[Team Blog] OCC / SSC - Sturmwald Strongholds

[Gallows Bait]

Okay, well, as many of you know, I finally put my name down for the OCC for season 12.

Well, no sooner than I do this, and I get a message from admin/boss RayXXX inviting me to hope into Season 11 in Snotling Soda Cup league 4 - where he currently has a placeholder team.

So, I'm coming in on Matchday 2 (SSC4 is running behind and having to play games on a faster turnover to catch up I'm told), but well, here I am earlier than expected.

So my chosen team (perhaps foolishly, but I love them anyway) - Humans.

The Sturmwald Strongholds:

Ogre - Mighty Blow, Thick Skull, Throw Teammate, Bonehead, Loner
Blitzer - Block
Blitzer - Block
Blitzer - Block
Blitzer - Block
Thrower - Pass, Sure Hands
Lineman -
Lineman -
Lineman -
Lineman -
Lineman -

3 x RR

TV 970

I'm coming in after MD1 so I will be missing out there, and also on 0 points and a -2 TD deficit since RayXXX lost his opening match 3-1. But the good news is I won't have to face dwarves (Team called Unbearable, coached by Juriel).

My opponents coming up are:

MD2: Soul System (Skaven) - Diaperman
MD3: Norveria Mutants (Skaven) - Witchalok
MD4: Myth (Khemri) - Dwarfking
MD5: Snooker Boys (Wood Elves) - Rander
MD6: Decadent Decay IV (Nurgle) - Lord Jair
MD7: Madshrooms (Goblin) - Gobas
MD8: Leyton Clawient (Chaos) - Haree
MD9: Soup Boyz (Halfling) - Zulu501

So on the face of it, it is fairly balanced 3 fast teams (2 skaven and 1 wood elf) and 2 proper bash (Chaos & Nurgle) with some Khemri and stunties thrown in.

I'm a bit nervous facing Chaos late in the season as they'll no doubt be carrying some MB & Claw by then, but more worrying is probably the large number of big guys I'm facing - Tomb Guardians. Treemen, Trolls and Rat Ogres, as well as plenty of secret weapons.

Mostly though, I suspect there are some OCC veterans in here for either new teams or just plain hijinx and I'm hopeful some of you may have some knowledge on that.

I am grateful to be facing Khemri early (less mighty blow) and hopefully I can get some tackle on my players before the end of season so that I can hold out against the Goblins and Halflings for some nice brutality, but my other priority will be guard blitzers and some block/wrestle linemen for the longer term, so I might have to mix it up a little.

[nufflehatesme]

Go humies!

i used a similar starting roster going into the occ. i traded the thrower out for a lino and an apo, for 2 reasons.
1 - losing a blitzer or ogre in the first 2 games is a big chunk of money, especially if you still need to buy an apo
2. blitzers make good ball runners at low tv (ma7 and block!), and u want to score td's with these guys early. throwers will pick up their spp's easy enough, so it wont matter too much if u delay getting a thrower for 2-3 games.

having sure hands is nice for the pick up, but after that a blitzer or catcher makes as good a ball carrier at low tv.

either way you got the most important stuff (blitzers and ogre), the rest is filler to your personal taste. Personally i would start with an apo though, just for the security on your positionals.

good luck! nice mix of teams in the division too.

[Viajero]

I know Rander. He is a veteran of the league I admin over at punta de lanza .

He has played several seasons there with Vampires and that has probably given him a keen eye for formulating his moves with care, planning a few turns ahead and not jumping in hastily.

Not sure how proficient he ll be with Woodies though!

[FTJUK]

All I say is good luck and be patient. When I started the Titans, I found that humans were very unforgiving with any positional mistakes or bad dice rolls, but slowly but surely started to turn them around.

Dont try and rush or push things through. Sit back and assess each turn think what you want out of it (telling you to suck eggs I am sure).

Oh yeah, get guard and lots of it!

[Barninho]

I think he's going to be quite lucky to have a lot of MB, claw after 8 games. The only player who is easy to get the combo on is the Mino, and Tentacles is likely a much better pick with the opposition in that division.

On the minus side though Haree is quite a shit-hot coach so they will still be a hell of a game. Diaperman is pretty decent too, but last time I played Gobas (with his Orc team) I won 4-0. He loves his fouling though, which I imagine explains the choice of Goblins. I would be surprised if you didn't win that one.

[AllyRdr]

I'm not going to offer advice as I'm a terrible coach, but I will say good luck. I just joined OCC (in SSC 1) this season also, and frankly so far everyone seems like decent folk.

[Gallows Bait]

So, tonight (21.00 GMT) I'm set to play against Diaperman's skaven team which has a slightly unexpected line up.

1 Rat Ogre
4 Gutter Runners
6 Lineman (I think, could be 7)

One of the gutters skilled up from game 1 for wrestle, but that's it so far.

The 4 gutters is going to be tough to keep pace with, so I'll need to play conservatively, but hopefully his lack of block will keep him from hurting me too much, and the linemen should be nice targets. It's stopping him stealing the ball or getting away from me that will be important.

[bathoz]

Play like you're orcs and smash the hell out of him. 2-1 grind. Thank you very much.

Seriously, the speed shouldn't be helpful enough for him if you can get the ball in a cage nice and early. So when he kicks to you, set up with getting the ball secured as the priority. You can cage a little deep in your half, you've got the speed to and muscle to still score in 6/8 turns.

I'd be tempted to foul his RO, but, it really shouldn't be that big a problem.

[Viajero]

Line rats look juice, yes, but also consider using your blitzers for hitting GR with 2 assists for a 3D block anytime possible!

[Gallows Bait]

Well, it was a very close run thing and I was helped by the armour breaks to be honest. But in the end a couple of mistakes that I can see cost me the game and I ended up losing 3-2.

The first half saw a textbook gutter runner dash and the use of a ratogre to break my centre and allow the pass to score quickly.

I managed to cage down for the equaliser, but due to the rat ogre I took the flank and it left me with a cage that struggled at the end and I was forced to score far earlier than I wanted to - turn 5.

It left enough time for the rats to pull something similar and make it 2-1 at half time.

The turn 8 kick off however was very nearly the game changer. I managed to hurt a lineman, ko another and even more, the rat ogre had been left just in blitz range, I managed to gang up for a 2d blitz which took him down and injured him - smashed ankle that was apothecary re-rolled to a broken jaw (mng instead of -MV).

My two KO players also woke up to leave me 11-9 at half time at which point I caged down to make it 2-2 and tried to decide if I should try for the win or not. I had injured another lineman and killed one gutter runner by this point, so decided to try for a lucky break and a win, even though I knew with 3 gutters left I was in danger of losing.

I got my break with the lineman ball retriever failing the pass, leaving me to put 3 tacklezones on it vs 1 gutter runner, before moving in to take it with the thrower who managed to pick up and dodge clear.

But in my eagerness to put it out of distance, I ignored the safer play (cower behind the ogre) and threw forward to my advancing lineman - a scatter throw.

A dodge by one gutter, throw to another and finally a 1 d blitz by a lineman against my blitzer saw him run in the ball down the sideline (with a gfi) - all without a re-roll.

Beaten 3-2.

But no injuries and my 2 td scored by 1 blitzer mean I will have that skill. MVP gone to a lineman and the Ogre and 2 blitzers have spp for casualties and my thrower made 2 passes to gain spp too, so not a bad start overall.