S#4 - Game Day #4

[lamaros]

It is currently 8:50pm. I generally want to be asleep by midnight, but I can stay up late if that helps this work.

Otherwise I can get up early, though 7am my time (10 hours) is probably the earliest I'd want to try to play.

[Ginaz]

You crazy foreigners and your whacky time zones.

[Der Helm]

It is currently 8:50pm. I generally want to be asleep by midnight, but I can stay up late if that helps this work.

Otherwise I can get up early, though 7am my time (10 hours) is probably the earliest I'd want to try to play.

I should be home in 7-8 hours. Depending on traffic and if my colleagues wake up on time today 

[IainC]

Eldaec and I probably just played our game. I say probably because BB hung after all the post-match stuff (after you've rolled for everything and clicked next to go back to the league browser and it says 'retrieving information from server'). I had to crash the process and then BBManager has also hung and keeps giving me server time-out errors so I suspect that Cyanide's database has shit itself.

Anyway, assuming that the result did actually happen I beat Silver Horde 2-1 in a game marked by an amazing number of casualties. For the final drive on turn 16, I had 5 players injured or KOd while Eldaec had 6 (including his Yehtee).

Siver Horde won the toss and elected to kick. Big fights broke out and I got a couple of players deep enough while the bodies mounted up on both sides. I held a slight edge in bashiness which I took full advantage of and surrounded his players to cage them in. I snapped off a quick pass with my Agi5 blitzer and fumbled the ball having already used my reroll. As it happened, Silver Horde failed to pick it up on their next turn but managed to put a lot of their guys close to it. I pulled off a bullshit move to stab the only Norseman with a tackle zone on the ball itself and then dodged away with an Elf to scopp the ball and snap it to safety. The ball carrier ran out of range of the Norse while I tried to stall them for as long as possible and carve up as many of them as I could. After 5 turns however I had to score as there was no way to keep the bal carrier safe from a blitz and I was a bit disappointed to see 2 of the 3 KOd Norse get back up again (compared to none of mine). With four turns left to play, I kicked the ball deep but it scattered right up to the line of scrimmage (my GUY WITH KICK having been badly hurt earlier in the match). We were both down to ten players each at this point and the Norse were out of position to cage up around their rather surprised ball carrier.

He pulled together a cage which I broke apart and pushed the ball into his half of the pitch again. I had a Blitzer take down the ball-carrying Norseman with a blitz, who then grabbed the ball and made a dash for safety. As the Norse turned around to prevent what looked like an easy score, a wizened old man with a single eye and a pair of ravens on his shoulder stood up in the stands and pointed at the Elf with the ball. A searing pop of actinic light connected the two briefly and, when the smoke had cleared the Elf was still stood there with little sparks arcing from his armour. The old man hastily took his seat again before anyone noticed and play continued. The Norse couldn't get a blitz on the ball carrier so they formed a strong cage around him to prevent him from moving. I set up as favourable a blitz as I could, and then went to blitz him out of the cage. I broke the cage open and with 5 seconds to go on the clock I had to make a single Dodge with no penalties and a single GfI roll to score again on the last turn of the half. Despite me clicking like mad on the endzone square, my guy just stood there after throwing his blitz while the clock ticked down. Seriously Fuck Cyanide and their shitty unresponsive UI.

The Norse had one turn to respond and they consoled themselves with injuring another of my Linemen before ending the turn and the half with a failed GfI.

For the second half I was pretty nervous, my lead was very narrow and the Norse were receiving. I had visions of the Norse cage holding me to a draw or worse despite my strong start. Also I was only able to field 9 Elves to the 10 Norse on the pitch. The Norse caged up as expected and I tried to hold them back. I mangled a few more players but the cage ground inexorably down the pitch. On about turn 12 I decided to force the issue and make the Norse either score or give the ball up and, faced with an usupported cage with the Dark Elf Team surrounding it, they broke out to score. Somewhere in the scrap I'd managed to injure the Yehtee with a particularly egregious foul. My player was sent off but it was a trade I was happy to make.

For the return we were both down to only 8 players a side, I put my assassins forward and prepared to blow a hole in the centre of the pitch for a fast score. That largely worked and I had a bunch of viable receivers within a turn of scoring in short order. I threw the ball down field and, after burning a reroll it made its way into the hands of a Line-Elf. The Norse tried valiantly to take him down but could only manage a push and then a Berserker failed his GfI roll trying to blitz. Looking at my options I couldn't realistically stall any longer so I scored a second TD after burning another reroll on a failed GfI roll to get to the endzone.

Two turns left to play and now there are only 7 Norse facing 8 Elves. I set up deep (or as deep as is possible with such a depleted team) and the Norse make a charge, they get one reciever in scoring distance and are bringing a second in range when he fails a GfI roll and injures himself. I just have to murder the only Norse in scoring range and I have won. I surround him with Elves and blitz him with a WItch Elf. On the follow up block from Frenzy, he goes down and I breathe a sigh of relief. Eldaec tries to get some consolation SPP from passing the ball but fails the catch. I just knock down the Norse that are in reach and then the game is over. Apparently I won 70k GP after that match but we'll see what happens if and when the game can be validated.

Spleen Flay Hackers | 2 - 1 | Silver Horde FC

Teams

	Spleen Flay Hackers	Silver Horde FC
Race :	Dark elf	Norse
TV :	1890	1720
Treasury :	320000	140000
Rerolls :	3	4
Apothecary :	1	1
Fan Factor :	7	6
Cheerleaders :	3	0

Match Report

	Spleen Flay Hackers	Silver Horde FC
Score :	2	1
Touchdowns inflicted :	2	1
Touchdowns sustained :	1	2
Passes :	2	0
Catches :	2	1
Interceptions :	0	0
Knockdowns inflicted :	15	9
KOs inflicted :	5	5
Injuries inflicted :	3	3
Deaths inflicted :	0	0
Tackles inflicted :	2	0
Yards gained passing :	6	2
Yards gained running :	88	48
Ball Possession (%) :	52	40
Own occupation:	41	58
Opponent occupation :	58	41

Note of the match: 19/20
Spectators: 24000

Note that in the table above it says there were 3 casualties apiece because it doesn't count self-inflicted injuries. I had three injuries by the end (2 BH and an MNG) while Eldaec had five (2 BH and 3 MNGs).

[lamaros]

I had a huge disaster with my alarm and hit turn off instead of snooze. Thank god I work from home. Sorry if you were waiting for me Helm!

[Megrim]

Any word on when Falc is going to update our played games? I've got some players I'd love to level-up.

[Ingmar]

Any word on when Falc is going to update our played games? I've got some players I'd love to level-up.

Mine was updated when I checked just now (one more dwarf lineman with guard.)

[Megrim]

Any word on when Falc is going to update our played games? I've got some players I'd love to level-up.

Mine was updated when I checked just now (one more dwarf lineman with guard.)

He would do it while I am at work, wouldn't he. Sounds about right ><

[proudft]

Yeah, mine is updated too.  And my two blitz-ras did not in fact level like I thought, total math fail.   

[Celer]

Chemical Elvers 2-2 Huhnqua Huhnqua Burninluv

It was a satisfying and yet frustrating draw for the elves this week, as it felt like the game was nearly in hand but the coach got a little too aggressive and left an opening for skinks to slither away.  The elf scoring was catassery of the highest order (my second TD in particular was hilariously unfair), and the lizard possessions consisted of parking on the goal line and waiting out the half.

Lizards received and immediately tried to take out my 5 AG lineelf with a Krox blitz (including risking a loner reroll).  This resulted in a push, and my elf immediately responded by dodging away from his prehensile tail, knocking over the ball-carrying skink, taking 2 GFIs and picking up the ball in a TZ.  Sadly, there was nowhere for him to dump it to and he was promptly mauled.  The lizards recovered but suffered a turnover after a Wrestle elf decided to Both Down instead.  The elves popped the ball out again and managed to use every square of movement out of the +MV thrower to recover the ball and pass (in a TZ) to an uncovered Catcher and the elves were up 1-0 after 2 turns.  The 5 AG elf was moved back a bit for more protection, but he was still blitzed immediately, and this time KOed for the rest of the half; my kicker was Badly Hurt soon after.  This opened up a hole to plop his skink on the goal line and cage up.  I inexplicably blitzed an unrelated lizard and gave them plenty of time to form a lovely cage and run out the half (a saurus intercepted an elf bomb to make it official).

For the second half kickoff, the elves decided to send 2 groups of receivers (including the awakened 5AG) to the sidelines and plop the only Blitzer in the center of the field, and held the ball on the right side of the field.  Lizards committed right and actually got the Krox to park next to the thrower!  No matter, he just ignored the tail and dodged away, pulling a quick pass to a middle-man on the far left.  There was a saurus-on-catcher matchup there, but before the handoff my Blitzer dodged away and pulled a 1d block on the coverage.  That made it 2-1 with another quick score.  More block dice magic (thanks to Guard) gave the elves the ball after the kickoff, but a tactical mistake resulted in a failed GFI and the ball carrier was swarmed and injured.  A skink skittered to the goal line and was promptly ZOTTED by the wizard, but ANOTHER tactical mistake and another failed GFI trying to reach the ball wasted the opportunity.  Lizards opted to turtle for the tie, no doubt fearing the elf catassery.

The elves were 6/11 on GFIs (lizards being 15/16), but were pretty lucky in almost every other regard.  Attacking block dice were particularly kind, as skinks were eating turf without Block/Tackle, and at one point a 1d non-Block blitz injured a Saurus.  But those GFIs (admittedly many of them being tactical mistakes) proved to be the real undoing for the elves.  Both teams will be fully healthy for their next matches, with a couple of skillups each as well.  The Elvers are still in the hunt, but only barely...

[Der Helm]

Apparently our game will happen in the next 28 hours. If I read Falcs post right, the 13th itself would be to late, wouln't it ? Because I get back on monday.

[drogg]

f lizards

serves you right 

[IainC]

I had a bit of a blonde moment while levelling up my players after the game with Eldaec. I was chatting to Falc about the options I had - a blitzer went to level 4 and an assassin hit level 3. The blitzer rolled double 5 so he had a choice of armour, movement or a skill. I chose +1 move for him and the assassin rolled a 7  so got a skill. I was looking at the options and thought Wrestle would be a good choice for him, then in a spectacular epiphany I realised that the list of skills was a drop down menu and that other skills would be selectable if I selected another option in the drop down menu.

Holy shit! I had not realised this and assumed that the displayed list of skills included all the options. I thought this despite having worked on the tabletop game and being aware of the different skill tables. I feel special...

[Sjofn]

That ... that is hilarious. 

[Celer]

 

[Ingmar]

That is definitely in the "things I would not admit" file!

[Sjofn]

I declare IainC an honorary member of Tier Noob!

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Negative Capability 2 - 0 over the Nifty Helmets.

A frustrating game for both sides, I have no doubt, but the league will be pleased to know that Micah Fangless, the +str star player -- and only remotely interesting player on my team -- exposed himself through a greedy forward break and was promptly sent off the field with an unregenerated -AV injury that is likely to give his career a premature end. He then proceeded to capture the MVP.

Seriously that is the only doubles-or-stat roll on my entire team other than a Guard zombie, and a mistaken belief on my part that I needed to score 2 TDs to win (despite it being 0-0 after the first half) was summarily rewarded by a swift kick to the balls.

Kind of tired of this whole 'your team always wins but they develop like slugs' thing. It's kind of by definition an indication that you are playing about as well as you can, but getting totally fucked on the SPP dice that matter. On the plus side I think I caused more casualties (3) in a single turn than I had the entire previous season.

[lamaros]

All of a sudden Iain's upgrades to now make sense.

[Gruntle]

Can I no longer be pointed to as a role model now? I got torn to pieces out there, I want back into Tier Noob.

But then again that's to be expected when playing the I.C.E.; a man so hard he has ice cream in his veins; Nuffle loves him like the children of alcoholics love rum raisin; he whipped the Khurds ... lustily? sensually? Uhhh, I think I'm getting off topic...

Anyway the game: the first half was mine to mess up, though mostly uneventful -- my Helmets received the kickoff (running clock) and were pretty conservatively looking for an advantage in the back and forth (but ultimately non-injurious) bashing while keeping control of the ball in the midfield rather than pressing it forward quickly. My big mistake came in my 6th or 7th turn when I had blocked open what could've been a risky path towards the goal line, but left moving the ball until after an attempt to mob-foul one of his undead werewolves. Double 2s didn't break armor, turnover without ever getting near scoring position. It wouldn't have been close to a sure thing anyway, I was facing the ICE after all (the only emperor, the anti-santa claus, the muscular one, summery dispenser of diabetes) but i threw away what little chance I had to score in that game, and thus my only hope for a tie.
Because the start of the 2nd half was when he rolled the big cigar over me, first play got him 3 casualties from my front line (only badly hurts but still many of my st4 people sat out the rest of the game). That one turn is probably the only example of Nuffle flat-out blessing the (admittedly prepared) ICE, but even tired from a long day, ICE is easily skilled enough to use the resulting numbers advantage to control the entire second half. A few turns pass and I got my one lucky hit in on the +str werewolf (-AV now, praise be to Nuffle) and managed to apply a small amount of pressure that hurried him into the end zone for a score. But after I set up my diminished line in desperate hope to somehow respond in the time remaining, he got a blitz on the kickoff and tied up my players. From there the rest of the game was basically me standing a player up to try blitzing next to his ball carrier every turn (and people ask why take jump up on a beastman with claw? because I got doubles). He got a little cocky and I managed to knock the ball free in the 15th turn, but not to mark it so he made a 16th turn pickup in the end zone and closed the game down with the score 2 to 0, Caps over Helmets.

[Sky]

All of a sudden Iain's upgrades to now make sense.

Hey, blondes have more fun! On the other hand: fear Iain (more) from now on, heh.

There needs to be a petition to get this franchise into competent developer hands. I wonder what someone like Relic could do with it...

[Ulysees]

I had a bit of a blonde moment while levelling up my players after the game with Eldaec. I was chatting to Falc about the options I had - a blitzer went to level 4 and an assassin hit level 3. The blitzer rolled double 5 so he had a choice of armour, movement or a skill. I chose +1 move for him and the assassin rolled a 7  so got a skill. I was looking at the options and thought Wrestle would be a good choice for him, then in a spectacular epiphany I realised that the list of skills was a drop down menu and that other skills would be selectable if I selected another option in the drop down menu.

Holy shit! I had not realised this and assumed that the displayed list of skills included all the options. I thought this despite having worked on the tabletop game and being aware of the different skill tables. I feel special...

I wondered why in single player I was not able to pick up mighty blow on my Saurus's when it should have been a core skill, so cheers for 'fessing up Iain - you guys are in for a world of hurt when I get block sorted on my lizards!!! 

[Strazos]

Holy shit! I had not realised this and assumed that the displayed list of skills included all the options. I thought this despite having worked on the tabletop game and being aware of the different skill tables. I feel special...

 

Not quite as bad, but for a long time I didn't realize that Jump Up affords me the ability to throw a block from the ground without blitzing...that was a grand day when I learned that bit, especially once I was able to combine it with Pile On. 

Almost as good as when I first realized how Playoff OT works in this game in Season 2 vs Comstar.

[Falconeer]

I declare IainC an honorary member of Tier Noob!

Post of the month 

Now for the bad news: I am going to Finland tomorrow, and I will be back on monday night (13th). Since I won't be able to process anything until the 14th, I hereby declare the 13th as a valid game for last matches. So all games have to be played BEFORE the 14th of June now. Sorry, no more games will be validated until I come back.

Perkele.

[Paelos]

So about those emergency Monkey powers...

[AndyDavo]

Kind of tired of this whole 'your team always wins but they develop like slugs' thing. It's kind of by definition an indication that you are playing about as well as you can, but getting totally fucked on the SPP dice that matter. On the plus side I think I caused more casualties (3) in a single turn than I had the entire previous season.

If you keep plugging away you will get rewarded with some skills. Necro are not elves and so they can and will be frustrating to level - I would imagine that just by winning you are generating more spps than your oppo so you will start to level at an ok speed. On a side note you *could* argue that a str4 av7 wolf, if properly looked after, could be continued. not ideal i know but you could. (You also have just hit 3 level up's)

[Strazos]

Geez, everyone finish your games tonight so we can at least start the next day before Falc departs.

[Paelos]

Who are we missing? I'm at work so I can't get on the thing.

[Strazos]

Still need to play:

Helm v Lamaros
JRuvaldt v Reborne
Ironwood v Teleku

[Paelos]

I'm not holding my breath then.

[Ruvaldt]

Hey, I've been trying!  I got up rather early for the past few days hoping to catch my aussie opponent online through Steam, but no dice.  My client says he's online/away all the time, but it is clearly a lie.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

On a side note you *could* argue that a str4 av7 wolf, if properly looked after, could be continued. not ideal i know but you could. (You also have just hit 3 level up's)

Yeah I am probably going to keep him for the rest of the season, I don't think it's necessarily an instant-fire injury given the +strength. And given that I could really use some goddamn Tackle for the last few games of the season. But long-term he's probably going to be something of a liability.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Because the start of the 2nd half was when he rolled the big cigar over me

P.S. I love this writeup.

[Strazos]

Yeah I am probably going to keep him for the rest of the season, I don't think it's necessarily an instant-fire injury given the +strength. And given that I could really use some goddamn Tackle for the last few games of the season. But long-term he's probably going to be something of a liability.

Eh, I have a now-level 4 runner who has -1AV (so 6 armor  ) that hasn't been too much of a problem yet, though I'm sure one or two people have made a good attempt at putting the hurt on him. You can certainly work around it, but you might have to get creative at times.

[Paelos]

Hey, I've been trying!  I got up rather early for the past few days hoping to catch my aussie opponent online through Steam, but no dice.  My client says he's online/away all the time, but it is clearly a lie.

Yeah I wasn't worried about yall. It's the other two games I think will go the distance for another 6 days while we sit with our thumbs up our asses.