Bloodbowl Champignons!

Presenting...the MUSHINGTON REDCAPS!

This is my new Blood Bowl team for the coming season. As a Halfling team, I don't have the highest hopes for victory (or even scoring), but I felt like that at the start of the season a couple of years ago when I eventually won the club league with my Ogre team, the Tiny 'n' Titans.

The models are from Rapier Miniatures, one of those old school eclectic miniatures manufacturers, which I stumbled upon amidst all the corporate stands at the Derby World Wargames show last year. I'd highly recommend having a browse around their site, especially the Witches and Beastmen sections, as there are some really original models in there - I did consider a Pumpkinman Undead teams...maybe next year.

The team was a doddle to paint in my usual 'hurl-paint-from-across-a-darkened-room' style, and as you can see, the only need the bases finishing. I'm waiting for the weather to improve a bit because I need dryer weather to get them varnished before I add the static grass.

I've gone for a thematic numbering system with the white spots, although it began to get tricky at the higher numbers due to limited space, so I invented the 'Fungal Numeral' system. A spot with a black outline is worth 10 so the numbers below are 8, 2 and 13 (not the best picture...).

My goal for the season is to win at least one game (probably Matt's Gobbos), finish above at least one team in the table (probably Matt's Gobbos) and to gloat over every touchdown I manage to score over 'proper' teams (everybody except Matt's Gobbos).

In other news I played another campaign game of Flames of War on Sunday, and it turned out to be the fastest game I've ever played. I rolled out the mid-war Pantherkompanie (8 CT Panthers...and that's it!) because I'd forgotten my Ostfront book and could remember everything's stats and ran them up against Pete's Red Arm Tankovy (15 T-34's, 2 SU-somethings and a unit of motorised infantry) in a No Retreat scenario.

I was attacking so Pete had to leave two units off the table as reserves (the T-34's) and could put one unit in ambush (the SU's). I took the opportunity to put my objective as far as possible from the one Pete placed, thus forcing him to dig his infantry in around one of them and use his ambush to protect the other.

To cut a long story short, I rushed forwards with the Panthers to put pressure on the 'unprotected' objective. Pete sprang his ambush and across two turns, managed to bail two Panthers. In return I managed to destroy both heavy tanks and land on the objective by the end of my turn 3. Pete had been unlucky with his reserves, none arrived until turn 3, he had been (understandably) reluctant to run his conscript infantry across open ground towards the threatened objective, and he'd also placed his objective too far forward for his T-34's to even contest it when they did arrive.

Unable to do more than scratch my front armour, Pete was forced to concede defeat. It was possibly my most convincing win ever. Admittedly, there were a number of factors in my favour - the scenario, Pete's list choice, his objective placement (unfamiliarity with the scenario caused this), his reserve rolls - but ultimately, it was one of those rare reminders that a Pantherkompanie has it's cheesy moments despite being hideously one-dimensional.

This week holds hopefully varnishing and basing the Mushrooms, and perhaps a start on a project which I hope will see me trying to demonstrate a significant improvement in my painting. I'll also try to get a final campaign game in with my Americans as Matt and I try to win the whole damn shooting match.