Here below follows two different match reports. Above the line (----) a semi short one with only highlights, and below the line a very long and detailed one that indicates how a gobo team can beat up a much stronger and determined Undead team… So don’t be afraid to begin the reading, you can just stop at the line. But if you really want to know, read below the line instead ;)
In the perfect Blood Bowl weather a record breaking gate of 200.000 fans had shown up to witness the grand final of season XIV between the two most popular teams in Aros BBL.
Both teams had spend all their treassuries freeboting with BMB hirering Star Bomber Drippelsnot, and DD having Count Luthor the Vampire again.
The ref had some trouble with the 200 thousand fans, and did not notice either a 12th gobo on pitch or any fouling or secreat weapons for the entire first half where the gobos kicked first.
Count Luthor picked up the ball and began to move forward. And already in turn two Ra drew first blood when he BH the troll Scar Fishgutter who failed to regnerate. Emidiatly the bomber began tossing bombs after DDs players.
The first bomb was no god but already the second took a skelly down so Fas Firmfoot managed to take Count Luthor clean down and the gobos had the ball..
But this was not acceptable for Count Luthor who hypnotized a gobo into imobility so Lex Liche could blitz Itchy Bellykicker down and Mad Max picked up the ball. A quick double 1 then saw one of the gobos few early turn overs. This gave the apotech some work as Argos almost killed Fas Firmfoot in a foul.
Count Luthor had the ball again but then Bomber Driplesnot threw a “long bomb” directly at the zombie in front of Count Luthor. The zombie failed to catch it and dropped it right onto Count Luthor who were knocked over, and then Geiler Lömmel manged a couple of dodges to pick up the ball in a TZ, and after more dodging and a some pushing the gobos were ahead 1-0 in DD’s reciving.
In the second drive DD attacked directly at Bomber Driplesnot with their two best tacklers. Bomber Driplesnot hence fumbled a bomb but it knocked over Lex Liche. However, Benno Brausekopf II could then still take a hit at the Bomber and he did so with a vengance BHing him.
In DDs last turn a subsequent push of Count Luthor brought him within 6 squares of the EZ and he manged the simple dodge to tie the match 1-1.
In second half the gobos ran down DDs pitch, but DD really turned up the heat. The troll was taken down and then Argos broke his second collar bone of the day in a foul. Luckily for BMB Brickskull (N)everdodge managed to regenerate regaining his strength.
But not for long cause the Gobos took their chance, the ball was handed to Fas Firmfoot who passed it to Geiler Lömmel. And he scored by dodging past Lex Liche who neither managed to tackle or shadow him and it was 2-1 for BMB.
At the start of the next drive a massive pitch invasion stunned no less than 5 of DD’s players but none of the gobos. Count Luthor were still standing and could hence recive the at this time very lucky touch back.
A few turns later Brickskull (N)everdodge gets a chance to take a one dice blitz on Count Luthor and tackles him. But then BMB has their second (and last) double 1 of the match, when Deimos Darkmind forgot he were supposd to be sure on his feet.
Hence Count Luthor soon has the ball again and he runs down through a hole opened when Ramses the 5th SI Presgul Powerfist. But first after almost failing a dodge away from Brickskull (N)everdodge. In the last turn Count Luthor stralls down to the EZ to tie the game, but wait all 98.000 of DDs fans hold their breath for a moment as he almost tripps over the EZ line, but yes it is a TD, the game is tied 2-2.
DD came through 2nd half without any re-rolls left, wheras BMB had managed to keep two. This could become very important should the match end in a tie and a penalty shoot out. And as the gobos manage some briliant coaching in both overtime half without spending any RR it would be 4-nil in RR after a tie.
And then BMB had a perfect turn when they recived first in overtime and they prevent DD from attacking ball carrier Geiler Lömmel for the entire 3rd half scoring for 3-2 at the end. The troll was first pushed off pitch though, but obviously only into the stand of BMB’s fans.
DD knew they had to win in regular time as they had no chance in the shootout, hence they neded two 2 turn TDs. So when a few of DDs players were down in scorings reach Count Luthor dodged a single time but then he failed a go for it again and nothing could prevent him going down.
All hope seemed to have left DD but they still managed to get two more chances to score. Most prominent in turn 3 when Fas Firmfoot failed a pick-up and the 4 RRs were not there to be spend. The ball ended up behind Brickskull (N)everdodge, and Count Luthor only needed a dodge to blitz the troll away one dice, and a go for it on to the ball then a pick-up and a last go for it and the game would be tied – hoping for injury time or blitz. But no! The pick-up also failed for the vampire.
And finally the match ended 3-2 for BMB.
Hence Bad Moon Backstabers managed to beat the much stronger Deadly Doom taking one step up from last seasons 2nd place.
A string of good fortunes followed the team only stoped by a few early turnovers. Espcially super star troll Brickskull (N)everdodge was flying and of course the bomber who managed to hail mary a long bomb past his normal reach to take down Count Luthor and setup the Gobos lead for 1-0. That was the match winning turn!
So for now there is only left to congratulate the worthy champions for prooving that luck is not a factor (for them at least :D)
In the perfect Blood Bowl weather a record breaking gate of 200.000 fans had shown up to witness the grand final of season XIV between the two most popular team in Aros BBL.
Both teams had spend all their treassuries for stars and freeboters to bring their total up to 15 players each. BMB had hired two Gobos and Star Bomber Drippelsnot, and DD had hired a zombie as well as Count Luthor the Vampire again for the fourth time in the last five matches.
And then, with a 12th unnoticed player on pitch, the gobos kicked the ball to DD. As the ref had some trouble with the 200 thousand fans, he did not notice either this 12th player or any fouling or secreat weapons for the entire first half.
Count Luthor picked up the ball and began to move forward. And already in turn two Ra drew first blood when he BH the troll Scar Fishgutter who failed to regnerate. But DD did not manage to remove a single gobo from the pitch for the rest of the drive, so there still remained 11 BMB players on the field.
Emidiatly the bomber began tossing bombs after DDs players. And Brickskull (N)everdodge protected him from a couple of DD players moving in his direction. Amongst other enabling Presgul Powerfist to foul Xorn BH. He did, however, regenerate.
The first bomb was no god but already the second was a long pass right on target and the bomb scatered onto Argos who were protecting Count Luthor. The skelly went down, but Count Luthor remained on his feet as did the little gobo next to him. But not for long for Fas Firmfoot hence managed a one dice blitz taking Count Luthor clean down. The ball was picked up by Itchy Bellykicker who were protected with another gobo and more ran to help.
But this was not acceptable for Count Luthor who got up to this protecting Gobo and hypnotized him into imobility. Hence with a few dodges Lex Liche managed to blitz Itchy Bellykicker down, and Mad Max came and picked it up on the side line. It was still not looking too good when DDs turn ended, but a quick double 1 on go for it, saw one of the gobos few early turn overs.
Hence Count Luthor could run into the center of DDs pitch and was here handed the ball. And then Argos killed Fas Firmfoot - worth 100 k - in a foul. Sadly for DD the apotech managed to revive him. But still it seemed like the day was saved for DD.
But then Bomber Driplesnot threw a “long bomb” directly at the zombie in front of Count Luthor. The zombie failed to catch it and dropped it right onto Count Luthor who were knocked over. Incredibly the other two surrounding the Vampire remained on their feet. Then Brickskull (N)everdodge threw dirty player Grimhead Immergeil down pitch, and althoug inaccurate and failing his landing, he still managed to reach Count Luthor, but the foul failed to break AV.
Even with two TZ on the ball it were not enough as one was then blitzed away, and Geiler Lömmel manged a couple of dodges to pick it up in the remaning players TZ, and 3 more dodges and 2 go for it later the gobos were ahead 1-0 in DD’s reciving.
This was not to the liking of DDs fans who threw a rock that BH Ahnous Sneakfinger on the LoS (or maybe it was a miss from one of the Gobo fans?) And in the first turn Argos broke the collar bone on one of the freeboted gobos in a foul. This time DD attacked directly at Bomber Driplesnot with their two best tacklers, and Mad Max managed to pass the ball to Count Luthor so the TD could be manged in the only half of a half remaning.
Bomber Driplesnot tried nevertheless to throw a bomb but he fumbled the try, and lost it directly into Lex Liche without knocking himself down. However, Benno Brausekopf II could still take a hit at the Bomber and he did so with a vengance BHing him the first time DD laid a cold dead hand on him! A crucial event that brought hope back to DD.
Brickskull (N)everdodge managed to BH Lex Liche but he did also regenerate and then Fas Firmfoot became KOed. Before DDs last turn a bad move by the last gobo gave DD a chance of pushing Count Luthor within scoring reach so he did not have to dodge through TZ or make any go for its, and he manged the simple dodge to make the score 1-1.
A perfect kick from DD saw the chance for a one turner by the gobos dissapear as the ball could not be given to Fas Firmfoot who were standing ready at the LoS next to Brickskull (N)everdodge. In their anger they manage to foul Eldahmar "Broken" Chain BH but he also managed to regenerate. That was the last casualty inflicted by the gobos for the rest of the game. All 3 cas they had made were only BH and all regenerated!
In second half another perfect kick by DD saw the ball end up in the Gobos EZ. The gobos ran down DDs pitch, but were almost tripping along the way. Hence it was very interesting if Grimhead Immergeil would fumble the pickup with the risk of the ball being thrown into the middle of the gobos now empty pitch. But he managed the important pick-up.
But this time DD really turned up the heat. The troll was taken down, and lots of players surrounded almost all the gobos on the pitch. And then Argos broke his second collar bone of the day in a foul, this time taking out the infamous troll Brickskull (N)everdodge. Luckily for BMB the troll managed to regenerate regaining his strength. But now BMB were without a troll on pitch.
But not for long cause the Gobos took their chance and with a go for it the ball was handed to Fas Firmfoot who caught it in the shadow of Ramses the 5th. Then he dodged his way to pass it to Geiler Lömmel who dodged past Lex Liche who neither managed to tackle him while he dodged all the way by him and also failed to shadow him, and then a go for it later it was 2-1 for BMB.
This time it was definitely the Gobos fans that were enraged. Although some DD fans also tried to help, none of the 11 Gobos were stunned. On the other hand no less than 5 of DD’s players were stunned in the massive pitch invasion leaving only 6 standing. At least among these were Count Luthor and one player against each of the three gobos on LoS. And luckily the kick were so bad that a touch back could be given to Count Luthor and he could run in to safety behind the standing mummy.
With mummy Ra lying on the ground, BMB’s dirty player Grimhead Immergeil could not help himself from trying an early foul. This had no effect though but the ref noticed and indicated he would remove the gobo from the pitch for the violation ending the turn premature. This caused BMB’s head coach to argue wildely and he managed to convince the ref to leave the gobo on the pitch as nothing had happened so the turn could continue.
Next turn DDs players are standing again, but the troll Brickskull (N)everdodge takes a chance and tries to blitz Count Luthor one dice inside a cage dodging into two TZ, but then he trips on the go for it. However, the side stepping gobos around Count Luthor prevents him from getting away from the troll, and it becomes impossible to make a decend foul on the troll. Hence it is not too hard for Brickskull (N)everdodge to get up and take a one dice blitz and of course he manages to tackle Count Luthor. The ball ends in only one TZ, but then BMB has their second (and last) double 1 of the game, when Deimos Darkmind forgot he were supposd to be sure on his feet.
Hence Count Luthor soon has the ball again, but now half of the half has passed again without the ball has been moved to the Gobos half of the pitch. Although DDs intention is to keep the ball until turn 8 to force the match into overtime, they had to move soon. One turn had also been made a little dificult when an early tribble skull had to be re-rolled.
With two turns to go Count Luthor stands at the LoS 13 squares from the TD. But the troll Brickskull (N)everdodge stands next to him. Luckily Sinistra Dextre had run down pitch drawing the attention of a few gobos, and a hole were opened on the right side of the pitch away from the troll. So when Ramses the 5th had SI Presgul Powerfist a clear path was made and Lex Liche could run into scoring distance just in case…
But then Count Luthor had to dodge away from Brickskull (N)everdodge and he were almost tackled by the troll before he managed to run the ball within 7 squares of the EZ. Then suddenly some dodges worked for the Ghouls and the road to Count Luthor was completely shut off for both Brickskull (N)everdodge and Fas Firmfoot. And when the troll failed to pass Fas Firmfoot down pitch BMB only managed to put one TZ on Count Luthor, and that was removed with an easy blitz.
Hence Count Luthor could strall down to the EZ to tie the game, but wait all 98.000 of DDs fans held their breath for a moment as he seemed to be tripping over the EZ line, but in the last second he pulled himself together and scored the tieing TD 2-2.
But with these two last turn 1s and the tribble skull DD came through 2nd half without any re-rolls left, whereas BMB had managed to keep two. This could be very important should the match end as a tie, cause then they would add to the probablities that the Gobos would win the penalty shoot out.
And then it was very unluckly for DD as they had to kick-off to the gobos (who still mangaged to field 10 players) that some very briliant coaching from DD (a 6) was cancled by the gobos (a 5 +1) and then the gobos had the better coaching and obtained a third RR.
And then BMB had a perfect turn. Although Brickskull (N)everdodge could not blitz a clear path down DD’s pitch they managed to dodge 6 gobos through the defence wihtout using any of the now even more precious RR, and this prevented DD from attacking the ball carrier Geiler Lömmel who had managed to get the ball along with him. And he were now within scoring reach.
DD ran some players close but decided to focus on the troll hoping this would force the gobos to score quickly. But the gobos were more clever than the troll, and formed a tight side stepping cage around the AG 4 blodge side stepper with the ball. But although the troll was fouled without effect, and then when he got up next turn were pushed out over the sideline (but obviously only into the stand of BMB’s fans), and with S. Finxter BHing Grimhead Immergeil the gobos held their stand, and only needed a push back with two dice to give Geiler Lömmel his chance to make a hatrick for 3-2 leaving DD with only 1 turn left of the third half.
A quick snap gave DD a slight hope to push a Ghoul within scoring reach, but the pushed Gobo decided not to use his dodge skill when the first push did not yield a push back, and any hope of a one turner for DD ended there.
With zero RRs against three DD knew they had to win in regular time, hence they neded two 2 turn TDs. When even more briliant coahing gave BMB yet a fourth RR at the start of fourth half, there were only 1/36 chance that DD could win a penalty shootout. And there were no chance BMB would waste their RR to prevent DD from getting the TD!
So when a few of DDs players were down in scorings reach, Xorn who had caught the kick-off handed it to Count Luthor standing next to him, and then Count Luthor dodged a single time to get within scorings reach with the ball. But although Brickskull (N)everdodge would not be able to reach him, there were still Fas Firmfoot eventhough DD had actually managed to injure them both very seriously earlier on!
Hence a two dice blitz on the vampire would be certain, and at least a push back could be expected from the gobo Fas Firmfoot that thrice earlier had taken 2 dice against himself on the ST 5 blodger eventhough he did not have block himself, getting no less than 2 double dodge explosions (not enough though!) and managed to RR the single both down that occurred amongst a total of 4 times 2 dices…
Necromancer Kynde belived it would be wisest to push Count Luthor a bit further to make it easier to score even if pushed back, and for the third time in only four 2+ rolls Count Luthor failed and this time nothing could prevent him going down.
All hope seemed to have left DD, and when BMB made their first bad block (that is a result worse than a push back as the best) it was a double both down blitz by Brickskull (N)everdodge on the only DD player on pitch without block so only Mean Midget went down stunned!
And soon Fas Firmfoot again had the ball and was hiding behind two gobos. But for the second time Count Luthor fought back after going down with the ball, and he managed to dodge into two TZ, and get a two dice blitz on Fas Firmfoot after a go for it, and a both down took down the gobo.
The ball bounced free from TZ and Lex Liche actaully had a chance to score in turns two. But first after Count Luthor had use his dodge skill to get out of the way on his last go for it. The problem was that Lex Liche had to dodge four times, once through 2 TZ and once through 1, and then pick-up and two go for it. (4, 2, 3, 2, 2, 2, 2). With no RR he managed only to get to the 3, then he went down.
But once again all hope had not left DD. Although Brickskull (N)everdodge took down Count Luthor (one dice again!) in a blitz Fas Firmfoot failed the pick-up and the 4 RRs were not there to be spend. The ball bounced to Brickskull (N)everdodge but even a pro troll has problems cathing a scattered ball, and it ended up behind the troll next to the EZ. Suddenly DD had a chance to score for 3-3 with one turn left, and then they could hope for the blitz or injury time to take it to 4-3. Who knows what could happen. Anything had almost happened already in this crazy match.
Before the decisive move Ramses the 5th took the time to SI Tot Rubberglove taking DD’s total cas count to 9, and then Count Luthor only neede a dodge to blitz the troll away one dice, and a go for it on to the ball then after a pick-up and the last go for it and the game would be tied. But no! The pick-up also failed for count Luthor, his 6th one in 6 important turns…
Finnally Fas Firmfoot managed to get the ball behind a line of gobos at the sideline, and Count Luthor were standing in the EZ with the Troll and a gobo in front of him. So he could not easily get there to help with a gaze. Guard Wight S. Finxter did manage to block his way next to Fas Firmfoot leaving Mad Max with a chance to blitz two dice on Fas Firmfoot, however, only if a dodge into 3 TZ worked (6+ with dodge) and when that failed, BMB did not even need their four RR to win the game, that finally ended 3-2 (after 6½ hour) when a gobo manage to increase the number of failed dodges through out the game for BMB with 50% in one turn.
Hence Bad Moon Backstabers managed to beat the much stronger Deadly Doom taking one step up from last seasons 2nd place.
A string of good fortunes followed the team only stoped by a few early turnovers. Espcially super star troll Brickskull (N)everdodge was flying as he never became really stupid not even when trying to work on his own a couple of times, and he was a real pro 8 out of 10 times it was needed only going down himself a single time on a go for it among his many dodges (not living up to his name) and go for its.
And of course the bomber who managed to light 4 bombs up and taking down 3 DD players and none of his own, eventhough he almost had to hail mary the bombs to get them down towards the vampire. Especially the bomb who went past his normal reach to take down Count Luthor and setup the Gobos lead for 1-0, a lead they never really surrendered again. That was the match winning turn!
The MVPs of course went to Fas Firmfoot for his constant attacking of Count Luthor taking him down once allowing the bomber to hit him later and to Benno Brausekopf II for taking out the hated Bomber Dripplesnot in DDs first hit on him. The zombie has now learned to kick the ball better after having kicked the bomber off pitch.
Although BMB won the championship their fans were not too satisfied that Brickskull (N)everdodge were the only player to cause any pain on DD, being used to the teams mosth leathal status. Hence no new fans joined the team after the game, but next season there will probably be even more attention on the champs increasing their fan base in this way. DD’s fans did on the other hand like what they saw as DD scored a couple of TDs but more importantly managed to beat their own casualty record with 2 in the 9-3 (1-0) result. Also the fact that DD had all 4 reserve players in reserve in the last drive wereas the gobos had 7 out of 15 in the injury box (the rest on pitch) were probably a positive factor for the fans despite DDs defeat?
But although DD made 9 casualties their problem was actually that they broke AV way to rare. BMB were used to much more stunned players than were the case againt DD, but the few times when DD finally broke AV they usually made it hurt quite a lot. Hence it seemed like there were more casualties than KOs and not that many more stunned than casualties. Had the AV breaking been a notch higher DD would have had a chance to get the upper hand with an excess of players on pitch, but appart from the last drive with 11 vs 9 on pitch, DD were never really outnumbering the gobos in any way. And that is not good enough against a team like BMB!
Even with the extremely large gate the teams only earned 90 vs 70 k directly from the match, but as BMB went through this season undefeated winning 9 matches and tieing the last, they will earn 9*15k = 135 k extra on that acount, wereas DD with only 5 victories 2 ties and 3 defeats obtain 5*10k = 50 k extra.
Weather the champs will defend their title or if their head coach will try something different like last seasons champs, only time will tell, but it is almost certain that DD’s head coach Necromancer Kynde will take at least one more shoot at the title. With both a 3rd and a 2nd place it seems like they may have what it takes if they keep on trying?
But for now it is only to congratulate the worthy champions for prooving that luck is not a factor (for them at least :D)
