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Halfing Vampirized

Open [L]eague Cup - ...

Touchdowns and all That Malarkey The aim of the game is to carry, throw, kick and generally move an inflated animal bladder coated in leather and - quite often - spikes, across the field into the opposing team`s end zone. Of ccourse the other team is trying to do the same thing. Once the inflated bladder, also known as the ball, has been carried or caught in the opposing team`s end zone, a `Touchdown` has been scored. Traditionally the crowd then goes wild, though the reactions of the fans vary from celebration if it was thier team that just scored to anger if their team have conceded. The player who has scored will also have his moment of jubilation and much celebratory hugging with fellow teammates will ensue, although a bear hug from an Ogre, even if his intention is that of mutual happiness, is best avoided! The team that scores the most touchdowns within the allotted timeframe is deemed the winner. The game lasts about two hours and is split into two segment unsurprisingly called `the first half` and `the second half`. The first half starts after both teams have walked onto the pitch and taken thier positions, usually accompanied by much fanfare and cheering from the fans. The team captains meet in the centre of the pitch with the `ref`(more on his later) to prefrom the start-of-the-game ritual know as `the toss`. A coin is flipped in the air and one of the captains will call `orcs`or `eagles`. Whoever wins the toss gets the choice of `kicking` or `receiving`. Kicking teams will kick the ball to receiving teams. Once the ball has been kicked the whistle is blown and the first half will begin. The second half begins in much the same way except that the kicking team at the beginning of the first half will now become the receiving team and vice-versa. Violence is encouraged to gain possession, keep and move the ball, although different races and teams will try different methods and varying degrees of hostility. The fey elves, for instance, wil often try pure speed to collect the ball and avoid the other team`s players. Orcs and Chaos teams will take a more direct route of overpowering the opposing team and trundling down the centre of the field almost daring thier oppenents to stop them. Rookies reading this maybe confused as to why I haven`t mentioned the use of weapons yet. This is because in Blood Bowl Nuffle decreed that one`s own body is the only weapon one needs to play the game. Over the years this hasn`t stopped teams using this admittedly rather loose wording to maximum effect and is the reason why a player`s armor is more likely than not covered in sharp protruding spikes with blades and large Knuckle-dusters attached to gauntles. Other races and teams often `forget`about this basic principle and just ignore Roze-el`s teachings on the matter. Dwarfs and goblins (yes, them again) are the usual suspects, although this is not exclusively their domain. The Blood Bowl is littered with the illegal use of weapons and the many deviouse contraptions bought forward by the dwarfs and goblins, raging from monstrous machines such as the dwarf death-roller to the no-less-dangerous Chainsaw. The Psychos.... I mean players As I`ve already mentioned, there are many way to get the ball from one end of the field to the other. Equally, there are as many ways to stop the ball from moving towardsa team`s end zone. A blood bowl player, to an extent, needs to be a jack-of-alltrades - as eqally quick on offence as well as being able to defend. This doesn`t mean mean that there aren`t any specilists in the sport, far from it - a Blood Bowl player needs to specialise in one of the many positions if he wishes to rise above the humble lineman. Let`s look at the more commen positions: Blitzers: These highly-skilled players are usually the starts of the game, combining strength and skill with great speed and flexibility. All the most glamorous Blood Bowl players are blitzers, since they are always at the heart of the action and doing very impressive things! Their usual job is to burst a hole through thier opponent`s lines, and then run with the ball to scor. Team captains are usually blitzers, and all of them, without exception, have egos the size of a halfling`s appetite Throwers: there is more to Blood Bowl than just grabbing the ball and charging full tilt at the other side ( though this has worked for most teams at one time or another). If you can get a player on the other side of your opponents`line. Why not simply toss the ball to him and cut out all that unnecessary bloodshed? This, of course, is where the special thrower comes in! These guys are usually lightly armoured (preferring to dodge a tackle rather that be flattened by it). Throwers of certain races have also been know to launch other things than just the ball. For decades now, an accepted tactic of orc, goblin and even halfling teams is to throw their team-mates down-field, This is usually done by the larger members of said teams such as ogres, trolls and in the case of the halflings, treemen. Of course this tactic is not without risk. Whilst the bigger players are strong it doesn`t necessarily mean they are accurate. As regular fans know, goblins make a reassuring `splat`sound as they hit the ground or stadium wall head-first - much to the joy of the crowd! Trolls are notoriously stupid with memory spans that would shame a goldfish. So a goblin or snotling about to be hurtled across the pitch by his trollish team mate will often find itself heading for the troll`s gaping maw instead as the monster forgets what he`s holding and decidesto have a snack!

		For					Against
Opponent	Race	TV	SPP	Cas	Gold	Score	TV	SPP	Cas	Gold	Gate
Prancing Panthers	High Elf	1000k	10	1/0/0	60k	1 - 0	1000k	9	0/0/0	80k	56k
Araahin Riverphoenix	High Elf	1090k	25	1/1/2	50k	3 - 2	1100k	13	0/0/0	50k	41k