f13.net forums - S#5 - Failoffs (1/4 finals)

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April 28, 2024, 12:14:12 AM

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Failoffs (1/4 finals)
** All games have to be played BEFORE January 11th 2012 **

** All games have to be played BEFORE January 11th 2012 **

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When are you free for our manly Elves vs effeminate Dwarves game Celer, I'm free for the rest of tonight, dunno about tomorrow, will have steam running in case you are about.

Megrim: Im back in the UK (GMT) on the 5th.

So anytime after that is fine by me, maybe Saturday or Sunday?

Tonight is out for me SirT, Monday is going to be bad as well. We'll need to shoot for later in the week, I should have a day or two I can clear out. I'm on Pacific time btw, I'm usually on Steam after 6pm..

Ok, I'm cool for later in the week, just let me know what day.

I should be on Steam tonight starting around 5:30 or 6pm PST, I'll look for you. Tomorrow and Thursday it will be more like 6:30pm.

Meh just saw this. Might as well get my ass out of bed and get this over with...

Celer, I'm getting a "Steam cannot connect to server" error when I try and log onto it. If you are around semd me a PM and I'll receive an email about it

I hate steam...

3-1 to the elves. One of his elves got a -1 MA injury, another misses next game. No other inguries of note. Good luck with the rest of the Failoffs Celer.

The Chemical Elvers win 3-1 over the The Pimpernels! The elves managed to capitalize on a Blitz on the opening kickoff to pressure the dwarves into an early turnover which they converted for a quick TD. The dwarves then muffed a handoff and again elf pressure caused the dwarf coach to opt for a pass attempt that scattered to the open field. Elves scooped it up for a second TD. The dwarves tried to move upfield quickly before halftime, but that is not exactly their strength, and the ball carrier ended up in front of most of his blockers and blitzed by the pesky ST4 elves (with Guardos standing by). The ball popped out and it was 3-0 at halftime.

The elven coach began giving his bench players some game time and totally forgot to receive the second half kickoff. A couple elves retreated deep, planning for a long bomb, and the rest of the elves kind of milled around in the center of the pitch. Dwarves inched closer, and AG5 elf got cocky and ended up dropping a pass on the goal line. Dwarves inched closer still, but failed their pickup roll. As the elves plotted the logistics of a potential 23-square touchdown, they accidentally conceded their turn! This gift allowed the dwarves to get their TD (which required a reroll of course).

The main elven Catcher ended up with -MV to go with his Catch/Blodge and will MNG, but luckily a young buck hit level 2 and hopes to step it up in the semis. A Wrestle-lineelf will also MNG.

Megrim:
I added you on Steam, will contact you there so we can schedule a time for the game thats good for both of us.
My weekend is looking pretty free, working from home, so please let me know if that suits you!

Cancklebiter and I just played our quarter-finals game. I don't think I've sworn so much at my monitor for quite some time.

He elects to receive first off and opens his account at the first-aid tent early by scoring an injury, a KO and a stun with his first three blocks. In return I surf his Frenzy/MB Wight off the pitch and get an injury but he makes the regeneration roll. Next turn the Undead cage up with the ball, I pop it out with a Wardancer and then fail a Sure Hands pickup with my thrower to get an early score. The Undead also fail to pick it up on their next turn but they have a bunch of players around it. I try and squeeze it out by pushing a player onto it and the bounce takes it to the only square which is worse than its current position. A Ghoul grabs the ball again and the cage forms up around him again. Once more I pop the ball out of the cage and once more I fail a pickup roll to get it to safety. A level 2 line-elf takes a -1 Mv injury (apothed from -1Agi) and my Wardancer gets pushed onto the ball which bounces around for a bit before landing in the hands of a Ghoul. Again I get the ball out of the Undead's hands, and fail a dodge roll trying to pick the ball up, the ball bounces into the hands of a nearby Elf who is quickly mugged leaving the ball loose again. I try and leap a Wardancer onto the ball which is deep in my half by now and in three Undead TZs but this fails. For those of you keeping score that's five failed pickup rolls in the first seven turns (not counting bouncing balls). The Undead push me about a bit for their last turn then casually pick the ball up and walk it in. On my last turn of the half I set up a Wardancer blitz on the same Wight that I surfed off in the previous drive but fail the GfI to make the blitz. The whistle blows and it's 1-0 to the Undead.

For the second half, I have 9 players fit for duty and I put some receivers downfield to set up a two turn TD. The Undead promptly injure two more Elves in their first three blocks of the half to give them even more of a significant numerical advantage. I go to clear a marker away from a receiver with a Wardancer but she fails the Leap roll and subsequent reroll to turnover with my thrower holding the ball in a very vulnerable spot. The thrower gets blitzed down by the frenzied Wight who then tries to push forwards to pick the ball up with no success. I stand my thrower up, dodge around the Wight, pick the ball up and throw it to a marked receiver at midfield, the plan is that he can then dodge away and make a handoff to an unmarked Elf in scoring range. The pass is on target but the Line-Elf fumbles the catch. Luckily for me however the Sure Hands Ghoul next to the ball fails to pick it up and it scatters out of bounds. The throw in is in the middle of my half of the pitch but completely clear of Undead players. I go to clear a marker from the Elf who will receive the throw and get a skull rerolled to a skull. The Undead throw some blocks and then move a Ghoul down to mark my thrower and presumably sit around to threaten a score. The Ghoul fails a GfI though and my thrower dodges away from the Wight, picks the ball up, passes it to an Elf at the maximum range who catches it and walks in a TD to equalise on turn 13.

The second drive of the half sees me down to only 7 players and I kick it short hoping to force Ben to choose between beating my guys into paste and protecting the ball. He puts a cage around the ball carrier but I pop the ball out anyway then leap a Wardancer as far into the Undead half as I can before grabbing the ball with my thrower and passing it to her. I manage to get a Line-Elf up there as well for support which proves to be crucial. The Undead put a lot of tacklezones on the Wardancer with the ball and then blitz with the Frenzy/MB Wight. He only manages a push on his first 2d block (after a reroll) and the follow up is only a 1d block which comes up a skull. In my next turn I easily dodge away and carry the ball over the Undead line to take the lead.

We've got two turns left and I'm pretty sure that I can't stop a Ghoul invasion if they want to try and play a passing game. Ben moves a Wight and a Ghoul into scoring range and cages up with the ball. I knock the ball free again and grab it with a Line-elf who takes a big risk by throwing it back to my thrower. He catches it and then runs as far away from all the Ghouls as he possibly can. Ben has one turn left and he manages to blitz my thrower down, recover the ball but he has nowhere to send it so the turn ends with the ball in the hands of a Ghoul who's already moved.

It was an exciting game although supremely frustrating for both of us at different points. I have one MNG for the semifinals but my Catcher who missed this game will be back in action, the other three injuries were all just Badly Hurt. No Undead saw the injury box or even the KO pen this game. My second-string Wardancer hit level 4 and Ben gets another Level 2 Skeleton.

Sounds like a match well played. At this rate, it's looking like I'm going to be the only non-Elf team left in these failoffs. Scary, because I really thought that the Undead were going to get through.

Rouge Rogues 1-0 over Squigskins.

First half was really tense. The Squigskins' trolls and my need to screen against thrown goblins (I finally learned something from my first three seasons of play!) tied up enough of my players that I couldn't wrestle the ball away from the mass of goblins, but they couldn't advance up the field either. Finally I managed to chain push the ball carrier out of the mess and knock him down, but the ball went out of bounds and the goblin fans threw it to within a few squares of my endzone. Bad pickup rolls and one were all that saved me from an easy goblin TD, as the lineman I sent to retrieve the ball proved incapable of holding on to the thing. 0-0 at the half.

After that, though, the dice pretty much tanked Kail's team. I took out his chainsaw dude first thing, then a goblin failed a dodge early in a turn, then his trolls decided to be really stupid over and over and over. I stalled at his endzone for a few turns, ran in the TD, then screened against a 2-turn TD for the final turns of the game.

So, three elves and a vampire left, with me going up against some well-developed woodsies in the semis. Really hoping Megim beats Celer. I'm not good enough with inducements to take on 1830 TV worth of skilled elves.

I've made my way through the Gentlemen's Club after a tense match, which makes it Vampire v Elf in the Upper side, and Elf v Elf in the Lower side I believe.

Post match game report coming up sometime today.

* Edit:

Insatiable 2 - 0 Gentlemens Club.

I think that this game was the first time in Season when I've had an even TV match. With some 10k difference after buying my fifth Vampire, this felt like it was going to be a close game, if only because I didn't have an inducement crutch to fall back on.

The game started off with the Vampires winning the toss and electing to receive and Scadente rolling a Perfect D in response. Immediately, Insatiable got down to the business of maintaining their perfect injury record this season, sending off one of their Thralls on the very first turn through Bloodlust, before the Elves even had any chance to cause injury. This was followed up in style, with a double-skulls on the first blitz, and an armour break into a stun for the offending Thrall.

Clearly awed by this display of suicidal stupidity, Scadente adopted a (mostly) defensive posture and sent only a single Catcher into the Vampire half to pressure the deeply placed kick. The Vampires responded by falling back and screening the ball mid-way into their own half of the pitch. The lone Catcher should have been easy pickings for the Vamp team, but rolling only Push results will tend to blunt the impact of any blitzes, no matter how angry they were.

Feeling a little more confident, and perhaps realizing that their opponents are more bark than bite, more and more Elves began to filter into the Vampire side of the pitch. A small scrum formed, but any time Insatiable tried to engage in a blocking war, the Gents simply pulled back and responded with effortless precision strikes. Nevertheless, the Vampires held their own half of their side of the pitch securely, and the push-and-shove went on for a few turns with no notable results.

Eventually however, after soaking a couple of stuns and sending off another one of their Thralls with a knockout, the Vampire screen began to collapse into the sideline. Seeing an opportunity, the Elves blitzed in, putting multiple tackle-zones on the carrier. In response, the Vampires blitzed and Gazed their way free, formed a cage and for the first time in the match, one of their players crossed over the half-way line into the Gentlemen half. This might have been seen a small thing, but importantly, by this point the Elf team had used two of their three re-rolls, while the Vampires were sitting pretty at 3/4 (this would become very important later).

The Gents fell back from the few successful Vampire blocks and were looking set to keep-up the keep-away game, but a failed dodge caused an early turnover, and gave the Vampires enough time to move the ball into weaker coverage on the other side of the pitch. This created a potential problem for the Elves, as the game was now spread out along the width of the pitch, and knowing the Vampire's ability to slip through thin lines, they now had to contend with attacking the ball as well as protecting their backs.

Scadente chose the latter option, and keeping most of his players back, committed to a light blitz on the ball. The marking Blitzer was Gazed off, and Insatiable moved a lone Vampire deep into the Gent's half, looking to set up a passing play on the following turn. The Elves pulled a couple of players back to double-mark the receiver, while successfuly blitzing down the ball-carrier. Fortunately for the Vampires however, a nearby Thrall swept the ball up before it could get into real trouble. Unfortunately, the play called by the Vampire coach at this point was not only a mistaken blitz on the wrong Elf player, but it cost them a re-roll for a failed dodge, as well as a failed GFI roll at the end of the blitz. Needless to say, with only one turn left to play in the first half, it would be up to the Gents to create something.

And create they did. A successful blitz on the exposed ball-carrier stripped the ball and sent it tumbling into the hands of a waiting Elf catcher. Furthermore, a well-judged block, chain-pushed that Catcher within two GFI of the Vampire endzone, and out of the scrum. With glory in his eyes, he dodged clear and sprinted down to put his team ahead. Unfortunately for him, the Elves had run out of re-rolls by that point. And, predictably, Nuffle pantsed the Elves by dropping the Catcher on the last GFI roll. 0-0 at half time.

Eager for vengeance, and seeking opportunity to test their attacking game, the Gentlemen set a strong center line and prepared for the second half. The Vampires had other plans. A fortuitous short kick, followed up by a Blitz! kick-off event left the Vampires kicking to themselves unopposed. The Elves responded well, knocking the ball free, but this time it scattered back into a bunch of friendly Vampire players. A failed dodge Elf dodge later and Insatiable had the ball under control in their opponents half. The Vampire coach was heard muttering to himself: "might as well carry on playing the first half's drive..." Another Vampire player crept deeper into the Elf half, with a couple of Thralls for a screen, and once more the Gents had to decide between pressure and defense.

Choosing to fall back and getting a light blitz on the ball was unfortunate, as the layered tackle-zones proved difficult to traverse, causing another failed dodge turnover. In response, the Vamps stunned a couple of Elf players with solid hits, and sat on the ball. Two Gents players did bravely fight their way into contact with the Vamp ball-carrier, but it proved in vein, as the Vampires had created enough space to block, Gaze and hand the ball off to a Thrall for a 1-0 lead.

With six turns left to play, the Pro Elf problem of being scoreless was twice compounded by a second consecutive Blitz! kick-off event. This time though, the Vampires were not so lucky as to manage a short kick, and could only send a single piece deeper into the Gents half to exert some pressure. The Elves secured the ball, but could not protect the ball-carrier, and had to recover the ball once more after he was blitzed down. They managed just fine, injuring a Thrall in the process, but the Vampires came on relentlessly, sensing desperation. Again they knocked loose the ball, forcing another recovery attempt by the elves.

This time they managed to clear it properly, passing down to an Elf Blitzer just inside the Vampire half. With two turns left to play, the game became a desperate cat-and-mouse affair, with the Elves frantically trying to screen and hold onto the ball, and the Vamps tearing through to try and get at it. Again and again the Vampires got in, and again and again the Elves managed to recover the ball and re-screen. Finally, on their last turn of the game, after yet another blitz-knockdown-pickup sequence the Gents had to attempt a pass in coverage in order to have a shot at equalizing. The Elf thrower though, could not handle the pressure, and snapped like a cheap matchstick - fumbling the pass, and effectively ending the game 1-0 in favour of the Vampires. Knowing they could take the risk, Insatiable knocked the weakling thrower off the pitch, scooped up the bloodied and much-fumbled ball, and hurled it (quite literally) downfield from the half-way line for a complimentary 2-0 touchdown.

(the STR-boosted Pro Elf catcher picked up the MVP for the Gents. Watch out for this future monstrosity)

It was a highly entertaining match.

I think I played a pretty decent first half, as I contained and pushed the bloodsuckers pretty well (getting number advantage early). But it was for nothing, as a failed GFI and two blitzes really were the last nail in the Gents coffin. Well played by Megrim, as he really utilized all my miss steps and punished me hard.

Luckily all my fledgeling players survived, and the "injury guy" got more injuries; I think it's time to cut him from the team!

Next season... next season!