Oooops, scary stuff this writing so people can see it.

Rightio, I didnt know what "blog" is, until recently ( as of today, and thanks for Sage for saying something to make me find out). I did some reading on reliable sources (wikipedia) and it seems it is almost same thing than "forum".

I thought this is kind of "notes" section, where one can write he's own observations and keep black lists and stuff like that...

Anyhows, sorry about wasting people's time.

In the future, dont open anything that I write to spare you from possible disappointment.

- Dlock

Ah, what em0 means?

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Autumn's Leaves is my League team and as such I consider it my main team.

Name comes from my favorite season and from those beautiful brown, yellow and red leaves that colour the landscape. This is particularly stunning in the northern countries like Scandinavia and Canada.

I used to find myself wandering about the life and death quite a lot in dark autumn nights, and since I dont think any of my Wood Elves are going to survive long with my playstyle, I recon its fitting name for this outfit.

Team plays in SWL, which after first impressions looks very decent bunch of people- Aussies mainly, but dont hold that against them (I would insert smiley here if I'd know how to make sure that people know this to be "funny" remark).

My goal for the team (from team building point of view) is to have 13 man - 3 rerolls roster.

2 Wardancers, Treeman ( I debated about this for long, but I need some muscle against the teams I am facing in this league), Thrower or 2( I really enjoy throwing game), 2 - 3 Catchers ( worried about their ST 2 though) and 4 - 6 Lineman.

((( Ok, after few games under my belt I have reviewed my team building ideas; my aim now is to have 5-6 developed / developing players and the rest will be sacrifical lambs. Also, done away with the idea of trying throwing game, too un-reliable, I will try to get better on just running the ball instead. Still undecided about the catchers... )))

What comes to skills selection, my universal number one skill is block- this for me seems by far the strongest skill in the game, it offers protection and hitting power without having any real downside.

((( giving thought to starting getting wrestle instead of block as first skill, gives same protection and get help me to create holes. I wont be winning casualty wars anyhows, so causing damage with blocks isnt that important.)))

Only 2 players wont block as their first skill, and they are my dedicated kicker, who will propably get it 3rd or 4th skill and my dirty player, who wont survive long enough to get he's 2nd skill.

Dodge I see as not that great skill. This team plays in environment that has lots of tackle to start with, and all the dedicated blitzers seem to take that skill early on. As a rule, I will avoid getting hit as much as I can, and if I have to re-roll failed dodge, I am happy to use team re-roll for that if necessary.

(( I still hate the fact that tackle, the skill that lots of my opponent teams have in heaps, cancels this skill out. Saying this, I do need to start taking it more, I have been getting better of giving blocks away, but still suffer lots of injuries, I need to get as much protection to my elves as possible. They are capable scoring without any extra skills but they are NOT capable of surviving with all the extra help.)))

I prefer Side-Step and Fend as my 2nd and 3rd skill, then dodge if they survive that long.

01/06/2014.

Right, the next season of SWL is just around the corner and I have given serious re-think to my team and skills selection. While I still find it annoying how often Dodge skill is countered by tackle, I am still upgrading it on my list as 2nd or 3rd skill to take. Almost everybody seems to talk about the holy "blodge" and I quess I should listen to more experiences and wise couaches. I hope this will make difference on how often those block dices will bring my player down.

I still love side-step as a skill, so good for positioning, and side-line guarding. I am going to try to change my tactics for little bit more "risky" as well. Even when my defense played as well as I could, I still struggled to brake any cages and subsequently failed to stop touchdowns.

Slowing down enemy just didnt work well enough. I might try to lure them deeper in my own half fast, hopefully isolate some players or teams of players, and concentrate on pulling players farther from cage. Unfortunately this is risky, since I will be getting hit more, and even 2 or 3 injuries makes it hard to stall long enough in 2nd half.

Stalling is something I struggle anyways, and lack of courage and skills to do that effectively has cost me good few games in the past. Add this to list of things to learn, particularly when few players down, which is often the case when playing woodies.

I am also praying my tree to roll extra movement, mobile tree would be handy- still unreliable - but would love to stick that tree to the side of the cage for a turn or 2.

I also need to get some catchers, reason I like wood elves so much is the mobility ( skaven are just too fragile with ag3 for me) and to really get the high movement going, catchers are needed. I am still worried about st2, but lets face it, even when my elves are st3, other teams will always have plenty of higher st and guard pieces available to get 2 dice blocks in, so it doesnt make much difference.

All this said, I have already hit a spot where I feel like I am not improving as a player, anyhows this is not propably true and every defeat I suffer, teaches me yet another mistake I made.

Ok, my season preview;

1st off I am against high scoring skaven team; Redgum's Rodents - In this game I need to decided few things, do I go for high scoring match and hoping to win rats on their own game, do I try to defend passing lines or players and how much contact I am going for. They are very mobile team, more than mine, and their rat ogre with his movement and tail is scary. Couple early injuries might change this game quit a bit. Interesting game anyways, havent faces skaven that often, so it'll be interesting. Ah, and then there's the question of receiving or not, since both teams have 1-turners this might be deciding factor...

(((AFTER GAME; Well, I did get a win out of this, which was a pleasant surprise, but more I think about the game, more I realise how lucky I am to get away with lots of bad mistakes. Forgetting frenzy was big one and without double skulls it would have caused early turnover and loss of wardancer. I didnt deal well with frenzy at all, and several times I had to check my plans because of it and made bad choices. Nice opponent and good game though. Oh, and he was unlucky not to score draw TD in the last turn, double 1's for GFI...)))

Malapropism Mania - Ah, chaos dwarf, the OP team, mix of strength, mobility and cheap throwaways. If I can somehow draw this one, I will be happy. Honestly, dont know what to do here, I need to be more ready than last season to bounce to any opportunities that might come my way, and to sacrifice pieces when the time is right. Hard game.

(((AFTER GAME: Got perfect start for this game- blitz result and after ball landed it was held by my player. I moved the game from bottom of the field to the top of the field and was looking for easy TD- BUT, made counting mistake and my ballcarrier got blocked and stunned ( he had JU, and I recon I would have got the ball straight back without stun). That was the end of that TD try and other team managed to secure the ball. Still, it was round 5, and due to hes soft hitting ( I gave away over 50 blocks whole game, so injury results were good for me) I had my defense well on place. BUT, then I decide to try to get the ball of from he's gage!!! Not smart, put my players in contact and let him swap the ball to position where it was easy for him to protect the line to TD line, very stupid of me indeed. Other than that, at least I tried something and got couple chances, so next time maybe I can pull that evasive draw against CD.)))

Kowabunga Connection - ah, oh why, oh why, more dwarfes, well, at least these guys are the slower ones (althought it seems that runners in this team are not really that "dwarfish", wrong, I say). I might even try some zonal defense against these guys and see if I can slow them down enough. Then again, if they for one reason another fumble the ball, I need to jump on that. Tackle all around is painful though, and I'll never brake any cages, although I might be able to bring in handy star players. Hehe, and fireball in the middle of that cage in the right time might be fun. Hard game.

4th game is against Griffon Gate Sentinels - this is the game I am looking forward most I quess. Team looks pretty strong, well-rounded and with deadly blitzer, there is even guard there to... This, like the skaven team earlier, is team I shant be able to stop scoring so its matter of if I can score more. Jeez, how has the coach of this team managed to keep hes elves alive and leveled up so equally, there is no weaknesses on this team. Hard game (this seems to be my assessment of every game).

SWL Manglers - this will be 1st time I play against "chaos pact"-team, and I do need to admit that I werent even aware of this race existing.Looks little bit like Chaos Dwarfes in a way, lots of strong- scary pieces and then some fast ones to balance this out. Well, my team survives this game with less than 5 perma injuries, I count myself lucky, and what comes to actually being competitive... one can always dream... then again, nice to meet team I havent faced before, and who knows, those loners might be standing around all day doing sweet nothin'

2nd last game seems to be against Lizardmen; Sotek Sacred Spawning - Again, well rounded team with lots of strength in there. Somehow I am hopeful though, if I dont get drawn into blocking competition, keep my composure and patience, draw is not impossible. Lots depends on the ball handling, if skinks are nervous, I might be able to bounce and score. On the other hand, I wont be able to make holes in the line of this team, so I will be doing some dodging around, and those double ones do happen... Will be fun game.

(((AFTER GAME: Right, this was example of game where Nuffle blessed my every move- I failed one dodge all game, my opponents hits were with silk gloves, my fireball decimated hes gage and good few skinks, my passing, ballhandling and all was favorable looked upon by Nuffle. All this against opponent who was superior on playing skills to me but great sport even when given rotting dice made most enjoyable game.)))

Last game is against Pimp My Dwarf - well, exactly same than the other chaos dwarf team. only question here is, if I win coin toss, should I receive? Bugger if I know...

((( AFTER GAME: Not bad try but predictable result- 2-1 loss. Played ok, and 1st half was propably my best defensive playing I have done, if not for double skulls on my turn 7 block on hes ballcarrier I recon I would have stopped that TD and get to 2nd half 0-0 ball in hand. Anyhows, still havent won or drawn against dwarves, maybe next season.)))

Season expectations;

Score 1-turn touchdown
Win a game
Draw at least 2 games.
Dont lose any games by more than 4 TD's.

My chances on descending order of success;

Best
Sotek Sacred Spawning
Redgums Rodents
Griffon Gate Sentinels
SWL Manglers
Pimp My dwarf
Kowabunga Connection
Malapropism Mania
No chance (bar Nuffle's favor).