Knights of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Commune (Brets)

[Smeborg]

8th MATCH vs. ORCS: 2-1 WIN (CAS: 0-2)

A pleasant and sociable game in our local games hobby shop (though the hordes of eager fans failed to show up, it being mid-afternoon on a working day).

My opponent was a genuine rookie, with just 2 games under his belt (but quite a good grasp of the game, being I think an experienced gamer). A slightly weird roster, with 3 Black Orcs, 3 Blitzers, 2 Throwers and 4 (!) Gobbos (determined, it would seem, by the painted figurines in my opponent's possession, not by optimal roster choice!). The Gobbos turned out to be very resilient (my team has no Tackle). I think I got 1 KO and 1 Stun on the Gobbos in the whole match.

With 210,000 in inducements, I recommended a Mercenary Blitzer and 2 Babes to my opponent, which he accepted (he showed no interest in a Saw plus Bribe). The Babes worked at least twice for him.

The match was characterised by jammy kick-off results in my favour, such as 2 Blitzes!, a High Kick, and a free Re-roll.

1st DRIVE: Kicking (his choice), I got a Blitz! combined with a deep kick. Put immediate pressure on the ball, popped it loose and scored on my 2nd turn (3 including the Blitz!).

2nd DRIVE: A long defense, starting out to my advantage (numbers), then swinging steadily to my opponent's advantage (numbers), ending with a match-winning sack and shutout not far from my End Zone. Sacks and scrambles along the way.

3rd DRIVE: 2nd half: starting with only 10 men, and receiving, I was keen to score quickly. This was greatly facilitated by a High Kick (wide on the half-way line on my preferred side). I managed to run the ball past the defense, mark up, survive my opponent's Blitz action, and score in 2 turns (the first time in this league, I think).

4th DRIVE: Got another Blitz!, followed by a jammy scatter to an unmarked Blodge Knight, who caught the ball thanks to Catch. This time he did not survive my opponent's Blitz action, but the pressure applied was sufficient to allow my opponent to only score once in the match. I ran out of jam in this drive, with multiple double skulls and similar when attacking the ball (prospects of a turnover score were good). But I was able to slow down the movement of the ball.

LESSONS: Jam always helps (I forgot to mention that my opponent also failed 2 pick-ups, a hand-off and a catch). Brets are a rather good team on a Blitz! (I deploy them to take full advantage). As usual, the team was quite good on defense (3 defensive drives: turnover score, shutout, TD conceded). All except 2 turns of the game were spent on defense (!). They continue to like scrambles (though they are not always as surgical as an AG team when it comes to recovering the ball and scoring). The Brets dictated drive length better than in most previous games.

M-Blow (on 3 Knights) contributed to winning the game. It worked 5 times in the match (3 times to break armour, twice to convert Stuns into KOs). 3 of these times were early in the match (first drive and early in the second drive, when the match was decided). Conversely, the Peasants flew into the dugout (all 4 of them KOd in the second drive, 1 of them crippled later on). They badly need Wrestle (or Block), though they may never get it. The Knights with M-Blow badly need Tackle (for squishing Gobbos and the like), though only 1 is close to 31 SPPs. Brets will get squished from time to time (hardly surprising with 14 turns on defense). 13 players was 1 short.

[Smeborg]

ROSTER AFTER 8 GAMES

Knight: M-Blow (8 SPPs)
Knight: M-Blow, Dodge (16)
Knight: Dodge (12)
Knight: Dodge, M-Blow (29)
Yeoman: Guard (10)
Yeoman: - (5)
Yeoman: Guard, Niggle (9)
Yeoman: Guard (10)
6 rookie Peasants with no SPPs (one has -MA, mng)
2 x RRs, 6 x FF, 1 x AC, 1 x CL, Apoth, 170,000 in Treasury (TV: 140)

Slow but steady progress. 9 skills in 8 games. 99 SPPs (or 12 per game), though 9 of these SPPs may be lost if and when I retire the Niggled Yeomen (meaning 90 SPPs, or 11 per game, nothing to write home about). The Knights continue to hog the SPPs, the Yeomen are MVP sinks (making them also TV-inefficient), and the Peasants would not know a SPP if it sat on them. Not a single Pass Completion (or Interception).

Injuries are starting to be a minor worry. I will keep both the Niggled Guard Yeoman and the -MA Peasant for now (the latter is a "least worst" injury for a Lino, I suppose, along with -AG).

Money is also a potential worry. I will probably buy a 3rd Re-roll (because there is little realistic prospect of getting Leader). This will take my TV to a rather high 147, and mean another game with less than 14 men. The high cost of RRs is quite significant for this team.

These slight money and injury worries are more like an AG team than a bash team. A little more damage might start to influence performance on the pitch.

[Smeborg]

Alas, dear readers, I am travelling, and will likely not play another game for a month or so.

See you then.

[Smeborg]

HARD WORK
--------------
I'm not sure if I am expressing this quite right, but it seems to me that in BB, some teams have to work "harder" than others. As an example, I find that Nurgle have to work harder on offense than any other team I have played. To the point that the concentration required to coach them can be noticeably demanding (e.g. in tournaments).

Whereas some other teams have a much easier "natural" style of play, which, win or lose, does not tax the coach's concentration as much. For me, Slann and Pro-Elves are high up in this category.

I would put Bretonnians fairly high up in the "hard work" category. Every turn requires a somewhat higher degree of care than most teams. There is not much that comes easily to them.

However, once a coach gets the hang of how differently the 3 positions behave, this brings a pleasant harmony to proceedings.

[plasmoid]

Welcome back!

[Smeborg]

Thanks, Martin - I'm still on "holiday" in places where BB is not played. It will likely be another 3 weeks before the Knights' next game.

[plasmoid]

Smeborg?

[Smeborg]

BACK IN THE LAND OF THE LIVING

Hi All (and Plasmoid) -

I spent longer than expected away from home, but am now back in the land of the living (and of our little league).

[Smeborg]

9th GAME vs. DEs - LOST 2-0 (CAS 1-1)
---------------------------------------------
A disappointing game, but not without entertainment (mostly for my opponent!). Seemed like I was stuck in a rut (and did not play at my best). Very difficult to find a way to play for anything better than a draw.

The 3rd game against this team, which I find by far the most difficult in the league (also the strongest coach). Not the best of rosters IMO. 1xWE with Block+M-Blow, 4xBlitzers (mostly with Dodge, 1 with +Ag, 1 I think with Tackle), 6 Linos (1 with Block, 1 with Wrestle). 3 RRs, Apoth. But quite good enough to beat the Brets. Based I believe on ideas from online BB. He induced a Babe - not used.

I won the kick-off and received. Failed to put anything in the dugout (despite my 3xM-Blow). Moved happily to about halfway, but struggled to get much further. In near-desperation, I formed a sideline cage not far from the End Zone, however, it failed to form completely when a Yeoman failed the first of 2 GFIs (after burning a RR on his dodge). My opponent then got greedy (perhaps a correct assessment of his dominance), and instead of attempting to surf the ball-carrier, he chose to surf 2 of my other players. This left me with a decent chance of scoring on turn 6 (say 76%), but the dice were "unkind" (part of a sequence in which 4 out of 5 GFIs failed, plus other stuff), leaving my opponent to surf the ball-carrier, scoop up the ball and score on turn 8 (leaving me with 6 players on the pitch).

All 5 players that had left the pitch (3 were surfs) were CAS or KOd. Not enough came back, leaving me with 10 men for the 2nd half. I had a half opening when the DE's failed the first pick-up (having suffered a double skulls earlier in the turn). Naught availed however, I got IIRC 2 longish odds attempts on the ball carrier - both failed before getting as far as the block. My opponent scored with ease on turn 16 for a humiliating 2-0 victory.

I started with 13 men (a Peasant had a gammy knee or some other pathetic excuse). Alas, I needed 14.

I bought a 3rd RR before the game. I used it in the 1st half (but to no avail). I did not need it in the 2nd half.

The problems I faced were straightforward. Apart from the set piece, I was rarely able to land more than 1 block per turn (from the blitz) on the DEs, who simply dodged out of contact. Meanwhile I could not do the same (and when I tried dodging, the players fell over). So the DEs were getting perhaps 2 or 3 times as may blocks as the Brets (perhaps more) over the course of the game. This told, not only in knockdowns, but in stuns and KOs. So I played both long drives down on numbers (which, as I have explained before, is not something that the Brets like).

My opponent had "decent dice". I recall 3 double skulls (all re-rolled successfully), 1 failed pick-up, and 1 failed dodge. Otherwise, I think everything he did worked. A bit of a shame that I did not penalise his greed by scoring on turn 6, but I think I would still have lost by a 2-1 margin or similar.

I made some "small" mistakes during the game, which I will list so that others may learn from them. My pathetic excuse is that I have not played much BB in the last 3 months (just 1 tournament with Ogres, of all things):

- Forgot/failed to take a foul on the 1st turn of the match at +3 (worthwhile given the importance of numbers, and that my opponent had only 11 players).

- Exposed my Niggled Yeoman unnecessarily to attack during the 1st drive. The WE with M-Blow got him eventually (8+M-Blow to break armour, 9+Niggle to CAS = mng).

- I did not get a Receiver (i.e. Knight) into position early in the 1st half (and found it well-nigh impossible to do so thereafter).

- I made a miscalculation on my only scoring attempt (reduced the odds of scoring by all of 0.2%, but also made it certain that my ball-carrier would be surfed if a 1-die block failed - which of course it did).

- I did not re-roll a 5+ pick-up early in the 2nd half (in 2 TZs). Although if I had picked up the ball, my ball-carrier would have taken up to 8 dice of blocks, he was a Blodger, and it would have been the right thing to do given the desperate match situation (0-1 down and kicking). This was probably the worst mistake.

I had 3xM-Blow players on the pitch for most of the match. M-Blow did not work once in say 25 x 2-die blocks, most of them knockdowns - no further commentary required.

The Knights are overworked. They are the Runners, Receivers, Blitzers and Blockers all at once. They have to take on these roles, as the Yeomen and Peasants lack versatility by design (though both Wrestle and Fend are highly useful in the right situation).

[Smeborg]

ROSTER AFTER 9 GAMES
----------------------------
Knight: M-Blow (8 SPPs)
Knight: M-Blow, Dodge (18)
Knight: Dodge (12)
Knight: Dodge, M-Blow, Tackle (34)
Yeoman: Guard (10)
Yeoman: - (5)
Yeoman: Guard, Niggle, mng (9)
Yeoman: Guard (10)
6 rookie Peasants with 0 SPPs (one with -MA)
3x RRs, AC, CL, Apoth, 50,000 in Treasury, TV144

Very slow development, with only 7 SPPs in the last game (CAS +MVP). Every pass attempt in the league (including a good few on turns 8 and 16) has failed, lol.

The Knights continue to hog the SPPs. If I retire the Niggled Yeoman (likely), that will leave 100% of earned SPPs with the Knights (just MVPs for the Yeoman, and no SPPs at all for the Peasants). I will likely soon try to skill up a Peasant (we follow "standard" rules, i.e. pick 3 players for the MVP and randomise).

A classic roll of 1 for winnings, about what the team deserved for this one.

[Smeborg]

MUSINGS ON MIGHTY BLOW
--------------------------------
My Mighty Blow experiment would have to be deemed a failure so far (just 4xCAS in the last 5 games). However, I guess this is a small sample, and to get (say) 20 knockdowns with M-Blow, and for it never to come into play (as in the last game) seems somewhat improbable (well under 10% probability, I think). [Edit: I have done the calculation - to get 16 M-Blow knockdowns on an AV8 player without M-Blow coming into play is a 2% chance.]

While I remain open-minded (because of the small sample size), I am going to stick my neck out and suggest that:

- The team might be at least as good without doubles skills on the Knights, and

- A more useful doubles skill might be Dodge on a Yeoman (but then where does the Guard come from?), and

- Stat increases might be more useful on the Knights than doubles.

Had I not rolled any doubles, the Knights on my team might look like this:

Dodge
Dodge, Leader
Dodge
Dodge, Sure Hands, Kick-off Return

(or similar). TV would be be 8 lower.

The other option would of course be Guard instead of M-Blow on the Knights. I have no way to test that without another league season.

I often think that some league teams would be better without doubles skills (or even without stat increases), but I freely admit I cannot resist the "fluff".

[speedingbullet]

Good to have you back Smeborg. Our league has just finished and, as I’ve played a similar number of games to you, I offer some facts and thoughts for comparison.

8 wins, 2 draws and 1 loss. The first 10 matches were the regular season and the 11th match was the final against the top team from the other division. Each division comprised 6 teams with each team playing twice against the other teams in the division. I believe I was fortunate with the draw as my league opponents were:

Human
Chaos
Halfling
High Elf
Underworld

The start of the league was TV100 with no extra skills.

My roster after the 11 games is:

Knight: Sure Hands, Dodge, Tackle, Side Step (59 spps)
Knight: Dodge, Tackle (28 spps)
Knight: Mighty Blow, Tackle (19 spps)
Knight: (4 spps)
Yeoman: Guard, Stand Firm, -AV (16 spps)
Yeoman: Guard (8 spps)
Yeoman: (0 spps)
Yeoman: (0 spps)
Lineman: Block (11 spps)
& 5 rookie lineman (all 0 spps)

As you can see, my season tells a similar story in terms of an inability to get spps on the Lineman who, partly because of Fend, just don’t do enough blocking. It was also a struggle getting spps on the Yeoman.

My hardest games were against:

Chaos, early on, when I went players down and then could do nothing to stop my opponents cage from advancing for what became an inevitable equaliser.

Underworld, 2 very tough games against a well coached side and I was fortunate to win them both. In the second game I ended up badly beaten up by a Mighty Blow, Claw, Skaven Blitzer who MNG’d a Blitzer and then both Guard Yeoman! Fortunately, in the following game, my High Elf opponent had shocking dice which allowed me to recover.

I ended up with 3 Blitzers with Tackle which is too many given the other useful skills on offer. It was circumstantial as the league progressed as I really needed Tackle. So I gave it to my ball carrier as he was the player who had a skill up. Then, as he is the ball carrier, I needed a second player with Tackle for blitzing on my offence. Only after that did I get a double skill on a Blitzer and went for Mighty Blow, with Tackle being the obvious choice to go along with Mighty Blow.

Smeborg, with regard to your musings on Mighty Blow, I think you might be right that you’d have been better taking other skills after the first Mighty Blow. Particularly if the league is relatively short so you aren’t going to get 3 or 4 skills on each Blitzer.

The game I lost was the final against a well coached Khorne side. I failed to score in the first half when receiving, despite forcing a couple of half openings. The first time I’ve played against Khorne and it was difficult to press an attack down the flank against all that frenzy. In truth, I probably switched sides once too often when I should have tried pressing a bit harder down one side.

In the second half, a couple of good turns from the Bloodthirster, cas’ing and KO’ing my Guard Yeomen, opened the way for my opponent to take the lead comfortably. Once a couple of players down, as has been said elsewhere on this thread, it proved very difficult for the Brets to mount an effective defence.

The Blitzers are great players though and, although with only 2 turns to score the equaliser and send us in to extra time, a High Kick gave me a great chance. I would probably have scored the td if I hadn’t rolled a double 1 on the crucial hand off!

So no spps for the Brets in the final, other than the MVP. I found it hard to come by spps all season, particular in terms of cas. In the 9 games against non-Halfling opposition, I only caused 9 cas, so averaging only 1 per game and that is without having to face Dwarves and Orcs.

In the two games against Halflings (even though they were well coached) the Brets scored lots of tds and caused lots of cas. I suspect Brets are particularly well suited to playing against Halflings due to lots of Block and Wrestle, a Blodging ball carrier (once a Blitzer gets a skill up) and Fend to keep the Trees away from the Lineman.

Perhaps surprisingly, I didn’t find the Brets to be good against Khorne. I probably need to adapt my play style somewhat but with lots of Juggernaut, Khorne are pretty good at cancelling out the usual Bret advantages such as Fend and Wrestle.

[Smeborg]

Hi speedingbullet - good to hear from you.

Noted that your team's SPP distribution is very similar to mine, i.e. a bit crazy by the standards of other teams.

Agreed that lots of Tackle may be "wasted". Some of my highest performing league teams never got as far as Tackle (but they had Wrestle). But I like the idea of Tackle on a Blitzer who already has Dodge and M-Blow.

Khorne are a decent team once they get a few skills - not surprised they gave you a hard time. Not only can Bret skills be negated (e.g. Wrestle and Fend by Juggernaut), but Bret skills can be wasted entirely (e.g. Dauntless against a ST3 team). And Catch is a skill I use once in a blue moon.

I am not too concerned at the lack of extra SPPs from M-Blow (though I would like to see a skill-up or two, e.g. to 16 SPPs). It is more that it is not working at all (as in the last game), so there is no influence on numbers. Perhaps this will improve with the addition of Tackle. I have been developing my team to cope with Orcs - perhaps it is only now that I have M-Blow+Tackle (after 9 games) that I might see an improvement against the likes of DEs.

The Brets are relatively hard work (as I have said before). I was not on my toes in the last game (and lacked "will"), so paid the penalty. The team is not one that can relax at any time. On offense you have to be prepared for the running play to be shut down at any time. On defense, you might get 1 or 2 shots at the ball carrier in a drive - both at indifferent odds. You can't let these chances pass, and have to fight for every scrap.

It "seems" common for Bret scoring chances in the region of (say) 75% to 90% to fail. But if your opponent's scoring chances are in the region of 90% to 97%, then he is much more likely to win the game.

To sum up: a Bret coach needs a high "will to win", and great precision in positioning. The Brets have a high risk appetite, especially on defense. The moment of success in each drive is fleeting (if you are an experienced coach, you will at least recognise that you missed it, and try and learn for the next).

[Smeborg]

MUSING ON BRETS IN TOURNEYS
--------------------------------------
I suspect Bret tourney rosters will be better than Bret rosters in the early games of leagues (assuming a league start at TV100). Some reasons:

- Tourney rosters will likely have enough players (say 13) to last the distance.

- Tourney rosters will likely have all 8 positional players (4xBlock and 4xWrestle, matched by very few teams).

- Wrestle is an outstanding tournament skill, great for bringing down Blodgers and ball-carriers (e.g. Block+Sure Hands players). Unlike Tackle, Wrestle is never wasted.

- Rosters will likely have spam Guard and Blodge, about the most useful skills in tourneys (as noted by plasmoid).

- The tourney team will likely have enough Re-rolls (say 1 or 2xTRRs and 1xLeader).

- The tourney team does not have to worry about the lopsided SPP dynamic in leagues (all the SPPs going to the Knights).

That is quite a lot of improvements, many of them more than subtle. I don't want to overstate the case though - the team will still suffer from its inherent weaknesses, such as ST3 across the board, indifferent AV and indifferent AG. Also, it's hard to justify taking Sure Hands (because Dodge is so much better), which leaves the team vulnerable to Strip Ball.

In a skill-rich tourney format (say one where skills are purchased), the team could become rather interesting (e.g. 3 x Peasants with Wrestle, for a supremely annoying player-type).

Hope that's of interest.

[plasmoid]

I think they’re an above average tournament team.
Right now they’re the team with the highest NAF win percentage! I think that this is party explained by having played just 1000 NAF games so far - which means a pretty eide margin of error - but also, more importantly, I think the majority of tournaments have treated them as tier 2 right from the start, giving them bonus skills and passing their performance.

Massimo Rollo (Rolex) is writing a tournament playbook for them, and he thanks that they are definately tier 1 for tournaments.

Cheers
Martin