So, a couple of days ago, during lunch, I decided to stop into a used game shop in town. This place is mostly board games and old toys, but I thought I would look around and check things out. Man, am I glad I did…

In the very back corner, I noticed a few blisters of old looking minis beckoning to me. When I got close enough to see them clearly, I could not believe my eyes. Among a few very old Warhammer minis, this place actually had FOUR sealed blisters of second edition Blood Bowl minis. I immediately snapped them up and took them home.

There were two blisters of Dark Elves with five minis a piece (all with the feathers still attached to their heads!), one blister of Humans with six minis, and one Star Player blister with six minis. Twenty-two minis in total… Holy Crap!

I immediately traded the Dark Elves to a friend for a mint copy of the game Block Mania, with the Mega Mania expansion. I am going to keep one or two of the Star Players for my current teams, and the rest with probably go up for trade.

I am so glad that I walked into that store… 🙂

OK, so this may seem like absolutely no big deal to most of you, but to me, this is a very big deal. You see… I HATE painting minis. Like, I REALLY HATE painting minis. I enjoy making terrain, but painting minis is just flat out WORK for me. But after our most recent season of Blood Bowl… a season that took us about a full year to play 7 games, I have decided that it is time to give a team other than Orcs a shot.

I actually got this Undead team about six months ago with the intent to paint them, and play them in Austin’s ROT Tournament this past summer. Well, I primed them, and I applied a base coat or two to all of the minis, but I never managed to finish them. Not even close. Well, with the Thanksgiving holiday, I had a long weekend around the house, so I decided that it was time to give it another shot.

Knowing how much I dislike the process, I decided early on to make things as easy on myself as possible. I decided on a green and white paint scheme. Since my primer is a light gray, all white pieces were already base coated this way. I also did not go all out with details, and little painting slips that would have driven me nuts 10 years ago were left as is. As such, is this the best paint job I have ever done? Not even close. But I did NOT want to throw all my paints and brushes out the window when I was done. That is REAL progress for me. Anyway, with my only intent being a gaming table level of quality, I am quite pleased with how they turned out, and I am even going to prime another team I had sitting on the shelf to see if I can manage to do it again. I also still need to pick up a couple of extra minis to actually field the starting roster I want, but one step at a time.

Enjoy! And sorry for my (lack of) mini photography skills.

Quick and crappy update today because I am super busy at this tournament. Today is the R. O. T. Blood Bowl Tournament in Austin, TX. It is hosted by my friend, Matt. Fun day so far, we have 18 coaches turn out, which is really good for a Blood Bowl tournament these days.
It has been about 7 or 8 years since my last tournament, which shows in my playing, as I spent half the tournament on the bottom table. My first couple of games were rough, and I had some REALLY poor luck, combined with good opponents.
I decided to bring Orcs since it has been so long, and I have, by far, the most experience with them. Lost the first game, 1-3 against a dwarf team. I know, dwarves are never supposed to score 3 times, but quite a few things just REALLY went my opponents way.
My second game was against another Orc team, with a coach who was supremely talented at pushing players off the pitch. That combined with a complete lack of ability to successfully roll anything, except for the most ridiculous touch down I have ever made, allowed my opponent to pull out a last turn 2-1 win.
On my third game, I finally found my stride, and the dice quit hating me quite so much. Again, I faced another Orc team, but this time I was able to pull off a 3-0 win. Took long enough…
In my final game, I managed to pull out another win, but not really due to any particular skill on my part. It was due far more to the really unlucky rolling of my opponent. He played a Nurgle team… With NO RE-ROLLS… Now, due to the crazy rules of this particular tournament, each coach got one player with Foul Appearance for each game. Combine that with the fact that his roster gave him FIVE PLAYERS with Foul Appearance to begin with, by the time I played him, he had NINE PLAYERS… He also had four players with claw. Against those odds, he should have slaughtered me. Unfortunately for him, his dice completely hated him, and mine finally gave me a great game. He never caused a single casualty, and I managed two, as well as so many KOs that I lost track. It’s still a tough team to play against though, especially with Disturbing Presence. In the end, I managed a 2-1 win. Both of my TDs were in the second half with him receiving both kick offs.
All in all, it was a fun day, and a cool way to spend my birthday. I met some cool new coaches, saw a couple I haven’t seen in years, and won a couple of nice freebies.