S#4 - Game Day #3

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Game Day #3
** All games have to be played BEFORE June 3rd 2011 **





** All games have to be played BEFORE June 3rd 2011 **

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Scores and Standings after Game Day #2



Scores:





Standings (2 played out of 7):


Battletech Division





Cthulhu Division






Stormbringer Division






Twilight 2000 Division













Player stats:







Team stats:

[Llyse]

Your eternal silver medalist has his game scheduled with Bann for this Sunday.

Game on mofos! 

[Ingmar]

Dwarves stomping elves is scheduled for Friday night.
vs. 

[Ginaz]

BOHICA!

[Sjofn]

That was the name of the a capella group Ingmar was in. True story.

[Modern Angel]

Snoosnoo 2
Huhnqua  1

I think I might have ruined my friendship with Drogg on this one. That score doesn't remotely relate what was done to him on that field tonight.

Game started with HHBL controlling the field and my dice completely failing me. It looked like yet another case of me just failing to figure out Lizardmen. He caps this with a blitz tackle of my thrower right at his end zone with a lizardman... who then rolls six on the pickup and scores.

So after his score, Drogg actually apologizes. He apologizes for real. It's like Nuffle looked down at this display of sportsmanship and brotherliness, frowned mightily and proceeded to kick Drogg in the balls for the next 45 minutes.

The dice immediately turn on him. Injuries begin to rack up, I score on turn 8. Second half just gets worse. I make a couple stupid plays and leave myself open to blitzes but Drogg is down to six people on the field by the end... this is with a total of 14 on his team. Just carnage. I walk it in on turn 16 after being really obnoxious and grinding the clock down.

Really, watch a replay or check the analysis. I don't know that I've seen anything quite like this before.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Negative Capability wins 2-0 over Carnifex's Cripplers.

I can't really take too much credit for this, as the dice turned on Carnifex fairly hard -- especially in the second half. I began the game receiving and managed to keep the lizards mostly on their back foot until a relatively early score on turn 4. Some unfortunate pickup dice let me put the pressure on on D, forcing a risky hand-off-and-dash that put a single skink ball carrier alone in my half. At this point there was some strange bug, where a rerolled Both Down (that should have knocked over my still-unskilled-after-two-seasons flesh golem) failed to actually knock my player over. This meant a second saurus was trapped and unable to cut off my deeper players, allowing me to get a blitz on the ball and stop the score.

By this point Carnifex was down a saurus due to a failed 1d block -- the only non-TD SPP my team gained the entire game. As per usual, my players simply could not cause casualties through blocking -- I think I managed a single KO on an offensive block through the entire game, despite what felt like above-average block dice. Luckily for me this did not stop the Cripplers from stunning, injuring, and mostly KOing themselves on dodge after failed dodge -- at one point Carnifex had 6 players off the field, only one of which I had put there. A 3-dodge blitz from my blodgy werewolf took out his ball carrier from the weak side and thanks to the aforementioned dodge luck I was able to grab the ball and cavort off for an easy score after a few turns of stalling.

Carnifex's chance for a 2-turn score was foiled by another failed pickup, and the game ended 2-0 with no serious injuries on either side.

[Comstar]

Ginaz is down two Saurii, has 1 skill and 770k of inducements. I suspect he'll get Morg or the Sauran Star player, which will make slowing him down pretty hard - I have to hope my kicking is done well so he dosn't get a touchback, and he forgets about the Wizard. I need to blitz a skink every turn.

Why does steam never allow me to message anyone until after the game? I'm the game lobby hoping he see's my PM.

[lamaros]

My Rat Ogre was KOed first turn and hasn't gotten up. Guess how the rest of the game is going for me...

[lamaros]

Double 1s followed by another injury! Hooray for nuffle...

[lamaros]

SS runner down (miss next game apothed in to dead) 6 left on the pitch...

[lamaros]

Counting down still! Now at 5!

[lamaros]

4. One died on a failed block...

[Strazos]

Gruntle found his dice, I take it? 

[lamaros]

Everyone who is not dead is miss next game.

[lamaros]

2-1 to Gruntle in the end.

I think it was 5 injured, 1 dead, 4 KO (RO down for the entire match).

Hilariously, I could have drawn if I wasn't so damn stupid, or maybe won.

I went for a crowd surf first turn with my RO but hit him down first go, so moved on and guarded the side. I picked up the ball and ran it deep with lots of cover easily. Gruntle then smashed my RO with all his men, getting a KO, but couldn't get near the ball. I ran it in turn two.

He then played a very defensive cage, and I went very offensive to try and break in without any real luck at all. Finally I got a hit in and the ball was loose, around turn 6. I went for the kill, using a linerat to scatter a ball I had marked with two GRs, trying to get a better placement so I could run in a score before the half finished. 4/8 of the possible scatter spots were good, 4/8 were bad.

It landed in the worst.

Gruntle picked it up with ease and made the move to the endzone, easily protected. But on the last turn of the half he threw a block before running it in. A 3 dice block, without block or a reroll. Skull, both down, both down. On my wrestle guy. Who wrestled, because I hadn't put wrestle back on 'ask' since the computer reformat...

In the start of the second Gruntle failed a pickup for once, leaving it free for my GRs to pounce. Double 1s on a GFI (which I should have done after I moved the other GR, admittedly) put paid to that. On the next turn Gruntle injured a blitzer, taking me to 7 on the pitch and effectively killing any chance I had. With no blitzers, no rat ogre and no dauntless I cannot break a cage on a 4str beastman surrounded by blocking chaos warriors.

So I tried to stall for a draw. Bang. SS/Block GR who was guarding the flank goes down injured. To miss the next game. I decide I need him a nd use the apoth... miss next game or death...

So I went a bit on tilt.

Then just for shits and giggles nuffle gave me a riot on the last turn after Gruntle made it 2-1, so I had two to score. Failed pickup (w/ sure hands) one turn, failed throw (w/ pass) the next.

Whoever has me next is in for a dream, my team is literally dead or miss next turn injured.

[Gruntle]

A lot of Nuffle-love propelled the Nifty Helmets to a 2-1 victory over Lamoros's Rape of Skabine.

Helmets chose to kick off and bashed the Rat Ogre early (KO that never returned for the rest of the match) while Skabine racked up an early 1-0 lead in their second turn. The helmets on return caged and slowly moved the ball forward while focusing on bashing and getting some lucky lucky block dice, til they were in striking distance and unimpeded to the goal on their 8th turn, but a vain attempt to garner extra SPP before the half led the helmets to make a 3 die block before running the ball across the line -- in a stroke of disaster the dice came up both-down! Generously adverted only by Lamoros's use of wrestle on his defender! The Helmets score, and the game is tied at 1-1 at the half.
The Helmets receive again, and while they fumble the ball in the back field their line is strong and bashy compared to reduced Skavens. Again they cage up and move forward, by the 13 or 14th turn they are the only figures not prone on the pitch. A gutter runner runs at the ball carrier dodging and get struck down twice as the cage sets up next to the end zone and waits to score on the 16th turn! Looks like victory, but then a riot breaks out the clock is rolled back. Lamaros is down to his gutter runners, a linesman and blitzer but he's shown that he can score in two turns before (and I've set up in a hit-reducing type line rather than a common defense). The ball is kicked deep, he sends a gutter runner towards my end zone and another to field the ball at his but drops it with his sure hands... 1 more turn of ridiculousness dice hating on Lamaros and then the 2-1 Chaos over Skaven score stands.

I must say Lamaros was a good sport about the whole thing, but it's got to suck when the dice go so unfairly against you. I was hoping for a draw to prove you prognosticators wrong but I'll take the win. Just wish I could say I had earned it.

(Edit: He's right about breaking my cage in turn 5 or 6 - I'd forgotten all about that, so if the luck had gone his way Lamaros would have had a 2-0 lead into the half and probably the game as a whole would've ended 2-1 in his favor... Predictors were right after all, dammit.)

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Just watched the replay; that auto-Wrestle definitely stood out. The Rat Ogre not waking up was unlucky, but not that unlucky -- by the end he had missed 3 KO rolls, but just the first two were enough to cover almost the entire game, and that's not exactly terrible odds. Gruntle rolled triple-skulls at least twice, and quite a few double-skulls, but his rerolls always came through, and overall he seemed to get a huge number of knockdowns as well, given his lack of tackle & block.

And of course the injury rolls were pretty lopsided -- which is annoying, since I play Gruntle next, and instead of hurting at least a few players you let not one, not two, but four of them level. Including the +str and claw beastmen.  No cheese for the rat!

[Modern Angel]

The snowball is rolling on...

[Sir T]

oops wrong thread.

[Ginaz]

Ginaz is down two Saurii, has 1 skill and 770k of inducements. I suspect he'll get Morg or the Sauran Star player, which will make slowing him down pretty hard - I have to hope my kicking is done well so he dosn't get a touchback, and he forgets about the Wizard. I need to blitz a skink every turn.

Why does steam never allow me to message anyone until after the game? I'm the game lobby hoping he see's my PM.

How much are the star players and Wizard?  And the skill I have, catch, is on a skink.  At least one of my skinks might be able to PICK UP THE DAMN BALL!!!

[drogg]

Snoosnoo 2
Huhnqua  1

I think I might have ruined my friendship with Drogg on this one. That score doesn't remotely relate what was done to him on that field tonight.

Game started with HHBL controlling the field and my dice completely failing me. It looked like yet another case of me just failing to figure out Lizardmen. He caps this with a blitz tackle of my thrower right at his end zone with a lizardman... who then rolls six on the pickup and scores.

So after his score, Drogg actually apologizes. He apologizes for real. It's like Nuffle looked down at this display of sportsmanship and brotherliness, frowned mightily and proceeded to kick Drogg in the balls for the next 45 minutes.

The dice immediately turn on him. Injuries begin to rack up, I score on turn 8. Second half just gets worse. I make a couple stupid plays and leave myself open to blitzes but Drogg is down to six people on the field by the end... this is with a total of 14 on his team. Just carnage. I walk it in on turn 16 after being really obnoxious and grinding the clock down.

Really, watch a replay or check the analysis. I don't know that I've seen anything quite like this before.

a couple drinks and a good nights' sleep later and i'm still wincing at the memory.  at least only two of my guys are permanently gone, both skinks, and not with too many skills.   

i haven't looked at bbmanager yet -- can you look at dice breakdowns by turn? my dice went pretty badly, but i would say a bigger factor was MA's dice totally caught on fire -- there was a round where he literally knocked down a guy with every block he threw, even the single die ones. another round he got something like two or three injuries/KOs in a row.  i was completely emasculated.

its comforting to see that lamaros suffered a similar fate, though it sounds like he has more long term damage. sorry dude 

[drogg]

after rereading lamaros' post mortem (heh) i feel the need to mention that our game also ended on a riot that decked one of my two remaining skinks, meaning i couldn't even get the 1 consolation spp from a pass.  just a total kick in the eye.

[Sjofn]

Ginaz is down two Saurii, has 1 skill and 770k of inducements. I suspect he'll get Morg or the Sauran Star player, which will make slowing him down pretty hard - I have to hope my kicking is done well so he dosn't get a touchback, and he forgets about the Wizard. I need to blitz a skink every turn.

Why does steam never allow me to message anyone until after the game? I'm the game lobby hoping he see's my PM.

How much are the star players and Wizard?  And the skill I have, catch, is on a skink.  At least one of my skinks might be able to PICK UP THE DAMN BALL!!!

Morg is 430k I think, and the wizard is 150k.

[Ingmar]

Picking up the ball is Sure Hands, not Catch. 

Although catch will help you not drop it when someone else hands it to you.

[Ginaz]

Picking up the ball is Sure Hands, not Catch. 

Although catch will help you not drop it when someone else hands it to you.

Hmm, I'll have to check and see which one I took when I get home.  I can't remember right now.

[Strazos]

So Celer and I were able to get our game out of the way quickly this game day.

Celer, faced with a significant TV gap, elects for the ubiquitous Morg and another reroll. After winning the flip and electing to receive, Morg immediately earns his pay by hurting an important lineman, putting him out for the game. The elves do a good job of mostly avoiding a melee while Morg keeps 3 norse players busy, steadily bringing the ball up the field. A critical bad pass puts a kibosh on the elven plans for an early score, and the norse are in position to capitalize deep in their own zone. A norse runner scoops it up and makes his way up the pitch with a 3-man cage, with the elves putting up a wall of players. Eventually, the norse are able to box them out, and the runner breaks free to the outside, scoring late in the half.

With the norse receiving to start the second half, they appear to have the game well in-hand, especially with elf injuries and KOs starting to mount. However, around midfield a single elven lineman makes a heroic play to jump towards the incomplete cage (due to 2-3 players detailed to keeping Morg contained) and manages to somehow pop the ball out. It bounces around, and it scrambled for for a few turns, when the elves finally are able to secure it and get it down the field to tie the game fairly late. On their final drive, the norse are unable to make ends meet, failing a pass at a critical time. The ball bounces out of bounds, and is thrown back into a spot for the elves to pick up, but they too are not able to turn it around.

Game ended tied 1-1. Interestingly, while the norse had a 60% succcess rate on blocks (not terribly unusual), the elves (with only 1 or 2 players on the field with block at any one time) blocked at a staggering 67% rate. Also, his successful second-half stop of my drive can probably be contributed almost entirely to two 1d blocks, done with players without block against players with it. That seemingly risky 1/6 chance seemed to work fine when needed by the elves.

[Celer]

Diplomatic Immunity vs Chemical Elvers ends in a 1-1 draw.  I think it was a solid game played by both sides, and as always a couple of key rolls decided things.

The Elves opted for Morg instead of the usual Chef+Wizard combo, as they were frightened of the Norse strength advantage (particularly that evil wolf).  This paid off immediately, as the Elves received and Morg's very first block resulted in a Badly Hurt on a Guard/Fend lineman.  The elves did their usual elf thing for a couple turns but failed a relatively simple 3+ short pass, launching the ball into the clear where the Norse could recover.  Morg attempted a risky dodge to blitz the new ball carrier but failed miserably, and spent the rest of the half getting knocked over behind the play.  A couple of elves hit the casualty box, including both Blitzers (one requiring an Apoc to repair a broken neck) and a lineman, and the norse made a relatively easy push down the field to score in turn 7.

It was 1-0 at the half with the Norse receiving, or at least attempting to, as they bobbled the short kick and had the ball slip to an unguarded thrower.  The elves pounced on the opportunity, with typical elf chicanery (GFI/3+ pickup/3+ dodge/GFI/3+ dodge).  This started a few turns of flopping possession in a scrum, sometimes leaving the ball on the turf guarded, sometimes attempting and failing a pickup.  Finally the elves tried a few risky 1d block-less blocks and won them all, giving them just enough breathing room to maintain possession of the ball for a turn and run in the equalizer.  The ensuing kickoff left the Norse 3 turns to take the victory, but they failed a pass of their own and saw the ball dribble out of bounds and scatter in the middle of a scrum.  The elves had one last shot at a miracle victory, but failed their long pass as the clock expired.  Both of these passes I think may have been strategic miscues; I thought the Norse could have pushed forward and held out another turn to run the ball in, and the elves moved their passer out of position to defend, which caused their pass to be longer than needed.  Still, one would expect a passer to be able to pass on occasion...

I felt pretty lucky to draw this game, I was expecting a loss due to my lack of strength and the Norse Block and Tackle everywhere.  The dice actually looked pretty even, with my first half injury and pass bad luck being returned by second half blocks.  Morg did a great job of tying up 2-4 Norse per turn, even if it meant just flopping on his back and standing up again.  I'll be down 2 elves in my next match, including my star Blitzer, but my +AG lineman will have another skill under his belt.  No major damage to the Norse, and looks like they had a couple key skillups as well.  No clear leaders in the division, I'm happy to just be in the hunt!

[Strazos]

Eh, 3 turns would not have been enough to just run the ball from deep in my own half, which is why I pushed the berserker up to receive a pass on turn 15 rather than just handing off to him - he was the only player free from tackle zones, but he had gotten a rock to the head at the kick so he started the turn on the ground, hence the longer pass rather than a short pass or hand-off.

I probably would have flipped if you had made that final pass into triple coverage work for a TD.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Game ended tied 1-1. Interestingly, while the norse had a 60% succcess rate on blocks (not terribly unusual), the elves (with only 1 or 2 players on the field with block at any one time) blocked at a staggering 67% rate. Also, his successful second-half stop of my drive can probably be contributed almost entirely to two 1d blocks, done with players without block against players with it. That seemingly risky 1/6 chance seemed to work fine when needed by the elves.

It's 2/6, unless you also have Dodge. The lack of block just means it was also a 2/6 chance of a turnover.

[Strazos]

Runner had dodge, so a DD was the only the ball was coming out (the blitzer did not have wrestle).

[Comstar]

Amazons 4 - Lizard 1. No causalities beyond two badly hurt's both sides.

The game started with my +1ST Mightblow Blitzer getting killed, though the apoc saved it to a badly hurt. After that, the dodgy amazons rang rings around the lizards, though my intention to blitz a Skink every turn didn't occur. Morg didn't do much worth his cost, though the two two Merc Sauran were well worth it. The first touchdown occurred because once again the wizard came with his "Drrr I forgot to use it" built in spell. The next 2 Amazon touchdown's occurred despite the ball carrier being surrounded, but the wizard was used to knock down some amazon defenders giving a Skink a clean break to get their single score.

The Lizard coach ran out of time 3 times, and two of those helped cause a much easier touchdown to happen. One of the Skink's spent the entire game KO'ed and only came back on the last turn.

in this game, Morg was a bit of waste, he probably would have been better to get another Sauran Merc and another wizard. My +1AG Guard Lineswomen and Safe Pass Leader Thrower go up a level, as does his Kroxigor and a Skink. The Skink should probably get Sure Hands if it can, it would have been useful - the Skink with Catch never used it and Skink's spent sever la turns failing to pick up the ball.

F13 Catfighters now top the table with Negative Capability. My next game is vs another Lizard team, this time with some Block skills.

[Ingmar]

There's a limit of one wizard.

[Strazos]

Must have been Morg's lesser twin brother, as the real Morg was busy being a threat in my game with Celer.