Season 7 Day 5: Nuffle's Alive!

[Ulysees]

OK Falc will catch you on Saturday or Sunday then :) Lets hope Xhooqs is on form then!

[willisterman]

2-0 to Keep Rolling.

The game started with a close first half, with Bring Back the Biff receiving to start.  Their strength advantage was put to good use, slowing the dwarves from getting to the ball, but they lost a lot of players doing it.  A death fairly early on, and a Black Ork pushed off the pitch allowed the Dwarves to get a few good blocks, and another two injuries were quickly added.  The orcs fought on and pulled out all the stops, and Turn 8 started with their wizard dropping the dwarves runner close to the end zone.  But a pickup and two GFI's allowed the dwarves to recover, and score the first point.

The second half went a little differently, the Orcs down to 7 players on the pitch, the dwarves were able to get control of the field, and score a second touch down, giving them their first win this season!

A fun match, but schpain was a little screwed over by injuries, which really tipped the match in my favour.  A good block rate (47/73) really helped too.

[IainC]

ALl matches validated to this point. I'm away for a week as of this afternoon so if you need anything resetting between now and next Thursday evening be sure to bother Ingmar about it.

[luckton]

UPSET!!!!!   



VICTORY MUSIC!

Oh, yeah, it was like lightning
Everybody was frightening
And the music was soothing
And they all started grooving
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

And the man at the back said
Everyone attack and it turned into a ballroom blitz
And the girl in the corner said
Boy, I wanna warn ya, it'll turn into a ballroom blitz

[Teleku]

I was literally just fucked by nuffle in a manner I have not yet seen in my entire 6 seasons of playing this game.  Argh!!!!!!

Good game to Luckton, his Norse hit REALLY hard apparently.  Guess there was no way for me to actually make it through a season with a perfect record.   

[Ruvaldt]

Oooooooh.  Might give me something to watch over the weekend.

[Teleku]

It was just an across the board showing of unfortunate rolls rather than specific hilarious screw overs like failing a gfi rerolled on the end zone.  My guys just started to get injured left and right (1 dead, 4 more down, and another one I used the apoth to save).  Key jumps and dodges began to fail.  He continuously left his ball carrier open for a strip ball wardancer charge, and nothing ever came of it.  Every time I stripped the ball (which happened a lot) it landed on a simple agi 3 norse player who picked it up without issue (note, I think my agi 4 elves have pulled off a fumble pick up 3 times ever).  Including his agi 1 fucking yehtee.  Or my wardancer would just fail the leap/dodge needed to get the charge in.  I blew through all of my rerolls early in each half, while he managed to finish each half using only 1 or 2. 

Very frustrating game, but other than constantly taunting me by leaving his ball carrier open (which should mean instant fail when you do that against me!) he played well and hit hard.

[schpain]

2-0 to Keep Rolling.

The game started with a close first half, with Bring Back the Biff receiving to start.  Their strength advantage was put to good use, slowing the dwarves from getting to the ball, but they lost a lot of players doing it.  A death fairly early on, and a Black Ork pushed off the pitch allowed the Dwarves to get a few good blocks, and another two injuries were quickly added.  The orcs fought on and pulled out all the stops, and Turn 8 started with their wizard dropping the dwarves runner close to the end zone.  But a pickup and two GFI's allowed the dwarves to recover, and score the first point.

The second half went a little differently, the Orcs down to 7 players on the pitch, the dwarves were able to get control of the field, and score a second touch down, giving them their first win this season!

A fun match, but schpain was a little screwed over by injuries, which really tipped the match in my favour.  A good block rate (47/73) really helped too.

Also a little dig at Cyanide - I bought an apoc before the match but wasn't given the chance to apoc any of my 4 injuries and deaths.  I also levelled up 2 of my players and they got their skills, so not sure what's the deal yo.  F U Cyanide!

[Megrim]

Hey, anyone seen Danicia around? Steam tells me she was last on nearly a week ago.

[IainC]

She's at GDC at the moment. I believe she's back this weekend.

[luckton]

Haha!  The Crew is popping up on those top stat lists more and more for their unbridled carnage!   

[z22]

avaia:

Any update on when is good to play?  I invited you as a Steam friend.

[Falconeer]

Nuffle, please, do me a favour: die. Thanks.

[Ulysees]

The Minizilla's 2 - 1 The Bell Jar Utd

I conceded my first touchdown of the season so far but managed to maintain my win streak after a very hard fought match where it felt like the lizards were the AV7 team as I didn't take a single amazon off the pitch while Falc managed to KO 3 Saurus' in the first half! Thank god they all woke up for the second half.

Falc won the toss and elected to kick first and I thought this might play into my hands as it would give me a good opportunity to whittle his numbers down little did I realise how frustrating dodge would be without much tackle through the team as it seemed most of my blocks came up as defender stumbles which meant that Falcs girls could nimbly dance away from my lumbering lizards. I couldn't make any headway down the pitch and got a couple of skinks into the backfield by turn 7 for a desperate dodge and hand off move but didn't realise I had left my ball carrier open to a blitz and so on turn 7 Falc duly sacked my carrier and having burned a re-roll early in my last move my half fizzled out with a skull result that meant we went into half time with me having not scored nor managed to take any of Falcs amazons off the pitch and having suffered 3 KO's if they didn't wake up I sensed I could be in big trouble in the second half.

Second half kicked off and thankfully all my KO'd players woke up so I had a full 11 and things start off well with me making a diving tackle on Falcs catcher to open the right side of field and I duly move a saurus and skink up the pitch in range of a blitz on the carrier in the next turn if Falc does not move. The next turn started well for me with Falc immediately failing a dodge with his catcher again to my dive tackle marking skink so with a glint in my eye I start rolling blocks against his engaged girls to get one of my 3 skull turnovers before I had tried to blitz his carrier. I thought that was an ominous sign of a nuffle fucking for this match but it turned out that it was Falc on the receiving end as he moved his thrower into position to deliver an opening touchdown pass to fumble it twice and have his star thrower drop the ball at her own feet. Not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth I pushed Syvia Plath aside and my skink made the required dodge and pickup to run in the opening score on turn 12.

The next drive sees the ref turn the clock back a turn but I was fairly confident that I could hold the amazons at bay as long as I could take care of that pesky catcher which proved to be a lot harder to do than I expected especially when another skull turnover opened my defence and allowed Falc to get an unopposed pass into the catcher who had rolled a both down but successfully re-rolled into a POW to tie the score at 1-1. Cyanide then decide to give me a heart attack by substituting my start killer saurus (not that he has lived upto his billing in the last few matches and this one was no exception) forcing me to field an extra skink instead of Xhooqs which may have turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it forced me to run skinks into the backfield and though Falc marked them all up I managed to free a path for my ball carrier to hand off to a marked skink who made the catch and the dodge for a turn 14 touchdown.

Falc had 2 turns to tie the match but failed at his first attempt as once gain diving tackle came to my aid and took down his catcher meaning he couldn't get anyone in score range for the final turn of the match so the game ended 2-1 to the Lizards. Stats below and match is submitted on BBmanager.

[Ingmar]

3 matches validated, 10 to play.

[luckton]

3 matches validated, 10 to play.

Thanks for that.  Got two guys with Guard and a third with Tackle now.  Will be much needed for the future 

[avaia]

avaia:

Any update on when is good to play?  I invited you as a Steam friend.

Let's shoot for Monday evening.

[Modern Angel]

Power Team Volcano beat Reborne's Wrestlers 3-2.

My minotaur got doubles on his forgotten level up roll three minutes before the game started, quickly picking up Claw. That would really be the key to the game as the beast promptly killed an ogre on the first turn (rerolled to a groin strain). He would take out another ogre before it was done with another groin strain by turn three and that was pretty much how the game went. Injury after injury went against the ogres. Reborne very gamely played on and worked some long bomb snot magic on two occasions, as the score shows, but things weren't terribly in doubt after that initial terrible burst of violence. It was a fun, weird game and Reborne is always one of my heroes in this league, with his good attitude and dedication to a tough team to win with.

Shockingly, I only received one level up, on a hobgoblin, which was a real bummer.

[z22]

avaia:

Any update on when is good to play?  I invited you as a Steam friend.

Let's shoot for Monday evening.

Ok. Does 7:30pm EST sound good?

[Ingmar]

I hope that Minotaur already had block.

[Ruvaldt]

My minotaur got doubles on his forgotten level up roll three minutes before the game started, quickly picking up Claw.

Wat.

[Modern Angel]

I gave my minotaur Claw?

[luckton]

Why not Block?

[Ruvaldt]

It's a small miracle when you get a double on the first level up for big guys, because they desperately need block, and they can only get it on a double.  Hell, I fire big guys who don't get block by level 3 because they aren't worth the TV and turnover liability otherwise, in my opinion.  It's just surprising to see that double spent on claw; especially when so many other pieces can get it on their own doubles.

[luckton]

I can see MA's logic though; Mino's for C. Dwarfs don't get Mutation access without a Double, unlike their regular Chaos brethren.  In fact, I'm pretty sure nobody on C. Dwarf gets Mutation without a Double.  While a Chaos Mino could hold off on Mutations if a double comes up, C. Dwarfs don't have that luxury.

It's a tough call.  On one hand you flip or at least negate the effects of a Both Down, depending on the skills of your rival, which means the Mino has a better chance of staying upright, contributing overall, and not ending up in the KO/Injury box.  On the other hand, Claw basically says "fuck your high armor", should you actually land a hit that isn't negating by a Dodge or if the Mino had Block in the first place.  Both have their advantages and disadvantages.  While Claw paid off this match, I'm sure there will be plenty of  other matches down the line where Block might have been a better choice.

Fake edit: Yeah, just consulted the rulebook.  Only C. Dwarf Blockers and the Mino get Mutation skills on a Double and nothing else.

2nd fake edit: Since we're discussing skill picks, critique mine.  My werewolf with Block, Dodge, and Mighty Blow rolled doubles.  I was torn between Guard and Jump Up.  I went with Guard.  Thoughts?

[Ruvaldt]

Claw is only useful when you're hitting AV 8+ opponents, and even then it's only useful when you actually knock them down (which you do less often without block).  Block is useful no matter what, even defensively.  With big guys you're always trying to prevent them from causing turnovers due to their lack of block and loner status.  Their loner/block status even changes my order of operations in a round which can be pivotal.  Reigning that in is key to using them to the best of their ability.  It's not a tough call for me.  Dwarf blockers, sure, they get claw on doubles pretty much every time.

[Ruvaldt]

2nd fake edit: Since we're discussing skill picks, critique mine.  My werewolf with Block, Dodge, and Mighty Blow rolled doubles.  I was torn between Guard and Jump Up.  I went with Guard.  Thoughts?

Now that is a tough call.  I think Guard is a good way to go though.  Often, frenzy pieces end up in odd spots where guard will be useful, and given that he has dodge/STR4 he's going to be tough to neutralize in his ability to contribute to other pieces around him.  I had a similar advantage with some of my Chaos Warriors on the Presidents who had STR4/block/dodge/guard and it was amazing.  Norse is a bashy team that is always hurting for STR, so as much guard as you can get is a good decision.  As long as you take tackle on your next skill up with him, he's good.

Of course, I take guard pretty much everywhere if I can.  One of my favorite teams was an Undead team with three ghouls that had guard.

[Ingmar]

I think Guard over Jump Up was the right call there. Norse have berserkers for piling on, and the low agility on Norse WWs makes jump up kind of unreliable. On top of that there are only 5 players on the team with native S access so you're going to want guard on all of them, especially because they all have frenzy so you're not always going to be able to put your guard guys exactly where you want them.

You also probably don't want to put a guy that hard to knock down on the ground on purpose.

And regarding big guys, I would take Block over +str. That's how badly most of them need it.

[Sjofn]

The answer was sidestep, obviously. 

[Ingmar]

Oh. Yeah, it was. Derp.

[Sjofn]

You have no idea how sad I will be when my sidestep berserker dies.

[proudft]

At least you've accepted that it's going to happen.

[luckton]

As long as you take tackle on your next skill up with him, he's good.

Yeah, it's a bit of a long road to level 6 for him.  Though at his particular rate of killing players, I may not have to wait that long.  

Thank you all for helping me not loose my mind over blowing a Double roll :)

[avaia]

Let's shoot for Monday evening.

Ok. Does 7:30pm EST sound good?

Sounds good.

[Modern Angel]

It's a small miracle when you get a double on the first level up for big guys, because they desperately need block, and they can only get it on a double.  Hell, I fire big guys who don't get block by level 3 because they aren't worth the TV and turnover liability otherwise, in my opinion.  It's just surprising to see that double spent on claw; especially when so many other pieces can get it on their own doubles.

I don't feel they desperately need block, though. I'm trying to think of where I read it (maybe buried in bbtactics somewhere) but two dice + block has hit a certain point of diminishing returns. I'm going to be throwing two dice in almost every single situation. I don't think block is quite as vital to two dice blocks as all that. It's certainly not useless, and the times the lack of block does fuck me are sure going to stick out, but this was a no brainer to me. I've been on the receiving end of a claw minotaur and I've used a clawpomb rat ogre to scary effect elsewhere.

Besides, two injuries in the first three turns to ogres has already nearly justified it. I'm okay with this.