Last night was our semi-regular Dungeonbowl night, so here is the usual mini-game report.
Grey Shadows (Chaos Humans/Snotlings/Ogre) vs. Grim Reapers (Skaven/Goblins/Minotaurs)
Because of harsh weather conditions, I did not bring any elevated terrain with me on my bike, so the dungeon was a back-to-basics one with just one level and just a little bit of lava. Picture below shows the dungeon layout. I also requested we play without magical monsters this time. This game ended up being very atypical for us.
On the first turn of the game, as the first thing the Shadows teleported in their Ogre, and he happened to land on a teleporter right in front of the Reapers' end zone. Yikes! Intrepidly, the Ogre blitzed into the enemy ranks, pushing back the Runner he targeted (the only one he could get two block dice against because of his ST2). In the following Reaper turn, one of the Minotaurs blitzed and knocked down the Ogre, but the other one failed his Wild Animal roll and both Minos were therefore left in their end zone while the rest of the team ran out into the dungeon.
The Ogre hurls himself into the mass of Skaven
Only moments later, a Snotling opened the first chest in the middle of the dungeon, and found the ball! He immediately passed it back to a team-mate successfully, scoring SPPs both from finding the ball and the successful pass. What a star!
The Reapers all froze in horror at this spectacle, but then zoned in on the new ball carrier. Thanks to a dextrous Goblin dodging in to provide an assist, a Skaven Blitzer managed to knock down the ball carrier, but the ball bounced back behind the line of Chaos Humans, out of his reach. In the next turn, the Shadows reclaimed the ball with a Lineman, who then tried to pass to a nearby Thrower, but this time failed to pass accurately. The ball bounced free again.
At this stage, a Reaper Minotaur had moved away from the scrap with the Ogre in their end zone, and teleported up next to a chest. Since the ball had already been found, the Mino decided to use the chest as a projectile against a group of three Chaos Humans nearby. The pass was predictably inaccurate, but it landed right next to all three of them. The Skaven hoped that the chest would pop open and explode… but alas it remained closed.
While many players were distracted by the throwing of chests, the two Skaven Runners saw their chance to strike. Showing off their remarkable agility, both of them dodged through the Shadows' line, and one of them grabbed the loose ball. The Shadows were stunned, and despite pushing the Runner with the ball into a corner and nearly pinning him, he managed to hang onto it, dodge past all the enemy players, and run in for a touchdown.
Because this game only took about half an hour to play, we decided to play again in the same dungeon, but with new teams.
War Hawks (Chaos Dwarfs/Orcs/Ogres) vs. Blood Axes (Dwarfs/Humans/Norse)
Dwarfs vs. Chaos Dwarfs promised to be very different from the slippery Skaven action that had caused such a short game before. The Hawks were one player down, as their Ogre was seriously injured in their last game, so playing against the inexperienced Axes, with no big guys, seemed like a reasonably wise move.
However, history repeated itself to some extent, as the first turn saw the Hawks teleport in a Chaos Dwarf right in front of the Axes' end zone! Rather than run in and attack, the ST3 player decided to stay back and block the way instead, which meant that most of the Axes ran around him, but a couple stayed back to try and beat him up. A second Chaos Dwarf teleported in a turn later, and a small scrap ended up taking place there for the rest of the game.
Chaos Dwarfs try to hinder the Axes from getting out of their end zone
The rest of the teams slowly moved through the dungeon, with exploding chest being opened along the way. One chest was opened by a Dwarf Runner, and the explosion actually broke his femur and permanently reduced his movement, in addition to sending him off to medicare for this and the next game.
In the second to last chest, near a patch of lava, an Orc Blitzer managed to find the ball. However, his path was well blocked by opposing players and with no good targets to pass to. Eventually he tried to cross a patch of lava to hand the ball to a team-mate, but the lava proved too hot and sent him off to the dug-outs with severe burns. The ball was free, and a Human Blitzer ran in to seize it.
The Orc Blitzer has the ball, and is considering his options for how best to get through the lava zone
After skillfully covering all the Hawks players with Axe players and making sure they were too occupied to be able to go for the ball, the Blitzer ran unimpeded down the length of the dungeon to score the win.
In the post-match sequence, a Dwarf Longbeard managed to roll a double six for his skill roll and got +1 ST, to much oohing and aahing from myself. The Axes also bought a Bombardier secret weapon player for the team roster, and the Grim Reapers similarly bought a Skaven Assasssin. Most of the teams had saved up cash, so the War Hawks recruited an impressive Boar Centaur for their ranks.
