The tabletop adventures of the White Isle Interlopers continued this week, with a game against our very own Sizzling_Gromril and his TV 116 Chaos team, Our Clawed and Saviour.

The lads were looking thusly with a 4/0/1 record pre-game:

1. pac - Pheonix, Pass, Safe Throw, Block , 10 spp mng
2. PeteW - Dragon, Block, +MA, 6 spp
3. Hogshine - Lion, Catch
4. JockMcRowdy - Dragon, Block, Tackle, 6 spp
5. Gritter - Lino, Block, 13 spp
6. SillySod - Lino, 3 spp
7. spubbbba - Lino mng
8. phil78 - Lino
9. Unstoffe - Lino, Block, 9 spp
10. Wilf - Lino, 4 spp
11. Borgen - Lino, Kick, 11 spp
15. Russo - Lino, Guard, 11 spp

3RR, 4 Fans, 40k.

White Isle Interlopers 3 - 1 Our Clawed and Saviour

Grom's Chaos featured a 12 man roster, 4 Warriors (one with Dodge, one with Claw) and Beastmen to 12, one of which had Dodge. They also had some Babes after the Interlopers drafted in a Journeyman to hit 11 men.

Grom won the toss and elected to kick in sweltering heat (ouch!), and WILIs began with the ball. A blitz! really threatened to jam us in deep, and Grom did a great job of putting big pressure on the Elves. Handily, T2 from Grom's point of view opened with a Skull/Both down rr Skull/Both down with his Claw, and I was able to get away up a touchline. Guard Lino Russo combined to open a hole, and Wilf got a Comp to Hoggeh the new Lion Warrior. T5 came, and the Catcher sprinted in to score.

Heat kicked in and the Elves were reduced to 7 men Vs. 10. As we kicked deep, the Interlopers gambled and threw a wall of Elves into the Chaos backfield; a 4+ 3+ pass / catch and Grom was away for an unstoppable 1-1, all my eggs were in one basket. 3! RR... 3! Hoggeh swept on the ball, passed to phil78, and the 0spp Lino was in at the corner in T8! \o/ On that drive, Russo copped a slap from a rookie beastman, went down... Dead! Apo used... RR that injury... Dead! Guard Lino down, a KO on the T8 LOS, and heat kicked in once more, as the Interlopers kicked in the second half with but 5 men vs 9.

Good job I got to 2-0! Grom got a nice and easy TD in T5 fouling fo stuns (luckily) as he went. Heat reversed fortunes this time, and I had a 9 v 6 advantage, 9 v 5 when Jock got an early CAS on my last drive. With so few left for the Chaos, WILIs were able to get away easily, Wilf Comping for a skill to Hoggeh, who scored in T16 for an impressive 7spp haul on his debut. The second half was marred by a niggle to PeteW as Grom's Chaos had their revenge for the scoreline, 2 perms in one game, owie!

Game / Rule Feeling

Good game played with a fun coach! Hogshine and Wilf both rolled normals, Dodge for Hoggeh, and my first new skill, Wrestle for Wilf. 40k winnings, +FF, MVP for the new niggler Pete.

New rules weren't much of a factor here; Chaos is Chaos. Claw I guess was a bit less of a pain, and he didn't do a lot. Really dice influenced game, heat is a real bugger. I'm finding LRB6 winnings a real bloody pain. 6 games now and I've only earned one new player and an Apo. I'm starting to seriously regret not frontloading a bit more with maybe another Lion, one less RR and Leader early on my Pheonix; I think the next team I run will be more "now" ready, especially with how spiraling expenses seems to cap teams at TV 190-200 maximum. I'm slowly coming to the conclusion that when the new rules come to FUMBBL, the Journeymen / new Star / Inducement rules can only have a positive effect on [R] in both play and in how teams are built. I think they will lessen pimping for tournaments (Star prices, for instance, mean you can't pimp a team to 250k banked for a plethora of hires, even if you somehow get past spiraling expenses), cheese and picking to a degree (playing shorthanded Elves in 'recovery' situations dies a death), although clearly, these won't ever really evaporate. We'll give something the other way with some of the really poor rules changes / roster changes, of course, and I'm far from convinced that expenses is the greatest system ever thought up, it does look like it has a few serious flaws but it's not all bad by any means for our purposes. I'm looking forward to getting to expenses to see how it works in practice and how I have to approach life. I think Journeymen is a bit of a shame because the skill of coaching / building shorthanded in leagues will be lost, but I can't deny it props up hours that might be bleak with 7 Elves! Making strong low armoured races better seems a headscratcher, however...

Grom was fun, was a decent game, and I'm up to 5/0/1! W00t!

The team ended up like this:

1. pac - Pheonix, Pass, Safe Throw, Block , 10 spp
2. PeteW - Dragon, Block, +MA, 11 spp niggle
3. Hogshine - Lion, Catch, Dodge, 7 spp
4. JockMcRowdy - Dragon, Block, Tackle, 8 spp
5. Gritter - Lino, Block, 13 spp
6. SillySod - Lino, 3 spp
7. spubbbba - Lino
8. phil78 - Lino, 3 spp
9. Unstoffe - Lino, Block, 9 spp
10. Wilf - Lino, Wrestle, 6 spp
11. Borgen - Lino, Kick, 11 spp

3RR, 5 Fans, 80k. TV is 117.

On to game 7!