S#3 - Game Day #3

[NiX]

We'll see. It is so much easier for a little placement mistake to screw you against wood elves, and 2 minute turns means not a lot of time for me to mull over exactly where everyone should be standing...

Stand around his QB. He will do anything to protect that man.

[Modern Angel]

I loaded up on tackle specifically because I have a hard time against Dodge based teams like wood elves.

[Sky]

We'll see. It is so much easier for a little placement mistake to screw you against wood elves, and 2 minute turns means not a lot of time for me to mull over exactly where everyone should be standing...

I really wish there were 3 minute turns. 4 tends to be really long, but half a 2 minute turn is usually spent just trying to figure out what to do, and now that I know how to measure the other team's movement zones, I spend the other half of the two minute turn doing that and testing what my rolls would be and then trying to do the majority of my moves in 20 seconds.

[NiX]

I really wish there were 3 minute turns. 4 tends to be really long, but half a 2 minute turn is usually spent just trying to figure out what to do, and now that I know how to measure the other team's movement zones, I spend the other half of the two minute turn doing that and testing what my rolls would be and then trying to do the majority of my moves in 20 seconds.

You really need to utilize the time they spend doing their moves. Plan around their play as it goes and sometimes you'll be pleasantly surprised at some of the ideas you get for a play. Also, make sure you hit N and G when the game starts. Life savers!

[Hoax]

Hit me up on Steam sometime Sky if you want to just play some random spot games and I can try and explain some of the basics to you. A lotof it is just knowing what your team can get away with and what you have to risk. A lot of the time your best defence against big guys for example is to simply ignore them. They are bad at picking up the ball, worse at throwing and generally aren't too mobile. It's easy to get your whole team sucked into a fight around one trying to knock him over and that's their biggest strength. If they need to burn the blitz every time they throw a block then they become a lot less worrisome.

I'm always happy to play a game and if you tell me in advance that your interested in me pointing out mistakes along the way I'll be happy to do so. I usually don't because often people aren't interested in hearing it.

As for what to do when you are getting smashed. I was playing a game as Norse against Orcs via MM and it was after I had been brutalized by someone who was playing Ogres (I was impressed how badly he kicked my ass) my lineup was very depleted. He then proceeds to make dogmeat of me through the first half, injuring two players. It got to the point that I was letting him score while trying to hurt his guys behind the play and my plan was to play the next kickoff knowing I could get 3 easy blocks then concede the match and move on to the next one.

So he scores on his turn 8 (he received) and I KO two guys before the half. Then at the start of second half a fan hits his troll with a rock taking him out of the game and I KO two more guys on my first turn. This was with the ball sitting 4 spaces from my endzone and me having nobody back there since I was not even expecting to play the game. I spent that entire half with his team on lockdown, I had all of his guys on the ground with me making 2 dice w/ block rolls against him. I did do some damage but in the end I didn't get a TD because I failed to break armor for too long to free up players and it was worth it to me to stop the bleeding and go for +2 ssp rather then risk letting him get a player or 3 up while I picked up the ball.

I'll try to upload the replay and the one of Ogres killing me which I've been meaning to make Reborne watch so he can smash more faces in our division for me.

***

That said if you literally can't be bothered to read the rule PDF and the few basic strat tidbits from SA you are probably going to lose because I know I'm going well beyond that in my quest for glory. If you don't put any work into not sucking...

Also if anyone feels humble enough to ask someone who doesn't know anything really (me) to watch their replay and tell them what I saw them do wrong I'd be happy to. Just send me a pm because I'm not going to just reach out randomly to someone I hear or can see from results is struggling I tried that once and it was a big waste of my time.

[Strazos]

Also happy to spar with folks. I'm not a pro, I don't memorize probability tables, I ad lib my formations, but I'm willing to give folks a canvas to bounce ideas off of.

[Der Helm]

Same here, I tried to add the whole league to my friends list. I am going to hit you guys up for some sparring matches. It has been a long time since I last played and I never tried a Chaos team against human opponents.

[Llyse]

We'll see. It is so much easier for a little placement mistake to screw you against wood elves, and 2 minute turns means not a lot of time for me to mull over exactly where everyone should be standing...

Stand around his QB. He will do anything to protect that man.

Heh that's got to be worrying when you KNOW your star players are
Being headhunted.  

Also i'll chime in that I'm happy to play friendlies if I'm around due to time zone differences.

[Ruvaldt]

I love playing scrimmage matches, and can give advice if it is desired, but I'm far from an expert; just someone who has played somewhat casually for a long while.  Please hit me up for games at any time that I'm online, which is a lot less lately now that the semester has started and I have five classes to teach, but I'm still around most afternoons in CST.

In fact, a listing of coach names/steam names of those wanting to play sparring matches might be a good idea for a thread now that we have a subforum.

[lamaros]

I play the game on mm too much, so I'm always up or a game too. Provided you're ok with having half your team killed by goblins.. (I kid)

[HaemishM]

Peace Dogs 0 - F13 Catfighters 2

Comstar's bitches must have been experiencing their monthly visitors, because only such horrible cramping can be responsible for the lackluster performance they put on against the league's pushover Hair Band, Peace Dogs. The match started with the High Elves losing a player to a rock thrown from the stands while the bitches only had a knockdown from a limply tossed hairbrush. Lots of terrible terrible luck including a fumbled pass on the first turn kept the Catfighters constantly on the back foot. But as the match wore on, even the disdain of nuffle could not keep these experienced ladies down. A late first half score put the bitches up by 1, and an ill-conceived High Elf caging tactic backfired, trapping the ball carrier and running out the first half clock. The second half did not go much better for the High Elves. Their star thrower got ejected for leaving the boot in without even managing to muss his victim's hair. Injuries were at a minimum, though a High Elf blitzer did send one of the ladies into the showers crying. The thought of a luscious Amazon showering must have distracted the mercenary High Elf catcher as he failed to be able to dodge out of a 1 tackle zone situation with the ball and open space all the way to the endzone. Perhaps he thought his check had bounced. Either way, he dropped the ball and it never came back the High Elves way. Whenever they needed a defender down result, they got a stumble instead, a result that was easily shrugged off by the experienced ladies.

Comstar should have mopped the floor with me, but the dice absolutely raped him over and over. His levels definitely helped out, as so many of his players had side step, dodge, block or guard. Two teams of similar TV might have made a seriously different result.

[Ingmar]

What did you buy for inducements?

[HaemishM]

I had to buy a catcher because my catcher was injured, I got 2 free linemen I think, I got 2 extra rerolls, an apothecary and a broodweiser babe. The apothecary came in handy as it turned a lineman getting a -1str to a miss the next game. Even with the rerolls, I still needed 1 more. 

[Comstar]

In a close fought match where nuffle turns against me for the first time...2-0 Amazons over High Elves.

Nuffle wasn't very pleased with both sides. The elves choose to get some good quality mercs instead of 1 star player, but then lost a linesman on the very first kick off to a rock, and he's out for the next game!

The girls take the kick off...and then fail to pick up the ball twice in a row with a reroll!

But the High Elves are unable to take advantage of this, with the Amazon blogdes and guard players stopping their break through.

I started very overconfident...and suddenly found out it was turn 5 and the High Elves are making a play for a touchdown! This is unheard of. The bottom most ranked team is really pushing me hard because I'm spending too much time thinking 3 moves ahead when I *should* be covering the ball pickup and get the damm ball off the ground.

Luck went bad for both sides- the Helf's rolled skulls on a reroll 3 times. Amazon's failed rerolled dodges.

Eventually I stopped trying to show off and played to win, and got a Touchdown late in the 1st half. The Helf's had badly wounded one of my Blitzers (not seriously) and another Helf was badly hurt. They tried to cage themselves in...but the cage was built too hard and was brittle - they should have spread out more. I also made another mistake by not moving a catcher down field enough to be able to get a second TD in the last turn of the half.

The 2nd half starts with the Elfs picking up the ball...and then being shocked by a 7 move blitzer. I have 2 Blitzers with +1MV - I consider the speed more useful than having a block skill myself.  There was a scrummage for the ball and the Helf's got it back several times. Right when he was wide open and able to go for a touchdown...the Helf Blitzer tripped over a 2+ dodge.  I was able to get the ball and throw a short pass to a catcher who then danced around the end zone for a few turns while I tried to get revenge for almost stopping me get a win and punched most of the elves down to the pitch, though only a KO eventuated.

Twice the Helf's rallied one player and tried for a one die block..and ended up face down on the pitch from a skull. Nuffle was, as usual, a  bitch. The one time the Helf's got a double down...was when they no longer needed it.

My +1 ST Blitzer gets a skill, as does a Lineswomen. So far I have a +1 ST Bltizer, +1 MV Blitzer, +1 MV Blitzer and a +1 AG Lineswomen, so i might get her Frenzy - I've always been scared of those ST 4 Frenzy Werewolves (it's why both Catches have sidestep).

[HaemishM]

Actually, that catcher was a merc because my real catcher was injured. He'll be back next game.

Yeah, that +1MV really threw me. I figured you had no shot at trying to blitz that ball so deep in my end. That sucked.

I uploaded the file through BBManager, so it should be updated there. Even with the MVP and the injury, I don't think my blitzer leveled.

[Megrim]

Morsel 1 - 0 Nifty Helmets.

I might do a write-up later, but briefly; closely fought match, lots of slugging back-and-forth in scrums. Highlights were the Halfling master-chef stealing 5 (!!) rerolls, and Amaza-Goat who thought he was an elf. Gruntle kept up really good physical pressure and forced me to pretty much turtle into a 1-0 grind, despite my attempts at a last-turn 2-0.

[Gruntle]

Highlights were the Halfling master-chef stealing 5 (!!) rerolls, and Amaza-Goat who thought he was an elf.

Hey don't forget your last turn game-ending interception!

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Count me in for random pick-up games, Serious Training Exercises or otherwise. In fact I just created a couple of new Auld League teams today that could use an inaugural face-smashing.

[Sky]

I just rolled up a copy orc team to play scrims with. I guess I put them in the Auld League?

[NiX]

I just rolled up a copy orc team to play scrims with. I guess I put them in the Auld League?

Yeah, that lets you play open games.

Which team is bashy without having too many players stuck with "Bone-head"?

[Sir T]

You could try Dwarves or Norse. They seem pretty bashy with few problems like that. Dwarves are slow but rock hard, and nearly every Norse player has block out of the gate which makes them hard to take down.

Just send me a pm because I'm not going to just reach out randomly to someone I hear or can see from results is struggling I tried that once and it was a big waste of my time.

Yep, sorry about that. I appreciate that you tried, but it would probably have been better a couple of days after when i wasn't totally depressed about the whole thing and smarting from the loss. You were probably right in your advice btw.

[Teleku]

I just rolled up a copy orc team to play scrims with. I guess I put them in the Auld League?

Yeah, that lets you play open games.

Which team is bashy without having too many players stuck with "Bone-head"?

Yeah, I'm thinking Dwarves might be what your looking for.  I think almost all of them have tackle (which means the dodge skill doesn't work on them for avoiding a knock down), many have block, troll slayers have frenzy on top of that (gets to throw two blocks per turn if you dont knock down the guy on the first hit), and they have high AV, so their hard to kill.  They are made for bashing the crap out of people.  Norse are good at bashing as well, but there AV is like that of Wood Elves, so their a bit fragile...

Downside is that they are the slowest team, so they are even more vulnerable to fast team exploitation if they don't very quickly cover the ball quickly.  But once you have that down, they are wonder full at just grinding another team to dust.

[Modern Angel]

Basically, if you're having a very hard time with the survival parts of the game, go dwarf. They're absolutely the most noob friendly team. You may not win but you're almost certainly not going to be decimated by injuries.

I hope those people feeling really down don't get too discouraged and quit out. We're halfway through the season at this point so I'd like to see everyone stick it out. I'll still kill as many players as I can, though.

[Ingmar]

Tackle is actually only on the dwarf linemen, the blitzers, runners, and troll slayers don't have it. Runners lack block to start with. Everyone has thick skull and everyone is AV 8 or 9 so dwarves tend to stay on the field which is nice too (although a knocked-down dwarf can't move very far when he gets up.)

Khemri is actually the 'bashiest' team in terms of total team strength - you can have 4 strength 5 dudes with no 'lose your move' drawback - but dwarves are probably more resilient despite regen on the khemri (they have decay offsetting it to an extent). Norse can dish it out and are faster than dwarves but have low AV so they will take more injuries.

Orc, lizard, chaos or nurgle teams are also extremely bashy and mean once they get some levels on their big line dudes, and don't have too much trouble with bone-head/really stupid on most of their pieces. Orcs also can start off with 4 blitzers who are already great to start with.

You could probably kick a bunch of people's butts with vampires too but they're sort of fiddly due to blood lust.

[Falconeer]

Sadness!

I was winning 1 to 0 against Avaia, DESPITE my 2 blitzers being unavailable for the game, DESPITE having another blitzer kicked out at the beginning of esecond half, DESPITE being 7 girls against his 11 necros, DESPITE failing all the simplest dodge rolls even though all my players have dodge... and the impossible happened and he evened it out with a lucky skellington picking up a random ball without even nowing exactly what was going on. The girls are unhappy!

So, The Bell Jar Utd. - Necco Waivers 1 - 1

If you want to snoop the replay, fast forward to turn 12 or 13, that's when wacky stuff starts to happen on both sides.

That said, I think my team is still the most underdeveloped of all the veteran ones. I have so many level 1 players still, no level 4, and the only one who leveled up today will be unavailable for Day #4.  

[Sky]

Khemri is actually the 'bashiest' team in terms of total team strength - you can have 4 strength 5 dudes with no 'lose your move' drawback

Have I mentioned recently how much I hate tomb guardians? Hell, I was bitching about them in the stupid single player game, and the AI is borderline retarded.

[avaia]

Now I remember which wolf had strip ball.  Too bad it took me a half to figure out, even though I was staring at it the whole time.  

Weird match, I didn't play all that well, and 1 die blocks saved my bacon (seemed more effective than two die blocks today, whatevs).  MVP of the game was definitely my tackle zombie.  Not sure I've ever blitzed with a zombie so often before, not to mention counted on one to pick up the ball and score.

[Ingmar]

Khemri is actually the 'bashiest' team in terms of total team strength - you can have 4 strength 5 dudes with no 'lose your move' drawback

Have I mentioned recently how much I hate tomb guardians? Hell, I was bitching about them in the stupid single player game, and the AI is borderline retarded.

They're super slow, so you can usually tie them up with crappy linemen as most teams, especially if you're kicking off to them. Just put your 3 worst linemen on the line with them to absorb the first round of blocks.

[Hoax]

Yeah unlike Mummies they don't get Mighty Blow so you can afford try to just take them out of it. Khemri is definitely not the team for any new player you just don't get much to work with. If you are struggling and looking to just cause damage to opponents Dwarves, Orcs, Undead or Nurgle might be the way to go. Though I can't really recommend Nurgle despite their bashyness they are a strange bunch and rather complicated with specific strategies.

If you are struggling just because your getting beaten up but you still want to try to win games not just destroy opposing players just avoid any team that fields AV7 players. There is a world of difference between AV7 and AV8 or even better AV9.

[Teleku]

How many games left to play before Game day 3 is done?  

I hunger to unleash my skilled up wood elves get raped by wizards and star players.

[Sir T]

Just checked the league and there's 6 matches left to play.

[Ingmar]

How many games left to play before Game day 3 is done?  

I hunger to unleash my skilled up wood elves get raped by wizards and star players.

How much did your TV go up anyway?

[Teleku]

At home, can't tell.  I leveled up 3 guys (none of them stat increases), so it probably didn't go up that much.  But I'm sure I'm well over 1300 TV now.

[Comstar]

I am dreading my next game- Multi block Pro rampaging assassins who are drooling at the thought of killing my 3x+1 MV/+1AG/+1ST star players. The +1 ST Block Dodge Blitzer got Mighty Blow and I doubt she will live long enough to use it.

[lamaros]

Blood Bowl seems to hate Cad and I. Connection troubles. As in we can't even connect to start the game.

I'm on a wireless mobile internet thing, so I can't do much about it. Dunno how to get around it. Further research has indicated to me I have pretty much 0.00% chance of being able to forward the ports with this setup, so I will probably have to visit a friend to get this game played.

Might be a few days unless we get lucky, so I hope the rest of you are patient.