Vimes' Blood Bowl Files 1

Nov 26th, 2009

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 for hours at a time, for the game would take hours, seeing it was the first to three who wins 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.

For three years though I didn't play that many games, seeing work took over and the game's community I was with dissolved, but in 1998 when I moved to Sydney, I started playing again with my then flat mate, Dan Henry, who is probably still the best player that I have ever played against. When we went our seperate ways, I stopped playing once more. I moved to the Central Coast, and all my Blood Bowl gear stayed in a box gathering dust.

Then, by chance, one Thursday afternoon in 1999 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 546 games that I have played, 134 of them with Undead. Skaven come in next with 67. (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.) 248 of them have been league matches, whilst another 128 have been in officially sanctioned tournaments.

Up until recently, I was running/co-ordinating two leagues on the Central Coast. One was played monthly at the Central Coast Corsairs meets, the other is run at the Good Games shop in Gosford. Apart from those, 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 its currently at its fifth venue in four years.

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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