A little more progress on painting my team and another sister kisser of a tie with Jeb’s Orcton Bashers (1-1) to move The Craghammers’ record to 3-2-3. Talk about mediocrity. But at least I made just enough gold from that game to hire the Deathroller. Hopefully he will help the dwarfs bashing in the second half of the season. Krazek also acquired teh Mighty Blow skill and Kili is now more accurate with his passes, even with the broken collarbone.

The Craghammers (currently on the team. Have the deathroller and 4 more blockers to paint and then any additional players added during the last few weeks.)

Fili and Kili, the Craghammers' runners (need to clean up their eyes a bit).

Until next time…

Well, a mixed bag for the past few games for The Craghammers. Their first match of week 3 was against Kanon’s Vampinators. Thanks to some extremely poor dice rolling on his part, The Craghammers were able to keep the game tied 1-1 and ended their casualty drought with two badly hurt thralls. The second game of the week was against Matt’s Orcy Bludd Bruddas. A tough match with two bashing teams, but the dwarfs eked out a win 2-1 (their first 2 TD game of the season) along with badly hurting two orcs and killing his lone lineorc.

Week 4 has not started out well however. In an effort to put some legitimacy on The Craghammers’ mediocre season they accepted a match against the first place Chosen Ones, Ned’s Lizardman team. With no expectations to win, the dwarfs did fairly well holding the slimy snakes to only two touchdowns, but near the end of the match several skinks and a saurus ganged up on Dwalin and ended his Blood Bowl career. He was posthumously honored with the MVP for the game.

The Craghammers: (front row L-R) Krazek the Mad, Durin, Thorin, Fili, Kili, Dwalin (deceased), (second row R-L) Balin, Bifur, Bofur, Bombur, Dori II, and Crazy Ivan. The back row are not on the team yet, but they are Nori, Ori, Gloin, Oin, and the dreaded Deathroller.

The Craghammers' Blitzers (Durin and Thorin)

The Craghammers' Troll Slayers (Krazek the Mad and Crazy Ivan)

Until next time…

My Blood Bowl team is not doing so well. Pretty mediocre actually. Although their record is 2-1-1, they have played three games without inflicting a casualty and have yet to score more than one TD in a game.

Week 2 started off with a match against The Plague, a skaven team coached by Kellan. The Craghammers opted to receive in the first half. Thing started out well with Krazek the Mad KOing the skaven’s rat ogre at the start of the drive, but soon the two teams got bogged down at midfield. When the dwarfs made their breakout towards the end of the first half, several skaven dodged their way out of tackle zones to knock the ball out of their hands leaving the teams scoreless at halftime. The second half consisted of a pretty quick score by The Plague followed by the some seriously poor play on the part of the dwarfs who failed to score. No casualties were inflicted on either side and the fans again responded with a measly 20,000gp at the gate for The Craghammers’ first loss of the season.

The second match of week 2 was against the Ash River Scorpions, a khemri team coached by Patrick. The Scorpions have not fared well this season having lost their sole Tomb Guardian and stood at an 0-3 record. For the match, they were able to hire a mercenary guardian and put in some extra training time. While neither paid off in the final score (a 1-0 win for The Craghammers), they sure made the dwarfs pay for the victory. Two players were seriously injured (Kili suffered a smashed collarbone from the fans and Bombur smashed his ankle getting tackled by a skeleton) and one blocker (poor Dori) was killed by rabid fans who surely were annoyed with the team’s lackluster performance. The huge host of fans got their money’s worth in destruction. The Craghammers walked away with a whopping 90,000 gp, although 70,000 of that immediately went to hiring a replacement for the recently departed Dori. Hopefully The Craghammers’ fortunes turn around as the league enters week 3.

The Craghammers WIP.

#2 Durin the blitzer and #8 Bifur the blocker. Bifur has been fortunate to score a casualty and two MVP awards so far this season. The team's two runners, Fili, and Kili, are in the background.

Until next time…

Avatar Comics and Games has launched a new Blood Bowl season. Blood Bowl was the very first miniature game I ever played. Way back in High School when I couldn’t afford any other Games Workshop games, Blood Bowl presented itself as the perfect solution. I only needed to buy the game itself and 16 miniatures. I used to be very serious about winning every game I play, but now just try to have fun. Sometimes this can be difficult when playing in a very competitive environment like that found at Avatar. This led me to not participate in the last Blood Bowl league they held, but I decided at the last minute to bring my dwarf team into the league. All hail The Craghammers!

Work in progress dwarf blocker for The Craghammers.

We play two league matches each week for 7 weeks. The Craghammers were a little late in starting week 1 due to their late entry into the field, but they put up a pretty good showing considering how rusty their old coach was. The first match was against Jeb’s Orcs. The game started off pretty well, for me, when Bifur, one of my blockers, crushed an orc blitzer and sent him off the pitch, permanently. Jeb was none too pleased, especially since he forgot to hire an apothecary prior to the game. He got a little revenge later in the first half by crushing Krazek the Mad’s (my lone troll slayer) hand, but he would only miss the rest of the game and game two. A lucky long pass from Fili the runner to Thorin the blitzer late in the first half put me up 1-0.  I didn’t figure that would last long and sure enough Jeb was able to tie the score in the second half. A late second half drive by The Craghammers was stopped by the hard hitting orcs and the sudden butterfingers of Fili. The game ended in a 1-1 tie with a meager 40,000 gp awarded to my dwarfs. Good fortune shined on me as the MVP was awarded to Bifur, who immediately began to brag about his ability to inflict mighty blows on his opponents.

The second match of the week for The Craghammers was also against an orc team, Danny’s this time. Both of us were down a man so we each had a journeyman lineman (or blocker in my case) join the team. Overall it was a pretty sloppy match with a lot of pushing and shoving around midfield and not much bashing and crushing.  My dwarfs managed to pull out a win 1-0 with a nice TD from Fili, but no casualties were inflicted on either side. Pretty rare for two strength teams. Fortune shined on me again as she awarded Fili with the MVP for the game. His new blocking prowess should prove useful in the coming weeks. The gate was again small, only 20,000 gp, but combined with the winnings from their first match, The Craghammers were able to hire a permanent apothecary to keep their players on the pitch.

Week two begins tonight. Not sure who their next opponent will be, but The Craghammers will be ready!

Until next time…