Mangle-a-lot-of-players is the Norsca way, to say Merry Christmas to you

So I started painting my Norse.  I knew I was going to have some gray-white shades from painting the Werewolves, and since I wanted the wolves to "fit" with the rest of the team, I needed a color to offset the gray.  Dark Red contrasts really well, it's a very classy look.  I was imagining something like "Redskins without Yellow" or "Mississippi State":

This is the look I was going for.  Only a light gray instead of white, and a slightly lighter shade of red, that's almost purple.

So I am nearly finished with the first four figures and I just now figured out that that look (on a football player) looks like Santa Claus on a Blood Bowl figure:

Meh, too late now, I'm keeping it.

The comically oversized werewolf-like figure in the back will be the Yeti.

How to use the inducement menu

Inducements are a great way to turn a one-sided match into a ... slightly less one-sided match.  But in the Cyanide Blood Bowl game, the menu is very non-intuitive and clunky.  Worse, in multiplayer, you're on a timer (!) so that's the worst time to look at your options and figure it out.  If you know how much inducement you're getting before a match, you're probably better off deciding what you want well beforehand, and just taking it when the menu comes up.

Here's what the main menu looks like:

The sections are pretty straightforward.  "Star Players and Mercenaries" is for buying mercs and star players (go figure), "Fair Play" is for boring stuff like wizards, "Foul Play" is for awesome stuff like bribes, "Extra Training" has rerolls and Bloodweiser Babes.
"Potions" is for some optional stuff that nobody uses.

All of the menus work the same except for the Star Players and Mercenaries.  Clicking on the button (the one on the center bottom!) brings up a sub-menu:

Under "Mercenaries", you have a dropdown menu for any position you'd normally be able to buy.  You need a "Slot" free, so if you've already maxed out a position, you can't get more.  But of course you can always get more linemen!  Whatever the position, a mercenary costs 30k more than they usually would (and get Loner).  You can buy an extra skill from their normal selection for 50k.  Once you've selected what you want, click "Hire".  Clicking "Confirm" without first clicking "Hire" just brings you bacak to the main inducement menu, make sure you "Hire" if you want one.

Star Players work the same way, select them from the "Star Players" dropdown menu:

Again, once you decide who you want, click "Hire" FIRST, then "Confirm".

All other menus are much more straightforward.  Click on what you want, and a "Buy" button appears:

Once you click "Buy", select how many:

Click the "+" and "-" until you're at the right amount, then click "Accept".

Once you've "Bought" something, it shows up under "Bought Inducements" on the right.  When you're done, click "Inducement Results" on the bottom left.

You get one last screen:

... where everything you've bought is displayed for you to review.  If you're happy with what you've selected, click "Start of match" and unleash what you've just bought on your opponent!
If not, the "Back Arrow" at the bottom left brings you back to the previous menu.  Remember that you're on a timer in multiplayer though.

Good Luck!

Brace yourself; the Norse are coming!

One of the teams I'd considered painting up for the Tournament was the Norse.  My biggest problem was that the Norse roster has changed since I bought the figures in the late 90s (wow, that's like almost five years ago!).  The roster I bought had four Catchers and four Blitzers.  Since then, the position names have changed (a lot), the team can only buy two each Blitzers and Catchers, but can get two Werewolves.

So I was short two wolves.  Fortunately, yesterday I was able to acquire two ridiculously awesome wolves.  Just look at these guys:

... just LOOK at those models!  They look fast, dynamic, strong, and intimidating - just what the Norse Werewolves are supposed to be!  Cool enough that I now really want to paint the team just so I can use them!

Here are the rest of the team:

Generally I'll only have one (or zero) throwers, but they're cheap enough - if I want two, I'll be able to get two.  Heck, worst comes to worst, a mercenary thrower with Leader is a pretty decent inducement for 150k ...

Blitzers aka Berserkers are pretty awesome killers, but losing two to get Werewolves (aka Ulfwereners) is probably an upgrade.  I plan to always start with both Wolves, and might not always start with both Zerkers.  But in the end, solid and scary players.

You can see the one lineman that I started painting waaaay back in the day.  Once I finish, he'll probably have the record for longest time from start to finish ... "It took me 15 years!!!".  ish.  Not sure when I actually started.

The cheerleaders!  Don't worry, they'll be hot.  Once they actually get onto bases.  These girls are going to be necessary too.  Bad enough that I picked the team with probably the most exposed skin, despite the fact that I hate painting skin ... without the cheerleaders, it would just be a little too much of a homoerotic experience, highlighting every last ab, bicep, and quad on the shirtless Norse ...

Oh yeah, the Catchers!  They've actually improved somewhat since I bought them, but they're still slow-ish (for catchers, MV7 is still not bad).  They also don't start with Catch, getting Dauntless instead.  I think they're now less Catchers now and more "Utility Blitzers".  But I guess I'll find out when I actually play them ...

I will also eventually need a Yeti (aka Yhetee, aka Snow Troll).  Warmachine makes a fantasy game called Hordes which has a surprisingly diverse selection of models suitable to be "Blood Bowl Big Guys".  They actually have a model for a "Winter Troll":

... but since I'm already sort of going with a wolf theme, I was thinking of getting their "Feral Warpwolf":

I'd paint it all white and snowy-looking to fit the theme.  There's no real consensus anyway on what a Yeti looks like ... I don't think there are any official models for it.  But they have Claws (check), Frenzy (check), Wild Animal (check), and Disturbing Presence (would YOU be able to concentrate on throwing or catching the ball when this guy was near you??).  So it seems to fit.

It'll be a while before I'm buying a Yeti anyway so no rush here ...

I'm going to need a color scheme which will fit both wolves and human players.  I'm thinking of going with a medium gray (which will look awesome as wolf fur) and crimson or burgundy to contrast.  I imagine the end effect looking something like Mississippi State. 

I'll keep you all posted!

One week to go!

Tournament is coming up in one week!  In seven days, actually, round two (of six) will have just started.

I'm looking forward to this more than I expected.  I have a healthy attitude (I expect to lose, a lot), I haven't played Blood Bowl on an actual table tip with actual physical figures and dice in about a decade ... but it should be fun and at least interesting to see how my skills have held up.  I do okay in the online leagues that I play, but I suspect that this will be a whole new level of competition.

Wish me luck!