Completed Blood Bowl: The End

[RK47]

His Team Composition
Stormvermin x02
01. Level 2 - Blodge - Damaged Back (+1 Injury Roll)
02. Level 1 - Block

There's nothing special about his Stormvermins - they've been starved of SPP due to the lack of bash opportunity and most TDs are scored by his four Gutter Runners. If I were him I wouldn't even pick Dodge, I'd go for Mighty Blow.

Gutter Runner x04
01. Level 6 - Blodge - Side Step - Dauntless - Strip Ball - Leap
02. Level 4 - Blodge - Sure Hands - Dauntless
03. Level 6 - Dodge - Wrestle - +1 MA - Dauntless - +1 ST - Strip Ball
04. Level 6 - Dodge - Wrestle - +1 MA - Sprint - Sure Feet - Leap

It's clear he's playing his Gutter runner as ball-winners. Three Dauntless piece to make up the ST difference. While GR-04 is the One Turn Touch Down Specialist. They're going to be hard to take down. If he sticks with his 11-man roster, GR-04 will continue to play for both offense & defense setup. That's our chance of taking him out of the game. 100 Inducement might be spent on an extra apothecary as well - we need to trim our TV.

Lineman x05
01. Level 1
02. Level 1
03. Level 3 - +1 ST - Wrestle
04. Level 1
05. Level 1

They have very ordinary Linos. Lino-03 is the primary threat since he can use his ST4 to break a hole in our defense. Could be a target for fouling.

 

[RK47]

Pre-match facts

• Ermine Vermins is the only officially unbeaten team in the league so far, sporting 7 Wins, 3 Draws and 0 Loss. Knights in contrast have won 5, drawn 4 and lost once.
• Ermine Vermins scored 32 TDs in 10 matches, averaging 3.2 TD per game. Knights only scored 18, barely more than half of the Vermins score rate at 1.8 TD per game.
• Defensively Knights hold a slight edge, conceding just 11 TD to Vermins' 14, but the difference is negligible.
• The bashing tendency is a sharper contrast, with Vermins scoring only 10 KOs and 2 injuries in 10 matches. Knights with their Guard-heavy setups scored 30 KOs, 23 Injuries and 1 Kill.
• Cheddar Persile, the star of the Vermins is the season's top scorer with 15 TDs. Knight's Azira only scores 4 TDs this season. In fact, the whole Knights' team only scored 3 more TDs than Cheddar this season.

Congrats to the Hall of Famers for making it this far.

 

[Absalom]

The bashing tendency is a sharper contrast, with Vermins scoring only 10 KOs and 2 injuries in 10 matches. Knights with their Guard-heavy setups scored 30 KOs, 23 Injuries and 1 Kill.

This. You're not going to be able to compete in the TD and movement department, so you're going to have to get stuck in and bash them to bits IMO

 

[Azira]

Bash, foul and maim.

 

[Grunker]

Nail them gutters to the grass

 

[RK47]

 

[RK47]

 

[Grunker]

Good luck bro

 

[Nathair]

He might need it Even if trying to grind (sane of course), the 1 turn TD play does change stuff. Basically it rather strongly reduces the motivation for specifically trying to score slowly.

Since they can counter with a TD almost whenever you score, if there's a very good chance to score then its very much worth taking it. That goes especially because their team does look to be very much set up for very aggressively pressuring the ball carrier. You might well find yourself needing an outlet/quick TD upfield at some stage. Obviously not worth any big risks though.

2-1 isn't a likely scoreline unless you can disable that GR. 3-2 in extra time is fairly plausible. Or even 4-3.

My dwarves had two games vs my brothers skaven with even worse GRs than this in terms of scoring. (One MA 11, one stunty/nerves of steel, one ag 5 and leap.). The first was a 4-3 extra time win (much the highest number I ever scored in one game) the second a very much more satisfying 1-0. All the tackle/stand firm etc does helps an awful lot defending against this sort of team though.

 

[Grunker]

Even if trying to grind (sane of course), the 1 turn TD play does change stuff.

No it doesn't. The one turn rat will be killed in the first half

 

[TNO]

Coming out of lurkmode to wish you the best of luck, RK. Another fantastic LP, and you will bring great glory to our forum if you win this league.

 

[RK47]

 

[Azira]

Game's underway!

 

[RK47]

Thank you for following this LP.
There will be no AAR.

Spoiler

Here is the replay.
Thank you. For everything.

 

[Azira]

1 turn TD beast.

 

[Kashmir Slippers]

Wow. You almost... Wow.

Thank you, sir, for this thrilling LP.

 

[Jaedar]

Turn one TD's are kind of bullshit really. Can't beleive that rat survived for so long.

 

[Nathair]

Well the throw team mate ones for goblins and halflings are fair enough Ones like this? Yes, just not at all fun or interesting. All you can really do is what I assume RK47 did here - keep scoring and hope to get luck in ET/on some of their dodge/pick up etc rolls. (At least the silliest one of these is gone - getting a wood elf catcher right stuff and having a treeman hand them off.....)

I guess they could ban ma 10 and upwards players. As I noted above, once you get a player like this you'd logically wrap them in cotton wool and only put them on the pitch when you need/want to score a 1 turn TD. Exceedingly hard to disable them then. (and well worth the TR.). Mutual restraint likely the best answer.

Mind you its only so strong because it stops people from artificially waiting until down 8 to score. That actually isn't great either in many ways. A while back wizards actually used to act as quite a strong restraint on waiting until down 8 to score. That might have been a little silly in some ways, but it might well have been more fun. It is entirely feasible (and fun) to mount a pretty effective defense against a 2 turn throwing play attempt, especially if you've reduced their numbers/are configured for it.

Anyway a mighty fine effort to get to the final, and score all those touch downs during it

 

[RK47]

 

[RK47]

Post Finals Thoughts
Q: How did the finals go?
A: As much as expected. Aside from the Skavens' Blitz! Kick off event which they capitalized on - everything went as expected - if the kick off event did not occur, I would've delayed TD to turn 8, and receive on second half on a long grind for 2-1 victory. And that's that. We lost cause they scored more than us.

Q: Highlights of the match?
A: I'll be honest here: I did not believe we'll make it 3-3 on the final turn. I gave up. But I set up for a two turn touch down anyway. Kick off - Riot - clock turns back by one. Azira makes a Diving Catch - gets it - stabby gets in the cage, scores on the second turn. I cried as Young & Beautiful blared at full volume. Then of course the rats one turn touch-downed next turn to make it 4-3 at full time.

Q: Did it hurt?
A: Somewhere, deep within my psyche, I think a child was crying - asking for another chance. Louder and louder as the rats succeed every roll on that final drive. Then as the third final GFI passed with 0 rerolls, I think I heard a gunshot and the child cried no more.

Q: Thoughts on the season?
A: Qualifiers were a huge dent to my confidence. I think we had 5 draws, 1 loss and only 2 wins. I questioned myself: Am I a bad coach? Why aren't we winning? I think the breaking point was when Vast Mountain Raiders failed their final TD attempt on a GFI. I wasn't trolling anymore with the draws. I realize that truly, I am a very bad coach. But hey, you just need luck. A power drain on laptop - a shaky win - and we're through. What the hell, right? We're just lucky. The final was down to luck vs luck - the Skavens were luckier - and it shows.

Q: What's your best game of the season?
A: Maybe Match Day 2 vs Changer of Minds. They were sitting ducks - and I was trolling at max levels. But on a competitive level - gotta be The Insatiables. I have never imagined a Human team is capable of shutting down a Vampire completely, but that's what happened on the semi-finals. Zara is an amazing star player.

Q: Plans for future seasons?
A: I'm burned out. I think we'll wait and see - I'm not involved in any more leagues at the moment. But Knights are still around. I think nobody leveled up after the final game. Too bad. We'll be back. I think.

Q: Any team development regrets?
A: A few. Xenomorph's Safe Throw did not come to play even once in game. He would've been better off running with Leader or Nerves of Steel. Also, I think Whitewolf's double was a mistake - he should've just went Tackle instead of Dodge. Stabby should've taken Wrestle instead of Block. This is because he's a good high speed interceptor - and we really need a Block-override option. Also, should've re-hired Ogre earlier after Ulminati died. I think that's all. Maybe we're missing a Dirty Player, but we had two Guard Linos - anyone would trade away a DP Lino for those Guards any day.

 

[Nathair]

It looked like you were doing pretty well to me Without extra time, the natural state of many blood bowl matches will be drawn.