“Chapter 3


Hi readers, and welcome to this week’s edition of Inside the Box. Today we’re going to be speaking to a couple of “dudes” from new wood elf team, Hang Eleven, finding out what it feels like to be the league’s new boys. We’ll also be taking a closer look at yesterday’s loss to the skaven team known only as Skaven and asking – could they have done anything different, or was a win simply out of their reach?

But first we have long-time wood elf coach, Robert Robsson.

ITB: Coach Robsson. First off, welcome to League Blackbox. How are you finding it? A bit tougher than you’d imagined perhaps?
CR: Well, I’m not really surprised by what I’ve found. Blackbox has been around for long enough for me to get a feel for what sort of league it is. Sure, there are a lot of strong teams, but that’s all part of the challenge isn’t it?
ITB: Hang Eleven is not your first Blackbox team, right?
CR: Well, not exactly, no. I tried out a couple of other teams to begin with, but that was mostly just to get a feel for the league. Hang Eleven is my first long-term project here.
ITB: So they’ll be around for a while then?
CR: As long as no one kills them, yes.
ITB: So one win and two losses to start you off. Are you happy enough with that?
CR: As I said, it’s a long-term project. Three games either way isn’t going to have much of an effect. As me again how I feel when we get to a hundred games.
ITB: And you’ll feel the same, win or lose?
CR: You know, for twenty-five years I’ve been trying to win games of Bloodbowl and as you know, I’ve not exactly been overly successful at it. But along the way I’ve coached some great teams and produced some truly spectacular players. I suspect this is going to be my legacy. No one will remember me for my win record, but they will hopefully remember me as the coach who gave the Bloodbowl world Constantdrip Brokengutter and Fastrecovering Housemarket. And maybe some others as well.
ITB: Some of the “dudes” from Hang Eleven?
CR: We’ll see.
ITB: So tell me about your new team. Not exactly traditional wood elves, are they?
CR: (laughs). No. They are many things, but traditional is certainly not one of them. They have a unique style, a unique outlook. I hope they bring a lot of fun back into the game.
ITB: Fun?
CR: These boys and girls like to show off. Once they get to grips with the rules I hope you’ll see some exciting stuff from them. Sadly we’ve been a bit slow off the blocks and haven’t really given the fans much to talk about, but give us a few games and you should start to see a lot more passing, a lot more daring plays.
ITB: Both of which were sadly missing in yesterday’s loss to Skaven.
CR: It wasn’t a great game for us, no. A few important decisions went against us at crucial moments, but we certainly didn’t help matters. Bottom line, we were just outplayed.
ITB: By important decisions I take it you are referring to all the stopping and starting during the second half?
CR: Indeed. We had a good position and a strong attack but for whatever reason the commissioners decided to stop the game. Then restart it, only to stop it again almost at once. Five times I think it was we restarted in total, but by then we’d lost our initiative. And also, to be honest, some of the players were in a rush to get the game over with and were perhaps not giving it their best. They like to be finished and out of the stadium by mid-afternoon at the very latest.
ITB: Other commitments?
CR: High tide.
ITB: Not an attitude that’s going to win them too many games.
CR: Perhaps not, but it will certainly help them catch some big waves.


So there you have it. Surfing comes to Bloodbowl with the wood elves of Hang Eleven. They’re off to a shaky start with just one win from three matches, but Coach Robsson promises bigger and better things in the future.

Watch this space.
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