Another Big Thank You

Just a little post here to shout out a big "thank you!" to Impact Miniatures. Thanks to them, not only have we gotten our hands on heaps of really great looking figures, but in record-beating time to boot! As we combine the Games Workshop rules with these impressive new figures, we've gotten a lot of great ideas for teams going. This season, Valérie Cormier will be using a team of Egyptian animal aspects with Amazon team rules, while Ryan Keizer will be showing off his Siringit team of African wildlife on a Norse team template. This is just the beginning, too, as teams of ogres, gnolls, and all manner of bizarre beasts lurk on the horizon. If you read the MMBBL blog, go have a look, you won't be disappointed!

Dungeonbowl Ramp-Up part 1: Expansion!

Hi there, sportsfiends! This is your commissioner with a special message that's sure to please.

First, however, I'd like to give an official nod to arguably the league's greatest coach since its inception. Curtis Hunt, the mastermind behind the dominant play of the Dusk Hill Dirt Bursters, moved away this past fall, unfortunately for us and his two Spike! tournament teams, the Asgard Raiders and BloodDrunk Berserkers. Everybody back here in the Miramichi wishes him the best, thanks him for his challenging and skillful play every week, and also heave a collective sigh of relief that now, perhaps, someone else will be able to start winning trophies! In honour of his stellar play and great sportsmanship, A new award is going on the list for our upcoming seasons. From now on, the most outstanding rookie player will receive the Ol' Teabagger Memorial Chalice, an award which includes a bonus 50,000 gold for that player's team! The first such award will be presented at the end of the upcoming Dungeonbowl season. Thanks again, Curtis! Feel free to stop by for a game sometime.

Next, I'd like to thank our current coaches, including those who for reasons outside of the league's control, cannot play as much as they'd like to these days. Keith Dury, Jon Roth, Jai Gagnon, Sandy Miller, Ryan Keizer and Chris Mudd have formed a strong backbone for what has become a strong league. Special thanks go to Ryan and Chris, the former for his unflinching confidence in letting the bunch of us piggyback on his credit card to get all these orders done, and the latter for being a remarkable co-founder and having a wealth of knowledge of the rules to keep me from spouting all kinds of inaccuracies.

Now, the reason I'm making such a big deal over the coaches leads up to this announcement - the MMBBL is proud to announce another expansion! This time, we're adding four, count 'em, four new coaches to the stable! Andrew "Dismembery" Embury, Neil "Rabies" Davies, Valérie "Valkyrie" Cormier and James "Jimmy" Richards join the MMBBL with their first teams - Wood Elves, Necromantic, Amazon (pharaohs), and Norse respectively. We're all looking forward to the style, strategy and of course, humour that these four enthusiastic new players will bring to the league.

With these new additions, the current lineup of teams totals a whopping fourteen! The next post you see will have the rundown of the six teams in Deathdealer division, and will be followed by a look at the eight teams calling Bloodbath division their home. keep an eye open for updates all this week, leading up to Blood Bowl Day and the season kickoff!

Spiffying Up the Blog, Part 2

For the second stage of the spiffy-up, we figured it was time we had some visual cues to know our teams by. With most of us being artistically inclined, it was easy enough to get creative juices flowing and before we knew it, we had a heap of very strong, unique, and above all, convincing logos on our hands. So, for your viewing as well as reading pleasure, we present the twelve teams taking part in the MMBBL's 2008 Autumn season.

ASGARD RAIDERS

The Raiders are the second Norse team to enter the league, and are one of the two teams coached by the reigning champion, Curtis Hunt. The squad has two logos: the one on the left is their main brand; the second, a longship topped with a bold "A", will appear on their helmets.







BLACKWATER BILGERUNNERS
The Bilgerunners, the MMBBL's lone Skaven team, had an incredible breakout season this past Summer with rookie coach Jonathan Roth at the helm. We can't wait to see what kind of high-flying antics the Rat Rush will bring this Fall.








BLOODDRUNK BERSERKERS
The Berserkers are the second team fielded by coaching phenom Curtis Hunt. In addition to his coaching and illustrating skills, Curt actually built his team's chaos warriors and minotaur with his own modeling material and unique flair for the pointy and killy.








BLUERIVER WARDOVES
The Wardoves had a strong season under the watchful eyes of coach Chris Mudd, who is also distinguished as the league's Coach Wrangler and one of the reasons we're as successful as we are today. The Wardoves' third season promises to be full of incredible displays of skill and speed, as well as tasteful but exciting photo opportunities.






DARKMIRE CARNOSAURS
J Gagnon had a strong second season with his Brutakai Ragefangs this past Summer, and the success he found has spurred him on to new challenges. Shelving the orcs in favour of a Lizardman team, J brings the Darkmire Carnosaurs into contention. In the tradition he began with the Ragefangs, we can't wait to see the memorable characters the Carnosaurs roster will put on display.






FLY-BY KNIGHTS
Given the opportunity to toot my own horn, I'll do my best not to embellish the accomplishments of Matt Stroud's Fly-by Knights. Until now, they'd only been played every other season, with more experimental squads showing up in the Winter and Summer seasons. Coming into the Autumn season, the Knights are the highest-rated squad, and the oldest team in current contention.






MUENSTER VALLEY STINKERS
As one of the four coaches fielding two teams this season, the Commissioner, Matt Stroud, retains much of his flair for the experimental. Given how many times we've seen a troll casually try to devour a goblin teammate, it's perhaps a surprise to see a team enter the league based almost entirely around that strategy. If nothing else, the Stinkers should provide a healthy dose of questionable moral fiber.





PANCAKE VALLEY SHORTSTACKS
In a similar case of experimental curiosity meeting morbid fascination, coach Sandy Miller, known up to now for his widely popular Meathooks squad, will be fielding a halfling roster as one of his two teams this Fall. Keep those Tree Men standing, Sandy old boy, and don't get discouraged if you lose a dozen or so of your plucky halfling projectiles.






RAZOR HILL SPINEBREAKERS
Inspired perhaps by the wanton carnage caused by other orc teams, comeback-of-the-year coach Ryan Keizer is bringing a greenskin squad of his own to the league. Without question, the Spinebreakers are a team built to crush the opposition. If they can score some points along the way - hey, bonus!







SMASH AND GO'NADS
The Smash and Go'nads were last season's cinderella story, making a headlong rush into the Blood Bowl and coming oh-so-close to victory. Back with a wealth of experience and a sickening number of guard assists, the Go'nads remain the powerhouse team in coach Ryan Keizer's stable.







SUN TEMPLE CHUPACABRAS
Sandy Miller brings another Lizardman team into the mix, Leading his luchador lizards out of the jungle and, hopefully, into the winner's circle. Probably a more reliable bet that a halfling team, look for the Chupacabras to play with pride and power.








TRAUMATIC TAKEDOWN
Keith Dury's chaos dwarves hit some rough patches throughout last season, and some bad luck kept him from accumulating a truly powerful presence on the pitch. Returning this Autumn and not discouraged in the slightest, the Takedown find themselves in the upper middle of the pack as more new teams join the league. As with most second-year teams, look for improvement by leaps and bounds from the Traumatic Takedown.

Owners, officials, coaches and fans, I present to you, the Autumn 2008 MMBBL!

League Expansion, Returning Teams, and Blood Bowl Day

Time now for a few administrative posts concerning the MMBBL.

First up, we're expanding the league from eight to twelve teams this Autumn. We don't have any new coaches, but four of our current coaches have expressed interest in fielding a second team. Therefore, there will be six teams in each division, with each of the two-team coaches having one team in each division. When playoff time comes, only one of that coach's two teams may advance, even if both teams are technically eligible.

In theory, we have the resources to support up to sixteen teams at this point, since there are four boards among us. If we expand further, it will be directly to sixteen teams if possible. If that can't work, then the two-team fielding coaches may be asked to cut back to one in subsequent seasons. This is simply a matter of everyone being able to play on the alternating game nights of the two conferences, Bloodbath and Deathdealer. having an odd number of teams in either division means that someone's got to wait nearly a month between games, and that would be frustrating to say the least.

And now on to the returning teams announcement. To begin, several teams who've been with us recently are taking breaks, mostly so the coaches can experiment with new team types. The Dusk Hill Dirt Bursters, Meathooks, Brutakai Ragefangs, and Bloodsand Blasters are all getting put on the shelf for a little while, after four, four, two and one season of play, respectively.

Returning are four of the squads from last season - The Smash and Go'nads, the Blueriver Wardoves, the Traumatic Takedown and the Blackwater Bilgerunners, as well as a previously established team, the Fly-by Knights, who were last seen in the Spring season. with five returning teams, this means that over half of the league will be entirely new squads. Though the returning teams have an edge as far as skill and playoff hope goes, there's still a lot of wiggle room for new teams to get off the ground quickly. Those new teams will be given an introductory post soon.

Something that pleases me to no end will be our first annual Blood Bowl Day. Commemorating the start of the MMBBL last year, this is the sort of landmark that every league commissioner hopes for. Enthusiasm seems to permeate the league, we've managed to find a balance between the more casual and more hardcore players (namely the aforementioned two-team coaches) and we've set a foundation of league history that we can build on with each passing game. Everybody still gets a little chill at the mention of Ol' Teabagger. We know what it means to exclaim "HUNGRY!" when the die roll comes up a 1. We've even got a handful of creative alternative projectiles when "Throw a Rock" comes up on a kickoff. In short, we've taken the generic core of the game and covered it with a gooey, sweet, unique MMBBL frosting. This Fall, we start on the second tier of this delicious, vicious cake.

Blood Bowl Day is going to be a celebration of the league, and as well an excuse to hang out with what's become a tightly-knit crew of fantasy sports fans. There'll be pizza, drinks, and of course on-pitch carnage. The games themselves with carry a few twists - money earned will be halved as it's "preseason" play, the games themselves won't count in the standings (thought star player points will), and teams who aren't even in the league itself this season will be welcome. Don't expect to see too much on the blog about the games, aside from the major highlights. I love updating this site, but there's no way I'm going to be able to scribble out 10-15 matches in full detail.

There's still a couple of posts to be made - One concerning the new teams, one for a new house rule we're implementing which will give flavour to the different venues the teams play in, and one to showcase some new graphics - a league map, a "head-to-head" match post header, the MMBBL logo with all the current team logos incorporated, and the biggest project to date, player cards! Keep an eye open, and we'll see you on Blood Bowl Day!

MMBBL Welcomes Three New Squads

As you may know, the MMBBL is gaining popularity, and as a direct result we are pleased to announce the addition of three new teams to join a roster of eight for the upcoming Blood Bowl Summer season.

First to arrive are the Blackwater Bilgerunners, a Skaven squad loaded with speed and skill. With more on their arrival we have a report from our dwarven correspondent, Rock Blottem.

The Blackwater Bilgerunners, hailing from the sewers of an unnamed Imperium city, enter the MMBBL’s Summer Season Blood Bowl campaign for the first time under the sponsorship of Baron Blackwater of Clan Moulder. Eager to regain the honour of former Skaven greats like the Skavenblight Scramblers (and ease his infamously lethal boredom), the Baron has graciously donated much to his team, and a great deal of the talent comes from his own personal guard. The roster includes gutter runners Twinkletoes, Piddlepaw, and Dingleberry; Stormvermin bodyguards Brutus and Jenner as blitzers; Fivel Mausketrap serving as thrower; as well as a team of plucky linerats culled from the peasantry.

We are assured that the shivering and high pitched squeals of Limpy, Gimpy, Lamefist, Stumptail, Krunch, and Squeesplat are those of ecstasy at the prospect of upholding Skavenblight honour, rather than fear for their own personal survival or the well-being of their families.

What was once a league built around mere brute force is now showing room for skilled teams, it would appear. The Fly-by Knights, followed by the agile Blueriver Wardoves, and now the Blackwater Bilgerunners; we'll see how talent measures up against force in the upcoming season! Moving on to the second new team, we move away from the skittishness and skill of the Skaven to a more balanced combination of stoutness, sneakiness, and speed: The chaos dwarf team known as Traumatic Takedown. With the report, we have junior goblin correspondent Smerk Noseminer.

The Traumatic Takedown is just disembarking from their caravan after a long journey from the mountains, and...augh! AUUUUGH! AAAAWWWRAAAGH!
...

It appears that we'll have to wait for more information about the Takedown, though by the sounds of things, Smerk has gotten an exclusive interview with their bull centaur!

Finally, the third team to join the league, and joining the Traumatic Takedown in the Bloodbath division, are the enigmatic Bloodsand Blasters. Shipped in from their native Ogodytsot Desert in a series of crates, these undead warriors represent a chapter in the history of Blood Bowl that was written before many other teams even got around to crawling out of the swamp on two legs. An ancient textbook marked by hieroglyphics as the "Tome of Takkul'bal" shows a field of play similar to the Blood Bowl pitch, but with a noticeable lack of end zones. It would seem that the Bloodsand Blasters and their predecessors had no concept of "points" and simply played until everyone was dead or collapsed from heatstroke.

We have not been able to secure an interview with anyone directly affiliated with the Blasters yet. We do, however, have access to their current roster, which was dropped off at the MMBBL headquarters. After half an hour of wresting it from the jaws of the delivery animal (crocodiles are not particularly cooperative) We are now able to present it to the public. Their coach is listed as the Divine Takkul, the actual author of the ancient playbook. Among their ranks are eight lesser skeletal beings and four, that's right, FOUR mummies. We have seen how much damage the two mummies of the Dusk Hill Dirt Bursters can cause. Having four on the pitch at once is sure to be absolute carnage. The roster itself is as follows.

Lesser Skeletal Servants: Dirty Suez, Cairo Practor, Cal Ciferous, Dusty Tombs, Mister Urns, Gus Sarcopha, Sahket Toomi, and Helter Skeleter.

Great and Wise Tyrants of the Sands: Old Giza, West Nile Cyrus, Durdurhotep, and Battering Ramses.

A strange and terrifying bunch, indeed. We hope to learn more about these terrors from beyond the sands of time as they are unpacked and reassembled in their imported pyramid. Hopefully we'll have more on them, the Traumatic Takedown, and the Blackwater Bilgerunners as the season nears its beginning! Look forward to more in the coming days, including the Chaos Cup end-of-season awards!

Know your Players

This league is just getting off the ground, but we've got a good group of characters running the teams. Six coaches so far, and hopefully more at the end of this first season. We'll learn more about these warriors as we go on, but for now here's a taste of the talent that will be tearing up the pitch this Fall!

Matt "The Commissioner" Stroud - Human team - The Fly-by Knights
Chris "Magical Mister" Mudd - Dwarf team - Gildengrip's Gold Miners
Geremy "I <3 Green Things" Walker - Orc Team - The Greenskin Bumlookers
Curtis "D&D Minis Will Do for Now" Hunt - Undead Team - The Dusk Hill Dirt Bursters
Sandy "The Thriller" Miller - Orc Team - Not Yet Named
Dave "Omnivorous; Bipedal" Rigley - Undecided Team - Not Yet Named

More will follow soon, including team crests (since we're all animators and therefore feel the need to illustrate everything we do) theme songs (thank you, NFL Films!) and player rosters! Talk to you again soon, sports fiends!