Having fun with Halflings
Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:16 pm
I had some good fortune in my first little tourney with 'Flings last year, going unbeaten with 2 wins and 2 draws. A failed landing on the last turn of the last game saw me just miss out on 1st place (out of 12). Admittedly, the format was 'Fling-friendly. Somewhat encouraged, I put a very similar team into a bigger tournament last weekend (25 players), the Capital Shield (CAS) in Wellington, New Zealand. A very enjoyable and sociable tournament. Here was my roster:
Willow
Tree with Block, B-Tackle
Tree with Block, B-Tackle
'Fling with S-Hands, S-Feet
'Fling with Catch
11 rookie 'Flings
3RR, 2AC, 2CL
1st game: Drew 1-1 with Amazons (CAS: 2-3). Received, got turned over, had to chase the game. Equalised on turn 16. Phew!
2nd game: Drew 2-2 with Dark Elves (CAS: 0-1). Received, got turned over, had to chase the game again! Equalised on turn 16 with a thrown 'Fling. Phew!
3rd game: Beat Skaven 4-0 (CAS: 3-0). A former club-mate (my apologies to him). I received, he over-committed to the counter-attack, I managed to break through somewhat luckily and score on turn 2 with a thrown 'Fling (on the same turn a 'Fling CAS'd a Gutter Runner). After that I could do nothing wrong, and (more importantly) my opponent could do nothing right. I was 3-0 up at half time, a rather improbable result. Starting to feel better at the end of the first day.
4th game: Beat Dwarfs 2-1 (CAS: 3-0). A sweet and even more improbable result. I knew I was in with a chance, as my opponent had only 11 players, including Grim (thus only 4 Tackle, 5 x AV8 players, and only 2 RRs). I kicked, pressed with the Trees, and eventually pulled off my most elegant sack of the tourney (one Tree chain pushed the "caged" ball carrier next to the other prone Tree, who jumped up and blitzed him). But alas, the ball scattered around the scrum and into the arms of Grim, who promptly blitzed and dodged his way downfield to score. But I still had a decent chance at a 2 turn score to equalise. This succeeded, not without good fortune (a thrown 'Fling again). In the 2nd half, I managed a "perfect" grind, my opponent had only 6 players left on the pitch by the end (of which 4 were stranded or stuck to Trees). I had all 11 players on the pitch... The Trees were at their best in this match, they were very adhesive. I managed to surf 3 Dwarfs in the match, none were injured, though.
So after 4 games, I had reached the giddy heights of the top table and 3rd board. As might be expected, Nuffle duly punished the Stunties for their presumption.
5th game: lost 1-2 to High Elves (CAS: 3-2). Received, failed my first dodge of the game, this allowed the "cage" to be sacked, the ball scattered favourably, my opponent scored immediately. More of the same after that, a thrown 'Fling failed the last GFI to the end zone, the ball scattered way back (but I got lucky when the HEs failed to score). The HEs duly scored in the second half on their receive, leaving me 4 turns to score twice (not impossible, I was starting to dent the HE roster). But the thrown 'Fling landed 1 square short, meaning I could only score 1 TD.
6th game: lost 0-1 to Halflings (CAS: 1-4). A peculiar match, due to my opponent's unusual roster (Deeproot, Zara, 1 Tree, no RRs, 5 x Sneaky Git). I kicked and had only my Trees left on the pitch by the end of the first drive. But the match was decided by blocks on the ball-carrier. In the first half, I got 6 dice of blocks on my opponent's ball carrier, I could not get better than a push (I would have been happy with a both down). In the second half, a failed GFI (with RR) gave an opening for my opponent to get a 1-die block on my ball carrier. It was a pure POW. Ah well...
I have to say I love Trees with Block and Break Tackle. It seems there is little they cannot do. Willow was decent, she sacked the opposing ball carrier a couple of times IIRC, and posed a nice threat at other times. In the last game, however, she left the pitch on the first drive (KO), never to return. With 16 players, I never ran out of players, I think I always had a reserve! Sure Hands, Sure Feet and Catch all worked well, for me this is a way to re-inforce the fact that the Halfling roster is all about Rerolls. 2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses, TDs: 10-7, CAS: 12-10.
I had a good time, I hope you enjoyed that too.
Willow
Tree with Block, B-Tackle
Tree with Block, B-Tackle
'Fling with S-Hands, S-Feet
'Fling with Catch
11 rookie 'Flings
3RR, 2AC, 2CL
1st game: Drew 1-1 with Amazons (CAS: 2-3). Received, got turned over, had to chase the game. Equalised on turn 16. Phew!
2nd game: Drew 2-2 with Dark Elves (CAS: 0-1). Received, got turned over, had to chase the game again! Equalised on turn 16 with a thrown 'Fling. Phew!
3rd game: Beat Skaven 4-0 (CAS: 3-0). A former club-mate (my apologies to him). I received, he over-committed to the counter-attack, I managed to break through somewhat luckily and score on turn 2 with a thrown 'Fling (on the same turn a 'Fling CAS'd a Gutter Runner). After that I could do nothing wrong, and (more importantly) my opponent could do nothing right. I was 3-0 up at half time, a rather improbable result. Starting to feel better at the end of the first day.
4th game: Beat Dwarfs 2-1 (CAS: 3-0). A sweet and even more improbable result. I knew I was in with a chance, as my opponent had only 11 players, including Grim (thus only 4 Tackle, 5 x AV8 players, and only 2 RRs). I kicked, pressed with the Trees, and eventually pulled off my most elegant sack of the tourney (one Tree chain pushed the "caged" ball carrier next to the other prone Tree, who jumped up and blitzed him). But alas, the ball scattered around the scrum and into the arms of Grim, who promptly blitzed and dodged his way downfield to score. But I still had a decent chance at a 2 turn score to equalise. This succeeded, not without good fortune (a thrown 'Fling again). In the 2nd half, I managed a "perfect" grind, my opponent had only 6 players left on the pitch by the end (of which 4 were stranded or stuck to Trees). I had all 11 players on the pitch... The Trees were at their best in this match, they were very adhesive. I managed to surf 3 Dwarfs in the match, none were injured, though.
So after 4 games, I had reached the giddy heights of the top table and 3rd board. As might be expected, Nuffle duly punished the Stunties for their presumption.
5th game: lost 1-2 to High Elves (CAS: 3-2). Received, failed my first dodge of the game, this allowed the "cage" to be sacked, the ball scattered favourably, my opponent scored immediately. More of the same after that, a thrown 'Fling failed the last GFI to the end zone, the ball scattered way back (but I got lucky when the HEs failed to score). The HEs duly scored in the second half on their receive, leaving me 4 turns to score twice (not impossible, I was starting to dent the HE roster). But the thrown 'Fling landed 1 square short, meaning I could only score 1 TD.
6th game: lost 0-1 to Halflings (CAS: 1-4). A peculiar match, due to my opponent's unusual roster (Deeproot, Zara, 1 Tree, no RRs, 5 x Sneaky Git). I kicked and had only my Trees left on the pitch by the end of the first drive. But the match was decided by blocks on the ball-carrier. In the first half, I got 6 dice of blocks on my opponent's ball carrier, I could not get better than a push (I would have been happy with a both down). In the second half, a failed GFI (with RR) gave an opening for my opponent to get a 1-die block on my ball carrier. It was a pure POW. Ah well...
I have to say I love Trees with Block and Break Tackle. It seems there is little they cannot do. Willow was decent, she sacked the opposing ball carrier a couple of times IIRC, and posed a nice threat at other times. In the last game, however, she left the pitch on the first drive (KO), never to return. With 16 players, I never ran out of players, I think I always had a reserve! Sure Hands, Sure Feet and Catch all worked well, for me this is a way to re-inforce the fact that the Halfling roster is all about Rerolls. 2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses, TDs: 10-7, CAS: 12-10.
I had a good time, I hope you enjoyed that too.