RT BBL Season 8

[Gandalf]

I've got a wedding too but I'm not using it as an excuse to slack off blood bowl :p

It is on the Saturday though.

[lawastooshort]

You should get a podcast mention for that Bloodbowling in the Face of Adversity Unlike Some

[Raveen]

I'm going to have to rearrange as well because we're going to the in-laws on Sunday apparently.

Can we play tonight Id3? Or Moose for that matter.

[id3nt1ty]

I'm not about tonight, but don't worry about not being able to make it tomorrow, I'all probably be shattered. Rearrange for during the week?

[Raveen]

Cool, let me know what night suits you best. Same goes for Moose.

I'll probably be shattered either way, the twins are teething. Or they're diabolical little &#£%s, or possibly both.

[id3nt1ty]

Monday or Tuesday is probably best for me.

[Gandalf]

Teething is such fun!!! I can't imagine how awesome it must be to be having two of them. I still remember my son whimpering for hours after his bedtime despite being maxed out on Calpol.

Someone today expressed awe at us having two kids "so close together". I thought of you & other parents of twins.

[lawastooshort]

Idan, I am likely to be a bit late due to children. Will try to make it by 20.15?

[Gandalf]

Reposting as it got no response first time round.

There's a week and a half to go of the season, there's one game still outstanding, Raveen vs Moose. Can you guys figure out a date for it?

Also are we going straight into the cup or having a week off?

[Gandalf]

A dramatic and eventful penultimate weekend of the season sets it up for the most exciting closing day in RTBBL history!

The Ogre - Orc game finished 1-1 and was a lot of fun. All sorts of random stuff went down. Match report to come....

http://gandalfgames.net/bbdb/matchdetai ... tch_id=143

[lawastooshort]

Gah! Captain Camembert fails 4th GFI in a row to hand the Lizards the title!!

Crikey. Bit of a match there.

Started off well for the rats who kicked, and then managed to score in their turn 1. Then the Mastercheesers got a second blitz, but I think this was the one where I misclicked and so didn't blitz down the skink who then caught the ball, letting the lizards run the clock down and go into the second half 1-1. Except no! I had tun 8, and set up for a hopeful OTTD, which could have gone a bit wrong when Idan rolled blitz #3... and then a bad block messed up the chainpushing. In a fury, a rat murdered a downed saurus, but the bugger got better! Bloody elven doctor, clearly...

Then... second half? Yes, that is what is after the first half. The skaven offense went a bit wrong, but then I did some lucky dodging and stuff, and rescued things and ran off to take a 2-1 lead, although with plenty of time for Idan to equalise.

Which he did, not hindered by a second misclick I did where I forgot to blitz the ball carrier, or by my third blitz at kick off...

2-2 with a turn to go!

Except no! There was a bit of a riot, and the ref decided the fans clearly wanted TWO MORE TURNS instead of one. A bit like that time 5 seasons ago when the ref gave Idan's Pro Elves an extra turn to take the lead after my brave underworld lads had taken all game to equalise.

The lads advanced, got a gutter runner in range, Idan reshuffled, the lads cleared a bit of a path, and then Captain Bloody Camembert sprinted towards the endzone, dodged 3 times, and then FAILED ANOTHER BLOODY GFI.

2-2 and a very enjoyable game, and Idan just needs a win to be champion...

[notjarvis]

Dark Elves win 3-0 to Briefly go up into second :-)
http://gandalfgames.net/bbdb/matchdetai ... tch_id=144

- Un-dead Receive and pick up the ball. Dark Elves Blitz through to get tackle zones on the wight with the ball. The Undead Dodge out with their AG4 wight abomination and race down to the Dark Elf Right.
- But unfortunately the Wight ball carrier is left exposed enough for a Witch elf to storm in and blitz him. The ball scatters off field and bounces in next to the dark elf Runner.
- The runner dodges out picks up the ball and passes it downfield where the other witch elf gets the ball and runs down to score a turn later.
1-0 To the Dark Elves
- The un-dead receive again, and as time is ticking down in the half - they push again down the Dark Elf right. But again the Wight is left exposed for a Witch elf Blitz. Again the balls scatters off field and into a place the Dark Elves can pick up and chuck it down field.
- Again the Dark Elves manage to run it in to score at the end of the half
2-0 at half time
- Dark Elves receive for the first time, and try this spiky caging and running game they had heard so much about.
- The Undead quickly surround the cage. But the Elves return to filfthy elf type. Dodge out and yet again pass down the field for a 3rd Score
3-0 to the Dark Elves
- The Undead Receive again, and cage up well, the game drifts into attritional play, where the Best witch elf (The one with block who will be skiling up again at the end of the game) picks up a broken ankle (:-().
- the game ends 3-0


Bad luck moose. You didn't play too badly, but you were let down badly by the block dice whilst I had very decent block dice according to Gandalfs widget.
The only advice I would give was that you missed how easy it is for Elves to dodge out of tackle zones (only ever a 2+), and therefore left the ball carrier a bit exposed at crucial moments.

[Idanmel]

OH MY GOD...
That was the most intense game I played. 38 turns in all.

4 defence blitzes (3 for the Skaven), a last turn riot (giving the Skaevn 2 turns to score instead of 1), a dead Saurus (who was treated by an Elven doctor), 45 Skaven dodges (9 failed... a few going into 2 tackle zones trying to get to my ball carrier, and then some more trying to dodge diving tackle), 19 Skaven GFI's (7 fails!!!), a first turn touchdown after kicking (which totaly ruined my 2:1 grind plans), and the cheesers were 2 GFI's shy of winning the game (and probably the title).

And there are still 6 teams that can win the title...

[Idanmel]

I confused fails with rolling 1's... must have been the time (and the fact that I'm a single parent of two teenagers).

My sister and her husband ran off and left their house with everyone in it for me to handle for two weeks.

[Gandalf]

Pre-game

With one of my 2 block-ogres missing the match through injury I knew I had no chance of holding my own in an extended blocking match against such a strong, well-developed, blodging team. So I decided to try and avoid head-on fights if possible. The plus side was it meant my team would be getting inducements! I hired bomber dribblesnot (60k of awesome), the pogoer (who achieved little; perhaps should've taken a wizard instead but the animation & sound that goes with him moving is one of the best in the game) and a babe (did nothing). I fired 2 snotlings to make space for these two. One was AV4 so he needed firing anyway; the other it turns out I didn't need to fire. In other words, if you have a 15 player roster and someone injured, you can still hire 2 star players - the injured player is, in effect, not on the roster. So, something new learned there

I won kick-off and elected to receive. The weather was fine throughout.

First half

I set up with 3 ogres on the front line versus a strong ogre front 3. Bomber dribblesnot was just behind them - a risky position perhaps, but I had in mind that short-range bombs only require a 2+.

The ball went long-ish. The AG3 ogre took 3 turns to pick up the ball, but got there in the end, I didn't bother using rerolls as the orcs had minimal interest in the ball, instead choosing to blitz snotlings. Meanwhile on the front line, I got some decent hits in, pushing back 1 of the front 3 and knocking the other one over, the one still standing then took a bomb to the face and fell over. The next turn a bomb was thrown at a block orc, who caught it and then fumbled it. Either turn 3 or 4 dribblesnot fumbled it himself, which KO'ed a nearby snotling but dribblesnot himself stood up again before too long. The orcs kept putting marking dribblesnot but the ogres managed to hit anyone who came too close to him - I don't think he was ever blitzed, there were always snotlings around to blitz...

So anyway it got to turn 5. The pitch was thus - the AG3 ball carrying ogre was deep in my backfield, marked by 2 orcs who thankfully had failed to take him down in a 2D against blitz, and most of the rest of the forces were in a melee a few squares into the orc half. Donkey (AG2, break tackle) broke free and stood in space to receive the ball (AG4 guy was too busy being Dribblesnot's bouncer). My ball carrier dodged into space and launched a long pass to Donkey, however the pass was inaccurate, I chose not to reroll as the primary aim of getting the ball downfield was achieved and Donkey only had a 50% chance of catching an accurate pass anyway. The ball landed 2 squares past Donkey. With time running out in the half tension was high - who could get their hands on the ball? What would dribblesnot do next? Would there be a TD before half time?

A few orcs who were free-ish (most were still in a melee in the middle) moved towards the ball/Donkey. One even tried to pick it up - and succeeded! What would he do? He saw the two orcs downfield and decided to pass it downfield, a successful pass would almost certainly mean a TD for the orcs. He took aim, threw it... and it was intercepted by Donkey!

Seeing 3 orcs together, Bomber Dribblesnot couldn't resist taking aim at them, however for the second time it was caught/intercepted by an orc instead. He promptly threw it at Donkey, who despite being a thick-skulled dunderhead who was somewhat inexplicably carrying the ball, somehow also caught this bomb and threw it back towards the orcs. It missed and landed in an empty part of the field. Donkey was confused by all that was going on but managed to break tackle and run towards the TD zone, though he was 2 squares short. The slow orcs mustered what they could to blitz him but it only resulted in a push. With the help of one of the few-surviving snotlings Donkey knocked over that orc and lumbered over the line to make it 1-0 to Team Shrek in turn 7!

The Orcs had 2 turns left and tried for a OTT (which I completely forgot they could do) but the goblin failed his landing. The half ended with the ogres doing a pass for SPP farming reasons.

Second half

The ogres kicked long. The orcs turn ended prematurely with some bad block dice. The ogres got a couple of blocks in before their turn also ended with some bad block dice. PirlOrc picked up the ball and the orcs - with their superior skills, started bashing around the ogres on the LoS. Eventually they injured 2 - both badly hurt, though I apoth'ed the second one anyway so he would return for the next drive. I managed to injure one in return (badly hurt) - at least I think that was this half.

Slowly the orcs moved the ball upfield. A brave ogre or two managed to harass the ball carrier but was swiftly removed. With my lack of players a gap soon emerged and the orcs slowly moved through it (hey, their ball carrier is only MV4...). I managed one snotling-throw at the cage but the snotling landed short. I would've done another one but I ran out of time. Eventually the orcs scored on turn 16. Apologies Daigaro if the report of this drive is a bit lacking... feel free to add more info, but I think less interesting stuff happened here than in the first drive of the match.

With 1 turn left I set up for a OTT but PirlOrc's kick was a good long one so that wasn't possible. So the ogres just hit the front line players a bit and managed another SPP-farming pass.

Post-game

Neither of us liked who our MVP's went to. Mine went to Donkey who had taken MVP 4 times in the 8 games this season, so he's getting close to level 6 now, upon which he will probably be fired if he doesn't roll a double as he will be then up to 4 strength skills, so having to take really rubbish things. No team got any level-ups.

Dice... My boneheads were great, I only failed 4 out of 43, this helped a lot, though I had rerolls to spare in both halves. Otherwise the D6 look fairly even. 2D6 looks pretty even, 5 casualties to 1 in favour of the orcs, but given respective skills/armour and that I was trying not to get in a punching match, this seems reasonable, and unlike my last 2 matches stunned was rolled on the injury dice sometimes (rather than being KO/injured in all-but-one cases). We both rolled sub-par block dice, I think this helped me more than if we had both rolled average block dice as it meant I got to keep more players on the pitch.

The key point for my enjoyment was that unlike the last 3 games I have played against well-developed teams, the first half dice weren't diabolical, and thus gave me a chance to compete (sure this happens from time to time, but 3 games in a row really got to me). I would still have enjoyed this match even if I had gone 1-0 down in the first half, which really could've happened, the dodge/pass downfield could easily have gone wrong, and the interception was obviously flukey (though the orc could easily have failed the pickup just prior to the pass from which the interception came).

Tempted to give man of the match to a snotling that Gertrude targeted. The snotling was felled without mighty blow needed, so Gerty only needed to roll 5+ on 2D6 to break armour. He rolled 4, then used piling on to re-roll it, and rolled 4 again! What a resilient little chap.