Cheetors Dreadball: Treebeast, Yndij & Grogan Convict 05/01/15

[Neldoreth]

Excellent stuff here Cheetor. Good to see other Dreadball stuff being posted!

How's the gaming going for you?

n.

[cheetor]

Excellent stuff here Cheetor. Good to see other Dreadball stuff being posted!

Thanks.  I am pleased with my progress on this project so far this year, although I have been distracted by some other projects over the last month or so.  I should get back to DreadBall painting this weekend I hope.  Judwan next.

How's the gaming going for you?

Extremely well I am happy to say.  In addition to playing about thirty casual games I have run a day long tournament with prize support from Mantic and I have a second event organised for in just over a months time.  The first event had ten players (which isnt a bad turnout for rural Ireland by any stretch) and I am hopeful that the second event will equal or top that attendance figure.

The "Irish DreadBall Nationals" take place in Thomond Park rugby stadium in Limerick in ten days and I am attending that with a few buddies.  It should be good fun.

I dont normally play tournament games with my toy soldiers - its a thing that I do with friends rather than strangers generally - but the boardgame format and short game duration of DreadBall makes it tick a lot of boxes.

So, long story short, I am having a great time with DreadBall gaming, thanks   If "Ancient Ireland" ever comes into contact with 2013 Ireland then maybe the Redbombers or the Flames might come into contact with one of the teams here

[obsidian3d]

Those cheerleaders are creepy.

Question for you: Have you been able to entice any of the local Blood Bowl players to join your Dreadball events? There are several local Blood Bowl folks who bought Dreadball here, but all I get from them in complaints about the events I'm trying to put together so we can play.

If you were able to get them to join in, how did you go about it?

[cheetor]

Those cheerleaders are creepy.

     Fun, classic models.

Question for you: Have you been able to entice any of the local Blood Bowl players to join your Dreadball events? There are several local Blood Bowl folks who bought Dreadball here, but all I get from them in complaints about the events I'm trying to put together so we can play.

If you were able to get them to join in, how did you go about it?

The majority of the players in my group have played plenty of Blood Bowl in the past and while they have fond memories of it, they never play it now because it takes too long and is too punishing to play.  People were sceptical about DreadBall because the good elements of Blood Bowl are so good, but once they had tried a game or two of DreadBall they saw the light.

Just like online, there are a few guys that I know who would probably gripe and moan about Blood Bowl being better no matter what.  I didnt try to get those guys involved, I would rather not have to deal with them anyway.  Its like arguing about whether Playstation or Xbox is better: its pointless.

Five people that I game with, not all of whom live near enough for weekly/fortnightly play, got in on the Kickstarter (as did I), so they were invested enough to want to give the game a fair go.  Once the original shipment of the game arrived I organised a four player DreadBall day to be held in my place to get to know the rules.  Everyone committed to having a team painted for that (only eight figures are required for one-off games after all).

That day worked out well and one of the guys who played in that played a few games at the local games club (he runs the club).  A few of the club crowd enjoyed it, so I decided to run a day long event as I figured that we could get decent enough numbers.  A couple of people borrowed painted teams from others for the event and it was a great days gaming, so more people are interested in the next event, which is great.

I dont think that I will be able to run an ongoing league as the players are located too far apart geographically, but I do hope to run a day or weekend long league event at some point in the future, assuming that enthusiasm remains high.  It will for a while I think: DreadBall is fast and fun and very rarely throws up rules problems.  In addition to that quite a few of us have painted teams and we have a convenient location to run events, so thats a pretty good combination.

Complaints from guys who never organise things but snipe at everything is common in the self-entitled gamer mentality I find.  My attitude is "screw them".  Plan an event that you would like to play in yourself, keep the format very, very simple to start (I used starting teams only, with no option to customise or add anything for example) and make sure that it doesnt over stay its welcome (the tournament that I ran had four games.  Most of the player said that they would happily play another game, but it was better to leave them wanting more than jaded). 

To start with the important thing is to get a few games played with people who are interested.  If enough people enjoy that then hopefully they will help to spread some enthusiasm for you.  Its a cheap game to get into, far cheaper than Warhammer or CCGs for example, plus all you need to paint is eight figures.

Does that answer your question?

[obsidian3d]

Yep it's very helpful, much appreciated.

Now I better get some more painting done so your teams have some company on the boards!

[Hawkeye]

I'm not certain how I missed this thread, but it's fantastic. I've been on the fence about Dreadball - mostly because I have so little time to game these days as it is - but I can feel my resolve beginning to crumble. The fact that it's quick to paint a team (relatively, compared to trying to paint a force for a larger scale wargame, if that makes sense), and the games themselves are quick, is quite attractive. I'll have to look into it, particularly since the local gaming store is building up quite a Dreadball following.

I was interested to read your thoughts on organizing an event - I think you're absolutely right, on all counts. Hope you enjoy the event in Limerick as well. I lived there for ten years, if you can believe that - only moved to the States about six years ago. I was part of a group of about six or seven people who used to game regularly at each others' houses - Mordheim and Bloodbowl, mostly. I wonder if any of them will be there.

Oh, while I think of it - I love those Veer-Myn models! With just a little bit of work (adding weapons, that's all), they'd make a great alien race for some Sci-Fi gaming. I'll have to look into that.

Looking forward to more of this!

[cheetor]

Hi Hawkeye, how are things?  

The fact that it's quick to paint a team (relatively, compared to trying to paint a force for a larger scale wargame, if that makes sense)

Its even quicker to get a team finished than a force for a skirmish game, because those sorts of projects are always so open ended.  I am finding this project very satisfying.

Hope you enjoy the event in Limerick as well.

I did enjoy it, thanks.  In fact I won all of my games by landslide and was crowned Irish National DreadBall champion, which is a bit of a laugh  
It was made all the more fun because the gaming convention took place in Thomond Park (arguably Ireland most significant rugby stadium).  Winning a trophy for a "sporting" event like DreadBall at Thomond Park is quite funny to me.



I just put up a post about the event HERE on my blog.

I am currently working on my judwan team.  They should be up here within a week or so I hope.  Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Hawkeye]

Irish National Dreadball Champion! And in Thomond Park, no less - congratulations! It sounds like a lot of fun was had by all, and it also sounds like Mantic did a great job supporting it. Good luck - or should I say break a leg? - for the tournament in Queens. It's funny, a very good friend of mine lives not far from Belfast (and I also know a couple of lecturers at Queens - some personally, some by reading their work), and on the Limerick front, when I lived there, one of my running routes used to take me right past Thomond Park - it was strange to see the photographs on your blog, and be reminded of all those things. Almost made me feel nostalgic for all the years I lived there, and worked there.

As for Dreadball - I think you've sold me on it, not just because the game sounds like fun, but because you've done such a damn good job on the miniatures, cat especially. I've always been a HUGE Bloodbowl fan, but I don't get to play it that often, so this would be a good way to scratch that itch, particularly since the local (well, an hour's drive away) gaming store is big into it right now.

Looking forward to more on this thread, and on your blog - I'm especially looking forward to seeing the metal pitch that you won! Good to talk to you!

[Argonor]

The figures are a bit of a pain in the arse to clean up

You can say THAT again...

(1) Try using a very sharp (new) scalpel/Xacto blade to "slice" the mouldline off carefully.

That's what I finally arived at, but still takes me about 1½ hr to clean up 1(!) model. It's a real drag. I'm only now trying to get the first 8 man human team ready (I pledged at Striker level) for painting, but frankly, I am more inclined to play a solo game that sitting down to meticulously cut away moldlines on the next mini.

Nise to see some painted teams outside the DreadBall Fanatics FB page! 

[cheetor]

After a bit of a hiatus while I painted 40k skirmish stuff and played in a few DreadBall tournaments and enjoyed the outdoors and some exceptional weather (by Irish standards) I got the Rupture Farmers finished and photographed.





They are loosely themed on the mudokon characters in the old PS1 "Abes Oddyssey" game.  Mudokons were pacifists employed by the evil Rupture Farms corporation, hence the team name.



The figures are some of the weakest in the DreadBall range I think, but they turned out decent enough.

More photos and blah blah on my blog.

I also got the MVP painted, complete with his terrible name based on a famous basketball player.



Again, more talk and photos about Mee-Kel Judwan here.


Next up will be the robot team I think.  Maybe a couple of MVPS first, I dunno.

Comments and criticisms all welcome, although I wouldnt hate it if the "I hate the material that these figures are made from" topic was skipped this time

[Dr.Falkenhayn]

excellent Painting,but yeah those Rupture Farmes are a bit  Sculpts,they remind me a bit of the SST Skinnies (which i never liked  )

[cheetor]

excellent Painting,but yeah those Rupture Farmes are a bit  Sculpts,they remind me a bit of the SST Skinnies (which i never liked  )

Definitely reminiscent of the Skinnies, and not in a good way either.  The running judwan is ok but the other two in their Saturday Night Fever poses are pretty dodgy.  I am pleased enough with how the paint scheme worked out, but the awkward poses of the majority of the team were going to stand out no matter what I did.

Mantic seem to have got their judwan design locked down a bit better if the latest preview from Deadzone is anything to go by.  Its just a pity that they didnt have the same resources at work before the DreadBall judwan got the shitty end of the stick.



But the judwan team is finished at least and I have played a few games with them already so thats something.  I can get working on some of the more interesting Season 2 models next.

Thanks for the feedback.

[obsidian3d]

Nice painting. I actually quite like the Judwan sculpts. I've got a scheme and name planned for my team, but will be doing some reposing of the figures before I start. I like what you've done for colours. They look really good I think.

[Argonor]

Speaking of DreadBall, has everybody seen this:

http://eu1.flamingtext.co.uk/All-Logos

For creating great team logos?

[Dr.Falkenhayn]

Ok now they look like Tau but definitely better than their DB Counterparts    ,i felt the same when i saw the Enforcers for Deadzone, much cooler than the Warpath Enforcers, i wonder why they didn't brought up these in the first Place