Horns & Hooves League: Day 1

[Ruvaldt]

All of the teams have signed up and we are ready to begin.

You have until August 22nd to play your match for day one.

Current standings

Day one matches
Mad Goat Disease (Strazos) 2 vs. 0 Sheep Go To Heaven (Ingmar)
Lovers, Fighters (Lamaros) 3 vs. 0 Malevolent Mammals (Proudft)
Triptkyon (HaemishM) 1 vs. 1 Waitsing (Avaia)
Goat Variations (Ruvaldt) 1 vs. 1 Los Stupicabras (Gruntle)
Breaking Wind (Llyse) 3 vs. 0 Green Bray Alpacas (IainC)

Be sure to read up on the league's rules regarding skills.  You have a lot of leeway in skill selection, but there are still some standards that beastmen must meet when levelling up or a team could be invalidated.

League Rules

I used the official f13 rankings to arrange the calendar and was able to arrange the matches in such a way that no one plays each other twice.  Once we (hopefully) enter the second season I'll be using a different seeding method based only upon past performance within the Hooves & Horns matches.

The remaining season's calendar

If you would like to submit your matches to BBManager's Horns & Hooves League, the password is Goatse.

On to the Bleat Bowl!

[IainC]

I'm going to be away from Tuesday morning until the following Monday so I'll try and get my game in this weekend.

[Ruvaldt]

Goat Variations 1 - 1 Los Stupicabras

This was a great game, and the first half had some of the most intense Blood Bowl I've played.  Gruntle and I butted heads, but he clearly got the better of me up front during his initial drive and I was never quite able to recover.  I had a great opportunity to knock down his ball carrier and set up a cage near where the ball would have been, but the lack of block killed my defense and half of my team was left on the ground.  The Stupicabras ran the ball in on their fifth turn.

I received a kick off, but Gruntle got a blitz event that set up a pretty hairy drive for me, but I was eventually able to break Eyeball Kid free, and after a rerolled dodge scored on my round 8.

The second half began with a riot and ended with two pretty spectacular passes.  After receiving the ball in my own endzone I marched up the pitch, but was unable to keep a cage together as my goats were strewn about the field and out of position.  Eventually I was able to make a pretty phenomenal pass across field that could have scored, but the Stupicabras knocked the catcher out and passed back into my end of the field.  I ended my last round on a "both down" on the potential ball recoverer on my end of the field to force a tie.

It was a bloody game with five casualties and five KOs, but I got the better of that bargain.  No level ups for either of us but we set up quite a few goats to level soon.  Great match.  I'm looking forward to these games even more now.

Tale of the tape:

[Gruntle]

Los Stupicabras tied the Goat Variations 1-1 in the inaugural match of the new goat league!

Ruvaldt chose to kick, and after a pretty bashy start my goats broke through and with a gfi ran the ball in on their fifth turn. I then got a blitz but even though it was an onside kick, Ruvaldt had set up a long front-line on the scrimmage line so I was unable to apply pressure on the ball, and Ruvaldt blitzed one goat on him and using a saved reroll dodged away from a second to even the score right before we went into the halftime.
The second half was extra bashy (with resulting KOs and Badly Hurts/MNGs no real debilitating injuries) but partially because of an early riot, and despite a chancy but successful long pass/end run from Ruvaldt when his ball carrier had been blocked in on the other side of the field neither of us were able to score.

No levels, but many goats on the two teams sitting one or two SPP away from getting their first level up.

(Edit: Oh and Ruvaldt posted the game to BBManager, and set up the league there with the pass "Goatse")

[Strazos]

Me and Ingmar's game is complete.

To start, I wasn't sure what I was going to do with these goats - no real starting skills besides horns, and average stats. So, I simply went to my fall-back position - Bashing. First half was fairly messy, with Ingmar doing a good job bottling up my run at midfield. I was eventually able to run a bootleg and get a runner free with the ball. However, even with some bashing and counter-bashing, the Mad Cows were able to run in a TD late in the first half.

Second half started with Ingmar receiving. He attempts to make a cage around midfield, but I'm able to dodge a goat close enough to get a good hit in, and the ball is out. After a scrum, I again scrounge it up and convert it into a TD, to go up 2-0 with plenty of time left on the clock. At this point, Ingmar is receiving something of a raw deal on the dice. The game ends with another mid-field scrum - most of Ingmar's players are face-down, but I am not able to pick up the ball to convert a third TD.

MVP luckily went to one of the goats who earned SPP during the match, and he has been rewarded with Block...because I'm certainly not creative.

[IainC]

I'm going to be away from Tuesday morning until the following Monday so I'll try and get my game in this weekend.

Welp. No reply from Llyse to my PM and I'm gone for a week now. If we can play next Monday evening (CET) then we'll make the deadline, otherwise there's no chance.

[Llyse]

That was my mistake I misread it as Iain being gone all week and available on the weekend.

I'll definitely make myself available Monday evening your time for the game

[proudft]

Malevolent Mammals soundly drubbed by Lovers, Fighters 0-3.  Total team collapse.  

One Mammal was on his deathbed after a particularly hard hit, and the apothecary was summoned, but the -1 Str result was, shall we say, unacceptable, and he was allowed to expire.  Another has a miss-next-game injury, and none leveled.  So there will be two substitute goats in the next match.

It was snowing for virtually the whole game, and it did bite me in the ass when I finally had to start going for it near the end to try and not embarrass myself too badly, eating up 2 rerolls and resulting in one or two tripped goats. 

Other than that, I dunno what the fuck happened.   

[lamaros]

The Lovers have picked up a sound victory in their first game of the season, getting a few cheap shots in on the Mammals to run out 3-0 victors. The key moments were probably early, where I was able to get a player injured and follow up with another injury from a crowd surf. With a deeper bench than proudft I always had a number advantage, and it got tough for him from there. Nuffle didn't really help him, KOing one of his beasts in the second half and giving us both extra rerolls to work with.

Ilona scored three times, and Linda had MVP to go with her casualty, so I have leveled up two beasts. Both normal rolls however, so I have gone for Block and Mighty Blow (no surprises there).

Game is on BB Manager.

Our dice averages were pretty similar, though I rolled a couple more 6s and he rolled a couple more 3s. I rolled a heap more block dice (132 to 63) and as you would expect made a lot more armor rolls as a result, even with lower averages on pushes and defender downs.

[Ruvaldt]

Llyse and IainC: Please try to play on Monday evening!  If that can't be managed we can bend the rules by a day or two, but only if there is a firm date and time set up for the game.  I know you'll be on top of it.

Congratulations Lamaros and Strazos; those sound like exciting games.  I'm not looking forward to my game against you on day three, Lamaros...

[Ruvaldt]

Triptkyon (HaemishM) vs. Waitsing (Avaia)
Breaking Wind (Llyse) vs. Green Bray Alpacas (IainC)

Three days left!  I know Llyse and IainC are hoping to play their game on Monday.  How about you two, Avaia and Haemish?  Any plans made?

[Ingmar]

I know Avaia has been on a multi-day database recovery bender, so I don't know how soon he'll be fit to play.

[HaemishM]

We're going to try to catch up with each other this weekend.

[avaia]

I'm going to the Alpaca game tonight, but I am free sat/sun (provided I do not do the eventual 3 day sleep). 

[Llyse]

Still waiting for Ian to get back from holidays later today to play.

Played! Thanks to Ian for playing immediately after a long trip and sleep deprived.

Roll on Day 2!

[avaia]

If Haemish can make it tonight, we will play.  If not, he gets the win as I have been unavailable most the week because of work.

[HaemishM]

Going to try to get this game in tonight on Steam.

[IainC]

Llyse and I played today. I had to run out at the end of the match so my recollection may be a little hazy.

He chose to receive, formed a cage and ground his way down the pitch to score a fairly standard Beast TD after about 4 or 5 turns.  A lot of blocks were thrown and a lot of Beastmen fell over but not much happened in the way of casualties, I think we only had one KO in the whole first half and nothing more serious than that all match. For the second drive I held the ball carrier back while I made some room upfield rather than commit to a cage. Unfortunately I forgot to move the beast with the ball out of the way in time when Llyse pushed some guys into my half. He got mugged and Llyse picked up the ball for a quick second TD. Last turn of the half I set up a move with a throw, a hand-off and a Blitz to score but the pass is fumbled and the whistle blows.

Second half I'm more cautious and keep the ball carrier well out of trouble. THere's a lot more armour breaks going on and about 4 or 5 of Llyse's guys are KOd in the next few turns. I try to capitalise on this but the ball gets dropped in the excitement and Llyse forces a way in to score again. Last drive sees me with a decent numerical superiority but only 3 turns left of the match to do anything with it. I break some more Beastmen and get a good throw to a Beastman further down the pitch. My last turn of the game has the ball carrier unmarked and within range of the endzone but I decide to throw a few blocks in the vain hope of a few more SPPs out of the game (I've so far only scored one for a successful completion). Naturally I get a turnover and the game ends 3-0 to Llyse. I was dumb to not just walk the ball in on the last turn but it would have made small difference. I was pretty tired after a week of much travelling, Gamescom and the ETC so I made a whole bunch of unforced errors and UI wrangles - many times I was frantically clicking on something in the closing seconds of a turn and wondering why the UI wasn't registering that I wanted to move/block/etc.

[HaemishM]

I'm on Steam, but I'm having trouble connecting to the community stuff. Friends lists, store, etc. don't show up in the Steam browser but I'm able to patch one of the games in my library. WTF? Anyone else having Steam connection problems?

EDIT: I'm able to get in the game and idle in the Horns & Hooves lounge. So if avaia sees this, I'm actually online and ready to play.

EDIT 2: Apparently Steam did an unannounced maintenance patch and are now having issues with some users able to log in and some not. Fuckity fuck.

EDIT 3: I'm online now, Avaia is set to Away. The excitement is palpable. 

[avaia]

WTF Ruvaldt, did you really yoink a Waits theme from under my feet? 

[HaemishM]

Triptkyon 1 - Waitsing 1

Avaia and I finally got our match in tonight. The first kickoff went to me, and apparently the crowd didn't like that as they rioted, leaving 1 less turn in the game. I quickly took advantage with a turn 5 score, managing to lose the ball on a blitz, pick it up and make a pass downfield, where I lost the ball again on a 2 GFI blitz. But another great blitz by the Pale Rider and the ball was mine with a spare GFI to go. 1-0. We dicked around for much of the rest of the first half, my kicker trapping the ball on his goal line. He failed to bring the ball out far enough to even attempt a score on a long pass, but he did manage to take out 3 of my beastmen on KO's and another 2 to injury. Those numbers would tell in the second half.

He received the ball midway in his half and with 5 guys down, he bulled his way through my lines. A risky blitz brought me the ball back but the numbers meant I lost the ball again. That same ball winner tried to get it again with a blitz, dodge and pickup, only to fail the dodge. Avaia picked it up and waltzed it in for the score. Though I got all my KO's back on the ensuing kickoff, I didn't have enough numbers to keep him off the ball carrier. I had just enough numbers to keep him from getting the ball free and clear, though it was lying on the ground in my half on the last turn. However, he didn't have enough movement to make it into the endzone, so he pounded on my guys some more. I ended up with 3 injuries, one with a gouged eye (just misses the next game). My winnings were a paltry 20k, but it was enough to buy another beastman for depth. No level ups either.

EDIT: Fun stat - I succeeded on 4 out of 40 injury rolls (1 KO and 3 stuns). Avaia meanwhile succeeded on 18 out of 46. I got my asspounded. I had 58% success rate on blocks, he had 47% but his meant more.

[Ruvaldt]

WTF Ruvaldt, did you really yoink a Waits theme from under my feet? 

We're big in Japan!   

[lamaros]

Looks like we're off to day two, and Strazos is up!

When is good for you Straz?

[Ruvaldt]

Great day one, folks.  I'll be making a day two thread on the 23rd in order to continue the carnage!

[Llyse]

What's Gruntle's steam id btw?

[Ruvaldt]

Gruntle/Canislupus is his steam name.  He's in the f13 Bloodbowlers group.