Blood Bowl: Tough league match yesterday against the Wood Elves, with Mad As Hell recovering and holding on for a 2-all draw, despite having both blitzers unavailable for the match. The elves scored on turns two and eight, the OWA on turn four of each half. Dramatic last turn with the elves on the attack, a failed dodge leaves the ball carrying elven thrower a little exposed. The halfling runs around to mark her, a lineman marks the wardancer covering her rear, then the dwarven runner charges across, rushes twice and pushes her off the pitch, the crowd killing her. The ball is thrown in towards my end zone, the wardancer opts to leap to escape his markers but fails to land properly. Phew. The side is currently in third place with a match to go before round six is completed.
Blood Bowl: The bubble has been burst and Mad As Hell crashed to their first defeat of the season, with a Vampire team running in three touchdowns without a response. With a blizzard setting in at the start of the game, affecting the OWA more than their vampiric opponents, both blitzers were injured and off the pitch by turn three with permanent injuries, with the thralls seemingly invincible with thier AV 8+, the only casualties coming from a vargeist bite and a crowd surf.
Other Gaming: For something a little different, from May 17, I've been regularly playing table-top Battletech against Richard, a gaming mate based in Narara. With him having received a large collection of material from a Kickstarter project ealier this year, we have been getting used to the rules after long absences from the game. I have even bought two lances online to use in our skirmishes, of which there have been five so far, the most recent of them (July 12) being an assault mech duel between an Annihilator and my favourite big mech the Atlas. It prevailed, but had taken a lot of punishment during the battle and wasn't far off from being put out of action. I currently lead the series 3-2.
Blood Bowl: Before heading off to Eucalyptus Bowl, I managed to squeeze in another league game (on July 2) with The Mad As Hell side. In what was a rather unusual game where the weather fluctuated from Sweltering Heat to Blizzard, they scored first, but with five players left on the pitch in the latter stages of the game, they were unable to hold off their Chaos Dwarven opponents who equalised on the last turn. To add a bit of muscle to the side, a treeman was recruited for the next game. At EB over the weekend of July 5 & 6, the Umina Bunnies Amazons started off well, winning their first round match against their Human opponents 3-2. However, they struggled for the rest of the event, managing three draws (against Wood Elves, Necromantic and Ogres) and finishing with a 1-3-2 record. 148 coaches participated in the event, with all but the Nurgle represented.
Writing: Whilst at EB, I was interviewed for the podcast Down Under World Denizens by Steve Babbage, otherwise known as Babs on the BB scene and his offsider Paul Miller. Talk centred around the first Feudball book, which had it's origins at the first EB tournament 20 years ago after I had picked up a fantasy novel, based on the game we still play, as a prize at the first EB twenty years ago. After reading it, we both felt that we could do better. I hinted at a possible extension of the current series with two further books. Though I've got notes and rough starts for both of them, whether I ever get around to it is a different thing. I'll post the link to the episode when it's posted.
Blood Bowl: Mad As Hell continue on their winning way with a 3-0 win last Sunday (15 June) over last season's winner Tupi. The first half was tough going with the opening point taking six turns, but when the casualties regularly started coming the game became quite one-sided, with the OWA scoring twice in the second half and winning the casualty count 8-4. The team is still on top of the ladder on for and against and currently top the casualties as well.
Blood Bowl: The Mad As Hell Old World Alliance side currently sits at the top of the league after two wins, with a 3-1 win over one of the Slann teams at the Central Coast Leagues Club on May 21, then defeated the Orcs 2-0 on June 7. They lead 1-0 at half-time in both matches and ended up with a player earning a niggling injury. In the first match it was the dwarven runner, whilst a linewoman copped it in the second. I've been able to find suitable miniatures for the team, so my Chaos Pact nun team (mostly made up of Shadowforge fantasy football miniatures, available from Eureka miniatures) is now multi-purpose side, where I can not only use it as a human team (like I have in the past), but now Old World Alliance as well. Because of additional positional changes to races, like Chaos Dwarves, new miniatures are needed, which make two blockers redundent. Thankfully, in this case, a pair of female chaos dwarf blockers in the CD team that I have, needing to be replaced by Flamesmiths, are now finding a new life in the OWA side as dwarven blockers.
Writing: Good progress has been made on Blutmunth - Trial by Combat in recent weeks. I'm finding there a lot of little things just popping up that I need to put into the story, embellishing it somewhat and correcting a few errors as well. I'm finally back up to the actual battle (again) for this third edit (for the tenth version) where I have plans to add plenty of extra material, including additional points of view in some of the engagements and some behind the scenes moments during the quieter hours. I am really pleased with how it is turning out, but I have to aim for a spring release rather than winter. There's still so much more to do like maps and a proper cover for starters.
Blood Bowl: The Outback Cup 2025 was a tournament to forget, with my Dark Elves, the Maplins' Yellowcoats, struggling through the day, finishing with a 1-1-3 record. 3 touchdowns, 1 casualty inflicted and a completion was all they managed, with some horrendous rolling in the opening two matches that will not be forgotten. The overall winner Gnome, fielding skaven, was on the top table for all of the day whilst I spent most of mine at the bottom. Late last month the Chaos on the Coast BB League was concluded, with the winner being Tupi's Amazons, defeating the commissioner's Elven Union side 2-1 in the final. The Emperor's of Rome finished sixth overall with a 5-3-3 record. Registration for the next season is currently open and I have already paid and created an Old World Alliance roster, Mad As Hell, for the new season.
Blood Bowl: There's been a flurry of matches played so far this year, including league, tournament, trials and some dungeon bowl. In the local BB league, I finished the regular season off for the Emperors of Rome II with three straight draws. The first was a tight 1-all draw against a Dark Elven outfit on Jan 12th at Elemental Arcade, the second on Jan 21st at the same venue against the Commissioner's Elven Union team finished 3-all, whilst the third match, which was my Round 11 fixture, was played the Central Coast Leagues Club on Feb 19th, finished 1-all with the undead side earning enough points to remain in fourth place for the time being, until the rest of the league catches up. On March 15th, the third Chaos on the Coast one-day tournament took place at Ourimbah RSL with 28 coaches participating. I fielded a Khorne side, the Gene Hackman Fan Club, which only managed two draws on the day. Their first round match was against eventual winner D'Arquebus, who was playing Snotlings, with the GHFC roundly beaten up in a 0-2 loss, with the side suffering 14 casualties throughout the day. The next events that I'll be attending shall be The Outback Cup, a sevens tournament on May 2nd in Slyvania Heights (same venue for the annual MOAB event) and Eucalyptus Bowl in July which I have already registered and paid for.
Writing: I completed a second edit of Blutmunth: A Trial by Combat earlier in the month, where I've devised an alternative means to read the book. Originally, the reader had a chronological order of events from start to finish, with some versions even going back further to where the Blutmunth curse actually started. However, seeing the book has seven distinct stories running concurrently, I have taken note of what section(s) each day belongs to, so if the reader desires, they could read the stories individually rather than jumping from day to day. All I need to do is add the hyperlinks to each part and create a seperate Table of Contents.
Blood Bowl: After a five week wait for a match, the EOR II took on their round eight Black Orc opponents in Ourimbah on Dec 28. The undead managed to hang on for a 1-0 victory, which temporarily puts them back into the top three, but it came at a cost, with two ghouls killed in the match. One had played 15 matches, the other, a fairly recent edition, registered the winning touchdown and the side's only casualty for the game before being slain late in the match.
Writing: Editing work began in earnest this month on Blutmunth: A Trial by Combat, the first book in the Mageslayer series. After working on a few ideas for books three and four for a couple of months, I decided on Dec 14 it was time to get to work on the first volume, after neglecting it for so long. Most of the work currently is formatting and 'reverting' the technology in the book back to an early industrial world of steam era, though there has been plenty of additions as well. Work is progressing smoothly.
Blood Bowl: Well, the Gosford Gauntlet went ahead with 14 participants at Elemental Arcade in Gosford on Nov 24. Coaches traveled from the Blue Mountains and Windsor for the four match 7s event. I opted for an Elf Union team, the Nagatoro Nekos, finishing with a 2-0-2 record and ahead 5-3 on touchdowns in what was my 100th NAF Tournament. I was on the top table for the last round, which was a terribly one-sided match against my nemesis Gnome, who proceeded to steamroll me with his Chaos Chosen side for a 1-0 victory in the second half when I only had four players left to contest it. He was also the first winner of the original GG 11s way back in 2010.
Blood Bowl: Three league matches were scheduled in a fortnight for the Emperors of Rome II, starting with a one against the Norse. It was a 3-1 victory for the undead on Oct 11, though they didn't quite have it all their own way, allowing their opponents to even things up at half-time with a defensive error and then failing a hand-off on halfway at the start of the second. A poor block from the yhetee allowed them to recover theball then retake the lead, then finish it off with a favourable kick-off and a third point. Next match was at Gerry's on Oct 16 against a new player in the league and his Orc side. It was a tough grinding match with undead team getting away with a 2-0 win but having a key player injured and out for the next match. The third match on Oct 25 was also at Gerry's against the competition leader Tupi and his Amazons. It wasn't a great game, with my AV 8+ curse playing havoc, a dead ghoul and a few knock-outs along the way, losing to a solitary TD in turn 16. Despite the loss I'm still in second place. On Nov 24 there'll be another tournament on the Central Coast, a sevens event sharing the name of my old tournament the Gosford Gauntlet. Places are quite limited due to the size of the venue. Hopefully the tournament will get registered for the match so I can get my 100th official event out of the way.
Life: October was a busy month. Along with the MOAB tournament there was the annual Mental Health ArtWorks! exhibition over at the gallery in East Gosford where I entered a self-portrait (which can be seen on the featured page), the start of a new A-League season on Oct 18 as well as Champions League matches to attend (with another one tomorrow night), as well as the two support group meetings at the start of the month, with me running the October anxiety group meeting solo this time round. Tuesday (Nov 5), the cycle starts again with another anxiety group meeting, then on Thursday (Nov 7) the 20th anniversary of the Schizophrenia & Bipolar Fellowship/One Door Mental Health support group here on the coast. I also attended an OCD webinar on Oct 22 which was rather informative.
Writing: Been working on and off on the third installment of the Mageslayer series. Still been getting ideas for it at odd hours of day and night and being compelled to write when I can't sleep. There's been a lot of blogging, mostly gaming posts, though I've been trying to keep the other two up-to-date as well.
Blood Bowl: Gees, this is shockingly out-of-date. Let's start with MOAB, which was played last weekend. I took the recently approved Gnome team for a run, utilizing some pygmies that I had bought just for that purpose. I won the first game I played with them, beating the eventual runner-up Tupi (who was playing Underworld without the skaven), but finished in 11th place overall Iwith a 1-3-2 record. I also faced the eventual winner in round four, Cullen, who was playing Chaos Chosen. I also faced Orcs, Khorne, High Elves and Amazons over the course of the weekend. This now completes the 31 races. I've also got a league game to play tomorrow with the undead. They last played on Sept 4, beating (up) the High Elves for a 3-1 victory. Prior to that, there was a 0-1 defeat to Gerry's ogres way back on August 15.
Blood Bowl: Great start for the Emperors of Rome II in the opening match of Season 3 of Chaos on the Coast. The undead took on a halfling side, who had Frank N Stein join them for the encounter. Despite having no re-rolls for the first half, the side scored early, but at the cost of a wight being hampered by a niggling injury. With Frank and the treemen being rather uncooperative, the undead had a great second half, taking advantage of halflings errors and scoring three more times to win 4-0. The casualty count finished 8-3 in their favour, with none of the undead successful in their regeneration rolls. They play ogres next.
Blood Bowl: Redrafted the Emperors of Rome II team a couple of weeks ago and they're ready to go in the latest edition of the Central Coast BB League. I actually have my first game lined up for tomorrow, with the undead roster squaring off against halflings. As for Eucalyptus Bowl (July 13/14), my CCM FC human team struggled, finishing with a 2-1-3 record in 44th place. The second day was much better than the first, with wins in rounds four and five over Vampires and Orcs, but struggled against Chaos sides in rounds one and three. We had the youngest winner of the tournament yet, with the rather surreal experience of the father (and current TO) presenting the trophy to his son.
Life: Been considerably busy since EB, with online training in becoming a support group facilitator taking up a few mornings. Must say the Zoom meetings are a new experience for me, though they make me more anxious than face-to-face meetings. The weather has been improving a little and I have been getting out more, catching up with friends and taking in a live show and football matches.
Writing: With social outings, gaming and online training, I've neglected wook on current projects such as Devil at Large. One thing I did do during the week, is stop off at my local Officeworks branch and scanned an unfinished story from 1995. It was written in an old exercise book, 88 pages long, and was about a genetically modified man who winds up joining an intergalatic mercenary group, mostly because he just really couldn't fit in society. Just need to edit the scans and turn it into a PDF.
Blood Bowl: Not much happening recenty, apart from regular weekly games of Mordheim over at a mate's place in Narara. In the local BB league, the Emperors of Rome II undead side finished the season in fifth place, just missing the play-offs on touchdown difference. The season finished last Monday with the Chaos Dwarves defeating the Tomb Kings 2-1, making it two-in-a-row for the chaos team. I've decided upon taking humans to next week's annual Eucalyptus Bowl tournament - just need to change a couple of numbers on the miniatures and they're right to go.
Writing: With the lengthy rain spells returning recently, I've managing to get some more writing done on the third part of the Blutmunth series, which has been tentively titled Devil at Large, which includes characters from the Wandering Minstrel short story. This time, Ceaucescu and James the Bard are conducting a Cleric's League trial (organisation that supports casters and offers and provides paid work for their members) for three prospective candidates - the nature of the trial being a manhunt for a notorious army deserter and caster in a dangerous part of the Shaunovan Empire. I managed to get the second draft organized last month and it's currently around 25,000 words. I've also been inspired to scribble down a couple more poems recently, though they both need further work.
Blood Bowl: Well, quite a bit out of date here. Chaos on the Coast on March 16, was rather chaotic and didn't go well for my Slann team the Ourimbah Outcasts. With 28 coaches in attendance, their record was a miserable 0-1-2, which saw them finish near the bottom of the ladder, the draw being in the second round. Things picked up considerably for the Outback Cup at Shire Con, which was held at the Sylvania Heights Community & Youth Club on April 20. I fielded a Vampire roster, the Horror of Dracula, to the sevens event and finished up undefeated in second place with a 3-2-0 record. Their overall touchdown count was 11-4, with the winning Lizardman side marginally ahead on 4-1-0. As for the local league, the Emperors of Rome II undead side finished the season with three straight wins - all forfeits. Their record over the regular season was 7-3-2 and they reached fourth place on the ladder, though there are couple of matches still to play which will determine their final position. TD count was 14-9 with casualties 14-19. Their only two losses so far were against the High Elves in February and the competition leaders the Chaos Dwarves way back in September last year.
Writing: With weather conditions going from sultry to continual periods of rain, I'm still writing, though somewhat struggling in the extremes and quite distracted by social outings and the Central Coast Mariners fine run through the A-League and AFC competitions. The first draft of Wandering Minstrel is almost finished, with the characters now being employed for a second story in what was originally intended to be the fourth volume in the Mageslayer series, Jeweled Duel, which will become the third instead. I've also been inspired to scribble down a couple of poems recently, though they both need further work.
Blood Bowl: My first attendance at a NAF event this year will be this weekend when the second edition of Chaos on the Coast goes ahead on Saturday, March 16 at the Ourimbah RSL. Plenty of interest in this event with around 30 coaches expected to play, with quite a few coming up from Sydney to take part. I'll be taking Slann seeing its been placed in Tier 2 and there are bonuses to be had. Whether I still remember how to play them properly remains to be seen. As for the league, my opponent for the next round finally got his previous match played so I may be able to play him soon and finish off my season, of which I have three matches still to play.
Writing: Despite the heat here and all the other distractions, I have been working on a fantasy novella which I want to put into the Mageslayer series as Blutmunth. It's set just as the first novel concludes but before the beginning of the second. It'll serve as a nice little bridge between the two which I'd like to publish with another short story I wrote decades ago called Spitzlowen Keep, which takes place well before the first book in the series. It's a simple story, tentatively titled The Wandering Minstrel which involves a militia bard being called upon to find out who's responsible for a series of abductions in a frontier city.
Blood Bowl: It was mixed results for the Emperors over the last three weeks. On Jan 27 at Elemental Arcade in Gosford, they continued their winning run with a 1-0 win over the second norse team in the competition in an extremely tight match. However the run came to an abrupt halt when they faced the fifth-placed high elves at Ourimbah on Feb 8, who capitalised on several errors and romped in for a 4-1 victory.Though they were able to finally get some casualties, they came way too late to stem the tide and now need to regroup before facing their next opponents.
Blood Bowl: The Emperors haven't played since Dec 13 last year after taking on a chaos side in a pretty tough match at the Elemental Arcade in Gosford. The end result was a 1-0 victory in their favour, despite suffering five casualties, including the death of Galba the wight (fancy failing both regeneration rolls - sigh). After receiving a forfeit win last Monday (Jan 15) they are due to play the second norse team in the local competition sometime this week once it has been arranged.
Sport: Through a gaming buddy on the Central Coast, I have been introduced to the game of Walking Football, a much slower version of the game I used to play, but it can be quite competitive. So far this month I've attended two sessions, once at an artificial pitch at Tumbi Umbi on Jan 2, and the other at the Mariners' Centre of Excellence at Tuggerah on Jan 21. Matches are usually five-a-side (though the numbers vary due to how many turn up) and played on smaller pitches with shorter goals. Further information can be found here.
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