How do Cyanide players match up to tabletop?

[sunnyside]

I've been noticing some of the cyanide threads, and it seems people are quickly whipping teams up into the 200+TR range.

What occurs to me is that many Cyanide league players are probably racking up as many games in a month as tabeltoppers would get in a year.

Now my understanding is that the computer, even on hard, is pretty sucky.

But against live opponents it would seem like Cyanide players would have a chance to rapidly test and try out different techniques, and get the opportunity to play increasingly skilled opponents. Possibly reaching levels of skill beyond most tabletoppers.

Is there any evidence that this is the case?

I suppose my hope in the matter is that the Cyanide game only has a subset of the teams, which probably skews the metagame as well. So a Cyanide player trying to whup up on a tabletop league might find builds that worked great before faltering somewhat.

Actually considering they may be coming in, does anyone think there is a particular team or build that would exploit cyanide players expereince?

[Web Cole]

Hmm, from my experience Dwarf teams seem to rule over all of the current (limited) Cyanide teams. I'm not sure if that will stay the same, hopefully the introduction of all the other teams will balance things somewhat.

As for who rules the roost, the TT player or the VG players, couldn't really speculate, though you do make a good point about them being able to get more games in.

What I'm doing atm, is starting a new team, building it up as far as I can, then starting again and seeing if I can go further and learn from my mistakes.

[Coach]

There have been online players for years and the top online players match up fine with the top table top players. The tried and trusted strategies for most teams are known by top players whatever format they are playing on. You may be able to learn from scratch quicker playing online, but that is only due to being able to get games quickly and perhaps play more games in the same amount of time.

I've certainly not seen any evidence that would suggest one set of players is better than the other (a lot probably play both). Looking at the tabletop NAF tournaments which is the only place the two groups would really mix, there doesn't seem to be an edge either way.

If you are just talking about Cyanide rather than any online Blood Bowl (there are alternatives with the complete rules and all the teams online which are free to play), where someone has only played the Cyanide version. Then I would suggest the tabletop player probably has an edge as they are more used to playing with all the correct rules and skills interacting correctly. That is an assumption the table top player is in a league where they are playing the rules the right way though!

At the heart of it Blood Bowl is a strategy game and anyone who tends to be good at strategy games will probably do well after getting to grips with the rules.

I expect the Cyanide dynamics to change quite a bit with a lot of lower armoured teams coming in. I also expect some of the teams a lot of coaches aren't used to, even table top or other longer term players as well. Vampires spring to mind, when they were first introduced and even now they can surprise opponents.

With the matchmaking system (I believe) matching teams up on TV if there are certain builds dominating at high TV levels, then a savvy coach can create a team with a good edge against that build type. Though really they can do that already, I'm just not sure many coaches are doing it.

[coachman]

I dont think there is one type of cyanide player or TT player.

Cyanide does let you play every night. If its against the PC then its a push over but it gets harder with a human opponent. There is a lot of cheating with match making, farming teams using second accounts etc. You have to get used to genetic freaks, str 6 chaos warriors, dwarf runners with str and agi increases etc. It is a different game in MM where it is about keeping your team in the optimum TV range to get the most wins. In league play the cheating is cut and you see more TV mismatches so its a different game altogether. Inducments dont really factor in MM, clever inducment use can turn a game around in league play.

Table top players will depend on what house rules they are used to, do they play one off or in a regular league? The cyanide roster is limited in races but TT can be aswell unless all of your friends own multiple teams.

The rules are similar enough so that study and play time should be the deciding factor rather than your format.

[Txapo]

I played a lot when the third edition was published. Then I droped for ten years and thanks to cyanide I'm back into BB. I considered myself quite good even finished second with halflings once in a short league.

I played arround 150 matches on line before I went last november to my first NAF tournament in Durango close to my home town. There I went with vampires and managed just to win my last match with a player's girlfriend to avoid the wooden spoon!!

After that I joined the NAF and have played several tournaments but as you can see in the naf rankings I haven't got yet a team over 150. Despite the fact that I normally go to tournaments to have a good time with teams I'm not used to play or are tier 3 or 2. The thing I find is that the computer game makes you to lose your wit and edge on the table and tournament goers stand a better chance to beat you on the board.

Still I carry on playing on line (I'm up to 240 games now) but nos as much as last year and mostly to try things like chain pushing and other tactics I want ot learn for tournaments.

[Murkglow]

Why would computer gaming make you lose your wit or edge?

[Coach]

Getting into bad habits such as not declaring actions etc.

[Murkglow]

Originally Posted by Coach

Getting into bad habits such as not declaring actions etc.

Could you explain further? I don't see your point.

[coachman]

Originally Posted by Coach

Getting into bad habits such as not declaring actions etc.

I did that on the cyanide game today. I marked a gutter runner instead of blitzing with tackle. Surprisingly he scored...

[Murkglow]

I'd think a mistake like that would be easier to make on the computer game then tabletop as there is zero forgiveness on the computer game while I'm unsure how strict the declaration rules are on tabletop. Seems like you would have to pay even more attention to things like declaring Blitzes on Cyanide... Or am I missing something?