Season 7 Day 4: Nuffle is a harsh mistress

[IainC]

We're approaching the halfway mark of the championship and the divisions are starting to shake down into those whom Nuffle loves one one side and the 99%ers on the other. Something that came up in the last round is that there are a number of brand new and less-experienced coaches in this season and those of us with more experience should try to bear that in mind when playing. That doesn't mean play to lose or whatever, but if your opponent is making rookie errors and missing things then it's a good idea to have a quick chat about it after the fact. Likewise, the new coaches should seriously consider putting a few teams in the f13 feeder league which is a great environment to learn, get experienced coaches to talk you through things and generally tighten up your game in a no-pressure match. Also I'd strongly recommend downloading a few of the other matches in the league from BBManager and watching them (once they are downloaded, you'll find them in the 'replays' menu of your client).

Anyhow, on with the show!

Here are the results from Day 3:


And here are the fixtures for Day 4:


The deadline for these games is Wednesday 27th March. Play early, play often.

Rankings after 3 game days.

40k Division:


Ulysees pulls out a small lead with Swiftblade and Celer tied for second but the rest of the division is snapping at their heels. Wide open still.

Hail Caesar Division:


Three way race at the top with Avaia close behind in fourth. Some good coaches in the bottom half who can still upset things however.

Hordes Division:


Similar story to 40k here. Teleku is running away with the lead but the next three places are very much up for grabs.

Tamurkhan Division:


Against all expectations, my newly minted Skaven seem to be less terrible than anticipated but I have my hardest matchups still to 'look forward to'. There will be a ferocious scrap for playoff berths in this division and it will likely come down to a a very narrow spread of points.

Stats from BBManager:

[swiftblade]

Ulysees,

I'm GMT, how about you? When you looking to play?

[Ulysees]

I'm GMT too can play tonight around 10-10.30 Pm or tomorrow at around the same time. If that is too late I might be able to snatch an earlier start time on Thursday but am going to visit my folks this weekend, thank god you are GMT so if we don't get to play in teh next few days we should be able to sort something out before the deadline at least.

[willisterman]

Teleku, I'm GMT, available most evenings apart from Thursday and Sunday.

[Teleku]

I'm GMT +1, over here in Poland.  Should be available most evenings (including right now) after 5:30'ish.  Whats your steam name?

[swiftblade]

I'm GMT too can play tonight around 10-10.30 Pm or tomorrow at around the same time. If that is too late I might be able to snatch an earlier start time on Thursday but am going to visit my folks this weekend, thank god you are GMT so if we don't get to play in teh next few days we should be able to sort something out before the deadline at least.

Tonight at 10 sounds good to me.

[willisterman]

Teleku,  I'm Willisterman.  And yep, free now.

[Danicia]

I'm free GMT -8 (Pacific time) but only available through Friday. I fly out to GDC on Saturday, returning home on March 31st. Since I am currently unemployed, I can play at any time. :)

[Ingmar]

Get your bets in now because Necromantic vs. Khorne is probably happening late tonight.

[Ruvaldt]

Nice!  I actually want to watch that one.

[proudft]

Preseason, it was 1-2-0 Khorne.   Now we meet again, with more seasoning on both sides.   Ingmar has Block spread all over the place, whereas most of my leveling has been in the team captain Dis, who now has Block himself.  It will be interesting.

[Ingmar]

My main decision point is standing pat to buy a wizard, or getting some spare zombies to absorb the inevitable clawing from the bloodthirster. I've already had to dip into Broken Forum's ban list for player names!

[swiftblade]

I'm GMT too can play tonight around 10-10.30 Pm or tomorrow at around the same time. If that is too late I might be able to snatch an earlier start time on Thursday but am going to visit my folks this weekend, thank god you are GMT so if we don't get to play in teh next few days we should be able to sort something out before the deadline at least.

Can't see you online

[Ulysees]

It's not 10.30 yet! Logging into steam now

[Jasper]

Avaia, when's a good time for Bleating vs. Understone Raiders?  I'm on PST, and judging from Who's Who you're two hours ahead of me (just to be sure)?

Either Wednesday or Thursday evening would be best for me, pretty much anytime you're free.  Could also possibly play tonight too if you get this in time, or Tuesday if you're willing to play after 9pm PST.  Friday is out, and the weekend is iffy, though I'm also free at the same times next week if need be.

Anyway, let me know what works for you!

[Teleku]

Just played our game!  Here are the results:



To tired to do a write up, so maybe he can later.  In short, good game, he defended and played his team well.  Between Tackle and Sure Hands, Dwarves are just designed from the ground up to fuck me, heh.

[schpain]

As long as someone is, Teleku :p

[Ingmar]

That sounds like at least one vote for Beardstorm to come back next season.

[Ulysees]

The Minizilla's 2 - 0 The Camp-Town Orcboyz

A really hard fought match that could easily have ended in a 0-0 or 1-1 tie but for some shitty pickup dice for Swiftblade. I don't remember much of the first half, Swiftblade had 660k of inducements and went for Morg, the star goblin bomber and a wizard and the wizard for once actually paid off stopping a near certain score in the first half though the bomber was less effective as Swiftblade didn't know how to make him throw his bomb so the score I made on his drive may well have been prevented had he been able to launch his missile! I did a good job of not letting Swift perform skink genocide but managed to injure 2 of my skinks by failing dodge rolls, one with broken ribs and Morg managed to injure my Krox but the apoth enabled me to keep him in the game.

Swiftblade won the toss and elected to receive first but failed to pick up the initial kick which allowed me to move lizards into position to strike on the next turn and I duly managed to sack the carrier on turn 2 and with a bit of jiggling about free up a snatch and grab to try a quick breakaway score. Turn 4 sees the removal of my Krox but stand firm and block are working wonders on the line of scrimmage and keep 4 or 5 of Swifts players tied up for most of the half at the line of scrimmage and though there are a couple of black orcs in play and his blitzers I have a general strength advantage when making blocks for this half but my injury dice seem to have deserted me the last couple of matches scoring a few Ko's and lots of stuns but not injuring many players that I recall (I don't think I took any off the orcs off the field through anything other thank KO's this match). By turn 5 I am ready to score and this is where a lightning bolt takes out my best defensive skink whi happened to be carrying the ball at the time and it needs some luck on my part and a badly timed turnover to get me back into possesion of the ball but unable to score or make my carrier completely safe I risk blizzard condition go for its to take me as far away from a blitz as possible and the risk paid off as Swift has to use GFI's with no re-rolls left to blitz my carrier and duly fails the GFI roll to allow me a turn 7 score.

Second half I receive and setup for my usual play but an excellent short kick puts me in a quandry (and shows me the error of setting up the way I normally do so will learn from that for future matches) and I have to shuffle players across to form a screen rather than a cage around my ball carrier. Then Swift makes the only tactical mistake I think he made all match and opened a gap for me to make my favoured sideline cage which I take advantage of and though he does succesfully bog me down and even get a sack on my ball carrier close to his endzone I have enough lizards free to clear the ball and make a succesful dodge and pickup to score a second try on turn 14. With only 2 turns to score it is my turn to get lucky with my kick off and land a short kick just behind the line of scrimmage and I get a little greedy at this point thinking about the possibility of a third score so push hard on the carrier and though I do get a Saurus in to mark I made a mistake with my frenzy blitz and move him away instead of towards the carrier leaving him with just 1 lizard marking which is easily cleared away and with a couple more blocks a path is opened straight down the centrefield which the orc scampers into but when he makes his 2 succesful GFI's he still ends up 1 square short of the endzone so my perfect defensive record remains intact and I take the match 2-0.

This game was some seriously hard work and but for the blizard screwing gfi's and pickups I think the result would have been more in doubt as Swift did have bad luck at crucial times though my block dice were not great either and for the first time since facing the Ex-Presidents in the semi final of last seasons playoffs (fuck claw btw) I found myself starting the final drive with less players on the pitch than my opponent (though it was only 10v11 so not that big an impact). Was a fun match to play and I am sure Swiftblade will give a lot of people a good run for their money throughout the season as these orcs continue to develop.

match is submitted on BBmanger and here is the tale of the tape:

[Ingmar]

For future reference, the middle button with the green/yellow curved arrow thing in the UI is the 'throw pass' button, and is what you have to hit to make a bomber throw his bomb. There's probably a keyboard shortcut as well, but I don't know it off the top of my head.

[Llyse]

Modern Angel, Make your Time!

I'm GMT +9 and work normal office hours on weekdays.

So My Friday night, your Friday morning or your Friday night my Saturday morning might be the best option

[avaia]

I gave the GRs some tentacled hugs, but not enough apparently.  Tied 1-1 with no lasting injuries to either side.

I really hate those little motherfuckers!   

[Ingmar]

1-1 tie here as well. I'm really struggling on my offensive strategy with Necromantic so far. I need remedial 'players who go faster than 6' practice. 

[proudft]

It was a battle of teams better on defense than offense.  Lots of careful positioning and careful blocking and in the end, a tie, so everyone goes home sad.

Dis added several more casualties to his belt, though all were Badly Hurt or Regenerated.  His average is now > 1 per game.  Muhuahahaha.  Now get out of the way so people can go run after the ball, you big lug.

The Inferno had no permanent injuries either.  A pit fighter hit level 2 and took Block, and the Leader Bloodletter who was in the queue to get replaced decided he didn't like that idea, and he leveled as well, and took Block too.  Contrary bastard.

[swiftblade]

For future reference, the middle button with the green/yellow curved arrow thing in the UI is the 'throw pass' button, and is what you have to hit to make a bomber throw his bomb. There's probably a keyboard shortcut as well, but I don't know it off the top of my head.

Thanks, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was that I did not realise you couldn't move, then throw.

So, I wasted my blitz, moved my bomber  who then did nothing which left his skink open to score.

[Teleku]

That sounds like at least one vote for Beardstorm to come back next season.

I still won.   

[Ingmar]

For future reference, the middle button with the green/yellow curved arrow thing in the UI is the 'throw pass' button, and is what you have to hit to make a bomber throw his bomb. There's probably a keyboard shortcut as well, but I don't know it off the top of my head.

Thanks, but that wasn't the issue. The issue was that I did not realise you couldn't move, then throw.

So, I wasted my blitz, moved my bomber  who then did nothing which left his skink open to score.

Ah - you can move then throw with most pieces, probably including the bomber - but you can't *blitz* and throw.

[Falconeer]

Megrim, I am confident we can try and set up a game over the weekend, right? With our time difference I doubt we will have better chances.

[eldaec]

You can't throw and move with a bomber. You're stuck in position if you want to use the bomb ability.

Ruvaldt, Wednesday evening, Friday evening, any time Saturday, early Sunday (GMT), all work for me, let me know when you can play.

[willisterman]

Just played our game!  Here are the results:



To tired to do a write up, so maybe he can later.  In short, good game, he defended and played his team well.  Between Tackle and Sure Hands, Dwarves are just designed from the ground up to fuck me, heh.

A better match than I expected, I really thought the elves were going to run rings around the slow dwarves, but their speed did stop us getting any traction.  A slow first half finished without a score, as even with 3 players down, the superior elven movement just allowed them to stop any forward momentum.  The second half, the elves quickly moved down the pitch, and scored without too much trouble, though a lightning bolt did take down a wardancer for a short while, the apoth got her back up.

My last drive screwed up a little bit, when my clicking yes on the bribe was totally ignored, meaning my deathroller was sent off.  It wasn't that the bribe failed, as when the turn started, I still had a bribe left.  That left me down a little, and we had to play a little differently.  The elves were able to bog us down again, but on the last turn I had a small chance to score for a draw, but I was let down by Zara the slayer being a bit of a loner, meaning the game ended 1-0 to the Hippies.

[lamaros]

Yo yo Fildregar, when is your timezone my man?

[satael]

Some of the highlights: RK47's GFIs:10/15 (67%), my GFIs: 3/6 (50%)

I also managed to fail half of my pick ups and catches (but funnily enough we both had the same frequency of 1s on d6 rolls; almost 30%)

[Modern Angel]

Modern Angel, Make your Time!

I'm GMT +9 and work normal office hours on weekdays.

So My Friday night, your Friday morning or your Friday night my Saturday morning might be the best option

I'm reasonably good for most times. I'm Eastern US. So GMT -4 (or is it -5 with daylight savings?).

Really, just ping me when you have a moment. I go to school full time again and work from home some, so I'm mostly open. Thursday midday my time is no good, Friday night is no good, Saturday I'm out all day. That actually sounds like I'm not mostly open but WHATEVER!

[rk47]

I'm more shocked with the 6 out of 30 successful blocks, though.  



See you in the fail-offs, you scrub.

[Ruvaldt]

Ruvaldt, Wednesday evening, Friday evening, any time Saturday, early Sunday (GMT), all work for me, let me know when you can play.

It will have to be Saturday or Sunday for me.  I'm usually up for games any time after noon on Saturday.