Adeleague Blog
I worked for Games Workshop in the late 90s; please don't hold it against me. The 3rd edition of Blood Bowl was released towards the end of my tenure there and, while I'd been playing since Kerrunch, it rekindled my love for the game. In the early 2000s I ran a league called the Marienburg Blood Bowl League in which I developed my third human team: the Drakwald Ravens. This team quickly became my go-to and I happily ran them for many seasons. They are the team that I always remember and look back on when I think of my early days in the game. The players that I developed have stuck with me, from the inept bumbling of Helmut Wissen (the game's worst thrower; he could never pick the ball up on the first attempt) to the steadfastness of Jock "the Hammer" Hammerstein (team captain and all-around awesome blitzer). Originally the team was created using a mixture of Mordheim miniatures and random GW stuff I collected along the way. I've never been a fan of the GW human teams and so I tended to kit-bash to fill that void. Of course, the advent of third-party miniature suppliers for fantasy football opened up a new world of possibilities, but despite some absolutely beautiful teams for other races, I have just never found a human team I liked. I wanted a team that had a uniform, and a uniform that looked like a football team rather than a band of mercenaries. I also wanted to avoid the spiky look that even the new miniatures seem to have favoured. So it took over a decade before I found something that I did like, and it came from an unexpected place. Hero Forge's custom miniature service offered the opportunity to create the team I'd always wanted. While it was expensive ($25 a pop), and I am still unsure how to add the ogre, it was the team I needed. I swallowed deeply, put my hand deep into my pocket, and designed a team that had the look and feel that the Ravens should have. From left to right: blitzer, lineman, thrower, catcher. Instead of recreating the Drakwald Ravens, or even the Marienburg Ravens as they became through the MBBL era, I decided that this team would be the successor team, a generationally displaced group that has taken on the mantle of their parents' successes. Thus, the Ravens II were born. Built around a core of players drawn from the children of previous stars, the new team came together with a new character that I really liked. Check out the genealogy below. Jock "the Hammer" managed to be a bit of a womaniser in his day, and gave rise to the half-sister-act of Jacqueline "the Jackhammer" and Sloan "the Sledgehammer"; respectively blitzer and thrower for the new team. Helmut Wissen, a terrible thrower on his best day, nevertheless managed to marry Sloan Hammerstein's mother in the end, and gave her a little brother named Goran, who now wears the #1 blitzer's jersey. Other legends also contributed to the modern team, along with a new batch of faces to fill it out. Importantly, the Ravens also pay homage to my first human team, the Araby Scimitars, and the first human team I played in the "modern era" of Blood Bowl (since 2008), Le Coq, by including foreign import players from both of those teams. The Ravens II made their debut at Southern Shrike Bowl 2016. By any measure it wasn't a particularly great debut, finishing 14th (I think) of 30 odd coaches, but it felt good to get them out there. And, while the colour scheme of the team doesn't "pop" in a way that really allowed them a shot at the "Le Coq Fancier's" trophy this year, it was incredibly satisfying to finally get this team, a team over a decade in the making, back onto the pitch. The team makes its league debut in the Adeleague's Adelaide Open Season 1. Regardless of how well they do, I look forward to building a new dynasty of characters and continuing the team's legacy. SinDex
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SinDexSinisterDexter, or SinDex, is Brett Whittaker, Commissioner of the Adeleague. He has been playing Blood Bowl since the 80s and has run leagues and tournaments since. Most recently he has represented the SA Steelballs three times (2011, 2013, 2017), been the AusBowl MVP, the CCKUP, Southern Shrike Bowl and 24 Hour Ironman Champion, and won the "Le Coq Fancier's" trophy at SSB six times. ArchivesCategories
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