Tuesday 6 November 2012

Hear the Roar

It's been a while.

This blog was always really a place to keep a track of my own stuff, so if you happen to be a follower who is hoping for many updates, many apologies. However, life is pretty busy and it just gets in the way.

However, I've recently started a new project that is fairly important to me in terms of my Blood Bowl development.

First thing's first, it is a new wood elf team.

I know, I know, you've done woodies you moron, move on! Well, I've been having issues with the Duskrunners. You see, I like to fancy that I actually have an affinity for the feminist movement. As much as what I'm doing here is playing a fairly marginal niche hobby, it is both a barrier to women entering the hobby and a poor reflection on the attitude of gamers to have such highly sexualised representations of women on a tabletop. So I've decided that the Duskrunners really should be retired. There are a whole host of pro and con arguments here, and a massive debate that could be entered into as to the importance of such stances and the way this plays in to feminisms, but suffice to say that it is a decision I've made that I intend to stick to.

The issue is that I've also made the Steelballs state team again this year and will probably be called upon to play wood elves at the AusBowl State Championships in March next year.

I love the play style of wood elves. They are my second favourite team (behind humans - and I do have a long-term human plan) and I have a relatively good record with them, but I don't think there are any good model ranges out there for them (that aren't also highly sexualised women). The lack of a good range was instrumental in my design for the Duskrunners as well, so I really needed to put my thinking cap on.

After some searching I eventually hit on a concept that also dragged in another of my favourites. For a long time I have really liked the Siringit team from Impact! Miniatures but haven't been able to find a way to build a good Blood Bowl team based on them.

And this is where the idea comes in. The Rift Valley Lions are an African-themed wood elf team. Hailing from the Great Rift Valley from beyond the blasted undead lands, the warriors of the Pridelands are not humans or elves but a strange mixture of both. In addition, they exhibit an inherited form of lycanthropy that manifests as shapechangers based on totemic tribal beasts. One such tribe has now emerged into the Blood Bowl circuit. Fast and agile, the team is built around its were-lion Roardancers, with one massive Tantor were-elephant representing a treeman.

For models I am using a bit of a mash up. The linemen are Wargames Foundry Maasai warrior miniatures with some greenstuff work to ensure they aren't just male versions of the sexualisation I was against to begin with. The catchers are similar but I am going to use GW Norse catcher bear gloves, with the thumb removed, to represent lion paw catchers' mitts. The catchers will also have a lion tail somewhere in their uniform. The thrower (I only ever have one) will be the Impact! Theja Doris miniature. The Roardancers and Tantor will be pulled directly from the Siringit range from Impact!

I've already done up a prototype miniature for one of the linemen. Let me know what you think:




I also intend on entering the Rift Valley Lions into the Adelaide-based CCKUP league. Can't wait to get some games under my belt. I'll let you know how they go.