RT BBL Season 9

[id3nt1ty]

I can be optimistic though, can't I?

[Gandalf]

http://gandalfgames.net/bbdb/matchdetai ... tch_id=249

Underworld take wizard, an apothecary and a 2 babes I think.

Underworld receive and retrieve the ball from their own TD zone. Faced with a wall of stronger players they try and follow the troll through the middle, but the ball carrier is blitzed over. The wizard is called into action with thoroughly average results, but at least he ball doesn't have any TZ's on it now. Stuff happens, then a Big Hand goblin picks it up. He tries to throw it away... but it's intercepted by a Nurgle Warrior(!). He lumbers over the line in slow motion on turn 8 with most of the Underworld team on their backsides/the sidelines.

1-0 It's A Sign at half time.

Second half It's A Sign receive the ball (very) deep. In the battle of the Big Guys No Entry head-butts the Troll off the pitch. Underworld try and get some pressure in the backfield, but fortunately the hand-off works and a pestigor has the ball in a strong cage in the middle of the pitch. A two-head wrestle goblin immediately makes a mockery of the cage by wrestling the ball out of there. Unfortunately for him the ball didn't bounce nicely. However I double 1'ed the pickup, but had too many players around the ball for the underworld to make something off it. I then picked the ball off and lumbered off to score. I tried to get the ball to another player to spread the SPP's around but it went a bit wrong. One of the few underworld players left picked it up... but fell over. I had one chance to score on T16 which I did, with a pickup, pass & catch to get SPP's where I wanted them.

2-0 Full Time.

Post-game, I got 3 level ups... two of which were +AG on rotters! I took one of them on Trudy Lies which now means he's AG5, I think I'll turn down the other, too much bloat. I'm not sure how much of a difference AG5 is going to make over AG4 on a Nurgle team, but I couldn't resist it (longer passes!). I caused 6 casualties, 2 of which were by a rotter?! Polonium IV died on his debut.... that position is cursed for sure. A goblin got MVP & a skill to go with it. Dice stats showed my block dice were pretty good and most other things were pretty average.

GG id3, sorry you didn't think it was a fun game with which to go on a break.

[Raveen]

Well.... Bum.

No offense Gandalf but I really didn't want to have to play the Nurgle again!

[Gandalf]

Sorry! :p

The Norse are definitely one of the tougher opponents for this team, as all the Block they have been carefully building up doesn't count for so much anymore.

The usual Sunday night 8pm OK for you?

[Raveen]

Sunday's fine by me.

[Gandalf]

*** THE DAILY CHAINMAIL 17th JULY 2016 ***

PODCASTER'S REVENGE
Cup specialist Raveen does it again with an entertaining 2-1 win over Gandalf's Nurgle team

.... more to follow in the morning's print run

[Raveen]

I'll post a proper report later but for now I'll point out my 50% GFI success rate

[Raveen]

Cup Final

It’s a Sign vs The Iceweb Podcasters

What an occasion, what a mismatch of Team Values, what a smell from the Nurgle locker room…

I had all the inducement money in the world to spend even after buying a replacement Ulfwerener. So I bought, a wizard, a babe and Zara the Slayer. I was 10k short of Icepelt and a wizard but figured that the wizard would be extremely useful in this match.

I kicked to Gandalf and placed the ball short. The Nurglistas collected it with their Ag5 rotter and clumped up in the middle. My first block BH a Nurgle Warrior which was nice and the lack of Guard on It’s a Sign meant that I wasn’t totally out strengthed. Gandalf’s cage started rumbling forwards so I decided to hit the wizard button. Another two Nurgle players left the pitch. I think Gandalf was rattled by this and pushed his ball carrier forward too far. I was able to get a block on him and the ball scattered to… A Nurgle Warrior. Happily he was knocked over on the next turn and I was able to get the ball free and start a move up the pitch.

Once I got past the Nurgle players it was easy to tie them down and stall until late in the half. Gandalf was left with 2 turns to score and with his freakish mutants having Ag5 and also the extra arms pestigor he nearly managed it. But not quite.

1-0 to the Podcasters at Half Time

In the second half I received the kick and drove up the left wing. Gandalf tried to swing his team across to stop me and I considered switching sides but in the end I cleared a path by surfing his players instead. Particularly the dodge, extra arms Pestigor who was BH. Just as we commented that my Av7 was holding well Gandalf killed a lino and injured 2 or 3 more in one turn. With the numbers on the pitch turning against me I decided to score in turn 12 leaving Gandalf needing two two turn touchdowns to win.

2-0 to the Podcasters

What was left of my team lined up on the pitch ready to defend. Gandalf replayed his first half offence with two receivers running down into my half. I was able to mark both of them but Gandalf blitzed the marker off and made the pass and run to score.

2-1 to the Podcasters

The previous drive had seen more injuries including another dead lino and Percy getting BH. I lined up my 3 on the line and had 3 more in the backfield to defend. I gathered the ball and hung back out of range of the Nurgle players. They charged forwards anyway but only one was in scoring range so I frenzy pushed him back up the pitch effectively winning the match.

Final Score 2-1 to the Podcasters.

A very pyrrhic victory with 2 deaths and a lot more injuries. But a victory nonetheless and mostly carried off by my St 4 Mv 8 Blodging runner. All he needs is an Ag boost to be the best player ever. Gandalf played well and when his first TD went in I was more than a little worried – if it had gone to a draw I would have happily conceded as I didn’t have a team left. But I had my best defensive players left to hold the ball and 2 St4 Blodgers is a nightmare for almost any team to try and deal with.

Once again I win the cup after a lacklustre league run at best. I had a run of luck this game to get up in players for the first drive which won me the game. So maybe that’s all I need, a bit of luck. Or maybe it’s just that I play best with a team that’s got a season worth of development.

[Abomination]

Congrats to the blocky Norse, who now no doubt smell of disease in addition to beer! Hear, hear!

[Gandalf]

A nice match report! Some additional comments from my end...

I think Gandalf was rattled by this and pushed his ball carrier forward too far. I was able to get a block on him and the ball scattered to… A Nurgle Warrior.

Yeah it was 8 players vs 11 in the first half, and we both had the same number of players with ST>3 at that point, I felt (rightly or wrongly) that I had to go push ahead and try to score from there. I could've tried to sit on the ball and stop you scoring but that would've been tricky itself... I had an awful lot of ST/skills on the sidelines.

It would've been quite something if I had got the 2 touchdowns back, it was very exciting climax to the season, but ultimately it's hard to score 2-turn touchdowns twice in a row. I snake-eyed a GFI (needed that to get in scoring range) plus the kick landed further back than I aimed. Not that I am complaining, you deserved the win, and the luck overall was pretty average for us both, I think.

It's not a phyrric victory - you won the cup! Also you didn't use your apothecary on any of the injuries I clearly need to comment on the lack of injuries more if doing so results in what happened in this game #badlessonstolearn

No Entry (The Beast) has gone on a crazy injury spree recently, 5 in his last 2 games (to go with his 8 from the previous 20+ games), which gave him just enough SPP to level up. He now has block/guard/stand firm. The NW you injured in the first turn (-1AV, not BH) got MVP (?!) which meant he levelled up too, block/mb and now claw for him... worth keeping despite being down to AV8 IMO. And to all those who say I was mad to give +AV to another of my nurgle warriors... if this guy had AV10 he wouldn't have been injured, so yah-boo sucks to you all

I appreciate it's becoming an ever-more horrible team to play against, but unlike most Nurgle teams I have the backup option of an AG5 rotter flinging it everywhere (the longest throw possible works on a 4+). It's a lot of TV but pretty fun, which is more important in my book.

Oh yeah, and your +MV+ST blodging runner is just ridiculous!

[Red Lion Three]

Well done Rav!

[id3nt1ty]

Yes, well done.

[Raveen]

I was thinking about your Rotter Quarterback. I tink what I'd do is use a Pestigor as ball retriver (Sure Hands, Extra Arms/Big Hand, KOR) and then position Trudy a few squares behind the LOS.

The Pesti can get the ball and hang back safe whilst the receivers push downfield. Then the Pesti runs up and hands off to Trudy who lurches a bit further forward and throws a more sure thing pass. In an ideal world you'd get Nerves of Steel on the receivers and Safe Throw on Trudy (both Doubles I know). Safe Throw over pass because it's going to mostly be a 2+ in this scheme and you should have a TRR for the throw if you're going to do it but you can't mitigate against interceptions and there's a good chance that there'll be someone who might roll a 6. Unless you murder them all

[Gandalf]

Your scheme involves way too many new skills - the TV is already past 1900!! I suppose if you wanted to build a Nurgle team entirely as a ball-playing team for the lols, it could work, and with mutations access, it would be possible to build a team like this I suppose, and actually I probably could've gone down that route since I have turned down two +AG level ups on rotters already. As it is I don't want to build a third ball handler for cash reasons & to focus on the main idea of Nurgle teams - hitting people. Also rotters are prone to dying - it's better if the skills end up on pestigors.

The one thing you mentioned that is in my plans is kick-off return for the ball retriever. Helps mitigate the slow movement (a major weakness of the Nurgle), and could make passes short enough to be 3+ instead of 4+.

Safe Throw over pass because it's going to mostly be a 2+ in this scheme

I'm pretty sure pass is still the better option. There are so many things that could need a reroll (pickup/catch/handoff/ blocking to clear tackle zones - this is where I had to use mine yesterday on both my long throw attempts)... if you can get a reroll for free it increases your chances of the whole move coming off. Plus sometimes safe throw offers nothing as the enemy cannot make an interception attempt whereas pass always increases the odds of a successful pass. I very much think of it as a luxury skill for dedicated passers, not for a team with no normal access to agility or passing skills.

[Raveen]

Here's my thinking.

Pass is clearly good. Assuming a 2+ throw then it's taking a 1/6 chance of failure down to 1/36. Great.

However the pass roll isn't the only roll going on here. Being limited mobility means that there's a good chance that a Nurgle passer will have to pass over the opposition giving a (usually) 1/6 chance of interception.

And there's the added bonus on not causing a turnover on a fumble unless you roll a 1 but that's not very relevant to an Ag 5 player.