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

[Wraith]

Though I have not done so yet, I will be applying to the KO Cup with a High Elf team. I just need a game or four under my belt so that they aren't completely raw by the time we kick off, which I expect to grind out over the next day or two, but The Band That Feeds will be there in all their impossible-to-tell-apart glory.

[Maethirion]

I'm also planning on applying for the KO Cup with a Norse team. Would definitely be keen for some games to get some exercise in.

[Wraith]

It's 3pm and I haven't heard anything from Unpronounceable or Ivellius either way way about their match, so I'm advancing the day in the Rookie League.

Calender for Day 10:
Ms. Dot's Nurse Academy (Manticoran) vs. Wheeeeeeeeee! (Qwertstop)
Champions of Dread (Devmaar) vs. A Communist Party (Careem Soda)
Papa N's Storytime Crew (Ivellius) vs. Kleptoquarterbacks (Froish)
Wymbildon Warpstoners (Unpronounceable) vs. Black Ribbons (Luzahn)
Smashers of Sotek (Maethirion) vs. The Scaretoon Network (Wraith)
California Skulls (Le Swordfish) vs. Grimnir's Grudgebringers (LCP)
Throwaways and Throwers (Shishnarfne) vs. Spartans of Khorne (Brother Oni)
Okami Ye Faithful (Silfir) vs. Something Ratten in De. (Neon Knight)

Games to be completed by: Monday 10th August

I fear that this is now where I begin losing matches. It's all fun and games until you have to play the Lizards, Ogres, Dwarfs and Orcs one after the other and have your entire team fed through a meatgrinder without chance to recover....

[LCP]

I'm sure you'll be fine.

*team runesmith starts engraving names of Wraith's players onto custom knuckledusters*

LeSwordfish, when's the best time for our game?

[Brother Oni]

Throwaways and Throwers (Shishnarfne) vs. Spartans of Khorne (Brother Oni)

This is going to be entertaining. I'm able to brutalise half of his team while simultaneously be brutalised by the other half.

So on that note, when would be a good time? I'm available evenings GMT and weekends.

[Unpronounceable]

With regards to my games (thufir/luzahn), I'd like to move them on to next week if possible, will be free all week so if there is a paricular day that suits let me know. Will also be availbe thursday evening and sunday evening before then.

[Shishnarfne]

This is going to be entertaining. I'm able to brutalise half of his team while simultaneously be brutalised by the other half.

So on that note, when would be a good time? I'm available evenings GMT and weekends.

That shouldn't be too hard for me to arrange. Just let me know when works best for you.

Also, maybe I owe the thread a short summary of the Legacy League final. I might also do well to review the match first so I don't get details wrong.
Edit: promised summary added

Spoiler

Show

Since Tasroth's Dark Stars had a Team Value of 2410 to the 1800 of the Meddling Insects, the Wood Elves were able to hire the services of Jordell Freshbreeze, Eldril Sidewinder, and a guild wizard.

After electing to kick, the Meddling Insects made use of the wizard's skill for a turn one fireball on a seven man Chaos cage.
Somehow, this smashed the collarbone of a beastman (luckily, the Apothecary fixed it) and stunned another player, leaving a path into the right-hand side of the cage.
As the ball carrier lacked Sure Hands, a Wardancer darted in and knocked the ball free, dodging out to pick up the ball.
A turn 2 chain push let the sidestepping Wardancer get out of trouble, allowing an easy pass to a Catcher, who darted away from the Chaos team, stalling the score until turn 4.

The second drive also saw an overstuffed cage which let the Meddling Insects push a Treeman next to the ball carrier, giving an assist to a leaping Wardancer.
A beastman snagged the bouncing ball, but a fumbled pass made sure the ball didn't get far (but was caught by another Beastman).
This Beastman was duly blitzed on turn 6 by a Wardancer, but double "Both Down" got re-rolled into double Skulls.
So, the minions of Chaos were able to advance the ball down the pitch, but left the corners of the cage open.
If this sounds like the setup for another blitz to Strip the ball loose... well, that's something Wardancers are very good at doing.
This time, a Wood Elf lineman picked up the loose ball and threw it deep into the other half of the pitch.
There was still a Beastman in range to pick up the ball and throw it, but the CW dropped the catch on turn 8. However, Tasroth's Dark Stars Badly Hurt the most skilled Wardancer, leaving the Wood Elves without Tackle for the second half.
So, naturally, Jordell Freshbreeze picked up the ball and threw it to the Meddling Insects' patient catcher, who ran in a second touchdown.

After halftime, the dice started to turn against the Elves, with a Perfect Defense letting Tasroth's Dark Stars redeploy the line to better avoid the giant Tree, and a failed pickup leaving the ball open for Tasroth's surprisingly agile Beastmen. So, turn 9 ended with the ball safely in Beastman hands, with few Elves immediately around it.
The attempt to use a Wardancer to knock the ball loose failed when GFI landed the Wardancer in the KO box.

The Wood Elves failed to knock the ball loose on turns 11 and 12 either, letting Tasroth's Dark Stars narrow the gap to 2-1 with a pass to a Beastman left unmarked in favor of pushing the ball carrier around.

After receiving the kick, the Meddling Insects put together a two-turn drive to increase their lead to 3-1 on turn 14.

Attrition finally started to set in against the Wood Elves, with the Minotaur clawing the Treeman to Badly Hurt, and Tasroth's Dark Stars scoring an equally fast touchdown to close to 3-2.

However, with only one turn left, there was neither Blitz nor Riot, so the Meddling Insects (all seven left on the pitch) were able to secure victory.

A well-played match by Tasroth, but the Meddling Insects prevailed 3-2.

[Qwaz]

KO Cup: Dark Elves or Halflings.....hmmmm.

[Tasroth]

Yeah, I was meaning to get around to posting a write up of the Legacy League final. I can't think of anything much to add to what Shishnarfne said. It was a close game, and with either a few different dice rolls (like the turn 8 failed catch by my Chaos Warrior) or a couple less mistakes on my part, I feel it could have gone the other way. Congratulations to Shishnarfne for becoming the Season 2 Legacy League champion, and thanks to everyone who took part this season.

The Legacy League will now be taking a (short?) break, so people can decide whether they want to switch teams (and I was planning to wait until the end of the current Main League season, in case anyone wants to use a team from there). Also, new applicants would be welcome.

[Devmaar]

I am still optimistic about playing LCP tomorrow night. If that doesn't happen there is a good chance I will be unavailable before the deadline and the match should be ruled in his favour.

Careem Soda, I will try and arrange our match after my holiday.

[Brother Oni]

That shouldn't be too hard for me to arrange. Just let me know when works best for you.

Sorry, I forget what time zone you are. I'm playing SaruSama some time tonight before he runs off to board game debauchery (aka Gencon) for three days, so Wednesday evening about 18:00 BST?

[LeSwordfish]

LeSwordfish, when's the best time for our game?

I'm around more or less any time at the moment - just drop me a line on steam. I'm off on a trip on thursday, though, so today would be best.

[LCP]

Today works great, if we can catch each other before Devmaar logs on - think today is the last day he can do too.

[Brother Oni]

The Sun's Children 2 : SBK 1

A very silly and bloody game with 5 injuries and a death on the ork side for 6 skinks (4 of which were self inflicted from failed GFIs and dodges).

A quick turn 4 score for the orks went reasonably well for a loss of an orc Blitzer, but the lizard counter attack was stopped barely, with the ball scattering near the orc back field. A last ditch long bomb got the ball half way down the lizard's side of the pitch before they stopped it and a lucky ball scatter got it into the hands of skink which ran in the equaliser.

The second half was a slow grind for the lizards with insufficient orks to stop them.

Two level ups, no doubles yet again, to ensure that Nuffle rubs it in.

---

Throwaways and Throwers 1 : Spartans of Khorne 1

An equally silly match with 6 casualties on both sides. My prediction of simultaneous brutalising came true as the snotlings went off just slightly faster than my players.

A costly error in judgement on turn 5 of deciding to clock run instead of score let the ogres stop a scoring attempt and the half ended nil-nil.

Some good attacking by the ogres let them score early and Nuffle very nearly came to their rescue late in the second half as a Herald failed to down a snotling on a blitz and Side Step let the resulting 3 red dice block surf the Herald off the pitch.
Thankfully there simply wasn't enough players on the pitch to stop the Spartans picking up the ball and running in the equaliser on turn 16.

---

On the plus side, no UI errors on my side (although Sarusama tried to dodge a Saurus instead of a block) and the Spartans game featured another Blitz for Wraith's stats.

[LCP]

Grimnir's Grudgebringers 2 - 0 California Skulls. The Grudgebringers' choice to kick very nearly backfired, bringing the Skulls within reach of a touchdown before a desperate blitz and some nimble footwork by Rorek Forgefingers the Ag4 dwarf managed to steal the ball and race it back for a turn 8 GFI touchdown. In the second half, with casualties beginning to mount in their favour, the Grudgebringers castled up around the ball and slowly pushed it down the right side of the pitch, finally worming through a mob of skeletons for a second touchdown on turn 16. That's Dwarfbowl!

Thanks LeSwordfish for the game.

[Devmaar]

The Ruinous Rampagers vs The Stabbery is happening now a 1-1 draw. Really good match, both teams still with a chance of scoring the winner at turn 15

[LCP]

Ruinous Rampagers 1 - 1 The Stabbery. The Stabbery gave the Rampagers the first drive; the Rampagers formed a cage around the ball and let the dark elves break their faces against it for the first 3-4 turns, before rolling up the pitch in a ball of spiky death to deliver a turn 8 touchdown.

In the second half, the Stabbery's Ag5 witch elves danced through the Rampagers' defensive screen, and an early KO on the rookie Chaos Warrior put a dent in the Rampagers' ability to break the cage protecting the Runner with the ball. Reasoning that with the ability to pass out to a choice of Ag5 catchers at any time I was never going to prevent the score, I left an open lane for Devmaar to run in his touchdown while I did my best to decapitate one of his precious Ag5 elves. The witch elves proved surprisingly claw- and foul-resistant, but the dark elves scored with 4 turns left in the match, leaving just enough time for the Rampagers to try one more drive.

Setting up agressively, the Rampagers grabbed the ball and broke through the Stabbery's centre, dissolving the cage in order to squeeze through. Devmaar's ST4 blitzer dodged free and managed to knock down the ball carrier, and the last few turns turned into a tense brawl around the ball, 7 squares from the end zone. On turn 16, I had an outside chance of getting it back into Beastman hands (for the third time in that drive!) by mino-blitzing a dark elf onto the ball and hoping for a good scatter, but the new mino ended the game with a prompt double skulls. Already emulating his glorious predecessor.

Thanks for the game, Devmaar!

[Devmaar]

Ruinous Rampagers 1 - 1 The Stabbery. The Stabbery gave the Rampagers the first drive; the Rampagers formed a cage around the ball and let the dark elves break their faces against it for the first 3-4 turns, before rolling up the pitch in a ball of spiky death to deliver a turn 8 touchdown.

In the second half, the Stabbery's Ag5 witch elves danced through the Rampagers' defensive screen, and an early KO on the rookie Chaos Warrior put a dent in the Rampagers' ability to break the cage protecting the Runner with the ball. Reasoning that with the ability to pass out to a choice of Ag5 catchers at any time I was never going to prevent the score, I left an open lane for Devmaar to run in his touchdown while I did my best to decapitate one of his precious Ag5 elves. The witch elves proved surprisingly claw- and foul-resistant, but the dark elves scored with 4 turns left in the match, leaving just enough time for the Rampagers to try one more drive.

Setting up agressively, the Rampagers grabbed the ball and broke through the Stabbery's centre, dissolving the cage in order to squeeze through. Devmaar's ST4 blitzer dodged free and managed to knock down the ball carrier, and the last few turns turned into a tense brawl around the ball, 7 squares from the end zone. On turn 16, I had an outside chance of getting it back into Beastman hands (for the third time in that drive!) by mino-blitzing a dark elf onto the ball and hoping for a good scatter, but the new mino ended the game with a prompt double skulls. Already emulating his glorious predecessor.

Thanks for the game, Devmaar!

The decision not to stall the equaliser was deliberate, I'd rather risk defeat for a chance at victory than play out a safe draw.


Thank you as well, great fun

The match also gave me a third Guard Blitzer. Allegations of illegal strength enhancements are completely unfounded and frankly I am offended you would even suggest it. You've made Rynfin cry.

[Wraith]

It has been a busy day for Blood Bowl, it seems. I wish that I could add another tale of heroism to the roster, but unfortunately I have only tragedy.

Having been working on a team to join the KO Cup, I was feeling confident with a 1-2-0 record and no injuries on the roster, not even a MNG.... and then I spun up a team of Lizards with +180k TV on me. Not ideal, but with clever use of a Wizard it was no worse than some of the odds that I've overcome in the past.

Then it started to rain. 3 turns and 3 rerolls later, up to my ears in hungry Saurus, I think I did fairly well to end the half only 1-0 down.
And then my players started dying.
A thrower, a blitzer and a lineman later - a quarter of my roster, nearly 200k of my team taking dirt naps - I quit the game in disgust and left for work spitting blood as I went. I'm... probably not going to use High Elves again for quite some time. Will have to think hard on who I'm bringing to the Cup, but right now I'm far too salty to decide on anything even remotely sensible.

Still.... The silver lining is that I have now had my full allocation of Lizard-on-Elf brutality for now, which means that tomorrow's matchup of Sobek vs. Network should go perfectly smoothly and without any hitches whatsoever. Right?

....Right?

[Silfir]

"Spun"...? As in, matchmaking? I was given the impression the teams were to be brought up inside the Open League.

[Brother Oni]

"Spun"...? As in, matchmaking? I was given the impression the teams were to be brought up inside the Open League.

Given the restrictions, I don't think it's particularly relevant where the teams get their 1300TV from, provided they're not directly editing the files to pick which level ups they get.

[Wraith]

"Spun"...? As in, matchmaking? I was given the impression the teams were to be brought up inside the Open League.

My social hours are pretty awkward, exclusively playing Playgrounders is impractical in the extreme. Besides, no one said it shouldn't be an old team from elsewhere, and like Bother Oni said; so long as it's done through legitimate play then I don't see why it matters.

I'm hardly farming the perfect murderteam, after all. Murdered team, yes, but that's only doing you guys a favour so far.....

[Tasroth]

Leapers of Loren - 4, Bloody-Handed Angels - 4

Which I think is the highest combined scoreline I've seen. Nuffle certainly made the game interesting, with Sweltering Heat persisting until midway through the second half, and the first kickoff accompanied by a Pitch Invasion. And that's just a small part of the interesting dice results throughout. It also marks the first time the Bloody-Handed Angels have drawn a game in their career.

[Wraith]

Maethirion and I played out the Lizards vs. DElves game, and I'm sorry to say that my prediction was accurate; the Scaretoon Network have notched their first loss of the season.

Frankly, I'm not upset about it. I was also correct in saying that the Elvish community has had enough problems at my hands lately and didn't deserve anymore deaths, and to Maethirion's utter chagrin he didn't manage to inflict worse than a KO all game. 5/5 of which returned to play all at once for the last drive.

It was still a fun game. We both went back and forth, with the lizards scoring both times because I failed one key roll (first a flubbed pass and then a 'trivial' dodge that snake eye'd at the absolute worst moment) but otherwise I got whatever I wanted with dodges into 2+ tackle zones, several successful 1 dice blocks and then a long pass all in one turn, no rerolls, to score myself. Thanks again Maethirion

Kickoff table results: Changing weather (fine into fine, twice), perfect defence, and two blitzes....

I'd post a longer report but for some reason my ISP is being very fickle at the moment and doesn't seem to like several websites, GitP included. I may come back to it if time allows, but I really don't like posting this much from my 'phone if I can help it.

[Silfir]

Okami Ye Faithful and Something Ratten in Denmark fought out an exciting 2-2.

It began auspiciously for the necromantic band - Something Ratten received, punched a hole in the undead lines (after Noel was obligingly hit by a thrown rock), lined up the majority of their team in Okami's half, and left the pick-up for last, with no players next to Prarie Dogsberry to protect the pick-up. Promptly, it was failed, and since most of Something Ratten had advanced into the enemy half, they were more or less without a chance to prevent Okami Ye Faithful from recovering the ball in a state of almost complete safety. They even took out the Ratten captain, William Shakeshrew, with a Badly Hurt. Confident in their chances to play out the remaining half to their advantage, Santa Claws ran in the TD for the 1-0 lead. This turned out to be a massive blunder.

Something Ratten received again, caught the ball with a runner after moving under it with a quick snap, and ran the ballcarrier downfield for a quick score, protected by a screen of team mates. (All hopes of Denmark rested in quick scores for themselves, to make something happen on defense, naturally.) While Violet Bite did manage to dislodge the ball from the ballcarrying runner, there wasn't really much they could do to stop Christopher Molerat, 5 AGI runner extraordinaire, from running in the score anyway. That wasn't the bad part - that was to come in the form of karma being ... what karma is.

Okami received - and like Prarie Dogsberry, flubbed the pick-up. Unlike Something Ratten in Denmark, there were players placed to help protect the pick-up. But also unlike Okami Ye Faithful, Something Ratten has gutter runners, and you need a lot more protection against those. Two turns later, Something Ratten took the lead.

To retain any chance of winning, now Okami Ye Faithful had to score in the last three remaining turns. After some maneuvering and unfortunate defensive positioning, and some fairly lucky developments (involving, for instance, getting the ball back from one of those blasted runners) there was an outside chance of scoring with a 5+ pass followed by a 3+ catch without reroll, but it was not to be.

Thus, the second half started with Okami Ye Faithful receiving from behind, and played out, in the end, much less exciting than the first half had. While Okami had failed heavily in the TD department, they had managed to score three casualties by the beginning of the second, and were up 11 to 8. While the kick-off did land deep in the half of Okami, the runners resisted the temptation to go after it, and instead Ratten played a stalling game; with William Shakeshrew, their dauntless stripballer, out of commission, it might be they didn't fancy their chances to survive the half if they went all-out after the ball against a tight cage. That cage fairly slowly marched upfield, this time with a Block player in the center (as the decision to carry the ball with rookie werewolf Violent Bite likely contributed to the failure to score a 2-2 before halftime) and with Denmark not moving to break it and concentrating on getting their players out of scuffles, Okami Ye Faithful scored on the last turn.

(Since the only way I was going to win the game after failing to finish the first half at least level was for Ratten to have their numbers so diminished so quickly that I had better than an outside chance of getting a defensive TD by sheer force of outnumbering, this cautious approach was the best to at least secure a draw from the game, while retaining an outside chance of winning. So while I was surprised - because I was still scared poopless of the runners - I can't say there wasn't good thinking behind it.)

The last kick-off, of course, still held chances for Something Ratten to win it after all - but the KO roll was not a Riot, but a Blitz, and they had not set up for a 1TTD attempt anyway. (With William Shakeshrew, the only sidestepping runner, out of commission, and two Stand firm pieces on the LOS, the chance would have been minimal.)

Congratulations to Neon Knight on a marvelously played game following an impromptu lesson in risk management!

MVP: Noel, the Flesh Golem, who scored no SPP, but withstood a thrown rock to the face stunned, to suffer and instantly regenerate two casualties inflicted by the same Mighty Blow stormvermin, finally succeeding at doing the one thing Necromantic are supposed to be good at. (The actual MVP went to the journeyzombie Halo Eager, who was promptly hired.)

[Neon Knight]

Okami Ye Faithful 2 - 2 Something Ratten in Denmark. As Silfir said, it was a tense match that really taught me a lesson in tempting Nuffle. When the Flesh Golem went down to a thrown rock on the first kickoff, I just got tunnel vision about exploiting the easy gap in the Necromantic lines and didn't pay any thought to the actually making sure I had the ball. Prairie Dogsberry being Prairie Dogsberry, he promptly snake-eyed the pick up. This is where I learned how fast Werewolves and Ghouls are when they dashed down the pitch to pick up the ball.

I was terrified that I'd managed to throw the game in just two turns, and so when I got the ball next I made an aggressive offensive, aided by a Gutter Runner catching a very shallow kick. Then I got the lucky break of Silfir's own pickup going south, and Gutter Runners rushed in to do Gutter Runner things and steal the ball for a score. The last half was, as Silfir said, a pretty sedate drive down the pitch by the Necromantic to score the equalizer. I never quite had the pieces free to make a real attempt on the cage, so I kept screening as best as I could and keeping my pieces alive in case an opportunity did somehow present itself.

Well played to Silfir; he exploited the opportunities I gave him and played a mean game of Bloodbowl. The Necromantic team is pretty scary; strong pieces, fast pieces, and when the regen actually works, tough pieces too. Although I'm one to talk, given the shenanigans my Gutter Runners pulled off this game.

[Unpronounceable]

Blackhearse Boneheads vs Euphonic Cadence was played out last night with a 2-1 victory to the Elves

*sorry for any factual innaccuarcies in the write up Thufir as I cba to watch it again*

The boneheads won the toss and elected to kick, on a game played in blazing sunshine, with the naive hope of managing a 2-1 grind out of the renowned elf team.

The ball bounced out of the pitch and was placed in the hand of Euphonic Cadence's thrower, while the Elves knocked a hole in the undead line and infested the half with several expert catcher pieces, which the undead dutifully marked up with one of the fast ghouls running upfield to threaten the thrower. After stalling for a turn the Elf made the throw only for it to miss and bounce into a position where the undead were able to pick it up and make a crude cage. However due to most of the best pieces being tied up in other parts of the pitch, and the general scariness of the elf team, the elves managed to winkle the ball free and run in a touch down at turn 5.

The undead set up to receive only for a blitz event to come up.

(As has been mentioned before against an elf team, especially one as advanced as thufir, this may as well have the flavour text:

"The defending team immediately gain 1 TD and the clock is advanced one turn")

True to form the elves dodged in, caught their own kick and managed to hand off and dodge it away for a second score.

The undead set up to receive 'Again' and in elf/blitz-rage induced haste I failed to spot that CYANIDE!!!!!(tm) had swapped out 2 of my ghouls for skeletons.

With only a couple of turns to go the Undead retrieved the ball, caged up and commenced operation 'get a numbers advantage'

True enough 3 elves were injured/Ko'd by the last turn where a desperate leap blitz from an elf ended with an attacker down (on 2-d against), left the poor elf helpless on the floor, where he was promptly fouled by a skeleton (and half my team) being Ko'd also.

At the start of the second half the Ref,only seeing 10 elves on the pitch clearly thought that was the correct number of players and prevented the boneheads from putting on an 11th player. (CYANIDE!!!!!! tm)

Unperturbed the undead caged up in a Str5 guard cage and slowly ground their way up the pitch, injuring 2 more elves and ko'ing another. At the last turn all elves were on the floor and a ghoul leisurely ran the ball in for a consolation TD.

Thanks to Thufir for the game it wasn't the 7-0 drubbing I was expecting so that's a plus.

Has anyone heard from Luzahn? not seen him to organise our rookie league match yet.

[Neon Knight]

Gnoman, when can we get our game on?

[Maethirion]

Thanks to Wraith and Tasroth for the games the other night, I had a heap of fun.

Scaretoon Network v Smashers of Sotek was probably the most fun I've ever had in a bloodbowl game. It literally had me on the edge of my seat as Wraith put excellent pressure on every time I had the ball, making me live in constant fear of losing it. My personal highlight was a Saurus intercepting a pass, and leveling up from it.

Leapers of Loren v Bloody-Handed Angels was a much more frustrating game. Between sweltering heat consistently knocking out more of my players, especially my treeman and some other bad luck passes, Nuffle didn't like me. On the other hand, I didn't fail a single GFI it the entire game, and Tasroth had some similarly bad snake eyes related luck.

All in all a good night of bloodbowl, so thank you both of you.

[Qwertystop]

Had my Rookie League game with Manti. Worst luck yet.