Blood Bowl: Ravenous Raptors vs Vongalazthag Violators

 Kicking off the Blood Bowl League season 3 at TSA for my brave Chaos Dwarfs, I faced a team of ferocious lizardmen tonight in my first game in this edition.

Antonio brought 11 players to the field, including 6 of the strength 4 Saurus Blockers, so I'll be outpowered for sure, and hopefully my Iron Skin will hold the line as I will foul away!

The gameplan?  Foul whatever goes down to high heaven, and then try to score in the second half of the game!

Facing me where the lizardmen, in a way.  The story goes that the Black Orc team performed so badly last season, they went to train with a Slann in Lustria, returning to the pitch in Lizardmen style.  Ake, they where proxied as his lizardmen team wasn't painted yet and they suited the bill perfectly, the Black Orcs being Saurus and the Goblins being Skinks.

 

Under nice weather and a minor pitch invasion, the Violators team mascot riled up the fans so hard the Chaos Dwarfs got an extra re-roll as they lined up to kick off the ball.  Albeit one blocker decided to lie down after being hit by a crazed fan...

So the ball in play, the teams where off for a game of hard vs hard...

The Lizardmen started by focussing their opening push on the right flank, the big Saurus warriors converging at that side of the field.

A blocker was knocked KO'd after being pushed in the crowd, but his thick skull saved him, putting him on the bench instead.

Moving to stop the gap, a Saurus was knocked over and Bob went to make his already second foul.  Unfortunatly the referee noticed this and he was duly send off with a red card.

The line was being pushed severly on the far right flank now by the big Saurus blockers, Dievanons being pushed to the floor face down as a hole opened.

When Huey was subsequently knocked out, the gap became real for the Lizardmen team to flood through.

But it was on the other flank the actual breakthrough happened, one of the Skinks, Ortwin, being brought forward in a box.

He made the dash through the hole, easily outrunning both Chaos Dwarf and Hobgoblin alike.  The last efforts of the Violators to get back to him failed unfortunatly...

... and the Skink scored the opening touchdown of the game, putting the 1-0 on the board for the Raptors.

The teams lined up again, the Chaos Dwarfs making a Quick Snap to get better blocking odds.  The Stabbaz had sharpened their knives, putting both Saurus opposing them down (the only time it would work this game, but it felt good) as the third on their line was blocked over.  In addition, the Saurus where forced to use their apothecary to prevent a Saurus warrior from ending up with a niggling injury!

The Saurus on the scrimmage line now almost all downed, this was the moment for the Hobgoblins to shine and try to force a break out for the equalizer.

With some effort, after first fumbling the ball and as such costing a turn to allow the lizards to start recovering, a train of violence moved over on the right flank towards the Lustrian endzone.

The remainder of the team did their best to keep the rest of the Lizardmen team down and occupied, injuring Ortwin in the go and causing a badly hurt on him.

But that one turn they could recover was to much, and soon the big Saurus caught up, and knocked the ball carrier over, the ball ending on the edge of the brawling group.  

There was one desperate chance however, if my Hobgoblin could pick up the ball, throw a pass to the Flamesmith (who was the only one still able to reach the end zone) and he would catch it... which ended when the Hobgoblin failed to even pick the ball up uberhaubt.

So with a 1-0 we went into half time, and the teams set up for the second half.  The ball deviated to right next to my own endzone, so the hobgoblins would hopefully perform better now.

At the scrimmage line, the Chaos Dwarfs started causing their usual ruckus, buldozering over the Saurus with the aid of a crooked referee who had stunned one of the big beasts himself.

Over on the left flank, the skinks flooded over to try and recuperate the ball in my half.

Which wouldn't be hard, as trying to throw the ball to his teammate, The Dude fumbled the pass and the ball fell at his feet...

It deviated right in front of my own endzone, with a Skink poised nearby to pick it up and go score.

Which duly happened, and it became 2-0 for the Raptors as such.

The teams lined up once again, and knowing it was lost, I would try to score at least some SPP by beating (or trying to at least) the Lustrian daylights out of my opponents.  And my fans would be on the look-out with rocks to throw should the opposing ball carrier start stalling...

The Saurus line held rather okay though, and Huey found himself right behind the line with the ball in his possession.

 

Swarmed over, the Chaos Dwarfs tried to hold on for dear Hashut against all those ST 4 punches being thrown their way, managing to keep the line more or less intact.

But slowly and steadily the lizardmen worked their way towards poor Huey, who suddenly didn't like the idea anymore of being in possession of the ball.

While Duey had been put out of the game with a niggling injury (no way I would use an apothecary on a lowly Hobgoblin lineman), Huey finally lost the ball from against all the savagery.

As a skink picked up the ball, my line was completely smacked to the floor, and while they struggled back up they couldn't reach the lizardman ball carrier anymore.

Defended by a wall of Saurus, the skink then ran down the field, scoring the 3-0 in the final turn of the game and adding more salt to the injury, as I didn't manage to knock (or foul) anything higher anymore then a lowly KO for a skink.

And thus ended my first game of Blood Bowl in this edition, and one where I learned quite lot, especially for the two new player types.  The rest remained more or less the same: Blockers are reliable, Hobgoblins everything but...

But, we are currently leading the rankings of the League on pure violence statistics, so that counts for something as well!

Next month, my team will return to the pitch (albeit, down one Hobgoblin who misses the game), to face the Moot's Revenge, a Halfling team bringing along two mighty treemen, ouch...