Blood Bowl ITP III: Where You Either Win or Blame Nuffle... Sometimes Both

[Brother Oni]

Blood Bowl in the Playground III: Where You Either Win or Blame Nuffle... Sometimes Both

Welcome to the Giant in the Playground thread for Cyanide Studio's version of Blood Bowl on Steam.

For those not familiar with Blood Bowl, it's best described as a fantasy war game simulator masquerading as a ball sport - you take the role of a coach, managing a team of hardened psychopaths. You then set up your team of eleven degenerates against another team of eleven equally crazed headcases on a pitch and they do their best to kill each other. And maybe score touchdowns.
It's set in an alternate universe of Games Workshop's Warhammer Fantasy world, so all the standard (and some non-standard) fantasy races are there, humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, undead, Chaos, etc. The tone is generally satirical with many American football references, ably aided and abetted by the commentators Jim Johnson the vampire and Bob Bifford the ogre.

As benefits its board game roots, the game's RNG can be very unforgiving and many an expletive can be heard as Nuffle, Blood Bowl's sick, twisted and utterly, utterly sadistic counterpart of Lady Fortune, curses or blesses your rolls. As well as match reports, maintaining and arranging games for the leagues, we can answer rules questions, offer advice or trade stories of the torments of Nuffle as he kicks you (or your opponent) in the soft painful parts.

This is an Chaos edition thread, so either the Chaos or Legendary version is required to play in the leagues; Original and Dark Elves editions are not compatible.

There are currently four league types ongoing: Rookie, Standard, Legacy and Open.

The Rookie League consists of new teams started especially for it (cap of 1000TV, no previous games played), with the intention that this league gives teams a chance to get some SPP and money before being thrown into the sharkpit of the Standard League.
The league has started its second season and the scheduling and results can be found here: link. Wraith and Silfir are the Commissioners for this league.
The cup is called 'GitP - The Rookie League', password 'Please' (Closed for applicants).

The Standard League is the main and longest running league for the board. Teams are generally more experienced and while new teams are not prohibited, it is recommended that they start with the Rookie League so they don't become SPP fodder for the bigger teams.
The league has just finished its fifth season and the last season's results can be found here: link. Gnoman, Thufir and Shishnarfne are the Commissioners for this league.
The cup is called 'Gitp', password 'Giant' (Inter-season hiatus).

The Legacy League is the old league for the board consisting of fairly developed teams who have been booted promoted out of the Standard League, thus is not recommended for starting teams.
It has just finished its second season (congratulations to the Meddling Insects) and is currently on an inter-season break. The current scheduling and results can be found here: link. Tasroth is the sole Commissioner for this league.
The cup is called 'GitP - Legacy League', password 'Levelled' (Open for applicants).

Open Leagues; there are two general free-for-all leagues and teams can join up or drop out whenever. They're intended to be a testing ground for coaches trying out new teams against other human players.
It's best to contact people directly to arrange games for this league (typically via Steam) as there's no scheduling.
The official cup is called GitP Blood Bowl Open League, password 'Belkar'.
The unofficial cup is called MumbleChaos, password 'gitp'.

There may also be intermittent knock out tournaments with special rules, such as all Stunty. Details of any ongoing tournaments will be updated here.

Spoiler: Links of interest

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Living Rulebook 6: rules for the board game which the game is based off and has more detailed explanation of the mechanics

Blood Bowl Chaos Edition Players manual: also accessible through the Steam launcher (right click on the game in your Library, View player manual). Useful page of hotkeys at the very back.

Wraith's Q&A session: video by our own Wraith explaining some mechanics in more detail, with suggestions for interface and skills setup.

Blood Bowl Tactics: good site for general Blood Bowl tactics and team advice. Also has probability calculations and all other sorts of advanced number crunching if you want to disappear down that rabbit hole.

Spoiler: Previous Threads

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Blood Bowl Chaos Edition
Blood Bowl in the Playground II: It's Going To Be Elves Again, Isn't It?

Spoiler: Hall of Fame

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Standard League
Season 1: The Dokkalfar Daggers, Luzahn
Season 2: Poets Society, Shishnarfne
Season 3: Abandoned
Season 4: Measured Response, Silfir
Season 5: Team Hippy, Qwaz

Legacy League
Season 1: The Dokkalfar Daggers, Luzahn
Season 2: Meddling Insects, Shishnarfne

Rookie League
Season 1: Ms. Dot's Nurse Academy, Manticoran

[Brother Oni]

GitP Blood Bowl Standard League

Season 5, Final

Finals

Euphonic Cadence Thufir: 3 - 4 :Team Hippy Qwaz

Semi Finals

The Suns Children SaruSama: 1 - 2 :Team Hippy Qwaz Euphonic Cadence Thufir: 3 - 0 :Barovia World Tour Shishnarfne

---

Position	Team Name	Coach's GitP Name	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	TD For	TD Against	Points	Neustadtl Score
1	Team Hippy	Qwaz	13	10	2	1	29	10	32	180.5
2	Euphonic Cadence	Thufir	13	10	2	1	40	11	32	173.5
3	Barovia World Tour	Shishnarfne	13	8	3	2	20	9	27	157
4	The Suns Children	SaruSama	13	8	1	4	24	20	25	118
5	BlackHearse BoneHeads	Unpronounceable	13	6	3	4	16	10	21	103
6	The Stabbery	Devmaar	13	5	5	3	22	19	20	126
7	The Bloody-Handed Angels	Tasroth	13	6	1	6	23	22	19	98
8	The Ruinous Rampagers	LCP	13	5	4	4	14	12	19	96
9	Hammersjurg Destroyers	Wraith	13	5	3	5	12	13	18	93.5
10	Leapers of Loren	Maethirion	13	4	2	7	28	28	14	49.5
11	Imperial Space Corps	Luzahn	13	3	1	9	14	22	10	55.5
12	Spartak's Blud Bowl Klub	Brother Oni	13	3	0	10	12	31	9	22
13	99 Ways to Die	Neon Knight	13	2	1	10	6	25	7	28.5
14	Destroyer of Worlds	Gnoman	13	1	2	10	3	31	5	39.5

[Tasroth]

GitP Blood Bowl Legacy League

Season 2
Current Week's Deadline: 28 July 15

Final

Tasroth's Dark Stars (Tasroth): 2 - 3 :Meddling Insects (Shishnarfne)

Semi-Finals

The Murderhobos (SaruSama): 2 - 3 :Tasroth's Dark Stars (Tasroth)
Dokkalfar Daggers (Luzahn): 1 - 2 :Meddling Insects (Shishnarfne)

Position	Team Name	Forum Name/Steam Profile	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	TD for	TD Against	Points	Neustadtl Score
01	Tasroth's Dark Stars	Tasroth	7	6	0	1	17	9	18	48
02	Dokkalfar Daggers	Luzahn	7	5	1	1	14	5	16	38
03	Meddling Insects	Shishnarfne	7	3	3	1	16	5	12	44.5
04	The Murderhobos	SaruSama	7	3	0	4	11	12	9	18
05	The Ironbeards	Wraith	7	2	2	3	8	10	8	22
06	The Adrasteia	Thufir	7	1	3	3	7	12	6	16.5
07	Dwarf Adjectives	Qwaz	7	1	2	4	4	13	5	18
08	Blood Bowl Club Mirka	Brother Oni	7	1	1	5	6	17	4	9

[Wraith]

GitP Blood Bowl Rookie League Season 03

Season 03 - Day 03
Naggarothian Nightmares (Maethirion) vs. Playboy Plaguemates (Deadline)
The Unsightly Jellyfishes (Lyrakien) vs. Have Some Popkhorne (Silfir)
Isla Sauria (LCP) vs. The Orctodads (legoshrimp)
Goblinization Nation (DarthMario) vs. The Shameful Dead (KingOfFeed)
Unsidhe De Cuirte Dorsche (Manticoran) vs. The Expendables 97 (Unpronounceable)
Rules Rules Rules (TFT) vs. Team Named Spoon (Grytorm)
Those Who Eat Brunch (DSop) vs. Super Furry Wild Animals (Wraith)

Games to be completed by: Monday 18th April

Position	Team Name	Forum Name/Steam Profile	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	TD for	TD Against	Points
01	Isla Sauria (Liz)	LCP	2	2	0	0	5	1	6
02	Unsidhe De Cuirte Dorche (WoE)	Manticoran	2	2	0	0	5	6	3
03	Have Some Popkhorne (KhD)	Silfir	2	1	1	0	2	1	4
04	The Unsightly Jellyfishes (Nec)	Lyrakien	2	1	1	0	3	2	4
05	Goblinization Nation (PrE)	DarthMario	2	1	0	1	3	3	3
06	Super Furry Wild Animals (Unw)	Wraith	2	1	0	1	4	3	3
07	The Shameful Dead (Und)	Mister Quiv	2	0	1	1	0	1	1
08	The Expendables 97 (Gob)	Unpronounceable	2	0	2	0	1	1	2
09	Naggarothian Nightmares (DEl)	Maethirion	2	0	2	0	2	2	2
10	The Orctodads (Orc)	legoshrimp	2	0	1	1	1	4	1
11	Rules Rules Rules (Dwa)	TFT	2	0	1	1	0	2	1
12	Those Who Eat Brunch (ChD)	Dsop	2	0	1	1	1	2	1
13	Playboy Plaguemates (Nur)	Deadline	2	0	1	1	1	3	1
14	Team Named Spoon (Ogr)	Grytorm	2	0	0	2	1	5	0

Spoiler: Season 02 Final Week

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Rookie League Season 02 Champions
1st Place: Cheesy Comestibuls Club (Silfir)
2nd Place: The Grateful Dead (Manticoran)

DIVISION ONE

Position	Team Name	Forum Name/Steam Profile	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	TD for	TD Against	Points
01	The Phanci Phoenixs (High Elves)	Unpronounceable	7	5	2	0	13	4	17
02	Peexar Reanimation Studio (Necromantic)	Deadline	7	5	1	1	14	6	16
03	Liber Diabolica (Chaos)	Wraith	7	4	1	2	11	7	13
04	Dwarfcraft Reign of Chaos (Chaos Dwarfs)	CareemSoda	7	3	1	3	7	8	10
05	Corrupting Vices (Dark Elves)	nhbdy	7	3	0	4	7	6	13
06	Certainly Not Hobbits (Not Hobbits)	Shishnarfne	7	2	2	3	5	6	8
07	Big Reds Bubblegum Brawlers (Khorne Daemons)	Grytorm	7	2	1	4	6	8	7
08	Reg'Lar Hoomanz ('Ummiez)	Zinc	7	0	0	7	0	14	0

DIVISION TWO

Position	Team Name	Forum Name/Steam Profile	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	TD for	TD Against	Points
01	Cheesy Comestibles Club (Skaven)	Silfir	7	7	0	0	17	5	21
02	Grateful Dead (Khemri)	Manticoran	7	4	2	1	10	6	14
03	Passers and Pushovers (High Elves)	Maethirion	7	3	2	2	13	13	11
04	Final-Fantasy (Pro Elves)	Qwaz	7	2	3	2	14	14	9
05	Hellborn Hooligans Reborn (Chaos)	ShadowFighter	7	2	1	4	7	12	7
06	Aristocracy of ze Night (Vampires)	LCP	7	2	0	5	9	10	6
07	Thunder And Fury (Norse)	Devmaar	7	1	3	3	6	11	6
08	Enter team nam here (Lizardmen)	Qwertystop	7	1	1	5	7	14	4

Spoiler: Season 01 Final Week

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Rookie League Season 01 Champions
1st Place: Ms. Dot's Nurse Academy (Manticoran)
2nd Place: Grimnir's Grudgebringers (Pippington)

Position	Team Name	Forum Name/Steam Profile	Played	Win	Draw	Loss	TD for	TD Against	Points
01	Ms. Dot's Nurse Academy	Manticoran	15	11	4	0	22	3	37
02	Grimnir's Grudgebringers	LCP	15	11	2	2	28	12	35
03	Okami Ye Faithful	Silfir	15	9	3	3	27	14	30
04	Smashers of Sotek	Maethirion	15	9	2	4	21	12	29
05	The Scaretoon Network	Wraith	15	8	4	3	29	13	28
06	Champions of Dread	Devmaar	15	8	2	5	17	19	26
07	A Communist Party	Careem Soda	15	7	4	4	17	12	25
08	Black Ribbons	Luzahn	15	7	3	5	25	12	24
09	Wymbildon Warpstoners	Unpronounceable	15	7	2	6	21	21	23
10	Something Ratten in Den.	Neon Knight	15	6	3	6	29	21	21
11	Throwaways & Throwers	Shishnarfne	15	5	4	6	11	20	16
12	Spartans of Khorne	Brother Oni	15	3	3	9	16	20	12
13	California Skulls	LeSwordfish	15	3	1	11	7	24	10
14	Kleptoquarterbacks	Froish	15	2	2	11	8	29	8
15	Wheeeeeeeeee!	Qwertystop	15	2	1	13	5	29	7
16	Papa N's Storytime Crew	Ivellius	15	0	5	10	2	19	5

[Brother Oni]

Spartak's Blud Bowl Klub 2 : Destroyer of Worlds 0

With a 730TV difference, the DoW coach went on a spending spree, Zara the Slayer being an excellent pick as she later became a major thorn in the orcs' side.

SBK elected to receive and things immediately went wrong for the Amazons, their best regular player being killed outright on pretty much the first block of the game. Thankfully their Apothecary managed to save her life, although she would be the target of many a pirate joke in the future.

Zara immediately started stabbing everything in sight, although her stakes bounced off the superior orc armour. The Amazon coach waited until the orc thrower recovered the ball deep in the ork backfield before ambushing him with a lightning bolt, but a linesorc managed to recover it while the rest of the team held back the ferocious women. Slowly but surely, the orks pushed through and the injuries started mounting up, both sides dropping to 8 players each, just before a double back through orc lines managed to find a way through the tenacious Amazon defence, scoring a turn later.

None of the unconscious Amazons woke up and their attacks crashed harmless against the solid orc defences until the half time whistle blew.

Setting up with a 10-11 deficit, the Lustrian war women found their attack floundering again and with a surprising turn of speed, a pair of orc blitzers pounced on the ball carrier and sent it scattering. The orcish jubiliation was short lived as an enemy blitzer returned the favour, sending the ball off on a massive pickup chain through the entire orc pack who had suddenly developed a collective case of butter fingers. Eventually the ball came to a stop and the orcs were finally able to grab hold of it properly, consolidating their position as more Amazons went off unconscious or injured.
Setting off upfield again, this time the Amazons were unable to mount as strong a defence and the orcs scored again shortly after.

A riot kicked off and the referee let the clock run a turn before the teams set up again and tired of having their line of scrimmage victimised, the orcs set up as a whole on the LOS, with only 2 turns left on the clock.
Unfortunately SBK's goblin mascot got ideas above his station and also set up on the LOS, at which point Zara stabbed him, sending him off injured.

A quick vanity throw left the Amazon catcher out of position and an orc blitzer crunched her, but there was too little time left to take advantage and the game ended with some inconsequential rough housing.


Well played by Gnoman - his Amazons put up a much better fight than I was expecting and the extra Apothecaries he bought weren't needed in the end after the first averted death.

I've never been so glad of AV9 before, both due to Zara's Stakes and Gnoman's fouling attempts - a +6 Foul on my troll only resulted in a Stun, although the ref was clearly staring at the Destroyers' cheerleaders rather than all the players, considering all the -1 fouling attempts and not a single player sent off.
To be fair, Oiyou seemed to be doing the same, considering he failed a Really Stupid roll while on the ground surrounded by Amazons...

[LCP]

To continue the discussion with Silfir from the last thread (mainly so I'll have posted in this one and can recognise it by the tick next to the title...)

As long as the scores are level, I'm not dominating diddly squat. And I play accordingly. It would baffle me to think that anyone could consider that unsporting.

I agree and I wasn't saying that. To reiterate the key point of my previous post:

Outside those parameters (I feel like my roster is in danger, I feel confident I can keep the TD balance in my favour) sure, there are plenty of cases where gang-fouling won't induce me to score any faster

If, as in the scenario you paint, it's my receiving drive, the score is 0-0, and my opponent chose to kick, then the answer to "am I confident I can keep the TD balance in my favour" is almost always "no", and scoring early because of foul pressure would be poor play. What I was saying there are scenarios outside that chain of "ifs" where foul pressure will encourage me to score faster, since you stated categorically that fouling can't induce a good coach to score - the implication I read was that you were stating that was true in any circumstances whatsoever.

If I were to assume or, through my actions, suggest to my opponent that I am expecting to score on defense, and I'm not playing a vastly superior team, that's more or less like saying "You are not good enough for me to consider you my equal".

That's again making a few assumptions. Playing murderchaos in the main league, it's quite possible for my opponent to play excellent Blood Bowl but still be looking at starting the second half with half their team in hospital. I don't think it's at all 'insulting' to expect to score a defensive TD in those circumstances; it's purely a function of their armour and injury rolls.

I think you have to be looking pretty hard for implied slights to find someone's failure to run the clock against you insulting - but I've personally felt the frustration of being helpless to stop the opponent's clock-running many times. Given the luxury of choice from a safe position (and as you say that's rare and I wouldn't advocate it outside that position), I think it's more sporting to score quickly and let your opponent have a few more turns where they actually get to play the game.

[Silfir]

I think you have to be looking pretty hard for implied slights to find someone's failure to run the clock against you insulting - but I've personally felt the frustration of being helpless to stop the opponent's clock-running many times. Given the luxury of choice from a safe position (and as you say that's rare and I wouldn't advocate it outside that position), I think it's more sporting to score quickly and let your opponent have a few more turns where they actually get to play the game.

I'm really only talking about situations where a) the scores are level and you have to decide the timing of your one-touchdown lead, or b) you're behind by one and you have to decide the timing of your equalizer. I. e. when clock-running can easily mean the difference between a loss, a draw or a win. In 99% of cases where these situations apply, the assumption that you're in a "safe position" would be severely misjudged.

When clock-running isn't necessary to ensure the result of the game (though clock-running even with a one-touchdown lead in hand is still perfectly justified against elves, since they only really need one lucky break to score twice in quick succession) I don't run the clock either.



In-game, when my opponents don't run the clock, I tend to attribute that to them having made a risk analysis and deciding that they would rather have the safe score, which I think 99% of cases is probably the truth of it.

There was really only one match where I felt "disrespected", and that wasn't on GitP; that was when I was playing another elf coach with my own elves who was completely outclassing me in terms of positioning etc. and was away with the ball on course for a defensive TD and already 1-0 in the lead - and instead of running in the 2-0, or stalling for an utterly safe victory, decided to score with a pass into the endzone, essentially saying "this game is over, might as well farm some SPP". That stung. (I won the game 1-2, after the ball tumbled out, I scored in return, and then scored again as a result of a Blitz. That lessened the sting. You can't count on it going that way every time, though.)

I certainly would never expect an opponent who has a safe 2-1 victory in hand, by stalling and keeping my players contained, to let me back into the game. No sportsman has an obligation to their opponent to "let" them do anything that would affect the outcome of the match. Losing may be frustrating, but accepting a loss gracefully is an integral element of sportsmanship.

[Devmaar]

Repost from old thread:

The Stabbery 1-3 Sun's Children


The elves kicked off and ended the first half 3-0 down after a blitz ruined the 2 turn td attempt and led to a turn 7 lizard score. I scored more casualties but suffered enough kos that The children had a numbers advantage a lot of the time. I honestly think I could have managed a result were it not for snake eyes on some particularly key pass and dodge rolls...


So anyway, this was the week when my Dwarves couldn't take a punch and my Elves couldn't throw a pass

[Thufir]

I think you have to be looking pretty hard for implied slights to find someone's failure to run the clock against you insulting

Well, perhaps not insulting, but indicative of confidence in their superiority. Of course, if someone is that sure of themselves and their ability to win while making riskier plays, you should then feel encouraged to try and prove them wrong by capitalising on the chances they're unnecessarily giving you and making them pay for their hubris - and I fully encourage people to attempt this against me. Because I am talking here about my own approach with Euphonic Cadence - I don't run the clock because I'm confident enough of my ability to win with that team regardless, and it's more fun to try and rack up huge scorelines. Since EC have so far conceded 4 draws and 1 overtime loss, it seems reasonable. I will still run the clock in playoffs though, because that's serious time and if I lose I don't get to try again against ~10 other teams.
Actually, a secondary reason why I don't clock-run with my Elves is that they're just not as good at it as other teams. Delaying tactics against a strong onslaught can be somewhat sketchy with Elves, whereas I'm more comfortable defending and threatening to take the ball away. But getting back to where this debate started, that's why you should attempt to make said onslaught - if you come over to threaten the security of my touchdown I'll probably struggle to hold you off for more than a turn, but if you expend your actions on hitting or fouling my players out of movement range of the ball I'll just ignore it. The odds of causing serious damage to my team are generally not great, and if you do then in some ways that may be more incentive for me to continue running the clock as with less players on the pitch I will be less confident in my ability to defend once I score, so I should try to minimise how long I'll need to do so.

Oh, and IIRC LCP suggested the tactical question-marks over gang-fouling were just a ruse to discourage people from fouling our teams? It's true, I don't like my players getting fouled, and I'd prefer people didn't do it. But in the circumstances we're talking about, it is also tactically a bad move, because while I don't like getting fouled, I still don't dislike it enough to let it influence my tactical decision-making. If I am determined to kill the clock, fouling won't stop me. I would rather avoid the potential injuries fouling causes, but I would also rather my opponent made tactically sound plays to keep the game interesting, because as noted - burning the clock is kind of a boring option, as effective as it is.


On a mostly unrelated note, three videos:
S4M1 Euphonic Cadence vs. Sun's Chidlren
S4M3 Euphonic Cadence vs. Spartak's Blood Bowl Klub
S4M4 Euphonic Cadence vs. Team Hippy

[Brother Oni]

S4M3 Euphonic Cadence vs. Spartak's Blood Bowl Klub

Watching the video again and I'm wondering myself what the hell I was thinking on some of those plays. I definitely should have blitzed Orpheus with the Black Orc and then followed up with more support (I forget whether I was trying to do something else and wanted a better roll on the player behind the ball carrier). Your left wide zone was because I didn't pay attention to your Guard Blitzer (I'm not entirely sure I knew what Guard was at that point as I'd just played barely enough to have a gist of the rules).

I can explain the turn 16 foul though - under the system I was familiar with, injuries from fouling did give you SPP; I think you mentioned it in the Season 3 Humans/Vampires game, but I probably forgot. While I agree my early defence was particularly weak, you did make a noticeably large number of successful dodges, plus your block rolls were better than mine, although I concede a large part of that due to your better play causing the odds to be in your favour.

[SaruSama]

Dokkalfar Daggers 2 versus Murderhobos 1
Despite the loss probably the best games I've played with this team. A really swingy game, early in the game he managed to shatter my cage and have a bunch of elves surrounding the ball. Most of the early first half was us scrounging around for it but I eventually managed to steal it and score. He got the equalizer on the last turn of the half but Id managed to knock out enough of his team I had a big numbers advantage starting the second half. To top that off he used both of his rerolls left from the halfling chef to pick up the ball and basically played the half with no rerolls. Than he proceeded to play a fantastic game and use the fact that his players had so many more skills than me to get the ball pretty safely down field. I still managed to make it a game and have an elf touchdown lined up if he failed any rolls. With all that it came down to the last turn where he managed to clear a space and dodge out for the win.

[LCP]

Oh, and IIRC LCP suggested the tactical question-marks over gang-fouling were just a ruse to discourage people from fouling our teams? It's true

I knew it

tricksssssssssss

Nice to see more video reports going up, I enjoy those.

[Tasroth]

Dokkalfar Daggers 2 versus Murderhobos 1

Match validated, day advanced.

Week 6 Fixtures

Meddling Insects (Shishnarfne) vs. The Murderhobos (SaruSama)
The Ironbeards (Wraith) vs. The Adrasteia (Thufir)
Dwarf Adjectives (Qwaz) vs. Dokkalfar Daggers (Luzahn)
Blood Bowl Club Mirka (Brother Oni) vs. Tasroth's Dark Stars (Tasroth)

[Brother Oni]

Tasroth's Dark Stars 2 : BC Mirka 0

The game didn't start well, with a disappearing Ogre causing a less than 11 players bug, but I was unable to place another player instead, thus I had a badly out of position no skill linesman instead of a Guard/Stand Firm Ogre, which would have really helped.
Morg quickly proved his weight in gold and dispatched at least three players off the pitch, including the enemy minotaur on an Attacker Down with a -AG broken neck (which had no effect on his stats anyway).

A couple of silly misplays on my part, cost me a turn 8 touch down (I had definitely counted that I could move my blitzer to grab the ball and score, did some safer moves then forgot about the route I plotted and let the wayfinding AI fool me into thinking I was 1 square short of scoring) and a subsequent touchdown (one blitzer failed on a 3+ dodge after a -1 handoff, while another fell over on a GFI), which might have made the scoreline a lot closer.

Tasroth meanwhile elfed his way through the critical junctures, letting him grab the ball from under the noses of my players twice and passing it down the pitch.


I expected a brutal beating which the Chaos team didn't disappoint, but I wasn't expecting how elf-like they were. My team put up a surprisingly good fight, Morg coming to the rescue many a time.

I've spotted a weakness with my gameplay in that I typically run the ball up the pitch with well supported blocking, remembering to leave players in potential scoring positions only as an afterthought (or rather, I half arse it and leave the breakthrough players just out of supporting reach but also not within a scoring position). Unfortunately the best way for me to do teach myself that is to play elves *spit* and I'm not sure I'm willing to let my dignity drop that low yet.

[Neon Knight]

99 Ways to Die 0-5 Leapers of Loren. Not much to say about the match itself; the elves elfed even in Disturbing Presence and despite some pieces succumbing to the hugs of the Beast of Nurgle, my lack of Tackle and Sure Hands made the double Strip Ball Wardancers a nightmare, the Wood Elves kick worked well all but one drive were I got a touchback (and worked beautifully when the Elves got a Blitz)... I wasn't really getting nuffled until the end, when a Pestigor failed a 3+ to pick up the ball 3 times (twice in one turn with reroll) only to watch an elf make the same 3+, dodge out effortlessly, and score. I suppose there are also the armor rolls to consider; barely any KO's, all of which came back rapidly, and no injuries whatsoever. In fact, the elves did a pretty good job on my armour; most drives featured a KO on my side, including a KO'ed Nurgle Warrior in the first drive. They came back just as readily thanks to Bloodweiser Babes, so both teams had nearly all their players every drive.

I knew facing Blodge Strip Ball pieces would be tough, so I'm not too surprised at the result. The story of the game is pretty much the elf's game plan working and mine not working.

[Qwaz]

Team Hippy 1-0 BlackHearse BoneHeads

Unpronouncable and I chatted through the game and it kept what was otherwise quite a scrappy game pleasent & lighthearted. The rain was getting in everyone's way all game and after scoring quickly I spent 13 or 14 turns defending as hard as I could. No perma-injuries to either side thankfully.

Thanks for the game!

[Unpronounceable]

Team Hippy 1-0 BlackHearse BoneHeads

Unpronouncable and I chatted through the game and it kept what was otherwise quite a scrappy game pleasent & lighthearted. The rain was getting in everyone's way all game and after scoring quickly I spent 13 or 14 turns defending as hard as I could. No perma-injuries to either side thankfully.

Thanks for the game!

To borrow the earliest post I remember from these threads:

"The Head coach of the Boneheads blamed the defeat on an insufficient quantity of dead elves"

Scrappy is definitely the word for that game, due to some silly "getting key pieces isolated" on my part and the sheer amount of blodge (and my lack of block/tackle) meant the blocking game rarely went my way, as such I was very happy to only lose 1-0, I was never really in a position to threaten an equalizer save a last minute desperate sprint up the pitch.

Thanks for the gam Qwaz, I'm filing it under "learning experiences"

[Wraith]

I'm hoping that LeSwordfish and I are looking to play our Rookie League game at some point on Monday/Tuesday, whenever he's available. Very much looking forward to that, his Khemri are terrifying but the first bunch of bonebags that I've played in a long time so it will be unique.

I believe that in the other Leagues I have another couple of kickings from the Dark Powers, via the medium of LCP's Rampagers and Thufir's Adrasteia. If you gentlemen would care to let me know when is suitable for you I'll do my best to make the matches, circumstances, new baby and tired out girlfriend willing.

[LCP]

I just got home from the airport - should be available any time this week (although if you're looking to catch me today I've probably got about an hour before the jetlag catches up with me). Congratulations on the new baby!

[Qwaz]

Definetly. Congratulations to you both. As a gift I shall avoid fouling your norse if at all possible. Unless I get bribes, then i can't be held accountable for my bloodlust!

Blood Bowl in the Playground II: Where You Either Win or Blame Nuffle... Sometimes Both

*Cough*III*Cough*

(Completely not trying to be a D. I really appreciate the work You, Wraith & Tasroth put into keeping the assorted league posts updated. It's often thankless work that definetly keeps the league going smoothly. Cheers)

[Wraith]

Definetly. Congratulations to you both. As a gift I shall avoid fouling your norse if at all possible.

Thank you both. We've only been home a few hours, but I should be more or less back on schedule as o tomorrow. That is especially kind of you....

Unless I get bribes, then i can't be held accountable for my bloodlust!

....Kinda.

*Cough*III*Cough*

I blame Nuffle.

[Brother Oni]

Thank you both. We've only been home a few hours, but I should be more or less back on schedule as o tomorrow.

While congratulations are in order on the new mini-Wraith, you don't know much about babies, do you?

If you're lucky, you'll get a few day's grace as the baby spends most of its time sleeping to recover from the birth, after that it's the stereotypical sleep deprived newborn baby parents mode until it learns to sleep for longer stretches.

[Wraith]

I'm aware of all of this, Brother Oni. You just had to shatter my happy little delusions though, didn't you?

[Brother Oni]

I'm aware of all of this, Brother Oni. You just had to shatter my happy little delusions though, didn't you?

From personal experience, given that you're still joking about it and haven't unleashed a torrent of abuse at me, I'm guessing you're still in the grace period.

[Tasroth]

Bloody-Handed Angels - 2; Imperial Space Corps - 1

A pretty close game. The first half went really well for me, taking the ball twice and scoring. The second half, not so much, and a turn 16 equalizer was only prevented by a lucky interception.

Also I've noticed a problem with the in-thread table. The result of the Team Hippy vs. BlackHearse BoneHeads match is the wrong way round. It was 1-0 to Team Hippy, not to the BoneHeads.

[LCP]

The Rumble in the Tundra is kicking off soon - Rampagers vs. Destroyers. One way or another, it's going to be bloody!

[LCP]

Ruinous Rampagers 0 - 0 Hammersjurg Destroyers. A very strange game in which rerolls wouldn't take, GFIs were a death sentence, and both sides lost sight of the ball in the name of claiming skulls for Khorne. By the second half we were almost playing five-a-side Blood Bowl, and the Rampagers had put both the Destroyers' Yhetee and their old nemesis Sveinn the star thrower in the morgue; in my receiving drive Khorak the minotaur was only saved from the same fate by the Rampagers' far more competent apothecary.

Thanks for the game, Wraith! Of course this leaves the Rampagers and Destroyers STILL TIED so Khorne demands a rematch.

[Luzahn]

Bloody-Handed Angels - 2; Imperial Space Corps - 1

A pretty close game. The first half went really well for me, taking the ball twice and scoring. The second half, not so much, and a turn 16 equalizer was only prevented by a lucky interception.

Well, to be fair the other stuff that happened in that turn was also quite lucky. The interception was just chance correcting itself in the most dramatic way possible.

[Wraith]

Spoiler: Hammersjurg Destroyers vs. The Ruinous Rampagers

Show

It's been a tough old season for the Destroyers so far. They're spent the last half dozen games harried by all sorts of weird and wonderful teams that they've never seen before, so today was going to be a comforting change back to normality - getting beaten snotless by Chaos.

First time around the Rampagers won convincingly, taking the newbie Destroyers to the proverbial cleaners with a 2-0 victory, but then everything went wrong/right when, in the Legacy League Season 1 Playoffs, a surprising interception by Morg'n'Thorg and some.... *ahem*..... 'highly advanced, technicaly defensive plays' allowed the Norsemen to steal their way through to the finals 2 touchdowns to 1.
Today, the deadlock was going to be broken. Along, quite probably, with a few spines.

The Rampagers spun the coin and chose poorly, allowing the Destroyers the opportunity to Receive. Everything immediately fell into place for them as Star Thrower Sveinn Audanarson (appearing in no less than 4 of the Halls of Fame!) Kick Off Return'd into place and caught the ball before it hit the ground, while his team mates immediately Badly Hurt a Beastman on the LoS and the team's Yhetee Blitz'd another into unconsciousness all at once. The Chaos team retaliated despite being down 2 players already; they sent a Chaos Warrior hurtling at Unr Frost, the Yhetee, and he came away with a brand new set of Yhetee-fur mittens and hat. Dead, apothecaried into Dead. Of course.

And that was the end of turn 1.

"At least you didn't kill my Thrower," I said. "If you had done that, I would have been really upset."

Crowding around the Destroyers' gently cooling Big Guy, the Chaos team found itself spread thin enough to allow the Norsemen an opportunity to break though. Knocking a Chaos Warrior down, there became enough room for a Lineman to run through and Blitz another Beastman, which would have allowed the Norse to cage up in the very middle of the pitch with no players ahead of them and a whole bunch more tied up in tackle zones at either side. After that, a bit of careful planning would have allowed a reasonably clear run to the End Zone two turns later.
The lineman failed his GFI and Stunned himself. Fortunately he was only the first link of the cage to move, and from a position that meant the ball carrier was still safe... for now.

The Chaos then buried themselves in the cage, knocking Sveinn down and threatening the ball with three tackle zones. To everyone's surprise (my own included) the Destroyers cleared two of them away and Sveinn dodged away from the Warrior that was breathing down his neck and then dived right back in to grab the ball!
He was, however, out of movement and I was too low on rerolls to want to try and Dodge out again, but Nuffle smiled on the plucky viking. Manhandled by two Warriors and a Minotaur, he took everything that they threw at him and stayed upright... and found himself on the opposite side of the Chaos LoS from where had started! Just one Dodge between him and the freedom to run to the End Zone!

With a couple of friends nearby acting as body guards, it looked as though he might get his next TD after all.
Now missing several players, however, the Norsemen had only real one option to score before Sveinn was brought down; my AG4 Berserker broke away from his new friendly Beastman buddy and waited to receive the Pass in the End Zone.
Sveinn snake eye'd his GFI to make it a 3+ throw, 3 squares from the End Zone. "ARGGKN:BPI@OUI", I said.

The ball was scooped up by a Beastman who handed it straight over to a nearby Warrior. They would very possibly have time to make it to the End Zone, since both teams were now down to about 7 players a piece and half of my pieces were tied up by a Minotaur.
Undaunted, I managed to arrange a 1 dice block on the Chaos Warrior, pinning the nearby Beastman in place with the Berserker who had abandonned the End Zone. Nuffle was with me again as a Runner made it from the LoS to Blitz, passing his GFI (the first in 5 rolls) and getting Defender Stumbles on the Warrior. Having provided the assist, Sveinn once again leapt in and grabbed the ball, ending his turn once more within spitting distance of a touchdown.

I thought I was safe. I really did. As turn Chaos 8/Norse 7 dawned it looked like Sveinn would get away, safe behind his screen of Linemen and the previously mentioned Chaos Warrior marked up and preventing a Blitz on my ball carrier. The Berserker's Beastman buddy was still there, though. He risked a Dodge and a GFI to do it, but he put his head down, ran at full tilt and managed to Blitz Svein square in the face.
Defender Down.
Serious Injury.
Dead.

"ARGGKN:BPI@OUI", I said again. Thus ends the saga of the greatest Norse Thrower ever to walk the pitch.

The Rampagers were unable to capitalise on that little success; down the pitch a Chaos Warrior hit a Both Down on a Runner and KO'd himself, leaving me with the faint chance of Frenzy-ing the Beastman away and collecting the ball with the Runner who had previously relieved the Chaos Warrior of the ball, but without rerolls he couldn't get a grip on it and the half ended.

The Destroyers were down to 9 players; the Rampagers down to 6, and ready to receive.

Despite the disadvantage in numbers, the Rampagers still had all the strength in the world, and without a Yhetee to oppose them they made good use of it, the Minotaur smashing his way through the LoS in turn 10 and allowing the Chaos Cage to be rebuilt on entirely the wrong side of the Norse team.... at least, 'wrong' as far as the Norse were concerned.
A few heroic attempts were made to screen against the cage and then attack it directly, but a few more KOs had started to pile up and the Norsemen were struggling to keep ahead of the Dark Powers they were facing, until in turn 12 the Chaos Beastman ball carrier made the crucial mistake of standing one square too close to a Lineman. He ran around the cage and attacked from the bottom left, leaving him dangerously close to the touchline but successful in his attempt to dislodge the ball.
Riding high on his team's success (a Dodge, a GFI and a 1 dice blitz all succeeded without needing a reroll) Huran, the Norse Werewolf struck; with the ball loose and the Chaos team tied up by a couple of determined Linesmen, he took a hopeful gamble and ran headlong into the Chaos Minotaur, only one assist making it a 1 dice block against a Stand Firm player who, if he wasn't knocked down, would probably surf the Werewolf next turn.
Push; no effect.
Frenzy.
Defender Down.
Serious Injury.
DEAD.
HAHAHAHAHA!!!!

Luckily for the Rampagers they also had a vet on hand, and the cow was stitched back together and will be fine in time for his next game. With a couple of players now free to act, the rumble around the ball quickly became a melee of shoving, attempted dodges, failed pickups and another failed GFI until finally - finally - in the last turn of the game the Norse managed to grab the ball and run for it, finally getting the damn thing away from their End Zone as the gong closed play.

Final Score: The Ruinous Rampagers 0-0 Hammersjurg Destroyers.
Between two dead Big Guys (one permanantly), one dead upcoming superstar (who also won the Norse MVP for the match... ) there were barely 10 bodies left on the pitch, including the referee. Despite a(n im)moral victory, the highly experienced Ruinous Rampagers failed to break the deadlock between them and their old rivals, whereas the Hammersjurg Destroyers now face the rest of the season with a big gap where their SPP total used to be. Maybe the two teams will meet again, but both have a severe uphill struggle if they're going to make it as far as the playoffs of Season 05....

TL;DR - @nuffleplz

Thanks again for the game LCP. I was laughing from the end of turn 1 until the end of the game, it was just one of those matches where I couldn't have hoped to take it seriously

[LCP]

It was definitely an insane game. A pity it was 0-0 - I reckon if the dice had been letting anything that wasn't bloodshed succeed it would've ended 1-1.

Gnoman, whenever the week rolls round - I'm free all weekdays bar Thursday this week (including this evening) but I'll be away at the weekend.