Vimes' Blood Bowl Files 1

July 5th, 2010

I have a love/hate relationship with this game. At times I love it, and at times I truly hate it, especially when one has rolled successive sets of double-skulls and the side is getting beaten around the board. I have tried (unsuccessfully) to give the game up on a number of occasions, but just keep coming back to it, no matter how hard I have tried to stop.

I first played this game around 1992, when my brother somehow got a copy of the first edition box set. We used to play it sporadically, for the game would take hours to play, seeing it was the first to three points who would win the game. On one occasion I think we played for over three hours just to get one touchdown, then promptly gave up. There are no miniatures, just cardboard markers, and we pretty much just designed our sides with whatever players we wanted, regardless if they were meant to be on the same side or not. It wasn't unusual to have a side made up of humans, dwarves, dark elves and trolls. I still have the box set.

Then, in 1994, I was given the third edition box set for my 25th birthday. It was the second best present I have ever received. (First would have to be the broadband internet connection that I have, but that's another story.) I started a league in Tamworth later that year and we played local tournaments amongst ourselves just to past the time over the next year or so.

Eventually work started dictating my gaming time, and games became far and few inbetween. The game's community I was with dissolved, and with personal problems of my own to sort out, I moved to Sydney in 1998. I started playing again with my then flat mate, Dan Henry, who is probably still the best player that I have ever played against. Some nights we played up to three games just to kill time. When we went our seperate ways in 1999, I stopped playing once more. I then moved to the Central Coast, and all my Blood Bowl gear stayed in a box gathering dust.

Then, by chance, one Thursday afternoon in Spring of that year I just happened to be wandering through the Imperial Shopping Centre in Gosford, and saw a group of people in a games shop. There was a Blood Bowl board set up and the second round of the league was starting shortly. I dashed back home to Umina, picked up my team and board, and rushed back as fast as public transport would allow me. I met Stephen Babbage that night, and the rest is history.

All up, as of today, I have the results of 588 games that I have played, 134 of them with Undead. Skaven come in next with 74. (The number could well be much higher, but the paper I used to keep track of my results on was thrown out a long time ago when I converted my records to an electronic format. Then, the computer contracted a virus and I lost said record. There was no back-up.) 260 of them have been league matches, whilst another 139 have been in officially sanctioned tournaments.

Soon I will be running the newly revamped Central Coast Blood Bowl League, which is kicking-off on July 31st at the Good Games store in Gosford. I also run a local tournament, the Russell Drysadale Sevens, which has been going for four years now. It is a bit of a wandering tournament, seeing it has had five venues in that time. Back in June 2010, I also ran the Gosford Gauntlet, which was the first ever NAF approved BB tournament held on the Central Coast. 17 players featured in the tournament, with $270 in prizes being distributed.

Arguably my best achievement to date on the pitch, was winning Clash of the Titans in 2008, going through undefeated. I am also pretty proud of my 6th place at Eucalyptus Bowl in the same year, losing only one match. In fact, 2008 wasn't a bad year for tournaments all up for me, whereas 2009 has been a year I'd rather forget. I have also won three Sportsmanship awards, at Euc Bowl in 2005 (which was my first ever official tournament), Leviathan in 2006, and MOAB in 2007.

Naturally, I prefer winning a tournament to winning sportsmanship any day, but I do pride myself on being a friendly opponent. (Though at times it can be a struggle...)

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