We continue our mini series were we ask Tournament Champions what we think are some of the all important questions with Blood Bowl in the newest edition!
After getting some insight into Blood Bowl in Mexico from Charles Nedelec (NAF ID: CharlesNedelec) we went toward the United Kingdom to talk with David Glenister (NAF ID: bsking). David recently claimed the title of Champion for the BBQ Bowl 2021! David has been playing in NAF tournaments since 2009 and mainly uses Humans. This time he went with Orcs to claim his tournament champion title!
Q: How long have you played Blood Bowl?
A: I first played Blood Bowl way back when they first released the 3rd edition – in fact I remember I purchased the Blood Bowl Box Set, Deathzone, the The Chaos All-Stars, Borak the Despoiler and 2 blister packs of mutants at the opening of the St. Albans Games Workshop store aged about 10! However, as with most of us, there have been some long hiatuses … My real journey with Blood Bowl started post university, when I discovered the ECBBL in London (UK). That was in the winter of 2008, and my first season with them was the Spring 2009 season. Since then I’ve played competitive Blood Bowl pretty regularly, missing only one season prior to recent events … I now am one of the joint commissioners of that league, and we’re gearing up to get going again once COVID is no longer a concern!
Q: What made you make the decision to take the winning race to the event? Did you do any research, practice or preparation before the tournament?
A: Actually the decision on race wasn’t based on anything other than wanting to play with my newly painted team! I’d had them painted for me by Joe (of Average Joe’s Painting Studio – also the host of BBQ Bowl!), so I was actually picking them up at the tournament! But as someone once told me, painted team’s always perform better!
Q: Now that you’ve won do you feel like your priorities will change with team race selection in upcoming tournaments?
A: Not really. My race selection at tournaments is rarely about trying to be overly competitive. I prefer to either take my latest painted team (I don’t usually get teams painted for me!), or races that I enjoy playing! So far in the ECBBL I’ve been able to take a different race every season, often using the ~6 months and games as the drive to try and paint the team (with greater or lesser success)! Given I also try not to repeat races (trying to play the whole 30+(?! – not sure how many it is now!)), I have a few options!
Q: Care to share any secrets to your winning strategy/roster choices?
A: As it was my due to be my first few games with the new ruleset, I decided I wanted something reasonably standard, so I didn’t choose any Stars, but instead took the Troll, 4 Big ‘Uns (Black Orc Blockers, but the extra point of movement is lovely!), 4 Blitzers, 4 Linemen and a Goblin. The biggest thing was that the tournament was allowing skills as per the new costings, so apart from Guard on the troll I took 4 “random” strength skills on the Big ‘Uns, and 4 “random” general skills on the Blitzers. The rolls went nicely for me, which meant I had a definite boost for the tournament (2 x Mighty Blow Big ‘Uns and 2 x Tackle Blitzers meant the extra 4 skills I purchased were just a bonus, as I could easily have paid 20K each for those 4, and not had any more!). I think this will be something that Tourney organizer’s will need to look at, as it puts so much importance on the skill rolls at the beginning of day 1 – equally I could have rolled average or below and got a mixed bag, but if enough people take the random approach someone will roll themselves an advantage for the whole tournament before a ball is metaphorically kicked … so I think “random” skills will need to be banned for the tournament scene.
Q: What is your advice to newcomers and/or experienced coaches of Blood Bowl, particularly the ones transitioning to the Blood Bowl Second Season tournament scene?
A: Jump in and do it. I’ve genuinely found Blood Bowler’s to be the most welcoming bunch of tournament players I’ve ever come across! Whether you start with a small local 20ish player tournament, or the NAF Championships you’ll have a great time, and meet some great people – just be prepared to play a LOT of Blood Bowl (so maybe bring some Paracetamol or Ibuprofen)!
Q: What are your next steps? Any upcoming tournaments you plan to attend?
A: I’ve still got my ticket from the NAF Championships that was supposed to be happening in 2020! Other than that, no plans at the moment but I’ll get some more in the diary soon.
Q: Do you have any final thoughts/comments on how the current Blood Bowl Second Season edition of rules may change the tournament scene?
A: Stars and the Prayer’s to Nuffle table are massively undercosted and OP respectively. I expect that for serious tournament’s we’ll swiftly see both of them banned or significantly toned back … especially given the likelihood that further future releases from Games Workshop will unbalance things even further. However the addition of the new teams and the attempts to tone down some of the kick-off results seem reasonably balanced (toning back some of the kick-off events seems a definite improvement!). I just hope that the future doesn’t see a descent into power creep as is the case with other GW tournament games!
Thank you so much David for these great thoughts! We all want to congratulate you on your success in Blood Bowl and good luck in your future tournament events!
Stay tuned next week as we catch up with Jeremy Smith (NAF ID: bampf), 4 Diamonds 2021 tournament champion from United States who recently won with High Elves!