BLOOD BOWL PLAYERS!

We had a World Cup! And what a tournament it was!

I've been amazed and surprised and entertained and challenged and amazed again. The best things were the displays of solidarity and friendship between so many coaches that had (for the most part) never met before. For my part it was a tournament of firsts.

I have been playing Blood Bowl all my life, thirty years since 2nd edition and I've likely played more than 300 games of table top, but I've never made any effort to get involved with the official tournament scene. A lot of that is putting my family first, and with three kids there can be a lot of things that need attention. Despite that I got a bit crazy the past year, playing more blood bowl than ever, and trying out so many rosters. The Black Box Trophy had me going at it, and I was steadily improving my game.

When the World Cup was announced to be in Alicante that felt like a sign that it was time for me to go. I have very good friends with a permanent residence there, and they agreed that I should go and stay with them for the duration of the tournament.

But without any relations to tournaments I had no idea about what to do next. I was asking on discord about how to join and such things and pretty soon I was approached by Sean1986, who had his canadian team fall apart and was now looking to put together a new one. He already had Hercules_BB, trusted friend and Blood Bowl wonder (Fairly new at the game compared to most of us, and yes, a wonder - as the story will assure you).

Now he also had me, and I didn’t take very long to ask Hovring. We have played together in Draft League Europe for a while and I’ve had the opportunity to witness his control of the field and determined defence, and seen him win our Super Bowl already. He also had a long history of playing Dark Elves, so that was a given pick. Next up Sean recruited Historic, Wood Elf coach par excellence. Then I saw Sandune asking about a team and I jumped on it immediately, fearing that everyone would be ready to snatch him up for their own sake. And he said yes!

He was bringing Varag Underworld, and Hercules was doing Undead. Sean was debating Skaven and Orcs, I was in half a mind to play Union again, but had my faith in them a bit shaken by our first efforts. I said someone better play orcs, but when Sean opted for that I eventually landed on Necromantic as they give me the field control skills I value so highly.

The four of us not in Canada joined the Tilean online cup, and we were early on debating skills and set ups and more, finding that Historic is a treasure trove of Blood Bowl strategies. On replays or training he could often point something out that we could have done even better, and with our combined efforts and my year long binge of playing I was becoming the best I’ve ever been at the game.

We ended up 3rd in the Tilean online, which raised quite a few eyebrows I’m sure. I was also happy to do it with three elven teams + Underworld. That was the first ever NAF ranking tournament for both me and Hovring, and was the first showing for the name Red Leaf Mercenaries.

More was to come.

Continued in Part II: The World Cup.