CHAMPIONS OF DEATH
The Champions of Death began their shuffling parade of terror in the Winter of 1991. Originally, the team was pulled directly from the 2nd Edition Blood Bowl Star Players rulebook, but over the years has evolved significantly as rules were overhauled an truly irreparable skeletons were scraped from the Astrogranite and replaced by relatively fresher talents. I decided to play the Champs because, first of all, I wanted an Undead team, and second, there was no team better than Tomolandry's.
LUDWIG WITTGENSPLEEN, RAMTUT III, THROTTLEGRIM, ENGEL THE EXTERMINATED VON EVILSTEIN
When the team was first assembled, it consisted of ten 2nd edition Undead miniatures, (five of the zombie mould, and five of the skeleton mould) and two Warhammer mummies. Painting was hastily and badly applied to the rabble, and Tomolandry was represented by a random Dark Elf Star player miniature. This team remained unchanged for several years, during which the Champs won a Chaos Cup tournament, participated in three full campaigns, and reached the semi-finals of the 1995 local Blood Bowl championship. Several exhibition games were also played, mostly resulting in victory for the coffin-dodgers, though the Chaos All Stars and Elfheim Eagles proved too much for them on several memorable occasions.
ASH LEY, RIGOR MORTIS, STIFF SIMEON, ELIJAH GLASS
During these early years, each surviving player began to evolve their own personality in addition to accumulating experience and a personal collection of Star Player points. Rigor Mortis became typecast as the reliable "backbone", Toxix as the nutjob, and - strangely - Cain as the true Star, eclipsing even the performances of Ramtut himself. Cain benefited from a few lucky rolls when it came to developing Star Player skills, gaining a phenomenal movement allowance and formidable catching ability.
SPIKE, VINNEY BONEZ, JIMMY WIGHT, QUIETUS HADES
As time continued to pass over the following six years, the team began to stagnate (or just plain rot), only playing a handful of matches in any twelve month period. That was until in 2000, I decided I was now ashamed of their appearance, and decided to make a project of overauling the physical miniatures themselves. I didn't want anything overly fancy, just a nice looking team, and so salvaged only three (Cain, Ramtut and Stiff Simeon) of the first generation models for repainting, and converted the rest from Warhammer skeletons and liberal application of Space Marine shoulder pads. Two of the new players were drafted from the military, following my realisation that the Screaming Skull Catapult crew were posed in positions entirely appropriate for Blood Bowl.
BARRY BIGBONES, IVAN THE REVIVED, LOTTABOTTAL, TOXIX
Once I had painted enough miniatures to form a full team, the Champs gained a second lease of life, playing over a dozen matches in a three month period in order to flew their superior paintjobs in open competition.
Sadly, the new vigorous routine proved too much for some of the older players, and alongside victory marched grief, as no less than four of the original characters met their ends in the violent celebratory season.
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