First experience at BdN.
When I arrived in the darkness of Friday evening, I stopped in the village center of Ayn to try to find the location. Fortunately, a friendly couple, which I asked for direction actually drove with me to the venue. Very positive surprise and extra bonus points for the friendliness and helpfulness of the inhabitants of Ayn.
I was greeted by Tulkas and the other crazy French coaches and despite some language barriers I could communicate with most of you guys. I kind of regret that I did not take French in school (Latin was easier, because nobody speaks it).
I liked the instructions of fighting Corona virus and used a lot of rouge biere to fight the virus. I also say people playing other games, which I think is cool.
The VIP room was nice,the bed comfortable and I just hope my snoring did not bother Quizz and Tulkas too much (but I believe they were not that long in the room anyway). So on my return for next year (hopefully), I will join the common people in the main house.
On Saturday morning after receiving the huge goodie bag and rulebook (amazing job by the Starfish orga) I rolled the dice to see what race I will be playing at the tourney. In case you are wondering: I am trying to get the 26 races played and I was missing Khemri, Slann and Chaos Pact, but have no minis for them. So I ask Tulkas if someone can borrow me a team and also create a roster for me. Nuffle decided that I have to play Chaos Pact for the next two days. With 3 Big Guys and my addiction to roll 1s, that was asking for a painful weekend.
1st game: Karariek with High Elves, Loss 1-3 (6-0 CAS), round event: rising tide - the pitch will slowly be flooded (softer ground, but a second or third GFI may not be possible)
In the first half I was trying to get acquainted with my team while trying to keep the High Elves away from me. After his first TD, my Orc refused to come back after he double KOd Eldril and himself (and Eldril coming back). I set up a bit risky and of course he rolled a Blitz. During the next 4 turns he smashed my team into the KO box and my blocks were mostly harmless (Ogre did the triple skull). None of my 5 KOs came back after his second TD, so a one turn TD was not really feasible. Fortunatelly, all KOs (except the Orc) came back to start the second half. He broke my offense again and scored an early TD. This enraged my players so they finally started playing the way a Chaos Pact team should play, ripping he opponent apart. At the end I had 6 CAS, all in the second half and I managed my first TD. It was a fun game, really good start into the tourney (despite the result)
2nd game: Clement0 with Chaos Pact, Loss 0-3 (2-4 CAS), round event: What ball? Hermit crab ball (moves on the ground) or starfish ball (makes hand-offs or passed more difficult)
The French champion showed me how to play Chaos Pact. With my lousy dice and his hot dice there was no chance for me at all. It was a bit frustrating for me and I hope it didn't bring Clements mood down too much. Nice opponent, but frustrating game.
3rd game: JimNastiC with Chaos Pact, Tie 2-2 (1-0 CAS), round event: mermaid sirens - players close to the sides of the pitch may be hypnotized by them
Another Mirror match, but a much more pleasant to play since despite my dice being not really good, my opponent struggled also quite a bit and having only 1 Leader RR for him didn't make it easier for him. It was a crazy back and forth game with both sides basically being able to win and at the end it was a fair "high scoring" tie game. Fun game.
Summary of Day 1: good food, lunch and dinner, great opponents, good beer, got also some games of Azul played. Sold a few skill markers and dice (unfortunately no pitches). Lots of fun...only bad part was the surprise in the morning where the shower had only cold and very cold water.
4th game: Public with Pro Elves, Tie 1-1 (1-0 CAS), round event: star fish on the pitch - every drive a new starfish is placed on the pitch and immobilize players passing through the square.
It seems like I'm only playing against Elves or Pact teams in France..... This game I played without POWs on my dice, only pushes or both downs or skulls. But somehow I managed to get Lewdgrip in scoring range. Instead of know my opponents down I just pushed the across the pitch and at the end I could choose between Lewdgrip doing a 1D block or having another Marauder giving him an assist, but he needed to dodge first. I had no RR left in Turn 8, but I still decided to go with the assist. So the Marauder got the 3+, Lewdgrip needed to dodge as well on a 3+, got the both-down and push result (I picked the push of course) so he needed another dodge on a 3+. Having the Dodge skill helped and now it was just 2 GFI to score.... the first one was successfull, the second one..... well, you probably heard me screaming "NEIN" (followed by some English and German swear words). Now come the funny part. Public had one turn left, but was not able to score so he tried to get some casualties. His Wrestle catcher against my Goblin. 2 Dice, push and Both Down (it was the standard result in our game). I pointed out to him that he does not need to use wrestle and my dice rolls were really low in this game and my gobbo will probably die. He replied, but so can his catcher. Somehow I convinced him not to use wrestle and instead of the Gobbo dying it was the Catcher who got CASed (ok, he was right and I was wrong.....oops)..... In the second half I could put enough pressure on him to score early so I had a few turns left to try to score myself. At the end it was a well deserved tie game. Funny as hell.
5th game: Leto with Goblins, Win 2-1 (4-0 CAS), round event: shark attack- after every turn a shark may randomly attack a standing player
Fungus on the line of scrimmage, my offense, so I put the Mino in Blitzing range and had two assists lined up to take care of the Ball & Chain guy early on.....well, weather roll was the double 1, so a geysir chose to explode right underneath the one of the assists (I cursed), 1D3 for distance: 1, D8 for direction, right on Fungus (leto cursed aft er hea learned it is treated like Throw team mate). Fungus never came back, failed all 4 KO rolls. Next I took out the Ooligan, Leto lost the +1 FAME and his Leader RR. So he was pretty upset with the start of the game. I was trying to stall to round 8 before scoring, but a fearless gobbo dodged throught he cage and got a push/defender stumbled against Ledgrip, so it was a forced TD and Leto had two turns to equalize. He set up for a TTM, but something went wrong with not feeding the troll the proper food, and he tried to eat the goblin, I shifted my defense in a stupid way and so Leto made the successful throw with a perfect scatter and an even more perfect landing, one GFI, 1-1. So now it was second half and his offense. I don't know how, but I got into the possession of the ball very early and tried to run away from all the gobbos. It was tough and I could barely protect him. The only thing which helped me was Letos bad dice. With the shark always threatening to bite (he did it twice on my players) I was too nervous and scored in turn 7. So again he had two turns to score. But this time the Trolls were not in the mood for another miracle and I survived the game with my first win
Summary of Day 2: the water was a little but warmer than the day before (or I just got used the cold), again great food, but I couldn't drink beer since I had a long drive back home that day, so I filled up with Coke Zero all day. Again I had great opponents and I could also convince Mad Coach to buy a pitch
I had great fun in Ayn, meeting so many new coaches. The only bad part was that I did not understand a thing during the award ceremony, but I learned that French coaches express their gratitude to each other by booing the winners
Overall: I want to come back and I hope the date for next year does not collide with the Royal Rumbbl close to Munich, which is a must-go-tourney for me (this year it is one week later than BdN). I got invitations to Lyon and Grenoble and I'll see if I can make it, but can't make any promises yet.
here are some impressions (group photos and a photo from the orga)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/aKTJ3obHpCGkMzgr9
