ramchop
Joined: Oct 12, 2013
|
SWL XCV Artoria Donatania Conference
hmmm... feeling a bit of a lack of enthusiasm for this season. The Luckers have played 4 the teams in this pool before. Three of them last season, and last season didn't go so well.
How do they line up?
 Malapropisms Relieved (1450k, 8/2/4), BeefyGoodness
 Nana's Undies (1480k, 11/5/3), Irgy
 Mosgiel Moonrakers (1290k, 14/11/17), Wozzaa
 [SWL] Invasion Cube 001 (1250k, 4/5/1), awambawamb
 Skye Babes (1470k, 12/4/20), JoeKano
 Killer Heelz (1380k, 16/11/14), Reggiesson
 New Blacktown Expatriates (1360k, 18/11/13), ClayInfinity
GG Luckers (1410k, 19/11/12) as always have a tough season ahead. |
|
|
ramchop
Joined: Oct 12, 2013
|
SWL XCV Artoria Donatania Conference
Game 1: BeefyGoodness's Khemri "Malapropisms Relieved"
So, starting the season with "a bit of a lack of enthusiasm". 6 BOrcs vs 4 Tomb Guardians. I did have 2 Guard though, surely that'd help even things up. Maybe, until I lost a guard. A tough match where I gave beefy a shot at opening my cage and he did so ruthlessly.
Full Time: 0-2 (0/1/0 - 0/0/0)
Lack of enthusiasm reinforced, what to do? Fortunately before the next game we get a half hour session on Black Orcs in the One World, One Blood Bowl podcast. Maybe they can help.
"They are the worst, they are terrible aren't they? Black Orcs"
"Plan A has to work, and if Plan A doesn't work, it's game over"
"So why are people still enjoying a team that is clearly terrible at Blood Bowl, really suffering in all the win stats?"
"They're awful"
"It's the character of the team rather than how good they are"
".. and so everyone's putting up with this absolute dross of a team"
And yes they are suffering in the win stats. Five race tables were posted on discord from various formats (thanks Garion):
2nd to last 44% wins
6th to last 44% wins
5th to last 45% wins
8th to last 45% wins
3rd to last 43% wins
GGs are sitting on 19/11/13, what's that 57%? But, this is only SWL and we did just lose the Urn 
Is there hope for the Luckers? Maybe not a Prem title... ok let's be honest, Certainly not a Prem title. However, there should be enough to keep me interested for another 57 games to make the 100 like my last two SWL teams did.
So a few goals:
- Make Prem again
- Do better (or at least as good as) Clay did in Prem
- Win a Silver Cup
- Never get relegated to Regionals
- Beat mushoomy's lizards with my "shit lizards"
- Get a win against every race (my Bingo card)
... and most importantly learn to love this absolute dross of a team. Wish me luck. Go Luckers! |
|
|
ramchop
Joined: Oct 12, 2013
|
SWL XCV Artoria Donatania Conference
Game 2: Irgy's Undead "Nana's Undies"
BOrcs one of the worst races, up against Undead one of the best. With my best BOrc in recovery, we had a bit of inducement cash to play with. Under pre-FAQ rules I'd probably have thrown in a couple of coins from treasury to get me a blitzer (Varag) to accompany Dribblesnot into the ring. But it's post-FAQ times so I roll out an old favourite, a slightly cheaper Ripper.
As much as the inducements races (snots, flings...) hate the change, maybe we'll see a bit more variety in the Stars who show up.
Drive 1
BOrcs receive, and with a little help from Dribble cut the dead down to 8 players. Of course this helps, and though a few dice need to be rolled, the Luckers rumble forward and score T8.
Drive 3
I think the GGs would be happy with a draw, but that might not be up to me. After chopping us down to 9 players, Irgy scores on T12.
Drive 4
KO'ed goblin doesn't return, so we start the attempt to win with 9 vs 11. Two goblins, 3 rerolls, and 5 turns to score.
Turn 14
A tricky situation to get out of.
Removals help
Turn 15
A tricky situation to get out of.
Grab helps
Turn 16
Dice needed
Nuffle helps
Very very happy to get this win over a solid team with a solid coach.
Full Time: 2-1 (1/0/1 - 1/2/1) |
|
|
ramchop
Joined: Oct 12, 2013
|
SWL XCV Artoria Donatania Conference
Game 3: Wozzaa's Halflings "Mosgiel Moonrakers"
From underdog to overdog, but I wasn't about to let Wozzaa be the only one having fun with bombs. 50k from my treasury gave the flings a total of 250k to play with.
Rumbelow plus keg.... where's Cindy?
Drive 1
Flings leave the BOrcs behind. Dribblesnot is very close though, will one TZ be enough to have him miss the shot?
No.
But maybe an interfering tree would
However the gap had been created, and the captain BOrc sprinted in to smack the carrier.
rr
And the dirty git came in to take off the star fling.
Four turns to score and a long way to run. It was only after the match when I looked at the dice stats that I realised there were moles under the pitch this drive. 7 gfis for the flings, 3 for the GGs. Four turns is a lot, no gfi required on the run to the EndZone
Drive 2
Luckers receive in the second half 1-0 up. Things are looking good, flings are short on numbers. This should be a breeze. Except Wozzaa is a very good fling coach, and he wasn't about to give up.
Stay away from the Trees is a well known mantra. But what if St2 flings push S4 BOrcs into Trees, and Trees into BOrcs? Little bullies.
Turn 12
Turn 13
Turn 14
Turn 15
Having survived a 3D block by a tree, and a 1D surf attempt, it was long overdue for Tirohanga to accept that 1 TD was enough for today and simply run away.
The flings were very hard done by to not leave the pitch with a draw. Well played Wozzaa.
Full Time: 1-0 (0/1/0 - 0/0/0) |
|
|
ramchop
Joined: Oct 12, 2013
|
SWL XCV Artoria Donatania Conference
Game 4: awambawamb's Borg "[SWL] Invasion Cube 001"
The Borg meta. I've played a few games with the Borg. To get positionals you need to assimilate (= murder) them first. Similarly skills get chosen in priority from those that have been assimilated by the hive mind. So you end up with a lot of linemen with Block and Frenzy.
Hardly an optimal team build. So how the hell did awambawamb come into this game with a 6/6/1 record?
First Half
I brought Dribblesnot as overdog (of course), rebuy is still a few rounds away I can afford to splash money around.
Luckers receive and in the first turn we managed to remove two Borg. The Borg struck early with the Wizard (Turn 1!), didn't get the ball from it, but did remove the Bomber.
The suspicion grew that this was going to be easy. Nobody told the awambawamb this, his Borg were relentless. They continually charged in, manning up, and forcing dice rolls. No worries, feed the BOrcs and the Troll and we'll just remove more players.
uh-oh. GGs scrambled got the ball back. Then...
<ramchop> forgot to blitz
Just the one player left unmoved. I knew I shouldn't but couldn't help myself
<ramchop> i don't know if the troll is up to the task, we'll see...
<ramchop> nope
While blodge withstood the next hit, the Borg closed in, and secured the ball a turn later. Somehow the GGs managed to recover it again, and we sprinted to a very relieved score.
I can't recall feeling as hassled, harried and harassed in a drive as the Luckers were in that one.
Half Time 1-0
Second Half
While the Borg manning up so very nearly gave them the honours in the first half of defence, similar tactics with ball in hand didn't pay off.
Turn 9
mucking about with Gimp for the first two gifs took long enough, not doing it with that one
Back on defence the harrassment continued, but the Luckers prevailed - only missing a second touchdown with a failed T16 gfi. A very enjoyable match indeed.
Full Time: 1-0 (1/1/0 - 0/1/0) |
|
|
ramchop
Joined: Oct 12, 2013
|
SWL XCV Artoria Donatania Conference
Game 5: JoeKano's Amazon "Skye Babes"
The Borg quite unhelpfully removed my best BOrc for this game. This cut my Tackle count from 2 down to 1. So what's in the arsenal for a BOrc team to use against a team of 6 blodgers?
A wrestle goblin? A vomiting troll?...
Pretty obvious really in the new meta. With the captain missing, the GGs had 180k to spend as underdog. Bomber Dribblesnot was the first choice, a bribe the second, leaving 80k. Let's narrow the field with Frenzy, and welcome Akhorne into the team.
There is a lot of discussion about how broken Dribblesnot is. Most of it focusses on the use of him in defence. I like this quote from JanMattys:
"Bomber is a defensive starplayer first and foremost. If your opponent fields him during their offense, either they have a bribe or they are making a mistake."
If I have the choice, I'll receive first and use Bomber on offence. Sure I had a bribe this time, but even without it I'd usually go for carnage first.
In my head, BOrcs need a bit of help from removals to grind up and score. An extra mighty blow on the team helps with these removals, and also acts as a decoy.
In this game Bomber scored a serious injury on a skilled lino on Turn 1, threw 2 other bombs to little effect before Turn 7. Then Turn 7 happened.
4 KOs, 2 SI, and a dead apo dead Jaguar Warrior.
3 for the Bomb, 1 for the dirty git, and 3 for the single tackler.
Half Time: 1-0
Second half Zons score early to get rid of Bomber. 1-1
A very short kick, and a failed pickup, spilling the ball into Zon territory made me nervous. After recovering the ball and with the numbers advantage, the Luckers rumbled up the pitch for another win.
Full Time: 2-1 (0/1/0 - 0/1/0) |
|
|
ramchop
Joined: Oct 12, 2013
|
SWL XCV Artoria Donatania Conference
Game 6: Reggiesson's Dark Elf "Killer Heelz"
The business end of the season. Qualification to the Premiership is oh so close, but there are a few things that can stop us.
5 games played, the Luckers are on 20 points. 4 wins and a loss.
Back on 4 games Clay's BOrcs are on 12 points. If they beat the Borg, and then beat GGs in R7, then they'll pass us in second.
Unless we win. So Plan A is a simple one. Win.
And how? Scum Bomber!
Expensive mistakes threshold in SWL mean that 200k+ you can lose half your treasury with a roll of 1. I did not want to got into Prem with a decimated bank, so the GGs were going conservative and trimming down to 190k. This gave us wiggle room to overdog both Bomber and a Bribe, so we did.
Bomber was good. The dirty git however, Gracefield was having a special half.
Turn 3: Knocked out a Legend Blitzer
Turn 4: Badly Hurt a Witch (apo'ed)
Turn 5: Killed a lino
Turn 6: Badly Hurt a star Blitzer
Turn 7: Stun! Ref had had enough.
It was so tempting to keep the dirty bugger on, but I resisted. And kept the bribe for Dribblesnot.
We still had to score though and the DElves had a trick up their sleeves to stop us.
Maybe the Riot had put me a few squares short of where I wanted to be, it was a very nervous turn 8.
Halftime: 1-0
The DElves, like the Zons last round weren't keen to endure another half of Bomber Dribblesnot. The break was made...
A long drive for the painfully slow ball carrying BOrc. Turn 15 the call was made from the coach for him to hand over to the ex-frog. And the superstar obliged.
Full Time: 2-0 (0/1/0 - 1/0/0) |
|
|
|
|
| |
Super League
Search
