FUMBBL, the online Blood Bowl league

The Grotty Little Newspaper is proud to present the Grotty Little Tournament: The best FUMBBL teams competing for the coveted Grotty Little Trophy. Tournament draw starts 22.00pm server time Wednesday 14th May 2025 Any Competitive team can apply here to the Old team qualifiers. (Teams in their 2nd season or later) Any Competitive team can apply here to the New Team qualifiers. (Teams still in their first season) Any Competitive team of one of the following races can apply here to the Forlorn Races qualifiers. (Amazons; Chaos Renegades; Goblin; Gnome; Halfling; Ogres ; Black Orcs; Imperial Nobility; Khorne; Old World Alliance; Snotlings.) Specialty Qualifiers: Any Competitive team can apply here. One Specialty Qualifier will be for coaches from the 145 club. The decision on who counts as being a 145er rests with the 145 admin team and their decision will be final. If you are applying to this qualifier please talk to the 145 admin team so we know that is your intention. Like last year we are not going to try to force 4 qualifiers into each section but instead spread the 16 around in a way that keeps the qualifiers as close to a consistent size as possible. In addition depending on application numbers we might only have 8 qualifiers. Note you can only apply a team to one of the 4 qualifier types above. Prizes The winner of the GLT will be rewarded with the choice of a secret weapon from Ball and Chain (player gets MA3/ST7/No Hands), Chainsaw, or Pogo stick (pogo stick, no secret weapon). They will carry the secret weapon trait which will follow normal rules. Due to the unique nature of these weapons they can only be given to rookie linemen as they have to train with some Goblins to learn how to use them. On top of this there will be dynamic gold throughout the finals.

The NAF asked me to do a team for them again for the Grand Tournament this weekend and the Gnomes were an ideal choice.

I'd already posted the pictures of the linemen and Woodland Foxes, but here is them fully completed.




The illusionist's only difference from the linemen was the lack of beard and illusionary ball. I stuck with one of them having grey hair and the other blonde/brown. Went for light blue fire as that suggests more spiritual power to me, which is in keeping with forest dwellers.



The Beastmasters had the option of a goose or badger, so I went with one of each. I have tried to get a natural look for all the animals. Using different shades to try and have a gradual transition between the colours of the fur on both the badger and fox. For the goose I ended up drybrushing the feathers since white is always a pain to do right and it gave a rough texture. If I'd had more time I might have painted on the patterns to each feather, that just takes so long.




I had already bought a standard treeman as well as an Altern version, which helped differentiate them even further. In keeping with the colouring so far, one treeman had the standard brown bark and the other very pale brown. I gave that one dark green leaves and vines, more in keeping with a birch tree. There wasn't much identifying uniform items on them, I stuck with blue armour and added some red parts where I could.




Sadly I didn't have time to complete the 2 gnome stars, but they are pretty nice models so might paint them up over the summer.

Coach Lancelott and Scott Van Rok talking through the highs and lows of season 46

Coach Lanelott sat down with our very own Scott Van Rok for an end of year interview, recapping the year that was and looking forward to season 47 of the NCBB.

SVR: "Coach Lancelott, thanks for joining us, great to have you here. A momentous season for the Mary's Land Terrible Terrapins, first year in the AQ, first year in the SMACK. This was quite the step up for Mary's Land who have never competed in the big leagues such as this. Walk us through some of the high points of the season."

Lancelott: "Well, I'd first like to say thank you for the invitation to be interviewed by you, we're all big fans of the SVR show and any time the mage priests can get your show going on the seeing pools the team usually is there for the entirety. Yeah, this season was definitely different for us as you mentioned and certainly at the level of competition that we expected. Back home near DeeCee, Blood Bowl isn't the most popular sport, sometimes being eclipsed by bas-ket-ball or las-cross, and so our players often are not the most experienced in the game. That being said, we've earned the right to be here in the NCBB and I think we made a good showing this season. Qualifying for a bowl game was always the goal and given our second half run where we went four wins and one draw to qualify was certainly a high point of our season. Couldn't be more proud of our team."

SVR: "Good to hear we are on heavy rotation down in DeeCee! Yes, that second half of the season push was certainly remarkable. How did it feel to come into the vaunted SMACK conference and end up dominating to win the conference?"

Lancelott: "I wouldn't say 'Dominate'. Yes, we won our games but there were many games that could have gone either way. The win against UDub was what I think really propelled us to our victory. Before that we'd gone 1-0-4 and it was safe to say that the team had genuinely forgotten how to win. That game against UDub was what we needed to turn our season around. Going into the game we had a team meeting and I'll never forget... David... Sotek preserve his memory.... (Coach Lancelott was visibly emotionally moved) he stood in front of the whole team... all 6 claw lengths of him and said that 'Not today. We may lose tomorrow. We may lose next week. BUT NOT TODAY AND NOT AGAINST THE RATS'. And Sotek, bless his memory, he played his heart out getting us two TDs that game. I still see him running for that third score before Michale Junio sent him to the Old Ones.... It was a hard win, but I know now that it was what needed to happen for us to be in the position we found ourselves in at the end of the season."

SVR: "Indeed! The team went on to roll over the UNLV Throwin' Rebels, draw Bro-hio, and then beat SUNY and Kieslev State. It seemed like you all had all the momentum in the world, so what happened in the bowl game against George Washington Revolution???"

Lancelott: "Yeah, that was a disaster of a game. I take full responsibility for that one, the team was just not prepared. We had just come off a season where we'd made an incredible recovery and achieved all that we had set out to do. If there was anything I would have done differently, it would have been to set our goals higher, to win a bowl game. But, we can't go back in time and so we need to just move forward with the lessons learned. That being said, George Washington is not a team to be underestimated. They are well coached and being an Amazon team clearly knew our weaknesses and how to exploit them. We couldn't hit, we couldn't dodge, we couldn't move the ball. It was domination on all levels. On top of that we lost Kevin St. Michaels to a head injury as well as both blockers Raymond Hagerston and Alessandra Alleygainy. Our only saving grace is that we have all of the off season to rest up and get ready for the next season."

SVR: "You mentioned goals, given what you accomplished this season what do you think your goals might be?"

Lancelott: "Well, I alluded a little to it earlier but now that we've made it to a bowl game we'd want to win a bowl game. That will be the main goal for next season. Secondarily, we know that the UMBC Bay Reptiles are entering the AQ. Being a school just down the road from us, we will have our sites on them and while I don't want to promise anything because I know that Drrek is a heck of a coach, we know that our team will be more than ready to play them if we get to meet them during the season. Beyond that, we have only one senior going into this season, dear Harmony One-Love and we'd love (no pun intended) to see her have a massively impactful senior season. We have several rising juniors looking to make their mark, we will want to see them break out and really make an impact this season. Beyond that, we always look to have a winning season as that is never a given in the NCBB."

SVR: "Well, Harmony has certainly become a darling for us as well, we hope she keeps those casualty numbers going and hopefully improves upon them! We certainly appreciate you coming by and wish you the best of luck in Season 47!"

"I done something new for this fight. I wrestled with an alligator. I tussled with a whale. I handcuffed lightning. I thrown thunder in jail,"

Mohammed Ali minutes after destroying hot favourite and top banger George Forman in the legendary Fumbbl in the Jungle Oct 30th 1974

"The fact that Ali beat Forman… well…. no one gave him a chance, but to beat him using a totally unseen tactic was outtta this world". Wild haired used car salesman and boxing promoter Don King said after the game. King was referring to the never before seen tactic of running all of your players away on your drive. "No one knew what to call it, then Ali at the post match interview said it was the 'rope a dope'. George just stared at the board and couldn't believe what was happening. He got so mad by the end of the drive he had lost his mind with rage and spent the first 4 turns of his drive gang fouling a wardancer (two stuns and a sending off). All the time shouting 'F%*k#!g Comedy mega dicing' every time Ali failed to roll a 1."

Ali had used what we now call the withdrawn offence for the first time on record, drawing Formans filthy mighty blow laden dwarves on to his wood elves, leaving them out of position and then blowing past them up the sidelines for the score.

The last word on this, the most iconic of blood bowl matches goes to the potty mouthed Forman, when asked on this thoughts on match he replied bluntly 'The F#*k%r ran away, that ain't no blood bowl.'


Are you new to bloodbowl and don't have a clue what any of that is all about?
Do you want to know your withdrawn offences from your turn 5 panic?
Have you played a bit but still don't feel like your getting anywhere?
Do you shout 'F%*k#!g Comedy mega dicing' at the screen every time you play?

Sounds like you need the 145, Fumbbl's learning league where you can ask any question at all about blood bowl, play people who are also new and learning, and most of all have some fun :)

experienced coaches we need you too come along and help out

Join us at the 145 discord

Team from the 2020 starter box, painted as a commission to resemble GW's suggested colors.
Troll was painted a little different, but still fitting for the team
and I tried to get a "stony" feeling on the scales.
I can't say what the camera details were, like Sp00keh did,
I've just taken the pics against a black sheet of foam at the balcony
on a cloudy day with my Nikon D3200 "small objects" setup

When this paper last covered UMBC’s new blood bowl team, it had just succeeded in a surprising upset, managing to tie the favored BGSU Falcons. This surprising success led to blood bowl fever reaching an all time high on the campus, and a packed stadium after the team’s bye for their matchup against U.C. Sacred Lentil.

That matchup ended in a 4-0 blowout loss. The team was brought back down to earth, and like most sudden crazes, interest in the team faded away. But perhaps the decreased attention on the team helped relieve some pressure, as the team went on to rattle off three straight wins against Vestern Kentooky, ENC, and Queen’s Malevolent. Slowly, attention from the student body turned back to the blood bowl team, and campus excitement grew.

But once more this excitement would be short-lived, as freshman skink Chaydon Stone would fumble receiving a handoff against South Salem turning a likely win into a loss. A dejected and demoralized team would then once more be blown out by Texas State 4-1, as the vampires routinely blitzed by the lizards on the kickoffs to steal the ball and score. And a tie against George Washington meant the team would have to win out to qualify for a bowl game.

But the Bay Reptiles were not to be written off lightly. Despite wavering support from the fans, UMBC secured a shutout win against Bull-or-Miner and, in the final game of the season, smashed Biola 2-0. The Bay Reptiles had managed to become bowl eligible in their first season.

Wary, because of the team’s bad stretches, but invigorated by the overall success, fans packed the stadium for the Planter’s Goober Bowl. Outclassed by the Georgia Khornedogs, the athletic department scrounged together every bit of gold they had to purchase the time of a couple of star players. This gambit paid off immediately, as the receiving Bay Reptiles were able to remove one of the dangerous Bloodseekers with a well placed boot by the star Dribl. And on turn 2 of the half, Drull got in on the action, knocking out the bloodspawn with an expert stab. Up in numbers, the Bay Reptiles dominated the blocking in the first half, knocking out half of the opposing team, and injuring another Bloodseeker with another brilliant foul by Dribl.

Enough of the Khornedog players were able to be roused to consciousness for the second half for even teams to still be fielded. A quick blitz turned Georgia's drive immediately into a scrum. But the lizards’ blows were less mighty, and Dribl’s fouls less effective. Though UMBC was able to put pressure on the ball, and the Khorne Bloodspawn injured itself on an ineffective block, they were unable to stop the score. And worse, multiple Saurus Blockers had been removed.

With little time left in the half, the weather suddenly changed, as the already exhausted players now had to deal with sweltering heat. UMBC hoped to end the match with a quick score, but a failed block by Dribl stopped the team as time ran out. All was not lost, however, as several blocks beforehand had removed Khornedog players, giving the lizards numbers advantage for overtime.

Though Georgia started with the ball in overtime, the numbers discrepancy was just too large to overcome. Another stab by Drull took out a marauder, and quickly the lizards had stolen the ball, and surrounded the downed opponents. The Khorne players wisely did not stand back up.

Seeing such success from the team in its first season, all of UMBC is excited to see what they can do next season moving into the BCS. Standout Saurus K.J. Maura led the team in blocks and casualties, and looks to be team captain next season, while JC Harris looks to continue to rack up touchdowns, having led the team with 8. The whole team mourns the loss of Kroxigor Dan Akin, who was second on the team in casualties, before their untimely death against George Washington, but are confident in their replacement Jake Stout, who showed their ability to thrive under pressure, scoring a casualty in the bowl game.

The NAF Tournament Director Blog for April is out! This month features a community survey deep dive, updates to the coach page, and reports from Singapore, Italy, and New Zealand!
Check it out at https://www.thenaf.net/2025/04/tournament-director-blog-april-2025/

Scroll to the right, or there's full size images here https://imgur.com/a/p6OLrzl

Runners


Throwers, Count Luthor von Drakenborg, 'Captain' Karina von Riesz


Blitzers


Gargoyles and turn marker


Thralls


Vargheist


All the vamps inc stars


Everyone


Cloaks



There's 4x Runners and 4x Blitzers because the team can also proxy as Humans. The Gargoyles proxy as Halflings

Photos turned out good I think, tried out focus bracketing > image stacking in Zerene using Dmap

Settings were: 25 frames, 10 step, 0 interval
Also F8, ISO 400, 2 second timer, +1/3rd exposure, custom white balance, electronic shutter, jpg only
At a wider aperture a smaller step would be good, but at F8 a step of 10 is fine. Which means it needs only about 6-8 frames for each row of minis

Last evening at roughly 17:20 server time, the site experienced an unexpected downtime. The website came back online roughly 5 minutes later, but a number of critical services were down until 21:20.

Usually when the site is inaccessible, it's caused by an ISP glitch but this was not the case this time. A quick timeline of the downtime from my perspective:

- 17:20: Site goes down. I get notified of this on Discord and verify that the site is not accessible. I'm at work at this point, but can verify that the Internet connection is functional for the site.
- 17:27: I notice that the website is back up, but all other services (FFB server, gamefinder, etc) are still down. I'm still at work and can not actually verify what happened.
- 21:10: I get back home from work and am able to connect to the machines, noting that all machines seem to have rebooted.
- 21:20: All services are back up and running again.

After this, I spent some time checking to see if I could find any clues as to what happened. The hypervisor (the server running all the virtual machines FUMBBL runs on) seemed to also have unexpectedly rebooted, and appears to have simply hard crashed only to reboot again (the equivalent of a Windows blue-screen). Bootup-logs have scary looking terms in it ("Hardware error"), but no significant additional detail.

No data was lost during this, and there seem to be no adverse consequences after this crash, but I'm still not super happy about the random crash and the hardware error indication. While things like this *can* happen randomly and genuinely be caused by solar flares or random bit flips caused by literal radiation from space, it makes me a little bit nervous.

At this point, I am basically just calling it a random crash and leaving it at that. It if happens over and over again, though, I will need to try to figure out what the issue is and solve it which potentially means new hardware.

I understand that we're close to trophy deadlines and this happened during prime playing-time for a number of you.

I saw someone ask about postponing the trophy deadlines for a day because of this, but this is simply not something I can do. The new season requires me to do things in a very time-sensitive manner at midnight local time. I am not able to move this a day further at such a short notice.

While there's not much I can do to improve response times, I will still apologize for the inconvenience caused by this downtime and the effects of this on some of your trophy runs.