~D&M OPEN~ Round 2 (games 3 and 4 of 6)

[luckton]

Nine games left - lets try to wrap this up by the weekend.

Was probably a mistake to keep going with the double header fixture lists, seems to reduce urgency...

Have we considered maybe doing regional matching, like, putting people together that are relatively close in time zones or something?

[eldaec]

Might be  decent idea for the first round in future, but we are pretty spread out so the pools would be too small for later rounds.

[Strazos]

I never seem to be able to get a hold of Avaia when I'm actually available. I should be around for some period of time tomorrow evening, but then I am away on travel for work for 4 days. 

[Ruvaldt]

Emperors 2 - 1 Statement, the Sequel

The first half was quite dynamic as the ball was handled by seven separate players in just six rounds from both Avaia and I.  Avaia scored a TD after a pretty thrilling pickup and dodge out from a blitzer and I managed to equalize after two turns, running in a TD after a pretty hairy encounter with Avaia's star player that he picked up from the giant pile of inducements that I gave up.

The second half was far more plodding as I managed to walk up the field with the ball, after a lightning bolt, and then I stalled for time.  I got a little spooked on round 15 as Avaia got a single-die block blitz on my ball carrier, but my dodge saved me, and I ran in a second TD with Maximinus Thrax.  Avaia still had a shot to score with two turns, but got a riot event, and that added a little more time to the clock.  Avaia set up a chance for a non-thrower pass to a blitzer, but he had no rerolls left and lots of coverage around the receiver.  The lineman never even picked up the ball though and the game ended with a win for the Emperors.  Hadrian, my frenzy blitzer, nearly died on a failed block trying to surf Avaia's prospective blitzer/receiver, and I leveled up a level one blitzer, Tiberius.

Fun game.  Very exciting.

[Comstar]

I doubt I'll be playing my 2nd game before the weekend- Ingmar is always at Snooze setting when I'm awake and not at work.

[Ingmar]

Yeah unfortunately we just don't line up very well time-wise. I'll be home starting in about 3.5 hours from this post but I am pretty sure that's smack in the middle of your normal workday. Also, to make things even better, I'll be out of town this weekend.

EDIT: Playing Haemish toninght at around 7ish Pacific. I could probably do a midnight game tonight, Comstar, I'm not sure what time that works out for you but proudft and I are in the same time zone and he said he was able to get one set up with you for that time.

[Comstar]

It's 7pm my time (9 hours from now or so)-  I can do that. See you tonight I hope.

[Ingmar]

Excellent.

[lamaros]

I dunno where carnifex is.

[Ingmar]

One game down, Khemri defeat Amazons 1-0.

I achieved a first in this game; on turn 14 Haemish was reduced to zero players on the pitch. Appropriately, the Khemri then failed to pick up the ball 3 turns in a row (6 chances with agi 2) to close out the game.

Oh yeah, and his possession in the first half ended on an interception... by a Tomb Guardian.

[HaemishM]

I wish I'd gotten the screenshot to work. One picture would tell you all you need to know about my game with Ingmar.

No players on the pitch, 3 KO's, one waiting to return to the pitch after having been knocked off but not KOed or injured, the rest ALL INJURED. Horrible game, punctuated by that humiliation and the distinct pleasure of watching an AGI 1 THAT'S AGILITY ONE Tomb Guardian INTERCEPT A FUCKING PASS.

I have yet to play a game with this Amazon team where I don't feel like conceding by the halftime whistle.

[Sjofn]

While not quite as bad, I had a pro elf versus dwarf game where my pro elves threw a pass that got intercepted by a fucking dwarf (it was versus Celer!). It was such a terrible game, I lost THREE-ZIP.

DWARVES
SCORED
THREE
TOUCHDOWNS

[Comstar]

Going Forth by Day - Ingmar 0 vs~  Pony Elves - Comstar 3

In a completely undeserved first and only win for the competition, and only having 5 elves on the pitch at the end of the first half, JORDELL FREASHBREEZE showed why he is a star player by making 3 touchdowns from under the very noses of the massively more skilled Khermi team. Only one of which was as a result of a blitz and standing under the ball when it landed. 

The first kick off seemed to end in disaster- 3 BH, 3 KO'ed and interception by a Mummy in a tackle zone! I didn't think I'd be able to come back from that and really wished I'd chosen Morg instead. I had to do some elf bullshit of high magnitude to get the first TD -  a -2db block bounced the ball out of the Khermi cage allowing Jordell to swoop in after a misjudged pass (to be fair, the Khermi ball carrier either tried a dodge or a throw), and only 4 other elves were on the pitch at the time. The 2nd TD was a result of a blitz - > catch -> easy push-> TD. 3rd TD was when the Khermi tried a late run and paid for trying it.

Depry linesman lost -1AV so was fired, a wrestle linesman got dodge, 2 BH and Jordell gained a skill from his 3 TD's. The Khermi also gained a skill and had all of 2 Ko's the entire game.

[carnifex27]

I dunno where carnifex is.

Calling Carnifex. I've been looking for him online but he never seems to be on Steam.

Sorry to both of you, it's been a terrible few weeks at work.  I should be online and ready to rumble for the next few days if that works for you guys.

[IainC]

Carnifex and I got our game in this afternoon.

He chose to kick and got a blitz from the kickoff allowing him to put a player under the ball with a decent amount of cover around. My first drive was thus almost entirely defensive as I tried desperately to stall the rampaging Dark Elves. I thought I'd managed it too although at the expense of my own scoring opportunity until he got a player into the endzone on the last turn of the half and then made a pass with a Line-Elf for a last second score.

In the second half the Elves made both KO rolls to put 10 Elves on the field with one injury. My KO'd Wight sat out however despite the ministrations of the Bloodweiser Babes. This time the kickoff event was a quick snap which the Elves used to reposition themselves for my short kick. They did well to suck my players into a scrum on one side of the pitch then moved the ball sideways to put me off balance, luckily for me a desperation Werewolf blitz sacked the unsupported runner and the ball was thrown back in deep in my half. I got the ball and tried to throw it down field to my other Ghoul who was out of range of any Elves but the catch was dropped after I'd rerolled the pass. The Elves then tried to reproduce their first score by pushing an Elf into my endzone but he failed the GFI. By this time I'd surfed a bunch of Elves off and thumped some more hard enough that there were only 5 left on the pitch. The remaining Elves tried to seal the game while they could by trying another pass to the player in my endzone (who I'd stupidly forgotten about) however the pass flew past him and off the pitch. The throw-in dropped the ball squarely in the centre of the Dark Elf half and far away from any of the surviving Elves. I surrounded the ones that were still on their side of the line of scrimmage, grabbed the ball with a Ghoul and then moved him up as close to the endzone as I could without having to make any GFI before flattening the remaining Elves. They had no way to prevent my equaliser and I decided not to risk the draw for the sake of some injury SPPs and ran it in on the last turn of the game.

A Wight levelled on my side and I don't believe the Dark Elves got any new rank-ups. No permanent injuries sustained on either side.

[avaia]

I'm around Saturday and Sunday, ICE!

[lamaros]

I'm busy for the next two days, but if you can find some time after that I can probably make it.

[IainC]

Eldaec I see you reading this but you've not been on Steam for two days. Let me know when we can play our game - any time today or late tomorrow evenign works for me.

[eldaec]

Late tonight I hope to be on - but will be quite late, most likely I'll be around most of tomorrow though.

[Ulysees]

Megrim and I are getting our game played now.

[eldaec]

Nerve Damage - 2
Deady Bears - 1

Nerve Damage recieve, and the first half starts out with a pitch invasion which effectively grants the lizards 4 or 5 squares of free movement. The rest of the half plays out as a fairly standard maul, the Bears fail to make an impression not least because of their complete inability to dodge.

1-0 at the half.

Second half starts off with a strange drive, Nerve Damage kick very short to the left wing, roll perfect defence and put heavy pressure on the ball. Deady Bears escape and the two wolves work together spin the ball out to the center and charge through to the back field. The lizards pile back, but the Bears' wolf frenzy-blitzes through a skink to get free, scores on turn 11. 1-1.

Final drive possesion flips a couple of times in the centre field before Nerve Damage spot an opening, and Joe 'Mama' Besser sprints through and carries the ball out to a safe distance. The Bears struggle to get men free and Joe stays out of range till a turn 16 TD. 2-1 to Nerve Damage.


Dodging at a premium throughout the match, both sides marking consistently, but only making 6/19 (Bears) and 5/11 (Damage) dodge rolls. Nerve Damage managed to keep control of the blocks, building on early success to keep the undead side down and prevent many blocks being returned.

Nigel Tufnel has a smashed hand, so Nerve Damage will go into the next match missing one saurus. Mick Shrimpton recieved a smashed ankle (-1MV), so will go into retirement, while Joe 'Mama' Besser rolled +1AGI.

The Bears levelled Huggy the Golem up to level 2, he took Block, but no lasting injuries for the undead side.

 

[IainC]

Pretty much what Eldaec said. I had the first half completely wrecked by the initial pitch invasion that put 6 Bears on their backs and only one Lizard and then I had 5 or so turns in a row that ended prematurely thanks to failed Ghoul Dodges. Nerve Damage could have scored on about turn 5 but stalled it until the whistle was about to blow. I equalised early in the second half thanks having an unmarked Werewolf close enough for a hand off but far enough away to get some space between him and the bulk of the Lizard team. Despite that, the Lizards managed to get four markers on him but I was able to blitz him out through a Skink to get the score. The third and final drive could have gone either way, the Lizards suffered their only block-related turnover of the game before picking up the ball and it was close enough to the centre that I was able to get a Ghoul onto it. Unfortunately yet another failed Ghoul dodge meant that I was unable to get it clear and a Skink was able to grab it and run it downfield. I had a 2d blitz on the Skink with my Ghoul but rolled Both Down and a push so I had no real choice but to take the Both Down leaving the ball clear for an escorting Skink to scoop it up and run it in for a last turn winner.

[Ulysees]

Gutted 0 - Pound Pound ManTrain 1

First half I got lucky in a blitz that came up double skulls and Megrim decided to eat the turnover rather than risk a loner re-roll which allowed me to blitz a channel and then move players up to mark the ball. The first 4 turns are us trying to maim each others team with me seemingly getting the advantage and taking a couple of players off but eventually in a game marked by plenty of blocking turnovers I leave a gap that Megrim rushes his players down the sideline to fill, however on turn 7 with no re-rolls a failed GFI blitz to clear his runner gives me a chance to surf the ball carrier and though I manage to retrieve the toss in my scatter launch to a goat in scoring range causes the match to end 0-0 at half time.

Second half start well for me as I KO his Yhetee and again take a couple of players off to injuries and with a depleted lineout things are looking good for a grind down and score for the Chaos team, however that doesn't account for my lack of block on my caging warriors who turnover and open a corner and Megrim takes advantage to spill the ball and we then scuffle over it until turn 15 where the ball is against the sideline and I have players in score range if I can work it free but I was wary of the runner sat in my half so decided the best option was to blitz him down before I tried to work the ball, this proved not to be the case with a both down or attacker down coming up on the block dice and no re-roll leading to a quick turn over and when Megrim needed it he was able to pick up the ball and make the toss to the runner for the only score of the game.

Was a good match and I look forward to playing with 4 loners next match due to 3 miss next game injuries and not rolling enough cash to buy my 4th Chaos warrior again, but one day this team will be deadly!

[eldaec]

It would be great if the final 4 matches could let us know when you plan to play.

I'd really like the Warriors of the Sun match and at least one other out of the way before drawing the penultimate round.

[carnifex27]

I'm busy for the next two days, but if you can find some time after that I can probably make it.

I usually work 10pm-6am pst.  If you let me know a day ahead of time or more I can play pretty much any time I'm not working.

[lamaros]

I'm free for the next hour if by some miracle you're online right now.

Otherwise it's tough. On holiday and moving around a lot.

[Ice Cream Emperor]

Sorry, it's not that I have no time to play it's just that I am currently so busy thinking about all the other things I need to do that it rarely occurs to me to think about Blood Bowl games, even when I would have the free time to play them.

Will try to be on Steam more but the game is just not a high priority in my life this week.

[eldaec]

Where people are busy it would be good if we can arrange an actual time here or in PMs.

Relying just on 'checking steam occaisionally' for scheduling games is why we're overrunning both here and in the main league as well.

[carnifex27]

I usually work 10pm-6am pst.  If you let me know a day ahead of time or more I can play pretty much any time I'm not working.

I'm also available any time tomorrow if I know to be awake, and I'll be online for the next 4-5 hours.

[lamaros]

I don't think I'm going to be able to get free. Out and about today and driving all tomorrow. Then busy over the weekend too. Mark it down as a loss for me.

[luckton]

Blackrock & Roll

It's getting lonely up here at the top of the mountain... 

[eldaec]

I'm going to roll this on no matter what early next week. I'll be assigning results as carrying over this many matches will get silly.

[carnifex27]

I don't think I'm going to be able to get free. Out and about today and driving all tomorrow. Then busy over the weekend too. Mark it down as a loss for me.

I'd be more comfortable calling it a tie, I was unavailable for the first 7-10 days of the "day" after all.

[Strazos]

I haven't really been around, internet's been flaky, never seem to catch Avaia online. 

[avaia]

Keep trying, internets!