Journey of the Maulers – Creating character

Those who have followed the previous articles of the Journey of the Maulers series will have noticed that I value the characterisation of the minis a lot, both visually and narratively. I'm following a relatively simple scheme, but it's based on a lot of prior consideration. When I write a story for one of the players, I try to keep it as compact as possible. Just describing the framework of the character makes sense for several reasons. On one hand, the reader has the possibility to fill the gaps with his own imagination and perception, on the other hand, you have the possibility to extend the background over time to your liking.

Hacka Bellycutta

As the ambitious rookie of the Maulers, Hacka is looking for more than just victories. He wants to get the team big, but also himself. His reputation and prestige mean everything to him. Lots of teeth, shiny Gubbinz, that's his thing and he won't settle with anything less than the rank of team captain...if only there wasn't this other player in the team...

In terms of playstyle, I usually try to reflect the character as well. With Hacka, I've always played a little more risky, and haven't been afraid to take a chance. Speaking of daring, I recently played my second campaign game in the Wanderleague against the Flying Flashgitz goblin team.

Oh, yeah, goblins... one of the most underrated teams in the whole game. Personally, I think goblins are pretty good up to the tenth game. If you use the Wanderleague rules and use almost all optional rules, they can even remain a challenging opponent permanently, because the additional rules prevent teams from getting ahead of the other teams to far teamvalue wise.

Well, goblins seem to have become something of a nemesis to me, because somehow fate prevents me from doing too much harm to them. And this time my guys were even less lucky. The experienced player will already have noticed something on the picture - my nervousness caused that I completely forgot to set up a player and Hacka missed the first drive completely...

But the blackorcs got it worst this time. Directly in the first move I managed to send a goblin injured off the field, but coach Jonas' chainsaw killed one of the blackorcs in return. I guess that's what's meant when splitting a challenge...

A short time later another blackorc followed and will miss the next match, but fortunately didn't suffer a permanent injury.

At least I was able to prevent an equlizer by the Flash Gitz after my thrower, Gulgur Goldfingaz, had scored the touchdown. Against goblins, I always place a lot of players in the backfield, as long as there are only two or even three turns left in a half. With a formation like this, it makes it as hard as possible for the goblin trainer to make a one-turn touchdown.

We also used the rules for special stadiums and balls in this game. In the second half I saw a squig ball in action for the first time. The squig tries to wiggle free in every turn (both in your own and in the opponents turn). If the ball lies on the ground, it bounces three times, f it'is carried by a player and the squig manages to free himself from his grip, the squigball bounces one field further.

I can only say that's terrific! As soon as I start with the second season, I will definitely paint the special balls up. I also changed my playing style in the second half. If I managed to break hardly any armour in the first half and was chopped into small pieces by the chainsaw in exchange, I began to compensate for this by moving free-standing players to a lying goblin in each turn and give him the boot. So the field slowly but surely began to clear...

Unfortunately, I completely forgot to take more pictures in the second half, so this time I can only provide a summary instead of a narrative match report. But Jonas not only proved to be an excellent coach, but also a first-class player - so we will certainly play one or two games again, and will stage them a little more elegantly.

By the end of the day, I had won with a very thin 1:0 and lost some of my most important players. Although I was lucky with the winnings and could have afforded a new blackorc with the rest of the teams treasury, I decided to go with an apothecary instead, as I do not know my next opponent yet. As a result, I will play the next game with a journeyman.

A blitzer and my thrower had gained enough experience in this game to gain a skill. The blitzer got Mighty Blow, the thrower Block. That was a rather conventional approach, but as I mentioned at the beginning of the season, I won't play in this roster constellation anymore and I didn't want to worry too much about the player upgrades.

The Wanderleague system seems to have been well received by Jonas, and I hope that this method will also be adapted by other players as well, as it's a very different style than a common league or a tournament.

Greetings from the Chaosbunker

Dino