"If you go to any tournament this year, make sure you go to Thrud" Says the GlowFather.
This was what I was told way back in January and with ticket number five, I waited excitedly for the weekend of the 11th August to arrive.
The rules pack allowed me 1.2million to hire my team, which could include four star players that could either be from those allowed in the CRP, or I could build them (full rules pack can be found here). I kept it pretty simple adding:
1x Block Mino
1x Block, Break Tackle Centaur
1x Block, +1 Ag Centaur
1x Sure Hands, Leader Hobgoblin
1x Block Mino
1x Block, Break Tackle Centaur
1x Block, +1 Ag Centaur
1x Sure Hands, Leader Hobgoblin
to a rather standard 6 Dwarf, 3 Hobgoblin, 2 Centaur, 1 Minotaur and 1 re-roll team.
For those that don't know the ThrudBall event: Its a two day, six game, Blood Bowl tournament. Held on the south coast of England and all of the money made goes to The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation.
Now this alone was a great reason to go and also one that helps grease the home life wheels, when you inform your better half that you will be off for the weekend to partake in a charity event.
However, Frank Hill the event organiser goes way beyond expectation and offers up a weekend of non stop laughs, awesome merchandise and an auction filled with items from pro-painted teams to foam rocket launchers.
My Thrud adventure started on the Friday afternoon, as I loaded bags, teams and three good friends into my car for the two and a half hour journey south.
Although camping at the venue (for free) was an option, I didn't own a tent and all the needed paraphernalia (yep I going with that being the reason), so I opted for a local B&B which cost in total about £50.00 for the two nights, which in my opinion is great value.
After meeting up with with my room-mate for the next two days, an old friend who had travelled down from the the opposite side of the UK and who is also new to the Blood Bowl Tournament scene, we all grabbed some food (Fish and Chips of course) and them headed to the Thrudball venue to spend the evening drinking, talking bollocks and getting eaten to death by Mosquitoes, with all those that had manned up and come with a tent.
Tournament Day 1:
After downing my Full English breakfast we were off to the venue, I wont admit to being confident about how the next two days would play out for me and my Dwarves. But, I was relaxed in the feeling that following the Crumb-Bowl wooden spoon award, I could only do the same or better and no worse.
The round one draw matched me up against travel buddy Ian (Buggrit on TFF) and his Norse team. We had only played each other once before and that was earlier in the year at CakeBowl , where I had scrapped a draw versus him and his human team. I knew this was going to be harder as that was his first outing with humans. But, with Norse he was far more experienced.
Following the failure of Mr Rashnak at Crumb-Bowl, I had rehired my number 9 Minotaur. I would love to say he earned that rehiring on game one. But following his knockdown on turn one he refused to get up, only managing to remove one opponent in the first half and that was the result of them fouling him and rolling doubles.
The game closed on a win for the Norse, which at the very least took the pressure off. looking back I spent way to much of the game panicking about all of his frenzy which resulted in me reducing my pitch by at least three squares on both sides.
After a great lunch, the round two draw was up, I was facing a goblin team lead by a player named Andy Don. His entire team was a made up of squigs playing the role of goblins. even the trolls were giant cave squigs.
I know I should have been over the moon with a match like this. But, as a Rookie I was totally lost and very unsure what to expect. I knew I would be facing Bombs, Chainsaws, Po Go's and Fanatics. How I was going to deal with them however was quite the mystery.
The game ended on a win for me, which I was of course pleased with and Andy was by far the most fun opponent I played all weekend. He truly embodied the goblin spirit of play all through-out and if there was a crazy play to be played, you could ensure he was doing it.
On the high of a win I bounced into my game three, only to be smacked down to earth by the horror that was Will's Undead team and his Mummies.
The two very first blocks of the game ended with a dead Minotaur and Dwarf and the hurt didn't stop till turn sixteen. I lost that game with only a handful of players left on the pitch, ending the day with me closing in on spoon territory.
With all the games over for the day Frank kicked off the auction. Allot of the items can still be seen on the website. But, in person they were even better. I was mostly interested in the unpainted models, as I really enjoy that part of the hobby (although I am slow at it) and I managed to win some great new miniatures to add to my Chaos Pact team, along with some cool dice from a number of US events.
My favourite win was what will become my Pacts chaos ogre. Although he was painted, I just loved how he looked and the rest of the team will be modelled and painted to fit with this.
With all the items sold, we all head outside to watch the Sumo challenge. where players put on padded sumo suits and fight it out in two's, for a chance to be crowned Sumo King.
It didn't take long before I was squeezing my way into the costume and hurling myself at opponents, I didn't end up as the crowned champion, that honour went to a fella named Goran who had traveled with friends from France to join the fun at Thrud (which I found out they do every year). I also didn't stop laughing from start to finish.
Day one was rounded off with a few games of Zombie dice, a card game called Weed, some perudo and what may have been a couple to many beers.
Tournament Day 2:
Game four and I was facing off against another travel and also league mate, Stu aka CaptainSplat aka Bitch Stewie. He was playing a Skaven team built for speed and as many one turn touchdowns as he could fit into sixteen turns.
My plan was to let him receive, allow him his one turner and then grind him for 16turns allowing me a 2-1 win and leaving him with no living gutter runner to make the last touchdown for a 2-2 draw.
Well, a BLITZ action for the Rats soon put pay to that plan. But, that led to a hugely exciting game that ended up with a well earned tie.
Game five and I was once again up against Norse. I was pleased to see I had learnt something from previous games. But it felt like the dice just didn't want me to have this.
With a late score from the Norse in the 1st half, I spent the second half working my way up field and then spent five turns with the ball in his end zone and my centaur and his dwarf buddy fumbling the ball while behind them came enough frenzy to surf two teams off a pitch.
That game ended as a loss but I felt a little better knowing that I was not in the bottom four, resulting in me being free of the spoon spot.
The reason for this is that at the end of round five the bottom four teams come together to play a game invented at Thrud, called DockBall. The rules for the games can be found on the Thrud site. From what I got to see, it seemed totally insane, with cannons being fired, masts falling and players travelling in sewers. The loser of that was then the winner of the most Thrudded award (the wooden spoon).
My last game of the weekend was against an Amazon team. I had everything (team skill wise) I needed to win this and win it I did. My opponent Mike was great and stayed sporting and smiling through every unlucky dodge and both down result and we ended the game on a 2-0 win for the dwarves.
So, where did that put me.... Well not bottom, so that was already an improvement. I ended up 25th out of 38 coaches and I was well chuffed with that.
What was extra great was that this meant I also won the award for best newcomer (less than three tournaments and less than three years of play).
All in all, the weekend was utterly amazing and every bit and more, the awesome event I had been told it was. For that I want to thank Frank and all of the other folks involved in bringing it together and in closing......
If you go to any tournament next year, make sure you go to Thrud.
The game ended on a win for me, which I was of course pleased with and Andy was by far the most fun opponent I played all weekend. He truly embodied the goblin spirit of play all through-out and if there was a crazy play to be played, you could ensure he was doing it.
On the high of a win I bounced into my game three, only to be smacked down to earth by the horror that was Will's Undead team and his Mummies.
The two very first blocks of the game ended with a dead Minotaur and Dwarf and the hurt didn't stop till turn sixteen. I lost that game with only a handful of players left on the pitch, ending the day with me closing in on spoon territory.
With all the games over for the day Frank kicked off the auction. Allot of the items can still be seen on the website. But, in person they were even better. I was mostly interested in the unpainted models, as I really enjoy that part of the hobby (although I am slow at it) and I managed to win some great new miniatures to add to my Chaos Pact team, along with some cool dice from a number of US events.
My favourite win was what will become my Pacts chaos ogre. Although he was painted, I just loved how he looked and the rest of the team will be modelled and painted to fit with this.
With all the items sold, we all head outside to watch the Sumo challenge. where players put on padded sumo suits and fight it out in two's, for a chance to be crowned Sumo King.It didn't take long before I was squeezing my way into the costume and hurling myself at opponents, I didn't end up as the crowned champion, that honour went to a fella named Goran who had traveled with friends from France to join the fun at Thrud (which I found out they do every year). I also didn't stop laughing from start to finish.
Day one was rounded off with a few games of Zombie dice, a card game called Weed, some perudo and what may have been a couple to many beers.
Tournament Day 2:
Game four and I was facing off against another travel and also league mate, Stu aka CaptainSplat aka Bitch Stewie. He was playing a Skaven team built for speed and as many one turn touchdowns as he could fit into sixteen turns.
My plan was to let him receive, allow him his one turner and then grind him for 16turns allowing me a 2-1 win and leaving him with no living gutter runner to make the last touchdown for a 2-2 draw.
Well, a BLITZ action for the Rats soon put pay to that plan. But, that led to a hugely exciting game that ended up with a well earned tie.
Game five and I was once again up against Norse. I was pleased to see I had learnt something from previous games. But it felt like the dice just didn't want me to have this.
With a late score from the Norse in the 1st half, I spent the second half working my way up field and then spent five turns with the ball in his end zone and my centaur and his dwarf buddy fumbling the ball while behind them came enough frenzy to surf two teams off a pitch.
That game ended as a loss but I felt a little better knowing that I was not in the bottom four, resulting in me being free of the spoon spot.
The reason for this is that at the end of round five the bottom four teams come together to play a game invented at Thrud, called DockBall. The rules for the games can be found on the Thrud site. From what I got to see, it seemed totally insane, with cannons being fired, masts falling and players travelling in sewers. The loser of that was then the winner of the most Thrudded award (the wooden spoon).
My last game of the weekend was against an Amazon team. I had everything (team skill wise) I needed to win this and win it I did. My opponent Mike was great and stayed sporting and smiling through every unlucky dodge and both down result and we ended the game on a 2-0 win for the dwarves.
So, where did that put me.... Well not bottom, so that was already an improvement. I ended up 25th out of 38 coaches and I was well chuffed with that.
What was extra great was that this meant I also won the award for best newcomer (less than three tournaments and less than three years of play). All in all, the weekend was utterly amazing and every bit and more, the awesome event I had been told it was. For that I want to thank Frank and all of the other folks involved in bringing it together and in closing......
If you go to any tournament next year, make sure you go to Thrud.
