In Progress Codex Bloodbowl League

[Strange Fellow]

I fancy the dinosaurs again. Maybe one day they can get their revenge against your super-elves. Zanzoken searching now

 

[Zanzoken]

GG Strange Fellow

glad my dude ate it on the tripwire at the end because that game had no business being a tie

 

[Harthwain]

Zanzoken

Do you still wish to play today? I will understand if you had your fill, considering you already played a match with me and Strange Fellow .

To pretty much everybody reading this thread at the moment - I am trying to make sure if I have to make time for a game or should I do some exercises instead.

 

[Zanzoken]

Zanzoken

Do you still wish to play today? I will understand if you had your fill, considering you already played a match with me and Strange Fellow .

To pretty much everybody reading this thread at the moment - I am trying to make sure if I have to make time for a game or should I do some exercises instead.

I might be down to play one more, assuming no one else is interested. What time were you thinking?

 

[Harthwain]

I might be down to play one more, assuming no one else is interested. What time were you thinking?

Well, pretty much anytime from now on. Even right now.

 

[Strange Fellow]

GG Zanzoken. The snow ended up saving me in the end, harder GFIs probably punish elves more than lizards. I do think that I was the luckier player overall, not in terms of raw dice (although maybe those, too) but in how I rolled knockdowns when it really counted whereas you rolled pushes, that sort of thing. Also the elven suicide by Krox, that was ridiculous. RIP

Here's the situation I was unsure about, by the way:

The blocker has two dice on the saurus. I thought that the saurus southwest of the blocker would provide a -1 Strength on the block, even though he's tagged by the elf to his northwest. I knew that for "offensive" assists the assisting player has to be unmarked, but for some reason I thought it worked differently on defence. Not sure why, I must've misinterpreted the feedback from a block when I first started playing, and it didn't catch up with me until now.

 

[Harthwain]

I think the left Saurus gets rid of assists, but since it's the player who's doing the block, there is no assist to remove and two other Dark Elves to the right provide enough assists to give 2D.

 

[Zanzoken]

I might be down to play one more, assuming no one else is interested. What time were you thinking?

Well, pretty much anytime from now on. Even right now.

Now is good, let me know when you're ready to spin.

 

[Harthwain]

Now is good, let me know when you're ready to spin.

Spinning my Khemri.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I think the left Saurus gets rid of assists, but since it's the player who's doing the block, there is no assist to remove and two other Dark Elves to the right provide enough assists to give 2D.

But if the leftmost elf hadn't been in contact with him, he would have provided a -1 Str on the block, right? So it'd be two positive and one negative assist, resulting in a 1d block.

 

[Harthwain]

Summary:

Spoiler

Drive 1:

It started well. My lines were holding and I managed to KO 2 Elves by fouling them. Ref was not looking. I was starting to think that maybe I could make a move on the ball and I did. I quad-skulled with a Blitzer. Next turn my entire team was completely out of position, so I did the only sensible thing: I started to beat and foul the Elves. I managed to get 1 extra KO and was sent off. Elves scored and 2 of their KOs came back. Punching and fouling produced no results and by the time 2nd half has begun all 3 KOed Elves came back. My KOed Tomb Guardian didn't (so I was down to 2 when my offense started).

Drive 2:

Dark Elves got perfect Blitz under the ball. I still managed to get a good defensive line regardless and blitzed with my Tomb Guardian to give ball-carrier some trouble. I quad-skulled again. This time they weren't able to slip through and I managed to stabilize the situation. Then I rolled double skulls into Skull and Both Down. Third time this match. Thankfully Dark Elves didn't make use of that, so I managed to recover. At some point Zanzoken left his ball-carrier exposed after a failed dodge, so I blitzed him.

After that it all went crazy: I managed to bring his Lineelf down and catch the ball in the process (like, rolled 6+ on a Catch). He managed to counter-blitz me (1D) and catch the ball with his Lineelf as it fell on him (similar story. Only less epic, because Elves are not Khemri). So I counter-counter-blitzed that Lineelf and catched the ball (again). He made yet another blitz and this time it fell on the ground, somewhere behind my lines. The corner was wide open, so I made the only sensible move: I ordered by Blitzer to pick the ball and run into the end zone (4+ -> 2+ -> 2+). Somehow I managed to grab the ball and not trip over, tying the second half in the process.

Minor points:
- No injuries (well, one of my Linemen got injured by a Dark Elf Blitzer, but he regenerated).
- We got Get the Ref event at the start of the 2nd half (it's a free Bribe) and I tried to make some use of it, but we were so hopelessly entangled at one point that my fouls weren't even causing stuns.

All in all - I probably should have won that game, but I am glad I tied, considering all the quad-skulls I got (I had almost as many Skulls as Defender Stumbles and POWs combined!).

 

[Harthwain]

But if the leftmost elf hadn't been in contact with him, he would have provided a -1 Str on the block, right? So it'd be two positive and one negative assist, resulting in a 1d block.

I think you're correct. I grabbed this summary from reddit:

For a player to give an assist they need to be :

• Adjacent to an enemy player involved.
• Must not be in the tackle zone of another player.
• Must be standing.
• Must have a tackle zone.

 

[bionicman]

I've played a few games recently on the ranked ladder. I had a winning streak going until one game where I blitzed with my wight, rolled into double skulls, rerolled into another double skulls, into a permanent niggled injury with a failed regeneration roll, and then conceded and followed the footsteps of Darth Roxor and uninstalled blood bowl.

 

[Darth Roxor]

this almost feels like a single suicide provoking an entire wave

 

[Lagole Gon]

Guys, you just need to learn how to manage risks and love the rolls.

 

[Jaedar]

I've played a few games recently on the ranked ladder. I had a winning streak going until one game where I blitzed with my wight, rolled into double skulls, rerolled into another double skulls, into a permanent niggled injury with a failed regeneration roll, and then conceded and followed the footsteps of Darth Roxor and uninstalled blood bowl.

 

[Harthwain]

Yeah. This is Blood Bowl. Horrible things are going to happen. All you can do is endure. And hope that even worse is going to happen to your opponent.

 

[Zanzoken]

Obviously the variance in dice rolling can be brutal but imo the most frustrating aspect of Blood Bowl is the fact that there are so few ways to gain SPPs and develop your team. The only reliable ways to gain XP other than MVP are to kill things and score TDs, and both of those are at least somewhat dependent on RNG as well. So when you roll poorly (or just don't play well) then it not only affects the match you're playing but has repercussions on future matches too.

I think the game would be a little less punishing if they revamped the SPP system so that level-ups are not necessarily easier to get, but more consistent. For instance consider increasing the amount of SPPs it takes to gain each level, but then award more SPPs over the course of each match. And not just for kills and scores, but also for mundane tasks like throwing blocks and dodging out of tackle zones. I'd probably also get rid of the random MVP and implement a system of "coaching points" where you get a small pool of XP at the end of each match that can be freely distributed.

Then at least when you catch those vicious RNG beats or shit is just generally going wrong, you could at least find solace in the recognition that your team is still able to improve and/or you have a clear way back to rebuild what's been lost.

 

[Harthwain]

I agree with you on the SPP gain - the absolutely worst scenario is when you scored no touchdowns and got no injuries on enemy players, which leaves you with a completely random MVP (and even there you can get it on a Star Player or a Loner or a Mercenary, meaning it gets wasted) and nothing else. If you add your own injuries or death to that... Well, I am not suprised when people ragequit when playing Blood Bowl.

You could say that even if you don't level up your players you still get Petty Cash from TV difference, but you are essentially expected to lose 2 out of 3 games you are playing when at TV disadvantage and no amount of Petty Cash can replace players with skills. This is why FUMBBL has the concept of "recovery games" (playing against lower ranked teams to give severly damaged teams time and opportunity to rebuild) as well as keeping games "resonably balanced".

 

[Jaedar]

The only reliable ways to gain XP other than MVP are to kill things and score TDs, and both of those are at least somewhat dependent on RNG as well. So when you roll poorly (or just don't play well) then it not only affects the match you're playing but has repercussions on future matches too.

Passes also give +1spp to the thrower. Very reliable for elf teams, and still a good thing to remember for agi3 teams. Turns MVPs into reliable levelups.

 

[vazha]

I can play now if anyone's keen.

 

[Strange Fellow]

I can play now if anyone's keen.

I'm up. I can play either new Skaven or I believe 1200-ish TV lizards.

 

[vazha]

Uhm, a bit too late I am afraid :/

 

[Strange Fellow]

It's not meant to be...

 

[Harthwain]

Are you on fumbbl? Could a fumbbl codex tournament be arranged perhaps?

I am not really on FUMBBL. I read it, but I don't play on it.