BloodBowl: Amazon vs Human brutality on the pitch

This weekend I also managed to get a game of BloodBowl with my extremely busy friend Calle with whom I had not played any game with for over 2-3 months. So it was nice to both catch up and get to play BloodBowl which is a ridiculously fun game (if you don’t have the tabletop version I strongly recommend getting the “Legendary edition” of BloodBowl for PC).
We played a regular 1million credits game from scratch. The team rosters looked like this:

Human team:
4 Re-rolls
1 Catcher
3 Blitzer’s
1 Ogre
6 Linemen
(11 players all in all, no reserves)

Amazon “Nuns”:
3 Re-rolls
2 Blitzers
2 Catchers
10 Linewomen
(14 players all in all, 3 in reserve)

The game would go down to be one of the most brutal games of BloodBowl that I have ever played on the tabletop, surpassing the beating I handed out to Calle’s Halfling team about a year ago.

I might as well also explain all the damn markers you will see in the pictures. Blue crystals were used to mark activated Amazons. Red Crystals are “Face Down”, Orange crystals are “Face Up” or marking that my Ogre was having problems with his brain functions due to his stupidity roll upon desired activation.
I was a bit too enthralled with the game to write notes so this is a summary of the game based on my memory.

First half:
Humans won the roll and chose to be the receiving team (attacker). The Amazons kicked off and the ball scattered wildly out of the pitch, meaning I could give the ball to any player I wanted. I gave the ball to one of my Blitzers on the flank.

Humans started out well, beating up the Amazons in base contact and pushing onto the opposing half of the table in force.  The Amazons made great use of their “dodge” skill and evaded numerous punches thrown at them. The Human Blitzer with the ball broke through the Amazon line and was backed up by a friendly Lineman. With the Amazon team tied up in a fistfight with the rest of the Human team the first touchdown was scored only 2 turns into the game by the Human Blitzer.

The Human team cheered and thought they had the game in control having snatched the initiative. And with 6 turns remaining of first half it looked as if more human touchdowns were not impossible to achieve. The Amazon team however got their act together.

Receiving the kick-off the Amazons also got “Quick Snap” meaning they could move their players 1 square, so they moved away from the Human team where needed and piled up to get more punches where they saw fit.  Almost immediately the Amazons ganged up on the Human Catcher and gave him a royal beating, sending him to the Casualty box. The Amazons then tried to punch their way through the flanks of the Human team though progress was slow. The following turn the Human team retaliated, sending forth the Ogre to slap around one of the opposing Linewomen and sending her to the K.O’ box.

The game went back and forth near the center line, the Amazons managed to get the ball back onto the human side of the pitch. Human Linemen and a Blitzer raced towards the Amazon Blitzer and punched her off the pitch – sending her to the Casualty box and picked up the ball. Time was running out and the Amazons were slowing down the Human game to play the ball up the pitch onto the opposing half. Once over the center line the Human player who held the ball was knocked down and lost the ball to the opposing team once again.

In the last moments of first half the brutality was amped up and the Human team lost a Blitzer and a Lineman to the Casualty box- reducing the Human team to 8 players, while the Amazons replenished their losses from the reserves! And so first half was over. 1-0 to the beaten up Human team.

Second half
The humans were now the underdogs of the game. The Amazon team won the initiative and were again the receiving team. Upon kickoff the Amazons also once again managed to get the “Quick snap” allowing them to reposition players on the pitch by 1 square (which makes a huge difference for those of you who don’t play B.B.). But with terrible luck the Amazons lost their turn almost immediately as one of their players managed to knock herself unconscious while attempting a block action on a opposing player – and then failed the re-roll.

The Humans launched themselves at the opposing team, handing out some tough love with their clenched fists. The second and last Amazon Blitzer was punched into the Casualty box, and the Ogre mauled another Linewoman. The numbers of active players on both sides were getting even.

The Amazons managed to sneak the ball along one flank and made sure to protect the player this time around giving her a head start. The following turn  the Amazons managed to score their first touchdown making the score 1-1.

Two badly bruised teams lined up for the final turns of second half.
The blood kept flowing, as the Amazons received enough punches to drop down to 8 players out of the 14 original ones. 3 Casualties and 3 K.O’, the Human side fare not better during the final turns. As they tried to get the ball through the center the Human players took a royal beating from the Amazon team and lost two more Linemen, and the Ogre was knocked face down and had the opposing team jumping on his back trying to break him for 2 turns – his “Thick Skull” saved him from getting knocked out and end up in the K.O’ box.

Finally the time ran out and the game ended a 1-1 draw. A score both players were quite happy with, and we had a blast playing this game. The amount of brutal die rolls was quite astonishing. Towards the end there was a “Both down” result where both players rolled double 6’s on the armor penetration roll, the Amazon ended face down while my Human player ended up in the K.O’ box. So I was down to 5 players and the Amazons down to 6!

Short summary.
Score 1-1
Casualties: 5 Human, 3 Amazon
K.O.: 1 Human 3 Amazon