Yesterday evening I strolled into the Board Room for another Saturday evening gaming session.
On the big table, host John was fielding Norman infantry and archers against Gary's Vikings, while on the front table, Bernie and two David's managed teams of goblins, vampires and ogres in a season or two of Blood Bowl, a Warhammer version of American Football. The original Blood Bowl is a game that uses miniatures on a game board, but we were playing with a card deck version. The aim of the game is more about injuring and knocking out players and gathering a fans following than actually scoring.
Blood Bowl
The Blood Bowl game host, David L (who was celebrating his 50th birthday) is an experienced player. Bernie had played the game a couple of times, a couple of years ago and more or less forgotten everything about it. For my part, this was my baptism of fire having never played the game before.
At first it seems a bit confusing with various card decks and counters that enable you to upgrade your team, or your manager options, or your team strength in a match and so on, but once play was underway, Bernie and I quickly got the hang of the procedure if not always playing the best options.
However, win or lose, the game was highly entertaining and dynamic, with lots of innuendo and laughter that kept us in the fun zone the whole evening.
In the first game, I chose the Vampire team. One of their special qualities was the ability to gain strength after injuring an opposing player by sucking their blood. Very useful! My super vamps sucked enough blood to come second, while the other David ran away with first prize!
Normans versus Vikings
Meanwhile, on the big table, things seemed to get bogged down into a lengthy stalemate due to some uncertainty over the Lion Rampant rules and the topography of the board.
The two warbands were separated by a river with a ford in the middle of the board, between two woods, and another ford at the far end of the board. The Normans blocked the central ford with infantry covered by archers. The Vikings took cover behind the trees, and that was that.
When John decided to cross the river to create some gameplay, his Normans got mauled by Beserkers and elite Vikings. The survivors retreated across the ford and stalemate ensued.
I caught the last tram back home after a fine evening's entertainment. Happily, the tram was not too crowded even though there had been a summer firework festival at Ujina port.
And so ended another cheerful Saturday evening.
Cheers!
David Hurley
#InspiredFocus
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