S#4 - Game Day #2

[Ingmar]

Paelos, I don't know your Steam name, but your beardy doom awaits!

[Ingmar]

1-0 win to the dwarves. Paelos did a very good job in the first half of keeping me snarled up and I was unable to score (I did make a terrible turn 7 error to make it easier to stop me.) The casualties and KOs mounted as the game went on, though, and I was able to jostle the ball loose for a defensive TD in the second half and that's all she wrote.

My +1 agi runner is going to level, as are 2 level 1 line dwarfs. 4 linemen with guard coming right up...

EDIT: Replay uploaded.

[Paelos]

I counted about 11 times where not having block cost me.

It was a war of attrition I simply couldn't hope to win. I did like the crazy holy shit bomb down the field at one point, and my double dodge smash and grab pickup by one of my lineman. I pushed my dice to the limit. Can't really say I could have played much better honestly, so I'm happy with the game.

Good on Ingmar to snuff my guys out when it mattered. And I keep forgetting to stay away from the fucking sidelines.

[Ingmar]

I think I took like 3 injuries myself which is above average I am pretty sure.

[Sky]

Snooze 1-0 over the Tards.

The chef left me cold, no reroll stolen first half, stole two second half but MA got one back with the kickoff event. Started the game by knocking his Troll out cold, where it stayed for the entire game.

I made some progress after a quick feint, got back into scoring range with a partial cage...but forgot to cover his downed guy. Who then blitzed in for an easy turnover, and look there's goddamned FTJ snapping up the ball. I quickly knock down Joe and Jerkface, popping the ball out where it sits for a couple turns. Being close to the end of the half, Snooze just takes out their frustration on the poor underdog Tards.

Both MA's KOs fail their rolls, but this half is to be heavily in favor of the Snooze bashiness, right off the bat they bust my BO's arm. Pretty much every turn started with all my guys on their butts. MA was bashing with vengeance now, probably eyeing the 0-0 scoreboard with his normally elfy orcs. Jerkface snatches the ball after the kickoff. I get cocky and try to switch to elfyorc in the second half and immediately pay for it with a lineorc going down with a badly injured on a dodge. Then FTJ gets badly injured on a dodge. Then another lineorc on the Tards turns over on a dodge :) At that point I made my second major mistake and got cut off on his side of the pitch, letting Jerkface head unopposed to the goal line and it took me a couple turns to pressure him to score, leaving me only a couple turns to score.

I gamely made a couple nice moves, a nice pass and run into partial cage, then a handoff and re-cage on the Snooze side...but one turn too late to score. Some more punching on both sides but no more injuries. Probably should've thrown a pass for spp in the last turn.

The cold hard facts: 3 KO's each. 1 Badly Hurt for Snooze (Freight Train Joe!), I took 1 BH with 1 out for next week. I made the only pass of the game, despite my thought it would be an elfy orc game. I doubled his running yards and edged him out for time of possession, the ball was about equally on both sides of the pitch. I rolled 8 1s, MA rolled 2. I rolled a 2 on 2d6, MA didn't roll any. He got 2 12s, I got 1. Skulls like crazy, though I think only MA got double skulls on a reroll.

It was a fun game and I had a couple chances...but MA was on tylenol pm with a fever, so that probably explains it, given the massive skill advantage he has over the Tards and yours truly. So nice to play a team without dodge or a beelion stunty bastards. Good thing we both brought our best armor!

[Modern Angel]

Of note: I did not throw a single pass.

[Modern Angel]

FYI: Looks like Beardstorm had an extra game submitted. Will need to delete one of those.

[Paelos]

FYI: Looks like Beardstorm had an extra game submitted. Will need to delete one of those.

I submitted one too to test if my BBManager was working

[Sky]

Just remembered I had bought the wizard, too  

If I had only remembered that when Jerkface made his end-around while I was cut off from my side of the pitch. Woopsie, make it three big mistakes in that game.

[Modern Angel]

I always forget my wizard.

[Ironwood]

I never do.  What happens to me is I use it as soon as it seems reasonable and then curse as later on a BETTER opportunity arises.

[Sjofn]

In a game where I had a million dollars to play with for inducements, I was almost overwhelmed by my choices! I wound up hiring Morg, the halfling chef, one bribe, one spare apothecary, and a bloodweiser babe. I think that was it. Skipped the wizard, to IainC's surprise! I should've picked him up, really, as it turned out I did not use my bribe or spare apothecary, but whatever.

After some crashy whatnot, the game got underway! I recieved first, and lumbered down the field, Morg keeping what seemed like half the elf team busy trying to decide what to do with him. I only remember some things, like one of his witch elves failing a dodge (I think) and breaking her own neck (he saved her) and me lucking out with only a couple of KO's. I think I also broke one of his dude's arms. Point is, I eventually scored. He got the ball and tried a pass to grab a late TD himself, but the reciever decided to drop the ball instead.

Halftime!

IainC gets the ball to start, with the kick off event that eats one of his turns. Things happen, and he scores. But there's plenty of time left on the clock, and for whatever reason his elves cannot get through my robust Norse armor. IainC sets up to completely shut down one side of the pitch so I can't quickly change fields on him (little did he know I had absolutely no intention of doing that), but then my block dice go on a tear and I knock nearly every single elf I touch on their ass to start off. While they lie there contemplating the grass, my runner & friends set up on the other side, and trundle down the field. IainC sets up one last attempt to jostle the ball lose, but his fella just can't make it all the way to my runner (failed dodge I think, and he had no rerolls thanks to my halfling chef + him needing one early in the half) and I score on the last turn of the game.

So, in a total upset, the Mutiny wins, 2-1! IainC was kind enough to upload for me, as I am a loser who didn't actually set up BB Manager yet (Ingmar and I are lazy and were assuming I'd be lucky to tie).

[IainC]

I managed to choke yet again for no good reason.

Sjofn had a round million GP of inducements against me as I hadn't got around to trimming my team down after the last match. She bought Morg, a Halfling chef and some random mercs - no wizard though. I figured I'd spend a half stalling and breaking faces then use the second half to score given my far more skilled team. My plan for Morg was to avoid him as much as possible as S6 and AV10 is a nightmare for a DE team to handle.

My foolproof plan started to unravel almost straight away as the Norse managed to cripple two members of my team in the first couple of turns and drop most of the rest of them to the floor with some amazing block dice. My Apothecary saved a Broken Neck result on a Witch Elf but my defence was pretty strained from the outset. The Norse caged up and walked the ball down to score the opener with a couple of turns to go. On the rebound I miscalculated the time I had left and didn't realise I had an extra turn to try and score in, consequently I only had one deep receiver as I figured I had no time to score and was more interested in thinning down the available Norse for the second half. As it was on my last turn I snapped the ball down to the only Dark Elf in range of the endzone, the pass was good but the receiver was marked by two Norse and missed the catch.

For the second half I was receiving and made a hole in the Norse line. Things went pretty well to start with and I knocked down enough of the Vikings to be able to make a safish pass to an Elf in the backfield. As I wanted to play for a win rather than stall for the draw I got a few last licks in then equalised. There were four turns each to play for the winning TD and I set up with a strong right flank and kicked to the left. My plan was to overwhelm one side then break the cage with Witch Elves to try and break the ball out to a waiting linesman for an opportunity score. Sadly that plan lasted as long as the first round of Norse blocks and I could only watch as almost my entire team was stunned in the first turn of the drive. I tried to reposition but it was too late and Morg swatted aside the only marker I had for the final score right on the very last turn of the game.

Mutiny 2 - Hackers 1.

It was a fun game although frustrating. I managed to KO 4 Norse and caused no injuries at all. The Norse injured two Elves (BH on a Witch Elf and an MNG on a Blitzer) and scored no KOs, they did get a lot of stuns though which severely hampered any response I could make to the Norse plays. I simply couldn't break the Norse armour when it mattered. The Halfling Chef did little to influence the game for me - it stole one reroll in the first half which I got back from a kickoff event anyway and two in the second but there were no times I desperately missed the extra rerolls to be honest, the bonus rerolls probably helped Sjofn though.

[proudft]

In the clash of the ST 5 titans, Burrowing Beetles wins over Reborne's Ogres, 2-0.  

It was a very strange game.  I haven't examined the stats yet but it sure seemed like I threw about half or less the normal number of blocks - lots of times the block would have been lots of 1d or worse blocks on ogres or a potential for sidestepping snotlings to gum up the works.  So, despite all the lumbering behemoths on the field, both teams came out with no major injuries other than a late-game dead skeleton, which was some random 2 SPP scrub who won't be missed.

+1 MV tomb guardian scored a TD, the highlight of his career so far.

Replay is uploaded.

[Ginaz]

 

[carnifex27]

And as expected a Lizardman team wins.  My Cripplers earned their name in a 3-0 win over Slann the Mann.  Ginaz had some of the worst luck on injury rolls I've ever seen.  He was down 2 saurs and both his apoths in the first half of the first half.  I really don't want to go into more detail than that other than to say that he fought valiantly on when many would have surrendered.  I feel really bad for him next week, facing Comstar with 2 saurs out for the match.

[Ingmar]

My +1 agi runner is going to level, as are 2 level 1 line dwarfs. 4 linemen with guard coming right up...

Make that 3 linemen with guard and 1 lineman with +str. 

[Comstar]

In a game where I had a million dollars to play with for inducements, I was almost overwhelmed by my choices!

The lowest TV team in the league beat the highest TV in the league, with over twice as much TV. Unbelievable. Sounds like IainC got overconfident and didn't dodge away much? The Norse team's faith in his Friendly Ogre Friend proved too much for the evil empire of elves. I can't see it possible in there being a bigger upset in the entire season.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Negative Capability 2 - Necco Waivers 1 in the Battletech Division's third evil-good-twin showdown.

The first half started off fairly well for Necco Waivers -- they received and proceeded to rather thoroughly batter my players into the ground. They seemed literally incapable of not knocking down my players (though a few rerolls were dispensed in the effort), including a slew of 1d blocks that seemed to invariably come up yellow. I think I got my first non-blitz block of the game in on turn 4, and was definitely fairly thoroughly back on my heels. One of my Flesh Golems had his collarbone broken by a zombie, though he regenned, and I think another zombie was KOed.

Despite the blocking disparity, though, the Waivers caged up fairly deep in their half and I was able to mount a solid defense, eventually managing to turn the tables enough to get the ball on the ground -- though heavily marked. I marked up the ball with a couple of players and figured I would be good. Then I figured since the Waivers were doing so well with it, I would throw a 1d block on an out-of-the-way zombie at the end of the turn. This was it turns out a very bad idea, and probably the only serious mistake I made all game. A skull came up, naturally, and even if the turn hadn't ended I doubt I would have rerolled it. My zombie was stunned.

At this point things went to shit, from the Negative Capability perspective at least. After clearing one of my players off the ball the lone Necco Waiver werewolf managed to dodge into a tackle zone, pick up the ball, and dodge out -- all without the need for a reroll, which was convenient because he then ran across the field and threw the ball to the unmarked zombie who I had so recently failed to 1d block. (All the more impressive since the weather was Very Sunny all game.) That's not the shitty part, though, really -- after all the zombie was still like 3 turns away from the end zone, and completely unprotected. I just had to push a few guys and make a dodge and I had a fairly easy route to the zombie. At which point I proceeded to roll a bucket of 1s all over the field, turning over for 3 consecutive turns as my increasingly-desperate players endlessly fell at the feet of the slowly-moving ball carrier. Meanwhile my blodging werewolf was KOed, and eventually a ghoul was pushed into the crowd for another KO. The zombie scored on turn 6, while I probably whined a little too much in chat.

One more failed dodge ended my attempt to score in two turns, and the Waivers went into the second half up 1-0.

The second half, if not a complete reversal dice-wise, was certainly a very different result. Luckily my werewolf woke up, and now that I had the blocking initiative my significant Guard advantage (and +str werewolf) allowed me to fairly easily control the field, smashing up the left side while my ghoul loitered with the ball in the backfield. I made a dumb mistake while moving to score, allowing a Flesh Golem to blitz my ghoul -- the Both Down result managed to Badly Hurt the ball carrier, but I was able to recover, surf a ghoul, and score on turn 12. By this point my dice had definitely picked up somewhat, though I remained incapable of causing a casualty all game, despite ultimately managing more knockdowns and having very good luck with my second-half dodges.

In any case I kicked off for the last drive, and the Waivers once again caged fairly deep in their half. I couldn't really afford to be as patient as in the first half and so I rushed as many bodies towards the cage as was reasonable -- but could not put a man on the werewolf ball carrier due to the Stand-Firming golems on the corner. Avaia took advantage of this to block some players down, mark others, and make an unsupported break for the sidelines with his werewolf. This turned out to be not the best idea (though better than sending a zombie all alone, which to be fair had worked out just fine in the first half), as I needed only two Dodge-included openfield dodges and a GFI in order to get a clear blitz on the ball. Based on the first half I was almost sure one of these would fail, but avaia's Frenzy wight did me a favour, launching a 2-against block against my Ghoul that ultimately pushed him two squares closer to the ball -- removing the need for a GFI.

The dodges were made and the werewolf was dumped into the crowd -- who not only failed to hurt the werewolf but proceeded to throw the ball way across the field into what seemed at first like a poor position for me (I had moved players to screen off the opposite side of the field in anticipation of the blitz.) It turned out to be a boon, however, as it was also much closer to the Waivers' end zone, and my nearby str 4 werewolf managed to make a dodge and pick up the ball (requiring only 1 reroll, yay), moving into scoring position. I thought he was going to get pounded, but it turned out avaia could only free up 2 players for the blitz, resulting in a 1d block that only pushed him back. A few blocks on my part and a 9-square move for the assist (go go werewolf power) allowed me to dodge free once more and score for the lead.

At this point there was a bit of half mirroring, as avaia's chance to score in the two remaining turns was thwarted by bad dice. I pushed his werewolf out AGAIN and consequently left my own 4 strength wolf in position to be pushed out, but he could only muster a 2d against and ultimately neither werewolf was hurt.

--

I was certainly getting ready to be bitter about this game after the circumstances surrounding the first half score, but the dice more than evened out and ultimately the Necco Waivers' recent injuries -- down a Werewolf and with a rookie Wight, giving me a serious Guard edge -- allowed me to control the game in the second half. Avaia played well but might ultimately want to reconsider both a) caging so deep as a default and b) sending ball runners towards the enemy half with very little escort. The very thorough cage made getting the ball difficult, but it also allowed me to move freely around the rest of the field with very little pressure.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

The lowest TV team in the league beat the highest TV in the league, with over twice as much TV. Unbelievable.

I think it's time for Ingmar to admit that he has had Sjofn play all his crucial matches up until this point, while claiming all the credit for his ridiculously-bearded self!

(Not that I'm bitter about last season.)

[IainC]

In a game where I had a million dollars to play with for inducements, I was almost overwhelmed by my choices!

The lowest TV team in the league beat the highest TV in the league, with over twice as much TV. Unbelievable. Sounds like IainC got overconfident and didn't dodge away much? The Norse team's faith in his Friendly Ogre Friend proved too much for the evil empire of elves. I can't see it possible in there being a bigger upset in the entire season.

I dodged when I needed to but I didn't feel I had to a lot. I have a team where every single member has block, many have dodge, pro and frenzy. One Witch Elf has Dauntless and Block, the other has +1 Str and Block. I wasn't trying to stay away from the Norse at all, tangling up the cage while murdering outriders was the plan.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

The only important difference in terms of dice from the match appears to be the often-decisive injury rolls -- which, despite their immense importance to match results, BBManager does not summarize or analyze or even give easy comparative access to.

IanC broke armour an impressive 18 times, but managed only 3 KOs and 15 stuns. (Average result: 3 injuries, 4.5 KOs, 7.5 stuns.)

Sjofn broke armour 11 times, causing 2 injuries and 9 stuns. (Average result: 2 injuries, 2.5 KOs, 6.5 stuns.)

So on average this was a very non-injurious game, which favoured the Norse (barely) because they have somewhat fewer subs.

The successful block ratios were also unusually close (50% to 47%), with the Norse crucially rolling significantly more Pows than average -- and way less Pow/Pushes, which is the perfect split when facing a team with Dodge. On the other hand only 2 players on IanC's team have Dodge. In any case, this doesn't seem outrageously abnormal, seeing as the Norse all have Block -- so while you might expect the Norse success rate to be lower, there's no reason to imagine that the Dark Elves' should be much higher.

--

In short, without actually watching the replay -- average dice can still clump in decidedly non-average ways -- it just looks like IanC got outplayed. It sounds like he was expecting to win via injury, which unless he was packing a lot of Mighty Blow is a risky proposition -- all his players' Block would be useless offensively against the Norse, and his team isn't any stronger, nor do they have any Guard (ouch.) Instead he probably should have tried to win through superior positioning, taking advantage of his significant mobility advantage.

It's kind of interesting to think about -- it's not like having Block on all those players was useless, but like 80% of the Hackers' skill-ups were either nigh-useless (Tackle) or partially neutralized by the Norse's starting team (Block) -- and Block actually was useless when it came to Ian's stated strategy of smashing faces. Not having anybody with Wrestle seems like a particular shame, since if nothing else you can always exploit the numbers advantage by fouling AV7 punks.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

The only important difference in terms of dice from the match appears to be the often-decisive injury rolls -- which, despite their immense importance to match results, BBManager does not summarize or analyze or even give easy comparative access to.

IanC broke armour an impressive 18 times, but managed only 3 KOs and 15 stuns. (Average result: 3 injuries, 4.5 KOs, 7.5 stuns.)

Sjofn broke armour 11 times, causing 2 injuries and 9 stuns. (Average result: 2 injuries, 2.5 KOs, 6.5 stuns.)

So obviously an advantage to the Norse there, though given that they had an extra apothecary and 13 players, the main effect is numbers during individual drives.

The successful block ratios were also unusually close (50% to 47%), with the Norse crucially rolling significantly more Pows than average -- and way less Pow/Pushes, which is the perfect split when facing a team with Dodge. On the other hand only 2 players on IanC's team have Dodge. In any case, this doesn't seem outrageously abnormal, seeing as the Norse all have Block -- so while you might expect the Norse success rate to be lower, there's no reason to imagine that the Dark Elves' should be much higher.

--

In short, without actually watching the replay -- average dice can still clump in decidedly non-average ways -- it just looks like IanC got outplayed. It sounds like he was expecting to win via injury, which unless he was packing a lot of Mighty Blow is a risky proposition -- all his players' Block would be useless offensively against the Norse, and his team isn't any stronger, nor do they have any Guard (ouch.) Instead he probably should have tried to win through superior positioning, taking advantage of his significant mobility advantage.

It's kind of interesting to think about -- it's not like having Block on all those players was useless, but like 80% of the Hackers' skill-ups were either nigh-useless (Tackle) or partially neutralized by the Norse's starting team (Block) -- and Block actually was useless when it came to Ian's stated strategy of smashing faces. Not having anybody with Wrestle seems like a particular shame, since if nothing else you can always exploit the numbers advantage by fouling AV7 punks.

[Ingmar]

The lowest TV team in the league beat the highest TV in the league, with over twice as much TV. Unbelievable.

I think it's time for Ingmar to admit that he has had Sjofn play all his crucial matches up until this point, while claiming all the credit for his ridiculously-bearded self!

(Not that I'm bitter about last season.)

EDIT: I read that backwards, derp. Sjofn is a ringer! 

[eldaec]

Certainly opens up Stormbringer, where the assumption was 2 from 3 (Silver Horde, Beetles, Ex-Presidents) would contest the playoff line, you're now looking at 3 from 5 (Hackers and Mutiny coming into it). Probably going to need 9 or 10 points to qualify. So Mutiny needs 2 more wins, and still has the Ogre and Nurgle teams to play.

[Sjofn]

I could just beat you instead. 

[Falconeer]

with over twice as much TV.

And twice as less experience!

[Sjofn]

In short, without actually watching the replay -- average dice can still clump in decidedly non-average ways -- it just looks like IanC got outplayed.

I feel pretty safe saying that during my last drive the dice clumped in non-average ways. I seriously knocked almost his entire team on their pert little behinds in one big crazy tear.

[Ironwood]

That's the way of it and the fun of Bloodbowl.  My game against Celer was just like that.  He had the shite dice in the first half and we swapped at half time.  The shite dice punished me more in the second half because my ratties weren't as good.  I think that's the main difference between a high TV team and a low TV team :  They have more chance to get away with shite dice.

[IainC]

I certainly made some critical errors, I'm not blaming the dice for my result particularly. I could have equalised in the last turn of the first half if I hadn't had a brainfart and missed the fact that I had an extra turn to play on turn 7. I had the bodies to spare some extra receivers and my Agi 5 guy with the ball could have picked out any of them for a pass. As it was the only Elf in scoring range was marked by two Norse and flubbed the catch.

Generally I was fairly blasé about the Norse scoring early. I didn't have the means to break their cage in the first half and I wanted to prevent them dragging the score out until the last turn so that I'd have a useful amount of time before the half time whistle to respond. So I pressured the ball carrier to force the score rather than throw together a tight defence to prevent it. As I was receiving in the second half I figured that I could likely score from the restart in the first half and then score again in the second without too much trouble. Unfortunately for me I miscalculated in the first half and wasted my scoring opportunity then, in the second half when playing for the second drive of the half, I was literally crippled by the Norse. With a good percentage of my team out of action for two of the remaining four turns it was enormously difficult to prevent the winning TD.

Regarding the relative bashiness of the teams I felt pretty confident that I'd win a grinder game vs the Norse. I used my mobility to set up favourable blocks and get key players like Witch Elves into block chains - even with block vs block a 2d block should be reliable. I had a deeper bench to absorb casualties with and quite a few players with skills like pro as a defence against double skull results. I simply wasn't able to convert block dice into fewer Norse on the pitch. Several times the Norse had to throw 1d blocks to get away from my markers or clear away tackle zones while I was able to make any block I wanted with two dice almost all of the time.

[Comstar]

Edit- Watched the replay.

The Dark elves set up in a patten to defend against..shaven maybe? A deep defense and no one standing hear each other, with 3 dark elves further back than a Norse could GFI.

The dark elves spent the entire first half trying to bring down Morg of all players. Like a St 6 Armour 10 ogre with block is going to go down a lot. The Norse literally walk up the field unopposed apart from one dark elf player at a time. On turn 5 they left their ball carrier wide open to a single dodging one dice block from a dark elf blitzer, who instead threw a block at someone standing next to him instead. Granted the next turn the dark elves DID try it  again this time vs the  uncovered call carrier..and got sunned for their trouble before the Norse walked in unopposed. Edit- I can see that the plan may have been to delay the Norse touchdown...but doing it with only one defender vs a 3 man cage was never going to work.

With 3 turns to get a touchdown the dark elves spread out along the line, seemingly in an effort to get multiple catches down field and spread out the defense. Then they put ONE catcher down-field, and concentrate all their effort on the OTHER flank (granted, knocking down 4 out of the 5 defenders there), and don't pin down the defenders who are free to mark the single catcher. Meanwhile, the thrower is 2 squares from the Dark Elves touchdownzone line. Strange choice, it's not like the Norse have the ability so slip through the enemy lines like an amazon/skaven/elf team can. The lone catcher is marked easily by 2 defenders and predictably fails the catch.

The 2nd half started with the Norse in a deep defense, which again I though twas a tad too deep, but ending up nearly working. This time the dark elves stayed spread out, though again the ball carrier stayed WAY too far back IMHO. The Dark elves left a hole in the middle which Morg obligingly walked through and left wide open, allowing a the dark elf thrower to make a long 1/2 field length pass, and this time all but one Norse was marked. However, the Dark Elves had used up all their rerolls by the 11th turn to get that first touchdown.

For the kick off, again the dark elves were deployed deep and individually..the offensive quick snap allowed both witch elves sitting 1 square back to be concentrated on. The luck was with the Norse, all 4 hits ended in stunned elves face down on the pitch for a turn, The Dark elves then moved their spare players to the flank AWAY from the ball cage for some unknown reason. At least there were 3 elves on the correct flank this time and not 1 like the first half...but it was still 7 Norse facing 3 Dark Elves defenders. It wasn't enough, and the Norse were able to hold off the defenders for the last turn touchdown.

The Norse left several player's standing around not doing much several times, and left their ball carrier to open to a dodging elf 3 times, but a 2-1 score would be want you expect. Watching the replay, it was like the Iain was playing against a amazon/elf/skaven team, not a bashy one (then again, he's lost 2 semifinal's to Dodgy teams, maybe it's Post-Traumatic Dodge Disorder).  The Assassin was once again pretty useless it looked like, I don't think a single stab of his worked, and neither did his shadowing. Running of rerolls at turn 11 also undoubtedly hurt the Dark Elves playing style, and Morg defiantly dictated events. When he was ignored in the second half, he was knocking down a Dark Elf player every 2-3 turns, so it's pretty hard to deal with him both ways.

A team with the inducements of getting Morg, the Chef and a Wizard would be pretty hard to beat. Edit - I'd also say that playing conservatively was a the big mistake. I always try and do something to slow the other team down and always try to put pressure on the ball carrier. Amazing how often a Troll will roll triple skulls and that one dice block that should never work..works. Both ways too of course, that triple dice block vs that snotling will always end in disaster right when you don't need it.

For example...Morg got the MVP. He deserved it though.

[IainC]

The dark elves spent the entire first half trying to bring down Morg of all players. Like a St 6 Armour 10 ogre with block is going to go down a lot.

Versus a Dauntless Witch Elf with Block and an assist he should go down about 45% of the time.

Regarding the single catcher in the second drive of the first half, as I said I miscalulated the time remaining and didn't realise I had another turn to play. I figured I'd get some casualties under my belt as I didn't have the position to score. When my turn ended and I realised there was still one turn remaining I felt pretty dumb, I could easily have scored if I'd realised that there was still time on the clock and I'd given myself a choice of receivers instead of piling everyone into the scrum.

[Sjofn]

On turn 5 they left their ball carrier wide open to a single dodging one dice block from a dark elf blitzer, who instead threw a block at someone standing next to him instead.

That was the big "oh shit, whoops" moment for me, yeah. I was lucky to get away with it.

[Falconeer]

Turn 1 of my game with Llyse: his first and only block of his first turn earns him a casualty against one of my skilled blitzers. Right after that I have a chance to score on turn 2, 4+ launch (agi 4 thrower) with rerolls and throw/catch skills.... 1, 1, so ball fumbling right there for him to grab. All of this at the beginning of turn 2. I am having fun.

[Sjofn]

Only one person leveled on my team. Lump Beefbroth, Norse runner, now has +1 str. And I have replaced my dead werewolf. Hopefully I won't get too murdered in my next game, since I have zero money now. :P