S#3 - Game Day #5

[Bann]

As Celar said, we drew 1-1.

Probably the most fun match of BB I had yet. I wish I had found a way for a 2nd score late (Im kicking myself for trying a meaningless 2d block w/ the ogre and having a turnover) as I now need a pretty unlikely series of things to occur to have a shot at the playoffs, but oh well. Tons of carnage in this game, but only badly hurts. My thrower ended up throwing double 6's and taking +1 str for his second skill, which I imagine will make him a pretty useful ball carrier.

There is also definately something funny with the money going on. I remember being miffed that the postgame screen reported me with only 20k winnings, but after the match was validated I had 70k in my kitty. Im also pretty positive I had 0 cash left going into this game.

[IainC]

Proudft and I just finished our game. It was a fun game where Nuffle decided both of us needed to be dumped on at different times.

I was receiving at the start and failed to dent the Khemri line particularly. The inevitable scrimmage line scuffle was going mostly against me so I decided to break the ball out and score when I could as my loosely caged ball carrier had been blitzed and I was worried about a breakaway TD early in the game. I picked up the ball again and tried a long pass over a couple of Tomb Guardians - I wasn't really concerned with AG1 players attempting intercepts - but I fumbles the throw and it ended up in the middle of the ruck. A strategic blitz left the ball with no hostile tackle zones on it and a loose elf scooped the ball and threw it downfield. Unfortunately I messed up my turn order a bit and the elf who was receiving was next to a defending skeleton. I had meant to block it out of the way first but I forgot. I blocked it down but couldn't get the ball safe. Next turn the Khemrians knocked the ball carrier down with a blitz and, luckily for me, it bounced into the arms of another Dark Elf who dodged out of the Khemrian cage in his next turn and ran in the first TD of the game.

I kicked back to the Khemrians who caged up in the centre of the pitch. Proudft underestimated the move of Witch Elves though and I got a blitz on his ball carrier. The ball bounced through practically every member of the Khemri team before finally coming to rest in a good spot for me to scoop it. A failed throw left the ball loose in the Khemrian half and covered by a couple of Dark Elves. If the pass had landed, then it would have been impossible for the Undead to prevent another TD before the half time whistle. The Khemrians picked the ball up and then threw it away again. They got hold of the ball again but threw it straight back to a waiting Dark Elf just as the whistle blew. My first ever interception in multiplayer!

One Dark Elf was badly Hurt and a Skeleton was dead but both teams were able to field a full 11 players in the second half. I kicked to the Khemrians who started off with a robust set of blocks from the Tomb Guardians. Proudft managed to get double skulls followed by the same again on a reroll and I took advantage of the fact that my team hadn't been beaten up yet to move them out of tackle zones. In his next turn the Throw ra with sure hands fumbled the pick up so again he didn;t get a chance to inflict any pain on me. I took the opportunity to push the parts of his team that weren't Str 5 death machines around a bit and sent some Elves down to put pressure on the ball handler. The Khemrians rather foolishly tried to run the ball downfield without the benefit of a cage and a Witch Elf easily blitzed the ball carrier down. I tried to pick the ball up with the blitzing Witch Elf but failed the dodge roll and left the ball free. The Undead scooped it again but couldn't get the cage in place leaving me to blitz it free once more. This time I had a spare Elf to grab the ball and throw it over the heads of a couple of Tomb Guardians to an unmarked Assassin. He ran out of range of any Undead while the rest of the team got in a few sneaky blocks. I forgot that Proudft had bought a wizard with his nearly 600k of inducements but luckily so did he. A lone skeleton moved down to put a tackle zone on the Assassin but he easily dodged out to score the second of the game.

With two turns each to go and the score at 2-0 there was nothing else to play for except blood and revenge. Proudft tried once again to run the ball down the centre for a consolation TD but a failed dodge meant that he had no cage to protect the ball carrier. ALone and surrounded by Dark Elves he went down hard and a Witch Elf scooped the ball and threw it to a Dark Elf who had gone deep. The Khemrians tried to blitz him but he kept his feet. In the very last turn, the safety Skeleton was blitzed away leaving a relatively clear run for the ball carrier, he easily dodged away from his markers but then failed his GFI roll right on the Undead endzone. Game over and 2-0 to the Dark Elves.

I got levels on a Witch Elf who now has Block and Dauntless to add to Frenzy, Dodge and Jump Up and on a Lineman who is now Agi 5. One of my level 3 Linemen is going to miss the next game too.

Barring a fluke result from Ginaz or Sky in the next two game days I believe that practically guarantees me a playoff spot. Comstar has to beat Proudft and AndyDavo if he wants the second one while AndyDavo just has to beat Comstar for his place.

[eldaec]

Nifty Helmets 0 - 2 Silver Horde

Score doesn't tell half the story.

6 casualties including 3 career ending injuries, a sending off, and 2 bizarre touchdowns.

More to follow...

[Gruntle]

The Nifty Helmets once again snatch defeat first from the jaws of victory, then from a chance to tie.
Chaos's Halfling Chef did his job, and after clearing the field of werewolves and disturbing presences in the first half (crazy block dice in the first meant a lot of turnovers and injuries against Ramas, I didn't contribute much really), the Helms received the ball in the second looking to make an easy score. Instead they with control of the pitch they managed to lose the ball where the Horde could run it in. One down, the Helms vowed to equalize before the game ended at least. But a long kick placed the ball near the end zone and they got ahead of themselves in setting up a path to run it back as their inability to pick it up (with a reroll) placed it in the end zone itself and the Norse were able to pick it up in the end zone square it got knocked into for a second goal.
Then it was all over so it turned to anything for SPP and Nuffle's favored Norse son got his 8th SPP of the game for causing a last casualty.

[eldaec]

Helmets vs Horde replay and report

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/318368/Replay_2011-02-12_22-22-09.db

Helmets win the toss and choose to kick, both teams set up with a fairly forward flat formation, and the kick goes short to Ghenghiz Cohen on the left flank. Cohen fails to hold the ball, but it bounces into the hands of Bravd the Hublander. Silver Horde are up and running, but before they can even begin to move the ball, the Nifties give the Norse a taste of what is to come, chaos warrior Kardos Neth Dar knocking Horde star lineman Truckle the Uncivil straight into injury box, badly hurt on turn 1. Bravd hands off to Ghenghiz Cohen, who takes the ball back to a safe position, and then moves it to the right flank, seeking to out position the slower Chaos side, the norse team have some success with this, and are able to screen several ranks into the Helmet's half. However, the Chaos warriors are having the best of the injury game, and over turns 5 and 6 the Norse snow troll badly hurts himself trying to run, Caleb the Ripper's hand is smashed by Kir Dal'Shin, and through a cynical foul Big Nurker is killed outright. San-Gor was red carded in the same incident.

With significantly fewer men on the field the Horde could see no way through, and the half ends 0-0, but not before Silver Horde's leading scorer, beserker Nijel the Destroyer also suffers a serious neck injury, as well as missing the next match, it is unlikely he'll regain his famed agility and ball handling skills.

Second half sees kicking specialist Slasher Mungo join the fray, and places an expert kick to the back right corner. Helmets number 7, Frizny Beard takes the ball and his team mates form a loose screen, however, Immortal Jenkins spots an opportunity to punch open a gap, allowing Ghenghiz Cohen and Bravd the Hublander to get tackles on the ball carrier deep in Helmets territory. Much of the Helmets team is tackled on the halfway line and the Nifties can only get Rikkit and Lonmulgors in to support. Frizny Beard can't get away from the norsemen, and falls to a tackle. Bravd the Hublander claims the ball and runs in the TD on turn 12.

The second drive of the half starts with a blitz by the kicking team, but they make little progress penetrating the Helmet's line. However, trouble picking up the ball leaves it grounded in the endzone gives Bravd the Hublander and Immortal Jenkins the crucial turn to get past the defence and sack the ball handlers. Bravd picks up in the end zone to score a second on turn 14.

The final drive quickly descends into an all out brawl. Ghenghiz Cohen and Lon-Mulgors both suffering career ending injuries on turn 16.


Silver Horde will go into the next match against Team SnooSnoo missing both werewolves and both beserkers. The last unbeaten record in Stormbringer division looks to be under serious threat.

'Another such victory and I am undone.'

[avaia]

 

[Falconeer]

Strongman (Scadente) vs. The Bell Jar Utd. (Falconeer)    1 - 0


The match? Here it is:

[eldaec]

Aaaand I didn't get my money from that match either.  (or rather I got 20k instead of 50k that the end game screen promised).

Funny how sensitive you get to these things when you have 2 zerkers and a Ulfwerener to replace.

[Comstar]

Andydavo's Dark Elves only have 1 Runner, 1 Blitzer and 4 linesman available to play his next game vs the High Elves who have a full line up and will probably get some inducements as well. Hamish should be able to win it...I hope.

My game vs the Khermi will come down to the inducements - he's getting over 500K, but his players are vastly unskilled compared to mine.

I can't see IanC losing or even drawing any of his games..though if anyone playing him actually remembers to use the wizard they might cause an upset.

I really should have gotten the Kick skill earlier on.


Next season, if we get 8 per group again, could we can do the top 4 go to the playoff's, rather than the top 2?

[Ingmar]

Wow, a lot of carnage today.

[Modern Angel]

Silver Horde will go into the next match against Team SnooSnoo missing both werewolves and both beserkers. The last unbeaten record in Stormbringer division looks to be under serious threat.

 

[Megrim]

Morsel 3 - 0 Reborne's Wrestlers.

Ogres didn't roll many armour breaks, and the ones they did were mostly stuns; while the Vamps mostly just ran around and played ballgames.

[Reborne]

Ok, nuffle looked upon my dice and laughed...

Reborne's Wrestlers 0 - 3 Morsel

Not much to say here.
Megrim played a solid game. I made a bunch of mistakes because even when I wasn't doing silly things I couldn't catch a break.
My rerolls were gone faster than I could blink.
My wizard fizzled.
I don't think I got more than 1 injury and even that got apothecary'd into no long term effect.

The things that went in my favor, Megrim got 2 players sent off trying to foul my lone leveled Ogre and only managed to stun him.
I got to throw a goblin, he landed on his face but he took the ball with him.
I think Sid Vicious got to level 3 and The Great Khali got to level 2.

Even with all this I was still laughing through out the match.

Replay up on BB Manager.

[eldaec]

So I think Stormbringer is just waiting for Scarlet and Gray to play Offsidhes.

All three of the other matches have a clear result which puts pressure on both of these teams to get a clear win.

10pts  +7 TD   SnooSnoo        to play Silver Horde, Scarlet & Gray
9 pts   +6 TD   Silver Horde     to play Team SnooSnoo, Morsel                               
9 pts   +4 TD   Morsel              to play Offsidhes, Silver Horde
8 pts   -1  TD   H H Burninluv   to play Rebourne's Wrestlers, Nifty Helmets
5 pts   +2 TD   Offsidhes          to play Scarlet & Gray, Morsel, Rebourne's Wrestlers
5 pts   -1  TD   Scarlet & Gray   to play Offsidhes, Nifty Helmets, Team SnooSnoo

Rebourne's Wrestlers and Nifty Helmets are on 2 points each and now mathematically out of playoff contention. But as the Horde's pyrrhic victory shows, they aren't out of fucking people up contention.

[Ruvaldt]

1 - 1 draw between Rat Country and Diplomatic Immunity.

This was a fun match, and full of surprises.  For the first six turns it really felt pointless as I feebly attempted to trip up the Nordic cage and Strazos stomped two rats down into the pitch with injuries.  Strazos scored rather easily and kicked off to me at around turn 6.  Strazos won the kick-off event and was able to reposition his defense to counter my offensive formation.  My hopes were pretty dashed at that point as my thrower was KO'd, I didn't have long to score, and Strazos arranged a good defense against my plans.  With a little luck and planning though I picked up the ball with a GR, passed down the field, formed a basic cage against the sideline, and then pounded a TD through on the following round.

I received in the second half, but Strazos got a blitz event and knocked me around a bit.  At this point a bug struck.  The game said that the ball landed out of bounds, and it looked as if the ball had landed out of bounds, but my turn began as usual, and I wasn't asked to give the ball to a carrier.  If it had, I would've been pretty damned happy because there was a pretty good opportunity in front of me.  Instead I took a guess, ran to the spot next to where the ball was showing up out of bounds, and apparently picked it up and then handed it off to run down-field.  My whole team was crumpling underneath the Nordic charge though and I knew that I had to run the ball down to his endzone in a mad dash to either score a TD or get knocked down and make him run from one endzone to another just to score.  Strazos pounded my wild GR who had possession, and the rest of the half was me putting up a screen as best I could to try to wrangle the ball from him and keep him from scoring.  The end of the game is a classic heartbreaker in which Strazos' runner failed a pivotal dodge roll to score the winning TD.

Great game, though I'm not sure if Strazos feels that way.  I inflicted two injuries, one of which will be lasting into the next gameday.  It feels good to at least not lose.

[Falconeer]

Good job Ruvaldt! 

By the way, only three games to go after only 4 days. Sweet.

[Strazos]

Just got done playing with Ruvaldt.

Norse receive, and make their way up the pitch. They get towards the goal line, and would have normally stalled for time, but with the rats creeping in and seemingly able to dodge at will, the runner takes no chances and runs it in at around turn 6.

On the ensuing kick...the Rat interface spazzes out a bit, and they burn a minute trying to figure out what to do. In the following scuffle at midfield, a tiny hole is punched in the Norse flank, and the rats flood through, with the gutter runners sprinting seemingly half the field in a single turn. The norse try to reposition, but just don't quite have the speed to properly defend. They get a man on the runner, but he's blocked aside with ease, and the Rats run it in at the half to tie it up.

Norse kick off in the second half, and things get a bit...bloody. Huge midfield battle results in a few injured rats, and a key injury to a werewolf is somehow inflicted. While attempting to mend his arm, the apothecary manages to break his ribs, putting him out for the next game. This provides an opening for the rats to orchestrate some backfield shenanigans and send a gutter rat off to the races. He very nearly makes it 2-0, but two Norse are able to break away from the pack and run him down...forcefully.

Norse recover, and tread back upfield. Rat injuries are starting to mount, but they still manage to keep a solid defense together. The norse try to push their way through twice, only to be denied. Eventually, they just a trick bootleg play, sending their star runner up the opposite sideline with a beserker providing cover. The rats, to their credit, manage to somehow shift a few players to the complete opposite side of the field to effect a last stand defense. The Zerker pushes off one blocker, and the runner blitzes the remaining rat. Now, an aside.

**For those who don't know, it seems that if you blitz with someone, and Don't follow up, you can still move afterwards. While not a conscious decision, I tend to blitz with my bashier werewolves and bezerkers, who have frenzy and no option to Not follow up.**

Unfortunately, I thought that if I chose to Not follow up, I would not have the option of continuing my winning move into the endzone. So, I got a Defender Down, and followed up...putting me into a single TZ. My star runner has dodge...but unfortunately this was not enough, and he falls on the goal line.

Tie Game. Personally, I think ties are a load of crap and a cop-out.

EDIT: overall a good game. Perhaps we deserved a tie, though I would have rather it did not result from a simple UI error on my part.

[Llyse]

Good job Ruvaldt! 

By the way, only three games to go after only 4 days. Sweet.

Lamaros is still sorting out connection issues in between having a life so no game on the weekend.

Hopefully we'll play soon so I can focus on ice cream 

[lamaros]

Good job Ruvaldt! 

By the way, only three games to go after only 4 days. Sweet.

Lamaros is still sorting out connection issues in between having a life so no game on the weekend.

Hopefully we'll play soon so I can focus on ice cream 

Yeah I think I will have to play at a friends to try and get around the connection issues, so we might have to actually set a day and time to make it happen so I can be there to do it.

[Teleku]

Hippes Vs. 7 Deadly.  1-2, and the Hippies shall again for sure miss the playoffs.

I think my game can best be summed up with this screenshot  :

[HaemishM]

Holy shit, I thought my dice were bad.

[ezrast]

I am pretty terrible against elf teams; I always set up for a straightforward rawr smash attack on my ball carrier and am inevitably surprised by the dodging, leaping precision strike that ends up with my ball carrier down and the ball half the pitch away. Fortunately, Teleku's wood elves were just un-elfy enough for my lizards to edge out a 2-1 victory thanks to a lot of failed dodges and GFI's. The replay is a fun one to watch.

First half, 7 Deadly chose to kick (hoping to take out Teleku's AV 6 kicker before he could be used) and couldn't react quickly enough to prevent a 3rd turn TD despite an early failed dodge on the part of Gwythaeth, the Hippies' Wardancer. The second drive nearly ended the same way after Gwythaeth and Nimanwe, the Hippies' catcher, snatched the ball out of my poor Megaera's hands. Fortunately, crisis was averted when the both of them rolled double 1's on their GFI's toward my endzone (Sure Feet indeed!) and a skink managed to scurry back towards the LoS with the ball. Teleku mounted a defense, buy my skinks kept their grubby mitts on the ball (barely) to score a turn 8 TD and tie up the game. On the way, they fouled that kicker out of the game (and the next - Merely a Fleshwound can thank me later edit: nope, just the one game), but two of them got ejected in the process.

Second half began with 9 elves and 10 lizards on the field thanks to injuries and ejections (respectively) and was too busy to recount in its entirety; I lost count of the number of times the ball got knocked out of my hands and both teams spent a lot of time running laterally, trying to get past the others' screen of players. Teleku nearly turned the game around in turn 15, but failed to dodge towards the ball after knocking it out of my hands (with a wide open catcher in range of the endzone), and I recovered and double-GFI'd for the turn 16 win.

Hilarious skink play of the day goes to Megaera, who showed up star catcher Pruflas by nabbing the ball on the bounce (despite being marked by a Hippie) after Pruflas failed both his catch rolls. Pruflas got so upset by this that he got himself ejected from the game later that turn. Honorable mention goes to the newly-hired Zaebos for not taking any shit from Sturdybranch the Treeman in the above screenshot.

[lamaros]

WIZARD FIZZLED

BECAUSE IT FIZZLED (AGAIN!) AND THE WOLF WAS STILL THERE

I FAILED THE DODGE ON A TWO

THEN I ROLLED A 1 ON THE REROLL

NEVER GETTING WIZARD AGAIN

ALSO: ROAMING APOTH? USELESS REROLLS DEATH TO DEATH

SAVE CASH! DON'T GET INDUCEMENTS!

Rantless description below.

[avaia]

SAVE CASH! DON'T GET INDUCEMENTS!

Very tired. Write more tomorrow.

Coaches, please follow this advice!

[Falconeer]

So, one game to go: Hoax vs. Kail.

And great job there Lamaros, stopping that Necro army.

[Ingmar]

So it appears that as long as Llyse beats ICE and I beat Lamaros, I am in?

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Hmm I tried to watch the unspoilered replay of the Llyse-Lamaros match but the replay appeared to 'hang' on turn 2 when a zombie randomly tried to dodge into a linerat tackle zone -- and the replay proceeded to maintain focus on that frozen moment of time indefinitely, except for the occasional Blitz lightning bolts appearing over different players' heads. Very strange (I had to ctrl-alt-del out of the replay.)

But sorry to hear Lamaros did not succeed in the upset, which would have maintained Maximum Drama in the division. A draw is better than a loss, of course, but for god's sakes couldn't you have at least injured somebody?  


Edit: And I finally got around to checking BBManager for my game vs. Ingmar, confirming that if I had noticed that the computer put a ghoul on my LOS, I would have had an extra player for the entire second half (the armour break roll was an 8, sigh.)

[Ice Cream Emperor]

So it appears that as long as Llyse beats ICE and I beat Lamaros, I am in?

It depends how many TDs you beat Lamaros by, and how I do against Teleku. Right now I'm at +3 TD and you're at +1, but you will be at +3 next week and if I lose to Llyse I will have at most +2, so I'll have to beat Teleku by more than your margin over Lamaros.

That said, if you (or Lamaros) get in to the playoffs because of your free 2-0 margin on Nix I will probably stab somebody.

[Ingmar]

My long term strategy of not fouling Teleku once the game was in hand pays off?

[eldaec]

Is there not a button we can push to flip all Nix's historic results to 2-0 defeats.

Or just overrule the system in defining playoffs if it doesn't match a 2-0 result for each match.

I thought we had to do that last time with the dummy teams?

[Falconeer]

We can overrule Playoffs and put in the teams we like, so all matches played against NiX will count as 2 - 0.


Then,

Hmm I tried to watch the unspoilered replay of the Llyse-Lamaros match but the replay appeared to 'hang' on turn 2 when a zombie randomly tried to dodge into a linerat tackle zone -- and the replay proceeded to maintain focus on that frozen moment of time indefinitely,

this is EXACTLY why you should all upload replays right after the end of the match. That way, you are uploading the game while it's still in your computer memory. Replays can get corrupted, and if that happens we are screwed. While uploading the game as soon as it gets detected at the end of the game guarantees a safe upload.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

We can overrule Playoffs and put in the teams we like, so all matches played against NiX will count as 2 - 0.

Damnit now I have to go edit my epic Battletech What-If playoff qualification thread! (Though it only really affects my TD difference, since ezrast beat Nixel 2-0 anyways and everyone else in contention got the default.)

[lamaros]

My replay also bugged out. No luck for the viewers.

Embarrassing first half. Forgot to put all my GRs on to receive, etc...

[Teleku]

Ice might be in trouble.  Nuffle tends to grant me great luck as soon as it doesn't fucking matter anymore.  I expect a 5-0 victory in my future.

[Ingmar]

Ice might be in trouble.  Nuffle tends to grant me great luck as soon as it doesn't fucking matter anymore.  I expect a 5-0 victory in my future.

Do it for Brian Wilson's beard.