S#5 - Failoffs (1/8 finals)

[Ingmar]

 

[Megrim]

Insatiable 2 - 1 Slann the Mann

I'll do a quick writeup later, but suffice it to say that after taking a ton of KOs and burning both Apothecaries just to keep a Vamp from being knocked out, Insatiable is through to the next round.


Brief match report as promised;


The game began in a relatively conservative fashion, with the Lizards choosing to receive and cage the ball. The Vampires threw a number of ineffectual blocks, but were however the first to draw blood, knocking one of their Thralls off the pitch. A turn later, the (quite scary) Strength-boosted Saurus was nearly sent off with a knockout as well, but quick intervention by the Lizard Apothecary kept the beastie in the game.

Confident in their ability to not allow the Vampires in for an attempt, the coldbloods moved meticulously downpitch, until finally they were inside the Vampire half. At that exact moment the mercenary Wizard struck, throwing a fireball into the StM cage. A Skink was knocked out and a Saurus stunned, but the ball-carrier and a couple of his friends remained standing. The Vampires could not bring enough Hypnotic Gaze into range to threaten the ball and so settled for trying to break apart the cage.

It was not to be however, and the Lizardmen knocked out a Vampire, flattened a couple more - retaliating in strength. The ball-carrying Skink slipped out from what was now becoming a general melee, and scored a turn later when a Vampire was sent off the pitch after Bloodlusting and failing a dodge.

This was not the end of the first half. The Lizards kicked with two turns left to play, and the Vamps set-up for a blitz to the left side of the pitch, banking on their superiour agility to play the equalizer in via the air. As these things are want to happen, the weather broke out into blatant sunshine, adding a penalty to all passing actions. The Vampires were undeterred, and after breaking through the lightly guarded Lizard flank, quick-passed and ran the equalizer in on turn eight.

The second half continued in sunny weather, with the Lizardmen kicking deep and the Vampires setting a loose screen along the center of the pitch. After another round of ineffectual Vampire blocks, the Lizards sensed an opportunity and blitzed downpitch in order to try and pin the ball-carrying Thrall who was hanging around the back of the Vampire half. The move had been anticipated though, and the offending Saurii and Skinks were blocked into the ground. The Agility-boosted Vampire was almost knocked out, but the mercenary Apoth kept him on the pitch.

Despite the earlier setback, the Lizardmen continued to pressure, seeing that the Vampire ball-carrier had not shown any interest in moving down the pitch. As the initial pick had been shut down, the coldbloods began to wrap around the far side of the pitch using their Kroxigor as a central pivot, and injuring a Thrall off the pitch in the process. At this point it became apparent that the Vamps could not hold out a stall for much longer, and the ball was moved up into the Lizard half of the pitch. Insatiable tried to back this move with a number of big hits on Saurii, but the Lizards proved stubbornly resistant to any kind of physical pressure, and remained on their feet.

Unable to secure their loose screen with knockdowns, the Vampires were forced to space the ball carrier, and hope that this would buy enough time to get the ball a little bit further upfield. In response, the Lizards were unperturbed, hitting out hard and would have sent the Agility-boosted Vampire off the pitch a second time, if not for the intervention of the other Vampire Apothecary. With the screen collapsed and Lizards closing in, the Vampires were forced to re-position and slipped through to pass the ball out to a Vamp on the farther side of the pitch. All went well with the plan (including the overcomittal by the Lizardman team), but for the final 2+ Catch roll being failed by the Vampire in question. Still, the ball was some five squares out from the Lizard half and covered by two Vampires. The coldbloods scrambled well, blitzing down a Vampire and Skinking the ball - but a questionable pass attempt saw them turn over to give the Vampires a second shot.

The opportunity was not squandered, with a Blitz knocking the ball out into open space, and a successful Hypnotic Gaze unlocking Thralls from the Prehensile Tail of the Kroxigor. Finally, the twice-Apothecary spent for Agility-boosted Vampire paid for his cost, and secured the contested ball inside a tacklezone. The Lizards scrambled in heavy numbers to smother the ball-carrier, and having earlier knocked another Vampire off the pitch, the Kroxigor blew another re-roll on a double Both-Down, knocking himself and a Vampire off the pitch. Now down to two Vampires, Insatiable had to score - and the remaining bloodsuckers combined, breaking out of Diving Tackles to throw another completion, and taking the game to 2-1.

The Lizardmen now had three turns left to equalize and take the game into overtime. The drive started of well, with two Thralls being knocked out of the game (when the Vampire were already down to ten players). But just as things were beginning to look up, fortune waned, and the sure-handed Skink fumbled the critical initial pickup, deep in the Lizard half. Insatiable thought about this, and sent two Vampires to pressure the back-field Skinks and the ball, while the rest of the team attempted to hold the massed Saurus line in the middle fo the pitch. The Skinks in question realized their peril, and with haste scooped up and ran the ball into a pocket on the Vampire half of the pitch, while the Saurii at the front hit out at everything around them, knocking out another Thrall.

However, at this point it became apparent that the loose Vampire screen had in fact been enough, and even the fastest Skink on the Lizardman team would not have enough pace to break into the endzone, coming up one square short even with GFI rolls. With a few last blocks and a well-justified foul against an isolated Vampire, the game wrapped up with a victory for Insatiable, at two to one.

[Paelos]

Cankles beat me 1-0. He also managed to kill the Minotaur I just bought and a level 3 goat.

I killed a skeleton in anger. Should have been 1-1, but I failed a GFI on the goal line on my last turn of the first half.

[IainC]

Falc validated my game v Luckton at some point over the last couple of days so I went to level up my Thrower who rolled doubles. Strong Arm for him then! I also had enough money for a third reroll as well which is nice. This team is going to rock in season 6.

[Celer]

The Chemical Elvers defeated Rebourne's Wrestlers 4-1, and they did it by somehow out-bashing the ogre forces.  There was one death... an OGRE, very early in the match.  And he must have been the smart one, as the rest of the ogres failed their bonehead rolls time and time again.  This gave the elves an open field, and you know what happens when the elves have an open field...


A precious guard elf will MNG, which I'm sure will delight the impending Dwarves, but that was the only elven injury of note.

[HaemishM]

Who is the Squigskins coach on Steam?

[Kail]

Who is the Squigskins coach on Steam?

That's me (Kail), I should be around in the afternoons/evenings.  Poke me whenever I'm on, there's some family stuff but I have a fair amount of time this week.

[avaia]

Falc validated my game v Luckton at some point over the last couple of days so I went to level up my Thrower who rolled doubles. Strong Arm for him then! I also had enough money for a third reroll as well which is nice. This team is going to rock in season 6.

What, can you transfer teams to a new coach now?   

[Ingmar]

[Sir T]

A precious guard elf will MNG, which I'm sure will delight the impending Dwarves, but that was the only elven injury of note.

Well, its a wash since one of my Trollslayers is out, but considering the inducement gap its gonna be easy to fill his place.

[HaemishM]

And the rats go down in flames!

Squigskins 2 - Zellar Dwellarz 1

This game was infuriating. I started by underestimating the goblins strengths and got hammered to start. By the time the game was over, I had 5 in the casualty box, though luckily none will miss next game or have any lasting scars. But my team was continually down 2 or 3 men at a time. And all too often, I'm finding myself having to make a crazy ass blitz in my half just to keep him from scoring. He scores on the sixth turn after a crazy series of short turns in which neither side could pick up the ball. This from gobbos, gutter runners and my thrower who all fail to pick up the ball. The next kick off and I get a gutter runner with the ball deep to score, tying it at 1-1. The second half starts well, with a kickoff followed by a Skaven blitz in which I get a gutter runner to catch the kickoff in his end. But I can't keep up the pressure due to a lot of bad rolls on things gutter runners should be good at and he scores again, leaving me 3 turns to equalize. The kick is short, but I bunch up the runner instead of sending him streaking downfield and he's caught in tackle zones. Not a problem, as a few blocks get enough pushes to free him down the sidelines with an open receiver ahead of him just three squares from the endzone. I throw a pass... and fail on a 3+ with a reroll. FAIL. Ball goes out of bounds and is thrown back into the middle of the pitch. His pogo stick player fails to pick up the ball and I send a Rat Ogre to blitz him, trying to get him away from the ball. I forget that both the Rat Ogre AND the pogo goblin have block and so instead of clearing the ball pickup zone, I leave the pogo guy in his place. No matter, a simple pickup by a gutter runner, a few dodges and I'm open for a mid-range pass to an open receiver who will score the TD. And I fail the dodge, game over.

Infuriating game. But at least my Rat Ogre got MVP and leveled up. He already has block and guard... what else will he get?

[HaemishM]

FYI Falc, I couldn't find Season 5 Failoffs on the BB Manager list and Kail had some issues with BB Manager, so I uploaded the file to the Season 5 league.

[Llyse]

Bad luck on the loss Haemish but it sounds like it was a close one.

I'd be leaning towards Stand firm to make him a real road block or Break tackle to improve his mobility

[Kail]

I don't have BBManager set up, and when trying to set up an account it keeps screaming at me in french for some reason.  I'll stick the file here and try again tomorrow, maybe it's a temporary problem.
Replay Here

Otherwise, yeah, weird weird game.  Haem blitzed my chainsaw on turn one, and, galvanized by their comrade's fall, the rest of the secret weapons on my team decided to pull their weight for once, taking one or two guys off the field every turn.  Bombs going off, morningstars hitting rats in the face, it was crazy.  The first kick was very deep (on the last square) and enough goblins managed to get through the rat lines to bring down the ball carrier.  The ball bounced all over the place for a few turns, with players from both teams failing to pick the thing up, but ultimately there were too many rats getting blown the fuck up to cover the ball, and I managed to run it in.

Haemish recieves on turn six, and I figure the game's in the bag if I can hold him for two turns, but the kick goes out of bounds, and he manages to blow past my defense while my goblins ineffectually flail at air, scoring on turn eight.  I have one more turn to score, and his kick goes out of bounds, so I try a goblin throw, but I end up blowing the reroll on the thrower's "Really Stupid" and the goblin lands badly, ending the half 1-1.

I recieve in the beginning of the second half, but Haemish gets a "Blitz" kickoff result and manages to get a runner under the ball, catching his own kick.  He's cut off from much of his team, but since my weapons have been sidelined (except the bombardier) and all his KOs are awake, it's a pretty vicious brawl at the fifty yard line over the ball.  Eventually, the goblins manage to yank the ball free after a failed handoff, and manage to bounce their way into the endzone through a series of rat blitzes to score the goblins second point, bringing it to 2-1 with three turns left.

Fearing a repeat of the first half, with the last of my secret weapons out of the game and knowing that the rats will destroy me in overtime, I kick shallow to avoid gong out of bounds again.  He has a gutter runner in deep, but fails the pass, and the ball goes out of bounds, landing in the middle of the field again.  My pogoer tries to scoop up the ball but misses (again), and Haemish tries to blitz me off the ball with his rat ogre.  It fails, and he's out of rerolls, so he has to run in, grab the ball, and dodge out to get clear, but fails the dodge, ending the game.

Overall,  
I don't know what Haemish did in a previous life to net him this karma, but his rats were fumbling critical rolls constantly.

[Reborne]

The Chemical Elvers defeated Rebourne's Wrestlers 4-1, and they did it by somehow out-bashing the ogre forces.  There was one death... an OGRE, very early in the match.  And he must have been the smart one, as the rest of the ogres failed their bonehead rolls time and time again.  This gave the elves an open field, and you know what happens when the elves have an open field...

The Chemical Elvers | 4 - 1 | Reborne's Wrestlers

Fun, if painful, game for me.
Nuffle still seems to have it in for me, with very little going my way.
Very early on Yokozuna was blitzed and the apothacary cringed, then pronounced him dead.
He'll be replaced but I'm not sure which huge wrestler to name the replacement after.

Once again, I need someone with musical talent to filk Ballroom Blitz -> Bonehead Blitz.

Other than that, the things that really hurt me was Celer's fine use of Kick, MV5 and Elves being able to cross the entire field in 1 turn.

Looks like that's it for another season.
Good luck to Celer in becoming Season 5's Losar!

[eldaec]

Not sure if it's just our game left, but close to, we had a few days were ezrast couldn't play, then a few days were I couldn't, now downloading to a new PC and should be ready to go shortly.

[Falconeer]

Ok, I am stranded out of town, away from serious computers and serious internet connections. I should be back in Roma tomorrow, or the day after tomorrow. That's why I haven't checked or valoidated anything, and I am sorry for that. I have no idea how many matches still need to be played, but please play them as soon as possible. While the holiday season is a mess, and so maybe the December 29th deadline wasn't realistic, it's still nice to have an idea on when the remaining matches will take place. Extending a deadline is one thing, ignoring it is another (I am writing this about 5 hours before the expiration of such a deadline).

[IainC]

As of last night there was one game in the failoffs (Ezrast v Ramas) and two in the playoffs (Bann v ICE; Sjofn v Ruvaldt) still to be played.

[Paelos]

I forget, do we keep failing in the failoffs, or is it a lose and you're out format?

[Sir T]

For consistency's sake it should be that the loser progresses...

[AndyDavo]

well it has to be a win and your through formatt, but the seeding should be backwards, so the 5th placed teams per the tables get drawn against each other, the 6th placed teams vs each other etc. This would mean that the 4 worst players would all play each other in round 1, so 2 of them would have to progress. If thats already happening, please forgive me, but thats what i think *should* happen.

[ezrast]

Rouge Rogues 3-1 over Silver Horde FC in a shocking upset!

I had enough inducements to buy both elven star players and a pair of babes, figuring I'd need the extra bench after looking over Silver Horde's roster. As it turned out, eldaec was the one who ended up short on players. The Norse ST4 ball carrier proved impregnable in the first half, and while the elven leaps, dodges, hypnotic gazes, and absolutely terrific armor rolls tore through the Norse cage, they couldn't stop his steady advance downfield. Silver Horde paid heavily for their TD though, and by the time they limped across my goal line on turn 8 they were down four players including one death.

The numbers disadvantage forced the Horde to set up a weak sideline defense to start the second half, which the elves quickly shoved off the field. The Horde tied up most of the elves before they could get through, but couldn't contain my star Catcher, who scored on turn 11. After receiving the next kickoff, the Norse caged up near the line of scrimmage, but again their player disadvantage meant they couldn't quite get enough defense where they needed it. A hypnotic gaze opened up enough of the cage to knock down the ball carrier, and a midfield brawl ended with the elves in possession after the Norse failed five catch rolls in a single play. Some unlucky block rolls from the Norse left one of my Catchers relatively unimpeded for a turn 14 TD. For the final drive of the game, the elves kicked short and were rewarded with a blitz kickoff result that allowed them to catch their own kickoff. The Norse knocked down the catcher, but an elven star managed to field the ball and run away for a final turn 16 touchdown. Which didn't matter because the SPP went to a star player, but it felt nice.

eldaec played a solid game and had some scary cages, but elven bullshit and incredible dice won the day. My star catcher is MNG, but the Norse suffered a death and at least one other permanent injury.

Looks like I get to play goblins next game? Sweet. I love pretending I'm a bashy team.

[Sjofn]

I forget, do we keep failing in the failoffs, or is it a lose and you're out format?

It was lose and out last year, I imagine it's the same this year. You're playing to see who the best loser is, basically.

[eldaec]

By the by, Truckle the Uncivil rolled box cars following the Horde's defeat at the hands of Ezrast.

The silver horde now have 5 players with STR 4 or 5.

Naturally they all have block.

[Megrim]

Oh cool, you might be able to make it out of the first round, next time...


 

[eldaec]

Wash your mouth out - the silver horde have been in 4 seasons and have a proud tradition of never once making the playoffs.