So a little bit of background: I realized that I hadn't played Blood Bowl on the tabletop for far too long, so I signed up for an NAF tournament downcity in a few weeks.
I immediately faced a choice of which team to play. I've been playing Blood Bowl for a while, so I have several to choose from. Wood Elves are the obvious choice, they're one of the most successful teams in the tournament format. They also look great and won me a Super Bowl in 1999-ish. Orcs and Humans are always a solid choice, even though they were some of my earlier models and the paint job isn't great. I actually had two Dark Elf teams to choose from, my own Ice Dragons, and another set I painted up for Diane. Chaos Dwarves were available, although the models are starting to show their age and need some super glue love. I have a beautiful-looking Chaos team, although Chaos seems to be pretty terrible in the tournament ruleset I'm looking at.
I also have some partially-painted Undead and High Elves, unpainted Norse and Goblins, another unpainted Human team that I eventually want to paint in Patriots colors.
Given this wealth of choice, what team am I going with? Clearly one option stood out as the most sensible and practical. I bought a brand-new team which I will be painting before the tournament.
A word on "Elf" teams, otherwise known as "Pro Elves". Before 3rd edition Blood Bowl, there were no separate Dark Elf, High Elf, or Wood Elf teams, just generic "Elves". They were the quintessential finesse team, fast, agile, winning games by dancing around slower, clumsier players, taking away the ball, and scoring at will on offense. When 3rd ed came out, generic Elves disappeared, but rosters were offered for both High Elves and Dark Elves. High Elves were faster and better built for the passing game, Dark Elves were slower but offered Witch Elves. An expansion called Death Zone offered Wood Elves as well, looking a lot like faster, more brittle High Elves.
Fast Forward a few years, Blood Bowl was cancelled by Games Workshop, and rules were in the hands of a fan-run committee. A lot of people noticed that High Elves and Wood Elves had a very similar style and proposed a team to replace them; it had mostly AV7 players, like Wood Elves, the same movement as High Elves, and highly skilled Blitzers and Catchers, essentially translating the old Elf Teams into the current rules set. High Elf and Wood Elf coaches protested strenuously, so those rosters were kept, and the new roster was added.
So why play them? Several reasons. First of all, they're a fun, underrated team with lots of potential, and they should work quite well in the tournament format. Second, they're one of the less common teams in most formats, probably because they're relatively new and didn't get any models until after GW cancelled Blood Bowl. Third, I am petty and enjoy bragging, but I am realistic enough to expect to do quite poorly at the tournament. There are so few Elf teams in the NAF that even a completely neutral, replacement-level performance should put me around rank 200 in the world, and even if I am the worst Elf coach on the planet, I'll still be able to brag about being in the top 500.
There actually are official GW models for Pro Elves:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1100038
... but they look kind of silly. I ordered a team by an independent model company called Neomics:
http://www.neomics.de/shop/fantasy-football-elves
... I like the look of them, and will be finishing and painting them in the coming weeks. Tournament is on the weekend of April 13-14.
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