RT BBL S5 - Final Week - 10th May

[id3nt1ty]

Excellent, good to hear from you again LtSpinx. Are you up for a game on Sunday?

[Raveen]

This week Bob and I will be bringing you four more armour cracking games of Blood Bowl in the Rolling Thunder Blood Bowl League.

That's right, Jim, and without further ado let's look at the games.

Unusually good thinking there, Bob. First up we have Saur'd of Justice looking to take the top of the table when they play what's left of The Sons of the Silver Sword. This is due to be a good matchup and even though the Sons are down on players I hear that they have a number of eager up and coming stars just desperate to get on the pitch and get stuck in.

You can't beat an enthusiastic amateur can you, Bob? Well, not hard enough anyway. Next up we have the big and small stylings of Team Shrek versus Percy's Persistent Plan. If there's one thing we can expect from this match it's mayhem, mayhem and more mayhem.

Those little greenskins sure do know how to crank up the madness, Jim. In a more cerebral game we have The Cheeseosophers locked into a battle of wits with Astrogranite Apocalypse. The Apocalypse boys might not be the greatest thinkers ever but their plan B usually involves hitting people so there's lots of action expected in this match.

Finally we have a match held over from last week, it's The Brewers Brawlers against Fables!. The Brawlers apparently couldn't make last week's scheduled game because they were putting the final touches on their latest creation - Ten-Ants Extra Special Brew for Total Bastards. A Brawlers spokes-dwarf stated that it was a "robust and earthy beer that'll only occasionally cause a wee bit of blindness". When asked to taste the new beer, Fables! declined, opining that they'd much rather have a fruit based drink.

The Pinewood Carrions will be training having accidently gone on holiday. Secret footage has been leaked from their rural training camp (Slightly NSFW) http://youtu.be/rDtRRdpDd2g

[id3nt1ty]

I'm starting to nurture a very serious grudge here Rav, and I think you are loving it.

[Raveen]

You may very well think that, I couldn't possibly comment.

[LtSpinx]

Aha! The Lesser Spotted Spinx.

We were missing you, and folks were wondering about you match this weekend, Rav is away but Id3 is wanting to catch up with the game you missed last weekend...

Sounds good. I shall be there barring any unforeseen happenings.

[lawastooshort]

Crikey.

3-1 to the Cheeseosophers in a very entertaining game which saw the Chaos win considerably on casualties (I got none?)

What happened?

Er.


Well we both had below average dice, but Wyld had the worst of it.

Chaos received, and dropped the ball or double skulled, I can't remember, and the Vampires managed to break through and get the ball. We ran away and Socrates scored in turn 2 or 3.

Then Chaos received, and... something happened, and Archimedes ended up holding the ball and running away, 2-0 to the Vampires at the end of the first half.

Second half Vampires received and Wyld set up in the imposing Wall of Doom formation. I used my wizard to break through it, and scored in three turns - 3-0 to the Vampires in turn... 12?

Then Wyld received, caged massively up, passed down my right, where the receiver dropped it. But I didn't recover the ball, Wyld neatly cleared it and made off and scored the consolation TD.

3-1!

Good game Wyld, it was quite entertaining and only thralls got hurt, which was nice.

edit: goodness, just seen how many blocks I made...

[id3nt1ty]

Well, that was a total let down. I've been looking forward to the league all week, only to have my evening ruined by connection issues.

Both games got well into their second half before my connection disappeared. The first game was 1-0 to me, the second 1-1. Hopefully we can either catch up during the week, or wait until the catchup week. Sorry for the connection loss Spinx, I'll look into it.

[DaigaroOgami]

Bosh!! Kaboom!! Oh the Humanity!! (Goblinity?)

Percy can't really say much, him Ripper and his Muscle all woke up nowhere near the pitch. Percy assured them that they HAD all been playing Blood Bowl, even if none of them could quite remember what the chuff happened. Nothing to do with the 'shrooms apparently.

The 'Plan received and went on a highly brave attacking strategy of taking out the dudes smaller than them and running away from the dudes bigger than them. Brown Roll Rim successfully gathered the kick and followed the trail of snotling blood toward's Team Shrek's endzone. Yellow Stainer may have wrapped his own Ball & Chain round his head, but Sulphur Tuft played a blinder, he'd obviously greased the chainsaw pre game and remembered his tin of WD40; KO'ing snotlings left & right, stunning Ogres and even slicing one so hard he had to go off the pitch to call his mum.

The 'Plan stalled for as long as they could, then got scared when surrounded by 4 Ogres, so scored in turn 7 (?)

The crowds this season are already taking a shine to the 'Plan (probably all the free mushrooms with match tickets), and cheered them on so violently they got extra rerolls at each kick off.

2nd half the Plan got caught in two minds whether to defend the 1-0 or not; but Team Shrek made their minds up for them by annihilating all but three goblins from the pitch; Percy, from his wheelchair pitchside yelled that each goblin is expendable (and edible), and in true kamikaze style told them to die for the cause. Most of them did, the others managed to be a right pain in the arse and just about kept Team Shrek occupied enough to stop them scoring, Sulphur Tuft topping off a fine game but sprinting in and chainsawing the ball carrier in the face, effecting ending TS's best chance at scoring and securing a much valued three points for the Plan.

Special mention must also go to Magic; who inexplicably succeeded in throwing every single bomb at the Ogres instead of himself.

Nuffle was inspired by the sense of occasion and didn't see fit to punish either team; in fact blessing both enough to ensure a nice spectacle for the fans.

Lizards next; ooff.

[Gandalf]

Ha, nicely done, not sure I can top that match report. I'll just add a few comments.

I wanted hilarity and hi-jinks for this game and it was duly provided. For example, I've never seen a bombardier performance like it. He never blew himself up, and the one inaccurate pass he did took out two ogres anyway!! A good game & congrats on your win!

Re: the dice, I did have better 2D6 which helped account for the lack of opposition on the pitch as the second half wore on. Same goes for the low block count - there was no-one left to block...

I also liked when my ogre just ran into the cage (6 for a dodge? no problems!) and smacked the ball carrier. Unfortunately for me he didn't manage to knock him over. I was frankly gob-smacked not to see "TURNOVER" flash up on the screen after that dodge attempt.

Second half, I was caught in two minds as to do some crazy pass or bash my way through. I went for the latter, and in a finish reminiscent of my previous game (against the elves), the enemy closed around me and got thoroughly trampled on, but by the time that happened, it was too late to score. With no opposition player standing in T16, I had a pickup, hand off, pass & catch to score (all AG3) but the pickup failed even with a re-roll, so it was not to be. Still, my team is going to level up at an incredible rate if teams keep sacrificially throwing their players in front of the ogres to stop them scoring. I have a satisfying lead on the league's most violent chart.

4 ogres levelled up after the match. My AG3 ogre now has strong arm for elf-like passing, and I have a second MV6 ogre. The other two were ordinary level-ups. Considering giving Multiple Block to the guy with Block, but I need to test how that works out in single-player mode first.

Finally a couple of screenshots. First one shows me slowing the goblin advance in the first half as a brave snotling and lying down ogre combine to slow the advance!



And here's one from near the game end. Notice how the pitch has turned rather red...

[DaigaroOgami]

But look at how brave Sulphur Tuft is!!! Surrounded by Ogres and slicing left and right like Zatochi.

I didn't know mushrooms could bleed as much as that...

[notjarvis]

Ouch


After a hard fought first half the lizards run away with it in the second half to win 4 - 0

- Lizards elect to receive and more or less, killing a line elf along the way, Score with textbook running game with the saurus's clearing the way on Turn 3.
- - Unfortunately the pesky Elves manage to injure a saurus and KO another whilst the run for the line was happening.
1-0
- The elves attempt to retaliate and manage to run the ball deep into the Lizard half. Yet just when it looks like they are clear a Saurus puts in the tackle and covers the ball down by the side line, where the Elves can't manage to work through to it.

Second Half - still very open - 1- 0 to the lizards but the Elfs are receiving and could easily even the scores
However - the D6 turn against the Elves with a vengeance
kickoff-s land perfectly for the Lizards (one very deep in their end-zone where it can't be reached left the Elves in serious predicaments, whilst the other two landed short right by the Lizard lines.
Every skink pickup is a success, and they manage hand-offs and passes with aplomb too, whilst the Elves struggle to keep a mit on the ball, and fubmble pickups and passes all over the place.
The Lizards only manage one more (badly hurt) injury though, and the game ends with the score at 4-0

Dice
I had the clear advantage with the D6 +9 probability according to BB manager versus -7. A big swing
I failed only one out of 14 GFIs and made 4 out of 4 Pickups of the ball!
I also had the edge with the block dice
The elves had the edge with the 2D6, but not enough to make up for all the other problems.

[Red Lion Three]

The news from the SotSS training camp:

"The SotSS thrower is regretting not washing his hands before the second half after having Greta-Goblin's extra-greasy french-fries and buttered crumpets as a snack at half-time. Rumour has it his team-mates are wondering whether he should be fed to the Saur'd's Kroxgor. Then, while everyone is distracted, the Saur'd skink with the good arm (who is clearly an elf in disguise) can be 'bundled away to safety' ready for the SotSS's next match ."


The second half was fairly calamitous. But there were moments in the game when things went for the SotSS - such as nobbling one of the Sauruses and the amount of time that Kroxigor spent lying down.

[id3nt1ty]

Hey Spinx, when's a good night for the rematch? I can do tonight, Wednesday, Friday or Satruday.

[Raveen]

Ident, if you like I think I could do tonight to catch up our game?

[id3nt1ty]

Oh my goodness, I'm not sure I'm prepared for that. If Spinx doesn't get back to us, you're on. The wife is planning to go out so hopefully there should be no connection issues.

Two matchdays in and I'm already two games behind - despite playing enough turns for two and a half matches.