to an end.

This shiny season seemed a good idea to bring the Shin Kickers back – a seasoned halfling team with some interesting players. The first season they played in, they did very badly and lost every single match but I did manage to start skilling the team up and this has produced some interesting (and potentially dangerous) individuals. 

Husbit has a rule with player names: if you don’t fill them in, he will using pornstar-type names. I couldn’t think of anything clever, so decided to name the trees after trees and the halflings after invisible/nobody-type ideas. When a player's killed/fired and repurchased, they are usually replaced by a player with the same name and a number....

Team Sheet at the end of the Spring Season

As you can see, Mr Shifty has died several times. He was the first 'fling to pick up side step but since his first death has been killed everytime he gets enough Star Player Points (SPP) to skill-up. Mr Nobody has managed to survive having two niggles for about two seasons now - no one can defeat him!

It seemed fitting that the first halfling to get an agility increase was He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named: Mr Voldemort. Who then, of course, became my primary scorer. Across our league, he is only the second player (and only still living) to breach 100 SPP. He now has side step, sure feet, sprint and catch in addition to being AG4. Unfortunately, he recently suffered a movement loss but he’s still a valuable player.

I say the first halfling with an agility increase: at one point, I had 3 AG4 ‘flings. One was killed but the other (Mr Anon) is now AG5, with sure feet and side step.

Most excitingly, I have a MV4 tree, Mr Elm. He actually rolled a third (6-4) 10 but, being armour 10 (a tree) and already having taken two movement increases, Husbit (aka League Commissioner) wouldn’t let me make him movement 5 so I gave him break tackle instead. I’ve been hoping for a double to give him nerves of steel and make him my 'fling-flinger extraordinaire, although break tackle now means I'm thinking block for him to be the world’s scariest cage breaker.

Mr Oak, the other tree, has a good casualty record and has rewarded himself for that with grab, multiple-block, guard and piling-on. So far, I don’t think I’ve remembered to use piling-on once (and when I’ve remembered I have the skill, him being on his feet has been more useful), but as he’s only rolled normal skills and there’s only so many strength skills available, I’m sure it will come in useful eventually.

With the halflings, unless I roll a double or stat their first skill is side step. This lead to a wonderful few games towards the end of the third season (when Army Dave’s norse San Frannorseca 49’ers obliterated the plucky 'Kickers), where 3 halflings were marked with red skill rings to show they didn’t have side step. Second skill tends to be sure feet to make extra movement more reliable, followed by sprint. I do have one side step/jump up 'fling, though – just to be different.

On doubles, I have one 'fling (Mr Wrong) with both kick-off return and sure hands: a lovely combination. If I manage to skill him up again, I’m looking at catch to make him even better at acquiring the ball early. My only other double is a blocking 'fling – my second, the first having been slaughtered in the second season by San Frannorseca 49’ers. I really wanted to go with mighty blow, but listened to the boring advice that block was more sensible.

The models are Impact! Miniatures' Elfball Gnome team. My favourite is the little guy cuddling the ball. These painted by our friend George.

So where are my team going in the future? I’m probably not running them next season: a killer Chaos Dwarf team in the form of Slow Whites has arisen that puts me off when I’m very fond of my little guys (for similar reasons, my Amaze-Zings Amazon team – sponsored by Haribogre – won’t be making a reappearance just yet), so it’s probably going to be ogres. But they won’t be retiring entirely just yet: I want to see if Mr Voldemort can earn himself that elusive final skill…