Match Report: OCC Division 2C Game 3

Ghouls Gone Wild! (undead, Antonlunau) v The Grey Haven Guard (high elf, me)

This undead team had stormed up the divisions into tier 2 and had several really excellent players. The stars were the wights – Ulric the Maimer (165SPP) with +1MV, tackle, mighty blow, juggernaught and piling on, and Oswald the Haunter with tackle, mighty blow and +1AG. There was also a truly excellent mummy – with block, dodge, stand firm and guard. The zombie roster was unusually strong, with a ST4, mighty blow, tackle zombie being a particular highlight. Finally there were a couple of ghouls with diving tackle and blodge.

Having watched a few recent games, Anton’s strategy seems to be to wreck face with Ulric the Maimer and let the rest take care of itself. My goal was to target the two wights where possible, in the hope that taking them out would improve the survivability of my team. The mummies and turbo-zombies were tough but since they are so slow I hoped to outmanoeuvre them.

The game kicked off in the pouring rain, with the undead coach choosing to receive. Straight away Ulric the Maimer imposed himself on the game, killing Kiendan (dodge, wrestle lino) outright on the LOS. With a heavy heart I chose not to use the apo and let him die, expecting more serious injuries during the game. Luck swung my way however when a ghoul fumbled the wet ball on pickup, and I ran catchers around the right side and put pressure on the ball. Gil-Galad swooped in to attempt the pickup but he too dropped it!

The undead team rushed back to defend, but I had blodgers between the LOS and the ball and their high strength players couldn’t get back, leaving me to fight the ghouls for the ball. Vanval smashed a rookie ghoul into the injuries box, allowing Gil-Galad  to pick up at the second attempt and hare off for the line. The undead continued to try to get close to him, but it was too far and a high elf TD looked a certainty, particularly as Vanval managed to KO one of the diving tackle ghouls with a blitz. I was just considering whether to stall until turn 4 when a double 1 on a dodge ended my turn.

Lightning flashed out, stunning Gil-Galad, and the diving tackle, sidestep ghoul tried to pick the ball up but dropped it a second time! There followed a couple of turns of ghouls v catchers around the ball, before Felagund finally wrestled the annoying ghoul to the ground and Gil-Galad was able to nip in for a TD in the corner on turn 5.

On the kickoff I rolled my fourth blitz of the season, and yet again I was able to get catchers around the ball and gather my own kick on the right hand side with Legolas. The undead swarmed all over the pocket, knocking over Legolas. Felagund picked up the ball, but it was hard to keep him safe. The two mummies bashed two elves out of the way (as a result Alawe will now miss next week’s game against a chaos team) and Oswald the Haunter dashed though the gap for a 1D blitz, but I got another stroke of luck as the undead failed the required GFI. Felagund cut left into the clear space and on turn 8 he handed the ball to Tananmyr who jogged home for a TD and a 2-0 lead at half time.

OK, so despite the death, things were going well at this stage. I felt that a touchdown would give me the win, and so I determined to score quickly and then just stall out the game.

I set up with Cirdan deep and, mindful of the possibility of a blitz, I defended the wide zones. An undead blitz duly materialised, with the ball right on the centre line in the left hand wide zone. The undead team rushed over to pressure the ball but couldn’t clear all of my elves out of the way and the ball simply bounced back over the line into the undead half for a touchback! I handed the ball to Gil-Galad on the right side of the pitch, and there was only a single rookie ghoul between him and the line. Vanval rushed forwards to hospitalise the unfortunate ghoul, and Gil-Galad ran in the third touchdown unopposed on turn 9.

With the game all but won I wasn’t too interested in stopping the undead from scoring, and didn’t put up too much of a fight to prevent a close cage forming. I had misjudged the situation however and it turned out the undead weren’t too bothered about scoring either, but instead just wanted to kill off elves. I managed to foul off Ulric the Maimer with Vanval (I used an expensive player since I figured that at worst I’d have him sent off but alive), and as the undead advance slowed down I decided to have a crack at getting the ball. A nasty little scrum ensued mid way into my half, and with a bit of chain pushing I was eventually able to prise the ball loose. On turn 16 I was able to hand it off to Elrohir who made a couple of GFIs to score a fourth TD for 4-0.

On turn 16 I took the usual beating, with Elrohir’s life being saved by the apothecary, but the game ended 4-0 to the Guard!

Iframe link

A link to my team roster sheet from BBM, as well as the current league position, is here:

http://bbm.jcmag.fr/BloodBowlManager.WebSite/ClassementUnique.aspx?Id=7758&lang=en-US

With one game to play in week 2 I am one of four teams on 4 points, and with a TV of 2140. Elrohir has joined the team as a lineman - hopefully he will fare slightly better than his father Elrond who was killed in I think his second game.

Match Report: OCC Division 2C Matches 1 and 2

Match 1

The Grey Haven Guard (high elf, me) v I Just Blitzed Your Mum (dark elf, AndyDavo)

I won the toss and elected to receive. I picked up the ball and contented myself knocking over the LOS and keeping a strong centre. Andy responded by running a player around the end of my line, and so I passed the ball to Legolas and made a loose cage on the left hand side. I had miscalculated however (the first of three bad errors I made in the game), and the dark elves' ST5 lineman was able to peel back an opening for one of the witch elves to dance through and 1D frenzy Legolas off the pitch!

I got lucky however and the ball fell safely, but with my team badly out of position I was forced to pick the ball up with Cirdan and fire in a pass to Vanval to score on turn 3.

I was rewarded with a blitz from the kick off, and three of my players dashed into the dark elf half getting under the ball. Felagund caught the kickoff but was blitzed down by a witch elf, and the dark elves recovered and caged up in their half. I formed a strong line, but again the ST5 lineman showed the way, bashing a hole in the end of the line and allowing 2 players to run clear on my right side.

Seeing the threat, I pulled players to mark up the runners and tried a blitz with Vanval to take out their dirty player. A double 1 on a GFI thouigh left me badly out of position and the dark elves poured through the centre. The Guard players retreated as best they could and (unwisely) tried a dodge into 3 TZs to get a 1D blitz on the ball carrier rather than picking off an exposed dark elf. This failed, leaving an easy score for the dark elves.

Deciding to stall, the dark elves focussed on killing off my team and managed to badly hurt Vanval with a foul. Since I felt I needed my only tackle player I used the apo, and then in return Kiendan  badly hurt the mighty blow-piling on witch before the dark elves walked in the equaliser.

As the second half began I again rolled a blitz, this time right on the centre line in a wide zone. This time I managed to get players under the kick and form a rough cage. The remaining witch elf again performed a heroic series of dodges to get a 1D blitz on the ball carrier, but this time Legolas held firm and I was able to make a series of three blocks and blitzes to surf the irritating witch, who was badly hurt.

After a couple of turns of brawling, however, an early double 1 on a dodge ended my turn early and gave Andy a chance to get the ball. The 1D blitz worked and a dark elf blitzer dodged round the side of the line to get the ball and hare off up the pitch. Felagund brought him down however and Cirdan was able to scoop up the ball and fire in a pass to Glorfindel to score for a 2-1 lead mid-way through the second half.

It all went a bit wrong on the last drive however, as a basic positioning error let Andy waltz through my lines. I had a couple of chances to stop the ball but couldn't do it, and the match finished 2-2.

After the game I had two level ups - Vanval rolled a 12 for +1ST! This gives him ST4, block, dodge, mighty blow and tackle and gives me 2 ST4 catchers. Legolas however made a normal roll to give him block.

Despized (orc, Zunk) v The Grey Haven Guard (high elf, me)

I won the toss and again elected to receive. The orcs lined up in usual orcish fashion, protecting the wide zones with their ST4 blitzers, but Vanval knocked over the chap on the extreme right of the line allowing me to tiptoe four players around the edge and into the orc half. Meanwhile Cirdan picked up the ball and dropped deep. The orcs responded by marking up my players but didn’t send anyone to menace Cirdan, and so rather than scoring my receivers bashed a hole in the defence and escaped to the centre of the field.

It was hard to create any kind of safe pocket with all the guard and stand firm on the orc players, and I was quickly surrounded. Over the next couple of turns I used my guard players to hit back, but the net closed inexorably around them until I was forced to score with a pass to Felagund on turn 5.

I was awarded with my third blitz of the season on the ensuing kick off, and managed to get three players around the ball which was halfway inside the orc half and about 4 squares from the right sideline. On of the ST 4 tackle blitzers charged back to KO Legolas however, catching the bouncing ball on a natural 6 (the orc coach needed a 6 and used a reroll to get it). The orcs then tried to fight their way out of trouble but all the blodge, guard and sidestep that I was able to bring to bear ensured that this was tricky and in the next two turns I rolled 8 dice against the ball carrier (4 of them with tackle) but was unable to put him down.

The monstrous orc finally burst clear of the scrum and charged to the half way line, with only Legolas and a lineman between him and the line. An early double 1 on a dodge however meant that I didn’t have the chance to put in a block, and I was forced to call on the wizard to bring him down with seconds to go until the half time whistle, and…

…the wizard failed. A last gasp 2D-against blitz from Legolas (which would have needed double pows to work) also failed, leaving the orc blitzer to thunder home to tie the score as the half ended.

No blitz for me in the second half kickoff, although Haldir on LOS duty took his second permanent injury which will mean he now retires – adding a fractured skull to his broken neck. I didn’t do much except form a line, but I was provided with a wonderful stroke of luck after a couple of turns when the orc thrower tried a GFI to get the ball into a safe cage and rolled a double 1! The way was easy to open, as one of the orc blitzers had piled on, and so Gil-Galad smashed a marker out of the way to make the space and then cut left towards the sideline, while Glorfindel ran to pick the ball up under the nose of a black orc, then dodged away and flipped a short pass to Gil-Galad. My remaining catchers then made a screen around Gil-Galad.

The orcs marked up my players but couldn’t get to Gil-Galad. I ran round them and stalled for a turn by the end zone (which proved to be critical) before scoring on turn 12.

Four turns for the orcs to equalise and this time my defence held firm. The ball was in a loose cage very quickly, but I kept my columns, and even used Gil-Galad to blitz a hole for Glorfindel to put a tackle zone on the ball carrier, which forced the orcs to waste their turn’s blitz clearing him away. On my turn 15 there were 2 orcs who could get to the end zone, and I crowdsurfed one and stunned the other, giving me a 2-1 win!

A funny thing happened to me in matchmaking #1

I might do some of these.

So anyway, I was in Nagg looking for a game with my 1400 TV norse team. They are quite bashy. I think the roster is

Ulf - mighty blow
Ulf - guard
Zerker - mighty blow, piling on
Zerker - mighty blow, tackle
Yhetee -
Runner - +1MV, dodge
Lineman - dirty player
Lineman - fend
Lineman - guard
+some other linemen

I was matched against a min-maxed killer chaos team with 1700 TV. It was a really brutal side - lots of mighty blow, claw and piling on amongst the chaos warriors, one beastman with AG4, sure hands and extra arms, one brutal 250SPP killer beastman, and the rest of the beastmen were dross. He was also running only 10 players to cheat the matchmaker (which matches your TV before journeymen are added).

A sort of red mist descended on me. I'm not sure why. Perhaps it was me snapping after so many games being bullied by killer teams as elves. Perhaps it was the irritation that this guy had built a team specifically to kill my players via matchmaking. In any event, I decided to play the game completely differently than any game I think I've ever played before - I ignored the ball.

I don't mean I literally ignored it - at least towards the start of the game I made a token effort to pick it up - but I never tried to score, and later in the game I just concentrated on peeling his players away from the scrum to isolate and kill.

The second half in particular was lovely. He was caging up properly on the left hand side, while I kept frenzy pushing the nearest chaos warrior away from the safety of his team mates towards a knot of my guys in the middle of the pitch whereupon I stuck the boot in. He tried the tactic of staying down, but took some nasty fouls in the process.

He had just 2 players on the pitch by turn 16, and I'd given stat injuries to two of his chaos warriors (-1AV and -1AG, and those two warriors were previously uninjured and had over 200 SPP between them), and a niggling injury to the AG4 ball carrier. All of this came at the cost of 1 dead lineman and 1 lineman with a broken neck (both linemen were rookies).

I lost 2-0, but felt for the first time the cathartic nihilism that pure bash coaches must feel all the time. The urge to simply destroy. A seductive drug.

I think when the Guard drag themselves bleeding from the field and into retirement I might try AV7 bash for a while - with either norse or underworld probably.

The fixture list is out...

...and I've got AndyDavo's dark elves first, followed by (gulp) the orcs of Despized and then undead of Ghouls Gone Wild!

My first game is therefore definitely winnable, against an opponent with a team that looks worse that mine on paper. The coach quality is very high, however (I talked to him on vent, and he's very confident). It should be a very close game.

Games 2 and 3 will define my season - being my most bashy opponents by far. If I come out of those with say a win and a draw and without much damage to my team, then I'll be happy. What could happen though is that I lose one or both games and get my players massacred. I guess we'll see.

First game should be Wednesday.

OCC Season 18 Division 2C

The divisions are up! I am in division 2C - let’s have a look at the teams, first in overview:

■ AndyDavo - I Just Blitzed Your Mum - Dark Elf
■ Zunk - Despized - Orc
■ TheMuffinThief - Long Gone and Reprosper - Necromantic
■ Everblue - The Grey Haven Guard - High Elf
■ Antonlunau - Ghouls Gone Wild - Undead
■ frubeng - Khorne Flakes Browl - Chaos
■ Aguelo - Neverending Rest - Khemri
■ Hobnail - Black Widows. - Amazon
■ Youleaf - Lesser Horned Ones - Chaos
■ Crunky Chops - Ecothermic Scutes – Lizardman

First thing’s first – only one orc team. That’s really good given my recent history with orcs and the fact that they tend to be skilled up to squash elves. The bad news is the coach is Zunk and the team is Despized. Despized are I believe the oldest team in the league and have an unbelievable roster. Otherwise in terms of racial mix it could have been a lot worse – division 2B, for example, is 50% orc. 5 out of 10 teams are orcs.

Looking at the teams themselves

1) AndyDavo – I Just Blitzed Your Mum – Dark Elf – 1900TV

Andy is a stalwart at the UKBBL league, where he also plays dark elves. This team has come second twice and has been in tier 1 several times, while Andy has won the UKBBL and is looking good there this season too. Clearly therefore this guy knows how to coach dark elves.

This team is looking a bit battered, and with a fresh crop of blitzers it is lacking a really solid core. There are signs that the coach is particularly bashy, with a fouler lineman and a mighty blow/piling on witch elf. There is also a ST5 lineman with blodge and side step, and presumably this player can win games on his own!

That said, there is precisely zero tackle on the team (presumably because it has all been killed off) and no diving tackle either. I will therefore say that on paper I have an advantage over this team, but the coach’s experience and ability will be a formidable obstacle.

2) Zunk – Despized – Orc – 2330TV (!)

Ugh. Really. I’ll just spell it out.

Three legendary blitzers on the team who have 50% more SPP between them than my entire team, two of whom are ST4, all of whom have tackle/mighty blow and two of whom have piling on? Check.

A full rack of skilled-up black orcs? Check.

A thrower with KOR to get the ball into the cage and passing skills to threaten an offensive play? Check.

This team looks brutal. The team’s been to division 1 before but never won the thing. My consolation is the lack of an explosive offence, and so it strikes me that if I can score then I might be able to get a draw and hope that the wizard comes through for me. Hey ho.

3) TheMuffinThief - Long Gone and Reprosper - Necromantic – 1790TV

A team that I don’t know much about really – it’s quite a young team and has come up through the ranks (5 seasons old so far I believe). Its fan factor is high and I see that it won five games in this division last season, so it seems to me that this could be a team which got promoted to tier2 quite quickly and then just failed to get promotion to tier 1 in its first season.

The best player by far on the team is a killer werewolf with CPOMB and tackle, as well as blodge. An absolute bastard of a player and a big target. Taking him out then there is a ST5 flesh golem but otherwise this team could be relatively fresh.

My record against necro teams is abysmal, so we’ll see whether I’ve learned anything in the meantime I guess.

4) Antonlunau - Ghouls Gone Wild - Undead – 2000TV

A really nasty undead team, and one that could mean a very bloody match for my elves. Anton is another player who’s active in the UKBBL, and again he plays undead there too and has won the league with that undead team.

Added to all that undead coaching experience (and his team’s stellar rise through the divisions) is a bastard of a team. There’s a blodge mummy, two diving tackle ghouls and also the most vicious killer that the OCC has ever seen – a wight called Ulric the Maimer, who is skilled to take on wrodgers with tackle and juggernaught and then kill them with POMB.

Unusually, the zombie roster is very strong. There is a special snowflake level 5 zombie with ST4, block, tackle and mighty blow who will be especially difficult to take on. A really tough prospect here and without even a TV deficit to get me a wizard (yet!) then any sort of result will be difficult. There’s not even much claw in the league to thin them out before I play them. Oh dear.

5) frubeng- Khorne Flakes Browl - Chaos - 1990TV (+80 from injured players, +2 skillups)

A somewhat battered looking chaos team that was in tier 1 last season.

I don't know too much about the coach, except that he must be pretty good to have been in tier 1. The team itself has a very new set of chaos warriors and has obviously had some bad injuries along the line somewhere.

The stand out player is a level 6 mino with block, claw, tentacles, guard and break tackle - I guess this guy does most of the heavy lifting on the team. There is also a MV8 blodger goat with 3 arms who looks a really good ball carrier. Other than that though, what good players there are appear to be carrying injuries, and there's no tackle on the team at all.

This match should therefore definitely be winnable - hopefully I'll play them early in the season before the killer teams thin out my numbers too much.

6) Aguelo - Neverending Rest - Khemri  - 1860TV

I last saw these guys in tier 4 where I sneaked a 2-1 win in a very close match. The team is looking a little different - one of the blitz-ras is no longer there (the niggled one!), and they've lost one of their AG3 skeletons and the dirty player.

That said, the Tomb Guardian lineup is still very strong, including the ST6 block guy, and there's still Imoteph the hard-as-nails killer.

The coach knows what he's doing, but I do wonder how these guys will get on this season. There isn't much claw around, which is good for them, but I can see their games against the orcs and undead being quite bloody.

7) Hobnail- Black Widows. - Amazon - 1900 TV

BBTactics regular, self-styled grumpy sod and the winner of the OCC way back in Season 1, when men were men and Blood Bowl was played in black and white - Hobnail brings his amazons into the meat grinder.

I have never played Hobnail but I watched some of his games last season. He's a wicked fouler and more dedicated to the fight than the ball, which I guess is fine as a zon coach.

The team is quite tough looking - there are two ST4 blitzers, one of whom also has tackle and mighty blow. There are also a couple of dirty players and a nice sidestep / diving tackle catcher. Other than that, and perhaps an honourable mention should also go to the wrackle linewoman, there isn't much here. The ST4 killer is clearly a player to treat with respect, but my team have almost as much dodge, handle the ball better, have better armour, have our own ST4 players and are faster - so, umm, easy right?

I suspect not! This will be my first match against amazons with this team (and only my third ever) so really I don't know what I'm up against or how to beat them, all of which will be music to the ears of my opponent no doubt!

8) Youleaf - Lesser Horned Ones - Chaos - 1940TV (+180 from injured players)

Another team promoted from tier 3, and the one perhaps I know the least about. I had *thought* that this team were more focussed on ball handling than most chaos teams and were all about the AG4, but there's no AG4 on the team so I must have been mistaken.

The only real killer is again the mino, and there are some brawling chaos warriors with mighty blow, but no more claw.

The stand out player would have been a MV8 beastman, but he took a smashed ankle on the last game of last season and is now down to MV7. He may possibly be cut before the season starts therefore. There is also a tackle/mighty blow/wrestle elf killer. Otherwise though, this team is much less scary for me than the division killers.

9) Crunky Chops - Ecothermic Scutes – Lizardman (+140 from injured players, +1 skillup)

A team that finished 3rd ahead of me in division 3A last season, and who beat me in a brutal 2-1 encounter.

The Saurus line is still a work in progress, but the coach has managed to keep them alive thus far and so they are only likely to improve. There are two really good high level ball carrying skinks - one of whom with the critical AG4 - and a couple of annoying markers with diving tackle. Add that to the skilled up krox and the coach who has excellent game sense and knows how to beat elves, and you have a difficult match indeed.

Hopefully before we meet Despized can kill off a couple of skinks...!

End of season

So I signed off with a big win, but it was all for nought as both Another Bad Idea! and Ectothermic Scutes also both won, leaving me in fourth. Damn...

Here's the final table

As you can see, my season pretty much came down to, well, all sorts of things, but the draw against Another Bad Idea! which should have been a win but for my stupidity stopped me from getting second place.

Fortunately however it looks like there will be one extra promotion spot this season due to players in the top two tiers rerolling, and if that's right then I'll be in tier 2 (aka "the meatgrinder") for season 18. My record for this team is now:

Season 16 - Division 6A - 4 wins / 3 draws / 2 defeats - 4th place
Season 17 - Division 4D - 7 wins / 1 draw / 1 defeat - 2nd place
Season 18 - Division 3A - 5 wins / 1 draw / 3 defeats - 4th place

Next season will be really tough however, and probably a division full of bash. There are some horrible teams in that tier, and since promotion to tier 1 is very difficult (top 2 go up only) then there are lots of very well developed teams. Divisions should be posted over the weekend sometime.