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!

Training & Roster Cuts

Much like a real team, I can't enter this tournament with everything I want; I need to decide which players to bring, which skills to take, how much of everything else I want.

The rules are:

• I get 1100k Gold to spend on my team.  I must spend all of it.
• Before game 1, I get three "normal" skill choices to distribute (one skill per player)
• Before game 4, I get three more skill choices, one of which may be a "double".  Again, one skill per player, which also means players who got a skill before can't get a second.
• This being a tournament, I get no other SPP or skills, but no damage from one game carries over to the next.  Basically, I have the same roster for the entire tournament.

1100k is a decent amount of cash to spend in Blood Bowl.  Usually teams get 1000 to spend to start a season and develop from there, but tournaments try to strike a balance between new teams and experienced ones.  They also try to eliminate the element of luck in skill rolls, MVPs, game money, all of which is random in "default" Blood Bowl play.

Here are some of my options, from most likely to least (today, I am notoriously indecisive about this kind of thing.

3 Catchers, 3 Rerolls

2 Blitzers @ 110k

1 Thrower @ 70k

3 Catchers @ 100k

6 Linemen @ 60k

3 Rerolls @ 50k

= 1100k

Pros: 

12 players means I have a bench, VERY useful for a team with mostly AV7.

3 Rerolls means I can let loose a little bit and take a few more calculated risks than if I had 2.

Cons: 

None really, this is a well-balanced roster and almost certainly what I'll be taking.

4 Catchers, 2 Rerolls

2 Blitzers @ 110k

2 Throwers @ 70k

4 Catchers @ 100k

4 Linemen @ 60k

2 Rerolls @ 50k

= 1100k

(I can also "downgrade" the second thrower to a lineman, and spend the extra 10k on a cheerleader or coach or fan factor; if I keep the thrower, it's probably to take the Leader skill, which costs me a skill slot.  So think of it as trading a skill choice to upgrade a lineman to a Catcher, which is probably worth it when you think of it that way).

Pros:

Pro Elf Catchers are the best in the game, and 4 of them may be too much for some teams to handle.

"Upgrade a lineman to a Catcher" has to be a win all the way, right?

Cons:

Cutting down to 2 rerolls means I need to think twice about every die roll, maybe accept a turnover I otherwise wouldn't have, probably run out anyway.

4 Linemen means that I'm just two Cas or KOs away from putting position players on the front line.

I don't have a second Thrower model, so I'd have to re-paint at least the base of one figure; probably the pointing lineman.

4 Catchers, 3 Rerolls, no bench

2 Blitzers @ 110k

1 Thrower @ 70k

4 Catchers @ 100k

4 Linemen @ 60k

3 Rerolls @ 50k

1 Coach, 1 Cheerleader @ 10k each

= 1100k

Basically, burn a lineman from the roster above and use the cash to buy a reroll.  This leaves 20k left over, which I can spend on coaching staff and cheerleaders.  (Or fan factor, or whatever).  I could also spend 10k to upgrade a lineman to a Thrower, but that would leave me with 3 linemen, which is REALLY asking for it.  

Pros:

4 Catchers, 3 Rerolls, and increased chance to get more rerolls throughout the game

Cons:

Having only 11 players means I'll be outnumbered after even one KO or Cas.  Elves can play fine and win while outnumbered, but once they get below 9 or so players, every additional player loss just makes everything exponentially harder. I suspect having a bench might be essential to low-armor teams in this tournament format; every team I face will be trying to bash me.

Team's ready!

There are still a few details left to finish (I need to seal the paint job with a matt spray, print out my roster, and so on) but for all practical purposes I am ready to go!  Not bad considering the team only arrived a little over a week ago.  I was worried that my painting skills had deteriorated, but I pretty much just stepped in and picked up where I'd left off.  It did help that these are high-quality models, it really does make a difference.  I'd recommend Neomics to anybody and intend to buy their Skaven (*ahem* I mean their "generic fantasy football rat people who infringe on nobody's IP) sooner or later.  I can't say I recommend their online store though, it's still not working and nobody has gotten back to me about my message from weeks ago asking what the hell was going on.  I bought these from Tabletop Onlineshop for less than they're listed on the Neomics website.

ANYWAY, here's the team!

QB (Thrower)

 

My thrower is #12 in honor of the greatest Quarterback in the history of football

Blitzers

Pro Elf blitzers are fast, mobile, great at what they do (getting to where someone needs to be hit, hitting things).  Might have to fix the B on the left guy's base though.  (I usually don't mark positions like that, but these are non-standard models so this makes it easier for everyone).

Catchers

Pro Elf catchers are arguably the best in the game and well worth their 100k gold price.  I'm looking at three of them on the roster I'm working with, but I bought four in case I ever play this team in a league or something.  Who knows?  The extra figures I got were essentially free, since they put me over the threshold for free shipping.

Line-Elves

Sometimes known as linemen by human supremacists who don't think that Elves are capable of packing a punch, line-elves are still excellent finesse players and as capable of throwing a block as anyone else.  They can skill up and be impressively effective in a league, although the way the tournament rules work, these guys won't.  Still, they are quite agile and mobile and capable of making a difference in games.

The Team!

I still don't have a name for these guys.  If I don't think of anything better by April, I am going with the Eärendil Mariners (after a character from the Tolkien Mythos called Eärendil the Mariner).  But there's still time, and now that they're painted I don't really have much else to do ... :-D

Here's the team!  Wish us luck at the tournament!

And then there were 10

The next batch of 5 figures is finished!  As you can tell by the timestamps, this is a considerably slower process during the work week than it is on the weekend.  Four more to go!

Here are all 10:

Here are the first five shown as Blood Bowl players are meant to be shown:  On a Blood Bowl pitch!

I may have to go back and fix the faces, somehow I always screw them up and they have the creepy lumpyface.  I probably won't, these figures are "good enough" for now.  My goal here isn't to win painting competitions, but rather to not embarrass myself (and to claim the 2 points awarded for having painted miniatures).
And I am not fishing for compliments either, I am aware that these are decent-but-not-great.  If you want to see the kind of minis which DO win painting competitions, here's the NAF painting forum for your enjoyment and my envy.  But as long as these aren't the worst-painted minis in the tournament, I'll be happy.  Heck, it should give me something to console myself with after what I expect will be a thorough and merciless ass-kicking.

I think of myself as a decent player, I do okay in leagues with my friends, and in deep online leagues like the FOL I am about a .500 player ... but the last time I went to a Blood Bowl tournament, I got thoroughly humiliated.  I was in a group of four, with the top two teams advancing to elimination (World Cup style).  After the three games, I was 0-3 and hadn't scored a touchdown.
So this time, my goals (in order of likeliness) are:

• Have some fun {Pretty much guaranteed}
• Score a TD
• Not go 0-for the tourney
• Avoid DFL
• Win a few games and end with a positive record
• Place in the tourney {Unlikely}

Here are the first five

I've painted up the first batch of five players.  While that might be enough for what I'll be fielding at the end of games, I'd like to start with a few more players.

I paint from the inside to out.  What that means is, paint whatever's in deep on the model first, then what's covering it, and so on.  If a model of a knight has plate over chain mail, that means paint the mail first, then the plate.  You're more likely to smudge the deeper you go, and it's less of a big deal if you smudge something that you haven't painted yet.

Same thing for Blood Bowl figures.  I started by painting their skin:

Then their pants:

... then the jersies ...

... then the pads ...

... then the hair (this is an elf team, after all, don't forget the highlights!) ...

... then touch up the detail work (piping and belts and buttons and whatnot) ...

... then the bases.

I painted a ball while waiting for the green to dry.
Here's a comparison of the two "mohawk guys":

I still need to do things like jersey numbers, some details, but I'll probably bring all the figures up to this state and do them all at once.  I have a four day weekend coming up for Easter, I should be done when that's finished.

My name is Drybrush Threepwood, I want to be a pirate

My team is assembled, clean, the base is covered with sand, I'm almost ready to start painting.

When I first started playing tabletop games and painting miniatures, I would already have started, just applying paint to the bare metal.  That works, but it's easy to miss some details, and even worse, paint doesn't always stick to pewter as well or as evenly as it should.  I quickly started using a base coat (coloring the entire figure with one color of paint, then applying the final colors over that).  At first I used a paintbrush and normal paints, but that quickly became tedious.  These days I use spray paint.

Put all your figures on a flat cardboard box, GO OUTSIDE, lie your figures on their backs, spray them from the bottom.  Let them dry about 10 minutes, flip them over, spray from the bottom again.  Wait another 10 minutes or so, stand them up, and spray them from several angles.  What you're looking at there is the first coat of spray from the top.  I needed a few more layers to get every surface, but that's time well invested.  When they're ready, take them off the box.  Sometimes the spray paint sticks them down, use a knife or something to pry them free.  Damaging the box is no big deal, but try not to damage the bases.

Ready to paint now?  Almost.  Time for some drybrushing.
Take your largest, oldest, cheapest paintbrush - it won't be good for much else afterwards.  Dip it lightly into some white (or very light gray) paint - less is more.  Swish it around on some paper until almost no paint is coming off any more:

Then firmly hold a model and do the same swishing motion over your figure.  What's happening is that the paint on the outside of the brush is nearly dry, but higher up and inside the brush it's still most, not quite wet.  It applies a very thin coating, mostly to raised surfaces, while getting almost no paint in deep crevasses.  The end effect should look something like this:

There we go, now this is starting to look like something!  This kind of drybrushing has several benefits.  It helps you see the detail while you're painting, and generally makes the whole operation almost a paint-by-numbers operation.  Also, unless you paint really thick, the final layer of paint will be lighter over the white areas and darker over what is now black, giving a pleasing 3-d fade effect.

Make sure you wash your drybrush well, the paint goes all through the bristles and it's basically totally dry by now.

Next step, I'll finally get started actually painting colors on actual figures, which you may recall as the entire point of this exercise!