Season 4 - League Champions - The Mighty Undercheesers

[Gandalf]

The Orkly Ducklingz hope to capitalise on the faltering form of Stagocalypse who are now rank outsiders in the three way title race.

It's a 4-horse race! Cangurus are still in it...

[lawastooshort]

The Brewers Brawlers will tackle, block and hopefully hurt The Mighty Undercheesers who need to win to keep their title hopes alive.

Er, hello Lt Spinx. Can we play sometime? I can do any evening this week except Tuesday, if we can start promptly at 9. By Saturday evening it gets tricky with inlaws over for quite some time.

[Wyld Karde]

Cangurus 4 - Eballa 0

Not a lot to say about this one. The driving rain and disturbing presence of the Nurgle Warriors interfered with the elf passing game, but not enough to make a significant difference. The Eballa players gave it their best, dishing out injuries and KOs with the enthusiasm that defines Chaos teams, but the elves still managed to dance, prance and dodge around their less nimble opponents to run in two touchdowns in each half, despite the Eballa hired halfling master chef distracting the Cangurus. Papa Nurgle may be with the chaos team, but there's no doubt that this evening Nuffle was definitely with the elves.

[Idanmel]

[id3nt1ty]

Andy played excellently and managed to get an equalizing touchdown in turn 15. He rolled 149 block dice to my 52, and in general the dice were pretty fair (although almost a third of my D6 rolls were one).

The Fables chose to receive and started pushing down the flanks. I stupidly tried to frenzy the only Sidestepping Ghoul that the Tomb Army had, so my push down the right flank stalled. Andy started bashing around my zombies on the line of scrimmage and committed some Wights to either flank. The was a bit of a scrum on both flanks, but once it became clear there were less of the Tomb Army on the left Bufkin made a dash down that side. Any managed to KO the werewolf on the left, but his players were stuck over there attempting to knock over the Stand Firm Flesh Golem. His mummy in the center managed to free it's self of the zombies sent to distract it and waved it's arms menacingly in Bufkins direction, so he hopped back to the safety of his own half. Bigby Wolf made a dash deeper into the Tomb Army's half. Seeing an opportunity to pass to Bigby, Bufkin ran up the left flank again, passed and Bigby scored in turn 5.

The next drive started with a deep kick by the Fables. The Tomb Army made a very safe pickup and started bashing the line of scrimmage once again. With both werewolves pushing either flank to get at the ball carrier, Andy made a push down the middle but was unable to move the ball fast enough and the first half ended 1-0.

The second half started very similarly. The Fables were down to 10 players now but that didn't stop Bigby and Beast charging down the flanks once again. Andy set up very aggressively with three zombies and both mummies on the line of scrimmage. The Fables zombies gladly took the brunt of this beating, whilst the Grimm Brothers tried to tied up some Wights on the flanks. Bigby Wolf managed to get a one dice block on the Tomb Army's ball carrier whilst Andy got unlucky with a two dice block against one of my Wights. Despite the ball going free just two squares from the end zone, the Fables were unable to get enough players on the ball and it was safely scooped up by a Undead Ghoul. By this time, Andy's Mummies had managed to make a whole in the center of the pitch, and his Wights set about trying to tame the Werewolves. The Undead ball carrier managed to run the full length of the pitch, narrowly avoiding calamity twice! First, it managed to survive a one dice block from Mister Dark; and then nearly got shafted by the dice as his supporting players rolled a set of Attacker Down/Both Down against the Fables players chasing it down. Thankfully for Andy, the attacker only managed a Player Stumbles which the Ghoul safely dodged. Andy scored on his turn 16, and the were no exciting Kick Off rolls to give the Fables a chance at 2-1.

Excellently played Andy! I really shouldn't have let you hit me so much. I made one or two mistakes, but nothing that would have significantly increased my chances of scoring again. I thought you positioned well and always hit me safely. You were possibly over cautious picking up the ball with three other players defending. Normally, one supporting player should be enough - especially that far back in your half.

[Gandalf]

The season is not yet over but here are my end of the season awards regardless....

Biggest Surprise : The Undercheesers. Who would've thought a team finishing near the bottom last season could be in with a chance of the title on the last day?

Best New Manager : Take a bow temmop!

Insufficient sacrifices to Nuffle Award : Wyld's Nurgles, suffering all kind of horrible injuries, rubbish prize money and frequently pretty bad dice in games too.

Best Match : I haven't seen it but, boy, were Wyld and Diagoro loving their 1-1 draw. Lots of crazy stuff happened and everyone had a good time. Their rolls were fairly similar but also quite lucky, which I think makes for the best matches.

The Cliché Award : This season the chosen cliché is "It's a game of two halves" and it goes to notjarvis' Norsemen for a season that went WWWWWLLL. He had no chance at all in the last two, with D6 chance differences of -20, -24.

The Allegiance "We Know Drama" Award : Me

[Raveen]

I'll post up a match report tomorrow most likely, I'm on childcare duty so I likely won't get near a proper keyboard today.

[Idanmel]

Andy, up for our second half on Tuesday?

[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.

[andy]

Andy, up for our second half on Tuesday?

Hi Idan! I'm still in work and not looking likely to be back home until late. I still can play tonight, but not any earlier than 10pm GMT. If that's too late for you perhaps we could do Thursday?

[Idanmel]

Not sure...

Check mumble when you get home and see if I managed to stay awake?

[Gandalf]

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.

It was a foul, boo! Also I lost my kicker. Notj should get a point for assisting in your victory!

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

I thought this had a not-tiny chance of working but was surprised when I worked it out that it was as high as the 30% mark. Yay for agility 5

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.

I think the GFI was re-rolled too, just to increase the tension.

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.

I think I would've had a chance if me sidestepping wardancer was on the pitch. I also think I thought of an alternative (if highly unlikely) approach that could've worked, after the match. In the end I fouled a tomb guardian instead No injury and no sending off though.

I kicked to the elves and their thrower secured it happily.

There was some cack-handed play here, before I eventually secured it. Was glad I wasn't up against a fast high AG team at this point.

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.

That wardancer nearly wrote himself into Wood Elf legend for being 2 rolls away from completing one of the most ridiculous move ever involving 2 3 dodges (2 of which were in 2 TZ), a leap, a 2D against block and a pickup in 2 tackle zones. Possibly more rolls even than that. I was impressed/entertained he made it as far as he did.

the jump up, frenzy Wardancer needs to go the hell away

You're getting my two wardancers confused, but since they are so fast it's understandable They are both pretty annoying though...

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).

The block dice were friendly overall to Raveen. 29 defender pushed/defender down vs 16 pushed, I could analyse them more but apparently I talk about dice too much. Rav's 2D6's were fortunate too, so my elves that got knocked over didn't get up in a hurry.

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.

First time I read this I thought you meant have a second treeman on my roster (like the one-match linemen I have brought in recently to keep my fit numbers up to 12), which is impossible. But now I see you mean an actual merc from the inducement screens.

Truth be told I don't think anyone trusts that "how much money do you want to spend" screen! I thought the lack of a treeman was going to be a major issue (and it was) but I didn't think about this method of replacing him. Maybe next time I will consider it as an option. Though am I right in thinking I wouldn't get that money back?

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TL;DR... Although Rav had the better of the luck, I think it was still a fair result, and I enjoyed the game.

[notjarvis]

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.

It was a foul, boo! Also I lost my kicker. Notj should get a point for assisting in your victory!

hehehe
About the only thing that was successful for me in that game was the foul on the treeman.
Happened to me too. Rav fouled my Stag and main ball handler out of the team on turn 15 of our game :-) At least you get him back. I had to let my ST 2 passer go.

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.

Truth be told I don't think anyone trusts that "how much money do you want to spend" screen! I thought the lack of a treeman was going to be a major issue (and it was) but I didn't think about this method of replacing him. Maybe next time I will consider it as an option. Though am I right in thinking I wouldn't get that money back?

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TL;DR... Although Rav had the better of the luck, I think it was still a fair result, and I enjoyed the game.

No you wouldn't get that money back, and Raveen would have got the same as "Extra" inducement money for his team.

May have been worth it in the long run, a treeman may have been worth more to you than that extra Money for Rav

[Raveen]

Nj has it, and yes my thinking is that you'd give me the extra money but inducement money past 300k had diminishing returns. If I could have a wizard and a bribe for every game in future I'd be a very happy coach

[Gandalf]

I guess the downside of a merc wouldn't exist either, since Treemen already have loner

I'm still unsure if I would've done it or not, but at least I will consider it as an option next time.