Dudes of Hazzard: Game Three

The Dudes of Hazzard managed to get a third game in today, this time against Adam's Chaos Pact team Altering ‘Em FC, and it was a cracker.

Playing at the Nero-Bowl on Station Approach in perfect weather, the Dudes failed to attract the fans (that’s the fame roll lost, and later the paltry 20,000 gate!) but they did win the toss and elected to receive.

What followed was a very quick two-turn drive for the TD with star thrower Ben Jones chucking the ball to catcher Tom Wopat for a quick TD. Going for the passing play rather than stalling just about made up for the fact that I’d inadvertently snuck 13 players onto the pitch. I offered to restart but Adam was kind enough to say that it hadn’t made a difference to the outcome and we played on. On reflection I don’t think it really had much impact on the game but I’m very pleased I decided not to try to drag things out before scoring and I really appreciated Adam's very sporting response – ‘I could have counted them too…’

 

The Dudes couldn’t stop an Altering ‘Em touchdown in the next drive despite a heroic (and odds-defying) blitz from Denver Pyle which got the ball free in the fourth turn (dodge, GFI, GFI, 1D Blitz). The Dudes’ fans had hardly stopped cheering when Pyle was smashed to the floor and sent into the injury box for the remainder of the game. Pyle’s daring move inspired two more attempts to grab the ball back but both ended badly with failed double GFIs in both cases and the Altering ‘Em worked the ball down to the endzone in time for a turn eight touchdown (which saw Jimany, the star Dark Elf player, swallow his disgust for just long enough to hand rat-man Leipziger the ball to score).

The second half went the Dudes’ way. Adam's team fluffing the pick up in turn one set the tone and the ball never made it out of the Altering ‘Em half.  It took a moment of extreme ruditude in the Altering ‘Em turn six for the Dudes to get their hands on the ball. Ball-carrier Jimany, normally a safe pair of AG4 hands, went for a dodge and went down, bouncing the ball to Leipziger. Leipziger fluffed the pick-up and bounced it over to the Dudes’ new catcher Rick Hurst. Rick then ran to safety and lurked by the endzone for two turns while the rest of the team smacked the Pact players about a bit. Turn eight and Hurst walked over the line to give the Dudes their third win.

Final result 2-1 to the Dudes, 2-1 Cas to Altering ‘Em FC.

Here's the roster:

Dudes of Hazzard Game Two

THE DUDES... GAME TWO

The Dudes got their second game in last night, this time against Alex's skaven team, Rat, Sack and Crack. It was a cracking game played in pouring rain which made moving the ball around plenty tricky and kept things interesting to the very end.

The first half saw the Rats kick to the Dudes. The Rats rolled a blitz and threw some tackle zones onto most of my players. Seven turns later and the Dudes' thrower, Ben Jones managed to get the touch down. Then came the Skaven two turn magic, or it should have, as they powered through, boxed up an looked ready to score only to be denied by a series of 1s (four 1s in five rolls if I remember concluding with a double-fail GFI into the endzone.

Onto the second half and the skaven received an quickly got the ball into the Dudes' half. To my surprise they then stalled it out until turn six while I did my best to get hold of the ball. Eventually my desperate blocking (and fouling) got the numbers down to the point where scoring was all Alex could do leaving me with two turns to get a TD. With the rain still falling I wasn't confident...

The final drive went my way as an unlucky kick resulted in a touchback and the ball found its way into  Tom Wopat's steady (and blodging) hands. Wopat made a run for a TD but with almost no support soon found himself on the ground. But, in a final turn that was the opposite of Alex's failed two-turner, the dice were with me, letting me get away with two 2D blocks (not a big surprise) followed by Wopat's more difficult dodge and pick up rolls (a 3 and a 4) which he made on sixes.

So, the final result 2-1 to the Dudes  (4-0 on Cas), it could so easily have been a 1-2 loss, or a 2-2 draw which is what made it such a great game. Here's how the roster looks for the next game:

Dudes of Hazzard

Here's a post that contains two of my favourite things, Blood Bowl and Mountain Bikes... 

Last week I managed to get a game of Blood Bowl against my good friend Alex and it turned out that in doing so I'd returned to the Blood Bowl fold and rejoined the finest Blood Bowl league in the world, Manchester's Waterbowl. It's a fact that's lost in the mists of time but Alex, Michael and I founded the Waterbowl league a long long time ago, advertising for players on eBay (until Hoomin' Era, not his real name, went and bought the league for a penny) and kicking off a series of tournaments that are still going strong. I'm delighted to be back after a child-induced sabbatical and the first game saw my human team, The Dudes of Hazzard, take on Alex's Ogres, It's Snot Big and It's Snot Clever. My team's name is where the bike connection comes in, unintentionally I'd picked the name of a group of three riders whose films I really like, if you've found your way to this blog looking for biking action you need to head here. Incidentally, the logo at the top is theirs..

Back to Blood Bowl... The Dudes won 3-1 (1-2 CAS) in what was a really fun game full of terribly messy plays, near-invulnerable sidestepping snotlings, and an irritatingly believable MVP award that saw catcher Tom Wopat get the five SPPs to add to the six he'd gained from TDs. Income was 80K, and FF went up to 1.

Here's the roster after Game One:

With the income, and the 30K in the bank, I bought a third catcher.

Dark Angels Green Wing - part one...

It's time to announce the beginning of PROJECT DARK ANGELS: GREEN WING... The plan is to build a Dark Angels army that draws on marines from the Fifth Company and which avoids (for now) using members of the Deathwing and the Ravenwing. Oh, and that image above is by Matt Bradbury.

My first list includes:

• Company Commander
• Librarian (x2)
• Techmarine
• Company Command Squad + Razorback
• Dreadnought
• 3 x Tactical Squad (Missile Launcher, plasma gun)
• Assault Squad
• Devastator Squad
• Defence Line and Quad Gun

That's a total of 53 marines to paint and I think it comes in at about 1850 points.

At this point the building is just about done. Here's the army so far:

As most of them are from the Dark Vengeance boxset I decided to convert the unit sergeants a little (the one on the right still needs an icon for his backpack):

And the tactical squads are getting missile launchers I had a go at green-stuffing tactical icons on their shoulder pads:

I'm still waiting for the Veteran unit to come in the post from Triple Helix, when they're done the army will be ready to paint. To that end I picked up this little lot:

All-new paints for an all-new army, it's something of a luxury but I wanted to follow the tutorial over on the Tale of Painters blog. If my miniatures look anywhere near that good I'll be delighted but I will also be aiming for speed so perhaps that can be my excuse if they don't quite meet expectations...

Finally, a price tally. Using models from DV and a load of old models that a friend gave me I've kept this lot very cheap. To date the price is £36 (for DV, assuming the rulebook is worth £10), £16 (veteran squad), £20 (DA shoulder pads, a waste of money I think but more on that in another post), and £30 paint (does that need to be included?). So, the total has come to £102 but if you take the paints off that and the fact that I've still got some terminators and bikes left over from DV I reckon the army is coming in at about £60-£70. Not bad for a 40K army these days...