Ash Foundry Avalanche - B&S

Yeti

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This week's match is a rematch from week 1 against Mystro's mighty mighty halflings.

a_brief_fling_2013_04_22.png


They haven't changed much since our last game, Angel Cake has picked up sure feet (making him a pretty speedy little Ag 4 halfling - I dub him junior gutter runner), Zucchini has become a second up Dirty Player and Shao Rou has picked up diving tackle (but is out for this game). He's also lost a couple of halflings and picked up a couple of new ones.

Overall, both of our TVs have increased by ~100, giving him roughly the same inducements as he had last time... deeproot, chef and wizard. Details may vary but I'm pretty sure that'll be what I'm facing.

On paper this should be a walk in the park for the chaos dwarfs... but what got me unstuck last time was that wall of wood that dominated the mid-field. This time I'm going to give them a little more respect and a little more space and try to play around the side of them as much as possible. On defense I'll probably set up with my wrestler in the center of the LOS, since a tree on the ground is a thing of beauty.
Of course I'll do what I can to reduce the halfling population a little, but that is more or less par for the course.

Oh... and this time I mustn't forget about that wizard!

----

In other news, I've decided to take fend on the wrestle hobgob and turn him into a bit of a tar-baby. Of course his low AV means that getting hit often will shorten his life considerably but he'll cause some headaches before he goes. Ideal skill path from here would be +AV, dodge, sidestep. :p
I have also decided to take stand firm on the dwarf. I thought long and hard about the grab option... and was extremely tempted, but I think that a wall of SF will be more useful and this dwarf is the first brick.
 

Yeti

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2013/04/22 - Season 2 - Match 19 (1700TV) vs. Mystro - A Brief Fling - Halfling (1140TV)

Week 5

Once again, Mystro has taught me to respect the halflings... but this time for very different reasons.

---

Mystro took the same inducements as last time: Deeproot, wizard and chef.
I won the toss and elected to kick, setting up in a compressed zig with three hobgoblins on the line. The weather was fine, the kick was deepish and central, the chef stole 1 re-roll and the fans invaded the pitch. I started the first turn with 3 dwarves, 2 hob goblins and a bull centaur on the floor... he started it with a full squad minus 1 halfling!
Deeproot threw the first punch, stunning my last hobgob and leaving me with 3 dwarves and a bull for my turn.
I blitzed with Phobos (block, BT, MB bull) and pulled my standing players back into a ragged line. Fortunately the wreckage left by the pitch invasion helped to fill the gaps and he couldn't break through before everyone stood back up. Mystro is a master of subtle positioning and on at least two occasions over the following turns blocked access to his ball carrier with the cunning placement of a prone halfling (notably the one left by the pitch invasion).

Once my line was reformed he had a lot of difficulty advancing, especially after both trees had failed a take root roll and I started to thin the herd (including his DP being sent off on the first foul). By the end of turn 4 I was feeling quite confident. He had 3 halflings in the dugout and both trees were planted in the center of the pitch. Sure, I was down a bull centaur and two hobgoblins (all KO) but my line was intact. It was only a matter of time before I'd force a hole and blitz the ball carrier... what I didn't count on was throw team mate! Now I know that was foolish. I was playing a stunty team, TTM is one of their party tricks... but honestly that's all I thought it was... a party trick, I've never actually seen it work before!
At the beginning of turn 5 one of the trees got hold of Angel Cakes, that little AG 4 sprint/sure feet junior gutter runner, and lobbed him over my line. Lucky for me, the scatter was unfavourable, putting him three squares upfield and leaving him between two dwarves. He aced the landing though, dodged away and jogged over the line (2 GFIs), taking the stunties, into the lead.

Fortunately for me the bull and one of the hobgobs came back so we both started the drive with 11 players on the pitch.

He set with his trees wide across the LOS and I decided to go around them rather than through them. I put an expendable player on each (with the wrestler on deeproot) and pushed (possibly a little too hard) up the left, creating a corridor that would get me behind his trees and out of range. I picked the ball up with Chert (sure hands hobgob) and ran up behind a pretty solid screen that I would have backed against almost anyone. Now you'd think that after the previous turn I would have been wiser... but I did not expect an areal assault. He marked extremely heavily (I was rubbing my hands together at all those free blocks) then tossed a halfling over my line. Once again the scatter came up in my favour and he crashed into Mylonite (guard, stand firm), who was doing duty at a key point in the line. The little bugger didn't break his armour, so he got up and (pushing twice) stood next to the ball carrier. I was still pretty confident. I had a lot of halflings to hit and could easily clear the tackle zone from my ball carrier.
That was when he demonstrated the third power of halflings... stunty. Angel Cakes came sneaking through at a dead run, dodging 3 times (past dwarves ), going for it another 3 and hitting the ball carrier on one dice... pow, scatter... catch!
aaaaand suddenly I was on the back foot. My players were pushing heavily up field, the ball was in the hands of the junior gutter runner, behind my line, all of my players in the area were marked and I didn't have anyone back to defend.
I did what any good chaos dwarf would do and started hitting squishy halflings. Of course I started by clearing the ball, then cleared a path down the middle and finally sprinted Hephaestus back to make the pick up, 3 GFI and a pick up... with no rerolls... and he pulled it off. Once again, my bulls pull me out of the fire.

I had 2 turns left to equalize and my ball carrier was out of range even with all 6 GFI. My only option was a hand off to my second bull centaur. During his turn Mystro covered aggressively and once again I got to knock down a hand full of halflings before moving the ball forward. My last move was to block Hephaestus free to receive the hand off the next turn... double skull... and we went into half time with him 1-0 up.

Half time.

All of our KOs came back and we both started the second half with 11 players on the pitch.

Mystro set the same way as he had during the previous drive but I decided to take the more direct approach, gang up on two of his trees then push forward for a turn 12/13 TD. Hopefully by then I'd have de-pitched enough halflings that I could turn him over and take the win.

We rolled for kickoff... this time his chef took all three of my re-rolls! I was going to have to play a lot more carefully. The kick off result was quick snap and I took the opportunity to properly surround the trees and give me 2d blocks.
Once again I failed my personal bonehead roll and the player that was standing in both tree's tackle zones... was my only non-guard dwarf - Tuff (claw/MB). Stupid. I was forced to make a re-rollless 1d block to start things off... fortunately it came off and the tree went down, stunned. I then hit the other tree on 2d, knocked him down and gave him a fractured skull (an amusing image), which he pothed back to badly hurt. This was a very promising start to the half. During the kick the ball had scattered onto Soot (wrestle/fend) and fortunately he dropped it... he isn't my ideal ball carrier. I picked it up with Chert (sure hands/block) and moved into position behind the dwarves.

I spent 4 long turns grinding it up field, fouling the downed tree when ever necessary and blitzing halflings whenever possible. Deeproot managed to fail a GFI, which put him out of action too. The halflings proved enough to slow me down though. They stacked up in twos across the field and dodged away from my markers each turn. All the while I was very aware of that wizard lurking in the wings and I made sure that I had back up ball handlers available.
At the end of turn 12 he disengaged entirely, giving me a free run in to the TD. I decided (against my better judgement) to keep the game moving and take it. The ball carrier wasn't in range without a GFI though so I took a turn moving forward. My first move was a 3d blitz on the only halfling within range... and of course I failed the GFI. All that really did was advance the clock on and at the beginning of turn 15 I had a choice to make... run the ball in and give him 2 turns to score... or hold it, knowing that there was a lightning bolt waiting for the ball carrier and that I didn't have any re-rolls to help with the pick up... I chose the former and rolled in for the TD.

1-1, two turns to play.

I set again in my compressed zig instead of defending against the TTM... you see? I just don't learn! I suppose I was holding out hope of a blitz break away... but that isn't really an excuse.
The kick off roll came up Cheering Fans and Mystro claimed his 11th re-roll of the game!

He picked up the ball and got it to the Ag 4 hafling, who went to stand next to the trees before failing a GFI in his positioning and leaving the ball carrier exposed to a blitz from Phobos on the wing. Mystro had seen this too apparently because the wizard that had caused me to be so cautious in the previous drive finally came into play, lightning bolting Phobos to the ground.
By now I had realised my danger and moved my players back into the best, deepest screen that I could manage. I organized a blitz on the ball carrier and knocked him out, leaving the ball on the ground in the middle of his player. As an afterthought I hit the halfling marking Hephaestus... and rolled double skull, perfect way to conclude my game.

Mystro picked up the ball and handed it off to a halfling next to a tree. The tree took aim and missed... as usuall, scattering the halfling (once again... 3 out of 3) towards my players. He ended up in two tackle zones and rolled a 5 for his landing and then another 5 for the re-roll... if the scatter was any more favorable he would have been a dodge and two GFIs (with a reroll in hand) away from the victory... but instead he landed on his head and stunned himself, spilling the ball harmlessly into my back field.

And so another game ended in a draw. This one went my way pretty much from beginning to end... and yet I feel like I've got off lightly by limiting it to 1-1. One thing's for sure, I won't underestimate the stunties again. In the hands of a skilled coach they can be quite a hand full.

---

I picked up a new skill on Basalt (guard, MB, -AV dwarf) and rolled a normal skill. I am considering Stand Firm, Grab and Dauntless.
Right now Stand Firm is winning as it'll make the overall team more solid, once I have one or two more I'll look at branching out.

---

5 weeks into the season and I remain unbeaten!
That's right, 5 games... 0 losses... but only 1 win. Now I'm not exactly a 'top tier' player... and I am pleased to have any winning record in the first place, so I'll take that. The problem comes in when you look at who I have faced and who is yet to come...
All 4 of my draws have come agains the two 'soft' teams in my division... the halflings and the underworld... from here it starts to get hairy. Left in my division I have: 2 big skaven, 1 big orc (one game played), 1 big wood elf and 1 middle size khorne... I think things are about to get tough!
 

danton

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I imagine that most people reading the report were "rooting" for the halflings! (BB puns are so cheesy...) :p

By the way Throw Team-Mate passes are never accurate! They always scatter, even on a 6! ;)
 

Yeti

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I imagine that most people reading the report were "rooting" for the halflings! (BB puns are so cheesy...) :p

By the way Throw Team-Mate passes are never accurate! They always scatter, even on a 6! ;)

No doubt... even I was rooting for them a little while I wrote it :p

And thanks for the rules correction... I've never used it myself so don't really know the finer points.
 

Stryke

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I watched it and I think the main mistake was giving the trees too much respect. While TTM does always scatter it can also fumble and one way to achieve this is to bum rush the Tree with as many players as possible. That first touchdown especially was avoidable by instead of backing off like you did if you'd instead marked him with a player or three that throw would have been seriously harder to pull off.

Poor Gnash after being beaten by your Chaos Dorfs I took him to town again for a 2-1 win
 

Yeti

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You're probably right. To be honest, I was so happy that the trees had taken root that the idea of TTM didn't even cross my mind!
I'll chalk it up as another lesson in my blood bowl education.
 

Mystro

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That can stop troll TTMs dead but it isn’t anything like as effective against flings. Trees are the perfect thrower from day one with no negatrait unless you need to move, come with strong arm and have easy reroll access without loner. A tree in 2 TZs is still better than a troll in the open.

Specifically for the TD under discussion where the prospective flyer is +AG, sure footed, already has the ball next to both trees and the worst possible scatter will only demand 2GFIs to score it wouldn’t have been a great option in my opinion, indeed could have been playing right into my hands given my need to get in mighty blow hits and reluctance to score at that point.

In your position I’d have been quite happy to encourage the TTM as it was pretty much a no lose scenario. Even if it came off it left you ample time to equalise, try to burn the wizard and get your KOs back. Where it fell down was forgetting the defensive redeployment possibilities of TTM and my fortune in getting the knockdown on the resultant one die blitz but up until then I regarded you in total control of the game.
 

Yeti

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Thanks for the feedback Mystro. Like I say, TTM just didn't cross my mind either time... I'm not going to make that mistake again.

I must say, I'm very glad that you were playing halflings when I faced you. I have the feeling that you with a more serious team would be terrifying.
 

Stryke

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That can stop troll TTMs dead but it isn’t anything like as effective against flings. Trees are the perfect thrower from day one with no negatrait unless you need to move, come with strong arm and have easy reroll access without loner. A tree in 2 TZs is still better than a troll in the open.

True, but it still takes it from a 2+ no brainer roll to a straight 50/50 to avoid the fumble so if you're looking to block the TTM it's certainly an option to think about against Flings.

Anyway it's roughly equal if I've got the maths right for a tree in 2 TZs compared to a troll, assuming a short pass and no rerolls available;

Tree in 2 TZs : TTM attempt is at an auto -1, Strong Arm moving the Short to a Quick for a +1, Two Tackle Zones is -2, results in a successful scatter pass on a 4+.

Troll: TTM attempt is at an auto -1 with no other factors is a successful scatter pass on 2+ to avoid the always hungry and then a 3+, which works out to roughly coming out as slightly more likely then the Treeman in a few TZ's.

Of course Flings are probably going to have a reroll available which does give the Treeman a better 3/4 chance roughly compared to the trolls 50/50 ish to pull it off, but as every Khemri player knows from when they try to pick up the ball, 4+ rerolls are definitely not always certain to come off.

Well I think that's right anyway.
 

Mystro

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The two negatraits (you forgot stupidity) and loner really tip the balance. 2+, 2+, 3+ all with loner is a 46%/62% sequence, some way behind the two TZ tree with reroll, and even the three TZ tree with reroll is just 6% less likely to pull it off than the open troll with reroll. There is a vast difference in TTM efficacy.
 

Yeti

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This week I'm up against the Carrick Vermin coached by Queball 5... Skaven, my boogie race.

They have won every game this season and are (unsurprisingly) top of the leader board, having scored 15 touch downs to my 5!

carrick_vermin_2013_04_29.png


The strength of this team (as with so many skaven) lies in their gutter runners and 12 of their 15 touch downs have come from either Mcquillan Squeak (the one turner and one of the most wanted players in our league) or Thunderbolt Squeak (the AG 5 catcher). Mcquillian Jnr. is also an interesting build and could reek havoc with my offense... especially if I forget about his skill set and try to dodge away from him. (I must remember not to dodge away from him). Bomber Squeak (accurate, strong arm thrower) is also integral to his offense and is currently the best thrower in my division.

Beyond that: the rat ogre could be nasty, especially with that break tackle, old Jay Squeak is enough to get my dwarves quaking in their boots and Poison Squeak is a solid enough blitzer. The ag breaks on both of them is interesting though and they may spend a portion of the game facing down a dwarf of two.
I'm not wild about the five wrestling linemen either, they could definitely prove troublesome. I suspect that he might use them to mark heavily, forcing me to make 1d blocks or leave my ball carrier exposed.

What he does lack however is a proper ball hunter, which will probably play to my favour. I still have nightmares about the pair of Ag 5 leap/dauntless gutter runners I faced last season!

Inducements wise, I'm getting 610 as it stands at the moment (although I wouldn't be surprised if that -av niggle lineman is dropped before our game). I haven't received such large inducements in ages. I'm thinking of my old standard... Morg and a wizard... although if he does drop that lineman then I'll have to downgrade and it becomes more interesting. Other options include a dp loner plus bribes (always tempting against low av teams, but not something I'm good with), Grashnak as a down graded Morg and of course the master chef, which I find a little too unreliable for the 300k.

My strategy will probably be a little boring I'm afraid. I'm going to have some serious trouble stopping his offense since he has enough hit to open a hole in any defense and enough speed to exploit it. I'm also going to have to defend the ball with numbers to keep him out, so we're pretty much talking a standard 2-1 grind with me trying to de-pitch as many rats as possible to gain the advantage. Ah well, I didn't start playing Chaos Dwarves for the finesse. :p
 

Yeti

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No match report this week I'm afraid. Unfortunately my opponent had something come up and it was too late to reschedule, which was a pity because I was looking forward to the game. I was given the admined win but the SPP didn't land anywhere particularly interesting so we'll move swiftly along to the next fixture.

----

This week I have my second match against the mighty Deathskull Stealers coached my Gnasher. These are the large orc team that I lucked a victory against a few weeks back. They have not had a good season so far, having started as divisional favourites they have lost all 6 games so far and scored only 1 touchdown. Their luck has to turn some time though... so lets just hope that it isn't this week!

deathskull_stealers_2013_05_06.png


Not much has changed since our last game. His injuries have come back of course, his troll has picked up break tackle and his virgin blitzer has picked up mighty blow. He has also fired his two fantastic linemen (block, tackle, fend and block, tackle, fend, pro, kick) and replaced them with new players. I can only assume that this was an effort to keep his TV down a little.

He is still a formidable team with a very solid spread of players and enough strength, guard and mighty blow to give me trouble. One again, I'm not going to win in a stand up fight so I am going to have to keep the game flowing and capitalize on the opportunities that I get.

I'm getting 290k inducements, which will probably go towards a wizard and a bribe/wandering poth. His efforts with the TV have had some success at least... if those linemen were still in the team I'd be getting 450k!

----

On a different note, I have just noticed that Slag (+ST, MB, Guard Dwarf) is only 3 SPP away from his next level. Now... what should I give him next?
Obviously I'll take the strength... and won't take the agility.
I'll probably treat 5+5 as a double... but would I take armour on 6+4? AV 10 would make him very difficult to put down... but is it worth more than a skill at this stage. How about movement? MV 5 is quite a lot better than MV 4... but does he need it?
Normal rolls are fairly easy. Stand Firm or Grab... depending on which way the wind is blowing. SF makes him a great structural player but Grab gives me a new, shiny tool in my tool box. Other options could include Break Tackle or even Frenzy... but probably won't.
Doubles get more interesting though... claw is an obvious choice as it would turn him into my second killer, other options are dodge (because he is going to get hit a lot), side step... because I love guard/sidestep, prehensile tail or even tentacles.

Obviously this is all speculation since he is going to die in my next match but I'd be interested to find out what people think.
 

Nikolai II

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his troll has picked up break tackle

I'd probably have picked grab for a troll, but I guess BT could be a pick if he intends to get dodge on a doubles (and is hoping for a doubles next level)

As for Slag - since he can blitz on his own I could see picking move on a 6+4.

Else Stand Firm. Somewhat more annoying than grab, and allows either frenzy (for trollslaying action) or grab (to set up for other frenziers) next level.
 

Yeti

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I'd probably have picked grab for a troll, but I guess BT could be a pick if he intends to get dodge on a doubles (and is hoping for a doubles next level)
That was my thinking too but I'm sure he has a plan. Maybe he's finding that the troll is getting bogged down by low value players.

As for Slag - since he can blitz on his own I could see picking move on a 6+4.

Else Stand Firm. Somewhat more annoying than grab, and allows either frenzy (for trollslaying action) or grab (to set up for other frenziers) next level.

You're probably right about the +MV. He's also my best structural player so having a bit of extra movement to reposition probably wouldn't be a bad thing.

I guess I'll have to wait for him to get the last few spp and see what he rolls :rolleyes:
 

Yeti

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I must appologise for the lack of match report this week, I just haven't had the time to sit down and put the thing together.

The short version is that the match ended as a goalless draw with both of our defenses going better than our offenses.
I managed to keep away from him in the first half (his receive) and forced a desparate move that gave me a shot on the ball carrier. I recovered the ball but a failed hand off meant that I couldn't move the ball upfield in time.
The second half didn't go as well. He got a blitz (just like last game) and forced me into a brawl, which I lost badly. I even had to use my wizard to save a certain touch down in the last turn.
I did my share of damage though, niggling a blitzer and killing two black orcs (although the +ST BOB was pothed back to BH).

It was Gnasher's first non-loss this season... it would seem that my draw streak is stronger than his loss streak.

The MVP went to Harzburgite (new dwarf), which gave him his first skill. He rolled a double and I gave him claw, making him my second dedicated killer.

---

This week's game is against the Carrick Vermin, the Skaven team that I was supposed to play a few weeks ago. They are unchanged except for the addition of Leader on their thrower.

I'll be getting 600k inducements this match and will probably look at Morg and a Wizard. Hopefully I'll have a bit more time this week and be able to give the game a propper writeup.
 

Yeti

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2013/04/22 - Season 2 - Match 21 (1740TV) vs. Cueball - Carrick Vermin - Skaven (2340TV)

Week 5

I took Morg and a wizard as intended. The wizard was worth its weight in gold but Morg... well, he was useful enough I suppose.

I won the toss and elected to kick, setting up in my standard zig with the bulls on the wings, Morg one step back and three dwarves on the line. He stacked heavily to my left with his two storm vermin and a few friends on the line.
The kick was short and central, landing just one step behind the line and the kick off table came up with a blitz. I considered stepping up to the rats and crowding him but decided to hold back since he would have been able to disengage easly and I wouldn't be able to respond.
Instead all I did was ran Phobos (Block, BT, MB bull) around the back (blitzing a hapless linerat along the way) to stand next to the square where the ball would land. The scatter was very favourable and left the ball in Phobos' tackle zone.

Que started out by beating on my LOS, stunning Tuff (claw, MB dwarf) with his claw storm vermin and leaving the rest on their back. He then blitzed Hephaestus (+Ag, block, tackle bull) with his rat ogre on the wing before fluffing the pickup with his Ag5 gutter runner. The ball scattered next to three of his players so I couldn't pick it up directly but instead blitzed with Phobos to keep him on the ball. I also managed a hit on a linerat, leaving him badly hurt. Once again Que pounded the LOS and blitzed Haephaestus with the rat ogre and fluffed the pickup with his Ag5 gutter runner... and once again it remained in tackle zones and I had to be content with leaving Phobos standing next to it. By this time he had pushed his one turner through into my half and I had moved Soot (wrestle, fend hobgob) back to cover him. This time his turn worked out for him. His claw storm vermin took another shot at Tuff, breaking his armour easily... and killing him. I deliberated briefly on whether the use the poth and decided to go for it, lightening the injury to a smashed ankle. He finally managed his 2+ pickup, dodged away from the marker and switched to the right hand side, which I had left a little undermanned due to the fight in the center. He hadn't managed to outdistance Phobos though and the bull came thundering in for the blitz, rolling a skull and both down (no help since the rat had block) and used a reroll but the result didnt change and I had to be content with marking him. I also disengaged as many players as I could and sent them back to defend. Que did some hitting but didn't waste time, tossing the ball to the receiver and scrabbling over the line to score.

4 turns in... 1-0 to the rats. Pretty standard so far.

He set narrow and shallow with the rat ogre a few steps back for the blitz. I set wide across the front with propper cover in the wings and my receiving pair back. The kick off table came up changing weather, which pushed the already long scatter off the board, giving me a touchback, which I awarded to Cinder (blodge hobgob). I bashed his line without doing any damage, used Morg to blitz the rat ogre (no armour break) and moved the ball up into a loose cage. At this point I was very grateful for the lack of leap/strip ball/dauntless gutter runner! He formed up into a standard cage stalling position with stacks of two. I stepped forward and started making plans to break up the left with Hephaestus in the next turn (since I only had 2 turns left to score). Then he pulled one of the ballsiest moves I've seen. Hephaestus was standing one square in from the side line with a guard dwarf standing a square in and up field for protection against the wild animal. Oh how naieve I was. The rat ogre dodged through the gap between them into two tackle zones and blitzed the bull, pushing him and pushing him again, leaving him to the mercy of the crowd (KO)... okay, plan B! Fortunately he had broken his formation and given me a lot to hit. I KOed one rat and stunned three more (including his mighty claw). I then broke Cinder and Phobos through the hole it made and up field. Of course this is skaven we're talking about, so even with heavy marking there was no way of preventing him from covering me. This he did but he couldn't close me off entirely and I was only 1 dodge (with a reroll) away from the line. Then the rat ogre struck again, dodging into two tackle zones to make the blitz, knocking the ball carrier out. His +Ag gutter runner came sweeping in to clean up but fluffed the pickup with a reroll for the third time in the half, Phobos failed to catch the scattered ball but failed and it landed favourably for me, in space between him and the line. My last hope of equalising was a St 4 break tackle, an Ag 2 pickup and a dash for the line (70% chance with the reroll). Sadly the rush ended early as the break tackle came up snake eyes and we went into half time with him 1-0 up.

Half Time.

None of the KOs came back, leaving me short of three key players: Tuff (claw, MB dwarf - injured), Hephaestus (Ag 3 bull - KO) and Cinder (Blodge hobgob - KO) and with only 10 players on the pitch!
Our setups were almost identical to the previous drive, except that I was down one receiver and had to substitute Soot (wrestle fend hobgob) for Hephaestus on one wing. The kick off table came up Throw a Rock, which stunned one of the dwarves on the line. I hit the line as I did the previous drive and KOed a linerat. This time however I chose to blitz the claw storm vermin with Gneissose (guard, MB dwarf), smashing the rat's collar bone (a career ending injury). Que quickly used the apothecary though and reduced it to MNG. He responded by blitzing Soot with the rat ogre, smashing his ankle and putting him out for the game. What followed was an out and out brawl in the center. It has to be said that the fight went his way and before it was resolved he had knocked out Basalt (guard, MB, SF dwarf) and badly hurt Schist (virgin hobgob) and Slag (+St, MB, Guard dwarf) while I only managed to remove a single player that player. Okay, the player happened to be his star defensive gutter runner, Mcquillian Jnr Squeak (Block, guard, DT, SS, prehensile tail)... and the injury happened to be death... but it was still only one player down. The lack of players eventually took its toll and in turn 14 I was forced to make another desperate push up the field with Chert and Phobos. Once again he covered and blitzed the ball carrier, this time however his one turner was standing in the right spot and caught the scatter... so I hit him with a lightning bolt. :) As luck would have it the ball scattered free. Phobos blitzed off one of his markers to make some space, picked up the ball and scored. Whew... that was a LOT closer than I would have liked.

1-1 two turns to play!

Once again the KO dice went against me and I had only 7 players to set up (including 1 bull and 3 dwarves) for the last drive!
There was simply no way that I could defend against a full strength skaven onslaught with those players and he pulled off a slick and efficient 2 turn score to put him up 2-1 at full time.

Sho, that was a tense and frustrating game. I just couldn't get the upper hand where I needed it... numbers and it wasn't a very pleasent experience watching dwarf after dwarf having their armour broken, especially after using the poth so early. The stand out player was definately that rat ogre... here are his stats for the game: 5/5 dodges, 4/4 GFI, 14/14 wild animals, 1/1 loner, 11/17 blocks - 2 stuns, 3 KO, 2 Cas. That is a mighty performance! Compare that to the poor Ag 5 gutter runner that only succeeded 1/7 pickups!

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No skill ups in this game... but two brand new injuries. -MV on Tuff (claw, MB dwarf) and -MV on Soot (wrestle, fend hobgob). I'm not thrilled about either but they could be worse. I'm not going to fire either of them just yet but I may consider it in the future, especially after I've trained a couple of replacements.

In other news I'm strongly considering getting my hands on that minotaur. I've been holding off because I'm nervous of what that wild animal is going to do to my structural game, but I think that now might be the time to find out. I've been getting pretty frustrated with the team over the last few games. They defend like monsters and I've conceded amonst the fewest TDs in the league (5 in 8 games) but they just feel stogy on offense. Obviously a mino isn't going fix that directly but I'm hoping that he'll add something new to the team and get the juices flowing again... and hey, if I don't like him... I'll get rid of him. I've got more cash than I know what to do with at the moment after all.
 

Yeti

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Next week's game is against Dogboy's Woodelves, the Greenvale Gladiators. I faced them twice last season and won both games... but it must be said that both were down to some spectacularly lucky rolling on my part.

greenvale_gladiators_2013_05_16.png


There have been a good few changes to this team in the last half season. To start with, almost every one of his possition has picked up a new skill...
Valen Skyarc has picked up +MV, making him an even more magnifiscent ball carrier
Totallion Frowell has picked up Strong Arm, giving the team a propper long range thrower
Loen Swiftbreeze has picked up Mighty Blow and another mystry skill, completing the essential Wardancer toolkit
Lumber Jack has finally got Block (but still carries the scars from our last encounter), making him the perfect road block
Lefrill Purewind has picked up +AG, increasing his offensive potential even further and making him a genuine interception threat

He has also lost/fired a total of 7 players, including all of the -AV/-MV/Niggle linemen and the +MV +AG catcher that I injured in our last game.

This leaves him with a far leaner outfit that looks really good but does mean that he goes into our game without any reserves.

Unsurprisingly he out-maneuvers me completely (5 MV 8s!) and makes my ball handlers look like the little league but what really worries me are those two wardancers. With either of them on the pitch the ball will never be truely secure. As usual my best hope is to engage him heavily and hope for casualties. If I can get players off the field I'll have a far easier time of scoring. Oh, and I'll be hoping for another charge-down interception touch down like I had last game. :p

I am two players short this game: Tuff (Claw, Mighty Blow dwarf) and Soot (Wrestle, Fend hobgoblin). Of the two I expect I'll miss Soot the most. This puts me down to 10 men and a TV of 1580 (including loner), giving me 480k inducements.

Now... something different. As I mentioned in the last match report, I have been avoiding the minotaur for fear of what wild animal and frenzy will do to my team's structure... but I am now considering getting one to add a little spice to the team and generally see what they are like to play with. In fact, I have pretty much decided that I will... and having made that decision I should probably look to get him sooner rather than later. Now this isn't really the idea first game for him since he isn't big enough to deal with the tree on his own and the woodelves will be staying well away from him, so the only hits that he takes are likely to be blitzes... which I am rather nervous about. Still, I'm sure that I'll find an excuse for the next game too, so I'm going to go ahead and buy the big cow.
Adding the mino to the team takes me up to 1690 TV and gives me 330k inducements (I'm thinking wizard, bribe, babes). Once my injuries have returned though I'll be 1890TV, which is starting to look like a big boy team... I think that the Avalanche may have had their last big inducement game.
 

Stryke

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I'd pick him up as even if he doesn't blitz and just the odd block of opportunity the extra Str5 on the pitch along with your Centaurs and guard dorfs makes life for opponent far trickier. Also remember he can get very easy 3d blitzes thanks to horns and only one assist.

He'll never be as good as Chaos team one due to no Normal access to mutations, but he should still scare the hell out of people anyway when backed up with the rest of the team.
 

Yeti

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2013/05/20 - Season 2 - Match 22 (1690TV) vs. Dogboy - Greenvale Gladiators - Woodelf (2040TV)

Well ladies and gentlemen, it is an exciting day for the Ash Foundry Avalanche as we welcome the newest member of our team: Junior... Junior the minotaur. Junior has been included in the team as the insistence of his father Mr. Ignatius J. Thermotyte (CEO of the Ash Foundry). He's a bit of a party animal and doesn't play well with others but he's a big strong boy so I'm sure he'll be fine. I'm intending to do a suitably fluffy press release in the near future and will post that here... if I ever get around to it. :p

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Right, to the game. After buying Junior I had 350k inducements, which I spent on a wizard, a bribe and a wandering apothecary, reasoning that the only way that I was going to win was to get numbers up... and that included keeping my players on the field.

Dogboy won the toss and elected to kick. Setting up his tree on the center spot with two line elves flanking him and the rest of the team pulled back and center.
I set in a screen across the front with the bulls wide, two hobgobs back and the mino in front of the tree with two assists. The kick was shallow and centered and I started by covering it with the loose hobgobs before hitting the LOS. The first shot KOed a lineman and the treeman ended on the ground (I quite like hitting stand firm with frenzy). Finally I picked up the ball with Chert (block, sure hands hobgob) and moved it into loose cover.
Dogboy hit back hard, knocking down the two dwarves that I had left in contact before blitzing the ball carrier with Neve Brighthope (senior wardancer). It was an ambitious move, requiring a dodge into two tackle zones and a leap. First the dodge failed and he decided to re-roll it (gotta love the wall of tackle) then the leap failed and the wardancer landed behind my line, stunned.
I covered the ball in the center then hit what I could, badly hurting another lineman with Phobos (MB bull) before hitting the tree again with Junior. This produced my first true big-guy moment. 2d block on a block tree with a virgin mino... skull/both down... reroll... loner... I'm so proud. :)
We spent a few turns trading blows with Dogboy committing heavily, trying to get through. The tree took root early and for a while enjoyed knocking Gneissose down every turn. Ultimately he committed a little too hard though and I managed to put most of his team on their back and a further 2 linemen in the KO box. At first I tried to move down the left but there were too many downed woodelves for me to make the ball secure so I moved right instead, despite the fact that I had fewer players to cover with. This gave Loren Swiftbreeze (junior wardancer) a 1d blitz on the ball carrier, which came up push... thank goodness for sure hands!
At the beginning of turn 8 I had the ball 5 squares away from the line in a cage... with Neve Brighthope standing next to it and no rerolls. I chose to clear the tackle zone rather than risk the dodge, but this was harder work than I expected and I threw 8 block dice at that wardancer before managing to knock her down and free the ball carrier. After that I didn't waste time hitting things and ran in the touch down.

1-0 to the Avalanche, 1 turn to play in the second half and all 3 of the KOed woodelves stayed down, giving him 7 players on the field to my full 11. It was a typical turn 8, he hit what I gave him but didn't do any damage then claimed his 1spp throw and ended the half.

Half Time... 1-0 to the Avalanche... but this time all three of his KOs came back and he was up to 10 players... boooo

I set in my standard zig with the bulls on the wings, 3 dwarves on the line and Junior and Slag (+St dwarf) as the inside centers.

He started the half in style with his tree taking root... hmmm, maybe a stand firm dwarf on the line wasn't a great idea (note to self... turn off auto standfirm)! He picked up the ball with Valen Skyarc (dump-off super thrower) and hit my other two line dwarves, burning a re-roll and the blitz and ultimately leaving one of the two standing. This meant that he needed to dodge Lefrill Purewind (+Ag super catcher) away to cover the ball carrier. The roll came up 1 and, with the reroll burnt, down he went, breaking his armour and landing in the KO bin. This meant that Valen was exposed and my first movement was a blitz with Phobos. He required a re-roll to loose his marker but hit the thrower hard. Valen managed to get the dump off away to Torallion Frowell (long range thrower) and this time Phobos did not intercept it, but a bull in motion is hard to stop and Valen joined Lefrill in the KO bin. One turn into the half and already two of his stars were out of the picture.

I wish I could say that Dogboy's luck improved... but it didn't. His first block of the second turn came up double skull... reroll... double skull and he was now in real trouble. Phobos got another blitz on another ball carrier, but it came up double push... I'm not entirely sure why I didn't reroll that. Then I KOed another lineman and stunned the junior wardancer.

I had him pretty thoroughly surrounded by this point and his only option was to score quickly. He pushed Neve Brighthope down my right then disengaged the ball carrier and flipped the pass to the wardancer. With my wide spread however she wasn't able to make much ground and I managed a blitz with Slag (+St dwarf), knocking her down, spilling the ball and putting yet another star into the KO bin... seriously 3 turns in and 3 top woodelves out of the game (not to mention the lineman).

I pulled my players back, covered the ball and fluffed the pickup with Chert, even after the surehands. Dogboys best hope was still to score and bring some players back onto the pitch so he went for broke, dodging Torallion Frowell (long range thrower) through and attempting the pickup in two tackle zones... but failing, even with a reroll. This left him standing next to Harzburgite (claw dwarf) who quickly hit him and... you guessed it, put him into the KO bin.

He was now left with 4 elves and a rooted tree (who I had managed to move away from) on the pitch to my full team. It was simply a matter of time before I managed to get the ball to the touch line, although we each managed a casualty before I did so.

Final score 2-0 to the Avalance with 2-1 casualties and 8-0 KOs!
I'll happily take the win of course (I haven't had many this season) but those KOs made Dogboy's life very very difficult.

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I picked up skills on Slag (+ST, Mighty Blow, Guard dwarf) and Chert (Block, Sure Hands hobgob). I'm thinking Stand Firm and Fend on normal rolls with Tentacles (?) and Dodge on Doubles. Any thoughts?

Junior was an interesting addition to the team. He didn't have much to do this game but didn't cause me any problems either, so he can stay around... for another week at least. I think that I'll have to wait until I play a slightly more bashy opponent before I really form an opinion.
 

Blasscend

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Nice game, seems a bit of a nufflimg for your opponent. As for the frenzy against SF: I'd be careful with that. I dunno about woodie trees, but I've pulled off quitd some nasty traps by setting it on off. And actually everytime I did that my trees responded by putting the frenzier in the cas box.
 
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