Returning to Blood Bowl!

In the mid 1990s, I began to collect Games Workshop miniatures. My collection consisted primarily of Dwarfs from Warhammer Fantasy Battle, half of whom weren't painted, but I rarely gamed with them. I think, as a young chap, I could never really get myself organised enough to arrange games, collect scenery and put a painted army together in order to make it happen. Table top gaming, therefore, remained more in my imagination than in reality. This all changed with the release of Third Edition Blood Bowl in 1994. 

Third Edition Blood Bowl

My first team were the Orcs which were included as part of the boxed set. My friend took the Human team, which were to become the Hochland Hawks. For my team I scoured the map of the Old World in order to find a home and I landed on Iron Rock, the Orc fortress in the northern Badlands. And from there were born the Iron Rock Greenskins. I chose, for reasons best known to a 13 year old me, an un-Orcish colour scheme of blue and red. 

From that point on I played many games of Blood Bowl. I think the small number of miniatures required and the fact that all the required terrain was included in the box meant that the previous, albeit largely self imposed, obstacles were removed.

I played many games through my early to late teens against the aforementioned Hochland Hawks, as well as the High Elf, Dark Elf, Chaos Dwarf and Undead teams of my friends on the adjoining streets to my parent's house. And I also expanded my collection to include the Norse Blood Axe Beserkers and the Halfling Merryfield Morrismen.

Then when I went away to university, and subsequently into the Royal Navy, I stopped playing. Games Workshop also withdrew Blood Bowl from production and ceased to support the game. At some point in the late 2000s I decided that I was unlikely to play Blood Bowl again and I sold my teams and the game on eBay. I don't really regret it, they were not being used by me and my policy has always been that I would rather someone else get some enjoyment out of something than have them gathering dust in my cupboard. 

Fast forward to 2016 and Games Workshop released the Blood Bowl 2016 edition. I bought the game and was immediately hooked again! And once again I took the Orc team from the box, painted them up as the Iron Rock Greenskins from 20 years previously and I was ready to go. 

The Iron Rock Greenskins 2.0

In 2019, having left the Royal Navy, I set up a small league at my friendly local gaming store, Fanboy 3 in Manchester. In the first season I gathered five other keen players and we played out a fantastic league with each team playing one another twice and then the top four entering the playoffs. The Greenskins were a joy to field, Orcs being a very well balanced team, albeit much more skewed to the bashy rather than the flashy. After ten regular season games they were undefeated and then went onto win the final 3-1 against a very good human side. They are now redrafted but safely boxed away awaiting a future league. And this team will not begetting sold on eBay!