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

[Zenohero]

Thank you for the game Cyber, it was quite fun and exciting :). It was a game of high and lows, but on the bright side I'm excited by the lack of injuries on my side and happy that their was not a serious amount of injuries on your side either :). Yeah, I was expecting you to murder a player of mine after I asked nuffle for love. Apparently nuffle 6'ed the urge to shower me in love*. Can we please have the game vaildated please? the game was in division E, so as to avoid the murdering at the hands of President Weasel.

* the murder of helpless rats

[cyberpunkdreams]

Thank you for the game Cyber, it was quite fun and exciting :). It was a game of high and lows, but on the bright side I'm excited by the lack of injuries on my side and happy that their was not a serious amount of injuries on your side either :). Yeah, I was expecting you to murder a player of mine after I asked nuffle for love. Apparently nuffle 6'ed the urge to shower me in love*. Can we please have the game vaildated please? the game was in division E, so as to avoid the murdering at the hands of President Weasel.

* the murder of helpless rats

Yes, casualties were fairly low, with only one MNG (apoc'ed from dead) and no permanents. I noticed that you got a mauling in your first match of the season; I'm surprised about how quickly you've recovered in fact!

[grinn]

Corkir - one more match to go to claim your (actual) undefeated run. Throw me a pm with a day when you can get a slice of green into your victory salad...

[sketchseven]

My favourite beastman is called Abandoning Hope.

I did try and kill this bastard on T16 with a 3 man foul, as that's all I could get forward to put him down. Trouble with facing a Chaos team with Humans is you have to elf them, not bash them, and my team does not have the skills for elfing yet.

Ah well. I was facing off against three highly developed teams with essentially rookie humans. Back down to tier 3. If you buggers up above me could stop dropping out, that'd be awesome.

[NieA7]

I should be able to make it in time for the next season of the Divs so I've removed the Z from Tooth and Claw on the spreadsheet. What were the rules for returning teams? As far as I can remember they get slotted back into the tier they were in wherever possible, or failing that the tier below (and so on), but it might have changed since then. Claw were in tier 1, though I wouldn't having a friendly kick about with a few elf teams from a lower tier if needs be...

[Everblue]

You have the makings of a good side Sketch. Plenty of guard on the blitzers, a good ogre, and a decent thrower. With some lower TV opponents and a catcher or two then you should be fine.

Like I said, I don't like humans at all except as pure bash. Yes one plan would have been to out-elf my chaos team, but that requires an investment in skills, and essentially I am just playing shit elves who can't reliably dodge, throw or catch (which is what happened!). As a bash side, however, humans are ok - the blitzers are decent players with guard, mighty blow and tackle (plus maybe a bit of piling on), one of the better big guys, and plenty of cheap linemen for fouling.

I'd try to get at least one catcher, to be a blodger with sidestep and diving tackle (if he lives that long), and I'd get a dirty player to make your fouls more effective.

You seem to have a knack for picking difficult sides to play - wasn't it norse before this?

[Alistair Hutton]

You have the makings of a good side Sketch. Plenty of guard on the blitzers, a good ogre, and a decent thrower. With some lower TV opponents and a catcher or two then you should be fine.

Like I said, I don't like humans at all except as pure bash. Yes one plan would have been to out-elf my chaos team, but that requires an investment in skills, and essentially I am just playing shit elves who can't reliably dodge, throw or catch (which is what happened!). As a bash side, however, humans are ok - the blitzers are decent players with guard, mighty blow and tackle (plus maybe a bit of piling on), one of the better big guys, and plenty of cheap linemen for fouling.

I'd try to get at least one catcher, to be a blodger with sidestep and diving tackle (if he lives that long), and I'd get a dirty player to make your fouls more effective.

You seem to have a knack for picking difficult sides to play - wasn't it norse before this?

As the owner of a team that at one point rocked 7 players with Guard I can absolutely attest to the utility of lashings of Guard on a Human team. But Humans have got to remain flexible. If they commit to the bash route then they're just a Faster Orc team without a 1TTD gimmick play goblin and a severe raw strength deficient due to no Black Orcs.

Getting better at bashing is important but you've got to pay attention to the Elf side of human nature. Of all the skills I think it's String Arm that really opens up the elfball side of the game for humans.

[chadsexington]

Division K

50 Shades of Beard (Chaos Dwarf - me) vs All the Shinies (High Elf - Dolphan)

I went into this game optimistic - Dolphans elves had taken a beating, leaving only 8 rostered players after last week. Dolphan was also given 160k worth of inducements, which he used to get an extra team reroll and some babes.

I win the toss and elect to receive. Instead of going for the obvious 2-1 grind I thought I'd attempt to bash the bulk of his AV7 squishy SPP containers into unconsciousness.

The kickoff lands off-field. Nuffle givith the ball to one of my centaurs as I start to plan my 8 turn advance to a TD. Dolphan is stacking his defense two deep to try to prevent me from breaking away. No issues there, as I really just want to run headlong into his elves with a handful of blocky dwarves. The issue I do have, however, is that there are far too many elves stacked up on one side and i'd like to gain more than a single square of movement.

I move two of my cage spots to the new location, and the second dwarf fails his first GFI with a TRR.

Nuffle Taketh Away.

This leaves my cage rather open. Dolphan takes andvantage of that and marks who he can and does a single die charge at my centaur. POW. The ball lands into one of the nearby elves waiting arms.

Nuffle taketh a bit more.

There is some more bashy bashy, the ball ends up on the ground, with each team trying to position themselves for a good grab and score.

Dolphan looks like he can get a good setup to a TD with one player deep in my territory and only a few blocks needed and some luck to free up the ball.

First block rolls both-down/skull TRR'd into double skulls.

Nuffle giveth a little back.

I bash out the remaining ball markers, scoop the ball with my sure hands hobgob, and hand off to a centaur who is off to the races, scoring on turn 8.

Beard 1 - Shinies 0

Kicking the ball off I felt Dolphan was going to easily score, but I wanted to give him a run for his money first. Dolphan has some early setbacks and has to retreat deep into his own territory with a single blitzer, carrying the ball.

I clear a lone hobbo to give the single die herocharge - push. Still marking, so good enough. I do what I can to keep Dolphan's remaining elves covered to avoid the quick TD - also trying to setup another run at that blitzer if he gives me the chance.

He does not give me that chance as he stuns that marking hobbo and sends a plethora of players in deep. I setup again to try and keep everyone marked, and end up failing my first GFI with a TRR. Thats twice now.

I go afk while Dolphan scores somehow (no doubt easily as several players were wide open, I just didn't see how he did it).

Beard 1 - Shinies 1

I now have four turns or so to score. During my setup one of my poor hobbo's gets BH'd by an elf. As I remark that its a shame to get out-injured by filthy elves, I kill a catcher - no apoth around to save him. Looks like Dolphan will need just a bit longer to field a full roster.

I setup a centaur to receive the miracle handoff for a quick TD, but a poorly timed turnover gives me the chance to run the ball and cage up instead.

With 1 turn to score, and plenty of space, I'm already counting my win when Dolphan gets all the clutch dodges he needs and ensures that he won't be scoring.

And he doesn't.

Beard 1 - Shinies 1

Good game Dolphan

[smaug81]

Graever and I just finished our week 3 match in Div. D. There may be more of a report later if I have the time, but for now validation would be appreciated, as my murderous outlier of a Nurgle Warrior should be hitting level 5.

Incidentally, I'd be interested in hearing opinions on what I should take. He currently has Block-MB-Claw. He is intended to be a killer, as should be obvious :P.

Options I'm considering are: Frenzy, Tackle, Pro (or anything I've missed that would fit well with his role).

I'm not really looking to take Piling On, as I'd prefer to let my opponents have to figure out a way to knock him over :P.

So, thoughts?

[Kapouille]

I'm happy for you play tomorrow Kapouille, but no later, ok? ;-)

Right... I waited all evening but... Sounds like Sollitus couldn't make it. I guess that means we gotta roll this day over. Sorry other guys from div G for keeping you waiting :(

[NieA7]

Incidentally, I'd be interested in hearing opinions on what I should take. He currently has Block-MB-Claw. He is intended to be a killer, as should be obvious :P.

If you don't want to go for Piling On I'd probably take tackle. Frenzy is a double edged sword but could work well if you have a lot of guard elsewhere, though pro is distinctly meh IMO. There's a couple of outliers you might want to think about too, like Prehensile Tail to stop elfs escaping (even more so after tackle), or Stand Firm to have a better chance of being in the right place to get blocks in.

[Gorm]

Tackle for sure.

[20phoenix]

Tackle for sure.

I have a warrior in the Open with exactly that build and he is brutal. Frenzy is not good on a mv 4 piece as it can get you burning RR/turning over.

[Screwie]

Tackle is a solid pick.

Piling On is not a bad pick for killing efficiency either, since he's not a Guard piece and Disturbing Presence still works from prone.

Although if you want to make him really annoying to push over, as a ST4 guy I'd consider giving him Guard (with a view to get Stand Firm later so he can retaliate with ease).

[potatoedoughnut]

If you have lots of guard to ensure you don't get into frenzy traps the odds of knocking over a dodge player with frenzy and with tackle on 2d are the same, and frenzy has other uses. However, frenzy isn't so hot on MV4 (be careful blitzing) and if you don't have lots of guard it can lead to trouble vs teams that do.

Tackle is nice in that you can give him prehensile tail or DT (on doubles) later to really tie down high agi players.

Personally I'd give him guard if you're not going to give him PO. I think not giving him PO is a good choice and I think guard is going to give you more team benefit than tackle or frenzy, unless you already have tons of guard.

[sketchseven]

Getting better at bashing is important but you've got to pay attention to the Elf side of human nature. Of all the skills I think it's Strong Arm that really opens up the elfball side of the game for humans.

Ultimately you need to be flexible and build a team that allows you to play whatever game the other team doesn't. If you're facing Elves, you need to be bashy and splatter them all over the pitch. If you're playing Chaos, you need to be more choosy and elf-like in your play. Trying to out-elf Elves or out-bash Chaos just doesn't work.

I bought a catcher after the game, because it was abundantly clear I needed at least one and probably two. I can easily see my Human team having 15 or 16 players on the roster, although I admit that will be giving away quite a lot in inducements to other teams.

Or not. Depends on how the skills break down when they come.

[groovychainsaw]

My humans have 15 players! Also, give away a fair number of inducements! But I like having 4 catchers, then running them all down one wing for a quick score against slow, bashy teams. They can kill one, but not all 4 in one turn, and one's in range of the line, usually :-). (That's when Al's aforementioned strong arm thrower comes in, of course. Mine has strong arm and accurate, meaning all throws are at 2+ without any TZ on my thrower, so can long bomb with relative impunity). Catchers are needed to counter bashy teams, then the rest of your players are there to counter everyone else. I suspect though, that the surprise tactic of adding defensive skills to catchers is probably worthwhile (and not something I did early on). They kinda have all the catchy skills out of the box, and serve well once they have wrestle/tackle/dauntless. I'm building one to be pass block/tackle now for added anti-elf fun :-).

[Gorm]

I've got a gutterrunner with, very long legs, pass block, catch, and +1 str. Just for playing against anyone who feels like passing.

[groovychainsaw]

...and that's why nearly all my blitzers have block,tackle and mighty blow. Those sort of guys are annoying :-).

[sketchseven]

Yup, the human team needs a lot of work - but I'm like TV1200 and am in Tier 2. That's my problem right there. Ah well, I'll be dropping back to Tier 3 once this round of the DoD is over and hopefully that'll allow me to come back a little stronger.