ARBBL

As the bow of the schooner 'Eternal' rounded the headline past the pillar of stone known locally as Cal's spit everyone stopped to stare at the small hamlet of So Ton. The crew had signed to Captain Angelus's promise of a new start, with both excitement and desperation, as all were either failed stars or disgraced hopefuls with no where left to go.

Yet here in this small village they were to try again, though not the large stadiums of proper Blood Bowl but the small fields playing this, locally popular, game of Seven's. Hopefully they would shine and get noticed, the first steps back to the big league. All were desperate to return and everyone still had pieces of their original kit kept safe so they could cling to the memories, something the skipper had found cute and amusing. So with true Captain stinginess she announced their kit would be neutral black and white, due to a small stop off by the team assassin at a nunnery and not so they could confuse their opponents by pretending to be refs as often quoted, with their old kit as a badge of pride to be worn as a symbol of greatness to come.

As the village came closer and they could start to make out the tents of their up and coming opponents, Aspen, a Lineman from the now disbanded Forest's Heart Wood Elf team turned to the captain,
"What's the plan then skipper?"
"Well as we're still stuck in this awful grey, dismal, wet winter then I think we should get out the Winter Storm Playbook, that means Kasai the Witch Elf gets her chance to show us what she's got"
Aspen went to comment but the stare from Stomp the Bosun made him pause.
The captain had spoken, now they just had to win and survive..

Apparently the sun had risen but no one was sure due to the heavy, driving rain obscuring anything for more than ten feet. All on board were silent as the helmsman brought us nearer the shore. General agreement had been to spend the night on board and as we got closer to shore the water logged land around us justified the warm dry bunks.

The landing was smooth and uneventful and we made our way up the muddy track to the sounds of waking campsites. To our left were the messy, rag tag collection of lean to’s belonging to some Skaven clan and to the right were the regimented tents from the Empire, all facing away from the road as, like everyone knows, they do not believe the rat men exist. Beyond these we could hear the coarse grunts of Orc’s and somewhere I think I heard some elven chatter.

The track ended at a small hut and the captain urged us on as she went inside to find out the days details. Signs nearby guided us to the pitches where we settled in with some warm up drills while we waited. The voyage here had been long enough to learn names but we hadn’t really had a chance to practice much so thankfully the lack of the Captains presence and the weather hid most of our embarrassment. Her plan of fitting into roles would take time but we had to start somewhere and this was as good as any.

The mood lifted upon the Captains return and she called us together and set out the plan. We are playing five games and as decided on board we were going to use the winter book playlist, more commonly called the Dark Elf style by those non elves in the sport. This meant the ex players of Khaine’s Killers and Isha Weeps would be our blitzers, ex Silent Death our runner, and ex Soul Saviours our Witch Elf, with ex Purple Dragons, Black Lotus and me, ex Galadrieth’s Gladiator, holding the line. My small amount of kicking experience meant I’d be taking on the necessary duties. Our first opponents would be against the nimble Skaven on one of the far pitches so we grabbed our stuff and melted into the gloom.

As we lined up opposite our opponents I took a deep breath to settle my nerves, the smaller pitch and this no man’s land between us meant an on side kick and they weren’t the easiest thing to do. Their kicker jogged forward and clipped the soaking wet ball, it skidded off of the turf, took two bounces and landed at the feet of three eager rat men. This did not bode well and I could feel the anger of the Captain from the side-line as we rushed forward to get the ball but placement and weather hindered our attempts and the agile rats took control. We defended valiantly, with Purple Dragon being knocked out and both Isha Weeps and Soul Saviour returning the favour to gutter runners, but the speed of the rats were just to much as they dodged through our lines to score. Both Purple dragon and a gutter runner returned for the second drive leaving us one player down and following a more reasonable kick we took control and moved up the pitch. We were just about to score when the whistle blew, we just didn’t allow for the shorter game time and the halftime chat from the Captain certainly reminded us that our old habits had better stop now. Well I think that’s what I heard through the shouting.

Start of second half and my time to shine. Could I match their kickers achievement and put my team in a strong position? I took a deep breath, three steps and … slipped on some sodden turf, hit the ball square on and placed it over the heads of the rats front line back in their endzone. Our opponents jumped into action, picked up the ball ridiculously easy in the bad weather and ran through our lines with ease. I say with ease as all I remember is being hit head on and seeing stars. I was informed afterwards that I had been taken out by a particularly dirty player and that I had broken some ribs, Killer had immediately taken him out for me but it was too little too late. I watched on with the others for our last drive and we finally started to show some promise, we handled the ball well, moved positively and controlled their line, but as time was running out we had to make our break and through a cleverly planned blitz, we made for the line only to slip on the water drenched grass at the last moment.
Our rise to glory was not looking good, starting with a two nil loss is not going to get anyone’s attention.

We made a quick getaway to our next game with our opponents laughter ringing in our ears, most of which seemed to be for me. We were only a couple of pitches over so it was a short walk but in that time it did stop raining. Our opponents were an Empire team in nice new clothes, looking like they haven’t been playing the game long. We lined up confidently across from our opponents, the look in their eyes were very fearful, it appeared they’ve never seen, let alone played, against elves before. I appeared to be getting the hang of it as my kick was nice and central. Our lines charged towards each other and in the initial scrum we managed to break the leg of their leading blitzer while pushing on to the ball. Even though the rain had finally stopped the pitch itself was still sodden and it took them three attempts to pick up the ball, one of which we nearly robbed apart from a straight arm to the face for our surprised blitzer. They finally got themselves together, getting over their trepidation of us, and punched a hole through our thin line, especially Silent Death as they knocked him out, to score. Death decided to sit out our return drive and, as before, we seem to gel and move the ball forward in a positive manner all the way up until sight of the line where Killer slipped in one of the many puddles as he tried to avoid the arms of a struggling defender. Three halves and we still hadn’t found the scoreboard!

We lined up short for the second half as Death still couldn’t tell where he was. In our eagerness we leapt forward and protected the ball, Lotus knocked out a lineman and Killer blitzed his way through to finally score. It would be an understatement to say our team mates were ecstatic as they went nuts on the sideline, enough to wake Death up. This was us at our best. Next drive I placed the ball centrally but they were one step ahead of me and rearranged their lines and a catcher leapt forward under the ball. They caged up and started to move forward. It appears that getting over the line re-invigorated us as we charged forward and hit into their line, Lotus knocked out a catcher and Dragon equalled the result against a lineman. This left a gaping hole in which we used to our advantage and stole the ball. Their captain had one last chance to take us down but it was their turn to slip un-ceremoniously on their rear in a muddy puddle and watch dejectedly as we crossed the line for a second time. It always amazes me how quickly this game can swing from good to bad, but it’s always nice when it looks kindly on you, and it also appears the sun is coming out.

Bolstered by our win we grabbed our stuff and made our way to a third pitch to face another Skaven clan. Rumour had it that it was attached to Clan Skryre and the column of smoke over the field looked ominous. Above us the clouds parted and suddenly a bright strong sun bathed the pitch in its golden light. I really cannot get my head around this crazy weather and had to squint into the light to see my opponents, dominated as they were by a large contraption of rat and metal. A semi mechanised Rat Ogre! A rat took it’s place to kick the ball and as it ran forward the clouds returned covering the pitch in semi darkness throwing it completely off of it’s stride and caught the ball on the edge and sent it spinning off towards the sideline. Still on a high we ran forward to try and use this advantage and with the ball clearly in my sights I was totally blindsided by the monstrosity that was the rat ogre adding further pain to my already broken ribs. How I didn’t see that brute was one thing, sitting out the rest of the game was another. This time I was conscious and I watched on as first the rats teased us by failing to pick up the ball, a ratman knocked himself out in a tackle with Lotus, there is an almighty ruckus in the middle of the pitch and through sheer determination we grabbed the ball and broke through to score. Our kick off for the second drive was uneventful and the two lines clashed again. Once again there was a pile of bodies in the centre of the pitch as we fought bravely for space around the stubborn rat ogre but this was just a smokescreen as, despite all our warning shouts from the line, a gutter runner covered in mud sneaked around the back to score. One all at the half.

My kickoff for the second half was high and wide and we waited patiently as someone went to get the ball back. Who would they give it to? The gutter runners rubbed their hands in anticipation as the ball was returned to the pitch. One gratefully took the ball from the supporter but instead of getting into position he made his way to the ogre, bowed and handed the ball over with an evil laugh. They had showed us they could score with stealth and it appeared now was time for strength. Saviour our Witch Elf rushed the beast and was knocked out for her effort while a linerat dislocated Killers shoulder putting him out of action. Isha also charged the ogre successfully knocking the ball free amongst our remaining players. It was not safe though as a gutter runner dodged into the pocket and tried to pick up the ball amongst our scrabbling hands. In the confusion the ball ended up in the hands of their blitzer who danced around the flailing arms of Lotus to score. We had been beaten, both physically and result wise.

Battered and bruised we made our way to another pitch to find an expectant looking Orc team. I think they could smell our blood as they looked on eagerly at our wounds and injuries. The weather had seemed to have settled down for the afternoon so my kick was good. Taking advantage of the Orc,s well known stupidity we sprang forward, before the whistle was blown, to cover the ball. This could have been our big mistake as the Orcs lumbered forward swinging wildly at our line. Killer was nearest and took a savage blow to the head knocking him senseless while the others pushed us away from the ball. The Orc thrower then waltzed up to the ball and picked it up casually, he pointed to Saviour and mouthed, “you want it you get it”. Challenge accepted she leapt at the Orc, punched him in the face and stole the ball, and using all the skills in her playbook she cleverly evaded the rest of the team to score. We kicked off for the second drive and the Orcs picked up the ball and caged easily. We then used the time honoured defence of laying bodies in front of opponent to stop them scoring while Killer, who had just come back, was knocked out yet again. We held a small lead into the half.

The multiple knock outs had really got to Killer so he was sitting this one out. The kick landed in no man’s land and we rushed forward to surround the ball, but our over confidence got the better of us as we failed to pick it up. The Orc’s rushed forward and in a very un-character like way picked up the ball at the feet of three of our defenders. We knock him over still shocked at his achievement but as the ball slipped from his hand it was grabbed by an Orc blitzer. He tried to hit his way out but is badly hurt in the effort, the ball is dropped again. The rest of the game became a who has the ball as it changed hands multiple times until time ran out. A narrow win and less hurt than against the Skaven is always a good thing.

Our final game was a return to the pitch we started this caper on. Our opponents were another Orc team, and I could feel my aches and pains increased just being near them. I was used to the kicking now and aimed wide but as the ball came down it hit one of their players and went out of bounds. They corralled the ball and started to move, though the opening punch ended with both players hitting the ground. We managed to shove one of the players off of the pitch as we tried to slow them but a second failed tackle only put the ball carrier into the open where he calmly danced into the endzone. We received the kick and met a wall of pain, we just couldn’t pick up the ball no matter how hard we tried and the hits from our opponents were relentless. We lost both Killer, to another knock out, and Death was badly hurt and as before time ran out on us.

We received the kick and once again prepared to play. And once again it wasn’t happening as for the fourth time in a row we failed to pick up the ball. The Orcs took advantage and quickly surrounded it. Then chaos reigned, We shoved an Orc on to the ball to move it, they hit us hard but we stayed on the pitch. The ball changed hand multiple times but finally it was taken over the line by Saviour for the score. We kicked for the last time and were so close to getting the ball but Orc ‘brawn’ won over as they dodged like an Elf to score in the last minute. Our final game was a two - one loss.

A great read!

Thanks, more to come as today is part II. It's the turn of the spring playbook, more commonly known as power gaming wood elves.