The ManticBowl! My first tournament! I\u2019ve never been to a tournament before, not for any game. I\u2019ve played in a single league outside of my house, and a couple of games of Warhammer in a couple of clubs over the last fifteen years. That\u2019s pretty much enough to qualify as \u2018I only play against my friends\u2019. Since I got the free ticket with the Kickstarter, I thought it would be nice to treat Jen to a weekend away and get her a ticket too!<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve heard about Warhammer tournaments for a long time on podcasts, and was tempted to join in on one of those (not fancying my chances very much though) but DreadBall is new and exciting, and I feel more able to play well. That being said, I\u2019m not getting cocky. I\u2019ve heard that there are 28 contenders in the tournament, and Jen and I are two of those. I\u2019d like to come in around 25th or better – not aiming particularly high, I know, but almost everyone that I\u2019ve played against is someone that I\u2019ve taught the game and apart from the league games (one win, one landslide loss) I\u2019ve been advising my opponent on tactics and the rules. I don\u2019t know how good my tactics are!<\/p>\n
On top of that, I only got my Season Two pack a week ago. We\u2019ve had no time to play against the new teams, and from what I\u2019ve seen in the forums the Judwan are going to take some work to take down. We were planning to get some practice games in but it looks like the only time that we\u2019ll get to play against each other (the first time in many, many weeks) is going to be in the hotel tomorrow night.<\/p>\n
One thing that\u2019s been occupying me for the last week is painting. I asked Jen what she wanted to play of our two-and-a-half painted teams, and she said Corporation. The completely unpainted team. I have a colour scheme that I wanted to use for the S2 models but not one for the S1. When the new models arrived, I built up an S1 team with S2 models (ensuring I had enough models in two piles to assemble both an S1 or S2 team in two different colour schemes) and have been painting furiously to get them ready in time. I\u2019ve missed off a lot of the highlighting, but I\u2019ve been trying to work carefully and make a good job of it. I\u2019ve got them to a point where they would be acceptable for tournament entry, even though there is plenty more work in highlighting to do on them. I\u2019m so happy with how they\u2019ve turned out, I\u2019m jealous of Jen taking them!<\/p>\n
The last thing to worry about is that we don\u2019t have all the required materials that the tournament pack lists. We only have one copy of the game, so we only have one rulebook, one refbot and one pack of cards. Apparently both players should be bringing this stuff, but the only thing that I have in multiple is a pitch (MDF pitch, started to paint it but no details done yet). Hopefully our opponents will be able to fill in the gaps and the tournament organisers will be tolerant.<\/p>\n
Jen is just worried that she doesn\u2019t know the rules enough, so I guess I know who will be taking the rulebook!<\/p>\n
Apologies for not remembering more about my games – after the tournament we went to the cinema, had a meal out, then back to the hotel to plough through a bottle of wine. It was a real whirlwind of a day. I ended up taking my Marauders, with two extra coaching dice (the maximum allowed) and an advance on a Jack.<\/p>\n
My first game was against a Forge Father player named Tristan (Golden Forge Guardians, placed 25th). They were painted black and gold. My Jack got a skill advance, but got injured and never got around to using it! The memorable moment was realising that the bloodthirsty Forge Fathers had put everyone in the sin bin except a single lone guard in my last rush! Seeing where the ball was, I took out my only sub (a Jack) and defended the two closest strike zones and hoped he didn\u2019t have good cards. In his last rush, he managed to get all the way to the 4-point bonus hex, he shot and\u2026 missed! There was a little back and forth, but I ended up winning by 2 points.<\/p>\n
Jen played a Corporation team, and lost by a landslide.<\/p>\n
I felt really bad for my opponent in the second game – a Judwan player named Adam (Aryes Grey Basterds, placed 23rd), who had borrowed a friend\u2019s blue, white and red Judwan. His dice were definitely against him, and with a few rounds of dropping the ball and failing catches, I think he only managed to score once. He had set up a chain of passing which worked beautifully, double successes all the way to the three point zone, and if it had worked it would be a play that was talked about in history. His last player failed to catch the ball (needing one 4+ on any of three dice!), and it scattered\u2026 back to his other strikers, who failed to catch it and it scattered\u2026 all the way back to where it started.<\/p>\n
My goblins picked it up and took it to a landslide win. At lunch, I looked around the shop but I didn\u2019t see any dice. I think I owed the guy a new pack, since his dice deserve to be destroyed for their betrayal.<\/p>\n
Jen played another Corporation team, and lost by a landslide again.<\/p>\n
Buoyed up by my good results so far, I got quite close to the top table. It was either table 3 or 4, if I recall correctly. Jen had gone down to the bottom table already. I played a Corporation player named Gary (Cryotek Hornets, placed 11th), whose team were painted in yellow with black and white stripes. He spent most of the early game ganging up on my guys and tag-teaming slams. There was a little back and forth, but his big strike zone at the end (my favourite target) was too well defended to do much with. I ended up losing by 5 points.<\/p>\n
Jen played against a Marauder team this time (Hyson Green Smack Fiends, placed 26th), but lost by a landslide again.<\/p>\n
This was the most exciting game of all. I played against Carl (aka @athousandhats<\/a>) fielding a Corporation team with an assistant coach (Crashtek Wreckers, placed 8th), and realised just how useful they would be (I almost brought one, but didn\u2019t have any painted yet). This team was also painted yellow, and was probably the best painted team I played against. There was so much going on the whole game – it went back and forth so many times, neither team getting more than two points on the other. We both scored a lot<\/em>.<\/p>\n He had a Striker with A Safe Pair of Hands<\/em> (I\u2019d been lucky and got it for the first time today too, but that Jack spent his time mostly injured!) on the ball entry hex, and caught it a couple of times. As I was two points up in his penultimate rush, I used a Running Interference card to at least try and move the Striker so they couldn\u2019t catch the ball\u2026 and ended up getting six successes (from three dice!) against his two to dodge! He saved a couple, but was no longer a threat. By this time, we were one of the last games playing.<\/p>\n In my final rush, I failed to get the ball far enough out of the way and he managed to pass it round the back of my Orx guarding the big strike zone to score three points. Every other game had finished, and the time was almost up, but it was our last rush so the TOs and a couple of spectators were crowding at this point. He got the three-pointer, and showboated, and took the score back to 1pt in his favour. <\/p>\n I have honestly never enjoyed a game of DreadBall more than that one – Carl knew the rules well, and played fantastically, he was a good fun guy to chat through all the way through and he was just as buzzed about how the game was going as I was. I think the benefits of a Swiss tournament system mean that you should end up playing someone who is around your level, and in DreadBall that means that it will normally be a close and exciting game.<\/p>\n Jen was still on the bottom table, and the downside of the Swiss system is that she was playing the same opponent again – but she didn\u2019t lose by a landslide! She lost by 6 points. She also helped her opponent (Jona) to win Bloodiest Coach, because most of his kills had come from her team.<\/p>\n I loved it! I want to go again! I will be going again next year, hopefully. Jen enjoyed herself despite coming bottom of the whole thing, and everyone commented on what a good sport she was. Mantic even gave a prize to the bottom player – a copy of Dwarf King\u2019s Hold, with the tongue-in-cheek comment that maybe she should try a different game. That being said, they were really nice and we would be welcomed back again. All her opponents were friendly, and she said they offered her tips after the games. The TO, James, even came over to check how she was doing in the last two games, and brought her over to my table at the end of the last game because it was so exciting!<\/p>\n As far as results go, I came 17th and Jen came 29th. One player disqualified himself and told the judges that because he had been playing coaches wrong and giving himself an unfair advantage, all his opponents should get a landslide win against him. They agreed, and that\u2019s why Jen came 29th out of 30. If he hadn\u2019t have done that, I would have come 16th and Jen would have come 30th. I really like the honesty and sportsmanship involved – it shows that everyone else was just there to have a laugh and a good time playing as well. Having analysed the final results, if my opponent in the last game hadn\u2019t scored that final strike, I would have placed a lot higher – but that\u2019s the way things go!<\/p>\n We\u2019re both looking forward to trying out Dwarf King\u2019s Hold, and I\u2019ve skimmed over the rules. I don\u2019t know if we\u2019ll get a chance to play it yet though, as I\u2019ve totally got the tournament bug now and with 2 more tournaments in the next four weeks, I want to get a lot more practice in and potentially paint another team (since we\u2019ve convinced @lordscree<\/a> to join in the Bristol Blitz).<\/p>\n Overall, I\u2019m finishing off this blog post two days after the event and I am still buzzing. Maybe that\u2019ll calm down as I get more used to tournaments, but for now all I want to do is play DreadBall and get back to another tournament. I know I won\u2019t be able to go to too many out-of-town events because of the need for babysitters, but I might look at travelling a little further afield in the Wiltshire, Devon, South Wales or even possibly Hampshire and London areas (if we can attach ourselves to friends and family out there).<\/p>\n The biggest downside is that we missed a lot of the Open Day stuff, but I had so much fun I don\u2019t really care. I don\u2019t have time to play DeadZone or Kings of War, and I don\u2019t want to buy any more stuff. I looked around at some of the professionally painted models, which was amazing and intimidating, but it just makes me want to try harder. Waiting in the queue for food meant that we missed the seminar, but again we just milled around and chatted to the other players.<\/p>\n We will be going again! As long as babysitters, accommodation and transport can all align, we will definitely be going back. I encourage anyone else who can make it to do the same!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The ManticBowl! My first tournament! I\u2019ve never been to a tournament before, not for any game. I\u2019ve played in a single league outside of my house, and a couple of games of Warhammer in a couple of clubs over the last fifteen years. That\u2019s pretty much enough to qualify as \u2018I only play against my … <\/p>\nThoughts after<\/h1>\n