Rolling Thunder Forums

Strong Stout (Dwarf) vs Astrogranite Apocalypse (Chaos)

[quote="Did You Know..."]In 2470, following years of disenchantment, several of the teams competing in the Dwarf 'Stuntie' Cup competition threatened to leave the leagues they were competing in and form a league of their own.  The increase in the throwing game was threatening to end whatever chance of success they had ever had!

The resulting World's Edge Superleague is a Dwarves-only league, now trimmed to 12 second-rate teams, playing a 22-match season.  Curiously, the throwng game dominates!  Those World's Edge fans just love to see the ball hanging up there while 22 players scramble for the honour of being the one it lands on![/quote]

The mutant murder machine does it again.  This was Solarfluxx's first game against a human opponent, and coupled with the high TV and experience of the Apocalypse, there really was only one result we were likely to see.  Dwarven resilience counted for little against their more experienced opponents, and a string of good luck on the block dice combined with good risk management from the Apocalypse coach meant the Strong Stout injury box started filling up early.  Despite initially receiving the ball, the dwarves just couldn't keep hold of it, letting chaos score in the first half.  A second touchdown on turn 12 and both players agreed to use the house rule for a surrender, allowing the dwarves to leave the pitch with the comfort of not having sustained any permanent injuries and a final score of 2-0 to the Apocalypse.

This really wasn't fair.  The high expense of dwarf players meant that Fluxx had chosen to field a team without any rerolls, although the halfling master chef helped a little by contributing a measly one reroll per half.  I've since linked Fluxx to the recommended starting rosters on the Blood Bowl wiki and he's looking to delete this incarnation of Strong Stout and start over with a better starting team.

I'm also moving Astrogranite Apocalypse into pseudo-retirement.  It's just not right to keep bringing them out against starting teams, so I'm gonna play around a bit and bring a low level team into the league for playing folks who just don't have the strength to have a chance against the Apocalypse.

I'll still be bringing them against Gandalf later though, if he has the nerve to show...

Strong Stout (Dwarf) vs Warpstone Wanderers (Underworld)

[quote="Did You Know..."]Half-Orc Blitzer Joachim Goadmalice believed in training very, very hard.  While with the Oldheim Ogres, he caused them more casualties in one training session than the Ogres had suffered in their ten previous games.  In posthumous honour of his technique, the Ogres renamed their training park Goadmalice Park because, in the words of team owner Rakim Gold, "That's where most of him is."[/quote]

A sane starting team (three rerolls!) and an opponent playing outside his comfort zone allowed Fluxx to show the world what he's really made of as a coach.  The Wanderers elected to receive the kick at the start, but some poor luck attempting to dodge past the wall of iron set up by Strong Stout meant that the ball wasn't in their possession for long.  Classic bash and cage tactics brought the dwarves to a 1-0 lead by the end of the first half.
By this point, attrition was taking it's toll as the Wanderers lost several of their key rats and the warpstone troll, which meant they lacked the strength to even try to hold the dwarves in the center of the pitch.  Or on the wings.  Or anywhere, really.  A second touchdown was inevitable, and a third was being threatened when the referee finally blew the whistle.

I was outplayed.  Dwarves play the strongest bashy game in the sport and Fluxx made the most of it, with excellent play at both caging the ball and breaking the opposition.  Combine that with the fact that I deliberately fielded a team who didn't suit my preferred play style and a 2-0 win for Strong Stout is only surprising in that it wasn't by a larger margin.  Well played, Fluxx.

Gonna give it a quick go.

Idans All moms (Amazon) versus Fluxxz Strong Stout (Dwarf).

I remember it being a very even game, exciting literally to the last second. In the first half Idan received the kick off and managed to score pretty quickly. Some injuries fell on both sides and my merc got sent off, leaving me to finish the game with ten players. Second half I manage to bash Idan since receiving the kick off, holding a tight cage. Idan decides to move back and let me score. While I could draw it out for a tie, I decide to score quickly to keep the game exciting. In the mean time I bash up some of Idans players. After scoring, Idan receives the kick-off. He sends a player deep and manages to make a succesfull pass from the half line. He then dodges my last defender and scores on his 16th turn.

Congrats Idan on a game well played. Was a lot of fun.

Oooh exciting end! Seem to be lots of close matches at the moment, and the highly anticipated top-of-the-table clash between Wyld's Chaos army and my skaven rats was no different. I took notes as the game went on so this is quite detailed but hopefully entertaining and gives you a good idea of the flow of the game.

I drafted in an extra Rat Ogre as an inducement (St 6 Ag 3) which would help bring some more muscle against the Chaos bruisers, and also took an extra apothecary.

First half

Chaos kick off.

Turn 1 : Skaven go for an interesting strategy of running it back to their own line and waiting until turn 2 to launch their attack. Chaos bashed & set up good tackle zones.
Turn 2 : The Brain then runs into space but doesn't see many options, so thinks it would be funny to throw it to the big fat rat ogre, who fails to catch it. Chaos' Minotour then decides to hit the rat gore mercenary, who is pushed back, and then gets attacked again due to Frenzy, but this time the Skaven team got to choose which of the 2 dice to choose, and I chose both down to end his turn. Chaos got scuppered by frenzy there and I was glad for my mercenary rat ogre.
Turn 3 : Mighty mouse runs into the melee, picks the ball up from under 3 players' noses and rolls a triple GFI to get to the edge of the endzone. Stunning running there! However he gets blitzed down. Chaos try to gain as many yards as possible, picking the ball up, passing and running it deep into Skaven territory but ultimately dropping the ball (Failed GFI I think).
Turn 4 : Dangermouse picks up the ball and runs down the left flank. I might've passed or handed off around here too. Cgaos try to close him down but ultimately fail.
Turn 5 : Dangermouse does a short pass to mighty mouse who needs the SPP more, and he scored unopposed, and runs a zig-zag to the line to show off

Turn 6 : Chaos receive. Hit a lot of things but a turnover happens at some point before he even picked up the ball (or his received failed to pick up/drops the ball). Mighty mouse scarpers forward, claims the ball, but can only see a thumping coming with no support. With the idea fo holding the lead until half time, he throws it into the melee in the centre of the pitch where my Headsplitter the merc rat ogre catches it!
Turns 7-8 : Lots of bashing but it's hard to dislodge the ball from a strength 6 character. Eventually Wyld manages it on the last turn but it's too late to score.

Second half

The combination of punch-ups in the middle with the ball going from end to end continued. Chaos received first and attempted to get the ball deep into Skaven territory, but failed a roll somewhere. With The Brain on the sidelines, my gutter runners had to do all the fancy ball work, so one came off his wing to pick up the ball, threw it to the other on the other wing who made a run for the line.

He got double-teamed and the ball went out of bounds, before appearing in the opposite corner, where no-one could get it for 2 turns, haha! Many players closed on the ball (Wyld rolled an insane number of dodges this turn) and my rat ogres KO'ed a few Chaos guys at this time too. Nevertheless, Wyld had the numbers around the ball to get there first and launch an attack down the middle. This failed yet again as the touchdown zone approached as a GFI failed (Wyld is obsessed with GFI's!).

On turn 14 my gutter runner picked up the ball, ran out wide and passed it to a linerat whose name escaped me. He then ran with it towards the enemy line, but there was Paul Wince guarding the line - he was still there from 3 or 4 turns ago (who Wyld had forgotten all about!). The rat was out of range of all the other Chaos still standing at this point. He had a 2-dice block on the linerat, but despite 2 rolls the best he could manage was a push back. The Skaven had better luck, knocking over Paul Wince with a 2-dice blitz leaving the linerat to run in for a piece of history -  the Skaven's first ever touchdown that was not scored by a gutter runner.

The kick-off was turn 15 or 16, and with the score 2-0 it was agreed to employ the friendly forfeit rule to end the game.

Post game analysis

Good match that was in the balance until I finally scored my second in round 15. Even as I approached the line, with a decent block roll he could've got the ball up to the other end for a draw.

I suffered 3 KO's and 1 "miss next match" which I'm quite pleased with after facing the chaos. I had 2 apothecaries but didn't use either one as I kept saving them for serious injuries against my top players, which never happened. I killed one of his but he was resurrected with an apothecary. I retired Cluny the Scourge who has taken quite a beating over the course of the season (loss of 1 ST and a niggling injury), and brought in another thrower. I was going to get another lineman, but throwers are only 20,000 more and are the same in every way except they have pass, sure hands and can take passing skills on promotions. I felt the extra options this gives me was worth the extra 20k.

Also, what the heck was I doing with 68% possession? I'm supposed to be about lightening fast attacks & scoring. I guess the time at the end of the first half where the huge rat ogre hogged the ball improved my possession stats somewhat.

That was a cracking match, Gandalf.  End-to-end and side-to-side stuff.  In the end, I just couldn't outmaneuver those scurrying rats of yours.
Just one little addendum to your report.  I regret to announce the retirement of Lvl 3 Beastman Kill Neville.  A mainstay of my scrimmage on the flanks since the team's beginning, a smashed hip reduced his MA to 5 and he's retired to help coach the next generation of chaos players.  I had, sadly, already used the apothecary to save Chaos Warrior Maul Gascoigne from a fatality.