Leviathan 2005 Tourney Report

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chunky04
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Leviathan 2005 Tourney Report

Post by chunky04 »

Inspired by a post on TalkBloodBowl.com suggesting that Humans were an understrength team, I decided to take them to Leviathan, as I’ve always thought of them as one of the strongest teams available for my style of play.

The tournament was played using standard LRB4 ruleset at 1.25 million gp, including normal team progression. A team was allowed to reset back to its starting roster if it got trashed however, a feature that proved rather handy.

My starting roster was:

4 Blitzers @ 90K = 360K
2 Catchers @ 70K = 140K
1 Thrower @ 70K
1 Ogre @ 120K
5 Lineman @ 50K = 250K
4 Rerolls @ 50K = 200K
Apothecary @ 50K
Fan Factor 6 = 60K

Total = 1250K

This starting roster was designed to give me enough speed for scoring quickly at need, while also giving me enough strength to survive against the bashy teams. I was confident I’d be able to do quite well.

Game 1 – Brendan - Khemri (Argh!) 1- 1 Draw

At this point I thought any chance of doing well in the tourney was already down the tubes. Khemri are a team I absolutely despise, as they have no other choice than to destroy the opposing team in order to win. But here I was drawn against them in the first round. At this stage I was not aware the reset rule was in play, and there was going to be little way of escaping a beating. I thought winning the game shouldn’t prove too difficult, but the cost would be big.

I resolved to try and do everything I could to try and reduce the damage to my players by trying to do everything I could to ensure the game was played as far away from the 4 mummies as possible.

Things started out OK, with me receiving the kick and starting a drive up the right flank, getting the ball to the catcher in the pocket, and holding up the mummies with the Ogre and some excellent work by the mook linemen. The Khemri had planned their defense well though, and were able to swamp the pocket sufficiently to prevent me getting a very quick score without making some very risky moves.

Encouraged by my success in keeping the mummies occupied, I decided to be a bit patient, and worked my way into a strong position despite some lackadaisical blocking. I’d need only to make a single basic dodge with my catcher to get him into an unassailable position to score – oops fails the dodge with the reroll. After some scrambling, I managed to again achieve this position once again. Oops, again I fail the dodge with reroll, and now the mummies are breathing down my neck – exactly the result I’d been hoping to avoid. I had the ball in the Khemri half, and there weren’t enough turns left to actually score, but I now had to go through the mummies to get a touchdown before halftime, or I would certainly be facing a Khemri team in the second half determined to use up all the available time to bash me to a pulp and score in the final turn – earning me a sure-fire loss.

The Khemri had a couple of mummies with tackle zones on the ball, and with little other option, I decided to blitz the mummy with a blitzer in the hopes of getting at least a pushback result and moving the ball to a more accessible location. On two dice where the Khemri picked the result, my odds of achieving this weren’t too bad with a reroll. I finally managed to get a bit of luck however, and not only succeeded in pushing the mummy back, but knocked it over as well! The ball scattered clear, and my by now much-maligned catcher finally managed to successfully scamper off with the ball. We’d been hurt a bit, but were still fielding a full lineup for the second half, and were ahead 1-0.

I knew the most important thing on defence against a Khemri team was to try and get at the Thro-ras in the backfield, before they can reach the protection of the mummy cage of doom. I managed to do this, and dispossessed them of the ball twice briefly, but just couldn’t manage to get the ball clear, with a few scatters not treating me kindly. The Khemri eventually formed their cage, but had left me a gap that I exploited to again knock over the Tho-ra carrying the ball. Then disaster struck. After scattering onto about five other Khemri players, the ball scattered onto a mummy – who caught the ball! As Brendan let all the players in the tourney know about this chain of events, I looked at my dwindling pool of rerolls, most of which I’d expended to get the ball loose previously for no result. I’d probably have very few chances to get the ball off the mummy.

I again gave this task to a lone Blitzer, and after the use of a reroll he again came through, knocking the mummy over next to one of his comrades – who the ball promptly scatters onto, and who again catches the ball on a 6!

At this point I am near ready to tear my hair out, as a cage is building up around the mummy. I take increasingly drastic and risky measures to try and prevent the mummy from scoring, but they inevitably fail and the score is tied at the end of the game – 1-1.

I’ve taken 8 CAS in the game, 3 of which have me missing players next game and fielding only a 10 man squad. At this point I asked if the reset option existed, and was relieved to find out it was. In a 6 game tourney, there was no way I’d be able to stay in touch with the leaders if my second game I was forced to start down men on the pitch, so I took the reset, hoping the fact I’d do a lot better in the next game with those players back would make up for the lack of winnings and spps – not that there was a great deal of either. I was reasonably happy to get a draw from such a rough game – particularly when I found out most of the field had also had draws. I wasn’t very far behind, though I was cursing a little that I hadn’t been able to pilfer the ball in that second half, or scored a little earlier in the first to get a crack at a quick turnover TD while the Khemri probably wouldn’t have enough time to score themselves.

Game 2 – Michael Horton – High Elves 4 – 2 Win

This game was obviously going to be much softer than the previous one, much to my liking, and it looked like a lot of TD’s would be in the offing, giving me a good chance of recovering fully if I managed a win in this game.

To my dismay, both sides began the game breaking armour on pretty much every successful block. I scored quickly, and then managed to turn Michael over and score. In the process, though I’d taken a couple of badly hurts, I did a lot of KO’s and a casualty of my own. This left me with a numbers advantage after Michael had some poor luck on his KO rolls, and with the numbers advantage I started piling on the KOs and casualties. Michael managed to score at the end of the first, but in the second I again turned him over and scored. He then managed another TD, but I finished off the game running in my fourth to get the full points for winning the game by 2 or more and winning the casualty count.

With a lot of casualties and TDs, I managed to get 3 skills from this game, and was in a strong position to get a lot more from the next game as well.

Game 3 – Anthony Lai – Dark Elves 3 - 2 Win

This seemed to be a pretty cruisy round for me, in fact I wasn’t sure exactly how Anthony had gotten this many points given a friend had played him and said he didn’t seem to know the game very well. This proved very much to be true, as Anthony often knew little of the rules, and generally attempted actions involving long strings of dice rolls despite me trying to help him out with some advice.

He was however very lucky, and despite his lack of planning, pulled off some outrageous actions that I simply could not stop to score two TDs. I was always going to win this game, but the luck had meant I didn’t get the full 6 points, as I was thinking I would going into the game – still, this left me in a very strong place going into day two. As expected, I got a lot of skills out of this game. I had a very nice looking squad by now, with both catchers having Block, a Blitzer with Guard and one with Tackle, my Thrower had Accurate, and last but not least, I had a Dirty Player with which to try and pick off the oppositions best players early in the following days games. I also had 100K in the bank, and decided I’d try and freeboot the Mighty Zug during all three games the following day, to take some hits against the bashy teams, and to cause some carnage against the weaker teams.

Game 4 – Brian Horton – Wood Elves 2 – 0 Win

This game was probably going to be the difference between being a contender or pretender for the title. At the time Brian was first on points, I was second, so if I got a win, I’d be on top, and simply have to maintain it.

Brian’s team was going to pose some problems though. First of all, Brian by all accounts is a very good player, normally with his trusted Skaven. The Wood Elves had enough similarities to the Rats that I was expecting a very competent opponent. I was also worried about the Wardancers, whose Leap skill makes them very good at attacking the loose cages and pockets I normally prefer. I decided to target them early with my Tackle Blitzer and DP early on. This approach yielded quick results, and I caused a miss next game injury to a Wardancer very early on, which Brian chose not to use the Apothecary on, a fair trade for the DP, who was sent form the field for the first time today As expected, Brian’s defense posed a lot of problems for me, and I wasn’t actually able to score in this half, but I had forced him to take a lot of risks, and with no rerolls for most of the half and Zug doing some sterling work, we’d reduced the Elves to only 8 players to start the second half. This meant we were able to easily win the match in the second half, scoring two TD’s fairly comfortably and inflicting further casualties on the elves, for another full 6 point win for the Humans. I knew next up I’d be taking on either a Dwarf or Chaos Dwarf team, and grabbed another Guard in anticipation. I also once again freebooted the Mighty Zug, and would need only 20K from the next match to hire him again.

Game 5 – Dan Collins – Dwarfs 2 - 2 Win

Dwarfs have always been a bit of a hoodoo team for me when using Humans. I tend to have a curse that means I cannot knock over their ball carriers no matter how many Block Dice I throw in their general direction. So it proved in this game.

The game was actually quite even in terms of strength of blocking, as I actually had more Guard than the Dwarfs, and in addition had the Mighty Zug and the Ogre. As a result neither side suffered any significant casualties, and my Dirty Player was sent off on his first foul for no result.

The Dwarfs opened the game with the ball, and managed to get it into the cage on the first turn, meaning I couldn’t intercept the Runners further back on the pitch. I managed to blitz the Runner carrying the ball on a couple of occasions, but wasn’t able to knock it over. The pressure I put on did at least ensure that Dan wasn’t able to stall however, and I was able to equalise before the end of the half.

In the second half, I got a fairly standard TD via a sideline drive. I would have liked to stall to give the Dwarfs little time to score an equaliser, but wasn’t able to manage enough separation to pull it off, and ended up scoring in Turn 5, giving the Dwarfs 4 turns to score.

I made a crucial error in my first turn on defence. The Dwarfs had actually left the ball in the hands of a non-Block Runner just within reach of a one dice Block on two go for its by one of my Blitzers. Before doing this I ran another Blitzer around as cover, putting him in between the Runners and a Blitzer. Instead of being happy with this, I decided to put a tackle zone on the blitzer, and was forced to use my reroll on the go for it. This meant I didn’t manage to blitz the Runner.

Dan managed to get the ball to the Blitzer, and began to scamper off. I managed to setup a two dice Block on the Blitzer though, but much to my dismay failed to knock him over with a reroll – which probably would have been enough to win the game, as their was only a single Runner left to reach the line in time, and he would have had a hell of a time getting there with no rerolls. Alas, it failed, the Dwarfs equalised, and I ended up with a hard fought draw.

This meant going in to the final game I would carry a 1 point advantage, so if I managed to win with the casualty count in my favour I would be assured of at least a tie for first place. Due to the draw system being used though, I wouldn’t be guaranteed of playing the person in second, meaning I had no direct control over the situation. If I happened to play a stronger player, it could all go pear shaped.

Game 6 – David Horton – Skaven 3-2 Win

Looks like my last game was to be Skaven, while the player running second had the Dwarfs I’d just played. This made it pretty safe for me if I could get a win, as he was unlikely to beat the Dwarfs in casualties, and I was fairly likely to vs the Skaven.

The rats had hired Headsplitter, while I grabbed Zug and a spare thrower for the final game. I used a quick drive in the first half, hopingmy defense would either hold the Skaven off, or they’d score quickly, allowing me to equalise while not giving them a chance to score in return – I was fortunate that they hadn’t been able to develop a one turner.

I managed to cause a fair amount of damage to the Skaven in the first half, but not enough to force them to field less than a full team. My defense was very good, and I held them out till turn 8, and it then looked extremely unlikely that they would score, after Zug brutally dispossessed the Thrower with accurate, hurting him in the process.

However the other thrower was able to move up to Zug, dodge into the tackle zone containing the ball, pick it up, throw a long pass to a Storm Vermin who caught it, then headed up field to handoff to a Gutter Runner who scored – all without a reroll.

In the second half, David was able to score without much problems this time, getting the ball to a Gutter Runner in a tackle zone who easily dodged out and made his way to the line.

I soon found myself in a strong position to score in turn 5 of the second half, but this left me with a dilemma. I hadn’t been able to do any further damage to the Skaven, and with a full turn, he would be short odds to score again, giving me a loss and almost certainly losing me the tourney. On the other hand, the draw would almost guarantee the tourney for me, but I could only be about 80% certain. A win would definitely seal the tourney. In the end I decided to go all for the win, figuring second place ain’t bad, and I’d much rather win it having gone all out to try for the win than by settling for a draw.

I setup defensively to allow me to pressure his drive right from the start, but with two Blitzers back to cut off any Gutter Runner breakouts. My setup seemed to intimidate David a bit, and he setup in a very compact offense, looking to use Headsplitter and the Rat Ogre to drive through the middle. He left me a chance to blitz his thrower however, and with the flanks clear, we were able to put a strong cordon around the ball. With his rerolls used, the risks David had to take to scramble back for the ball ended up giving me an easy and clear path to the winning touchdown.
So in the end I managed to win the tourney by a clear two point margin. I think I was a little bit lucky in this tournament, as fully half the field was made up of Elf teams, and I have a strong history of doing well against those teams with Humans. I did however play what I thought were the strongest and well-coached bashy teams in the tournament, and I thought I was unlucky in each game to come away with only a draw.

One thing this tourney definitely changed for me is my view on progression vs non-progression tourneys. I’ve now played two progression tourneys, and in both I’ve been unlucky enough to cop 3 miss next games in the first round. While the reset option helps, I think I’d much prefer a non-progression tourney with some set skill upgrades. Another thing I found was that I thought by the end, my team had a lot more depth of skills than most of the others I’d faced, while I hadn’t beefed up my team rating much due to hiring Zug and also not having the winnings from the first game. I thought this made my team a bit too tough, and would prefer to see a closer skill set amongst the various teams.

The last thing was I thought the prizes were given out a bit too densely – I got a hell of a lot of stuff for first place, and I think it would help grow the Blood Bowl tourney scene in Australia (which we need) better to spread them out a bit. I believe this was mainly down to the organisers of the con as a whole rather than the actual Blood Bowl organisers though, but it is something to consider trying to get changed for next year, when I’ll certainly be back for more.

Reason: ''
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