Welcome back SPORTSFANS!
The initial games of Season 8 have been played with our heroes opening game of Div 2 being against the infamous, the ignoble, the irate, @Infernal Al Davis and his Appleheads, a human team specialising in blitzers and ogres, along with dirty player linemen. They are a troublesome bunch of apple-thieves, wanted by orchard owners up and down the lands (or so I've heard). These pick pockets are no doubt hiding under the immunities granted to Bloodbowl players due to the inherent injustices in the system.
So, the game was set, it was to be a midnight game, for that is when the Robin hood wannabes are at their most active. The teams took to the pitch, with the Apple bobbers picking up a last minute bribe from their treasury, allowing our noble stars to hire a wizard before they'd had time to get to the local brewery. The Jays opting to attack first, wanting to assert some violence before the apple pie lovers could bring their superior skills at fighting to bear.
Now, there are times when historians look back over generals plans, can see the overall strategic aim, the local level missions, down to the detailed positioning and deployment and think, "yes, that was a well conceived and executed plan". This play from the Jays was not one such occurrence. It was a scrappy push through the right hand side, with plenty of elves left based, intermingled with the stronger apple munchers or on the floor under hobb nailed boots. The final mistake in the magnificent show of ineptitude was forgetting to activate a blitz action, meaning one of the star catchers simply moved up adjacent to the human blitzer with mighty blow and his 2 friends, while leaving the ball carrier completely open from one side.
The apple sauce connoisseurs promptly smashed the catcher, then the ball carrier, collected the orb (clearly thinking it was an apple), and scarpered down field. By this point there were about 7 elves on the pitch, in various states of pulp, and the best the blues could manage was to force the apple pinchers to scrap for the score, delaying it until their turn 8, meaning only one attempt at waking up for our sleeping elves (including KiKi, who had been napping since turn 2) was allowed. Most of the blues woke up, apart from KiKi ready for the grand defence on the 2nd half, with a 1-0 against our heroes, the bloodied and battered 7 remaining elves took to the field once more.
The 2nd half kicked off with 2 more elves leaving the field again and the humans pushing down the left hand side, fairly well caged up and looking to have closed out any avenue of attack. But! having spent the entire first half getting to know our wizard and finding out he was a cider drinker, meant that after explaining the awful state of the cider farmers due to their crop going missing, rumours pointing out in no uncertain terms the appleheads were the cause.. he lost his temper and landed a glorious fireball on the cage, taking out 2 corners. This allowed our few surviving Jays to mount a prompt attack, bounce, reroll, bounce again, scrape for a couple of turns, land a lucky hit and free the orb in the middle of the scrum!
The apples turnovers were keen to force the issue, but didnt want to risk ball handling with all the elves in the area, so proceeded to clear them out. One elven body landed on the orb, scattering it. Onto one applehead, who fumbles, onto another applehead, who fumbles, then another applehead, who also fumbles! Finally it is ping ponged onto the Jays final catcher standing, who promptly collects the ball.
With nothing else to activate, it is the Jays turn, and the catcher is holding the orb at the edge of the scrum! a 2+ dodge away and off he sprints downfield, nothing on the apples side can even catch him. The remaining 4 elves form a loose screen to get in the way, and do what they can. It turns out that isnt much and seconds later an angry ogre steamrolls through one of them, opening the way for a flood of blitzers to begin the chase of the catcher to stop any stalling.
Without any hope of protecting the plucky catcher, a score is all that can be done. 1-1!
There are 3 turns left, the kick is deep and the 6 elves who are in a fit state to play still line up against the 11 strong team of apple enthusiasts. the humans start the bloody business of removing any remaining elves they can, but get spotted fouling causing a turnover, before the ball is collected! The 5 elves still standing knock a hole in the apple core lines, meaning only a single dodge is needed to slip through, and through the go! Smashing the catcher who was deep in the apples half, and putting pressure on the uncollected ball.
It is not enough though, as the Apples swarm back and surround the elves. This does mean they have no ability to score themselves as the time has ticked away. The final play from the Jays is a long shot, requiring a 4+, a 3+, a 2+, a 3+, a 2+ to score. This did not happen, although due to how BB3 works, the moment I clicked the move it ended the game, so I have no idea how close or far it was from succeeding.
This was a brutal game, that I feel very lucky to have scrapped a draw out of. If I hadn't misclicked then I would have got the score earlier and it would have changed the entire game (for better or worse is impossible to say), so I dont feel too bad about that as it may well have led to a 2-1 lose. Al was a fine opponent, and very graciously refrained from rolling outside the bell curve for injuries, meaning while I had at times 6 KO'd, there were only a few CAS for most of the match, only properly ramping up to the usual 6 in the final turns of the game. On the flip side, while the eagle eyes ref was watching him with seeming magic vision, the Jays also seemed to forget they were elves and were acting like Orcs whenever it came to ball handling which was a little embarrassing for all involved.
An enjoyable game, and many thanks to Al. Next up, a chaos chosen team of the Cromfield Wanderers coached by @BearsWillEatYou ! Until then SPORTSFANS
The initial games of Season 8 have been played with our heroes opening game of Div 2 being against the infamous, the ignoble, the irate, @Infernal Al Davis and his Appleheads, a human team specialising in blitzers and ogres, along with dirty player linemen. They are a troublesome bunch of apple-thieves, wanted by orchard owners up and down the lands (or so I've heard). These pick pockets are no doubt hiding under the immunities granted to Bloodbowl players due to the inherent injustices in the system.
So, the game was set, it was to be a midnight game, for that is when the Robin hood wannabes are at their most active. The teams took to the pitch, with the Apple bobbers picking up a last minute bribe from their treasury, allowing our noble stars to hire a wizard before they'd had time to get to the local brewery. The Jays opting to attack first, wanting to assert some violence before the apple pie lovers could bring their superior skills at fighting to bear.
Now, there are times when historians look back over generals plans, can see the overall strategic aim, the local level missions, down to the detailed positioning and deployment and think, "yes, that was a well conceived and executed plan". This play from the Jays was not one such occurrence. It was a scrappy push through the right hand side, with plenty of elves left based, intermingled with the stronger apple munchers or on the floor under hobb nailed boots. The final mistake in the magnificent show of ineptitude was forgetting to activate a blitz action, meaning one of the star catchers simply moved up adjacent to the human blitzer with mighty blow and his 2 friends, while leaving the ball carrier completely open from one side.
The apple sauce connoisseurs promptly smashed the catcher, then the ball carrier, collected the orb (clearly thinking it was an apple), and scarpered down field. By this point there were about 7 elves on the pitch, in various states of pulp, and the best the blues could manage was to force the apple pinchers to scrap for the score, delaying it until their turn 8, meaning only one attempt at waking up for our sleeping elves (including KiKi, who had been napping since turn 2) was allowed. Most of the blues woke up, apart from KiKi ready for the grand defence on the 2nd half, with a 1-0 against our heroes, the bloodied and battered 7 remaining elves took to the field once more.
The 2nd half kicked off with 2 more elves leaving the field again and the humans pushing down the left hand side, fairly well caged up and looking to have closed out any avenue of attack. But! having spent the entire first half getting to know our wizard and finding out he was a cider drinker, meant that after explaining the awful state of the cider farmers due to their crop going missing, rumours pointing out in no uncertain terms the appleheads were the cause.. he lost his temper and landed a glorious fireball on the cage, taking out 2 corners. This allowed our few surviving Jays to mount a prompt attack, bounce, reroll, bounce again, scrape for a couple of turns, land a lucky hit and free the orb in the middle of the scrum!
The apples turnovers were keen to force the issue, but didnt want to risk ball handling with all the elves in the area, so proceeded to clear them out. One elven body landed on the orb, scattering it. Onto one applehead, who fumbles, onto another applehead, who fumbles, then another applehead, who also fumbles! Finally it is ping ponged onto the Jays final catcher standing, who promptly collects the ball.
With nothing else to activate, it is the Jays turn, and the catcher is holding the orb at the edge of the scrum! a 2+ dodge away and off he sprints downfield, nothing on the apples side can even catch him. The remaining 4 elves form a loose screen to get in the way, and do what they can. It turns out that isnt much and seconds later an angry ogre steamrolls through one of them, opening the way for a flood of blitzers to begin the chase of the catcher to stop any stalling.
Without any hope of protecting the plucky catcher, a score is all that can be done. 1-1!
There are 3 turns left, the kick is deep and the 6 elves who are in a fit state to play still line up against the 11 strong team of apple enthusiasts. the humans start the bloody business of removing any remaining elves they can, but get spotted fouling causing a turnover, before the ball is collected! The 5 elves still standing knock a hole in the apple core lines, meaning only a single dodge is needed to slip through, and through the go! Smashing the catcher who was deep in the apples half, and putting pressure on the uncollected ball.
It is not enough though, as the Apples swarm back and surround the elves. This does mean they have no ability to score themselves as the time has ticked away. The final play from the Jays is a long shot, requiring a 4+, a 3+, a 2+, a 3+, a 2+ to score. This did not happen, although due to how BB3 works, the moment I clicked the move it ended the game, so I have no idea how close or far it was from succeeding.
This was a brutal game, that I feel very lucky to have scrapped a draw out of. If I hadn't misclicked then I would have got the score earlier and it would have changed the entire game (for better or worse is impossible to say), so I dont feel too bad about that as it may well have led to a 2-1 lose. Al was a fine opponent, and very graciously refrained from rolling outside the bell curve for injuries, meaning while I had at times 6 KO'd, there were only a few CAS for most of the match, only properly ramping up to the usual 6 in the final turns of the game. On the flip side, while the eagle eyes ref was watching him with seeming magic vision, the Jays also seemed to forget they were elves and were acting like Orcs whenever it came to ball handling which was a little embarrassing for all involved.
An enjoyable game, and many thanks to Al. Next up, a chaos chosen team of the Cromfield Wanderers coached by @BearsWillEatYou ! Until then SPORTSFANS
