Happy New Year to one and all in the Blood Bowl community. It’s that time of year where I found myself reflecting upon my year in Blood Bowl and contemplating what it might have in store for me in 2025.
It struck me that it would be interesting to hear from other coaches, what their highlights of 2024 were and their New Year Resolutions for 2025.
I’ve had such a fantastic response this will be a three-part special with the first post hearing from Scottish coaches, and the second and third from international coaches being published over the next couple of days - stay tuned!
However before we get started I’ve indulged with a quick reflection of my own year and a look ahead to 2025.
2024 - My Blood Bowl Opus
2024 was one heck of a year clocking a casual 105 tournament games, the chance to play for Scotland at Eurobowl in Greece for the first time and getting on my bike to play in Malta, Bilbali - Spain, Italy and Northern Ireland. All amazing experiences whilst bagging not just my first, but three NAF tournament wins this season. Oh and most recently I was elected as Scotland Captain to lead the team at Hungary’s Eurobowl next autumn!
Visiting Belfast and picking up the win at Titanic Bowl II - The Sinkening
However, the highlight of 2024 for me was launching my first tournament, with the help of my good friend, Wobert - The Home Nations!
The feedback showed the tournament to be a resounding success with 120 coaches in attendance, not bad for a first shot. The national squads of Great Britain, Ireland and Malta showed massive support for the idea and gave us an exciting Bowl competition that went to the wire with The Barbarians pipping England to the post by the slenderest of margins! A cracking weekend all round for everyone. After three years playing the game the weekend was filled with friends that I had made in my short time in the community and I was on a natural high the whole weekend.
Inaugural Home Nations and with c. 300 coaches booked for 2025 this year is going to be epic!
So what are the big dreams, side quests and New Year resolutions for 2025?
Silly side quests include:
Become the no. #1 Slann coach in the world - currently only 6 Elo behind Stimme who’s leading the pack
Increase the number of races I’ve played from seven to at least twelve - starting with Nurgle in Cork at the end of January.
Visit tournaments in Ireland, France, Germany, Denmark, Hungary and Austria (if all goes well) to raise my country count to at least eleven! (Dear reader, if you have a must-visit tournament in your country, drop me a line. I’ve been well and truly bitten by the Blood Bowl travel bug!)
Big Ambitions for 2025:
The Home Nations II and the Six Nations Bowl, as I look to welcome the French and Italians to the party, is a big moment in the calendar. With just under 300 coaches already signed up I’m salivating at the prospect of delivering with my co-TO, Wobert, an incredible weekend that hopefully cements The Home Nations in the calendar as a ‘must do’ tournament in the UK.
Make a success of the pilot year of the NAF Super Series where I’m overseeing the admin for The Triple Crown, GB Team Championship and The European Team Championship Tour where we will hopefully see more coaches travel to experience all the great things that our community has to offer and build new, lasting friendships as well as reconnecting with familiar old friends.
As Scotland Captain I’ve got Hungary in my sights where I hope to see and support at least twenty Scottish coaches go to Eurobowl / Open for our biggest showing and hopefully, Nuffle willing, win hosting rights for Eurobowl XVII to be held in Glasgow in 2028 - so no big deal, and no pressure!
Ok I’ve cheated, as the editor I’ve been able to write a shopping list of moments, highlights and new year resolutions.
I put a few coaches from Scotland, and around the world, in the hot seat to ask them;
Before we look forward to the heady heights of 2025, what was your Blood Bowl highlight of 2024?
What’s on your Blood Bowl bucket list for 2025, on or off the board?
Here’s what the Scottish coaches had to say!
Scottish coaches en-masse at this year's UKTC at York University
Spooner, Aberdeen Blood Bowl Community (ABBC) coach
For 2024 see my recent blog post - “How I learned to stop worrying and love the coaching”. Overall my highlight was watching my team, the Seagulls, go 2-0-4 at UKTC. We had so much fun the team has signed up to go to the Home Nations Open next year!
For 2025 I promised my team I'd play all the races they'll take to Home Nations. I've never played Orcs, Skaven, and Vampires so they'll (hopefully) all get crossed off this year at tournaments.
Unrepentant, League Commissioner for Dominion in Ayr and co-TO for Dominion
2024 was a good year for me, despite my terrible personal performances at tourneys, playing in the Home Nations Open was great fun, I got to Kelpie (tournament) for the first time and ran a two day tournament that went remarkably well. The biggest highlight of the year was Mark Davidson (Veldora) from the Dominion League winning his first NAF tourney at Granite Bowl.
Veldora winning this year's Granite Bowl in Abderdeen with Fromherashes, TO
The BB Bucket list for the coming year is doing the same but better, making sure Dominion Bowl 4 goes off without any hitches and upping my performance at the Home Nations. I set myself a pretty low bar last year just to make that easier, honest!
Snotsmasher, Scotland’s most northerly coach, setting up a League on the Shetlands in 2025
2024 was a big year for myself with a few highlights. Firstly I played my first games of BB2020 in the Scottish Team Championship where I was kindly invited to play on team GBBL by Richard. This was my first ever tournament experience and I had some really fun games versus three great friendly coaches who were patient and helpful along the way.
Secondly a small group of coaches up here in Shetland got together in December and had a mini tournament named Mondstillenacht Mini Cup which I managed to win via penalties in the final match against Chaos Dwarfs who utterly annihilated my team (I had two players left on the field in the last few turns where my strategy quickly became do everything I can to harry the ball carrier and prevent the score in extra time).
So the bucket list for 2025:
Get the Shetland League up and running is my first priority. It's been a challenge as there's a small group of wargamers up here and with ToW release last year that's sort of been one of the more exciting things in the scene up here so there hasn't been much interest for BB but after the tournament we had I think there's more interest so I’m confident we will have something on the go soon.
I’m hoping to come to some more tournaments on the mainland and meet more of you guys and have some great games
I want to get more of my teams painted up and ready for the tabletop which goes hand in hand with my long term goal of owning one of every GW team (even elves!)
Mournival, Scottish Blood Bowl Committee - Tournament Lead, and Team Scotland Coach
My highlight of 2024 was going undefeated at Mulligans Open, something I hope to repeat in the 2025 tourney!
My bucket list for 2025 is hopefully attending at least four tournaments overseas including a visit to Cork, Ireland, Malta, Bilbali in Spain and Hungary for Eurobowl towards the end of the year.
HighlandEnoch, TO of the 5Bs
For me, and likely to shock no one who knows me, it is the sheer joy of my run of playing Gnomes leading to somehow a back-to-back Stunty Cup win at Megatron and Dominion especially after being so deflated from Day 1 of Dominion.
I have spent so long trying to find the team that clicked. I never expected it to be the team I decided to play for a laugh. I’ve found a whole new level of enjoyment in the game. Beyond this, attending UKTC this year and meeting some of the coaches I only knew by name so getting to know them and discuss crazy ideas was glorious.
In 2025, on the board simply to finish out one full year of Gnomes while attending tourneys I have never been to is the main goal. A pet project I’ve been working on is seeing the official launch of the Alba Stunty Squad (Formerly Scottish Stunty Squad) on the national stage to share our love of all things fun and shenanigan. Off the board I aim to have every stunty team built and painted by year end. Stunties have let me enjoy this hobby in a way I haven't really had and it is keeping me going.
Shriyke, Team Scotland Coach
My main highlights for 2024 included ending the year on a high note with a tournament win at Kelpie Cup after a disappointing tournament year. Playing for Scotland at the Eurobowl in Athens and The Home Nations, whilst continuing to meet great blood bowlers in all my games both in Scotland and further afield.
The bucket list will see "Attending the Bilbali Cup" ticked off this year after not going in 2023 and 2024. Going to the Birmingham Games Expo has always been a big one and hopefully I should make it this year. Finally, getting my Dark Angels finished up painted and having that project complete.
Thomme, co-TO for Reekie Bowl 2025
The highlight of 2024 was winning my first Stunty Cup at Granite Bowl playing Snotlings. The plan for 2025 is to take a Scottish Stunty Squad to major team tournaments such as UKTC and The Home Nations, and learn a new stunty team in the process, probably goblins!
Badgie, TO of Border Brawl
I've got to say the highlight of 2024 has been winning Sportsperson of the year. It came as a big shock to me that I had received so many nominations, just for turning up and having a laugh.
I've got two things on my bucket list for 2025. First is to get to more tournaments outside of Scotland when my work schedule allows it, and secondly is to grow the youth scene in Scotland with the youth group I'm working with.
StripeyDave, represented Scotland at The Home Nations
Highlights for me in 2024 included playing for Scotland in The Home Nations. It showed me there's a whole new level to Blood Bowl I hadn’t previously discovered. I was pleased at taking Elven Union to the Kelpie Cup and finishing third, what with it being a new race and new tournament for me. Loved both.
StripeyDave (back right), Shriyke (second from left) and Mournival (Front second from right) playing in Team Scotland at The Home Nations
Finally: playing all hobgoblins at Jingle Bell. It's been a dream for a while, now a reality (Ed. Read the tourney report!).
Bucket list for 2025: I've signed up for NAFC and I’m hoping to have a good time with the travelling Scottish contingent and ideally do well in the running.
Hopes and dreams: Gittin gud with Elven Union - or at least gittin better... Getting to a few more tournaments this year. I’ve already signed up for Granite Bowl in Aberdeen - hopefully get a couple more in, but we'll see…
The last word goes to Chris, Scotland's Blood Bowl Committee Chairman...
ChrisRaff88, Scottish Blood Bowl Chairperson, Mulligan’s Open, Jingle Bell Bowl and Tiny Titans Tournament Organiser, MKBBL League Commissioner and all round total Blood Bowl Hero! (Ed: he made me put these all in!)
2024 was a pretty big year for me. Mulligan’s Open ran for the first time as a NAF National! With its new status as a national we managed to welcome just shy of ninety participants (88) to Mulligan’s Open cementing it as Scotland’s largest Blood Bowl event to date! This is something I am particularly pleased with as we have continued to grow every year since our first began in 2020.
Mulligan's Open this year running for the first time as NAF National with 88 coaches taking part
On the table I was extremely pleased with my form towards the end of the year, particularly with Undead, after a shaky start to 2024 where the scatter gun approach to trying different races out didn’t lead to results on the pitch. However, after only losing 1 game in 17 in my final 3 tournaments of the season (Dominion Bowl, Titanic Cup and Kelpie Cup) I ended 8-8-1 with Undead to see out the year in style. Add in the 3-1-1 from Home Nations and I was 11-9-2 with Undead in 2024 which is very respectable. However, I have been left just over 7 points adrift from that elusive 200 NAF Elo!
In addition, I am very happy with the MKBBL’s results this season in Scottish competitions. We won the Constructors Championship this year bringing the trophy back home after a brief visit to Aberdeen. Watching our league members get out to tournaments in their droves, both in Scotland and the wider UK, has made me extremely proud. It is great to see everyone engaging with the wider community and enjoying their Blood Bowl.
Looking forward to 2025, we're set to break 100 coaches at Mulligan’s Open having sold out with a capacity of 110. I hope to see all in attendance have a great weekend in early March and see a Scottish event break this significant milestone.
On the table, I hope to finally break 200 Elo with Undead and select and solidify a second race. I can be guilty of taking random races to events without much thought… So it would be good to find another race to settle into on top of Undead.
I have a pretty jam packed calendar this year with Waterbowl, NAFC, UKTC, Home Nations, Thrud Bowl, Titanic Cup and the Bilbali Team Cup all planned outside of Scotland. So I may well find myself much further away from that elusive 200 Elo as opposed to exceeding it! Although, here is hoping I continue my end-of-year form.
Silly side quests I hope to:
Play in at least 3 different countries outside Britain in 2025
Maintain a positive win rate in 2025 with Undead and at least one other race
Break 55% all time global win record in NAF events (currently 53.27%)
Set up and run Scotland’s first BB3 online league (Caledonian Chaos League)
Play more NAF table top games than I did in 2024 (47 games over 11 events)
Here is to 2025!
Thanks to all the coaches for sharing their memories and hopes for 2025.
So there you have it, lots of great memories made in 2024, lots more to come in 2025 from Scottish coaches. Tune in tomorrow for the second installment where coaches from around the world give us their resolutions they’ll live by on the Blood Bowl boards!
What’s your New Year’s resolution? Feel free to share them in the comment section below - it would be great to read.
Tune in tomorrow when we release the second part in the series of New Year resolutions, side quests and big ambitions!
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