RPS Blood Bowl League - The many, many Divisions of Death!

[Zoraster]

It is more of an exploit than a bug (assuming it hasn't changed behaviour since the last patch) which is why not many people have noticed it despite it being in the game for ages. It really doesn't happen because bad coaches always make the whole move in one go while good coaches will take each additional roll by itself when the reroll may change their mind. You have to make both GFIs and Pass together in the same action with nothing else. Count the times you've done that in the past. It is an unnatural action as generally you would include the first GFI in the initial move unless you had a dodge on the way.

[Heliocentric]

Oh, God right.

I don't think I'd even take 2 GFI's together.

[cyberpunkdreams]

Take the longer throw if I need to burn a reroll on the first GFI, if not do the second GFI with reroll still available and get the shorter throw.

I did a bit of work on probabilities for that one. I think it's usually better to take the longer pass then go for one extra GFI (let alone two), unless you have sure feet, but I guess it depends on whether you've got player rerolls on the pass and catch.

[potatoedoughnut]

I did a bit of work on probabilities for that one. I think it's usually better to take the longer pass then go for one extra GFI (let alone two), unless you have sure feet, but I guess it depends on whether you've got player rerolls on the pass and catch.

The highest success probabilities are (according to http://elyoukey2.phpnet.org/sac/)

With TRR & Pass: GFI
With no TRR & Pass: no GFI
With TRR & no Pass: GFI
With no TRR & no Pass: GFI

Basically the only time you shouldn't GFI is if you don't have a TRR and you have the pass skill, and even then the difference in probability is very small. Do keep in mind, however, that a failed GFI will put your player on the ground where a failed pass will not.

[sketchseven]

Odin's Longboatsmen 3 - Black Bombers 0

Squaring off against a team that had higher TV than them, Odin's coach took an Apoc as his inducement and his players nervously stepped on to the field. As it was, he needn't have worried, as the Black Bombers were cursed by horrible luck from the word go.

Highlights include:
- the two Trolls failing any number of Really Stupid rolls and spending a fair amount of the game standing in place and drooling.
- the Goblins wheeling out the ball & chain, the chainsaw and the bombardier for absolutely no result. The ball & chain goblin in particular merely danced around my players, hit only one guy and failed to even stun him. The bombardier threw one bomb to absolutely no effect and was then pounded into the pitch - a fate shared by the chainsaw-wielding goblin. All three were ejected from the game in the first half.
- endless numbers of Goblins failing dodge rolls and getting stretchered off the pitch for their trouble; far more than my players managed to inflict on them.
- a Troll launching a goblin headfirst into one of my players, knocking my player over to no effect and resulting in the goblin ending up in the injury box.

With two trolls and two goblins left on the pitch, the Black Bombers were doing their best to put up some kind of defence, including a two-dice-defender-picks block that saw the ball carrier eat the turf - but really, this game was all about the dice.

(According to BB Manager, cyberpunkdreams had 98 1d6 rolls compared to my 24, and his luck was -7.14 compared to my 7.50).

Still ... a win's a win.

[Heliocentric]

Basically the only time you shouldn't GFI is if you don't have a TRR and you have the pass skill, and even then the difference in probability is very small. Do keep in mind, however, that a failed GFI will put your player on the ground where a failed pass will not.

But, maybe you need to reduce your fumble range, for example a Tomb guardian (AG1) with a ball after blitzing the ball loose who is utterly surrounded (but able to dodge away with break tackle or not in a tacklezone) making an inaccurate throw at a cage. Missing the throw is okay as the ball will likely still be marked, but a fumble caused by a "1 after modifiers" will cause you to likely conceed a touchdown.

So, even if the throw is 6+, moving into medium range throw will reduce the fumble to only natural 1's.

In other words, at low agility a GFI can be a big deal with very little hazard.

[squirrelfanatic]

Odin's Longboatsmen 3 - Black Bombers 0

...

Still ... a win's a win.

Well, that's not really surprising, is it? Block all across the board, more St, more MA, Frenzy... With Goblins it's really hit and miss while Norse have a very solid basis to work with.

[20phoenix]

Could an admin validate my game against Darkweeble? I've got six skillups pending and i've been eagerly sitting on my hands waiting to find out what i'm going to get....

[cyberpunkdreams]

Well, that's not really surprising, is it? Block all across the board, more St, more MA, Frenzy... With Goblins it's really hit and miss while Norse have a very solid basis to work with.

You didn't see the game ;). Sketch's block served him well, for sure, but I could barely make a dodge without getting stretchered off the pitch! I don't think the ball left my half of the pitch. I wasn't really expecting a win (hoping, maybe), but 12 guys in the dugouts was a bit much...

[20phoenix]

You didn't see the game ;). Sketch's block served him well, for sure, but I could barely make a dodge without getting stretchered off the pitch! I don't think the ball left my half of the pitch. I wasn't really expecting a win (hoping, maybe), but 12 guys in the dugouts was a bit much...

This is exactly what happened in my game against Darkweeble. I think he dodged into more cas than I gave him

[chadsexington]

You didn't see the game ;). Sketch's block served him well, for sure, but I could barely make a dodge without getting stretchered off the pitch! I don't think the ball left my half of the pitch. I wasn't really expecting a win (hoping, maybe), but 12 guys in the dugouts was a bit much...

Two of my three games last season were like that, plus a whole weeks worth of pub games between seasons before I played this match.

It really is frustrating to see that it doesn't matter what you do, you're boned either way. On top of that, in the pub games, I often played people who really had no clue (ie, unnecessary dodges, pickups in TZ, GFI on just about everyone, 15 on a roster with a bashy team, etc, etc), beating me soundly while making double against blocks and singles, while I stick to the reliable rolls. It hurt more when they offered advice on how I should play.

[cyberpunkdreams]

It hurt more when they offered advice on how I should play.

Harsh! ;)

To be fair on Sketch, he played well and deserved the win. It's just that I would liked to be able to put up more of a fight... I almost felt like apologising for offering such a weak game. Obviously in BB, the luck goes either way, and you have to accept both directions with good grace. It's just a bit frustrating on those rare occasions when you just can't do anything right. I think in my game, I made one demonstrably bad move (not protecting my chainsaw guy properly, meaning he went straight off the pitch), but after that, it was almost like I didn't even have the opportunity to play well badly. I started with a 15 man roster and ended with four guys on the pitch.

[sketchseven]

Think I injured maybe three goblins, tops - apart from that, all his casualties were self-inflicted (well, as a result of failed dodge rolls, even with the Stunty buff). The ball was out of cyber's half for maybe two turns, three tops at the beginning of the second half.

I had some good luck (a Blitz result on the second kickoff that allowed me to have a player under the ball before it landed springs to mind) and cyberpunkdreams had an awful lot of bad luck (injuries, drooling Really Stupid big guys, utterly ineffective secret weapons).

I think I did a decent enough job of dodging away from his more troublesome players, and was lucky with my injuries given the low AV of the Norse. The Wandering Apoc just sat twiddling his thumbs and drinking his fee.

[Zoraster]

Admins: can you roll Div K please? All remaining games are trans-Atlantic clashes so we could do with having every available weekend option :)

NTW: new SS weirdness spotted. Div I is showing Sketch playing twice in the opening round.

[ntw]

Admins: can you roll Div K please? All remaining games are trans-Atlantic clashes so we could do with having every available weekend option :)

NTW: new SS weirdness spotted. Div I is showing Sketch playing twice in the opening round.

Well spotted, fixed!

[Indefatigible Snoozer]

A brutal game was had between my Dwarves (nicknamed 'the horrid little men' by persons who shall remain unnamed) and Nullkigan's Dwelves. Sadly for the Dwelves, the brutalisation was all one way, with 4 injuries and one death inflicted, along with several KOs of key players.

The Dwelves elected to receive, and scored within 3 turns, with the Dwarves only managing to KO the AG 5 leaping Blitzer (who, helpfully, did not wake up until the second half).

The teams set up again, with the Dwarves receiving on Turn 4. And then the hurting began. The Dwarves formed a cage against the right sideline, anchored by my stand firm dwarf against witch-elf frenzying. The rest of the team put themselves in contact with the Dark Elf team, to force dodges and otherwise limit their manouverability. The cage rolled inexorably forward, but on turn 6 the dwelves managed to penetrate, marking the ball carrier and generally grinding its forward momentum to a halt. An unlucky misclick by Nullkigan on the End Turn button however left a gap through which my ball carrier broke through and scored.

A failed leap ended the Dwelves chance of scoring in the last two turns of the half. I inflicted some more damage, including a Turn 8 5-man gang foul on a well skilled Blitzer, resulting in a BH and no send-off.

Turn 9 the Dwarves set up to receive again, with the Dwelves down to 10 men. Brutalisation ensued. One lineman KO'd, one dead, one stunned, and a blitzer frenzied off into the crowd. The dwarves get a bit over eager and spread out too much, allowing the AG 5 leaper and a witch-elf to get in contact with the ball carrier. Some stupid planning by me makes the situation worse, and the runner is surfed into the crowd, however there are not enough dwelves left on the pitch to scoop up the ball, which lands mid-pitch. I pick it up with my other runner, and run in another one. 2-1.

Despite my overwhelming numbers advantage, the Dwelves had a real chance to equalise on the final turn, with only 5 or so 2+ rolls and a push on a 1D blitz required. The blitz succeeded, but a failed dodge ended the game with the Dwarves still ahead.

Thanks for the game Null.

[desvergeh]

Division H - Bishi Bashi Speshal vs Codsbottom Brawlers

An extremely violent game saw the Brawlers go toe-to-toe with Bishi Bashi. Could the humans plucky spirit overcome the orcs thick armour.... no it couldn't....

An early push by Graever left one catcher dangerously exposed to the attentions of a Orc blitzer with tackle, and a couple of turns later the catcher landed in the injury box. Meanwhile Graever tried to exploit the slow movement of the orcs, but could not keep the ball carrier out of GFI range. A knockdown and a hand-off later saw the orcs taking the lead 1-0.

With BBS receiving in the 2nd half, they could take their time. A couple of humans were soon seeing stars, and it started to look like nothing could stop the green steam-roller. However Graever retaliated, and two orcs were also removed from play, levelling the field.

Deciding the ball was in danger, BBS moved it up the right side in a half-cage. Too many humies were unmarked and able to mount a strong interception on the cage. Gork was with the orcs this day though, and a couple of blocks saw Pot Noodle, the ball carrying gobbo, free to make the final run to put the score at 2-0 in favour of Bishi Bashi Speshal.


A good game from my perspective, at multiple points it could have tipped either way as decided by the dice. At least no lasting damage was caused to the Codsbottom Brawlers, with the apothecary sweeping in to transmute the death of one of their team members to a badly hurt.


Next week I fear I may be on the receiving end of the kicking, when I face Irrelevant Ilnesses!


Final score Bishi Bashi Speshal 2 - Codsbottom Brawlers 0.

[Corkir]

3-0 to my dark elves over Proxy's undead in the battle of the newbies in Division I. Proxy made a last minute purchase, investing his last 30k gold in fan factor. Nuffle issued chastisement by granting my team the fame and letting it be decisive in an opening thrown rock taking a Ghoul out of the match before the opening turn.

That set the tone for the game with my elves doing no wrong. I even survived the path finding mistake that resulted in a player who was meant to be on the front left of my screen picking the ball up on his way. Needing SPP early on I scored quickly rather than run the clock down.

A pitch invasion tore out Proxy’s centre on the second drive. Coupled with his team failing the rerolled pick up I was able to pin down the Undead and take a 2-0 lead by half time. Second half was much the same as Proxy just couldn’t string rolls together while the elves didn’t fail an important dodge. The Ghoul ball carrier was forced deeper and deeper until finally the ball was turned over for the third and final score.

A very easy win with Nuffle firmly in my camp this round.

[Prester John]

Div F, looks like we may have to ask for an extension til Sunday night for my game against somanyrobots?

[Zoraster]

NTW; back to Div I we have Proxy's defeat showing up as a draw in the table. How many more of these can I spot before you decide I'm breaking them in the first place? :)