The_Carthaginian
Joined: Mar 05, 2015
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 Posted:
Jan 31, 2016 - 17:27 |
 
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15) Season LVI Grand Championship Play-offs - Round 1
Regenades - (Chaos Pact) - RDuccio - 1-1 at the end of H2, 2-1 following overtime.
In the first round of the play-offs I was matched against RDuccio's Chaos Pact Renegades. I played two Chaos Pact teams in this tournament, and both were a struggle, resulting in draws. They're unreliable, but the bash factor is strong with them; I have a tendency to get distracted and bogged down trying to eliminate key players, and by the time I either succeed or give up, I realise that in the meantime they have slowly been KO'ing most of my team and it's too late to do anything about it.
Having said that, RDuccio did have some key players who would need to be neutralised ASAP if possible; Spade, the two-headed blodging Dark Elf who was the only reliable ball carrier, Kaos, the S4Av6 Skaven who could cause all kinds of a fuss, and Pain, a block-claw marauder.
The Renegades are also unique amongst the top 4 in this tournament in having a low TV of 1470 - the other 3 finalists are all in the 1600-1700 range, and so I wondered if RDuccio had a particular strategy with respect to inducements, and was fully expecting to see Ugroth Bolgrot make another appearance against R2W. I wasn't wrong, and RDuccio hired Ugroth and took a bribe with the inducement money available.
The challange would be to avoid/remove the above-mentioned key players without being distracted and beaten up. I didn't mention the Renegades' big guys, but obviously they would be a big threat, too.
The Renegades won the toss and R2W set up first to kick from formation D2: Semi-Anti-Foul (https://fumbbl.com/help:Defensive+Setups). The Renegades put their big guys and Ugroth on the LOS, and the rest of the team in a loose formation to broadly cover the rest of their half.
The Renegades' first turn was cut short by Ugroth stunning himself with his chainsaw, and R2W responded with a blitz that saw Kaos the Skaven suffer an SI (taking his AV down to 5!) - a major coup so early in the game. Colonel H Stinkmeaner dodged through the Renegades line to mark race-traitor Spade; I hoped his tackle skill would make moving Spade away to collect the ball more challenging. I tried moving Uncle Ruckus, with Guard, to mark as well, but he failed a GFI. The Renegades struck back hard, Spade blitzing to pow Stinkmeaner and collect the ball. Another Renegade KO'd Stinkmeaner with a foul.
However, Spade was left further back with the ball, and was blitzed by Uncle Ruckus and Thugnificent. The ball was loose deep in the Renegades half, and the Dark Elves were moving to surround it. Would I be able to steal an early TD? And would I want to, knowing that Dark Elves are best stalling for a 1-0 victory?
A fiddly scrum ensued around the ball, with the Renegades recovering the ball and outnumbering R2W (most of whom were still in their own end of the pitch avoiding the Ren's Ogre). A key moment was ABNS snake-eyeing a dodge to fail a blitz on Spade when he had the ball; the Ren's consolidated their cage and KO'd him with a foul.
R2W's advance party kept trying harrass Spade, while R2W's remaining players moved forward to form columns in front of the Ren's cage. It was the Ren's turn to suffer some bad luck now, as marauder Jack re-rolled both down/skull into a skull/skull.
The scrum continued, with the Ren's losing and recovering the ball. Ugroth was still on the pitch, but thankfully was fairly inactive; if I had induced him, you'd best believe I'd be fouling or blitzing with him every turn. I know it's risky, but I wouldn't be able to resist! Meanwhile, Diamond, the Ren's ogre, was slowly but surely moving towards R2W's end zone, alone and without the ball. I thought RDuccio was just messing around, and teased him asking whether he was going to long-bomb the ball to the ogre. Little did I know that that's what he was actually going to do! In H1T7, a plucky marauder encircled the cage with the ball and made the pass - Diamond dropped it, but my players were too far to do anything about it, and I could only watch incredulously as Diamond the ogre picked up the ball and strolled into R2W's endzone in H1T8. Loner? Bonehead? A Jedi cares not for these.
R2W had one turn left in T1, and I decided to try a 1TTD. The less said about this attempt the better, but suffice to say that I utterly ballsed it up. To make things worse, the kickoff event was a riot, and RDuccio had gone for a fairly laissez-faire approach to setting up for what we both expected to be a one-turn drive, so really I could have made a 2TTD had I not been so impulsive. There were two positives, however. Ugroth was banned for his chainsaw use in the previous drive, the Ren's bribe not having any effect. A further player of theirs was also banned for a foul in H1T8.
So, going into H2, R2W still had all their players fit and healthy - POSSIBLY FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER! - while the Ren's were down 3; Kaos the Skaven, Ugroth and the banned marauder. Further to this, it was R2W's turn to receive, so if we were ever in a good position to equalise, it was then.
The Ren's set up in a wide and shallow formation, with players in their wide zones, with Pain, their Claw/Block lineman within 2 squares of the crowd. Never missing an opportunity to surf, I positioned Guard lineman Son of Rick James and Flonominal nearby. We were rewarded with Quick Snap as a kick-off event, enabling The Jolly Wrodger to catch the ball, Flonominal and SoRJ to move into contact for the planned surf, and all players on the LOS to step back. Pain was pow'd rather than surfed, and R2W punched through the Ren's right flank.
The Ren's moved to meet them, and blitz-powed Flonominal. This left DE Spade in position for a surfing, and R2W continued pressing forward, with TJW carrying the ball forward. In retrospect this was a mistake, as it left her open to a blitz from some spare marauders in the Ren's next turn, but luckily she was just pushed back. In R2W's following turn, Pain was finally surfed, resulting in a fatality which was apo'd into a -AV. R2W moved to surround the three marauders blocking TJW's advance, while TJW dodged away and further to the centre of the Ren's end zone. The marauders were able to devise another 2d block on TJW, this time getting a pow, followed by a foul which KO'd her. Nearer the sidelines, Colonel H Stinkmeaner was also KO'd by a block, and my strong attack suddenly looked a lot flimsier.
In R2W's next turn, Flonominal (with 3 well-placed assists) nearly achived a double-surf on two marauders, but a double pow-push meant this was just a single surf and a knockdown. Near The Ren's end zone, Thugnificent failed to collect the ball from two tackle zones, and was surfed by the Ren's for his hubris.
At the start of R2W's H2T5, the Ren's were deep in their half, with four maruaders near the loose ball in their end zone. Two marauders, a troll and an ogre also remained. R2W no longer had players near the ball, and had two blitzers, a witch elf and 5 lineman (including two players with Guard).
The Ren's moved to collect and cage the ball, while R2W moved to screen their advance. In a display of classic ElfBS, Flonominal blitzed the Ren's ball carrier, surfed him, and then dodged back to collect the ball from their ogre's tackle zone, where it landed after being thrown in by the crowd. In their next turn, their ogre blitzed Flonominal and released the ball, and the Ren's based the scrum. Flonominal managed to get 2d against the ogre, powed him, and stole the ball back when he landed on it. R2W closed in on the marauders betwee them and the end zone...I had just realised that the next turn was the last turn of the half, and we were still 0-1 down! A series of successful 2d blocks, with no rerolls available, would be required if we were to score.
Once again, Diamond the Ogre blocked Flonominal, resulting in a push. RDuccio said he made a mistake here, but I'm not sure what it was - I certainly side-stepped into a less-than-optimal position. The Ren's The Monk attempted to put another tackle zone on Flo', but a failed dodge ended their turn, and it was with not inconsiderable relief that I realised that the widest line of squares was clear of tackle zones. One tense dodge roll later, and Flo had equalised in H2T8.
The Ren's had one turn of normal play left, and as they roughed up my LOS (1 KO, due to foul), I was wondering how the tie would be resolved. In Cyanide's BB1, the drive doesn't end at the end of the second half, and play continues indefiintely. However, on FUMBBL, it appears that a new drive starts for overtime. I was not happy at the prospect of taking another round of hits on the LOS, but fortunately R2W won the toss and could receive.
R2W had 11 players left, and set up in a broad, longbow-type formation, with both WEs deep to collect the ball. The Ren's had 8 players left, and set up in a staggered formation. R2W collected the ball and blitzed left, but sent a lineman and a blitzer right, too. A failed dodge by Colonel H Stinkmeaner resulted in a BH. The Ren's moved to meet them, and some brave two-headed dodging by Spade enabled him to get 2d on ball carrier TJW, who fortunately stayed on her feet.
In turn 2, I couldn't see an easy way through The Ren's wall, and instead ran TJW back into our half, while the remaining vanguard surfed Spade. While The Ren's gave chase, with their ogre reliably blitzing twice in a row, it wasn't enough, and TJW sped down into their half, a loose screen forming around her. A double skull by Diamond ended the next Ren turn early, and TJW moved out of blitzing range, to score in T6 of overtime.
It was my first time playing a match that went into overtime, and it was pretty thrilling. RDuccio was always a threat. I think the key factor in this match was R2W's good fortune with injuries early on, and The Ren's failure to inflict injuries in return. In retrospect, this can all be traced back to Ugroth causing a turnover in the very first turn of the game - this gave R2W the opportunity they needed to get close to the ball in The Ren's half before they could collect it, and crucially, to remove Koas the S4 skaven. After this, The Ren's were on the back foot, and weren't able to bring their full bash to the table. They did achieve a decent number of armour breaks, but I was lucky that there were a lot more stuns resulting from these than anything else.
I have since found out that the final match will be between R2W and BilltoWin's Super Mega Epic Ratz - even two players down, they still have 14 players, and a favourable TV difference of 100k (and many skills between them)! Gulp. At least R2W are going in with all hands on deck. |
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Bloodfeast
Joined: Sep 02, 2009
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| Posted:
Jan 31, 2016 - 18:13 |
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Georugby
Joined: Nov 18, 2015
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| Posted:
Feb 02, 2016 - 23:18 |
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Pretty Fly for a Half-Die 1000+230k Goblin vs Ultimate Chaos Dwarves LABB1230k Chaos Dwarf
Date: 2016-02-02 22:48:52
0Score1
Nice match, as close as the score says!
Now the gobs are getting stronger and stronger
The Chaos Dwarves continue their slow progression! |
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The_Carthaginian
Joined: Mar 05, 2015
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| Posted:
Feb 03, 2016 - 22:57 |
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16) Season LVI Grand Championship Play-offs - Round 2
Super Mega Epic Ratz - (Skaven) - BilltoWin - 2-0
So this was it - at last, the final! I still didn't believe this wasn't all some big mistake and that I'd get found out at any moment.
As I mentioned in my previous report, BilltoWin's team are formidable indeed. Let's review the main threats: a claw/block/mb blitzer, 4 highly skilled gutter runners (1 Ag5/Wrodge, 1 Ma10, 1 blodge/side step/big hand, and 1 wrodge/dauntless/strip ball) who were clearly the stars of the team.
The remainder of the team included one guard/block lineman, and a couple of dirty players, who I'd have to watch out for. SMER were missing two players, but still had 14 to play with, and the missing players weren't their best. On top of this, BTW had 100k of inducements to play with, and bought two babes. BilltoWin was quite negative about his chances, and believed that the absence of his two injured players, and the amount of tackle on my team, limited his chances.
R2W lost the toss, and kicked first, setting up in Semi Anti Foul. SMER set up in a broad longbow-esque formation, with one gutter runner further back to collect the ball.
In their first turn, SMER clustered around the three players on my LOS and knocked them down. After collecting the ball with a gutter runner, Inappropriate Rat attempted a foul on one of my downed LOS linemen, and was sent off. Once less Skaven for me to deal with!
In their first turn, R2W's linemen engaged the Skaven cluster in the centre of the pitch, blitzers advanced to block the ball carrier and his friends, and the witch elves remained on the prowl at the rear. The Skaven ball carrier advanced on their left flank, and was left open to a possible blitz from 3 different players, a bit of an oversight on BTW's part.
The DE lineman, outnumbering and out-guarding the scrum in the middle of the pitch, made their blocks. TJW made her blitz and wrestled the ball carrier to the ground, and Flonominal was able to collect the ball and move to safety behind a blitzer, by the sideline. The Skaven broke free of the centre scrum to try and stop her, but after a few surfs and KOs (making it 7 Skaven v 11 Dark Elves), retreated.
The rest of the half consisted of a mostly civilised scrum in the centre of the pitch, while Flonominal lurked by SMER's end zone with the ball. Uncle Ruckus was knocked down and suffered a fatal foul, which the apothecary could do nothing to prevent; Uncle Ruckus was our precious Guard blitzer...however, my tendency to use him as a mobile assist meant that he rarely scored TDs, and so did not develop any further skills like Dodge, which could have improved his survivablity. RIP Ruckus, who was perhaps our MVP this tournament. The fouling Skaven was sent off, as was Gangstalicious, who also fouled earlier on - the ref had not failed to penalise a single fouling player this game!
at the end of the half, Flo' scored, and it was R2W's turn to receive. R2W had 10 players, as did SMER, who set up in a man-in-a-boat (ahem) formation. R2W put more players on the LOS, and distributed the remaining team members in a loose cage in their half. R2W feinted right, then swung left, then retreated to the centre back with the ball as the Skaven moved to block them. However, in three turns three Skaven would get removed from the pitch by injuries/surfs, and two would get banned for fouling.
Although a cheeky blitz got them the ball from TJW, at the start of R2W turn 4, there were just 5 Skaven on the pitch to face 10 Elves; if SMER could score to end the drive (and they were within range of our end zone), they would get up to four players back (reserves + babe/KOs), and it would be game on.
Fortunately TJW was able to blitz-wrestle the ball carrier. The rest of R2W moves in, while Colonel H Stinkmeaner retrieved the ball. SMER put up a brave fight, avoiding damage as best as they could while still threatening the ball, but their numbers dwindled to 3, and in H2T8 Flo scored R2W's second TD.
I thought SMER could try a 1TTD in the last turn of the game, but they settled for bashing up my LOS - a foul resulted in yet another sending off for a SMER player.
I think psychology played a big role in this game. I think BTW felt compelled to go for it in the first drive, which lead to leaving two vulnerabilities; the ball carrier open to blitzing, and most of the Skaven in a fight they weren't likely to win. Once players started being lost, fouling was a tempting way to even the score, but BTW's luck was atrocious in that regard, exacerbating the deficit of Skaven players. As a result, I didn't have to make too many risks, and with so many players was able to inflict more damage without compromising the ball.
Thanks to BilltoWin for being a fantastic opponent, and to everyone else in the tournament, to whom the same applies. I had a blast, and am greatly enjoying playing you all again in the new tournament.  |
Last edited by The_Carthaginian on %b %04, %2016 - %21:%Feb; edited 1 time in total |
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Bloodfeast
Joined: Sep 02, 2009
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Feb 04, 2016 - 19:54 |
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android18
Joined: Apr 04, 2009
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Mar 03, 2016 - 17:35 |
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im in with the thogrum warhammers |
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