Brassbowl XXI, 13-14 December in Ostend, Belgium

This last weekend, a band of plucky explorers from all over the South East journeyed under the sea to a mystical land known as Belgium.  

Back in 2023 at the World Cup I had randomly started talking to one of the referees, Sjape, who it turns out lived in Belgium and had visited Folkestone for tournaments - in the days before I had joined the SKABB league. We've remained in touch, seeing him at the NAF Championship, and them bringing a team over for the Kent Team Championship earlier this year. 

I decided it was time to return the favour and visit Belgium for one of it's flagship events, Brassbowl. This is held in Ostend which is a port town. When I was a child, it was still possible to get a ferry from Folkestone to Ostend, so I had assumed that Ostend was a very similar town to Folkestone. It is not.

It is in fact a city, and much much bigger and livelier than I had expected, although that could partly be because the tournament was running at the same time as a Christmas Market right outside our hotel, so obviously we visited for a few mulled wines and the like.

I had tried to learn a little bit of Dutch beforehand (mainly because Duolingo doesn't have Flemish) but it was pretty much unnecessary, as everyone there spoke pretty good English - even Glowworm's was passable. 

I was travelling with Rob (SaltyMurcutt) for whom this was his 11th Blood Bowl country and Kev (coach_kev) for whom it was his first overseas tournament. I'd only previously been to the World Cup (partly due to issues around the dates for Eurobowls since). As I live 5 minutes away from where the Channel Tunnel goes into the sea (at least when there's not roadworks) it was actually quicker for me to get to Ostend than to get to Nottingham for the NAF Championships.

The tournament itself was a five game affair - three games on day 1 and two games on day 2 - meaning I was actually home by 6:30pm! I know that some people prefer that as a format, and it is definitely more common overseas, but currently none of the big two-day tournaments in England follow that format. 

The software they were using for the event was custom written by a member of the Belgian Blood Bowl community and you received the draw and submitted your results via WhatsApp (apparently Telegram is also an option - I've never touched it before as in my head it is associated with Victorian England). 

Ruleset wise, there was a definite Season 3 feel to it where they had taken the Games Workshop tiering and skill point allowance - although to bring in the concept of elite skills, they made them cost 2 skill points. This meant that it felt like several teams weren't viable, with several others struggling to get what they were after.

I opted to take wood elves - they're my favourite team and I wanted to see properly how they played without the four catcher build that I liked in Season 2, and without taking any additional dodge. I didn't take the tree, so I had a thrower (leader), 2 wardancers (1 strip ball), 2 catchers (1 sidestep), 6 linemen (3 with wrestle). I'd previously taken tackle on the second wardancer, but I wanted additional combat skills on the linemen and I also assumed that not many people would be taking dodge. On top of this, I had an apothecary, three re-rolls (four with leader) and a mascot. 

Prayers to Nuffle were allowed, but I elected not to take them. You can consider it a sort of DimmyGee style protest in refusing to take part of the game that you fundamentally disagree with, you can consider it idiocy or you could say that actually, the mascot was probably the better choice for consistency. I'm not sure which I think it is still.

Rob had gone for norse (2 guard ulfs and 2 wrestle valks) and Kev had gone for necro (2 brawler golems, 2 tackle wraiths, 2 block wolves). Overall, Rob didn't really enjoy his build. Kev thought his was ok, but there were definitely times when he would have wanted block on the golems instead.

Round 1 v Jerome (Jerbal_Porkhopper)

For my first game, I was playing against a Skaven build with Glaart Smashrip. Star players cost 2 skill points, but even so it gave the skaven 6 additional skills.

I mainly just stayed away from the big guy, and there was an early opportunity to turn the ball over which I took and was successful with. I managed a second turnover in the first half and lead 2-0 at half time, having also successfully fouled a gutter runner to death. I did get sent off, but it was a fair trade.

It did however mean I was running low on numbers after suffering from a couple of removals, so I scored quick in the second half to give me a 3-0 lead. 

Jerome scored back fairly quickly and I ran my ball carrier upfield for an attempt at a fourth touchdown and to move the ball further up the pitch meaning it would be less likely that Jerome would score back, however when skaven have the numbers advantage such that their blitzers which now come with strip ball are able to easily reach the ball carrier, it's almost certainly getting loose. The skaven recovered it and went upfield for the game to end 3-2.

Based on how the scoring system worked where you got an additional point for winning by 2 or more touchdowns, I probably should have just hung back and surrounded the ball as much as possible. Perhaps I'll learn for next time. 

Round 2 v Tijs (The_Tyser)

Reader, I did not learn for next time. I had a second match against skaven in a row. This game was an utter whitewash. Tijs took Prayers to Nuffle which got a mighty blow blitzer, along with an additional stab on a linerat (and perhaps something else that I have forgotten). 

Tijs elected to kick and I attempted to try to score in two turns as I was feeling under pressure and I play much worse when my opponent has strip ball. My wardancer failed the catch and then it all went downhill from there. It ended up as a 6-0 loss as I was initially chasing the game, but then also severely down on players. 

I failed so SO many knock out rolls to even give me a chance in this game. One turn I rolled three 1s for my KOs. The next turn it was four more 1s and a 3. I wasn't able to put up much of a challenge at all.

I've thought a lot about this game since it happened to try to understand why it went wrong. Part of it was tactics - I left them shots at the ball. Part of it was mentality - going down early, quickly and repeatedly just put me in the wrong mindset. Part of it was attrition. Part of it was the new skills on skaven blitzers. I'm not entirely sure what I'd do differently to combat this potential situation (which didn't happen in my first game but from the NAF it looks like Tijs is the more experienced player of the two skaven coaches).

Sure hands on the thrower would be one thing that might have made a difference. A 12th player would have helped a little, and a treeman perhaps more. None of this fits how I like to play wood elves, but we will all need to be adapting slightly in this Brave New World.

I had a shot at a one turn touchdown on turn 16 which was working great, until I rolled double both down on the crucial block. Nothing was meant to be this game.

I felt bad for whoever might have been Tijs's rival in the race for most touchdowns. It turned out that his nearest rival was me, so I didn't feel too bad in the end. 

Round 3 v Woete (Woete)

I bounced from my biggest ever defeat to my largest NAF win. Woete had black orcs with a roster picked by Old Man Jenks. It didn't feel like he had many skills which would counter my team. Some of them were the new skills (bullseye, lethal flight) but there wasn't much that would help his team other than stand firm, tackle and (once) strip ball. 

I sent a lot of my players through turn 1 to put him under a lot of pressure. Woete made a gap by hitting a catcher but I'm able to swarm back and steal the ball after the goblins fail to dodge, scoring on my turn 7.

I'd set up for a 1 turn difference and we get a time out. Woete tired to blitz a wardancer but failed the rush. This then actually allowed me to hit the goblin that would have been thrown and to get 2 wardancers in range. After one of them had just been fouled off, I wasn't going to try for a risky second score until Woete encouraged me to do so, so after dodging a lineman, I was able to leap, get a 2 dice block on the goblin next to the ball, push them out of the way, dodge onto the ball, pick up the ball, dodge away and double rush to be 2-0 up at half time. 

After this, it was extremely one sided. I scored quickly on my drive for a third, and after removing all the goblins, I was able to get 2 more for a 5-0 win. 

It was pretty crazy to go from a 6-0 loss to a 5-0 win, but after day 1 I had a 2/0/1 record and was even on touchdowns.

Round 4 v Matisse (AccountantOfNuffle)

The following morning I was drawn against Matisse in a wood elf mirror match, although he had a treeman. 

I kicked and two linemen were removed on the line of scrimmage. I think I managed to keep my composure (not like in the game against Tijs) and after the apothecary saved the second, I wasn't going to be down too many players for the game. 

Moving up to the middle of the field, Matisse left me a 4+ dodge with a wardancer to attempt to strip the ball, although the dodge was failed.  A couple of turns later I did manage to get the ball loose and it bounced to a wrestle lineman, however Matisse recovered the ball and scored on turn 8 after I suffered a casualty on the strip ball wardancer (I think perhaps I may have used the apothecary too early, now that injuries have a 75% chance of recovery with an apo). 

I had been saving my re-rolls for a one turn touchdown attempt, and even though Matisse had positioned well, and I was down on numbers my sidestep catcher managed to dance through easily after a couple of pushes to level it up at half time.

With the wood elf catchers now having sprint, it is possible to get a one turn score with a sidestep catcher and just 3 other players - which is frankly ridiculous and I love it!

I scored quickly on my drive to take the lead and hopefully lock in a draw and look to try to turnover or stop for the win. I needed a 3+ catch on a wardancer to make it happen which I did with the use of a re-roll.

During the rest of the game, I actually had opportunities at the ball which was in the corner near my endzone. I could have potentially grabbed it and handed off and then run out of range, but the dice said no and it ended up a 2-2 draw. 

Round 5 v Kev (Coach_Kev)

We had been joking all weekend that we'd play each other and it ended up happening round 5. We were both on a 2/1/1 record meaning neither of us would go home with a losing record, no matter how this game went. 

I kicked and Kev removed a couple of elves but a flesh golem rolled double skulls into skull/both down which gave me a hit on the ball carrier and eventually I ran off and scored turn 6. I managed to stop Kev scoring, covering the scoring threats and also hitting the ghoul in the middle of the pitch that was going to be the go between. There was even a shot at a second score for me, but a 3+ pickup failed.

Again I scored fairly quickly on my drive although my catcher failed the rush needed which allowed Kev to recover before I knocked it loose and again and scored with a pass. At the death I nearly got a forth although this would have been even more unlikely!

The key moments in this game were when Kev's dice failed, it was all at a time which let me in and allowed me to take a big advantage from it. I think I may even have convinced him to play wood elves after our last 2 games! 

Conclusion

I'd played a couple of practice games, and there hasn't seemed to be a massive difference in the gameplay itself. The key is how each of the rosters have changed slightly. I do feel that wood elves are perhaps a little bit stronger with the catchers having sprint, although it does mean I'm going to need to adapt my playstyle slightly.

I ended with a 3/1/1 record and in 6th place out of 24 which I was pleased with. A couple of little things done differently might have meant a podium place, but as my first tournament in Season 3 rules, it went better than I had hoped.

I hope to be able to visit Belgium again for another tournament soon - all the Belgians were very friendly and hospitable (especially the ones that kindly let me beat them).