Blood Bowl

The game has been a part of my life since 1989, when my brother acquired a copy of it. I bought it off him for $20, and still have it, complete with a whole pile of team sheets from long-forgotten games. Occasionally I blow the dust off it and show it off to younger players to show how far the game has come along.

In 1994, I got the third edition game as a 25th birthday present. The plastic miniatures have long since been sold, but my metal ones take up an entire shelf in the large TV cabinet that I have and then some. The overflow are now housed in several home-made carry/storage cases that I've made over the last year or so.

I started playing in official NAF events in September 2005. My first tournament was the first ever Eucalyptus Bowl tournament, and I can proudly say that I'm one of five coaches who have played in all fifteen runnings of the events. I finished the initial event with a 1-2-2 record and won the sportsmanship award, picking up a copy of the first Matt Forbeck Blood Bowl novel, which inspired me (and fellow BB player Stephen 'Babs' Babbage) to write Feudball.

In October 2012 I became just the sixth player in Australia (just one of 52 world-wide at the time) to have a ranking for all 24 races in NAF tournaments. In January 2016, I was just one of three Australian players to have played all 24 races twice in tournaments. The 48th race was the same as the 24th – Nurgle. I have also gone on to knock off the Khorne and Bretonnians as well, completing the 52 in January 2019 at Mountain Bowl.

On April 7th, 2018 at the Australian Team Championships tournament, I played my 1000th game. I regularly play in NAF sanctioned tournaments (mostly in NSW) and have played in over 70 events, with two tournament wins to my credit. The first was in February 2008, when I won the inaugural Clash of the Titans event (which is the picture in the top left-hand corner), going undefeated using my preferred Undead, and the second at the AusBowl State Teams Championship, which were held in Melbourne in March 2017, as part of the victorious NSW team, where I played seven games with Wood Elves and only lost one match during the two day event.

In the blood bowl community, I'm known as Vimes. I've been a NAF henchman and used to assist the prize co-ordinator for Australia & New Zealand, Babs, for several years until he resigned from the post in January 2014. My job was simple. I ferried prize support to tournaments that he couldn't attend and took registrations and renewals for the NAF, often with block dice ready to hand over at events.

As an event co-ordinator, I ran a sevens tournaments, the Russell Drysdale Sevens, between 2006 and 2009, with the initial event being played in my flat. I have also run four official NAF events, the Gosford Gauntlet, between 2010 – 2012 and again in 2014. I used to run leagues in Tamworth (on behalf of the wargames club there) back in 1994/5 and on the Central Coast, at monthly meets with the Central Coast Corsairs (a now defunct gaming club) and on an irregular basis at Good Games Gosford, finishing in 2011.

In 2012, I even picked up a painting prize, again at the Clash of the Titans, with my fantasy polar themed Ogre team. (To be honest, I never even expected to win ANY painting prizes.) I have won five sportsmanship awards, the last of these at the Central Coast B9 tournament in August 2013. League wise, I've won one league based on the Central Coast (again with Undead), and won the third season of NOBBL (Newcastle Open Blood Bowl League) which was completed in July 2012, with Elves. Up until January 2018, I was playing in SLOBB (Sydney League of Blood Bowl), which is currently on an extended hiatus. I then joined BMBBL (Blue Mountains Blood Bowl League) and have played in two seasons.

I also maintain a long running blog which is dedicated to my gaming pursuits – The Dwarven One's Blood Bowl and Role-Playing Blog, where I regularly post match reports and pictures of games that I have played and tournaments that I have attended. I also add a few words about my other gaming habits, including my current RPG sessions, Mordheim clashes, as well as what PC games that I have played recently.

What you'll find in this section are details and comments about my favourite teams that I have played since 1994, and some of my leading 'players'. I plan to later add pictures of events that I've been to (or hosted), miniature images, tournament results from leagues and events that I've run over the years and even some optional rules that I've experimented with.

22 August, 2019