New Albion Expatriates and BBLASD

Every team has a story. If you want to tell the BB world yours, then this is the place to do it.

Moderator: TFF Mods

User avatar
mattgslater
King of Comedy
Posts: 7758
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: Far to the west, across the great desert, in the fabled Land of Comedy

Post by mattgslater »

Ha ha! The Unlucky Sevens are in the action with a win over the Mighty Smokers and a 1-3 record. This drops the Smokers to 3-1, and they have Beyond the Pale next. I played the first half of my game against the Sevens last night; I'm up 3-1, but Grant Stume suffered a pretty serious concussion. I have 16 SPP on José Cañusi, so he will get Block after this game, and my Kicker will no longer get kicked around. I've also earned an improvement on Rocky Redglare: Block should help keep him alive. Next up, I'm going to try to skill Rush Moore or Lando DeFreeh. Will post match report tonight.

Reason: ''
What is Nuffle's view? Through a window, two-by-three. He peers through snake eyes.
What is Nuffle's lawn? Inches, squares, and tackle zones: Reddened blades of grass.
What is Nuffle's tree? Risk its trunk, space the branches. Touchdowns are its fruit.
User avatar
mattgslater
King of Comedy
Posts: 7758
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: Far to the west, across the great desert, in the fabled Land of Comedy

Re: New Albion Expatriates and BBLASD

Post by mattgslater »

Played the Unlucky Sevens (1-3). He has really improved; I fear that The Orcs (0-2) are now in a pretty deep hole: their coach is going to school full-time and working full-time, so we're going to let the coach of The Orcs make up some games in December. Anyway, this was a good game all 'round.

The Sevens are a Necromantic team. Their record isn't good, but they've yet to be shut out of a game, and they have a lovely skill distribution, as one-win teams go. With 3 TRRs, a FF of 1, TV in the 1.30s, and 120 pocketed for a TRR purchase, the Unlucky Sevens roster looked like this.
Flesh Golem with Block
Flesh Golem
Ghoul with Sure Hands
Ghoul with Block
Wight with Guard
Wight
Werewolf with Block and Dodge
Werewolf with Block
Zombie with Block
3x Zombie
Inducements: Extra Training, Bloodweiser Babe

The Unlucky Sevens won the coin-toss and elected to kick. I got a guy in on a deep-route, knocked down the Zeds on the LOS, blitzed his Ghoul out of the play, picked up the ball with Rocky, and threw to Rhett, getting Rocky his SPP. The Sevens, through some very gutsy play, managed to get uncomfortable pressure on the ball and cover all my targets, so I threw a quick TD to my outlet guy (Cal), and went to work on defense.

I used the same asymmetric setup that I clobbered The Orcs with, and succeeded in pinning the ball deep. Nevertheless, a series of 3+ rolls later, and the Sevens were a blown blitz and a knockdown on a 1d block against my Blodger :roll: away from a touchdown: they didn't even need a re-roll. The first quarter had just ended, and both teams were already on the scoreboard.

The Sevens' coach clearly had learned from me, as when he set up his defensive front, my heart sank. I did the best I could, hoping to pull at least a couple guys through. He kicked off, and the ball went hard to the strong-side I'd built. To my horror, he rolled a Perfect Defense! To my delight, his "perfect" defense was absolutely idiotic. I even looked at him funny and asked if he was sure, it was so bad. He said "yes," scattered the ball, and gave José Cañusi an easy TD for the lead. In the process, Uncle Slam BH'ed his Wight, who failed to Regenerate, and he KO'ed Uncle Slam, which convinced me to score on turn 6. Uncle Slam came back, and with a good blitz, I ran in a turn 8 TD on José, improving José and getting me a 3-1 lead. As it turned out, I would need it.

A riot opened the second half as I kicked off to him. There was a nasty scrum over the ball, but a series of do-or-die 4+ and 5+ rolls got the TD for the Necros. On the following drive, Rhett just totally fell to pieces, failing two pickups, fumbling a QP, and getting knocked down on a 1d block from a non-Block player. Sadly, Grant Stume suffered an AV loss, which was Apothecaried into ... an AV loss. Still, I held on for the win. The MVP went to Lando DeFreeh (his 3rd MVP in six games!) and he skilled with doubles, so now I have two guys with Guard (Lando DeFreeh and Homer the Brave, no less). I put up a thread in the tactics section to get some input on the proper skill for Rocky. José got Block.

Reason: ''
What is Nuffle's view? Through a window, two-by-three. He peers through snake eyes.
What is Nuffle's lawn? Inches, squares, and tackle zones: Reddened blades of grass.
What is Nuffle's tree? Risk its trunk, space the branches. Touchdowns are its fruit.
User avatar
mattgslater
King of Comedy
Posts: 7758
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: Far to the west, across the great desert, in the fabled Land of Comedy

Re: New Albion Expatriates and BBLASD

Post by mattgslater »

Oilsand Raiders (1-1, 1.10M) vs. Unlucky Sevens (1-4, 1.40M)
Raiders (Matt): Arabyans (Norse). The MVPs have been going the right way, but the injuries have not, with the team SPP leader (a Runner) killed in the final turn of the last game en route to a final TD. Still, good Winnings have left me with a respectable team, if not the one I started with. This is my "b-team" and I'm deliberately playing only 1-2 games per month (out of a possible 3), so as to be able to play fair games against those who fall behind. I brought the following:
Snow Troll with 5 SPP
Ulf with Block, 10 SPP
Ulf (recent acquisition)
Runner
Thrower with 4 SPP
Lineman with Tackle, 6 SPP
Lineman with 5 SPP
Lineman with 3 SPP
Lineman with 2 SPP
3x Lineman
3x TRR
Apothecary

See above post for the Unlucky Sevens. Were #2 has Side Step, and the Block Ghoul got Pro (he agonized over Pro and Side Step; this match he didn't get to use Pro, opting once to use a TRR on a skull instead, and getting a skull anyway). With exactly 300k underdog value, the Raiders used a house rule to take an extra MVP in lieu of 200k inducements, and took a Wandering Apothecary.

I'm not sure what to say about the Sevens' coach (as a coach, that is: he's one of my best friends and a really nice guy). His comprehension of the fundamentals is at least as good as a lot of the other coaches I know, but he's prone to sudden bouts of grotesque mismanagement. The Imperfect Defence (as I will forever refer to the PD roll in the previous game) is the most glaring example, but there were a few times he opened his turn with multiple die rolls, and he was overly dependent on 1d blocks. I guess I can't blame him for the latter, given the hammering I put on his skill players and the fact that his 1d blocks worked pretty well, but despite the score the Raiders controlled the game.

The Sevens won the coin-toss and elected to kick. They put up a pretty good defense, but a Quick Snap made an instant hash of it, and the blood started to flow. A Wight went MNG and failed to Regen, followed by a BH Ghoul. The Sevens' skill players were all tied down hopelessly, and the Raiders, unable to get casualties on Werewolves, continued to hammer at the (seven) flailing Sevens and camp on the goal-line to score on turn 8.

In the second half, the Sevens got a Quick Snap of their own, and managed to put together a downfield cage, but were forced to score in Turn 3. They kicked off to the Raiders, pulled a Blitz and secured the ball for another TD to pull into the lead, but by then the Sevens were down to eight men with one Ghoul and no Wights. Still, he prevented me from scoring quickly to go for the win, and forced a 2-2 tie.

This was a good-bad game all around. The Raiders got a lot of SPP and improvements (Sure Hands on Thrower Djar'Allah Moniqa, Mighty Blow on the Afrit/ST, double-5 on a lino, and a skill on a lino, plus two with 5SPP). 100k in bank, considering a Berserk. The Sevens got a temporary TV break with no serious problems. A Z with 0 SPP got -MA, a Z with Block and a G with Sure Hands are MNG. Several players are close to improvement, and he's supposed to play (gulp) Beyond the Pale tonight. Two ST6 Mummies and a Guard Z = very scary business. But now the Sevens have a tie to go with their win. In other news, the flaky Mighty Smokers of Greenleaf stood up BtP all month long and were awarded a 0-0 win by forfeiture. This is a bummer, as I was really hoping the Smokers would test their mettle against a tough, bashy opponent. I don't think we'll see the Smokers again: they stood me up too, and the coach is hard to deal with. Too bad.

Need some names for the Raiders players, and a skill progression. I'm thinking that I'll run a lino-heavy squad, and I play in a pretty speedy pool (besides my High Elves, there are Pro Elves, Wood Elves, Necromantic, Undead, Undead, Skaven and an Orc team that I have no incentive to build against). Should I just try to become the fast Dwarf team and spam Tackle on any lino who doesn't get Guard? I'll revisit the post in Tactics about the double-5 guy, but in context I'm inclined to take Guard over +AV or Dodge, and I'm scratching my head between Guard and +MA.

Reason: ''
What is Nuffle's view? Through a window, two-by-three. He peers through snake eyes.
What is Nuffle's lawn? Inches, squares, and tackle zones: Reddened blades of grass.
What is Nuffle's tree? Risk its trunk, space the branches. Touchdowns are its fruit.
User avatar
mattgslater
King of Comedy
Posts: 7758
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: Far to the west, across the great desert, in the fabled Land of Comedy

Re: New Albion Expatriates and BBLASD

Post by mattgslater »

Urgh. My first December opponent (the Mighty Smokers) flaked on me, and we kicked him out of the league because he did the same thing to two other coaches last month, including one halftime flake-out for which he was very gracious about conceding... after standing his opponent up on the last day. Shame, 'cause he had a knack for the game.

My second December opponent, Draes Greens, had to reschedule and reschedule again (I play him today), and the Unlucky Sevens had played another two matches in the time frame, so I sighed and resigned myself to playing yet another game against the Plucky Unlucky (we have a rule that you can't play an opponent twice in one month, but there's no hard rule against twice in a row if the games happen in different months).

One way the Sevens weren't unlucky was improvements. Since I'd last seen them, they'd metastasized. Their skilled Zombie died, and the FGs have had bad luck, but they otherwise are looking pretty solid. I understand why they have no Wrestle (quirk of team development: they got a Block Ghoul off the wire), but I'm a bit mystified that they haven't taken a Kicker yet. They're also carrying too many guys, but that's because they've been killing people and the coach doesn't like to fire healthies.

Unlucky Sevens (Necromantic, 1-6, 1 tie)
Weres: Block/Dodge/AG4; Block/Dodge/Side Step
Golems: Block; Rookie
Wights: Guard/ST4; Guard
Ghouls: Block/SH; Block/Pro
Zombies: Block; 6x Rookie
TRRs: 4
FF: 1
Staff: Necromancer
TV: 1.68M

vs. New Albion Expatriates (High Elves, 5-1)
Blitzers: Uncle Slam (ST4/MBlow); Rush Moore (SStep)
Catchers: Rocky Redglare (AV6/Wrodge); Lou Z. Anapurgis (Blodge); Cal Forney-Driemann (Dodge)
Throwers: Rhett Wydenblut (Dodge)
True Linemen: Manny Festestiny (Wrestle); Ellis Island (SStep/Dodge); Lando DeFreeh (Dodge/Guard)
Back Linemen: José Canusí (Kick/Block); Homer the Brave (Guard)
Induced Players: Jan Key-Dudahl (6/3/4/8 Loner)
TRRs: 3
FF: 5
Staff: H.M. Odenile (Apoth); Juan Tanamobé (AC), Amber Waves (CL)
TV: 1.58M + 100k inducements
Missing: Grant Stume (Lineman w AV7/Dodge)

I decided that since I already had an Apothecary and 3 TRRs I would get the best mileage out of an extra body, so I induced a Merc. I was totally right, as I repeatedly won Brilliant Coaching and suffered precisely one casualty.

The weather roll was a 4, which we interpreted to mean damp and drizzly, but not enough so to affect the game. My opponent pointed outside at the "San Diego blizzard" (scattered sprinkles with a moderate breeze), and we had a good chuckle. I won the coin toss and elected to kick.

The entire game I used an offset 123 half-zig defense, except for the final drive, when I had only 10 men and went to the "crossbow" (inverted arrowhead) with no free safety.

Code: Select all

123 Half-Zig
-- -- -- --|-- -- -- -- 04 05 02|-- -- -- --
-- -- -- --|-- -- -- -- -- -- --|-- -- -- --
-- 10 -- --|01 -- -- -- -- -- --|-- 06 -- --
-- -- 11 --|-- 14 -- -- -- -- 12|-- -- 13 --
-- -- -- --|-- -- -- 09 -- -- --|-- -- -- --

10-Man 101 Crossbow
-- -- -- --|-- -- MR 05 12 -- --|-- -- -- --
-- -- -- --|-- -- -- -- -- -- --|-- -- -- --
-- 10 -- --|13 -- -- 14 -- -- 01|-- 06 04 --
-- -- 11 --|-- -- -- -- -- -- --|-- -- -- --
The final score was 4-0. His Ghouls blew a handoff and a pass, leading to two scores, and my defense kept him from caging appropriately; Uncle Slam just totally abused the AG4 Were in the first half, until he got SI'ed (and the Apoth failed :pissed: ). The Sevens' coach did get the ball into my half a couple times, but after he was down 2-0 at the start of his Turn 6, he started to panic and outrun his Zombies. I BH'ed his Sure Hands Ghoul and his ST4 Wight in the first half, en route to 5 on-field casualties, plus a thrown rock that comically killed a Zombie sitting in the reserves, only to see the Regenerate succeed. Yeah, I win 4-0, and win the Cas war 6-1, and which coach has 180k in missing TV for the next game? Nuffle's a bitch. I rolled my MVP, told my opponent I wanted to re-roll (house rule; one re-roll on MVP), and somehow it didn't happen: he went for a smoke-break and some people came in and distracted us. So I'll talk to my next opponent and see what to do.

In any case, I hired a lineman, Sid E. Onnahil. Rush Moore went up and got Frenzy, and Cal Forney-Driemann went up again. So I have a Blodge Catcher, a Wrodge Catcher, and a Dodge/??? Catcher. Should I be boring and reliable and take Block, or should I go for a gimmick? If I play this afternoon it'll be Block: the Skaven I'm facing are a little light on core skills, having rolled a mob of stat increases (seems to be a theme in this league; so far, I'm the only guy with just one, and that's in great part because I've been turning them down; I've rolled double-five three times, and taken two doubles skills and a normal skill).

Reason: ''
What is Nuffle's view? Through a window, two-by-three. He peers through snake eyes.
What is Nuffle's lawn? Inches, squares, and tackle zones: Reddened blades of grass.
What is Nuffle's tree? Risk its trunk, space the branches. Touchdowns are its fruit.
User avatar
mattgslater
King of Comedy
Posts: 7758
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: Far to the west, across the great desert, in the fabled Land of Comedy

Re: New Albion Expatriates and BBLASD

Post by mattgslater »

Sorry to go so dark on y'all for so long: had a lot happening. Not much of it has been Blood Bowl, I'm afraid. But I have played two games, one against a newer Undead coach running a team called Come to the Underground. His record was 0-4, and he'd lost to some pretty bad teams (my Halflings ripped him a new one), but he had put up a very good fight against the then-undefeated Skaven team Draes Greens. Uncle Slam had to sit this one out with a serious injury, so I hired a rookie and still ran all over him. Despite scoring a massive gob of casualties and TDs, my guys are so even in SPP that I only had two improvements: Lando deFreeh got Guard and Rush Moore got Frenzy.

I made up for it in the next game against the Draes Greens. It didn't hurt that he hired a Wandering Apoth and two Babes and never once suffered a KO or casualty, so he just found himself outgunned the whole time (though never outmanned). He had a Block/Guard Ratogre, a ST3/AG5 Gutter Runner with Extra Arms, a SV with Tackle and Shadowing (this is a ghoul-intensive league), an AG4/Big Hand/Nerves Thrower (33 completions in 7 games) and a good smattering of skills on his linerats, but he had just lost his MA10 GR with Side Step. His FF was the same as mine, 7.

He played a very good game, but his blocking skills aren't there yet, and that was the difference maker in this 5-2 match: whenever the action slowed down I won out despite the fact that my guys were getting hurt and his weren't. I must have gotten 20 stuns, but didn't take any of his guys off the pitch, except through five (!) crowd-pushes, also all stuns (two of them the result of misused Shadowing; two were caused by frenzy, but one was risky positioning, leaving room for chainblocks. He respected the sidelines, but I'd wick his guys out to the edges, getting the inside position over and over; it probably didn't hurt that all the Side Step was on my side). I also got a bizarre (and highly likely!) chain of pushes to get a Catcher from my side of the LOS four squares up the field to run in a TD unobstructed, with only 1 GFI. The score was 3-0 by halftime, but he managed to keep pace in the second half, due to injuries, a quick snap, and a generally high level of turn management. I see why his record is so good, even if he can't play me with 300k tied behind his back.

My new lineman, Sid E. Onnahil, got -1MA, and I earned 30k: if I get 60k next match, I'll replace him with a Thrower, Al Obama. But the real news is in the position players.

New Albion Expatriates
TV 1.90M (1.97M healthy)
Record 8-1
Linemen:
José Cañusi: Kick, Block
Manny Festestiny: Wrestle, close to #2
Grant Stume: Dodge, -1AV
Ellis Island: Dodge, Side Step, close to #3
Lando deFreeh: Dodge, Guard
Homer the Brave: Guard, Dodge
Sid E. Onnahil: -MA, MNG
Blitzers:
Uncle Slam: +1 ST, Mighty Blow, close to #3
Rush Moore: Side Step, Frenzy
Throwers:
Rhett Wydenblut: Dodge, (Accurate, Block or Catch? I seldom pick up with him)
Catchers:
Rocky Redlgare: Dodge, Wrestle, -1AV
Lou Z. Anapurgis: Dodge, Block, +1ST
Cal Forney-Driemann: Dodge, Block, Leap
Other Assets:
1AC, 1CL
4x TRR
FF 8
30k Treasury

Next up, yet another match against the Unlucky Sevens (1-8-1). In 10 games, they have 1 win, but 15 touchdowns.

Reason: ''
What is Nuffle's view? Through a window, two-by-three. He peers through snake eyes.
What is Nuffle's lawn? Inches, squares, and tackle zones: Reddened blades of grass.
What is Nuffle's tree? Risk its trunk, space the branches. Touchdowns are its fruit.
User avatar
mattgslater
King of Comedy
Posts: 7758
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: Far to the west, across the great desert, in the fabled Land of Comedy

Re: New Albion Expatriates and BBLASD

Post by mattgslater »

End of first quarter. Score 2-0. The Sevens are starting to give up hope, which I find very frustrating. He seems mentally locked into trying a speed-score against me, and it's just flopping badly. This guy really needs some caging skills, and needs to learn how to develop an offense without selling out on one side. In his defense, he's had trouble with ball-security, generally a bad thing.

Reason: ''
What is Nuffle's view? Through a window, two-by-three. He peers through snake eyes.
What is Nuffle's lawn? Inches, squares, and tackle zones: Reddened blades of grass.
What is Nuffle's tree? Risk its trunk, space the branches. Touchdowns are its fruit.
User avatar
mattgslater
King of Comedy
Posts: 7758
Joined: Thu Dec 15, 2005 5:18 pm
Location: Far to the west, across the great desert, in the fabled Land of Comedy

Re: New Albion Expatriates and BBLASD

Post by mattgslater »

Ah-ha! Some life at last! The Sevens' coach took heart after a very embarrassing streak by his Ghoul, Yellowbelly. Yellowbelly (so named for his jaundiced cast) is a Ghoul with Sure Hands and Block. Except he didn't have Sure Hands this game... in his first four drives, he failed four 3+ pick-up attempts, three of them with viable offensive options.

The weather result was a 10, a wonderful day. The Sevens (1-8, 1 tie) brought their best roadies and got an average crowd of 8,000. But the glorious sunshine drove the confident elf fans out to go play on the beach, and snake-eyes came up. Still, that's 10,000 fans, and the +1 FAME really ended up mattering in the second half.

The first half was a comedy of errors for the Necromantics. Their 4SPP Flesh Golem (Fatty) got a kill against Manny Festestiny, but H. M. Odenile broke his two-game curse and saved him: Manny went on to score two TDs and pick up Dodge to go along with Wrestle. The Ghouls blew five turns on flubbed 3+ skills, and the crowd was so loud it made the Wizard miss and kept feeding re-rolls to the Expats, who played error-free football and ended up just burning them on pushes. When the half was over both teams had three re-rolls, but the Expats had three TDs to go with them.

I have to say, the Expats offense was just a shade better than disappointing. They didn't generate much push on the first drive, despite chaining their way into blocking six players on the first turn. Still, a lucky 2TTD from Rush Moore, and the score was 4-0.

Suddenly, with winning out of reach, the Unlucky Sevens sprang to life. Homer the Brave suffered a smashed knee, and is now MA5 (he earned the MVP, and now has 22 SPP; he'll be out next game, so he gets one more match before the playoffs. Sadly, this probably means no Sidestep). His Fleshy popped a hole by taking a player out, and he built an admirable sideline cage. AGAIN he failed to pick up the ball, but so did I, and it bounced back to the open. He got it in, and raced his AG4/Blodge Were in for a TD: that guy is very close to 51 after this match.

I got the ball back, got some kind of penetration, and coughed it up on a failed 2+ dodge to get Rocky downfield before picking it up. He zoomed in, blitzed the ball clear, and threw it to his Sidestep/Blodge Were. I got into his cage (courtesy of Lando DeFreeh) and Rush Moore knocked him down, but wouldn't you know the ball scattered to his AG4 guy, who scored his second TD.

The Expats found themselves on offense a third time: this one went better. Unable to secure the backfield from the AG4/Blodge Were with his ST4/Guard Wight buddy on the weakside, the Expats built a downfield cage fronted by the scoring target (festestiny), with the ball in the able hands of Lou Z. Anapurgis. A quick handoff, a GFI (and TRR), and my Wrestle guy would be a Wrodger. That left the Necros two turns to get an improvement on
AG4 guy, but they couldn't hack it and I got a comp for Ellis Island.

Won 50k after SE, got a lineman: Everybody welcome Geddy Spergue. Sid E. Onnahil never recovered properly from his injury, so now he's a Cheerleader, the team's ombudsman. Sid is an inspiration to us all. Speaking of -MA, my MVP went to Homer the Brave, so now he has 22 and is my nose tackle. It'll be hard to engineer improvements, but he has Side Step in his future. Next match, Ellis plays on the wing and I go all-inverted, so I can get Ellis up a level and get him Block. Grant Stume is relegated to career backup, I'm afraid.

I don't know who I have next. I'll call Beyond the Pale and see what he's got going on.

Reason: ''
What is Nuffle's view? Through a window, two-by-three. He peers through snake eyes.
What is Nuffle's lawn? Inches, squares, and tackle zones: Reddened blades of grass.
What is Nuffle's tree? Risk its trunk, space the branches. Touchdowns are its fruit.
Post Reply