The Pinewood Carrions

[Gandalf]

Whilst we're between games here's my thoughts on Khemri so far.

Tomb Guardians - slow as anything to level up aren't they? ST 5 is good but it's not everything. Once you get MB they start rolling but those first 6 SPPs are luck. Interestingly it seems (sample size of 1 people ) that block is as good for getting SPPs on these guys as MB. Maybe that's because I feed more blocks to Kenhotep than the skill less ones?

My treeman has 10 XP after some 13-14 games, even though he's near the top of the bashing charts and has mighty blow. Fact is, injuring people is simply not a reliable/consistent way to get XP, even though it's the only realistic option for many players (especially when they have AG1 - at least my ogres have AG2!). You've got to rejoice when they get their SPP's, as opposed to being unhappy when they don't...

[Raveen]

Agreed! But looking at my team, the one's with skills are going to reach skill 2 before the other two get to 1 at this rate.

Perhaps with the Tree you're not hitting as often as I'm trying to? After all, the tree basically is there to soak up blocks and get in the way whereas my game has to revolve around the TGs. They tend to be part of my cages and they do the hard jobs on defence too.

[Gandalf]

Perhaps with the Tree you're not hitting as often as I'm trying to? After all, the tree basically is there to soak up blocks and get in the way whereas my game has to revolve around the TGs. They tend to be part of my cages and they do the hard jobs on defence too.

Assuming all your games are in the RT cup... take a look at the stats for most knockdowns.

First is Donkey the ogre with 24 (which is just silly for the number of games he's played) - 8 casualties, no MB (also top in casualties)
Second is Grisley Phillips (23) who is a freaking Skeleton, 1 casualty (lol)
Third is Bee Tiered my Treeman (22) - 5 casualties, MB (second top in casualties)

So yes, my treeman does get as many (if not more) hits in, and often against small linemen that don't have much armour as that's who opponents put on the front line. He's only there to "soak up hits" when people have ST4 + players - so Orc, Nurgle, Khemri and that's it. Most other teams seem to adopt a policy of non-engagement and let him beat up on little guys until he takes root.

The reason two of your TG's are speeding towards level 3 are that they have had 3 and 2 MVP's respectively. Your other two have no MVP's.

[Raveen]

I have a bit of a sniffle and I'm blaming Eballa coach, Wyld Karde...

Either way, we started with the Carrions kicking and setting up for a deep defence. The ball went high and was caught by a rotter. The Warriors and Beast on the line made short work of the Skeletons on the line and Eballa ran a Pestigor through the middle.

The Nurgle team formed a cage in the middle of the pitch and set to roll forward with a passing threat available. They stalled once the Tomb Guardians came into play though. Some tricky chain pushes popped the ball carrier out of the back of the cage and both Blitz-Ras were ready and able to take him on. The ball came free and players from both teams were in range to grab a hold of it. A couple of turns of scrumming ended in Eballa being pushed off the ball and the Carrions picking it up at the second attempt. Doctor Poo tried to slither around but failed the dodge and ended up with a armour breaking concussion. Once it was free we were home free to stall for a touchdown at the end of the first half.

The second half started with a wild kick that ended up in the stands. Papa Nurgle, a season ticket holder with Eballa, mistook it for a misshapen hotdog and ate it whole. A new ball was found and handed to Tomb Guardian Hittie Jaques. She wasn't sure what to do with it but the team bundled round here and pointed which way to run.

In the mean time the team started smacking Eballa about. The cage was formed at mid pitch and I was happy to sit for a turn or two whilst the path was cleared. The two players blocking forward motion were removed and Hittie stumbled up the pitch towards her first, and likely last, touchdown. With the ball safely out of the way the rest of the team started smacking the Nurgle boys about again. The Warriors were bottled up and the rest of Eballa were stomped on if they looked like moving. On the final turn Hittie was nudged back into action and scored the Carrions second touchdown.

The dice weren't terrible on either side (although I'd be interested in Gandalf's analysis). Lack of block made a lot of trouble for Eballa in one of the few games where their raw strength couldn't carry them through. It burned a lot of rerolls, as did Disturbing Appearance which lost me a reroll and we both ended up without rerolls at the end of the first half making it a bit of a comedy of blocking errors. The second half started 9 vs 11 and the man difference had a huge impact. It was a lot easier to just roll past the tougher players and once past I could divert back to squeeze them and hit them when possible. I was able to foul a bit too which injured a rotter.

It was a fun game and I think the Khemri are coming together now. The TD on Hittie and MVP on my other skilless TG means I have MB all round. Piling on was top on the Blitz-Ra getting me two extra depitches this match. Bring on the next match!

[Gandalf]

The dice weren't terrible on either side (although I'd be interested in Gandalf's analysis). Lack of block made a lot of trouble for Eballa in one of the few games where their raw strength couldn't carry them through. It burned a lot of rerolls, as did Disturbing Appearance which lost me a reroll and we both ended up without rerolls at the end of the first half making it a bit of a comedy of blocking errors. The second half started 9 vs 11 and the man difference had a huge impact. It was a lot easier to just roll past the tougher players and once past I could divert back to squeeze them and hit them when possible. I was able to foul a bit too which injured a rotter.

Better late than never!

Khemri rolled a mere 8 D6's, not including Foul Appearance. Thanks to Nurgle kicking the ball out from kick-off, they only had to pick the ball up once. I think it's very important to try and keep the kick in when playing a team who lacks ball handling skills.

They failed a catch (presumably from the first kick-off?), two GFI's and a KO-return. None of these really mattered it seems. Once the Khemri got the ball, Nurgle couldn't get it back, presumably due to a lack of dodge (Eballa managed an average return on dodge rolls, 5/12) and the strength of the Carrions.

Lots of blocking happened - and resulted in 10 turnovers! The Carrions rolled lots of red skulls, and average defender stumbles/down. Nurgle rolled below average defender stumbled/down and fairly similar numbers for everything else, so no-one really had the advantage on the block dice. The Carrions had a better block success %, probably down to having more Block on his team (3-1).

From looking at the logs, Doctor Poo's injury at the stroke of half time looked important. The poor beastie injured himself trying to dodge, failed his regeneration roll and lost a point of armour. Unfortunately the team's apothecary had already been used - on someone who was going to miss the next match. Although it was unlucky, personally I wouldn't have used that apothecary (although the Nurgle team lack reserves so perhaps understandable), or try to dodge with a star player when it needs 6+ to succeed unless it was really important (apparently it was to try to stop a TD, so it was important).

[Raveen]

Well, what a night that was!

Things started well, with a zone defence by the Khemri shutting down the options of the Necro team. Ident managed to split my defence and then exploit his speed to good effect. I had hoped to be up on numbers by this point but unfortunately things weren't going my way.

Ident kicked the ball deep and I decided, after one failed pickup, to defend it but leave it in place. The ball was under pressure thanks to a Blitz result giving the Necros a chance to get in range but they couldn'#t dig the ball out.. There was more fighting and 3 Khemri players went off KOd never to be seen again.

The second half started in a bad position. I only had 8 players on the pitch against a full Necro team. Another deep kick and a Perfect Defence roll on the kick off table made things desperate. With my players spread thin I had to risk a pass to get the ball safe. Whilst I didn't really expect the ball to be caught I had hoped for it to land in a Khemri tackle zone. Instead it ended up in the hands of a Werewolf who wasn't even that close to the target. A gifted second TD for Fables

Once again my KO rolls weren't coming (I succeeded 1/9 of these so called 50/50 rolls ) so the numbers were against me. This time I was able to gather the ball and cage up. I just didn't quite have the manpower to push on through though and my screen was left vulnerable to intrusion. Right on queue the Necros barged in and took the ball away, running down field for a final touchdown in turn 16.

Overall it was a fun game, the dice didn't go my way but I was playing a luck based strategy so I can't really complain. Ident played a really solid game, very much like La's style of solid positioning and good timing.

Once the numbers go against you as Khemri, it's all over. I did get to kill the same zombie twice, which is fun, and that allowed Bone Simms to level up so I'm starting to get some Guard at last.

[Raveen]

The Carrions were still smarting after their defeat by Fables. Luckily Coach Rav had whipped them into a frenzy by pointing out how easy it was going to be to beat up the semi naked drunk blokes who kept causing so much of a ruckus around the tournament's bars and night spots.

First Half

The first half started with the Carrions electing to receive. This was calculated as my plan was to beat up the Norse in the first half whilst grinding out an 8 turner and then have a good chance to stall out or turn over a weakened opponent in the second.

The kick went wild and into the crowd. It landed at the feet of Coach Rav who dithered about who to hand it to. In the end the crowd snatched it away and handed it to a Tomb Guardian on the front line just as Coach Rav decided to give it to, 7 moving Bltz-Ra, Kenhotep Connor. No matter, the ball in the hands of a strength 5 player is never a bad thing.

The initial blocks on the line were pretty successful and at least nobody on my side fell over. I was able to clear the line, stunning some Norse players on the way, and form a cage / screen around the ball. The Norse came back at us and started to peel away my weaker caging players on the right whilst my Guardians were getting sucked into a brawl on the centre left. After a couple of turns of this I managed to clear a bit of a path and finally the ball started moving. A straight charge through the centre of the pitch got the ball within striking distance of the endzone. In an ideal world I'd have waited at least another turn but the Norse kept the pressure up and tied up my players to the point that I had to score on turn 6 or risk being turned over.

1-0 to the Carrions

At this point, although I had broken armour a lot I hadn't managed to do more than stun the Norse players. I had hoped to at least have stripped off a couple of positionals before the Norse got the ball.

The kick went deep and two Norse players ran back to retrieve it. Being wary of the mass frenzy I was facing I had left room on the sidelines which the Norse were happy to exploit. I shut them down on the left with my Blitz but I wasn't able to tie them up half so well on the right. In the last turn of the half the Norse brought the ball almost the whole length of the field to score a cracking touchdown. Well fought and well deserved.

Half Time - 1-1

I'll be honest, I was cacking it by this point. I still hadn't managed to depitch a single Norseman and I was about to give them the ball and let them come at me again. Once again the ball went deep and once again two norsemen went back to collect it. This time however the pickup didn't go to plan and the ball was stalled in the Stag's backfield. The push came down the sides again. I was better prepared this time, trying my best to box in the attackers and not leave them a route through. Salvation came when the Norse thrower finally managed to get the ball in hand and charged down the pitch. After his typical half time pick-me-up of 17 pints of Dok Tennant's Special Fizzy Yellow Ale, he wasn't sure which of the potential receivers to aim for. In his confusion he pushed forward another step, forgot which leg to move next and landed in a heap on the ground. The ball bounced out of his inebriated hands.

The Carrions were, luckily, well placed to capitalise on this misfortune. Two players, a Tomb Guardian among them, were able to get to the ball and guard it whilst Throw-Ra Gone Pertwee moved up to pick up and run the ball home. The Norse turn came to a sudden end when a Ulfwerener managed to block himself to death. The Norse apothecary took a quick look and with a swift application of Extra Strength Fizzy Ale and a boot left the poor fellow alive but feeling like he had a fractured skull.

After two turns of trying and failing to pick the ball up things looked desperate for the Carrions. I still needed to get the ball up the pitch and with a slow team time was running out. By this point the injuries started to come. The norse were getting hurt by dodging or blocking themselves down so I didn't get any SPPs but at least the numbers were in my favour at last. Oh and I fouled the crap out of the Stag and sent him off on a stretcher too.

It was Kenhotep Connor who came to the team's rescue. Giving up on Gone Pertwee he barged through and grabbed the ball first time. His quick (relatively!) feet allowed him to speed up the pitch and finally score on turn 16.

Final Score - 2-1 to the Carrions

I think that we would both have said that nj had the worse of the dice in that game, but the stats show that I rolled 4 one's during my try-and-fail-to-pick-up-the-ball phase of play which skewed the stats as I only rolled 11 D6 in total and gave me a far worse dice rating than nj. The bad dice came at the wrong time for nj though, first stalling up the pickup and forcing a harder pass and then failing the GFI to make the pass easier. It was the turning point and allowed me the chance to win when I'd have been looking 2-1 in the face.

That dead Ulf was bad news too and once the injuries started coming they came thick and fast. If only they had come earlier I broke armour a lot, but with lots of Mighty Blow on my team you'd expect that - I needed to roll a 7 on 2D6 to break armour - but I wasn't getting the KOs and injuries I wanted.

The block dice were working well for me although nj got away with a few sneaky 1D blocks in the first half. It helps to be able to roll 2 or 3 Block dice reliably and that's Khemri's biggest (only) strength.

In future I need more guard to keep up the Blocking supremacy and some Stand Firm to better police the sidelines.

It was a really fun game and it felt like an even matchup for both teams. nj was as always a pleasure to play against and never made things easy for me. The pressure exerted in the first half was enormous and forced me to score early. Well played sir!

[notjarvis]

Placeholder, but before I forget, D6 was pretty even, if anything nj had better luck with it even though it felt like it wasn't.

Yeah Weird huh. Just depends On timings I guess, it felt like the failed GFIs and dodges happened at critical times. BBManager reckons we both had below average luck with yours being awful, and mine being just below par.

I had clearly worse luck with block Dice which was also pretty critical, and Rav had awesome luck getting through the Norse armour He got through 67% of the time which meant more than 2/3s of the time a successful block for Rav meant my player was out of action for at least a turn, (average 2D6 getting thrugh AV7 is somewhere around 40% of the time I Believe).

However the big turning point of the game was my risky pass I attempted in the second half. which if it succeeded would have led to a TD, for 2-1 to me but I failed the GFI to get into position, stunning the player, and leaving it wide open for the Carrions to swoop in and drive down the field.

Well played though, you took advantage at the right times, and it was a right fun game.

[Raveen]

I had clearly worse luck with block Dice which was also pretty critical, and Rav had awesome luck getting through the Norse armour He got through 67% of the time which meant more than 2/3s of the time a successful block for Rav meant my player was out of action for at least a turn, (average 2D6 getting thrugh AV7 is somewhere around 40% of the time I Believe).

See above, I think MB made this work for me as I was getting +1 to a lot of armour rolls. The flip side being that I wasn't getting the +1 on the injury rolls, hence the preponderance of stunned results early on.

[notjarvis]

I had clearly worse luck with block Dice which was also pretty critical, and Rav had awesome luck getting through the Norse armour He got through 67% of the time which meant more than 2/3s of the time a successful block for Rav meant my player was out of action for at least a turn, (average 2D6 getting thrugh AV7 is somewhere around 40% of the time I Believe).

See above, I think MB made this work for me as I was getting +1 to a lot of armour rolls. The flip side being that I wasn't getting the +1 on the injury rolls, hence the preponderance of stunned results early on.

Ahh. I though MB modified injury only.

You had a little better than average luck with those 2D6 then. Odds of rolling 7 or more goes to 21/32 goes to 61%

1D6 blocks are not an entirely bad thing for the Norse. As everyone has block it becomes a matter of only a 1 in 6 chance of failure/turnover, so it's often worth a punt, I was screwed by nearly a quarter of my block dice being Attacker down so I had to waste my rerolls early

Was a fun game. in retrospect I might not have tried that Crazy pass, but I do like to try at least one slightly "out there" play each game cos it makes me laugh, and if it come off would have been Awesome!

[Raveen]

I don't remember now but could I have clobbered the thrower if he'd not thrown the pass? I know I was able to get to the ball so presumably I could have got the the bloke but I don't know how many chaps you could have brought in to protect him.

[notjarvis]

I don't remember now but could I have clobbered the thrower if he'd not thrown the pass? I know I was able to get to the ball so presumably I could have got the the bloke but I don't know how many chaps you could have brought in to protect him.

You had about 2 players in range to get a tackle zone on him next turn if he didn't move IIRC, but they were both in or close to tackle zones of my players, and I could have clouted at least one of them over. He had one player for protection, but the majority of your team were in your half or around the LOS

The ball wasn't too pressured, I just felt like making a daft play, and the complete failed GFI screwed the pooch, especially as the thrower ended up stunned.

(Basically he was only in range of more than 1 or 2 of your players for a clouting due to his charge up the field to get a better position for the pass, he probably wouldn't have strayed too far forward if he wasn't trying the pass.)

[Raveen]

Ah I see, I thought you were meaning the run but not the pass when you actually meant to hang back. Goodness only knows what would have happened then, there are way too many permutations to begin to guess.

It would probably have suited you to run the clock along for a turn or two more leaving me with 4 turns to score. The risk would have been the injuries starting to build up as I'd have been looking to hurt your potential receivers whilst you stalled. In the best case (for me ) you'd have been forced into an equally risky move a turn or two later.

Norse are a team I really don't know how to handle. I know the low armour and frenzy but exactly how the team works I've never really understood. If you've got the time to scrape your thoughts together it'd be interesting to know what they amount to

[Raveen]

Decidedly better than last year!

The Carrions elected to receive and front loaded the line with Tomb Guardians. The first block of the match caused a MNG injury, this might be fun! The front line got splattered and then I went for the ball. I think the pickup failed first time.

The elves spread around and made inroads down the sidelines, tying up the less agile Khemri players. The ball was picked up and moved into a protective pocket. Unfortunately Idan was able to open a hole in the defence and get through for a 2D blitz with his horrific and clearly unfair St 4 Blitzer (seriously, that fucker needs to die). A loose ball is an Elf's friend and the worst enemy of Khemri and so the Cangurus were able to grab it and scamper off. It ended up on my right and the elves needed to dodge once to get away which succeeded happily. There were several elves either KO'd or worse by this point so I was happy to try and score back in the second half.

Half Time - 1-0 to the Cangurus

I kicked off and there was a pitch invasion leaving only 3 elves standing. That was enough though because when 2 catchers ran through my lines I marked one and then blocked him and failed a GFI to follow up (I hadn't noticed that the Elf had fend and was wondering why I didn't automatically follow up and get the option to pile on. The second elf catcher was in no TZs and it was a simple thing to run in, snatch the ball and get it over the line. A salutary lesson that you should move players before rolling any dice.

2-0 to the Cangurus.

The Elves kick and run. Not to catch the high ball, just to get the hell away With 6 turns left it was always going to be tricky to even it up. As mentioned it was a high kick so I was able to put a Thro-Ra under the ball. He failed to catch it obviously. Then came the pickup. As is now standard I did everything else first and then went for the pickup. Which failed. Next turn, the same happened, total failure. So, after 2 out of 6 turns the ball has scattered twice and no more, evening up the game is not an option any more. Finally the ball is secured and the team plod up the pitch. After some lacklustre hitting the few remaining elves decide to bugger off and hide in the corner whilst I get the ball home.

Final score - 2-1

I can't help but feel that things may have gone differently if I hadn't ballsed up the first turn of the second half. Still, the elves had the ball in hand and were clearly capable of passing and running through my team so I may have just ended up with less time to score in. The dice felt even, pick up rolls excepted, although I did have a good time with injury rolls. Mighty Blow vs Av 7 strikes again in my favour. I only fouled twice and both times got sent off (IIRC).

It was a very fun game and Idan played impeccable elf Blood Bowl, proving that a decent coach doesn't need more than 3 elves to score.

I'm looking forward to next season to see if I can't keep up the trend of a better result year on year

[Raveen]

A glorious victory of hitting people hard in the face over actual talent and skill!

Pre-game I was able to buy a wizard, a bribe and a babe. Two of these would be useful, one not at all...

The Wanderers won the toss and elected to kick to the Carrions. A bit of good luck (and possible bribery to the Stagocalypse boys) saw Bee Tiered missing the game with a norse helmet embedded in his privates. This allowed the Carrions to set up for three solid, mighty blow, hits on the LOS.

as the game kicked off, so did the crowd. Hungry for blood the Carrions' fans invaded the pitch leaving 2 of the 3 line-elfs on the LOS stunned. Unfortunately both of the Carrions' Throw-Ras were also left dirt napping.

Never mind thought the Carrions, let's hit some Elves anyway. The first blitz of the game saw Alan go off crying. A block from a Tomb Guardian sent the last standing, and very nervous line-elf on the LOS off too (I think). The ball was miraculously picked up by a blitz-ra and the Carrions caged up with 4 guardians surrounding him. They marched slowly up the pitch, smacking every elf they could, supported by the rest of the team. Attrition was taking it's toll on the Wanderers and numbers were solidly in my favour. Mighty blow does nasty things to Av 7 as nj and Idan will attest. I was also able to gang foul with relative impunity thanks to my bribe and Grisley Phillips was getting his foot stuck in left, right and centre.

The cage got the ball to within 6 squares of the endzone when it got Wood Elfed. In one of those spectacular, acrobatic and annoying moves a dauntless line-elf dodged through tacklezones, leapt into the cage and knocked down the ball carrier in a 2D against block (double stars for the record ). Luck swung back to my side though as the ball scattered to my Tomb Guardian who managed to catch it on a critical 6, shattering the dreams of Throw-Ra Gone Pertwee who was waiting, Lineker like, to snatch the glory. It was the work of a moment in my last turn of the half to splatter the elf out of the way and stumble forward with 1 GFI for the score.

The Elves had 1 turn at the end of the half but couldn't get the pushes to work for a 1TTD as they were up against a spread out set up of ST 5 players.

Half Time - 1-0 to the Carrions

The two drive ends allowed a good proportion of the knocked out elves to come back so I was facing seven or eight players at the start of the second half. I kicked to the elves and their thrower secured it happily. Gandalf played a canny game of sending two players down my left flank, exposed because I was playing zone defence but keeping away from the sidelines due to that frenzy wardancer. The Wardancer was hanging back on my right, just out of comfortable reach. I was able to engage the attacking elves as much as possible, my tackle Blitz-Ra and a couple of Guardians squeezing them onto the sidelines but not really being able to keep the slippery buggers tied up.

Gandalf saw my formation drifting left and chose to exploit the right flank instead, moving the ball to his wardancer who stormed up the pitch. I was able to reach her with a Throw-Ra but not get the vital block in. Happily I still had my wizard. The lightning bolt came arcing down and stunned the elf scattering the ball. The Throw-Ra sprinted in and snatched up the ball. Following this was the Carrions caging up followed by the Wardancer, jumping up, running and leaping in and decking the ball carrier. I was able to break away in the end and scored a second TD in the final turn.

Full Time 2-0 to the Carrions

The D6 rolls were as even as you could hope. The block dice weren't too bad either, although I rolled a lot of skulls, substantially more than any other result, it was tempered by careful positioning and high strength meaning that I rolled vanishingly few 1D blocks (if any). I had better than average 2D6 rolls and that helped with clearing the elves off the pitch. Gandalf's 2D6 rolls were pretty poor but wouldn't have made much difference as he only blocked down 9 players over the course of the game.

It was a fun game and the jump up, frenzy Wardancer needs to go the hell away as she was a real thorn in my side in the second half particularly. Gandalf did the best he could but I was able to remove enough elves from the pitch to make his game very very tricky indeed. I went into the game aiming for a 2-1 grind and Gandalf was canny enough to stall out his second half play which would have made life very hard for me to score back again. Happily the wizard worked and I was able to turn the drive around from there.

Of my inducements, the Babe never had a chance to do anything, the Wizard saved me conceding a TD and the bribe meant I was able to foul with impunity. The bribe never got used and I fouled less in the second half, partly due to a lack of targets but knowing I could be free with the boot was a massive help.

I wonder if Gandalf might have been sensible to spend some treasury on a Merc Treeman to replace Bee Tiered. Yes, that would have given me more inducement money, but once you have a wizard and a bribe there are limited options for effectively spending that cash.