Forming the team.

o/

As expected, the plastic BB minis are quite easy to paint and I can crank them out relatively quickly. I already had an idea for a theme, so the decision on a color scheme was relatively easy as well. I wasn't sure how I wanted to number the players, so I tried large & small decals. Finding both pleasing to the eye, I decided to keep the small front & back numbers on the linemen, and the larger numbers on the more specialized players.

As for theme...

Of all of the provinces in the Empire, Stirland has always been my favorite, most likely because C. L. Werner's Mathius Thulmann series (my favorite of the various Warhammer series) takes place primarily in Stirland.

Stirland is considered to be the 'backwater' of the Empire (like the rest of it is so civilized). Relatively poor, Stirland's armies' uniforms tend to be mismatched and grubby in appearance, and often sporting their traditional heraldic colors of green and yellow (true BB teams aren't part of the army, but the team ownership is obviously of the patriotic sort). As everyone knows, when it comes to painting I'm firmly in the 'green is best' category. So a dirty, mismatched look for a bottom rung Stirland Blood Bowl team is what I aim to make.

The first thing any self respecting BB team needs is a good name. Going with the Stirland theme, I googled & downloaded a nicely detailed map of the province, and then pondered names for a bit (with a bedazzling array of possibilities). In the end I kept coming back to the capital city of Wurtbad. A name so awful that I had to use it in some way. Going several rounds with that, the perfect name finally came to me: The Wurtbastards.

Perfect!

Then of course the players themselves need names. The important ones anyways, linemen tend to fall into the faceless masses unless they rank up some impressive skills down the road. Most names generally come in time, after a notable in-game moment or some such thing. I do have one named player thus far though, my thrower (and as is always fun, a little story to go with it).

The bastard son of a wealthy burgomeister, Ben took a fondness to Blood Bowl in his youth and started playing as soon as he was able. Blessed with a natural affinity for the game, he quickly rose to preeminence with the sport, and it seemed that he could do no wrong. That's when the trouble started. A famed womanizer (like most Blood Bowl players), after a few dalliances with the wives & daughters of nobility led to a never ending string of legal troubles. Soon these troubles overshadowed his skill on the field, and political pressures of the angry nobility sent his career into a downward spiral. Given this reputation, any woman of worth kept their distance, leaving him no choice but to partake of Empire's the brothels. Now only the worst teams are willing to risk the political & legal baggage that comes along with the adding 'Ben Brothels-Berger' to their roster.