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
). 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).