S#4 - Game Day #5

[Teleku]

Alas, faithful Sturdybranch didn't roll doubles, so I gave him guard.  Has anybody in the league managed to get block on there big guy yet?

[Der Helm]

I kind of have my doubts you could use it to buy skilled mercs you hire with inducement money, that would seem a bit off.

Mercs don't have skills, do they ? I am pretty sure my CWs did not have any but "loner". But by the look of it, you can only buy the automatic replacements, I did not get an option to buy the inducement mercs.

Also, 2-0 for the Necros, but this was the first game in which I had fun. Also leveled another beastman. "Delicious Cake" still has not injured anybody since game 1. Poor cow.

Thanks for a awesome game.    / /

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Negative Capability 2-0 over the Marauding Memes.

A fairly laid-back game that could easily have been a tie after some tunnel-vision defence by the Necromantic team nearly allowed the Beastmen Passing Squad to run one into the endzone. Only some heroic play from our lone uninjured werewolf was able to rescue the score, with a pickup, GFI and long pass to a Wight in scoring position. This left the werewolf in an unfortunate position next to the sideline, and Der Helm's Minotaur had a clear path to revenge... only to roll triple skulls and fall on its ass.

The second half was a bit more lopsided, or at least I felt more in control of the game -- and the skulls were catching up to the unskilled Chaos team pretty hard. That said, Helm managed to knock my ball-carrying ghoul over not once but twice with well-placed Blocks, and in the end I risked a throwing play to another Wight in a desperate attempt to get Tackle on more players in advance of my last two games. Sadly the MVP landed on a zombie for the gazillionth time, so only the first Wight will level in advance of the next game.

I also continued my usual habit of only ever injuring people through crowd-surfs and fouls -- the crowd nearly killed one of Helm's level 2 Beastmen, but his Apothecary came through, and then later I fouled one of the Mercenary Chaos Warriors he hired out of the game. The only blocking casualty of the game on either side came on turn 16, when my ghoul threw a 1d blitz and Badly Hurt the very same beastman.

[eldaec]

(Which reminds me, in SP I saw offers to buy a merc after a game, does this only count for mercs activly bought with inducements ? I have yet so see that screen in MP)

You keep posting on f13 and yet you are not online, preparing for our all-important match! I do not understand.

The screen in question is for any merc, I think, but definitely for those you get for free. You should see it after any game in which you have Loner mercs.

I kind of have my doubts you could use it to buy skilled mercs you hire with inducement money, that would seem a bit off.

Journeymen only. (the linemen you are forced to take at base cost when you have less than 11 dudes).

[Paelos]

If Sir T and I are in the same boat, the problem is a total lack of skills, thus making it VERY hard to get levels. I think I only have 2 guys leveled up, if that. 1 got sure hands, because I had to, the other got jump up, because he rolled a double.
I really really really hate me for starting with a fresh Chaos team in a league where most people have double my TV. Inducements help, but they don't help that much. My roster is still not full, I am crawling toward my first  CW (who is promptly going to die, I am sure of that) and I live in fear that a merc is going to steal my MVP.
(Which reminds me, in SP I saw offers to buy a merc after a game, does this only count for mercs activly bought with inducements ? I have yet so see that screen in MP)

I'm playing a fresh Chaos team as well. It's not bothering me nearly that bad yet despite the 15 times not having block comes into play against another bashy squad.

[Ingmar]

My tips for getting better as a player:

- Stay engaged in the game the entire way through. You cannot hope to improve without effort. Even if you're losing 4-0 on turn 4, there are things you can practice as the game goes on, like where to stand your guys on defence to minimize damaging blocks against you and prevent easy scores, how to set up assists, where to push people, etc. There are a lot of little subtle things that help win games around all of those things, and if after 2 turns you stop paying attention and just throw blind blocks etc. you'll never learn them.

- Never, ever blame the dice. Unless you are a perfect player, which none of us are, there is usually something you could have done to minimize the impact of a bad roll. There are going to be dice-related turnovers, that is inevitable, but the order that you do things in matters enormously. Never throw a block when you could safely move another player first, for example.

- Learn to laugh at your dudes getting killed and move on to the next turn. It is Blood Bowl, this will happen to everyone occasionally no matter what.

- Pay close attention during your opponent's turn. Figure out why he is moving his pieces the way he is, and see if there is something you can take away from those choices to improve your own game. EDIT: And if he does something you didn't understand, ask him about it after the game.

- Start planning your own moves during his turn. That will help a lot with the 2 min time limit.

- Concentrate. The less distractions around you during the game the better.

- Never foul a cheap piece with an expensive one. Your expensive guy is more likely to get run off the field than your target in most cases, and you lose relative TV doing that. Bad. (Yes there might be specific tactical exceptions where you would do this - an example would be towards the end of a drive with the Deathroller who is going to get sent off either way.) Corollary: Think very, very hard about whether or not you should foul at all when you're already at a deficit of players on the pitch. Chances are you shouldn't.

- Never foul/surf an enemy piece at the end of the game if you're in a playoff race (unless you're in a race with the coach you're playing.) A lot of times you want your opponent to be full strength going into games against your other league opponents, and fouling/surfing guys might injure his players to no benefit to you. I've seen some allegedly Very Good Players make dumb moves on this front out of sheer bloodlust, when they'd be better off just protecting their own guys and leaving their opponent whole going into their next match against a player they want/need to have lose. If you have a chance to get SPP from a block, by all means throw it, but surfing/fouling doesn't give you any points.

[Paelos]

My tips as a new Chaos player.

- Remember to get up before you do anything else. Just do a quick scan.
- Stay the fuck away from the sidelines with your weaker idiots. They get knocked out.
- Count how many times your guys get abused by not having block. Make a game of it. My high is 14.
- Try to get a touchdown as the first goal. Then, try to inflict 4 injuries in a game. Then, try to get a win.

[Der Helm]

- Try to get a touchdown as the first goal. Then, try to inflict 4 injuries in a game. Then, try to get a win.

Your priorities are off. 

[Strazos]

The above goals are not exclusive. 

[Llyse]

The above goals are not exclusive. 

Tip of the day.

The other thing I hope people remember is there is a Not playoffs bowl so you'll be bashing other relatively skilled teams and coaches (except for sjofn the ringer)

So hopefully that'll make it less serious business 

[AndyDavo]

also if you can play some match making in FOL, they are generaly decent opponants and all the retards are pre screened out so you can play at a decent standard.

Practice makes perfect. Practice against good players makes for better than perfect.

[Sjofn]

(except for sjofn the ringer)

I still don't know if I would call myself a ringer, but I AM playing a team that only wears tiny pink man panties, and thus are extremely bashable. So I will still be bashed plenty. 

[Strazos]

There have been moments where I've secretly hoped to not make the cut despite my best efforts, forcing me to play through the consolation tournament...

[Falconeer]

The other thing I hope people remember is there is a Not playoffs bowl

Yeah, don't forget that making the Playoffs could just be a humiliating single match against one of the top teams, while the Failoffs are much much juicier in my opinion, with so much room for mindless bashing while getting significant skill improvements for Season #5.

[Modern Angel]

CELER! It is time. I am back in town, let's do this tonight. My schedule is completely open.

[Sky]

Sitting at 0-5, I'm clearly one of the favorites for the loser bowl. Suck it, losers!

[Ulysees]

Actually I think keeping with the loser bowl theme we should reverse it - you win and you're out! That way the teams that suck the most will get the most chance at SPP to develop their teams for next season, if I can swing this radical reform in the rules prepare for all out Skink-fu!

[AndyDavo]

u kinda need the winners to progress but then have a losers loser bowl, so the 8 teams that get knocked out go into a 3rd league. then the 4 teams that get knocked out of that go into a league. And so on and so on. Trouble is, that is a nightmare to admin!

[eldaec]

Just make loser bowl a freeform MM tourney and announce matches determined on a swiss pairing basis in the thread. After 4 rounds you'll be able to rank all 16 teams using Opp win% as the tie break.

Winner bowl could do the same, just chuck all losers down into a MM tourney and everything except the top bracket is played out the same way.

Admin would be fairly straightforward. MM tourneys make everything fairly easy.

[Celer]

CELER! It is time. I am back in town, let's do this tonight. My schedule is completely open.

IT ENDS TONIGHT.

Well, unless you knock me off the net again.  And I guess there is still one other match to go.  But taking those parameters into account, IT ENDS TONIGHT.

Actually, maybe I should go over these figures again...

[AndyDavo]

CELER! It is time. I am back in town, let's do this tonight. My schedule is completely open.

IT ENDS TONIGHT.

Well, unless you knock me off the net again.  And I guess there is still one other match to go.  But taking those parameters into account, IT ENDS TONIGHT.

Actually, maybe I should go over these figures again...

LOL

[Modern Angel]

I lost, 2-1. The dice hate me. My playoff dreams likely died on the pitch tonight. The dice... god, the fucking dice. I'd elaborate but I'm actually flummoxed by this one.

[Strazos]

Wow, so our division just got a lot more interesting....

Top 4 from each division advance, right?

[Celer]

UPSET COMPLETE!  Chemical Elvers 2-1 over SnooSnoo!  Elves made some positional errors throughout the game but got the rolls when they needed them, whereas the Orcs just... didn't.

The elf coach spent many agonizing minutes agonizing over the 290k of inducements.  He ended up going with a wizard and a reroll, but was STRONGLY considering 2 babes instead.  As the elves kicked off in Sweltering Heat, they were mostly thinking about the babes that got away.  Somehow the elves got sidestepping blodger Loops of Fury next to the ball carrier and he survived not one, but TWO 2d blocks to remain there.  Then, Nuffle extracted his toll from both teams... the Orcs Badly Hurt a precious 5 AG lineman, but then gave snake-eyes (and an injury that was Apoc'ed) as the ball-carrier tried to Dodge away.  The ball, of course, sailed very close to the Orc end zone, and the elves (Loops of Fury in fact) got to it first to make it 1-0.  The heat claimed a couple players, and the orcs managed to ooze their way upfield in time for a nifty turn 8 score.  That Apoc'ed ball carrier made several key dodges to make up for his mistake earlier, though the elves did manage to bash a couple orcs out of the game... man talk about a role reversal!

A useless turn 8 kickoff had only SIX elves surviving the heat, but most of them woke up a halftime as the weather turned nice.  The elves tried to slip down the sideline but were quickly surrounded and VERY out of position.  Looking back, I would have slowed it down here.  Instead, I made some lucky 1d blocks and a desperation pass across the field, which succeeded, though the catch did not.  A Goblin of all things was the one there to try a pickup, but with a TZ still on the ball he failed.  Elves managed to recover but could only muster a flimsy screen, and the Orcs tried to seize the opening.  A blitzer rushed forward to blitz, but was forced to burn a reroll to GFI... and then ate the dirt with double skulls for his trouble.  Elves decided to take the score immediately and hope their defense could hold out several more turns.  Nuffle continued to kick orc nards by giving the Elves a Blitz! on the deep kick, then having the troll fail his block (and loner reroll) at the start of his turn to allow elves to take possession.  Again though, elf mistakes gave a Tackle blitzer a shot at the ball carrier and the ball popped back out.  Looking at the clock, the elves ignored the ball and instead backed into a deep defense, forming a wall at the end zone.  Only one orc managed to blitz his way into scoring position in Turn 15, and he was promptly put on his back.  Elves win and survive the Turn 16 stomping to remain in the playoff hunt!

I was pretty distracted for a lot of the game, it really was just some bad rolls at some bad times for MA that turned the tide.  I even mis-clicked my wizard and forgot to stand people up next to the ball at some points!  The stats say the dice were pretty even, but to me it felt like I was making mistakes and getting bailed out.  Perhaps I was hitting more than I expected, and not seeing much of the Troll or the Black Orcs.  I will say that I forced the Orcs to make a lot of rolls to get down the field... it worked once, but not even these dodgy-Orcs could win an agility game against the elves.

[Llyse]

I lost, 2-1. The dice hate me. My playoff dreams likely died on the pitch tonight. The dice... god, the fucking dice. I'd elaborate but I'm actually flummoxed by this one.

Bad luck MA, at least you can beat up on the smaller kids in the failoffs 

[Falconeer]

Oh, is the day over? I am supersick and I can barely exist on this plane of reality.. someone tell me and feed me oranges and soup.

[eldaec]

Nope, 7 Deadly still to play Welkin.

 

[AndyDavo]

Nope, 7 Deadly still to play Welkin.

 

Which we hear is scheduled for a week next friday, just so we can hurry things along....!

[Modern Angel]

A blitzer rushed forward to blitz, but was forced to burn a reroll to GFI... and then ate the dirt with double skulls for his trouble.

This right here was the key play. Celer was absolutely on the ropes, smashed largely against one sideline with my guys beating the hell out of him and a clear field to the endzone. At the time this happened, I had about a four man advantage. If this goes the way probability said it SHOULD HAVE GONE, this is probably a 2-1 win because I was going to milk the clock to a maddening degree.

[eldaec]

This is what happens when you emasculate a perfectly good group of orcs with all that passing BS. As soon as they are asked to block... nose bleed!

[Modern Angel]

I haven't passed for shit this season. I think those are basically my playoff hopes dashed.

Incidentally, and I meant to announce it before, but this is the Team Snoosnoo farewell tour. At least for a season or two. I'm mothballing them after this in favor of either Helves, Delves or Goblins.

[Teleku]

Man, Welves get no respect, no respect at all!

[Megrim]

This is because they are scum.

[Modern Angel]

Actually playing Welves for the first time in an Orca Cola league, so I'm not going to double up. I'm pleasantly surprised.

[proudft]

Incidentally, and I meant to announce it before, but this is the Team Snoosnoo farewell tour. At least for a season or two. I'm mothballing them after this in favor of either Helves, Delves or Goblins.

GOBLINS.  DO IT.