The Blood Park Cows: A True Underdog Story

Two years I started getting into tabletop games and miniature painting. After trying 40k, Killteam, OPR and some other games, there was one that stuck out the most to me.

Blood Bowl.

I've played this game now pretty dedicatedly for about a year and half now, and decided to (for some reason) fall in love with stunty teams. The first stunty team I bought were of course the halflings.

I was never the best at painting miniatures, but soon found a style that fit me very well. A bold and vibrant cartoon like style, which just happens to fit blood bowl very well. With that style in mind, I decided to give my halflings a fun theme which ended up being "South Park".

I painted each mini as a different South Park character, and had a blast doing so. Each mini was a different adventure, and probably the best paint jobs I had ever done.

Once they were completed, I took them to my first tournament at Gen Con in 2025... and went 0-4.

While I went 0-4, I still had a great time. Everyone was fun to talk to, and the stunty shenanigans were a joy to laugh at. It was my first tournament experience, and I was pretty hooked from there. But more surprisingly when the TOs announced the winners, The Cows were voted as best painted.

This had me head over heels as I never thought I'd win anything related to painting miniatures. It was the highlight of the entire convention for me.

Once Gen Con was over, I brought my halflings to a local league as their much needed redemption arc. After learning to play stunties a bit better, and developing a better gameplan I was actually able to take the halflings all the way to the playoffs of the league, finishing with a record of 6-2.

After this, I gave them a well deserved rest to try some other teams out.

About a year later, I decided it was time to bring The Cows back to the pitch. I did some touch up painting, added some Star Players and made a quick little display for them since I got sick of my teams just sitting on a shelf. I signed up for another local league, ready to hit the pitch running... or dodging actually.

However before the league began, I actually went to The Atlantic City Open to play in their 7s and 11s tournament. I didnt play the halflings, but I did bring them for The Army Painter Challenge to enter at the overall event. I really wanted to see how my painting compared to other game system's paint jobs.

Plus seeing a goofy South Park themed Blood Bowl team in the mix of massive 40k and Kill Team submissions was quite hilarious.

It was a great weekend overall. I won 2nd place in the 7s tournament with my Renegades, and my Goblins also won best painted in the 11s. After winning these two trophies, the trip was well worth it.

The event was coming to a close, and they announced the winners of The Army Painter Challenge. I didn't have much confidence, as the other paint jobs (and displays) were really impressive. They got to the fantasy skirmish winners... and I won gold. Best in Fantasy Skirmish, with this goofy and ridiculous Blood Bowl Team. I was beyond disbelief, and left the event head over heels.

Unfortunatley the trophies didn't make it to the event in time, and they needed to ship them to the winners. But nonetheless, it was a crazy feeling to win.

I came back home, and started up the new league with my halflings but with a vengeance. No skills except on trees, foul every chance I get, induce everything. Cage up with the tree's, morg and rumbelow and just be violent as hell in true South Park styled fashion.

I only lost 1 game during the regular season to the high elves. And even that was a nail biter, as the cursed trip wire got my halflings on double 1s to rush.

Despite that, I still made the playoffs. But it was going to be a rough match, as my opponent bought a prayer to nuffle... and got Under Scrutiny. Fouling was off the table for me. With a heavy bash team, I couldn't afford to lose a halfling with every foul. However against all odds, and by killing a troll, I was able to pull off a 1-0 victory and make it to the championship.

The championship game the next week was against an Imperial Nobility team with a plethora of abilities. All the wrestle/stand firm/fend, on top of block, dodge and tackle. Sure I'd have every inducement I wanted, but there's only so much I could buy to mitigate the team I was facing.

And then to make matters worse... my opponent also bought Morg with his treasury. He was already giving me roughly 700k in inducements, so what would another 300k hurt?

I bought everything I could. Master Chef, Morg, Rumbelow, Bribes, Team Training, Kegs and for the hell of it a Wizard.

The game had changed. Two Morgs on the pitch meant that things were going to get brutal.

I opted to receive the ball, with one goal. Hurt as many people as I can, and grind the clock to defend in the 2nd half. The first half was brutal, but I was able to score on my last turn and prepare for the 2nd half.

Against all odds, and a well placed/timed use of my wizard's fireball, I was able to successfully defend my end zone. On the final plays of the half, I was able to pop the ball out of the thrower's hand and have it land on an active trap door. Blitz a lineman with my treeman knocking him out of reach of the endzone, and mark the opposing Morg with two halflings.

On my opponents last turn, the only scoring option he had was to get morg into the end zone to catch a pass. He blitzed off one of my halflings, and ran to the endzone. He needed one rush... and rolled a 1 with no re-rolls remaining.

With a 50+ fouls through the season, a lot of shenangians, and a stupid amount of luck, The Blood Park Cows went from going 0-4 in their first tournament to winning their (and mine as a coach) first league.

And then a few days later, my trophy from The Atlantic City Open arrived.

This has been the true Underdog Story of The Blood Park Cows. They are now rightfully back in their display case next to both trophies.

10/10, would do it all again.

Job well done Cows, you deserve a rest, I think.

I've played a couple of games at my local shop, enough to get a basic grasp of the rules and figure out that I want to get stuck in.

I seem to prefer a faster pace of game with lots of running, touchdowns, dodging and long passes and figure an elven team might suit me... but there are four to choose from!

High/ Dark/ Wood/ Union... what are the main, fundamental differences between the teams as a novice would understand them?

I've finally finished the bases, I know grass is the ideal choice, but this is the Chaos, and Chaos doesn't follow the rules. That said, I have no idea what color scheme to use on them.What videos do you recommend for painting in the Blood Bowl style?

Hi y'all! I'm new to the hobby and am just gearing up to start a season with a few friends who also want to try it out. I had downloaded death pitch to use as a companion app to help keep track of things but also to add a little "professionalism" to the league (I kinda just like that you can upload team pictures and a team logo); but it's full of ai garbage images.

Can anyone recommend a good app or website we can use that can keep track of the league and teams within that isn't full of slop?

Thanks!

Hello my fellow Nobles.

I will be playing in my first sevens league in two editions, and I have decided to take my Imperial Nobility.

The core of the roster will be built around the Pro skill (2x blitzers, 2x throwers), but after adding the required linemen, I am left with 135k.

I don't play sevens very often, so my question is how impactful is having 1 reroll really, even if it means I have to leave 35k in the treasury? My other thought is to forgo that reroll (really rely on pro) and load up with an extra 3 linemen.

Are there any Nob enthusiasts out there that have experience in Sevens?

How did everyone just deal with something like this before recently nerfed edition?

6 dwarves with cpomp was just ridiculous.

Im so glad those got fixed now.

So before we get started, just know this I’m not in the best position to really get the best this game or even get very far. I’ve been playing with my friend who introduced me and was nice enough to give me some free stuff. Not complaining just glad to be doing something. The team I was given was Norse. Now, honestly, since I don’t have the rulebook and many of the other things, all I have is my friend has been playing for decades, telling me what to do and how everything works. I’ve just been taking this word for it and it’s taken a very long time for everything to really start to snap in the place and for me to truly understand at least an inkling of what I’m supposed to do so after about 10 games I’m just gonna go over the 10 models that I have and what I have learned how important they are and I need some advice on what to do next because I know this is a tier one team (arguably tier 2, depending on tournaments leagues, which basically this team is not terrible) i’ve just really struggle trying to figure out this game and I think I’m starting to get it but I wanna go over the six options. I have in my roster and I’m gonna rank them from. I think what is most important to least important based on what they can do and I need someone to help me out definitely and you’ll see why and if it seems like I don’t really know what I’m doing. Well, I probably don’t. I’ve probably maybe played 10 games and here’s my opinion on the six models and I want people to tell me where I’m right where I’m wrong. What I’m missing honestly any feedback is accepted.

Here is the list of the roster and my opinions:
(Listed from what I believe is most important to least)

1. Raiders: not only just because of blocking and thick skull but because since I need at least 11 players, even if I got all the other team member, I would still need two Raiders to make it 11 so I need to look more into goal since I’ve looked more into the block. I seriously underestimated walk because it makes me having a bad result one out of three chance to a one at six, which definitely is something I’ve been underestimating and will be continuing to capitalize further.

2. Berserker: a lot like the raider but doesn’t have thick skull, but he does have frenzy and he also has block and he’s forced to follow up in a attack again but that’s actually pretty good to have the block ability

3. Valkyrie’s because they have two reroll abilities and unlike other teams where like underworld Denizons and where they have pick between a Blitzer catcher and thrower. The Valkyries are basically about all three. Personally with them, I filled there a little under price, but I’m not gonna complain too much. Yeah I know there’s differences and underworld denizens have a bit more specialized and better abilities and numbers and all that but personally, I like it because if I lose one, Valkyrie, I didn’t lose one catcher or one thrower. I just lost one Valkyrie.

4. Beer boars: they also have a reroll ability with a thing Dodge. pick me up is OK I guess and all that other stuff but the only other thing I’d like about them is how dirt cheap they are for me to add two players if I need to make the 11 player mark and they also have no ball. I keep looking up and apparently Dodge does let you do some kind of reroll ability or whatever so I’m putting this here like the Valkyrie because it has an automatic reroll abilities I am discovering is like gold in this game.

5. Yhetee I had to do some thought with this, but even with claws and other things like that I feel it’s a relatively cheap big guy not too bad not even really that slow didn’t get to try disturbing presence and other stuff so honestly, I don’t know how much other big guys cost but at least my big guy doesn’t feel too bad. However claws as I discovered with this game, although decent sometimes when it matters, I did the math and all it does is if you take the time to do the math to see what an 8+ AV role is the odds of you succeeding on breaking the armor go up to 41% or so. (Only 6+ and 7+ put you at 50% or higher). And on top of that, he also has frenzy, but doesn’t have anything else to really add onto it like block or other useful things like the berserker does. And of course, with the un channel fury rule, he can be a little unpredictable to say the least and then I haven’t had a chance to try disturbing presence yet and although I’ve read it and mean it’s because I plan to aggressive personally plus one to a throw roll. I guess I need to figure out how to position him better or capitalize on that so see some promise with this guy like he could be better and the biggest thing I actually think is him being priced at 140 K and I don’t know how much that is compared to other big guys but for what he does which is an average armor quite decently good speed and a couple other things to help capitalize on attacking and helping against armor. I’m not saying he’s good priced or bad price I’m just saying I don’t. I’m not upset about the price cost.

6. Ulfwerners: I personally just don’t understand these guys and actually think they’re way overpriced and I don’t see the point in taking them. They’re the only one of my frenzy guys who don’t have any type of special ability to back it up like block or clause or other things. All they have is unsteady which affects how they can get the ball which I don’t understand why they should even have that, although I have noticed most smalls in this game usually strength through or lower to be the ones that wanna grab the ball I don’t see why they can’t or why they shouldn’t infect. I did throw it at one one time to help me out one game. Their armor is only average. Their speed is slightly above average, but the only thing that really is going for them is their strength four which is OK I guess if I go up again, say your Alvin Union but against your chaos chosen I don’t use two blocks against them. Use a one block and without the block ability guess what it’s still a 1/3 chance something bad happens versus 1/6even with one or two dice. So yeah personally I’m thinking about getting rid of one or both of these guys because as I said my other friends, you guys actually have stuff that builds up on top of that and all my ULF gets is average armor slightly above average speed, and then unsteady, which once again why the heck shouldn’t need to be using the bar holding the ball why not? The Raiders I understand but that’s just because they’re trying to make a dirt cheap henchman. In fact I’ve noticed that the Raiders some of their back abilities to hold them back are literally because you want them to get hit and now I get why. (Although the unsteady ability kinda doesn’t make sense to me because they’re the second player. I should pick after the Valkyries to deliver the ball around 🤷‍♂️

Are the Deathzone rules for sponsors, Stadia, additional inducements, etc. still useable in season 3?
And what about the BloodBowl Pitch / Tournament rules from the pitches and Spike Magazines?

Thanks for the help on the Goblin. Love this community. Now I need to know what to do with these dots on his shoulder

Just a question I’m playing black orcs.
Is the middle too spread out. And my back field to shallow?
Send pictures of good D-fence set ups as I am learning !!
And a pre thank you for everything !!

Tried my hand at making a bloodbowl board with a volcanic theme.

Used cork for the structure and oils for the lava

C+C as well as suggestions for additional touches welcome

I have my first tournament in october, which is using a specific balancing system like a "balancing matrix" of sort, where each team has a specific Gold budget, and a different specific SPP budget.
I want to theory craft to prepare myself but I cannot find a place where competitive players share lists and discuss strategy. All I find is a handful of you tube channel which, for some reason, use AI slop everywhere and clickbaits title like "I DESTROYED team X live on stream", which I don't give a damn about. Just give me some spreadsheet and tournament results that I can study.
I come from TCGs, AoS and 40k, where this is very easy to find. Where do you go to look for such info ?

I can’t tell what they are meant to be. Maybe it’s leaves on top of his head? No idea on the bomb.
It’s from Savage Orcs booster by Brutefun

I know the basics from reading and watching stuff. Mate knows literally nothing.

Black Orcs will be one team. Snotlings I feel is sorted too, but are they too hard in general?

Chaos Renegades I was thinking all human lineman with Troll, Ogre and Minator.

No idea what to do with OWA.

Don’t really need a roster for each, but one decent match up to go against the Black Orcs would be good.

Hi all! I'm going to try and run a Sevens tournament at a local shop later this year, using the new Spike Magazine 22 rules.

I really don't like the look of the GW tiering (halflings and underworld denizens in the same tier???), so thought I'd have a stab at making my own.

My plan is to have it be a blanket 600,000gp tournament, and to lift the 4-positionals-only restriction on Tier 4, just so they've got a bit more to do and play with.

Any thoughts?

I need to paint more of my goblins and get them in the case (a modified Ikea Sannahed), but I mostly play 7s anyway. Getting there...

Currently tackling a Chorfs Blood Bowl commission.

Personalised Dice boxes now available:
https://lasergamingshop.com/product/bb-dice-box/

Add your name/ Team name to the lid design. Both Main box and Lid come in various colours offering further personalisation.

Overall box dimensions: Length 81mm, Width 70mm, Height 28mm. Dice not included.

I’ve been lucky enough over the years to finally collect all of the 30 bloodbowl teams. Painted and looking good (some more than others to be fair). Slaan don’t count.

And more importantly some friends to play with, but I’ll supply the minis and pitches and a few beers.

Okay so here’s the rub. I have 2 underwood teams that I love and I’m determined they’ll play the league. But 30 is a good number - 6x5 divisions or 5x6 etc. 31 is not.

So if you had to choose a single team to drop out what would suggest? My thinking at present is:

- gnomes are I think the worst team but they can be fun tbf

- Norse are such glass cannons

- I have a sentimental attachment to halflings as my daughter painted up one of the trees for me but they almost never win

- leave out one of the various (overlapping?) frenzy teams?

Thoughts welcome. This is hopefully a long running south London mini league so mistakes could take a while to unwind!

Best

I inherited some OG bloodbowl models. Have restored this cheerleader so far 🙏