| Tournament Name | The Big Boys' Badland Brawl 2024 |
| Organizer NAF name | mrcushtie (26269) |
| Organizer | |
| Variant | Blood Bowl 2020 |
| Major/National | no |
| Start Date (YYYY-MM-DD) | 2024-04-27 |
| End Date (YYYY-MM-DD) | 2024-04-27 |
| Type | OPEN |
| Style | Swiss |
| Scoring | 50 for win, 20 for draw, 10 for loss by 1 TD, 0 for loss |
| Cost | 20 |
| NAF Fee Included | no |
| NAF Member Discount | yes |
| Email | james@cushtie.com |
| Webpage | Cushtie.com |
| Tournament Statistics | Winner | | ravenmojo (25954) | Shambling Undead | Even better than last year, this time Eric stormed to the top by defeating every single opponent that he had, finishing off Bear's consistently terrifying Undead team with a 2-1 victory on the second-to-top table, wrestling the win away from Vice's Denizens via stronger strength of schedule - which goes to show it's important to choose your enemies well. Or something. Anyway, congratulations to Ravenmojo, two-time Biggest Boy, and listen to the lamentations of the cheerleaders of his enemies! |
| Runner up | | Vice (25799) | Underworld Denizens | Pipped at the post by superior strength of schedule, Vice was still one of only 2 unbeaten coaches in the tournament. Almost makes me wish we had four rounds for the ultimate decider of squishy rats vs zombies intent on failing every regen roll available. |
| Most Touchdowns | | Bear (13347) | Shambling Undead | A close run thing with 2 coaches on 7 TDs each, but Bear takes it with a superior TD differential. |
| Most Casualties | | Beorg (17594) | Chaos Renegade | Yet another terrifying violent run for everybody's favourite NAF representative, this time bringing a Madlad build and almost getting the prized Omelette too |
| Stunty Cup | | aarona (24437) | Ogre | Exemplary Ogreing. It isn't over for the little guy. Or are they big guys? I don't know anything any more... |
| Best Painted | Other Awards | | Levi (26388) | Chaos Renegade | The Inaugural Madlad Award goes to Levi and his Firenze Frenzies, curiously the 2nd-least violent of all the Chaos Renegade teams on show today. Casualties are a crutch! |
| | bigbad00jon (32120) | Chaos Renegade | “He’s Got Hands Like Hams!” Commemorative Urn for the team was a three way tie among the Madlads, but as the other two have made off with silverware, we assign it to the last brave soul without any rerolls. Hats off to you sir! |
| | blammaham (14684) | Goblin | Exemplary goblinining lead to blammaham also scoring the Pandemonium Award, because the only thing Nuffle likes more than cas and TDs ... is more cas and TDs! |
| | banjoclan (23507) | Chaos Renegade | The Glass Cannon goes to Keith, for nobody had a higher casualty count than him and also a higher number of casualties sustained. The goblins in the accounting division are still trying to figure out if they've broken arithmetick or not by doing so. |
| | InquisitorTownsend (38309) | Vampire | Best Rookie award for our highest placing coach in their first tournament |
| | bhall (23772) | Human | Biff takes home the Elegant Gentleman, showing you don't have to hurt people's feelings to have fun (or at least their players) with the highest ratio of tournament points:casualties. |
| | Vice (25799) | Underworld Denizens | As well as the Best Defence, Vice got one of the awards of shame: the Repulsively Limp Handshake. This is awarded to the team with the lowest total strength - a frankly shockingly low 34. |
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| | | Tournament Location |
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| Address | Evergreen Lanes & Restaurant |
| | 5111 Claremont Way |
| City | Everett |
| State | Washington |
| Zip | 98203 |
| Nation | United States |
Ruleset Document |
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Information |
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3 games of Second Season Blood Bowl in the sunny Pacific Northwest
BASE TEAM SETUP
Each coach receives 1000TV to build their team: players, coaching staff, rerolls, bribes and chef. Team build must include at least 11 players, no star players can be purchased.
Any team capable of rostering at least one player with ST5 or higher must include at least one player with ST5 or higher. So, for example, Deathrollers are compulsory for Dwarf teams.
EXTRA INDUCEMENTS
Each team receives 200 TV extra to spend on inducements (including Star Players, excluding wizards and mercenaries). If two teams both roster the same Star Player, that’s fine: the warpstone deposits in northwestern Naggarond often lead to that sort of strange thing happening.
The following inducements are available (refer to the Blood Bowl rule book and Death Zone for details and specific costs, as availability and pricing can vary between teams:
0-4 Agency Cheerleaders
0-3 Part Time Assistant Coaches
0-1 Weather Mage
0-2 Bloodweiser Kegs
0-8 Extra Team Training
0-3 Bribes
0-2 Wandering Apothecaries
0-1 Mortuary Assistant
0-1 Plague Doctor
0-1 Riotous Rookies
0-1 Halfling Master Chef
0-2 Star Players
0-2 (In)famous Coaching Staff: Josef Bugman, Kari Coldsteel, Galandril Silverwater, Krot Shockwhisker, Fink Da Fiver, Mungo Spinecracker, Schielund Scharlitan
0-1 Biased Referee: Jorm the Ogre, Thoron, Ranulf, Trundlefoot Triplets, Generic Biased Referee (p95, 2020 rulebook)
Waaagh! Drummer
Cavorting Nurglings
Dwarfen Runesmith
Halfling Hot Pot
Master of Ballistics
Bottles of Heady Brew
SKILLS
Each coach has 120 TV to spend on skills. Primary skills cost 20 TV each, secondary skills cost 40 TV each. No random skills. No two players can have the same skills (so you can’t take 6 Guard players, but you could do Guard + Stand Firm, Guard + Mighty Blow, Guard + Thick Skull).
EXTRA SPECIAL BONUS MADNESS / BADNESS
For the third running of the Brawl in 2024, there’s an extra team build option available, for only the bravest and most aggressive coaches: Mick Madlad’s Badland Biggest Boy Build:
200k limit on inducements is removed. However, it’s mandatory to roster Scylla Anfingrimm and Grashnak Blackhoof, no other Star Players are permitted.
At least three regular (non Star Player) team members must have ST5 and above
At least two regular (non Star Player) team members must have Frenzy (either as a starting skill or as an additional skill chosen from the skill pack)
Team must roster at least 13 players, including Scylla Anfingrimm
An extra 50k is available for Madlad builds only
An example roster for Mick Madlad’s Badland Biggest Boy Build is here. As well as being eligible for any of the main prizes at the Brawl, there is a special prize for the best placement by a coach using Mick Madlad’s Badland Biggest Boy Build.
Prizes for:
1st place
Most TDs
Most Casualties
Best Stunty
Best Defence
Elegant Gentleperson (highest ratio of points:casualties, to prove you can get somewhere in life without hurting people)
Glass Cannon (highest number of casualties inflicted with the worst casualties sustained)
Madlad
Pandemonium - highest total TDs (scored and conceded) + Casualties (suffered and inflicted)
Best Painted |
Tournament Report |
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Consistency, consistency, consistency, that's what is important about Blood Bowl, and so it was gratifying to see Biff make it over from Idaho again, to try to wrest the Biggest Boy trophy back from the hands of Eric. (Also, chainsaws are what is important about Blood Bowl, and so I was doubly gratified to see that Biff had been accompanied from Idaho with Helmut Wulf and his magical contraption).
Now, I did put in my write-up for the second Brawl, after waxing effusively about the first one, that
"The second Big Boys Badland Brawl was won by Eric’s Shambling Undead, a worrying thought as that’s twice a team with no big guy worthy of a negatrait has triumphed; we’re hoping that next time around, somebody boneheaded or really stupid takes the grand prize."
Would consistency win again? Or would we see something more outre take the ultimate honours?
As usual, the Big Boys Badland Brawl is a cosmopolitan affair, and I don't just mean we had a British coach attend. With four attendees from Canada, and somebody demented/dedicated enough to drive four hours from the onion-infested valley of Walla Walla in the south, and an Oregonian, we had a spread of representation, matched by diversity in the teams on offer. Three coaches competed in the Madlad category, one that I was worried beforehand might be over- or under-powered. When as TO you find yourself cackling at the ludicrousness of some of the builds that have been submitted, you wonder who the joke is going to be on when it comes to the day.
With 18 coaches (and 2 no-shows, denied placing by some infernal hockey clash) and 11 different races represented, we had a good spread of teams. 4 stunty teams showed up, along with 4 vampire teams - I'm still not *quite* sure what makes the blood suckers so attractive in this build, but here we are; last year we had none, but that was when Vamps were a bit more savage. We seem to get 2 ogre teams every year now, and 2 shambling undead teams, but no returns for orcs, skaven or chorfs this year. With three years' data, we might even start tiering the teams in 2025, but that's something to think about later...
As ever, the top table chooses the weather,and some conspiracy between goblins and vampires to throw 1s meant that the first match was in sweltering heat (which particularly punished one vampire coach, losing all three of his vamps at half time and just having a few thralls to contest the second half). We might construct a weather-proof dome for next year, because there's nothing I hate like sweltering heat, but as a vicious and self-sabotaging coach, I'll probably make everyone use the Coastal weather table instead...
Solidly violent behaviour by several of the usual suspects led to a lot of casualties being meted out: in total (and excluding failed dodges and friendly-fire) we had 134 casualties over 27 games; which doesn't beat the totally gross 144 from 24 games last year We also didn't quite beat the all-time total casualties in one match record, established at 14 casualties in a single game in 2022; but we got close with 12.
Viewing rosters before the tournament, I figured that the only Human roster, packing both Helmut *and* the only bombardier in all 18 teams, might be the one to beat, as big-guy heavy rosters often struggle to counter being blown up again and again. But after round 2, four teams were solidly ahead of the rest on 100 points each: Ogres, Underworld, and the two Shambling Undead teams. This was a marked change vs the previous year, where only one coach managed two consecutive wins before the final round; this time, we had four teams all fighting for the big prize. Would it be a Stunty team that battered its way to the top?
All four coaches have had a strong year so far, with Vice's taking both Underworld and Dark Elves to the top in the largest tournaments so far this year, and Bear's teams reliably inflicting more casualties than anyone else whenever they turn up. So my eyes were constantly flitting between the top table (Underworld and Ogres) and the second table (the Undead mirror match that Tourplay had demanded - lucky it wasn't vampires, or we wouldn't have seen anything).
After 135 minutes, with Vice denied an ogre surf by a combination of 4 consecutive both downs when all he needed was a push, and AaronA's ability to roll just enough 6s when necessary, the Denizens pulled out a 1-0 win, while ravenmojo's Undead meted out just one more casualty than Bear's, and just one more touchdown, leaving two teams on the top with 150 points apiece. With strength of schedule being the tiebreaker, who would be the kingmaker?
Well, it looks like it may have all been decided by their first round opponents: with the opponents they faced in the second round each taking home exactly 110 points, and their final round opponents each scoring a round 100, it was flutethecat's redemptive win in the third round that ensured ravenmojo's win by 40 more points than Vice's opponents' 230 points. The Blood Bowl powerhouse that is Tacoma provided a wave that ravenmojo rode to glory, while the efforts from north of the state just weren't enough to ensure Vice could tighten his grip on another trophy.
So, a resounding congratulation to ravenmojo for holding onto the silverware, if (in a horrible irony) the trophies are getting more and more like gold-painted plastic every year. What need have we for shiny baubles, we few, the proud, the blessed of Nuffle?
Elsewhere, we saw a Madlad team claim the most casualties and a second claim the fabled glass cannon, for suffering the highest number of casualties while inflicting more than any else, and the third Madlad team took the You Don't Have To Be A Madlad To Play Here ... But It Helps prize home. My concerns that Madlads might be a little too rich for the blood were allayed when the highest placing Madlad was 8 of 18, the rest spread out down as far as 16th place.
Stunty: Aaron was richly rewarded with first place with his rioting Ogres (although a win in the 3rd round still would have left him well behind Eric, after his opponents were possibly so broken that they scored few and far between in subsequent rounds)
The rest, look to the list to the side here and embrace the glories!
Next year ... the Bona Fide Bonehead Build will be available (you have to bring at least 7 Boneheaded players to the pitch), we'll probably give stunties an extra skill, and in my darker moments I'll threaten that *everyone* has to roster a giant. But who really knows? |
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