2011 So Far...

It's not quite halfway through the year yet, but now is an opportune time to examine the state of my hobby. The wife and our three kids will be heading out of town for five weeks soon (my wife is German and spends summers over there when she can) thus I need to make sure I have all my ducks in a row for what will hopefully be one of the more productive periods of the year. In all honestly, last year was not a very productive time. My theory was that there weren't three crazy kids and a wife to need relief from. just me and the dog. Anyway, let's review 2011 in light of my January goals.

Blood Bowl Norse finished!

Blood Bowl Norse, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

Yay! The Norse are completely completed, and I have run them through my little birthday bash as-- wait for it!!-- team name Turning Thorty, har har har!! Anyway, the party was a blast, we played Blood Bowl straight through for almost twelve hours. My incredible wife stocked us up with Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, Subway platters for lunch, local Chenese joint trays of food for dinner, kept the coffee pot full, wrangled the kids, and had more Yuengling on hand than the thirteen of us could possibly drink! We only (!) got in three games. I went into the last round ranked second, and played first place-- we tied and third place won his game, taking the day! My opponent and I also tied on TD differential, so the tie breaker went to casualties, with him having the better differential, so I ended third on the day-- not too shabby. Pictures of my team on the next page:

Blood Bowl Norse Painted

Blood Bowl Norse, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

There! It took me longer than I thought it would, as it always does, but I have finished painting the Norse team-- nine Linemen, two Throwers, two Catchers, two Blitzers, two Ulfwereners, and one Yhetee. I still have the basing to do, but I want to experiment a little before I start, and then do them all at the same time so they hopefully match well. Despite the basing, they will make their fully painted debut as Björnsson's Bullies at tomorrow night's Painsphere meet up. My Field Marshals wouldn't mind a rematch against them myself...we'll see...

Blood Bowl Norse

Blood Bowl Norse, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

I finished another three Linemen! I was about ready to just stop here-- Norse have a lot of positionals and I think six Lineman are probably plenty...but then with AV 7, injuries and Journeymen, I better just go ahead with the nine I originally intended. I do have basing materials ready to start basing once the last three are done. I will be trying something along the lines of these snowy bases.

Yhetee! Yippee!

Blood Bowl Yhetee, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

Finally got my Yhetee conversion done! He started out as Reaper's 02697: Yeti, a figure I've had knocking around for a while. I think he turned out pretty well, although I've had a heck of a time getting a decent picture of him once he was painted. I think he looks better than any of the photographs show. I'm not under any illusions about the quality of the sculpting, but I am pleased overall! Click "Read More" to see a lot of in-progress shots and a comparison picture with the Ulfwereners and normal players.

Norse Ulfwereners

Blood Bowl Norse, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

And the reason why those horns were so unadorned-- I really wanted to move on to my Ulfwereners from Willy Miniatures! These are my first non-Games Workshop "Fantasy Football" figures, and I picked them up through Impact Miniatures. Willy Miniatures has some really sweet figures-- I just need half an excuse to buy those Wights!-- and I really like these figures, although they have some scaling issues. They are ST 4 bodies on ST 3 feet! I also liked his Snow Troll, and almost bought it...but I have other plans for that! And they're coming along swimmingly, and will soon (well, soonishly) be unveiled here! Click more to see the Ulfwereners compared to a normal Lineman.

Norse Linemen

Blood Bowl Norse, a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

I was out of action for a couple of weeks due to work travel, but am back in the saddle again. Here are the first three of my Norse Linemen done. I may go back and pretty up the horns a bit at some point. Or I may just leave it like that... Six more Linemen, two Ulfwereners, and one Yhetee to go...

Getting the Band Back Together!

The Blood Bowl has been picking up around here lately, and there's a very specific reason why. I've got one of those large round numbered birthdays coming up. Now, I'm not the sort of person who goes for all that celebratory nonsense. To me, my birthday is just another day. However, my wife is bound and determined that we will celebrate this birthday somehow-- so much so, that she threatened to have a party with all HER friends if I didn't come up with a better idea! So, I did.

Norse Blitzers

Blood Bowl Norse a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

I finished my two Norse Blitzers this afternoon. I'm pretty pleased with the team, they're turning out nicely. Nine linemen, two Ulfwereners and a Yhetee to go...

Blood Bowl Norse

Blood Bowl Norse a photo by The Gonk on Flickr.

I finished the first four of my Norse team-- the two Throwers and the two Catchers. The team colors are purple (in a nod to the Vikings) and gold. I have the two Blitzers about half completed. After that, I have nine Linemen to finish, two Willy Miniatures Ulfwereners/Norse Werewolves in the mail, and a Reaper Yeti that I'm considering having a go at sculpting a winged helmet for...

The Next Project Begun!

Blood Bowl Norse
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

With our Blood Bowl league underway, we have several coaches new to the game that don't have teams. We have plenty of teams to borrow, but most of mine aren't painted! Here is my attempt to rectify that, by painting my Norse. We have two players in the league who are playing them, so we'd better have two teams painted for the day they both show up for a game!

Welcome to the Painsphere!

The Painsphere in Public
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

We recently started up a local Blood Bowl league in Knoxville-- the Painsphere! I'm pleasantly surprised by the response. We've had a couple of game nights with 5+ coaches showing up, and eight coaches playing thirteen matches so far, just from within our own gaming groups and associates. Last Tuesday, we played in a local gaming shop, centrally located for many of the coaches. This is the first time I have played in a local gaming shop in a number of years!

Paper Blood Bowl Players

Make Your Own Game Pieces contains foldable paper cubes to represent Blood Bowl players. It's an interesting idea. Obviously, it's not as nice as a fully painted team, but it's probably easier to use than proxies when trying out a new team.

A Return to Three Coach Blood Bowl

Threeway Blood Bowl
Originally uploaded by The Gonk

We played an impromptu game of my old hack for Blood Bowl with three players. It actually played fairly well, despite a few oddities. We played with 11 players per side and a single ball, with the kicking team able to place the ball in either receiver's third. What we found was that once the ball was well into somebody's third, he was playing 1 on 2 as both other teams had only a short distance to go to score! I might try to assign scoring end zones instead of letting teams score in anybody else's end zone. We also had a kick-off in which the next player to take a turn was not the receiving team. But, overall, the changes to play felt minor, this still felt like Blood Bowl to me.

Are Ya Ready for some BLOOD BOWL?

It's BLOOD BOWL TIME in Tennessee! I just finished up my Orc Blood Bowl team. This surpasses my Ogryn Genestealer hybrid in the length of time to finish...neigh unto 15 years in the making?

Blood Bowl Three Way Throwdown!

Nope, here it is, just about the closest 3x board you could do in hexes, I bet. 15 squares wide, and 13 squares to score a TD from the LOS.

Three Team Blood Bowl

For those times when you have an odd number of coaches, I've always thought it would be great to have a three team version of Blood Bowl, so everybody could play. Recently, I've put a little more work into this idea.

Ripper Bolgrot

Finished the troll star player Ripper Bolgrot.

Blood Bowl Ogres

Finished two Blood Bowl ogres.

Are ya ready for some BLOOD BOWL?

cos I am!