Snotling Soda Punching Bag Cup - Week 1 13th Sept

[Abomination]

Signed up! I coulda sworn my rats had more Wrestle. . .

[notjarvis]

Apologies but i probably won't be able to get there before 8:30 tomorrow as Ive just found out i am dropping the kids in bridgenorth at 7:30 tomorrow.

Lucys mum is iften late so may be as late as 9.

Is that ok la? If not i should be able to play monday as kids are still away.

[id3nt1ty]

Looks like we are all signed up

[lawastooshort]

Hi NJ - my wife's away this weekend so have the kids by myself - so 9 might be too late to start if they are up right early I'll be on and see how it goes but Monday is okay if I can't stay awake enough tomorrow night

[Gandalf]

I'll be up for a friendly with you la if you want a game of some sort tomorrow.

Don't feel obliged though, I probably should be studying instead.

[lawastooshort]

I'll see what my wife is up to when she's back, I may be better off not playing so I can play tomorrow without interruption or hassle

[notjarvis]

I'll see what my wife is up to when she's back, I may be better off not playing so I can play tomorrow without interruption or hassle

A bit better for me too, as it means i don't have to rush back...

[lawastooshort]

Okay I'll most likely not be on this evening then and will be on by 8.15ish tomorrow, NJ.

[lawastooshort]

Oh no in fact! I'll be on in half an hour, I can at least hear the scores if you aren't on or there isn't time for a friendly Gandalf.

[DaigaroOgami]

Running a little late Red Lion, will be on as soon as I can

[id3nt1ty]

So the first match is in. Shiney Demon got KO'd in turn three whilst the Club were attacking, then I got too strung out to counter the ST4 properly. Moose stole the ball and score in turn 5. The ref ran the clock on and I didn't move a player far enough to have a chance of equalising, so la stopped spectating in disgust and the first half ended 1-0.

I kicked short and the ball landed right on the LOS. A Skink gathered it up, and ran it back to safety so I waited to see how the attack would unfold. There was a bit of a punch up in the middle, which I won injuring a whole bunch of Sauri and KO'ing the Kroxigor. I started to push for the ball carrier, but he (predictably) ran past me. I had a Block/Tackle Pitfighter and +ST/Strip Ball Amy Whinehouse waiting as full backs, but despite knocking the ball free, neither were able to stop the skink getting back up, picking up the ball and dodging away from the Tackle Pitfighter. MV8 > MV6 so that was that.

Well played Moose, hopefully your team isn't too damaged for you next match.

My D6 was -8 vs Mooses 12.31, my 2D6 was 8.36 to Mooses -0.03 and I rolled 24 Both Down's out of 86 block dice, otherwise the block dice were fairly even.

[Moose]

Thanks for the summation ID, my internet cut out for a bit so that's why i didn't say bye, look forward to next week.

[Abomination]

2-1 Chaos Dwarves - Skaven!

Quick recap: Rav chooses to receive. Rats run around like chickens doing god knows what. Lots of Skaven KO'd. An attempt or two on the ball ends poorly. Rav scores on Turn 8. Skaven attempt to do a one-turn attempt but the ball never even makes it to the hands of the ball-carrier.

2nd half, Skaven quickly score after a pitch invasion. Rav receives and I get a free blitz turn on the kick-off. I had kicked far unfortunately, so I can't get my runners to the ball. I mark most of Rav's players minus a centaur and 2 hobgoblins and send 2-3 runners to go for the ball.

Rav gets the ball onto a bull centaur. Thankfully the centaur does not have block or dodge. The skaven start going down one by one. My chances pretty much lie with my Wrestle Gutter Runner doing a 2-dice against block and nabbing the ball. I figure if I can get maybe 2-3 attempts with rerolls, that ball would go down. Alas, it did not, and that was the game!

Strategy/Luck Thoughts: My strategy in the first half was to just run away from the dwarves, however it didn't really work out cos I was distracted by the shiny possibility of getting the ball. I should have stuck to the strategy and minimized armor rolls. Or maybe I should have just tried to foul out those expensive centaurs. I honestly forget fouling is a legitimate strategy.

I decided to score quickly in the 2nd half because I can't go for a draw and extending the game would only result in more dead rats.I wonder if I should always kick close rather than far in such a terrible matchup, just because of the chance of free blitz turn.

I was shocked Rav kept giving me attempts on his ball-carrier rather than caging up after a few of my players were off the pitch and practically guaranteeing the win. The dwarves also had pretty good luck with picking up and handing off the ball. Your luck will run out one day, Rav! *Grumble grumble...*

About 5? or 6 (this includes rerolls) 2d6 Rav-chooses block attempts were made to sack the ball in the 2nd half. Not only did they not result in success, they all resulted in attacker down, something which has less than a .5% chance of happening by my calculations. ((1/3)^5) It was truly a nightmare. ;_;

End-of-league-thoughts on Skaven: Having played lots of goblins with Throw Team-mate, I regret not getting Grab on one of my Stormvermin. I think it would have resulted in in a better season for the rats and an All-Star Rat. The capacity to score in one turn can nullify a lot of bad coaching decisions and lets you play really cowardly against bashy teams. It's definitely what I'm getting on my vermin next time, even if I roll doubles.

[Raveen]

I planned for a 2-1 grind and got it.

Abom had horrible luck on the D6 (-13) whilst mine was pretty average (+2). Abom rolled the best 2D6 ever though with a rating of +73... On 4 rolls that's less impressive. Fully 1/3 of Aboms block dice came up with a skull. Mine were better than average.

It was a good game and even when I should have been in total control in the last stages Abom had me working to avoid disaster.

[Gandalf]

As someone who has played Wood Elves a fair bit...

Strategy/Luck Thoughts: My strategy in the first half was to just run away from the dwarves, however it didn't really work out cos I was distracted by the shiny possibility of getting the ball. I should have stuck to the strategy and minimized armor rolls. Or maybe I should have just tried to foul out those expensive centaurs. I honestly forget fouling is a legitimate strategy.

Getting the ball - you have to wait for the right moment - and have the right player. Dauntless/tackle/wrestle and maybe dodge (see Ernie) all help. But yes sometimes it's best not to, or just conserve numbers as long as possible and make a dive at the last moment. I remember doing this once versus Rav's Khemri just before his turn 8. He had far more numbers around but I still knocked the ball loose. This would've meant a hard-to-do pickup and maybe GFI to score, had the ball not bounced into the hands of an AG1 Tomb Guardian

Dirty Player is a worthy upgrade to give to a linerat, if you haven't already. It's something the Skaven have over the Wood Elves - who have no expendable cheap players really.

I decided to score quickly in the 2nd half because I can't go for a draw and extending the game would only result in more dead rats.I wonder if I should always kick close rather than far in such a terrible matchup, just because of the chance of free blitz turn.

I always punt it far. There are three outcomes... one is they pick it up and get it forwards (unlikely, without ball handling skills). More likely is pickup failed, they have their hands on the ball in the back field, or they picked it up and tried a pass to bring it forwards which failed. With insanely fast players you can get 1 or 2 close to the ball and then they have a potential problem on their hands. Either some good rolls required and/or they need to bring players back from the front lines. The best way to get the ball from a cage is to not let it get into a cage in the first place!

About 5? or 6 (this includes rerolls) 2d6 Rav-chooses block attempts were made to sack the ball in the 2nd half. Not only did they not result in success, they all resulted in attacker down, something which has less than a .5% chance of happening by my calculations. ((1/3)^5) It was truly a nightmare. ;_;

5 of them is about 0.26% chance actually. Yeah, sucks... Sometimes Nuffle just hates you.

End-of-league-thoughts on Skaven: Having played lots of goblins with Throw Team-mate, I regret not getting Grab on one of my Stormvermin. I think it would have resulted in in a better season for the rats and an All-Star Rat. The capacity to score in one turn can nullify a lot of bad coaching decisions and lets you play really cowardly against bashy teams. It's definitely what I'm getting on my vermin next time, even if I roll doubles.

As discussed briefly, yes having a one-turner available is a nice option to have. >0% chance is infinitely better than 0%!