Riding the Vampire Rollercoaster at Kent Team Championship.

Vampire Teams, very aptly given there background always have a certain allure to playing them. The dream of being able to dismantle the most well constructed cage, sacking the ball carrier and running away with the ball is such a draw that it tends to counteract the reality of spending half the game biting your own players to death and running away from your intended victim to the nearest moving blood bag. When they'd got there update and their awesome new GW models I couldn't resist and picked up a team and with very little prodding from Lachlan (my Blood Bowl playing brother, my 40k playing brother doesn't get a name until he plays in an event) agreed to sign up to Kent Team Championship. 

Vampires doing their absolute best to create Chaos on the Orc drive.

To finish up the team we had Gummer - who's had a few mentions on this blog as a long time 40k clubmate and David who I went to school with and we have played a lot of DnD together over the years. All four of us played in an online Blood Bowl 2 league but we were pretty green at the table top version. Lachlan, having played the most tournaments (6ish?) and organiser was team captain, then in experience terms was me having played one single tournament before (which had gone well, ending up 2nd with Undead and you can read about that here if you so desire.) Gummer had done a a handful of tabletop Blood Bowl although hadn't been to any events whereas David hadn't played any tabletop BB in any form before joining. We did a couple of practice games to try and get people up to speed and I ended up getting very annoyed by  my Vampires. I did back and forth about taking a few other teams instead, but in the end having been Khemri in the online league recently I wanted a very dynamic team and Vampires fit the bill. 

Having started with trying max vampires in the entire 2 practice games I had - I decided I needed to limit myself to 5 and to start the roster with 4 re-rolls. Vargheist, two Runners and a Thrower were all lock in, the question was if to have the second Thrower or a Blitzer. The Blitzer had been a real awkward piece to use with Bloodlust 3+ on both it and Vargheist, but had more upside adding a even better cage breaking piece with Juggernaut and taking Strip ball as a upgrade. Having had some time at this point to look back on my practice games, I wanted to try and lean into the chaos a bit more than normal (I tend to prefer teams mid-range teams were I can bide my time, slow down cage with expendable bodies and pounce on mistakes) to extra upside on Blitzer won out and he took one of the 6 skills that the team was entitled on with the remaining Vampires all taking Pro to try and mitigate some of the randomness. The Vargheist took Mighty Blow and a thrall had Wrestle - I realised after submitting I'd probably have rather dropped Wrestle to update Mighty Blow to block on Vargheistbut got distracted. Speaking of Thralls, ended up with 8 and 2 Assistant Coaches to fill up the points preferring the fourth re-roll but pondering taking a 9th and dropping re-roll/coaches. Final roster ended up as below:

As a team we ended up as myself with Vampire, Lachlan had Norse, Gummer with Imperial Nobility and David with Skaven. We didn't have any great aspirations for top table given our lack of experience, but on a personal level I was aiming for 50% win/loss ratio and hoping for a little more.

Game 1 v Law_of_course's Khemri. Opponents Team -  The Power Arrangers

Pregame thoughts - Firstly, great team name. With 4 Tomb Guardians and 2 Blitzer's and a host of tooled up Skeletons I couldn't afford to get into a slow grindy game. I'd made a promise to myself before the tournament to try and lean into the chaos of Vampires, live with the rough and keep trying nonsense and this felt like exactly the sort of match up were this needed to be the plan anyway. 

Khemri win roll off and elect to kick. I set up protecting my runners on the flanks but in position to counter attack, spreading out on LoS to try and mitigate Khemri's guard.

Khemri deploy hard on line in response with couple of Throwers in back.

Khemri start off softening my LoS but the kick off puts the ball right at back of pitch (just out of shot behind the further left runner.) In my turn I try and mark up the  Khemri Blitzer on the bottom of shot and shoot a runner upfield to pressure the ball. The other Runner Bloodlusts and I forget I can move them before the turnover and just leave them still, thankfully the only time I make the mistake.

Going into turn 3 here - Khemri keep punching away around LoS and start scrambling back but for second turn in a row drop the ball. The lone on left Runner needs a 4+ to pick up the ball then a 2+ to score but can't pick the ball up and burns a re-roll. 

There's two battles on the pitch now almost entirely separate, the fighting the middle almost irrelevant as Khemri knock out a runner but can't pick up the ball. My other runner zooms in needing a 2+ to pick up the ball and a single 2+ dodge to score...but fails even with a re-roll.  

Khemri start to stabilise the pitch and form a midfield cage. I fail to hypno gaze a one of the cage corners and end up having to Blitz the edge of the cage rather than the ball carrier to try and knock the ball loose. 

Khemri have had several early scare but are putting the hurt on Vampires now. I do manage to get a Blitz chance on the ball carrier need a single rush and roll a double one to collapse frustrating next to them.

Vampires all over the floor as Khemri start charging through my lines virtually unopposed now.

I scramble back as best I can, and at least manage to get a thrall next to the ball carrier - he's blitzed off and Khemri score leaving me a single turn to score. 

A huge stroke of luck as the ref award an extra turn with Khemri hiding at back. My runners swarm upfield protected by thralls.

Khemri rush upfield trying to block lanes for my advance

One runner hypnogazes a bliter on the right as the other gets the ball from the thralls and dodges past the Guardian on the right...and rolls a double one on the single GFI needed to equalise. 

Tough first half for Vampires, having 3 very solid chances to score and 2 decent cage breaking chances missed, but at least two chances to get knocked out players back means I have a mostly healthy team going into second half. 

Patient start to second half - thralls move up to take up space on the flanks as Vargheist tries to soften up the LoS.

Khemri mostly stand off and Vargheist creates a hole in the middle on Vampire turn. I keep my thrower back out of Khemri's blitz efforts and I swarm everything I can through the middle trying to keep Khemri focused more on the backfield than ball carrier or risk not leaving enough cover in the back.

Khemri are getting bogged down and can't get over to the top of shot side of the pitch. When Vargheist manages to stun a Guardian it creates a real lack of strength on that side and I move up and throw the ball to a runner with my Blitzer and two thralls in the middle blocking 6 Khemri players from getting around them.

Khemri manage to dodge with a Blitzer and one dice sack my ball carrier, but they can't put any more pressure on the ball. In my turn I blitz the ball carrier away and score with a runner to even up. There's about 4 turns left at this stage and given the chances I created in first half I want to try and replicate one and push for win over trying to stall out for a draw. 

Deployment going into Khemri drive - ball scatters all the way to the edge!

Khemri swarm over to the south side and I respond likewise. Vargheist blitzes from the floor as I try and herd Khemri toward the flank hoping to try and force them into a easily disrupted side cage.

Khemri decide its go time and bludgeon through Vampire lines but the ball is exposed. 

It hasn't always been easy for Vampires so far, but I have fantastic turn as I hypogaze my way towards the ball carrier and my Blitzer knocks the ball loose. It bounces into the open and my free runner picks it up and runs into the midfield. 

Khemri swarm around my runner, but fail to knock them over. Reinforcements from Vampires create a little side pocket for the Runner to dodge through as they move upfield. 

Turn 15 for Khemri and they manage to scramble back to the ball carrier, smashing some players free to help a Blitzer who collects the ball but can't move it away. 

Turn 16 for Vampires and my Blitzer knocks the ball loose, my runner on the floor picks it up, and for the second time needs a GFI to score, this time managing it as Vampires score on the last turn to win. 

Postgame thoughts - What a rush (pun intended - sorry)! The first half felt like such a missed opportunity to score against the drive and left the team battered - I think I had 5 or 6 players KO'd at one point and I wonder if Khemri would almost have been better off not scoring as a result - when they did and I managed to get all but one back for second half it was a huge relief. Around turn 13 when Khemri had pushed into my lines was another really scary moment, but Vampires were able to show what they were capable off to take the win.

As for the team - my win was the only highlight for us. Lachlan, Gummer and David all lost and we were booted from the top room with all the high ranking tables never to return.

Game 2 - v malawicichlid's Nurgle, Team 4 Skulls in a Row.

Pregame thoughts - Not a dissimilar match up to Khemri lots of slow moving muscle I thought, although I quickly realised during the game this was a oversimplification. Game plan was basically the same as Khemri - swarm up aggressively, cause chaos in backfield ideally. I won the roll off for kick and elected to defend, ensuring I had a full line up to defend and try and turn over the ball. What I hadn't taken much though off was the combination of foul appearance and Disturbing Presence. The later really impacted my potential throwing/catching game late on, and Foul Appearance meant I had to roll what felt like a million dice (bloodlust, FA, pro skill/pro re-roll) just to actually manage to get the chance to roll a skull on the block dice. 

Vampire deployment - similar to Khemri with Runners up on the flanks protected by thralls with the meatier vampires in the middle to potentially counteract a break through in the middle (although back far enough that most of Nurgle have to roll a GFI to get them)

Nurgle deployment - aggressive to the line huddled around LoS.

Nurgle near end of there first turn - there intended carrier gets stunned by kick off event but they can pick the ball up easily enough and start pushing through to pressure Vampires. 

On bottom of shot my Runner doesn't like standing next to the Rotspawn but Hypnogazing it allows 2 Lineman to move upfield unopposed. Like v Khemri I'm trying to disconnect the cage and the LoS and give my Vampires a chance to disrupt the cage later as I swarm around the flanks.

Its a partial success - Nurgle can't readjust that well and cage move more sideways than upfield with most of the Bloaters away from the ball. In Vampire turn I make a play to disrupt the cage, but my Hypnogaze fails and I have to settle for Blitzing my thrower next to the carrier

Nurgle swarm back into the middle as the game becomes a mess.

The cage keeps crabbing around rather than moving upfield and after another attack the ball ends up loose in the hands of a thrall.

Nurgle's drive is becoming a mess, but Vampires are running out of space and are losing attrition battle. In the end neither side is able to control the ball for any length of time as the half ends with score 0-0.

Nurgle part way through turn 9. Vampires secured the ball deploying to the edges of LoS and covering the space with thralls to stop a breakthrough whilst the runners move upfield to try and get Nurgle scrambling back.

Vampires try and eek out some marginal gains scrapping around in the backfield and readjust some players hoping to find gaps and lure Nurgle into mistakes as there ends up with a large no-mans land between my Thrower with the ball and everyone else.

Vampire don't make any great gains in the middle as Nurgle slowly squeeze them, with the pressure on and backfield firm they free up a Bloater to pressure my Thrower

I can't pull the trigger in full thanks to Disturbing presence messing up passing/catching and I don't have the players to cage up. My Runners fall back to allow the Thrower to move upfield without dodging and rest of my team mark players/space to stop any way to get to the ball carrier who feels very exposed. 

Nurgle respond with a turn of Brutality - they can't get to the ball but mark the Thrower with the Rotspawn. 

I'm running out of bodies to screen as I move upfield with the Thrower - I have a bit of a brain fart and miss that Nurgle can move on the diagonal between the Blitzer and Central thrall although I didn't have a great way to stop it regardless. Nurgle move through, blitz the ball carrier and in a huge moment of luck it bounces to my Blitzer who catch's it, and dodges upfield to score!

The attack has taken its toll on my team with only 6 players left to oppose Nurgle!

An unlucky scatter gives Nurgle a touchback as they have about 4 turns to score. 

Nurgle swarm forwards and I don't have the players to slow them down enough to score and focus solely on ball carrier. A thrall makes several dodges and managed to dislodge the ball but can't secure it. 

Nurgle keep grinding downfield as this is the picture going into turn 16 as I manage to knock the ball over but can't get hands to it. Nurgle manage to smash the space around the ball clear and hand off to a Pestigor - who fails the 3+ pick up but manages it on the second to score in the last turn and draw the match!

Postgame thoughts - Really enjoyable game, all my games at the event were fun for different reasons but this was probably my favourite. It was on a knife edge throughout, and a draw felt like a fair result. Both teams strengths were so hard for the other to overcome leaving every turn and nearly every dice feel vital. It was a real mess of a game in a fun way, no one ever really had control - although if the ball hadn't bounced to my Blitzer when my thrower was Blitzed off the ball Nurgle would have been in a very strong position (although my own Blitzer would have hopefully continued to cause Chaos.) 

As for the team...well it wasn't worse for the rest of them than round 1? David had lost what sounded like a classic 4-3, Gummer had a draw and Lachlan - who was meant to be our ringer had another loss. 

Game 3 v DakkaGazza's Orcs on team Throwin' Block Dice.

Pregame thoughts - Another slow bashing team and I ended up defending again. Rinse and repeat game plan from previous games - swarm up and cause as much Chaos as I can before cage gets going. 

Vampire deployment - again Runners on flanks protected by thralls. 

Ball lefts in Orc backfield from Kick off with lots of muscle around the line.

Orcs fumble the ball in the backfield and Vampires take the chance to run around and start to pressure the Carrier, marking as many players that might be able to get back as they can.

Orcs manage to grab the ball and move it midfield but its far from secure as they pummel away at the LoS.

LoS isn't leading to any great result for Orcs, I'm able to dislodge the ball from Orcs and on of my runners swoops in to take it.

Orcs have been burning through re-rolls and despite managing a two dice blitz on the Runner they can't dislodge the ball and the runner is able to score in my turn. 

Early score against the kick for Vampires as we set up again.

Orcs secure the ball with more bodies around as they get to work caving in my LoS. 

With a wall of muscle and tackle zones in the way, I play a more traditional defence for a turn, trying to get bodies in the way rather than attacking the cage head on.

Orcs suffer an almost immediate double skulls turnover in their turn and I'm in a much better position this turn - able to attack the cage, knock the ball loose and a runner starts to move away. 

Orcs start scrambling back, playing defence on the second time in the half already.

Orcs can't get the ball carrier down and the runner zooms upfield. 

There some minor bashing to no effect before Vampires score to go 2-0 up at half time. 

Vampires set up - I get a high kick so my runners ends up with the ball. An orc Blitzer ends up close to edge so I deploy my Vargheist to the flank to Frenzy them off. 

End of Vampire turn one - with the Blitzter off Orcs are really short of players on the top. My runner runs around as thralls try and tie up players. 

Orcs start scrambling back but when the troll knocks himself out trying to take out a Blitzer Vampires can set up in a safe position

Orcs resume the pressure on my screens - aware I can probably stall for another turn safely but aware of Vampires ability to implode I score in my turn. 

Down a few bodies but with 3 Vampires and Vargheist still have plenty of play as we kick off again. 

Orcs are mostly playing for pride now and they bash there way through my LoS, hand off to a goblin the middle and set up a cage inside my half. 

I'm able to knock the ball loose thanks to Hypnogazing enough space for my Blitzer to strip ball on the Goblin but I can't secure it. 

Orcs have their best turn of the game, smashing away my thralls and running away with the ball on the Goblin outside of Blitz range of any of my players. 

Vampires turn to scramble - Runners get into a position to threaten next turn and Thrall makes a couple of dodges/GFI to get next to the Goblin, but Goblin is able to dodge away to score. 

Another kick off - Orcs commit more to backfield this time and I deploy a little more aggressively on LoS actually throwing a rare block their!

Orcs still have a lot of muscle - with slightly more on the south side of shout I elect to start pushing to the North. 

Down a Thrower/Vargheist as this stage does limit my range and punch and Orcs start breaking through close around the middle and ball carrier as a result. 

Runner does manage to break through, not before several dodges even with some assistance from other runner clearing an easier path as Orcs move back to take them out. 

Orcs move in and knock the ball carrier over but can't secure the ball in return. 

Vampires need a 4+ 2+ 2+ to score but fail the dodge and re-roll doesn't help to stop them scoring, but still end up 3-1 winners. 

Postgame thoughts - Everything went to plan here. Vampires rolled really well on Bloodlust and I ended up having lots of re-rolls spare which was certainly a rarity. Certainly got the bounce of the ball here, but even if I hadn't rolled as well there was so much pressure on the ball carrier that it felt I was always a good roll/poor Orc roll from being in a position to pounce. 

As for the team - Lachlan managed a draw but David and Gummer both lost so another loss as a team for us. 

Round 4 - bonethugsnoharmony's Norse v SKABB Meta-Four

Pregame thoughts - so as a team we were right on the bottom tables now in the battle for wooden spoon (although we later learned this was induvial not team award.) Another bashy team in Norse, albeit a bit more mobile and the higher skills and frenzy were more scary than say Khemri were the extra strength in comparison was a bit wasted. Still game plan more the same although I wanted to be a bit more aggressive in my blocking if given the chance to see if I could get any attrition on the Norse.

Vampire deployment - pretty much the same as every other game - did make minor tweak to side when opponents kindly reminded me about frenzy! Thralls in the middle little bit more central given the lack of guard. 

Won the roll off and elected to kick again as Norse start to pile through the middle. 

Norse get the ball and move back. With both Valkyries as the back limiting Norse ability to move ball quickly I try and work an opportunity to disconnect them from the central cage, moving in my players to mark Norse on the LoS as runners move around.  

Norse block there way free and move back from LoS, caging up, although aware its still vulnerable to Vampires. 

Runner Hypnogazes one of the cage guards and Blitzer goes in and knocks the ball loose although sadly it bounces between 3 Norse Players. I commit back to man marking were possible to try and overload Norse. 

Norse turn goes well - they get the ball and Knock most of my players down. 

Horribly blurry pic - but I'm able to knock the carrier down again, get the ball loose and get 3 players around the ball even if I can't secure it. 

Huge moment in the game - Norse keep blocking my players as I start losing attrition but leave ball on the floor not wanting it to go loose and away from them. I dodge with my thrower - trying to Blitz the player with the pink band onto the ball and make it spill loose but he rolls the dreaded double one, fails armour and knocks himself out. I'd left most of my players on the floor to avoid unnecessary Bloodlust rolls before the Blitz and react to were the ball spills but it leave Norse suddenly unopposed on half the pitch. 

Norse pick up the ball and start screening - Vampire can't get anywhere near it in their turn but I manage to free up my runners to get into  position to give chase at least. 

Norse almost score and I have to make 4 GFI, more dodges than I'd care to think about and two Hypogazes to make a crazy stretch play but do manage to knock the ball loose as end of half approaches. 

Its to no avail however as Norse can pick off the remaining Vampire threats and secure in turn 8. I have one turn to try and soften up Norse before second half and only manage to knock one of my Thralls out trying to block. 

My KO rolls are in the 'real bad' territory passing 1/6. Including the previous 2 games my thrower failed 7 in a row! I'm left outnumbered against a team with more skills - I commit to the line trying to force some attrition damage before trying to swing through with my runners to try and score (ideally quickly to have another chance of getting KO players back before team implodes under Norse blocks.)

Norse apply pressure back to my thralls trying to fight there way upfield. 

I have another turn trying to soften Norse lines up and hoping a gap with form but a turnover from a block ends my turn quickly and Norse move up to pressure my ball carrier. 

Out of bodies and under pressure its go time. The best plan I have is to dodge up to Yheti with a runner, Hypnotise them, hand the ball off the to thrall next to him and Yolo him upfield and hope they can survive the blitz to score next turn. Sadly two Bloodlusts fails consume most of my re-rolls and when the handoff fails despite a third re-roll Vampires are in a horrible position. 

Norse don't need another invitation, surfing a Runner into the stands, beating up my LoS and recovering the ball, moving it away from my last Vampire to the centre. 

Most of my turns from here are standing up thralls and trying to keep my Runner safe for some crazy play if a chance arises but they fail a dodge/pro roll right at the start for another quick turnover.

Norse knock everything standing down as they get a chance to keep showing there Blocking game off. 

I get knocked down, I get up again. Runner manages to free themselves and moves central. 

Norse move upfield in there turn and I am able to scramble over and knock the ball carrier over

The glint of light doesn't last long as Norse stun the Runner. As game nears conclusion I dodge a thrall upfield to the right of shot in case a YOLO throw chance arrives to draw. 

The chance never materialises - Norse smash down everything standing and manage to score turn 16 to secure victory.

Post game - Bruising encounter - the Thrower failing to dodge and knocking himself out for rest of game was such a big moment. It turned a real scrap for the ball into suddenly a really strong Norse position in a single roll. I don't think it was the wrong thing to do (activating other players first and same dice rolls end up with essentially same effect happening) and if it had worked to stall Norse for a single turn the half probably ends up as a draw. From there the second half probably ends up the same still, but without pressure to equalise I maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaybe can stall for a draw, but that's super optimistic - I'm not sure there's anything notable I'd have done second half differently if the score was 0-0, maybe the time pressure affects Norse differently? Norse took advantage of the rolls well, were relentlessly throughout and deserved the win however. 

As for the rest of the Team - much improved to previous! Gummer got a win, and Lachlan looked like he was going to score to break a 1-1 deadlock, only for Skaven to pull a play out and deny him right at the last. With a win a draw and a loss eyes were on David's game which had somehow been 2-2 in the Skaven v Nurgle game at half time which boggles the mind. It looked like Nurgle were caging there way to victory having the ball only a couple of squares from the line only for David's Skaven to pull out there own Yolo play with a risky dodge, an uphill block, nice scatter and suddenly David was a short pass away from going length of the pitch. Sadly the dice stopped being so kind and it ended as a draw.

So as for the final standings for the team out of 30 teams we came 28th. Which was actually an improvement as overnight we were 30th before some recalculations were done in the morning pushing us up two spots. Looking at the stats our touchdowns and Casualties were actually pretty good compared to those around us (19 touchdowns, 28 casualties, for comparison the team above/below us both had 12/42) suggesting either a leaky defence or an inability to turn a good position into a win. 

On a personal note things went better out of 126 players I ended up 42nd (37th before the recount!) with a positive net 1 touchdown and net casualties of -8 which wasn't surprising as I don't think I did any casualties and not sure I even managed more than 1 KO in last two games, at least to the opponent. Vampires certainly managed a couple of injuries on the thralls! For the rest of the team Gummer came 95th with -1 NT and -1 Net Casualty, Lachlan came 104th with -4/+4 and David came 113 with -3/-10.

As for my team - I utterly fell in love with the Vampires. It helped I was in a relaxed mood on the day and didn't get as triggered by Bloodlust causing annoying moves and injuries and could enjoy the highs without worry about the lows. When they roll hot, Vampires just feel so powerful and fun and even with a couple of players you feel like anything is realistically possible. The line up - I'd probably tweak. I mentioned not taking Block on Vargheist at the start and this was probably the big mistake. Wrestle on the Thrall came up once or twice in the Nurgle game but otherwise didn't matter much - Kick, Tackle or just drop entirely for a secondary felt like a better play. The Vargheist was probably the least impactful non-thrall player but that was mostly a choice to sacrfice it to the LoS over and again and keep the rest of the team healthy. Guard, or stand firm probably a better choice for that role if it stays the same, rather than mighty blow which I'm not sure ever came up. 

Triple Pro on Runners and Thrower was also not ideal. If Bloodlust occurred too early I typically chose to make a team re-roll rather than risk the pro chance. Possibly keep it on the Thrower, and certainly look at dodge on the Runners. The Blitzer felt a bit awkward, and I'd want to experiment with a second thrower but especially against more Dodge heavy teams the Strip Ball/Juggernaut combo feels good. Wouldn't be tempted by a second though.

Tournament as a whole was a real blast, and the team really enjoyed it despite overall rather mixed results. In the aftermath certainly we all wanted to attend if they did it again, even if 4 games in a day is rather tough. Looking forward to the next one!