Reavers Repeat!

The Season 3 Sigmar Cup goes to the Reavers! 

The title game opened with slow, cautious play on both sides. The Reavers managed to keep the ball away from the Avengers and claim points here and there on challenge cards. With leads of 5-2 and 6-3, the defending champs looked for an opportunity to deliver a knockout blow in the second half. A fumble by their thrower, however, led to a wild series of plays, by which the agile Avengers got the ball into the hands of their speedy catcher, who sprinted for the end zone and a potential game-tying touchdown. To make it, he needed a 5 or 6 on a d6 roll, but despite a card allowing him a reroll, the best he could muster was a 4. As such, he ended just shy of the goal line, where a Reaver lineman pounded him into the turf. From there, the Reavers looked to run down the clock. Both teams claimed a few more challenge points, and the final score ended up 11-7. With back-to-back titles, the Reavers have now staked their claim to a mini-dynasty. Can they make it a threepeat in Season 4?

Undead Turned

With the regular season at an end, it's time for the Blitz Bowl Season 3 playoffs! Who's in and who's out?

The Reavers claimed their third straight first-place finish, but it was only on the basis of tiebreakers over the Avengers: Both teams had identical points and wins, but the Reavers won the season series 2-1-1. As such, they earned a bye into the championship game, while the Avengers settled for second place and would host the third-place Champions. The unlucky Giants, with the league's second-fewest wins despite the second-best point differential, just missed the cut, as did the Grasshuggers, who got hot way too late after a winless first half of the season.

In the wild-card game, the Avengers jumped out to a quick start. The fleet-footed elves racked up five points on challenge cards while the plodding undead struggled to impose their usual brand of physical punishment. The unequivocal highlight of the game came when an Avenger lineman, backed up into his own end zone, hurled a long pass to the catcher, who then sprinted to the Champions' end zone for the touchdown. It was the longest touchdown play in league history. The Champions managed to pick up a single point on their next turn, but the game ended shortly thereafter due to the ten-point mercy rule. With an 11-1 victory, the Avengers notched the most dominant postseason win we've yet seen in this Blitz Bowl league. Next they'll face the Reavers in the championship game...

Uh Oh

Okay...okay...don't panic, duder. Just because you discovered this doesn't mean you have to buy anything...

Let's Get a Pet!

Sorry, kids, I meant in D&D. The latest round of One D&D playtest materials are available (here), and they focus on the druid and paladin classes. I was pleased to see new rules for Find Familiar and Find Steed; anyone who loves pets in D&D will love these updates to make your familiar and paladin mounts way more useful!

Spoiler Alert!

We're at the three-quarter mark of the Blitz Bowl season, and the red-hot Champions -- an expansion team consisting of various types of cadaverous undead -- have moved into first place at 7-5-1. Perhaps the biggest story, though, is the Grasshoppers' stunning turnaround. Those plucky halflings started the season 0-8-1, but have now won four in row -- they've beaten all four of the teams in front of them! It may be too late for them to make a playoff run, but at the very least, they can play the role of spoiler for the last quarter of the season.

Home Field Advantage

Nathaniel got the highly regarded Game of Thrones board game for Christmas, and we recently gave it a whirl. First of all, the game is great. It mixes politics, combat, resource management, intrigue, and all the sorts of stuff you'd want to see in a true GoT experience. 

A Game of Thrones: The Board Game (the official title) is designed for three to six players, so with Matthew unavailable to join us, we each played two of the great houses -- he took Baratheon and Greyjoy, and I established an (unlikely!) alliance of Stark and Lannister. Why those four families and not, say, Martell or Tyrell? The number of players determines which houses are available and which are, essentially, NPCs that players can conquer. Therein lies the game's greatest flaw. Team Baratheon gets a huge home-field advantage in a three- or four-player game. While I was battling the Greyjoys with both of my factions, Nathaniel had Baratheon calmly marching across the southern portion of Westeros, gobbling up territories before I could get anyone down there to oppose him. For future reference, we'll have to make it clear to Matthew, Amy, and anyone else who joins us that Baratheon has the easiest path to victory, so it's important to team up against them early in the game!

Return to IWD

With Amy and Matthew at a swim meet this past weekend, Nathaniel and I were on our own. We did a bit of modeling, but he was keen on some D&D video game action, so we played a bit of the classic '90s Chronicles of Mystara games on our Xbox. He was looking for something more, so I suggested we check out the renowned Baldur's Gate or Icewind Dale series; after I described both in detail, he opted for Icewind Dale, so we picked up the Enhanced Edition on Steam and jumped into some old-school second-edition character creation! Nathaniel created three heroes based on some of his favorite characters of past campaigns, and I contributed three of my own -- including a new incarnation of my all-time favorite character from my first-ever IWD play-through. We're still early in the game, but he's loving it so far, and I'm glad to be able to share this experience with him!

Halftime!

I've blitzed my way to the halfway point of Season 3 of my Blitz Bowl league. The Reavers, defending champs, are tops at 4-1-3, with a league-best point differential (+27), offense (11.13 points per game), and defense (7.75 points allowed per game). About the only thing they're not leading the league in is touchdowns, as the run-and-gun Avengers rank first in that stat. The Avengers are also in second place at 4-2-2, followed by the Giants (3-1-4). If the playoffs started today, those would be the teams. The expansion Champions are holding their own at 4-4-0 and will likely threaten the clubs above them for a playoff spot. The only team that is basically out of the running is the second-year Grasshuggers, who are limping along at an abysmal 0-7-1 thanks to a league-worst offense and defense.