Tournament Report – Dundee Doubles

I love tournaments that Team Scotland stalwart and closet Dundonian Camelchops goes to because - due to a pre-existing agreement - I can copy his blog posts her for free content! So here's the next installment - Dundee Doubles. Enjoy!

This weekend I traveled North to "visit my parents" i.e. play some Bloodbowl. Specifically, the Dundee Doubles. I’ve wanted to play this one for a while, not just because its close to home, but also because the ruleset is a bit bonkers. Tiers, base skills and cash are all pretty standard, the big wrinkle is that you are not only allowed to stack but also must stack at least 5 skill points on one player. You can also spend skill points to remove negatraits, any combo of primary and secondary skills and stat increases to the usual limits.

I built a bunch of pretty stupid looking teams but then noticed another little feature; you can trade 30K team gold for extra skill points. So, cheap and high nonsense potential was the goal… Underworld were dusted off for their first outing in 2025 rules.

I went with a 15 mens 2RR Apo roster of all the rats, 3 goblins and 5 snots. This gave me a frankly ridiculous 16 Skill Points to play with. I’m generally a believer in going wider rather than deeper. I want to reduce variance broadly where I can… but needs must here!

Skaven Blitzer – the star of the show – Block, Stripball, Horns, Tackle, Horns, 2 Heads, Break Tackle.

Skaven Gutter Runner – OTTD machine – Dodge, Stab, Block, Two Heads, Side Step.

ROgre – Furry Killing Machine – Juggs, Claws, Break Tackle (MB, Frenzy)

Thrower – Get the ball to the GR – Block, Leader

3x Linerats – Stay alive and screen the important stuff – Wrestle x 3. These three skills could have further boosted the blitzer (dodge/mb), but I liked the survivability, sacking potential and option to get at least someone down for fouling.

Goblins + Snotlings – Screen, fill holes (especially in OTTD), assist, foul and act as ablative armour for the important pieces.

The plan. Score early. Defend aggressively. Try to get 2 up by turn 5. If plan A isn’t working, use the claw, mb, and snotling fouls to pick off pieces to reduce numbers, then score my OTTD and then win the second half. Classic UW stuff.

Teammate: Roland

A you likely guessed from the name, this is a doubles tournament… my partner was initially going to be another CLAW player, but sadly he couldn’t make it in the end. No worries, the TO hooked me up with Fractal (Roland), who took an aggro-ready Orc team with Guard Troll, Block+Guard Big Uns, A superstar Blitzer with +1ST, MB, Tackle, and another MB blitzer, Block Leader Thrower, 5 linos, 2RR. Plenty of bang potential.

The stage was set for a wild ride.

Game 1 – Callum GingeronTour Brets

We opened into a pretty in pink Bret team which felt a bit more “normal” than mine; Ag+ blodge catcher and a couple of stacked grail knights and throwers built for passing.

He received and pushed forward quickly. I went hunting for kills, leaving the ball carrier alone and effectively forcing the score via the stalling rule. My drive, and things were looking relatively comfortable, right up until a snaked snotling dodge left the GR exposed on the sideline. He was full-powed down but used sidestep to ensure the ball ended up infield and then casually did some standard ratting to recover and dodge through a bunch of tackle zones to score on my next turn. Two heads already paying dividends. The Brets then got another short drive and pushed the other sideline but didn’t quite appreciate the pace of the rats, I rolled a couple of 2s to get the sack. Everyone jammed in and I thought I had the stop only for a naked 224(5)(3) all coming off. 2-1 down. No worries, OTTD time. My ROgre tried to make it more complicated by eating the snotling that was part of my plan A T-shape, but I pivoted to plan B to get the couple of pushes needed, and used the two heads again to good effect to 22222 through the backline. 2-2 HT.

In the second half, we banged early. Removing multiple peasants and then throwers and then catchers to a combo of claw/mb and little stompy feet. Despite this, the Brets were able to take two dives using steady footing to turn a pretty unlikely 6+ into a not too shabby 6+6+. The ball went down twice but never with any real recovery option, so in the end it was a pretty comfortable 8 turn drive. Win 3-2.

Sadly Roland lost his game, so we drew the round.

Game 2 – vs Ant Purdindas Chaos Chosen

Purdindas is a former Scottish captain, veteran of 740+ NAF games, although more of a human/norse/elven union coach than Chosen. His team had a Chaos warrior sacker wrodge, break tackle, strip ball, and block/claw/mb x2, block/guard and tents Troll. It was going to be a little bit of kill or be killed here. His drive was a solid press forward until turn 3, when I took a shot at a standard X cage. 4+ in for 2D, 2RRs used but ball was free. Sadly my GR couldn’t collect and then left the field into the CAS box. Thankfully apo brought him back and I could breathe again.

Although I’d destabilised the drive effectively, the recovery turn had near perfect dice and the ball was secured and screened off again. So, pivot to kill mode, only for the ROgre to let me down. C’est la vie. Ant then took the chance to inflict damage, but this separated his ball protection crew from the rest of the team. I responded by removing the troll (he got better) and the getting my ROgre, blitzer and goblin close enough to the ball that he was compelled to score on 7. With two turns, GR back and a blitzer backup it was always going to be tough to stop, and Ant did well to make it very difficult, but in the end it came down to a 2+ dodge for blitz, 3+ pass, 2+ catch and then some 2s for 2Heads boi to bang it in. HT1-1.

Ant either just before or just after losing a filling

Scoring quickly with rats is easy enough, scoring in 8 turns not so much. I tried to mess around and pull Ant out of position but it never really worked. My ROgre punched a nice hole and I left him hanging in a widezone as a distraction octopus but then snaked a snotling dodge that would have made the commitment to hit him big… So, he got removed by one of the claw/mb killers. Oh Dear. Not to worry, reverse the field and head the other way. Cue a turn of stuns for my remaining rat folk and removal of my superstar blitzer. Very bad. Potato time. My GR was always going to be caught by the strip ball wrestle warrior but with SS I had, at least, some control of scatter location. And that’s what swung it, the ball ended up on the sideline and, although double marked, the GR could recover on a 4 and use his 2heads to 2222 to 2-1. Two headed GRs are just ridiculous. Ants short drive was hampered by a deep kick and a snotling making dodges and rushes to tag the ball carrier, leaving the rest of my team to focus on taking down or pushing back scoring threats. The snotling-induced dodge used the last RR and thereafter there was too much to do. Win 2-1.

Roland sadly lost his match despite banging hard on Stripeydave’s Humans (actually Khorne - Ed), so another round draw.

Game 3 Gordon Batch001 Goblins

The Goblins solution to this bonkers ruleset was a PA+ bullseye strong arm Troll, and an Ag+ Block doom diver, a powerful combo. He supported that with Block Break tackle troll and a smattering of sacking skills on Goblins. It was a really effective build.

The Goblins respected my OTTD threat and put me in to receive. I struggled to pick up the ball in the pouring rain. First the thrower failed his 4/4 then the next turn my GR failed a 3/3. Suddenly there were a lot of goblins around the ball location and it looked bad. No worries though, GR 2H casually (2) 4+ pickup (RR), (2) and a couple of rushes away to the sideline out of range of the chainsaw and leaving only a deep goblin in range to go pow fishing. Situation rescued but DP fouls with impunity, and saw/troll hits was removing pieces with alacrity, so, again, I scored earlier than I’d like.

I played the Goblin short drive conventionally. Full press with strong pieces into weak Goblins. Then multi-tagged the thrower troll with more pieces than could be cleared. It was to no avail, he made the stupid, eat, pass rolls and swooped over the defenders for a depressingly easy score. 1-1 HT.

Second half and I pressed into the Goblins again, ramping up the pressure steadily and looking for an opportunity. I turned down a (3)(2,2) for 2D to chain the ball free for a wrestle 2D as the fail state was pretty poor and the recovery option was quite unlikely. Instead, opting for increased pressure. That “worked” as passer troll launched the diver from deep again to score. If you’ve read this far, I’m assuming you are wondering why I didn’t kill either the passer troll or the diver… believe me I was trying. Still, that had been a very short drive and I decided to play for the win, recovering on 3, scoring on 5 after surviving some Goblin missiles.

The stage was set for an exciting end to the tournament. Would there be a third TTM score or would my sackers do their job or both? ROgre was dead by now, but I still fancied it. The Goblins got to an identical position as previously but left the backdoor open to a 4+ blitzer dive… 3 RR 4… 2D… pow. But the scatter wasn’t able to be recovered. The Goblins were close to getting the recovery handoff for a conventional Goblin TTM but failed at the last. Oof. However, he was saved as the scatter took it into Goblin hands. What followed was a UW turn… 3+ for 2D with wrestle (pushes RR pushes), 3+ to allow a second 2D with wrestle (pushes RR pow!). All RRs gone. Time for 2Hs GR. (422)3… he has the ball 2,5 the ball is in the air… 5 the linerat has caught it in a TZ in the rain. 3+ dodge… TD! Nonsense but we’ll take it! Win 3-2.

Rolland won his last game, banging out BOs.

Final result and reflection

I finished 3-0-0, 8-5 TDs, 3rd/40. Our team 1-2-0. Roland won most CAS with his banger Orc team living up to pre-tournament hype.

I really enjoyed this tournament. Everyone entered into the spirit of the rulespack and there were some monsters out there. Special shout out to Kris Sporran Miller who put together a team of one Chaos Warrior, the rest goats and all the SP went onto that warrior. The cheer and applause around the room was pretty special when he died in game 2! Food was great; plenty to be had, and the venue was perfect.

Just... insane.

Pre-tournament I also was drinking with old friends in my hometown and played some lawn bowls and visited my parents. A highly efficient combination to make for a great weekend.

As for my play reflection… Not sure I learned too much; this was very much in the fun zone and I enjoyed leaning into the nonsense. Pre tournament I had considered just scoring quickly on every drive and leaning into the sacking potential and that did kind of materialise. However, despite 3 different options to sack the ball, I gave up 5TDs, bleh. I did sack the ball in all three games though and 2TDs were TTMs. I was certainly lucky to get 3 wins. My UW move to 10-5-2 record but might not come out of until next year’s Dundee Doubles.

Thanks, Camelchops! If you want to check out the original - and plenty more Blood Bowl content besides - check out the article in it's natural environment: https://clawbloodbowl.uk/2026/06/14/tournament-report-dundee-doubles/