Månadens Profil / Zulu (Nov 2023)
I believe I first came across the game in its 2nd edition in the late 80s. I have always been into wargaming and I was at a Wargames Convention where 2 of my friends were playing Blood Bowl. I had a game and that was the start.
In the late 90s I lived in Poole on the South coast of England. Where I worked was near Games Workshop in Poole. I used to go there most lunchtimes and got to know the staff very well. At that time Games Workshop employed what they called key timers (basically part time staff mainly for weekends and evenings). An opening came up, and I applied and got the job. It was at this time I was able to buy most the then Blood Bowl teams at a huge discount 😊. Robin Cruddace who is now one of GW’s main codex writers was one of my colleagues at the time.
You where one of the coaches to play in the team named Norwegian Blackmetal in Alicante where you guys did end up in a respectable 7:th place.Can you tell me about that journey?
This was our 3rd world cup as a team. We had the same team for all apart from the 1st one where we had Øyvind who was replaced by Ronny for Dornbirn and Alicante. It was actually an incredible experience. Our objectives were simple, to have a good time and also finish higher than the 2 other Norwegian Teams. Bonus objective was to finish higher that Øyvinds all star team.
2 of our players have not played much (Håkon seems to only play every 4 years). We started on the bottom table and we just kept winning…. We all had good and bad spells, but it worked out when one or 2 players had a bad game the rest won. So going into game 8 we were in 4th place with 6 wins and 1 draw. The draw should have been a win but for an agile Tomb Guardian in Craigs game that dodged, pick up the ball and rushed twice to score (with no rerolls). That cost us the win.
Game 8 was against Les Azes (the team that won the World Cup). We lost that game but most of us felt that in our particular games we had opportunities to win but it did not quite go our way. But we came roaring back in game 9 and had a good win leaving us on 7th place with 7 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss. We placed higher than both Norwegian teams and Øyvinds all star teams so all objectives were met 😊 Our best player was Håkon with 5-3-1. I finished 2-5-2 playing Underworld.
So how did you end up in the Norwegian Blood Bowl scene?
I moved to Norway 100% in 2011. In those days I mainly played occasional tournaments in the UK and also online. In 2012 I took part in my first Eurobowl in Denmark as Team Scotland captain. I played also the next year in Eurobowl in Austria also as part of Team Scotland. I decided then that I would try and get a Norwegian team together for the next one in 2014 which was to be in Belgium.
At that time I played in the Orca Cola League and I asked 3 Norwegians I knew from there Øyvind(Straume), Christian (mynock) & Håkon (humbe) if they would like to be part of the team which they accepted. Øyvind and Christian were both from Bergen where there was a Blood Bowl scene, so they got 3 other players plus my son Daniel (Endalos) and we had a team for our first Eurobowl as Team Norway.
After that Oyvind, Christian, myself and Craig (Feppel) decided to try and run a tournament in Norway and hence in 2015 the first Pouring Rain Open tournament in Bergen was held. Since then the Blood Bowl scene in Norway has continued to grow with tournaments in Oslo, Stavanger, Bergen and Kristiansand as well as the most Northerly Blood Bowl tournament ever in Setermoen near Bardufoss in North Norway.
There is also a number of leagues running and currently I take part both Oslo and Bergen leagues as I travel for work both places at least once a month.
Even thou I know it is not entierly fair to ask you this since it was a "few" years ago you where involved in their (Games workshop) business, but what plans do you think GW have for Blood Bowl nowdays?
This is a worry for me. I used to be a big fan of their games and played Warhammer and 40K, but I feel their model where the bring a “new version” out every 4 years ends up breaking the game. There is only so many times you can change the rules.
We have seen it a bit with BB2020 where a set of rules that was widely understood now needs 10+ pages of errata and FAQs to be played. The rules have been badly written leading to what I believe are some unintended consequences. What will they do in 2024 is anybody’s guess. I hope they just leave it with just a tidy up of the rule book.
How do you see a possible participation in Team Norway in Greece next year?
Team Norway has gone from just 8 Norwegians to pick from to a lot more meaning there is real competition for places in the team. I am of course hoping to be selected, but if not I will most certainly participate in the Euroopen. The Eurobowl is a fantastic event and along with the World Cup, it would take a lot to stop me attending.
Pouring Rain just happened here, and how do you think it went? (I won't mention the fact that you ended up behind the only participating Swede in the final ranking)
It went very well. The only disappointment was there was only one Swede as normally I get to play and beat at least one every tournament 😊 I do hope the Swedes return next year in force as we did miss them.
I played Khorne (for the first time). First day was bad with 2 losses and then a draw. 2nd day went better with 2 wins and a draw. That’s Khorne now ticked off the list and brings my races played to 25 It was also good that we had a new winner Craig (feppel).
Next year is also the 10th anniversary of Pouring Rain, if I'm not mistaken, so have you planned anything extra or something you can tempt with until then?
That’s correct, next year will be the 10th anniversary. As with the 5th year we will have something extra to celebrate. We have a few ideas floating about. Looking forward to seeing you there.
Oh, an invitation? Well, seams like you guys desperatly really need a Swede to take the woodenspoon, so maybe I just take you up on that. However I thank you for this little chat and I wish you the best as long as it is not on a pitch and against myself. I think now is the perfect time to do a little switcharoo så Kaju får med sig iallafall en liten del av intervjun. Och med tanke på att vi är inne på Norskt område så ska jag göra en liten Särimner inatt för att imorgon återuppstå för en liten batalj i Borås. För vem vet, nästa Månads Profil kanske befinner sig där????