Gronn Fjord RaidersHey there sports fans, Crassious Clay here to present this special episode of the Witching Hour with none other than Diego Mary-Donna.
Thanks Crass and in this special we will be looking at the up and coming Gronn Fjord Raiders (GFR). A Norse team currently residing in one of the lesser known leagues of south east Londinium.
That's right Diego, this is a team that has come out of nowhere and quickly become a fan favourite what with their predilection for ignoring the ball to concentrate on what some have said to be an excessive use of violence in their games.
'Excessive' Crass? You're not talking about PEEVS again are you. Good honest Blood Bowl fans should take it upon themselves to hunt down and extinguish the life from any member of 'The People for the Eradication of Excessive Violence in Sport' (PEEVS), using extreme prejudice!
I couldn't agree more Diego but to get back on track, under the fearsome coaching of the 'dread Auditor'
Don't Crass, that man's grasp of numbers sends shivers up my spine, they say his mother slept with an abacus and he was the offspring of that unnatural union.. .
err I'm not sure that's right Diego but anyway crunching the numbers seems to have worked for him as they won two of their first three pre-season friendlies at their Greenvale Stadium.
Let's take a quick recap of those games before looking at their opening league game shall we.
Game 1 - 02/02/18 - GFR vs Marieni Daulphins (Humans) - Coach - Dan R
The GRN attracted a modest crowd of 3k vs the 10k travelling fans. The numeric advantage meant that everytime one of the opposing human players were knocked into the crowd, they were gentle escorted to the reserves box in the dugout rather than treated to the infamous hospitality of the average blood bowl fan. Midway through the first half with most of the human team laid out, the Norse runner (Floki the Swift) lived up to his name and scored a touchdown. The Coach of the Daulphins, Dan R, at that point decided to throw in the towel and this incensed the fans so much that they tore the team to pieces and Dan was forced to go into hiding meaning the league had one less team in attendance.
The bonus for the Raiders was they not only gained both purses (allowing the recruitment of a thrower for the team) but both team MVP's and in a stroke of luck they both went to the Ulfwerner, Cadoc the Bear who gained Mighty Blow as a result. They also siphoned off some of the visiting fans who, unhappy with their former team's performance, decided the Raiders were the new team for them.
Final score 2-0 (we used the old BB rules where you always won by 2 touchdowns in the event of a withdrawal - though you don't gain any SPP's for the additional TD's)
Game 2 – 10/02/18 - GFR vs The Orcward Orras (Orc) - Coach Paul R
The second game undertaken was a favour to one of their new sponsors, who had asked them to play against a rookie coach and offer some tips. The Raiders agreed and proceeded to coach the Orcward Orras in the only way they knew how.
After word had gotten round about the new team on the block, the crowd was much larger this time with the Norse pulling in 9k fans vs the Orcs 10k.
In the first half the Norse slowly wore down the orcs using the ancient art of crowd surfing. The dice gods looked unfavourably on the Orcs and the Norse injured, first the Orc thrower (cutesy of Ragna, the No. 9 lineman) and then a Black Orc Blocker (Uday the Yhettee really took a dislike to him). Luckily for Paul they were just badly injured. In the final drive of the first half, the No. 4 Norse Berserker (Eirik) ran home a touchdown.
The second half saw the Norse team stage a classic flank attack, stacking all their big hitters on the right flank.
They easily punched through on the wing and with a sure touchdown in the bag, they couldn't resist going for a cheeky level up, cocked up the hand off from the thrower to Eirik, which allowed an audacious Orc Blitzer to nick the ball from under their noses.
Not standing for that, the Raiders unsurprisingly knocked the orc into the stands but the orc fans got to the ball first and chucked it half way up the pitch. The Orc No.2 Lineman was first to the ball and passed it into the hands of the No. 8 Blitzer, who managed to scored an outrageous touchdown, using an amazing show of twinkle toes to dodge his way through a mass of tackle zones! Paul's team then started to improve their Orc Smash! (TM - Paul R 2018) and badly hurt the Norse No.10 lineman Gudmund Stonehand but neither team were able to gain the upper hand and claim the win.
Final score 1-1.
20k winnings each and +1 FF to both.
The Norse MVP was the scorer of the touchdown and this gave Eirik enough points to skill up and unsurprisingly he decided to take mighty blow.
A very fun game and it showed how quickly fortune can turn in this game.
Game 3 – 19/02/18 - GFR vs Skavenblight Scramblers (Skaven) - Coach - Greg F
How the mighty have fallen. The Scramblers fell from grace in a large way and for several seasons were not heard from. They reappeared this year under a new rookie coach hoping to climb to back up to the lofty heights of their heyday. This fall really showed when the Norse counted 12k fans vs the Skaven's 7k.
With a team value considerably lower than the Norse, the Skaven were able to hire a wandering apothecary for the game.
The Skaven won the toss and elected to kick. Cadoc the Bear (Ulfwerner) started the carnage by badly hurting Skik, the No. 8 Skaven lineman. Ragna Dagfinn then followed this up by fracturing the leg of Strot, the No. 5 skaven lineman (meaning he would miss the next game). The big guys spent the half knocking each other down with no ill effects to either but the rest of the team added to the casualties with a plethera of knockouts. In the sixth turn, Floki (the norse No. 5 Runner) finally managed to actually pick up the ball and he ran up the pitch and in the final turn of the first half, scored the first touchdown.
In the second half, Eirik (No.4 Berserker), outraged that a skaven player had gained a SPP for a completed pass, smashed the hand of the offending skaven thrower (Skeexranq - No. 10) to try and ensure it wouldn't happen again. This meant a second skaven would miss the following match. Ragna then added his second casualty of the game by taking down the Rat Ogre but the Skaven apothecary leapt into action healing the damage caused (annoyingly I couldn't find who had taken down the Rat Ogre at the end of the match which meant I missed leveling him up). With the injuries and knockouts to the Skaven team multiplying, the Norse were able to take down the ball carrier and Magnus (the No. 3 Norse Beserker) then ran in the second touchdown of the game.
The final score was 2-0 to the Norse, who took away a purse of 50k GP and also gained another Fan Factor for the win.
The MVP's went to the Norse Yhetee, Uday. This was enough to level him up and to follow the trend he took Mighty Blow.
Floki (runner) scoring was enough to also enough to level him up and he took Dodge to give him the Blodge combo.
Game 4 – 23/02/18 – GFR vs Cold Sea Hawks (Dark Elves) Coach - Chris R - League game.
In the first of my league games, I faced off against Chris's Dark Elves. There was a good crowd in attendance with 10k of the Raiders fans and 12k of the elves.
We used the alternative inducement rules for special cards, which allowed Chris to take one for 50K rather than the standard 100k.
The Hawks won the toss and elected to kick to the Norse. The Raiders played a card that allowed them to get +1 on their KO rolls for the game and the Hawks played one that allowed one player to be nominated to receive an extra MVP if they were on the pitch at the end of the game. I know you are thinking what I was...challenge accepted!
In the first half after receiving the ball, the Norse tried to undertake their normal tactics of smash the opponents and knock them into the crowd. Although Cadoc got an early casualty against the DE No. 11 lineman and the team crowd surfed a few other players, the Dark elves retaliated and KO'd 3 of the Raiders, meaning by turn 3, both teams were unable to adequately cover the width of the field. With their high agility, the Dark Elves were able to capitalise the gaps in the Norse line and sack the Raiders ball carrier but with some desperate defending against them, the Hawks failed to convert their advantage.
In the second half the Norse deployed in a deep defense (to maximise the number of dodge rolls with modifiers the DE's would need to take) and with a slight numeric advantage. They quickly increased this with Eirik badly hurting the DE No 4 Blitzer (who had Guard) thus removing the main anchor of the DE offensive threat (
edit: it is possible that he was injured at the end of the 1st half rather than the very start of the second). The Dark elf team then proceeded to cage their runner and moved from one side of the pitch to the other (in a manner similar to 'pong') waiting for the Norse to make an error. The Norse played the waiting game, slowly closing the net on the cage removing one DE player from the field each turn. Maneuvering for the final sack, the Norse left one lane with minimal cover and the remaining DE blitzer snuck into the Norse half.
The DE runner attempted a desperate move to clear the ball from his half and used a Heroic Feat that removed any negative modifiers from passing, giving the long bomb a great chance of succeeding. Not happy with the initial roll (due to the modifiers cast by tackle zones) he used a reroll and completely fumbled the pass leaving them in a perilous situation. The Raiders proceeded to sack the few remaining elves allowing their thrower (No. 13) to run in a touchdown in the final move of the game.
Final Score 1-0 to the Raiders.
The Norse took home a purse of 70k and used this with their treasury to purchase another reroll. They also gained another FF moving them up to a total of 5.
Cadoc the Bear (Ulfwerner) got the match MVP, which together with the casualty he caused, leveled him up to Veteran status and he added block to his skills.
This was an extremely cagey game, one of the closest i've had in a long while and a definite learning experience. Chris was unlucky not to score in the first half, a 1 rolled when 'going for it' really put paid to his plans. The ability of the elves to slip though the smallest gap and his insistence of dodging out of block zones to minimise hits was definitely playing to their strengths and my one slip up in the second half, again, nearly meant he scored.
(Bribe).
. I did manage to recover the ball and advance up the right touch line with it but was pushed out of bounds and beaten up by the crowd. I think an ex Claws team mate was in the crowd because the ball was thrown straight into the path of a gutter runner who ran in the ball to score number 4.