ALBION COAST CUP XIII JULY 8/9 2017 Southampton

[Darkson (Simon)]

The Albion Coast Cup is back and in its lucky thirteenth installment of mayhem in Southampton!

PLEASE NOTE THE UNUSUAL DATE FOR THE ACC. THIS IS SO IT DOESNT CLASH WITH MY 40TH BIRTHDAY WHEN I WILL LIKELY BE OUT OF THE COUNTRY.

We have a wonderful venue now, much better I think than any we've had in the past. Once again we will be at The Hilt, in Chandler's Ford.


Anyway the address is below, the website is http://www.thehilt.org.uk/

IF you are coming by train locally there is a station at Chandlers Ford which might be 10-15 minutes walk away
IF you are coming by train less locally Southampton Airport Parkway or Eastleigh railway station might be a better bet than Southampton Central. We can try and sort you out a lift either way, let me know asap if this is you.

There is car parking by the tennis courts, or by the Sports Pavillion just along from our venue. It is first come first served but there should be two or three times more than we need.

IF you are coming by car southbound on the M3 you will want to leave the M3 at Jct 12, any queries let me know the junction is a bit weird but not too weird.

If you usually come in via the M27 you will need to head north on the M3 to JCT 12 as above

If you are coming from Southampton (as you might be Sunday morning for example) I can provide step by step instructions if you don't have sat nav etc.

There's a couple of small local shops 5 minutes walk away, we will provide tea and coffee all day both days, there is full disabled access and toilet, the room is on the ground floor, and last but by no means least. You can bring your own drinks INCLUDING alcohol! Crumbs!
As at the time of writing I do not know if we will be catering for you, hence the price is TBD


The Hilt, Hiltingbury Recreation Ground
Hiltingbury Road, Chandler's Ford
Hampshire SO53 5NP

The Albion Coast Cup is a tournament like no other. Rich in history the ACC has run for over a decade now and for the seventh year we are proud to present the UK's only progression tournament. As a progression tournament the ACC is still NAF-ranked but each coach has a team to develop and build rather than a fixed roster of ever-living players.

This also usually constitutes the penultimate round of the South West Tournament Championship.



Remember that this is a little different to other tournaments so here's the detail:

The tournament will be run according to the CRP with the following exceptions, amendments and clarifications:
Starting Treasury: 1,050,000
Slann, Underworld, Chaos Pact rosters included.
No Inducements may be purchased as part of your starting roster.
All Inducements allowed (including Special Play Cards) and to be chosen at the start of each game. Petty Cash may be used for Inducements.
SPPs are earned according to the rulebook with the exception of the MVP which is chosen rather than awarded to a random player.
All skill rolls must be made immediately after the game in the presence of your opponent (+stats and doubles are allowed).
All purchases, journeymen, and skills must be selected after each game and before the start of the next round.
Any Ogre teams will be allowed to allocate ONE extra MVP to a player of their choice prior to the first game.
Remember especially the Petty Cash rules, which could be relevant at any point.

Points will be awarded as follows:
Win: 3 Points
Draw: 1 Point
Loss: 0 Points

Each round will be drawn according to the Swiss format with no reference to TDs, CAS or TV
If two or more coaches are tied for first place at the end of the final game (or indeed any places) then opponent score will be used to find final placings.

It is expected that you will be able to provide appropriate miniatures for any stars that you may induce (or at least proxies that distinguish them from regular team members)
It would be sensible to ensure you bring a good number of skill rings.
Starting Rosters will be required in advance of The ACC so that provision can be made for efficient printing of updated rosters in between rounds.
These should be emailed to robincaddy@hotmail.com as either excel files or just typed out clearly.

Venue, costs, and stuff...

TBD re costs

Thanks for reading, I do hope that some of you who find it difficult to come on the usual August Bank Holiday weekend will find this weekend doable
Cheers

[Darkson (Simon)]

Interested, transport depending.

[Darkson (Simon)]

Gary and I are going, anyone else interested?

[Darkson (Simon)]

Do you need rosters or races in advance?

Full rosters by weds before please thank you
Send to robincaddy[at]hotmail.com

[Darkson (Simon)]

I'm taking Slann.
Gary's taking Chaos.

Neither team is suited to a progression style tournament.

Race for the spoon is on!

[MoodyGit (Gary)]

Your dice are to broken for wooden spoon, pumpkins all the way.

[Darkson (Simon)]

Well the dust has settled, the score file is wending its way through the ether and i've double checked all the standings
as you will recall positions were based on overall score (2/1/0) and then head to head, then opponent score and actually we had some ties there so went with combined td/cas difference as final arbiter.

We had 16 different races, with orcs the most popular (5) , the only other multiples being 2 skaven, 2 dwarf 2 amazon, 2 slann
so 19 orc haters took 15 different races between them

interestingly Thor87 had the toughest schedule, with lemf and kfoged tied for second toughest just one point below thor.

1st Place Kfoged 11/43 Amazons (points and opponent score)
2nd Place Rubick 9/41 Undead
3rd Place Juck101 9/39 Skaven
4th Place Gimli01 8/41 Dwarf
5th Place Radster 8/36 Orc
6th Place Lycos 8/36 Orc
7th Place Itchen 8/33 Lizardmen
8th Place Moodygit 7/33 Chaos
9th Place thor87 6/44 Amazon
10th Place Besters 6/39 Skaven
11th Place Lemf 6/43 Pro Elf
12th Place Cyrus-Havoc 6/36 Khemri
13th Place Raging82 6/32 Orc
14th Place vmcat 5/41 Underworld
15th Place Darkson 5/40 Slann
16th Place coreboar 5/40 Slann
17th Place PaulClark 5/36 Orc
18th Place grumbledook 5/34 Vampires
19th Place Blocknroll 5/31 Orc
20th Place Sabellida 5/26 Wood Elf
21st Place Belafon 4/26 Dwarf
22nd Place Molmutius 3/33 Necro
23rd Place bunjiballs 3/33 Dark Elf
24th Place illusioncjg 1/28 Human


Touchdowns went to Itchen who was tied with Juck on 14 scored

Casualties went to PaulClark who did 18

Thor took best painted

We had a bunch of coaches at their first tourney which is cool, the tournament signed up 2 new NAF members and I know there a couple of others at least making their debut. We will be back next year, same venue, max capacity 26 date TBC very soon

* Moodygit completed the 24, and Darkson did it for the second time. Congrats (ive got Nurgle and flings to go!)

[Darkson (Simon)]

NAF button has been pressed.

Urgh! I knew Slann wasn't a favourable team, but that was horrible!

Game 1 vs Juck (Skaven): Juck has been around on TFF for at least as long as I have (2002), but he'd not played a lot of tournaments, so this was the first time I met him. Worried about his 4 Gutter Runners, I set about trying to beat up his team, whilst dealing with my own team falling over a lot. In managed to score in 6 after turning him over, and he replied with a 2-turn score to level the game. By half time I'd caused 8 KOs but no injuries, all of who returned. He broke my armour once, so a Serious Injury (ACC uses "normal" rules, so injuries carry over - this was a recurring theme!). A score a piece in the 2nd half meant it finished 2-2, and I suffered another injury in the process, meaning I had 9 fit players for the next game - enter the Journeymen. Score 2-2, 0-3. Block on a Catcher.

Game 2 vs Gimli01 (Dwarf): Not the best match-up when trying to recover a team. Gimli was a nice opponent, but there were a few rules issues, as he had only played BB2016 (I believe) and he got a few things wrong that I had to point out, which might have made me come over a bit of an ass (Leap, Diving Tackle)*. In the first 3 turns I managed to break Dwarf armour 6 times(!) but couldn't roll higher than a 8, which due to their Thick Skull meant I didn't even KO any of them. Game is a bit of a blur, but I recall being turned over, then re-turning him over to get the score at the half, but by this time I was down to 9 players again (another 2 Serious Injuries). Tried my best to stop the score in the 2nd half, but not enough bodies, although I did finally manage to cause a Cas. Surprisingly, my teams abject failure didn't put him off wanting to make a team of his own! Score 1-1, 1-2. Wrestle on a Blitzer.
* Then the was the one I got wrong in the game, when he kept trying to get me to flip a coin, and I couldn't understand why! Been so long playing with the "roll a dice to see who kicks" I completely forgot that the rules state a coin-toss - sorry!

Game 3 vs Thor (Amazons): Again just 11 players (2 Journeymen) against a skilled up Amazon team, who also had a missing skill! Due to my expensive players, I got no inducements. Game started well, as I managed to Cas two 'zons in the first 2 turns, but it went downhill after that as I couldn't roll the elusive POWs I needed, whereas Thor regularly got the Block/Pow/Pow! he needed against me. With my player going off the pitch regularly it was impossible to stop the score. Worse, my Wrestle Blitzer took a -1ST injury and I stupidly forgot I had an Apo. Finished the game with 9 fit players - still needing Journeymen. Score 0-2, 2-2. Block on a Blitzer.

So day 1 was 0-2-1, a beat up team (10 players and carrying two injuries) and feeling on a downer.

Game 4 vs Moodygit (Chaos): Hooray, could have spent another 2 hours at home. Had a bad feeling as I can always seem to beat Gary in league or practise games and yet when we play at tournaments he always has the better results (6th game). Not really a lot to say about this - when Gary says "sorry, your dice have really been bad in this game" you know you've had a bad time! Only 2 highlights for me -1) Gary doing his usual "no injuries" thing and me killing his Mino on a throwaway Block (which he Apo'd). Back to 10 players, so only 1 Journeyman now. Score 0-2, 1-0. Couple of Block Catchers.
At this point, feeling thoroughly depressed I went to the local Tesco and bought some cider.

Game 5 vs Sabellida (Wood Elf): Fully expecting to get beat, I continued to consume cider all the way through the game. Alice was another new-ish player, and she made a few positioning mistakes, that her team made up for by refusing to fail dodges, even when going through Tackle Zones past the Krox and the Blitzer! Some hard work and some lucky dice managed to allow me to turn her over and score, then to prevent the equaliser in the first half. Second half I received, and the ball then changed hands about 4 or 5 turns, before a failed 2D block gave me the room to be able get the 2nd score. The Elves tried to get a consolation, but numbers and some bad dice stopped that. Although the Elves caused no Cas a Catcher did decide to injure himself on a failed dodge, so he got cut, meaning I was back to 2 Journeymen. Had 150k in the bank, but as that wasn't enough to get me above 11 players decided to save the money for the last game and maybe induce someone. Score 2-0, 2-0. Dodge on a Block Catcher.

Game 6 vs Blocknroll (Orcs): At least I knew I'd have a fun game vs Robin, as we always have a laugh when we play. He was the overdog (13 players and skills), but decided not to spend his 50k on a Babe, so I induced Helmut Wulf, hoping to put his chainsaw to good use against the Orc armour. Received, and in the opening turn I killed the Troll, who sadly regen'd. At this point Robin decided he wished he'd bought an Apo. Also managed to KO the Thrower. Had to score in my 6, as it looked like I might risk losing a couple of players if I didn't, which gave Robin 3 turns to score, which he did - thankfully I didn't need to bring Helmet on at this stage. 2nd half, Robin received and gathered the ball. I knocked down his Mighty Blow Blitzer, and declared a chainsaw-fuelled foul. A few seconds later Helmet is off to the Injured box, having chainsawed himself in the face - an excellent use of inducements there! Robin made his way downfield, but my insistence of leaping into his cage and one-dicing the ball carrier (twice) meant he scored in his 7, giving me two turns to reply. He did manage to injure my 2nd Catcher before doing so, which my Apo decided not to help (git!). He set up, and bought on the Goblin to give him the option of a Throw-Teammate, and I set up, having to leave two linemen downfield to get the ball. A deep kick mean I needed a miracle (given my dice) and I got it, as the pair of linemen managed to make a pass and had-off to give the catcher the ball. A successful turn of leaping and dodging meant I marked as many of the orcs as I could, but the catcher was on his own halfway up the pitch. Robin moved who he could, then blitzed the ball carrier, but only got a push. He tried to move the goblin up to make the dodge worse, but he decided to face plant and kill himself. A 2+ dodge later and it was all over. Score 2-2, 1-3.


Overall, despite my moodiness (that Gary claimed copyright on ) I enjoyed it, but the ARBBL tradition of not causing Cas came back to haunt me here. In a resurrection event it's not so bad, but when it actually effects your team, it hurt - if a few of the KOs & amour breaks had been Cas against the Skaven and/or Dwarfs it might have not only made the difference in those games, but given me some much needed skills. Of course, I wasn't helped by 5 of the first 7 injuries I took being Serious, rather than Badly Hurt (obviously the ARBBL tradition in reverse!). Final result, 1-3-2.

Will be back next year (rota permitting), but not with Slann! Maybe a nice, safe all-lineman Dwarf team.

[Darkson (Simon)]

tl;dr version - I suck, Slann suck, Blood Bowl sucks. When's the next one?

[MoodyGit (Gary)]

Wow, they say you remember the bad ones in more detail!

I had a good tournament and will be missing the game in my small break.