2020 started with a plan to host a gaming weekend in the summer which featured a Blitz Bowl tournament. The dastardly Covid had other plans, but I pushed forth and took the opportunity to get a lot of painting done. Though I didn’t hit all of my goals, I got really close finishing these on December 31st.
I recently finished up the last Blitz Bowl team that I was able to wrap in paint in the dark year of 2020…the Dwarves. Dwarves have always been one of those fantasy races that I admire, even appreciating the gruff mirth of their player base, yet they’ve never really gripped me personally. I didn’t have a strong opinion going into this team on what their scheme would be. Initially, I thought I’d take another whack at a bright second edition style kit, as I did with the humans. In the end, I wound up looking back to a team from my gaming past. A lazy crutch of mine?
Please excuse the terrible pun in the headline, I originally intended this to be a bonus unboxing to my treeman post, but that post started to get a little long so I decided to make this a separate one. I went to pick up the treeman I preordered on Black Friday and since the store was having a little sale I decided to browse around. You may recall I previously made an underworld denizens team, and to be honest I was really happy with the way it turned out, even though I found painting the pink to be a total chore. But playing them in my local league wasn’t so fun so I sold them off. When the official underworld denizens box came out this spring my curiosity got piqued again. How would the addition of a gutter runner change the team? And then my curiosity got piqued even more when the Blood Bowl Second Season rulebook got leaked over the summer. Additional snotlings that you can sneak onto the pitch? A choice of troll or rat ogre? I’ve also been playing underworld in a league online with Jeff, James and some other friends, which has also added fuel to the fire.
Happy Blood Bowl Second Season release weekend everyone! Yesterday I popped down to my friendly local game store to pick up the treeman I preordered for my wood elf team. I preordered my starter box directly from Games Workshop and at this time I’m still waiting on a shipping notice, but hey it’s all going to be worth it when I get that sweet, sweet Early Access to the Blood Bowl 3 video game which will inevitably be buggy because it’s Early Access yay! That’s not what you’re here for though, you’re here to see what’s in the box!
When the Nurgle Team was released for Blood Bowl, I was excited at the prospect of hopefully painting them one day. The models are full of character, they looked fun to paint and they’re one of the 2nd ed teams that are fairly well known, but they’ve never really been produced well in miniature form by Games Workshop/Citadel. However, I don’t really care to ever play this team again after one crushing season, but again, Blitz Bowl’s here to make this coach’s gaming dreams a reality.
The Dark Elf Blood Bowl team is one that I’ve achieved great highs with, but also terrible lows. I’ve taken them undefeated to the championship of Orclahoma (the largest single day BB tourney in the US), but have also gone winless and been abused in a league. The lowest low though was simply assembling the new GW plastic team for Blitz Bowl…this squad almost had me quit the hobby again.
Blitz Bowl doesn’t have an official Wood Elf team…but the upcoming Blitz Bowl Season 2 does! In anticipation I went ahead and traded a sprue of Dark Elves for Wood Elves with @caseyrog I don’t have history with Woodies across any GW game, but I knew which approach I would take with the team.
Halflings were always my preferred Dungeons and Dragons race when I was a a youth, but I never felt drawn to play them in Blood Bowl. I guess I was never a fan of all the kitchenware on their models. I can get behind them being a joke team, but I’d still like them to look like a…well…sports team.
At this point, I’ve played lots of Blitz Bowl. However, I’ve played very little with the actual humans and orcs. Being the standard default teams in every edition of Blood Bowl, I’ve painted plenty so I’ve sort of drug my feet on getting their BzB versions done. My minis rule is basically ‘Play it Painted’, so these teams have sat in their locker rooms for awhile. Now, they’re ready for the pitch.
In 30 years of being involved with Blood Bowl…I’ve never run a Chaos team. Chaos generally isn’t a big faction of mine and the Khorne flavor of the generic Chaos team never appealed. I’m actually more of a Tzeentch or Nurgle gamer if it came to it, but Chaos in general traditionally doesn’t do anything for me. It’s ironic then that I’ve painted so much of it the past few years…