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Writer's pictureJock Wright

Granite Bowl VI - Between a rock and a hard place to get to!

Updated: 1 day ago

Tournament Report By Simon Whitehouse, CursedofNuffle


Granite Bowl is a tournament in Aberdeen run by Phil Cairns, Fromherashes. It is a one day tournament of three games of Blood Bowl. It took place on a grey Saturday 26th October 2024. 

I'm new to the tournament scene this year, and Granite Bowl was only my fourth NAF tournament. I've played Blood Bowl since the early 2000s, but I’ve mostly played in friends' kitchens until I moved to Dumfries three years ago and joined the league at Dumfries Gamers.


Being in Aberdeen it was an early start as I drove up with Kevin (Actually_zod), Kris (CapnRedBeard) and Glen (RustyBin) from Dumfries. Even the early start to our day couldn’t suppress the anticipation with all the excited chat about rosters and the other rosters we had seen on Tourplay in advance.


Dumfries Gamers Road Trip to Aberdeen (L:R): CapnRedbeard (Kris), Actually_Zod (Kevin), Rustybin (Glen), CursedofNuffle (Simon)


For this tournament I took my newly painted Ewok proxy Halfling Team the Endor Growlers. I took 2 Tree men, 2 x Catchers (2 x Sure Feet), 2 x Heafties (1 x Leader, 1 x On the Ball) & 8 Hafling Hopefuls (2 x Sneaky Gits), Rumbalo, Rodney and a Master Chef.


The Endor Growlers - Ewok 'Flings' ready to take to the green turf to duke it out at Granite Bowl


Round 1 vs Kris (CapnRedBeard) playing Lizardman, 0-2 Loss


After settling down at the table we started off by the Growlers winning the opening coin toss and choosing to kick to the Lizards. With the ball high in the air the Growlers blitzed and Rumbalow puts a saurus on the floor to start the game. The lizards get the ball and secure it in their half. A saurus takes a 2 dice up hill block against a tree and ends up with a skull. To take advantage of this the tree casualties the Kroxigor in turn one. It was a tough first half for the Lizards with Rumbalow blitzing every turn and pressuring them. They scored on turn 8 to go 1-0 up. 

The Endor Growlers kick to Reptile Dysfunction as the Lizards prepare to drive in the first half


The second half saw the lizards start to put some pressure on the Ewoks and managed to knock the ball free and end up scoring a second TD. Whilst the Endor Growlers failed to score it was a fun game with the Ewoks winning the casualty game 3-1. Kris is a great guy to play against, and after sharing a car for four hours to Aberdeen we got a laugh as the first round draw paired us!


Round 2 vs Roland (Rmbyoung) playing Skaven, 2-2 Draw


Got settled after lunch which in your ticket price was a pie and can of juice which was nice. I found Roland and we settled down. The Growlers were on a roll and won the toss again, choosing to kick.

The Growlers special teams Ewok punter gets wheeled out to kick to the rats


Roland quickly got the ball to his gutter runners for a quick score. There was plenty of time for the Ewoks to cage with ball in hand on the hefty before commencing the rolling maul down the pitch, being mindful to put the boot into the rats as we went! The half ended with an equaliser! 

The second half a hopeful managed to get an early casualty on a gutter runner, followed swiftly by one of the trees crumping the Rat Ogre! Rodney was given the star treatment as his safe passage was navigated down the pitch to take a 2-1 lead on turn 14. 


With a depleted team and only three turns to go there was no option but for the rats to try and squeeze down the wing with a sideline cage around the Gutter carrying the ball. Nothing for it, but a cage dive 1D surf into the crowd! The crowd seemed to be on the Growlers side as they lobbed it back in next to a fling who wasted no time in picking it up and making off into the skaven’s half. Last turn of the game surely we’d done enough, but


With only a turn left I thought I'd secured the win, but Ronald showed me how wrong I was and blitzed my hopeful with a gutter runner and finding the pow. Ball swiftly scooped up the ball and lobbed a pass to the blitzer downfield for the equaliser. The match finished 2-2, what a great game and it was nice meeting Roland - I look forward to future tussles!


Round 3 Andrew (Batusiagogo) playing Vampires


After introductions again I kicked to Andrew and he took no time to hypno players to enable him to take out  Rodney very early on. Hypnogaze was to prove a problem as it turned off my flings dodge with them being removed fairly easily. He scored with a runner at the end of his half. I tried the throw team mate attempt, but to no avail. 

Rodney and his fishing rod scuppered by Vampires' hypno gaze


The start of the second half Andrew used the vampires to good effect, managing to get in and remove the ball for a quick second score. Being 2-0 down I felt like I needed a quick score so tried a throw teammate again, but the fling got turned upside down in-flight and failed the landing! Andrew secured the ball and went down and scored and went 3-0 up. I thought I'd try a long bomb pass from a heafty to a catcher and was surprised it pulled off and finished 3-1. Was a fun game against a great opponent.


Overall I went 0-1-2 and had a great time and was happy with how I played with my first outing with Haflings. A great atmosphere and amazing people. It was well worth the drive there and back!


Awards

Veldora lands his first NAF Tournament win as he's declared Granite Bowl champion!


Winning the tournament and congratulations to Mark Davidson, Veldora with Lizardmen being the only coach to go 3-0-0. For the full results check out final standings on Tourplay


Other awards


Second place - HuntyLoon with humans

Third place - Shriyke with Lizardmen

Best Rookie - Punktuality

Best Stunty - FaeriequeenofAlbion

Most TD - HipsterPotter

Most CAS - Fullfatbeard

Wooden Spoon - HarryP

Best Sports Person - Spooner

Best Painted - Batusiagogo

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