Season 4 - League Champions - The Mighty Undercheesers

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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 2 - 19th October 2014

Postby Raveen » Thu Oct 30, 2014 12:54 pm

Hello and welcome to Smash of the Day, sponsored by Skellogg’s™ Khemri Flakes. Skellogg’s™ we don’t grind up dead bodies for anybody else. I’m Bob Bifford and with me, as ever, is Jim Johnson.

To start off let’s take a look at the Table in the Rolling Thunder Blood Bowl League

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Sitting 2 points clear at the top we have returning Wood Elf Franchise, The Everglade Wanderers. With an elegant passing play this team are yet to drop a point.

In second place are Stagocalypse, a band of hairy norsemen who have decided to take a break from their usual pastimes of rape and pillage by playing Blood Bowl in advance of some ceremony or other. To be honest we’re not that sure because we’ve never managed to interview one of them sober.

The Mighty Undercheesers are in third proving that a poor finish in Season 3 was no reason not to return to the field. It seems that the statistical analysis performed by the University of Bristroll has been applied well by this Underworld team.

Next there’s The Orkly Ducklingz who have also benefitted from the wonders of Troll Statistics as well as profiting from a side business farming certain mushrooms.

In fifth we have The Pinewood Carrions. The Khemri are performing about as well as you’d expect 5000 year old reanimated corpses to. Still, with more games played they are starting to faintly remember the skills they had when they were still alive which can only improve their game going forwards.

Returning Pro-Elf Self-Help collective The Cangurus are next. After a great start the Elven passing game has stalled a little against some tough opponents. Still, you can never write off this team.

Newly arrived and carrying some sort of tropical disease are the Nurgle worshipping Eballa. Nobody’s expecting great skill from a team of putrefying, disease ridden, chaos worshippers but they are a surprisingly solid team and hard to get past for even the best runners.

In 8th place are Fables!, another newly arrived team. Whether they have appeared out of myths and legends or are just a bit pretentious remains to be seen.

Our final new entrant into the RT BBL is The Tomb Army. The undead teams have responded well to previous claims that the League was disturbingly vitalist and now all three major undead powers are represented. That’s diversity in action folks!

Finally, and in last place, we have The Brewers Brawlers. Claims that their current low position in the rankings derives from a lack of bribery money passed onto the league commissioner have been denied by everyone involved. Indeed commissioner Raveen was recently interviewed on the subject and said that he had no problem with the Dwarven team and his recent fully paid tour of the Dwarven cider farms of Glummerset was totally irrelevant.
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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby Raveen » Fri Oct 31, 2014 2:01 pm

This week we're looking forward to another round of thrilling matches, Jim. Sadly though, we've heard that due to financial irregularities surrounding the ownership of their stadium the Tomb Army are being forced to relocate to a new venue. As such they will be unable to play the Cangurus.

First up is the much anticipated match between Eballa and Fables!. Both teams are new this year so it's a hard match to call. The bookies seem to be calling a Necromantic win but it's going to be close!

Next up is a top of the table clash between league leaders The Everglade Wanderers and third placed The Mighty Undercheesers. Analysts have been impressed with the Undercheesers positional play, Bob, but I don't think you can beat the Elves. Not hard enough anyway.

There's a classic match up next hearkening back to the dawn of Blood Bowl as The Orkly Ducklingz take on The Brewers Brawlers. This one isn't expected to be particularly subtle unless the dwarves pull a passing game out of the bag again.

Finally, it's The Pinewood Carrions and Stagocalypse butting heads in what promises to be a bash heavy encounter. The Carrions are the veterans here but the Norse team can never be underestimated.
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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby id3nt1ty » Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:29 pm

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Brief summary:
  • Fables get their fourth Blitz event in the season - but did nothing with it;
  • Both teams had roughly the same luck with D6 leaning slightly towards the ones and twos, and 2D6 leaning more positive;
  • Out of the 82 block dice Wyld rolled 19 were skull and 15 pow/skull. With just two re-rolls and only one player with block Wyld suffered quite a lot as a result.
  • In addition to the previous point, speed really won the day for me as I wasn't looking forward to the ST4 blocking game.

Well played Wyld, you really put the pressure on in the second half. Especially when you nearly got your dirty tentacles on my ball handler. I'm not looking forward to playing you next season when you have more block!

Edit: a more thorough write up will appear tomorrow.
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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby Gandalf » Sun Nov 02, 2014 9:57 pm

Wood elf (AG4) ball handling stats:
Catch : 2 out of 7
Pick-up ball : 2 out of 6

Undercheeser (AG3) ball handling stats:
Catch : 4 out of 5
Pick-up ball : 4 out of 6

I'll leave the rest of the match report to the Undercheesers...

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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby Raveen » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:01 pm

Apologies to nj, seems a badly installed graphics driver was to blame. Touch wood it's all fixed now so I'll pencil us in for the catch up week.
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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby lawastooshort » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:06 pm

Well, no permanent injuries I suppose is one positive as the Wanderers fell to a shock 2-1 defeat at the paws of the Mighty Undercheesers!

Things didn't look especially good for the 'Cheesers when the Elves scored in their Turn two after a half-hearted attempt from Burt Bacharach the Linerat to take down their catcher (Ernie?), and things didn't look much better when a general scrum developed (if I remember right, my memory of the first half, and the second half, is already quite bleary, or blurry, the kids have a cough) down the Underworld left, and when the ball got knocked off the pitch it eventually landed in the middle. A slight push or two took place, and then Nigel the Two Headed goblin picked it up, and ran over to Jim Morrison the Thrower - after his marker had been blitzed off, who caught and equalised.

Second half the Undercheesers received a deep kick and couldn't even reach the ball to mark it before Paul Simon the Linerat managed to get 4 skulls in a row and turn over. A Wood Elf (was it the catcher or the wardancer?) sped in and tried to pick up the ball, but it scattered off in the pouring underground rain, and landed in a position that was nicely favourable to the goblin-rat alliance. Eventually a general scrum developed down the Underworld left, and eventually the ball was knocked free and landed just in range of the Wood Elf endzone. A few smacks here and a few whacks there, and previously useless Blitzer Bob Dylan swooped in, picked up the ball, GFI'ed twice, and took the lead in Turn 16.

I think this is what happened.

How do I insert the match report image?
edit: ah...

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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby DaigaroOgami » Sun Nov 02, 2014 10:36 pm

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Like this dude...

Well done La... I see Gandalf has highlighted his unluckiness with the ball handling... but didn't La roll Quad Skulls too?

And anyway, PirlOrc is claiming the completely unwanted tag of 'Nuffle's Most Hated Team'...

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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby DaigaroOgami » Sun Nov 02, 2014 11:10 pm

Decimated.

Whoever says that Black Orcs are "'Ard" and fear them should just come to an Orkly Duckling match to see the polystyrene version we always manage to sign...

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It wasn't even the Deathroller that did the damage...

Ducklingz finished the first half with 7 Orcs on the pitch.. Leroy (ST5 Black Orc) was Badly Hurt early on, Jamal was KO'ed, Shaniqua got a serious concussion (-AV) (That's 3 out of 4 Black Orcs out the game...), Mavis (Almost Lvl4 +MV Star Blitzer) then died. Apothercary? Dead again. Nuffle was shining on the dodging dwarves... so much so even the dwarf coach refused to stall (meaning losing the horrible, nasty, spikey deathroller grim thing to a sending off) to give the Ducklingz a chance to regroup.

The Ducklingz then failed (a rerolled) pick up at the end of the half to mean no chance of even attempting a TTM score...

2nd Half the Ducklingz got the ball, and punched a nice hole down the Brawler's left wing; the orc coach almost feeling slightly cheered by good tackle zone placement and good cage movement being 3 players down... even if for the 3rd game running we couldn't hurt ANYTHING.

However, Nuffle struck again, bestowing his favour on a dwarf making 3 dodges through tackle zones and GFIing twice to blitz the call carrier down... but the ball was still in a favorable Orc position... until Percy rolled both down & skull TWICE (on a reroll); turnover. Then the short buggers did their best Elf impression, and lobbed a perfect long pass upfield to a runner. The dwarves then had enough time to smash Roberto Goblinio's collarbone (-ST) before strolling in for an unmarked TD (because Harriet couldn't do a simple re-rolled 3+ dodge...)

Spinx played well, I believe his luck was due to turn, so fair play to his moral boosting victory. Any sulkiness displayed by PirlOrc is attributed to Nuffle, not the purveyors of fine mead :)

However the Ducklingz are now pretty decimated - 3 players sacked due to injury and the 2nd best player on the team DEAD. Coupled with last season's decimation by the Ogres, the ladz are seriously questioning what they did to piss off Nuffle so much...

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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby Gandalf » Sun Nov 02, 2014 11:21 pm

@ Diagro - the 4 skulls affected 1 turn, and had little detriment as I detail below. To some degree any bad rolls can be overcome, except for ball-handling ones. If you can't get the hands on the ball, you cannot win, period. PirlOrc's chance score was above 0 too and the Dwarves D6 chance score was under 10 - neither of us had overall terrible luck, but our games were hurt by the bad rolls coming at critical moments. My pickups, and your injury rolls/ninja blitzing dwarf.

@la, I think that was a decent summary. I can remember more details though, so....

(Firstly if you think all I am doing is moaning about the dice, please read all the way to the end, I try to give some balance)

It was rainy weather (-1 to pickup, catch and intercept). I thought this would be a minor inconvenience but together with previously-mentioned dice rolls it kyboshed my whole game. It didn't affect la too much, as he had two guys with sure hands, and better luck overall (chance scores of 11.43 vs 4.76). I believe he ended both halfs with a re-roll intact. All game, all he failed out of 42 D6 rolls was 2 pickup rolls, 1 dodge (successfully rerolled thanks to Dodge skill), 1 loner and 1 really stupid (neither of which ended his turn). SLightly suprised that's all he failed - it didn't feel like he had obscene luck. What makes his chance score so comparatively low is that he only succeeded with 2 out of 7 KO rolls, but as this was just goblins and he had more spare, it had 0 impact on the game. So in the end it's probably the second biggest luck-against I've faced with regards to D6 (Rav's Khemri will hold that record for eternity). The elves should still be able to have a chance, but.... well, I've already posted the ball handling stats!

Few more first half highlights....
- At 1-0 I had a pass & catch to score (the passer had the pass skill and the receiver had the catch skill), but for the 2nd time this competition Morg'n'Thorg intercepted the pass. Last time he needed a six, this time (due to safe throw) he needed a six followed by a 1 or a 2.... ???
- Again at 1-0 I had a pickup, short pass & catch to score, but failed the pickup. (This might've been second half, I can't remember)

Other second half highlights...
- Twice I get hit on the sidelines, the ball goes out of play (which it doesn't have to) and lands fortuitously for the underworld. The second time you just had to laugh - short of being in a player's hand, we both agreed it had landed in the most perfect square on the board for the Underworld. Surrounded by 3 of his players, within running distance of the line.
- I failed six consecutive attempts to get my hands on the the ball (pickups or catching a bouncing ball).
- Between us we did five re-rolls, of which 4 failed. Slightly oddly, the one that succeeded required a loner roll too.
- I tried a 1 turn touchdown at the end, but it failed almost before it had started due to GFI fail.

For some balance....
- The fact that I had 6 chances to get my hands on the ball in the second half was itself down to good luck - an awful lot of my dive-ins to get the ball came off (hence my positive chance score).
- Especially for the first half TD, la had players in the right place at the right time.
- There was at least one more player I could've moved to make it difficult for him to score the first TD, but I didn't see it until too late. And la's the one with the excuse of ill children!!
- *Again* the elves have no serious injuries, just getting 4 KO's, and a -AV that was rerolled into a miss next match.
- I had the better of the block dice, according to BB manager. However "successful blocks" count shows it fairly equal.
- The stats will show that both his TD's required 2 GFI's. While this was true, he had at a re-roll in hand both times. So with a 1 in 13.5 chance of failure, they were fairly safe, as opposed to 1 in 3.27 chance of failure without a reroll.
- Morg'n'Thorg settled on just having 1 interception, picking up no other SPP all game. :p So folks, if you need a ball handler in your team, Morg is ready and waiting!
- Alan moves well clear on top of the biggest punching bag charts! Ah, the life of an AV6 elf....

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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby notjarvis » Mon Nov 03, 2014 12:07 am

Raveen wrote:Apologies to nj, seems a badly installed graphics driver was to blame. Touch wood it's all fixed now so I'll pencil us in for the catch up week.



I'm choosing to believe you saw the power of my team as I knocked over your 3 skellingtons, and you fled :-) >:D



No problem really. it happens. See you next week
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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby Raveen » Mon Nov 03, 2014 7:01 am

I could play Thursday night if that suits?
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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby id3nt1ty » Mon Nov 03, 2014 9:40 pm

So!

Wyld lost the toss and I chose to kick. Fables rolled a Blitz! event but had set up quite defensively and didn't want to ruin the lovely symmetry by moving any players. So I chose to do nothing, considering I'd probably had my fair share of Blitz events already.

Eballa start their turn with Lord Gaseus rolling a pair of Attacker Downs, which re-rolls into... a pair of Attacker Downs. Seeing as the symmetry is now gone, Bigby Wolf blitzes through the line and manages a GFI to put a tackle zone on the ball. Baba Yaga and Beast, the latest Fables signing, run in to support him. Infectigot the Pestigor goes for Bigby and manages to make him stumble, re-rolls a dodge around Baba Yaga to pick up the ball and makes a bid of the relative safety of the line. Unfortunately, his feet got the better of him (or he was shocked by the putrid smell of Doctor Poo) and he stumbles, scattering the ball. Beast sees his chance for glory, but fails to pick up the ball - twice, leading to a turnover. Fortunately for the Fables, the ball scattered to Baba Yaga who manages to catch it. Once again, the Fables ball carrier is just slightly out of reach and although Fracist the Gangrenous manages to dodge past Beast, he fails a GFI and lands flat on his face. Shamed and enraged by his failure to pick up the ball earlier, Beast decides to take it out on poor Hob the Crippled by smashing his collar bone. A quick trip to the apothecary(?) fixes him up so that he is only Badly Hurt. Some more gratuitous bashing occurs, then Baba Yaga runs the ball in for his first ever touchdown.

Eballa start the next turn with 10 players and a more favorable Brilliant Coaching kick-off roll. Fables kick the ball deep, Lord Gaseus starts the Eballa drive, and this time he manages to KO Posey Pig. Kardel the Anomic runs back to pick up the ball, but fails! Both Werewolves take advantage of the holes in the Nurgle defence to rush through and put preasure on him. With two pairs of great big, shiny teeth bearing down on him, it's no wonder that Kardel fumbles the ball (again!) and he is swiftly knocked down by Bigby. Beast takes his second chance at glory with both hands, picking up the ball and running in the second touchdown at the end of turn five.

Once again the Fables kick off, but this time the ball goes far too deep and scatters off the end of the pitch. Wyld elects to give the ball to Doctor Poo, Eballa's Beast of Nurgle. The third drive goes a bit better for Eballa. Rabies the Smelly manages to knock Dun Pig out, and Doctor Poo him-? her-? its self Badly Hurts Jack Sprat a Mighty Blow. A bit of a scrum takes place around the fringes of the pitch, but both of Wylds turns end in a turn overs from a failed dodge (in which Infectigot manages to KO himself) and attacker down respectively.

The second half starts with 10 players on each side. Fairy Godmother catches a high kick, but the Fables streak of fast and furious drives fizzles as Jacob Grimm fails a Foul Appearance roll, and rerolls only to roll Attacker Down on his block dice. The Fables werewolves start to make an incursion down the left side of the pitch, but Grovus the Slightly Unwell manages to close the hole and Fairy Godmother has to look for other options. Before she gets a chance to move, Facist the Gangrenous knocks her down and the ball scatters free. Both Werewolves are on the wrong side of the line of scrimmage to defend at this point, so there is a glimmer of a chance for Wyld to score here. Bigby Wolf does his best impression of an Elf by dodging away from his mark, picking up the ball and attempting to dodge away, but his impression is not that good and he stumbles, bouncing the ball closer to the Fables touch line.

Wyld gets Lord Gaseus and Fracist the Gangrenous on the ball, but once again his plans are ruined by a double Both Down. He does manage to Stun Fairy Godmother though. Bigby picks up the ball, and this time he succeeds his dodge away from Lord Gaseus. Beast is handily marked by two of the Nurgle players at this point and can't do much to help, so Baba Yaga steps up to screen Bigby off from any would-be attackers on the right flank. Wyld attempts to knock the Fables about a bit, but only manages to push them about.

Turn twelve starts with Jacob Grimm killing Lord Skidmark the Despoiler over on the left, but it seems Nuffle isn't done with the humorously named Nurgle Warrior so he gets up and walks off the pitch. Bigby and Baba Yaga decide that it's probably a good idea to go stand near Jacob, and then Posey Pig fails his attempt to emulate the Flesh Golem by rolling both down against Infectigot. Doctor Poo shuffles? slimes? over to try and wrap Bigby in his terrible tentacles but doesn't quite have the movement. He does manage to get a good grasp on Baba Yaga, however. Lord Gaseus then unleashes a brutal attack on Beast, KO'ing him!

The End of Match Imminent siren sounds which means it's now or never for Bigby Wolf. In a daring display of ball-carrying madness, Bigby runs up the left flank and manages to blitz Kardel the Anomic off the pitch. Jonas the Sick and Infectigot rush across the pitch to try and prevent a third touchdown, and seeing a small chance for glory in the near future Fracist the Gangrenous makes a run for the Fables touch line. Infectigot manages to push Bigby up against the side line, but he is swiftly dispatched with a blitz from Jacob Grimm. Once again, Bigby dodges away from the would be defend and crosses the pitch for the third time this half. Fairy Godmother dodges away from her mark and the duo are only squares from the Fables third touchdown. Jonas the Crippled makes a dash to defend, but as his name suggests, he is not made for moving. He trips, and ends Eballa's hopes of defending. Fairy Godmother see's her chance for some points and dashes across the touch line. Bigby launches an accurate short pass to her but such fumbles her first attempt to catch, knocking it back up into the air. Thankfully she catches it on her next attempt and the score is 3 - 0 to the fables.

Both teams set up for a bit of bashing in the last turn. Infectigot manages to KO Mister Dark, and the Fables decide to call it a day.

***

As you can see, the second half was lot closer. Some better dice rolls for Wyld and the score would most likely have been 2-1. I thought Wyld did a great job of keeping me under pressure in the second half, especially with less men on the pitch. My greater movement ability meant that he had to make more risky moves in order to keep up and he suffered quite a few turnovers due to failed dodges.

Thanks for the game Wyld!
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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby notjarvis » Tue Nov 04, 2014 8:31 am

Raveen wrote:I could play Thursday night if that suits?



Dunno. May have to tread carefully with SWMBO, will broach the subject tonight, as last night we had to take my daughter to A&E to get her toe X-rayed (nothing broken - was just precaution)

Would a 9pm start be too late if I can swing it? Then I can make sure the kids are in bed first.
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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby Raveen » Tue Nov 04, 2014 9:06 am

8:30 would be better for me, means that 6am on Friday isn't too horrible :)
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Re: Season 4 - Matchday 4 - 2nd November 2014

Postby notjarvis » Wed Nov 05, 2014 8:35 am

Raveen wrote:8:30 would be better for me, means that 6am on Friday isn't too horrible :)



To be honest. Lu's not having a great week, so I probably not be able to play on the evenings this week. Want to be around/keep an eye, and don't want to disappear off for a bit.

Sorry

Will try to find another evening.
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