Get The Ref! - Alberta's Blood Bowl Roundup

GNOMES, GNOMES, GNOMES!  We spend an inordinate amount of time just digging through the garden of information left to us by Grandma Wendy. How important is Trickery? Can my Woodland Fox keep the ball until the next league game... do they keep it until they DIE?!  What can you really expect from this team?  Are there some hidden treasures to be found in the upcoming SPIKE? We won't know for sure until the team releases, but that won't stop us from guessing! We also tuck into the surprise release of Jordell Freshbreeze along the way and just how gamebreaking his special ability is. We chat about hobbying challenges, unpopular opinions, and sift through all the important tournament details from the past month along the ones we are excited about.  Friends, lend us your ears!

With the recent news of a Gnome team, we catch you up with all the information about what we know and what we don't. Then, we turn our gaze behind us at the tournaments that have been played over the last few weeks to catch you up on all the goings on. Finally, we look ahead to March Madness, the Blood Diamond Chalice, the Alberta Classic, and PowTown!  It's a great time to be a Blood Bowler!

This month, we recap the Tri-City Tussle, look ahead to using the new star players (Skitter, here we come!), discus our hobby goals, wonder how best to manage our rerolls, and generally look forward to February and beyond! Our next big tournament is the Cry Fowl Cup and you can be sure that you will find some insight into the build. We have a special first-timers interview with Jonathon Kramer to discus his impressions on playing in his first tournament and what role a good story has to play.  STOP READING AND LISTEN ALREADY!

With the NAF electing a new president soon, we wanted to highlight a candidate close to our hearts - Canada's own, Grant Hallas! Lair and Josh pick his brain about what the NAF is, what it should be, and how he wants to be a big part of its next chapter.  Read the presidential forums here: LINK Starting January 28 and going through to Feb 4, you can vote for president here: LINK (Please excuse the audio quality as we adapt to some new equipment!)

It is our 5th anniversary as a podcast! What have been the biggest changes in Blood Bowl in that time?  There has been a new edition, but that is not all! We also have particular topics that we roll into, including: Rumour Mill: Skitter! Hobby Corner: How to get started painting Rookie Mistakes: Which team do you recommend to rookies? Tourney Talk: Hammerslam Roundup w/ Chris Cameron Interview Calendar: Tri-City Tussle, Cry Fowl Cup, March Madness ADDENDUM: We forgot to mention the Thudd Tournament!  It's happening on January 13th and 14th in Edmonton - many appologies!  Happy new year to all! May your 2024 be full of Pows and 6s!

We made it to sixty!  Everyone sits back to reminise about Winter Mayhem since there isn't much to crow about in terms of new releases. Fair warning - the winners of the tournmament don't exactly make our interview eassy to listen to at work!  It does, however, give you an idea about how the weekend went.  By the time this episode tickles your stirrups, Hammerslam will be about a week away. Take a listen to get some idea of what you will be facing up against.... spoiler - bring some armour!  Enjoy with your favourite glass of eggnog and curl up by the fire!

What a month it has been - at least for Lair!  Lots of trips to Edmonton, Winnipeg, Spike, and -finally- one more in Calgary.  With no further annoucements from GW, the gents spend the whole episode talking about tournaments that have come and gone and what to expect as we look to close out the year. In a word, watch for waves of vampires and team tournaments!  

What a month!  Vampires have been released, the World Cup is in the bag, the Walleye Classic has been eyed, and we can't wait to talk all about it!  We start with the Vampire roster and the ways it has changed, sift through the stars that were in the Spike Magazine, chat about the oil paints, and then dive deep into the tournament world. So throw open the coffin's cover, let the sun shine in and don't let the varglings bite!

Vampires are back from the grave and we are hear to run through the unbridled speculation! We also chat all things Krakeneye, World Cup, and primer.... the paint, of course.  At about 39:00, we shift gears to take a good look at what it means to run a league. Lair and Josh talk with Damion Gilzean from Edmonton's Renegade Blood Bowl League to compare notes on how each of the local leagues are fun and some of the ways that we keep the interest going. There's lots to hear here if you are looking to run a league or are trying to examine your own ways of doing things.  We return to the main chat to look ahead to the tournament schedule ahead, focusing a bit on the next Great Plains Grand Prix premier event - the Walleye Classic in Winnipeg!  Through it all, we are offering up our longest episode to date, so buckle in and make sure to have the snacks on hand.... and we aren't talking Thralls!

Lots of bits and bobs in this episode, including a look back at Summer Bash earlier in the summer. We also talk about Bilerot, some rookie tips, a cork-centred hobby corner and a look ahead to future tournaments. Come and have a seat and listen to the mid-summer round table!

PowTown has come and gone and we wanted to sit down and chat about the weekend. How was Zolcath the Zoat?  Did Grombindal move the needle at all? Would Scott pass out from his macramae beard? That was the intention until our rumour mill section started to heat up! Gutter Bowl has been announced along with a new star player - Ivan the Animal!  We also set up our calendar to help everyone find an event that can work for them, allowing them to gain valueable points for the Great Plains Grand Prix!  Come, pour yourself a frosty beverage, and reminisce with us about the tournament that was!

TOOT TOOT!  It's "All Hands On Deck" as we expand our co-host stable to include Barry for our hype train episode! We start the rumours with a "Who's Best" between Ripper and Grashnak and get an update on Barry's hobby challenge. We follow that up with a little talk on the ins-and-outs of the Blitz Kick-off Result in Rookie Mistakes. We then turn our attention to the tournament scene as we recap the Alberta Classic, update the Great Plains Grand Prix leaderboard, and orient ourselves towards success at PowTown 2023! Hope you enjoy it because we ain't going back to fix it!

We start the podcast a little bummed about not hearing about any new releases. Surely Grandma Wendy hasn't forgotten about her favourite children, right? Thats ok, because we have lots of tounraments to talk about and plan for!  We discuss the role of star players as well as the overall need for the Stunty Cup (like, at all!). Soon after, we dive into all the local tournament action which includes a Blood Diamond Chalice recap, and a prep for the Alberta Classic and - of course - PowTown. The latter is aiming at record numbers and it really would be a shame if you weren't involved!  

We take a first look at the new Doubledrool model, express concern regarding how badly Lair is beating up on the rest of us in our star player showdown, crunch the numbers on Sneaky Git, and look forward to the Blood Diamond Chalice. Lastly, Lair teases a new piece of swag for Pow Town that you will definitely want to hear about...it requires a timely response!  Also, thank you for your patience as we examine some new technologies that will hopefully get a better product into the interwebs for future episodes. The echos, static, and muffled voices will hopefully be a one-off.

We didn't have the scheduling accumen to make sure all the interviews got into the last episode, so we decided to include them here!  First, I chat with Rob Wright, the winner of the latest iteration of the Cry Fowl Cup about High Elves and the tournament that was. Following that, Barry Gergel drops by for a hobby-related goodness. He is an exceptional local coach and hobbiest and we could ALL learn a few things from him to level up our modelling game. Enjoy!

Lair, Josh, Scott, and Darcy sit down to talk the release of Blood Bowl 3, discuss the merits of Snotlings, think about what it would be like to have an entire team of star players, and debrief the latest iteration of the Cry Fowl Cup. 

Welcome to episode FIFTY of Get The Ref - where we talk all about Games Workshop's best game - Blood Bowl! In this episode, we chat about January's Braft up in Calgary and then spend some time talking about the build for the Cry Fowl Cup. While those are the big rocks, we also fit in lots of moose talk, some of our favourite things that come in groups of fifty, and pump the Pedro Ramos' tires. Come have a listen!

Today's bonus episode is an interview with James Luft. James is currently running for Tournament Director of the NAF, so we thought we would pick his brain a bit. If you didn't know much about James Luft before this episode, you certainly will afterwards!  Then, if you are so inclined,  please go to the NAF member's website and read through the Q&A section to get a sense of what all the candidates are about - and then vote!  

The guys at GET THE REF sit down to discuss all things Blood Bowl in and around Alberta. We recap Thor's Hammerslam, look ahead to the Braft in Calgary, and preview the Cry Fowl Cup in Lethbridge. We also examine some of the newly released models, news, and questions from around the internet. Any way you slice it, we are excited to see what fun 2023 brings and wait in anticipation for Josh to finish a model or two for those lovely bases that he spent a year on!

Now that we know about the Dungeonbowl expansion, the 2022 Almanac (with the star player expansion), and the November FAQ/Designer's commentary... well, there is a lot to talk about!  We dip into the mailbag of questions and offer the rookies some unsolicited advice. Finally, have an interview with the winner's of Winter Mayhem, and a breakdown of what to expect from Thor's Hammerslam in December. A little disclaimer: for the records, Scrappa *does* have his normal agility of 3+, unlike the confused noises we made when looking at some fo the preliminary reports. We hope you all enjoy the episode!