S#4 - Game Day #5

[Ulysees]

Hazardous Hippies 1 - Minizilla's 0

I had spent the last 5 days coming up with a plan for how to win this game and followed it pretty much for the first 3 turns until Teleku does a typical elf play for his score, then on the kick off Teleku puts it out of bounds for a touchback. Normally I just hand it to a skink but since I picked Slibli with my inducements I figured that it was safe enough to hand off to a Saurus and try and grind my way up the field however I had to make my cage with a Krox who I had intended to blitz with every turn and spent 4 turns terrified of Boneheading to open my cage up and just totally shut myself down, not helped by looking at the wrong turn counter and misjudging the turns left to score and leaving myself out of scoring range on my turn 8. Big props to Teleku for the ball snatch on my kick off receive and thank god he was tempted into the quick score instead of just running away with the ball and opening the field up but getting the ball back with 4 turns left to score I really should have made that count.

Second half I receive and this time I stick to my plan, form a solid cage that doesn't include my krox and nimbly make my way from halfway down my half of the field over the halfway line, a bit of a heart in mouth moment when not really watching the pathing I look to push my cage up the field and force a Saurus to dodge through a tackle zone, which he promptly rolls a 6 for making the dodge and determined not to be so careless again I punch down some elves and reposition myself. By turn 14 things are looking good for the tie, I have shifted my cage from one half of the field to the other and with another well placed blitz open up room to move my cage into scoring range for the last turn of the game, I move my first Saurus cage edge fine then get my next Saurus and click his cage corner, again not watching the pathing and with only my second move of the turn promptly run him through another tackle zone and lightning doesn't strike twice as I fail the dodge and reroll causing the turnover and now I am in trouble because I don't have anything in score range and an open cage. Turn 15 I move a skink into score range but he is on his own and promptly blitzed but only knocked down and my last desperate attempt to snatch a draw is denied when the skink is stood up and runs into the endzone but despite the ball carrying skink dodging through 3 tackle zones and finishing only 3-4 squares away the pain of being stunty is felt as he totally flubs the pass, thankfully teleku has no one in scoring range so the game ends 1-0.

I really need to not rush myself so much, no excuse for the 2 big mistakes I made in this game which probably cost me a 2-1 win, had I been more aggressive with my cage in the first half and moved the Krox out of it then I am pretty sure I would have been in a position to at least attempt a score and in the second half needlessly forcing my saurus to make 2 dodge rolls (one of which totally lucked out) cost me the tie since I had the wizard lined up to blast the protective cover line for the turn 16 touchdown. A good solid game from Teleuku which I can hopefully learn a bit to use in my feeder league matches but really disappointed in myself because this one should have been a draw at worst, still teleku played well and deserved the victory and considering this is only my 6th online match I think I still have a lot to learn (massive thank you to everyone who has played feeder games with me the past week or so, a lot of useful advice that has helped a lot)

[AndyDavo]

a good write up and also it is good to hear that you are able to analyse, fairly and accurately why you didnt get more from the game. I would imagine that you will quickly become a dangerous opponant on this game. I will play you online if you wish, i  have not been as active in the feeder league as i  wanted.

[Strazos]

Ironwood and I were able to get our game in today.

From the start things were not looking great for Ironwood's Skaven squad, who came into the game with a depleted squad and a shallow bench...against a healthy veteran Norse squad in Diplomatic Immunity. I decided to take off a few of my rerolls before the game, in an attempt to whittle down the massive TV advantage and deny Ironwood some inducement cash. I believe he elected to take 2 apothecaries, a chef (or two), and a wizard, but I don't know how much cash he had leftover.

The game begins with an ill omen - after I lose two of my 4 rerolls to the chef, a pitch invasion is launched, with Ironwood taking the brunt of it while attempting to receive the kick. Thing go swiftly downhill, and the Skaven are at a severe strength and skill disadvantage, often being left with no particularly appetizing block opportunities while the Norse proceed to to take just about each and every block that is available to them. Growing desperate, the Skaven elect to go for a long bomb after recovering the ball deep in their own half (by fireballing the Norsemen)...which is intercepted. The Norse gladly move the ball back forward , but get blocked up. It looks like the Skaven may have been able to hold the score even through the first half, but the lineman with the ball is able to make two dodges and hand off to a runner waiting in the endzone to go up 1-0 at the half.

At the start of the second half, the Skaven take the field with only 9 players, and kick to a full-strength Norse side, who quickly form a cage at midfield and look to advance. As Skaven KOs and CASs start to mount, the Norse elect to score quickly, handing the ball off to a wolfrunner who promptly runs in to make the score 2-0 with plenty of time to go in the half. Enough Skaven are able to wake up to keep their side at 9 players, but it's becoming clear that nothing short of a miracle will be able to carry the Skaven to either a TD or victory this day. The Norse kick it deep, and the rat thrower is not able to make the pick-up, effectively causing the Skaven to skip their turn. The Norse quickly toss the majority of the rats to the pitch and move in for the kill. With a runner holding the ball and a mind to hand it off to a wolfrunner to assist with his development, the rats make their best play of the day, dodging and blitzing the star Norse runner with a rat thrower and successfully making the 1d block to pop the ball out. This denied the opportunity to hand off to a wolfrunner to score again and reach level 3. The ball makes its way onto the ground around midfield, but the Norse are out of rerolls and not able to get a hand on the ball to make a play.

2-0 final, Diplomatic Immunity over Ironwoods Itchers. I really appreciate his willingness to play and stick with the game, especially as it became clear that the Rats were simply not going to be able to do a whole lot this game, especially with only 2 GRs on the field and the Rat Ogre being held impotent. It's unfortunate, because frankly the game could have been more interesting, especially if Ironwood had been able to make even the simple rolls that should have been no-brainers for his team. He was forced to make increasingly-desperate plays, none of which actually paid off.

[IainC]

Match Report

	Ironwoods Itchers	Diplomatic Immunity
Knockdowns inflicted :	1	16

Man...

[Ulysees]

I'd love to get a game in against you sometime Andydavo, thanks for the offer.

[IainC]

Ex-Presidents 1, Spleen Flay Hackers 0.

My first scoring chance failed with a fumbled catch, the Chaos team managed to capitalise on it and ground down the pitch to score about 5 turns in after I'd had a round or two of horrible block dice and had practically no-one on their feet to prevent the score. I tried to equalise two turns later but this time the throw was fumbled and that was the first half. For the second half I was kicking and the Chaos team caged up and rolled very slowly down the pitch. I was pretty sure I could prevent the score but obviously I wanted to equalise so on the very last turn I arranged things so I had a couple of blocks on the ball carrier, an unmarked Witch Elf in scoring range and my agi5 guy to scoop the loose ball and chuck it down the field. I blocked the beastman with the ball successfully but the ball bounced into the hands of the guy who'd thrown the block. End of game.

The Ex-Presidents will probably want to fire their master chef, he stole one reroll from me in the first half and none in the second. I'm disappointed with the result as I had a several chances to score and none of them came to anything. I was already in a precarious position for the playoffs and this just makes it worse.

[Ruvaldt]

Ex-Presidents 1 - 0 Spleen Flay Hackers.

I bought a new Chaos Warrior before the match knowing that it was going to be bloody and I needed a bench, and calculated the inducements ahead of time to know what I could buy after recruiting him.  Seeing as how I only have one reroll I picked up a Halfling Masterchef, and decided I would need to foul assassins so I also picked up a bribe and Bloodweiser Babes.  Normally I would get a reroll, but I thought I'd have it covered with the chef.

I elected to kick because I figured I could pressure him to score early and make a dash for the endzone at the end of the turn, but my kick went crazy and IainC gave it to a fellow in deep towards his endzone.  I stole one reroll on the kick, sadly.  A few attempts were made to open up a hole in my defense, and after three rounds the ball was launched onto my side of the field, but the reception failed.  I then blitzed and picked up the ball with Franklin Pierce and put up a tentative cage.  The Presidents performed admirably in our charge into Hackers territory and I waited two rounds before getting spooked by a Witch Elf that had broken free.  I inflicted a touchdown on my round 6, giving the Hackers two turns with which to play with in the half.  They made a valiant attempt, but lost the ball and I marked/picked it up, essentially ending the half.

In the second half the kick went deep into my territory and IainC got a Perfect Defense.  To boot my chef didn't give me any rerolls so I had to play as tightly as I could.  I played the center of the field like a good Chaos team should, caged up and trundled up the field slowly.  After a few turns the Hackers started picking off members of my cage and my thin bench really started to hurt so I tried to put his men behind me and go for the endzone.  I nearly made a second TD, but a failed couple of blocks, a botched blitz into a failed gfi, and Franklin Pierce was open to copious assaults on the last turn of the game, possibly giving up a TD to a witch elf who was open close to my endzone.  Pierce was eventually knocked down, but the potential passer whom IainC had kept unused was unable to get the ball because it fell into the hands of the blocker that hit Pierce, and thus could do nothing with it.  It still would have been one hell of a throw, but it is possible he could have pulled off a heartbreaking TD at the end.

We both played good games.  IainC was pretty gravely wounded by a string of poor block rolls in the first half and botched passes.  I had my own problems with only having two rerolls one half and one in the second half.  I could have done a better job on my attempt to score in the second half, and know that I made a mistake when arranging for another round holding onto the ball in the second half, thus having to score my TD prematurely.  I know it was a frustrating game for IainC; there were long stretches in which all he could get were pushes on his blocks, but at least he inflicted a hell of a lot of casualties and kept Franklin Pierce from getting the 2 SPPs he needed for Level 5.  It was a good tactical game.

Edit: match uploaded.

[Der Helm]

Anybody seen the IceCream guy ? My tries to contact him via steam have been fruitless so far.

[Strazos]

Did he say that he was going to be away for some time?

[Sir T]

Silver Horde Fc 3 - Harbringers 0 (anyone surprised)

Standard game really. I enjoy the first 3 turns, (I've only seen Foul Appearence come up more than once in one other game) Then I cant do anything for the rest of the hald as my first dice roll results in a turnover, I get depressed and basically read a book for the rest of the game. The one memorable moment was in the second half when one of my warriors got knocked over by a rock and my first block was double skulls. And the only blitz I threw on a ball carrier the whole game resulted in the guy getting carried off on a stretcher from a badly hurt injury from a failed GFI roll.

Why the hell am I playing this. Gah.

Sorry. I'll be alright in half an hour. Estraz played a good game, wish he could have done it with someone competent.

Only injuries were a death that the beastman regenerated from and the badly hurt from the failed GFI.

[Der Helm]

Did he say that he was going to be away for some time?

Saw him online on Steam, but never actually "online".

Off to work now. Gonna be back in 8-10 hours from now.

[Ruvaldt]

Seriously, Sir T, make another team and put it into the Feeder league.  I'll play against you and you can refine your play while building a team that is less likely to frustrate you than Nurgle.  Both of our games together have been fun, but honestly, I think you're playing the wrong team for a starting coach.

[Der Helm]

Sir T and I are trying to create a black hole of misery which is going to destroy you all.

And Chaos wins. 

[eldaec]

Dice were strange in this one, hating on GFIs even more than usual, recognising that SirT's guys are *really fucking ugly* through I don't know how many foul appearances, but refusing anything so uncivilised as an armour break.

Silver Horde are at full strength next time out, not sure that is entirely a good thing as it means a *lot* of inducements for the Paper Dolls.


Couple of things SirT could take a look at, one is to avoid overcommitting on tackles when not in possession, couple of the TDs could have been at least slowed down and possibly stopped if the Nurgle side simply held a line rather than trying to punch through against the more mobile Norse (who can simply move the ball sideways when bashier teams commit to too many tackles on one side of the pitch). If you force the more mobile team to come through you, they have to make base contact on their turn, so you get the blocks on yours, if you go to them, they just run sideways.

Other thing is to watch your push directions, felt like you were concentrating on territory (pushing my guys back down the pitch) when you'd be better served maintaining more contact with sideways pushes. A few times you could have set up a followup block by pushing my guy sideways into your other dudes instead of just gaining territory.


Uploaded to BBManager, but log is corrupt I think because BB crashed immediately as the game ended.

[Ruvaldt]

And Chaos wins. 

Chaos is winning.  Watch some Ex-Presidents replays.   

[Sjofn]

Lump Beefbroth rolled doubles and picked Guard. Because ... I don't know. BECAUSE.

He'll get dodge one of these days.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Anybody seen the IceCream guy ? My tries to contact him via steam have been fruitless so far.

You can't reply to steam messages while the other person is offline, sadly. I hung around until 4am based on your message (that you'd be back on at noon, your time) but it was not to be.

I will be around later tonight (your early morning) so if I'm reading the timestamp on your latest post ('back on in 8-10 hours') then we should be able to play then.

[eldaec]

BTW, day 5 is the fifth day this season on which Stormbringer has finished before any of you other groups of slow fucks.

Play more blood bowl non-Stormbringer dudes.

[Sjofn]

Man, we really are a bunch of eager beavers in Stormbringer, aren't we? This is the slowest day I've had, I think, all the other times I am pretty sure I played on the same day the day rolled over.

[Ruvaldt]

I guess that means you lot are up for a feeder league game against my lizards?   

[Sjofn]

I just played a feeder game with my little high elf team, actually! I am not very good, as I sort of play them a lot like they're dodgier Norse. My thrower took a -agi injury, so I fired his ass. I had a lineman take a -AV injury, too, but I didn't fire him, because armor 7 feels so right.

[Strazos]

Trying to watch Sir T's replay... Spoilered since this was unsolicited.

[lamaros]

Rolled 70k for my win. Got 30k. I think I have averaged 30k a game this season. Fucking cyanide.

Finally got a double... but on the least useful positional...

Some more detail from my game against carnifex:

I had noted that while the cripplers had a lot of block on their sauruses and had a Krox they had only 4 skinks on the roster. Thus I went in to the game with a plan to destroy the skinks and wonder about scoring afterwards. This was helped by my win over helm leaving me with a full roster, including my MB blitzer and my rat ogre.

I won the toss and received, getting off to a good start with a first turn surf of one saurus. My thrower fumbled twice however and the turn
was done. The lizards tried to counter surf my rat but couldn't get enough assists in, so had to roll double against. I took a both down result to keep him on the pitch. I hit back by surfing a skink that had come in to assist against the ogre, but again there was no injury. I then
set up down field to receive the ball with most of my team, but foolishly dodged a rat away before picking it up. Failure left him KOed, leaving my thrower open. Krox pounced, knocking him down.

I tried to recover the ball, and my thrower did pick it up, only to fall down when attempting to dodge free. I believe I had another rat KOed at this time, leaving me two down. I did my best to scramble, marking all of the skinks and so forth, but I had a sinking feeling in my stomach...

I defended as best I could but my failed to get the ball again, and my shadowing rat couldn't stop a skink scoring after he had picked it
up and survived the blitz that then hit him. I was one nill down and looking like it would be a long day.

And then bang! my rats fired up and demolished the lizards on the next turn. I injured a saurus and set up safely and easily down field. Nothing much happened agaisnt me and I could have scored with my second turn then but tried to get some more down before I did. I ran it in to make it 1-1 shortly after and set up to smash again before the half, as I had the lizards with three out at this stage (I think), and with no bench giving me a 3 player advantage. With the player advantage I was very hard to stop, and only half time stopped me scoring again.

The second half went the same way, with my runners smashing downfield and taking the ball from a skink who didn't have enough protection (to be fair it was hard, having to put three of them on the line), while Hostus smashed heads and held the big guys near the middle. Rather than draw it out I scored again, giving carnifex and his one remaining skink a chance to tie it. He didnt make it, getting crowd surfed as he made a desperate run in his second last turn. And that was it.

No one on my side died or was crippled, though my blitzer and my star player are out for the next match. Hostus now has stand firm (no double again) and the other blitzer (out for the match) is now guard/dodge.

Dice were pretty even I thought. I got in a few more hits on him, but I was often hitting with Hostus or the MB rat, so I had the extra cutting power. With unprotected skinks you have to expect they will get hurt more than block/wrestle runners.

[Strazos]

Are we sure our upkeep levels are high enough? Maybe we're losing money to TV because something is set low?

For instance, I was awarded 70k, only got 30k.

[lamaros]

Are we sure our upkeep levels are high enough? Maybe we're losing money to TV because something is set low?

For instance, I was awarded 70k, only got 30k.

My TV is around 1400, so I doubt that's it.

[Sir T]

I'll just spoiler my reply to strazos as it's maximum whining


(edit. Replaced quote tags with spoiler tags)

Ironically in both leagues the games I was actually doing reasonably well both wound up getting restarted as my opponent crashed. I was actually doing alright against Andydavo first time round. The second time wound up in a 5-0 loss. GO figure.

Seriously, Sir T, make another team and put it into the Feeder league.  I'll play against you and you can refine your play while building a team that is less likely to frustrate you than Nurgle.  Both of our games together have been fun, but honestly, I think you're playing the wrong team for a starting coach.

Thanks Ruvault, but at this stage I'm just so down on the whole thing that I feel I'd just be confirming how shit I am with yet another team and have more wasting my time getting murdered in unfun games...

[Strazos]

Sorry, I thought some feedback might actually be useful. 

[Der Helm]

I feel your pain. 

[Paelos]

I honestly don't understand how you guys can be having this bad a time doing this. I mean I'm getting fucking crushed, but it just makes me want to play more so I can get my levels up. When I know I'm getting out of the game I just use my guys to bash the weakest links into dust. And I toss the ball around like an idiot for optional SPPs.

And get block skillz!

[Sjofn]

Not giving up because double skulls happened to come up twice would help.

I mean damn, I triple skulled on a goddamn snotling.


EDIT: I definitely think you should give a couple of new teams a try in the feeder league before giving up forever, SirT. Maybe dwarves, then everyone would hate and fear you beyond reason!

[Der Helm]

I honestly don't understand how you guys can be having this bad a time doing this. I mean I'm getting fucking crushed, but it just makes me want to play more so I can get my levels up. When I know I'm getting out of the game I just use my guys to bash the weakest links into dust. And I toss the ball around like an idiot for optional SPPs.

And get block skillz!

If Sir T and I are in the same boat, the problem is a total lack of skills, thus making it VERY hard to get levels. I think I only have 2 guys leveled up, if that. 1 got sure hands, because I had to, the other got jump up, because he rolled a double.
I really really really hate me for starting with a fresh Chaos team in a league where most people have double my TV. Inducements help, but they don't help that much. My roster is still not full, I am crawling toward my first  CW (who is promptly going to die, I am sure of that) and I live in fear that a merc is going to steal my MVP.
(Which reminds me, in SP I saw offers to buy a merc after a game, does this only count for mercs activly bought with inducements ? I have yet so see that screen in MP)

[Ingmar]

I am pretty sure it only counts for ones they offer you as fill-ins to get to a roster of 11.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

(Which reminds me, in SP I saw offers to buy a merc after a game, does this only count for mercs activly bought with inducements ? I have yet so see that screen in MP)

You keep posting on f13 and yet you are not online, preparing for our all-important match! I do not understand.

The screen in question is for any merc, I think, but definitely for those you get for free. You should see it after any game in which you have Loner mercs.

[Der Helm]

(Which reminds me, in SP I saw offers to buy a merc after a game, does this only count for mercs activly bought with inducements ? I have yet so see that screen in MP)

You keep posting on f13 and yet you are not online, preparing for our all-important match! I do not understand.

The screen in question is for any merc, I think, but definitely for those you get for free. You should see it after any game in which you have Loner mercs.

Woops. :) Did not see you come online. :)

[Ingmar]

(Which reminds me, in SP I saw offers to buy a merc after a game, does this only count for mercs activly bought with inducements ? I have yet so see that screen in MP)

You keep posting on f13 and yet you are not online, preparing for our all-important match! I do not understand.

The screen in question is for any merc, I think, but definitely for those you get for free. You should see it after any game in which you have Loner mercs.

I kind of have my doubts you could use it to buy skilled mercs you hire with inducement money, that would seem a bit off.