Journey of the Maulers: The Corona Games

Meanwhile probably everyone has felt the effects of this virulent plague, no matter in which area. Unfortunately this has also had a strong influence on the season of the Maulers. I had already planned a few matches that cannot take place now. As a father of two children, grandparents as neighbors and a pregnant woman who is not allowed to take medication, I had to find an alternative for the remaining three matches of the first Maulers season to avoid exposing my loved ones to unnecessary risk.

The fans want to watch games, Corona or not

Coincidentally I have three painted teams standing here and so I tried something that I usually only do to learn rule mechanics - I played against myself. At first it seemed strange to me, but with the new edition on the horizon, time to finish the season is running out and playing a video game on the computer isn't really different.

With the Skycastle Titans I even had a team that could keep up with the Maulers in terms of the number of games played. Both teams received two Special Play cards. Since a little more than half of the 22,000 spectators were Titans fans, they got the Fame. With 22,000 spectators the game was also well attended and the Titans were the first to receive.

If you play against yourself, it is important to be honest and keep your usual play style with the teams. In the attempt to create a numerical imbalance as early as possible, I tried to get some Orcs off the field as soon as one of them would lie down. The tactic was a classic, while the troll knocks someone down, a bunch of players gather around it and a goblin kicks in (quite literally).

Unfortunately, the referee of this game was in a good mood and the first foul was punished right away with the first ejection - well, that didn't go so well for starters. In return, the special rule of the Underworld field took place (all players get the trait "Bonehead", while players who already have that trait gain "Really Stupid") and three Orcs stared holes in the air at once, leaving quite a gap in the defense. In the following move the Titans could take advantage of this and knocked out a black orc.

In the third turn, however, the retaliation followed on foot and a goblin of the Titans, sadly the one with two heads, had to leave the field injured. When the net tightened around the ball carrier, the Titans had no other choice but to resort to desperate measures early on:

The nice thing about Underworld Teams is that you cease to worry too much and play quite relaxed. So at first I could hardly believe that the maneuver actually succeeded, but then I simply accepted the gift as "Underworld luck". Now it was only a matter of giving a heel and to get the orcs to make an early move so that they wouldn't stall a score endlessly.

Luck remained with the Titans and after the Maulers had to end the fourth move prematurely with a Both Down result, the Skaven line player didn't hesitate - the Titans took a 1-0 lead shortly after the start of the fifth turn.

On the following kick-off, the Maulers were allowed to move one field earlier and since the designated ball carrier Gulgur Goldfignaz failed his stupidity test, veteran Borag had to take the ball. The rest of the team pulled themselves together and immediately handed out a few blows after they had embarrassingly suffered the touchdown. Kragg Ratmaula lived up to his name and broke the arm of the liner that had just scored the point.

While the cage slowly rumbled towards the endzone, the Titans had a good chance to prevent an equalizer, but only achieved a Push result with the Blitz. So damage control was applied and the ball carrier was burdened with opponents and tackle zones as much as possible.

Just in that moment I remembered that the Maulers hadn't played any of their cards yet and when I read through the effect it turned out that the knuckleduster basically means that the opposing player is guaranteed to go down no matter what you roll. So Borag announced the Blitz, sent a Skaven to the ground and tanked his way into the endzone.

Halftime

The second half of the game began as the first had ended, extremely bloody. While the Maulers rebuilt a cage to score a touchdown as smoothly as possible without allowing the Titans enough time to counterattack, the Titans' troll showed how important he was in the team's strategy. Ulag Elfbita, who had injured himself in the game against the Flying Flashgitz, took an incredibly powerful swing and became one with the big green.

Thanks to Gork, I learned my lesson in the last game and remembered my apothecary, but some strikes are so severe that they simply cannot save the player from death...WHAT!? NO!!! NOT AGAIN!!! So the Maulers now had a permanent loss in every game and the second dead black orc in four games...

Well…that‘s Blood Bowl.

The third turn of the second half put the patience of the Maulers to the test. In the first block black orc Kragg rolled a double skull, followed by a...double skull. But in the probably shortest play of the game, the Titans didn't fare any better this time - the first dodge attempt failed twice in a row and the turn marker moved quietly to turn four...

The fifth turn was more or less the deciding move, in two turns the distance would be covered and the chance of a counterstrike minimal. But the bad luck stuck to the Maulers of the players like flies to...uh...five players at once succumbed to the scent of the mushrooms and wasted precious playing time, including the ball carrier.

The Titans mercilessly exploited this and knocked Gulgur out - from now on the dice would have to be gracious to score again. But Nuffle had other plans and the ball bounced when they tried to pick it up.

The pigskin did not lie favorably for the Titans, but through a skillful block, the blitzer of the Maulers landed on it, whereupon the ball fell into the hands of the adjacent lineman. Hugo the troll was just about to go into action and let his muscles do the job again, which had already made quite a difference in the course of the game. Did I ever mention that butterflies on warpstone look wonderful? No? Well, Hugo noticed it.

Although the ball-carrying line player made it out of the turmoil, the many players who lost their tackle zones due to the bonehead rule meant that he stood relatively unprotected in the opposing half. At that moment, the Titans hatched a final plan, perhaps in an unexpected twist, to win the game. Stormvermin Clubber Thrallbite sneaked deep into the half of the Maulers, while the other Skaven Blitzer was supposed to target the ball carrier - thus the thrower would still have a chance to pick up the ball and throw it to the end of the field.

He managed to free up the ball, but the thrower was injured when trying to dodge and the play was over. The game ended and the final whistle initiated the Post Match Sequence.

Borag and the Hungry Hugo were the outstanding players of the game and rightly received the MVP award and a level up at the same time. However, the Maulers' lousy performance resulted in a mediocre result with 20,000 goldin terms of earnings, while the Titans took 50,000. The match had also provided enough entertainment to help both teams gain a Fan Factor.

None of the teams were enthusiastic about the stadium itself, not to mention the fact that they had not earned enough bonuses to even have a chance of getting a deal with the stadium owner or a sponsor. The Titans managed to avert an impending crisis in their cash balance, as they now had more than 100,000 gold in their account.

The Maulers would enter the next game with the following constellation:

Thoughts about the game

Playing against yourself works surprisingly well. I must say, it didn't feel much different than playing against someone else either, since the core of the game is designed to punish the player as much as possible. What I really missed was the visual reaction and interaction with a fellow player. Laughing together about the misfortunes on the field is what makes it entertaining.

Also in terms of duration, I didn't need much less time than usual, because I still had to read through rule passages from time to time. All in all, it was still entertaining - a bit like an interactive movie where you have limited possibilities to intervene.

It is important to accept the dice results and play each side as if all was on the line. If you always try to get the best out of the turn, the game develops just like against a human opponent, unfortunately the dice were relentless. Of course this gives me a little bit to think about...the next challenge are the Golden Vultures, a team that has eleven games on their back and comes from a time when I tried to play a bit more competitively...

Something was wrong with the black orcs. Boz was beginning to get the impression that they refused to play with the rest of the boyz. He would have to get to the bottom of this sooner than later...

Greetings from the lonely gaming table

Dino