More Wildsquigz advice needed: 5 ST4 players about to skill

[mattgslater]

What if I cut Blargmarkh and Karkagragraghkkh, and replaced them with only a rookie Thrower? That would save 270k TV....

[Hitonagashi]

Well, it depends whether you want to enter the FUMBBL cup. You've got no other teams near that level of development....so if you do, I'd take the fact it's not perfect and enter it anyway.

As to the damage, you have been what looks like attempting to get the Who's Who of the different races famous FUMBBL R teams recently.

The Buc's, Excellence of Execution, Angry Newscasters and Lizards of YumTum Mountain are all fairly famous teams, arguably some of the most famous of their respective races. The Lizards are the only Lizardman team to have ever got to a major final, and Carlo and his Khemri are legendary killers. I'd guess the FC is making all the old teams play those last few games to get ready.

If you want to rebuild the team, I'd kill the troll and thrower as you said. Orc throwers with niggles are a liability. Elf teams with a MB/tackle player will love him. I might only replace the troll though. That ag 4 orc is a far better thrower than a rookie, and a lineorc will give you fodder for the LOS.

[mattgslater]

No prizes for shying away from a good match, Joe! If you want to BE the best, you have to BEAT the best. Besides, nobody else will play my Orcs, even now.

Yeah... I guess it's just that the theme of the team was its dominant D-line, and now it's dead. Not at all convinced I want to go on to the FC without them. As far as I'm concerned, they're rebuilding their identity from the ground. In fact, while I refuse to retire them, the idea of cutting ALL the skilled AG3 players did cross my mind.

I may play the Underbelly at the FC instead. Definitely a better-looking team.

http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team& ... _id=647984

The funny thing is that, crippled as the Wildsquigz are, almost nobody will play against them. People would rather get abused by the Underbelly or play hopeless, pointless games with speed teams against my High Elves, than take on my sad-sack Orcs who seem somehow to have offended Nuffle beyond recourse.

[Hitonagashi]

That is why I play mainly . A lot of [R] players play to develop a nice team, and while they aren't (always) allergic to damage, a significant portion of them also look at "What can I get out of a game in SPP to develop my team". With orcs, you are unlikely to get cas, and with a defense built team like yours, you might not get any TD spp either...and there's enough MB that you could take damage and a step back. I can't be bothered with the hassle of finding games, and I'm happy to go through a random TV matcher to get a quick game.

There's a lot of [R] players that play that way. Orcs and Dwarves are notoriously hard to get games with in [R]. My [R] teams are only for tournament play(unless someone like you specifically calls me out for a game ).

With your Underbelly, there are plenty of skeletons that people will look at and go "well, even if I get thrashed, I might get 2-3 skellie cas's."

Somewhat less than ideal, but I think it's always going to be a problem in a "Choose your own games" division.

[mattgslater]

Silliness.

Pixlz come and go. Records are permanent.

I can see running away from a bad matchup; heck, that's why I maintain HE and Undead at about the same TV. But I don't understand running away from injuries. You wanna play Blood Bowl, you gotta be ready to bleed.

With these guys being so far from readiness now... I'm wondering if I want to replace those guys at all? Just run a Journeyman, and sacking the Troll and Thrower will save me 240k TV, bringing me down from 1990 (that's Tier-3 kind of ridiculous; this team can't fight its way out of a paper bag without Drognarkh or Fnorgrerm) to 1750 (still bloaty). Two less ST points, only one ball-carrier... rrr. No, I'd have to get a new Thrower. I hate having to commit to a carrier. Too much goes wrong.

Meh. You are your BOBs. This team is half-dead. But I just don't want to give up! The wingers are still good. The statfreak Blitzer will be fun once he's got support again. The BOBs are a combined four skills (six with a new Troll) from being back in the saddle.

Heck, I may stick with it and just suck up the losses, hope my +5 W-L differential will survive in positive territory until I manage to skill the BOBs up.

[the.tok]

Silliness.
Pixlz come and go. Records are permanent.

QFT

unfortunately, in online play, some people don't have the BLOODBowl spirit.

I remember being called names for fouling with a zombie, and had been turned down several times because I had a dirty player on my team "you're obviously not fair-play since you have a dirty player" . Other making apologies when making a CAS

I've always wondered how this type of player would have felt playing the ruleset with the +ST to armour roll with piling on. Player turnover was not an issue back then

[mattgslater]

I'd rather play a coach who doesn't foul a lot. I've only once taken a Dirty Player in the new rules, just because I only really foul when there's a tactical reason. I find it very annoying when a coach who already has total control of the game starts fouling. It's one thing if there's a remote shot at a blitz, or if it's the first half, but I had to retire a beautiful team not long ago because my opponent had me on the ground and wouldn't stop fouling (and killing guys, then apologizing) every turn, even though I had no mathematical shot at the ball or even an irrelevant 1d blitz. That did piss me off. It was completely gratuitous.

[the.tok]

I'd rather play a coach who doesn't foul a lot. I've only once taken a Dirty Player in the new rules, just because I only really foul when there's a tactical reason. I find it very annoying when a coach who already has total control of the game starts fouling. It's one thing if there's a remote shot at a blitz, or if it's the first half, but I had to retire a beautiful team not long ago because my opponent had me on the ground and wouldn't stop fouling (and killing guys, then apologizing) every turn, even though I had no mathematical shot at the ball or even an irrelevant 1d blitz. That did piss me off. It was completely gratuitous.

What you are talking about is a different issue. The purpose is to win. If your wardancer failed his leap, then my DP zombie is here to be sure he doesn't get another shot at it, either now or next half.
IMHO DP zombies are worth their cost cause they are very TV efficient and give you a real possibility to remove a player that could disrupt your plans. And other than that, many WD eventually hesitate to make that leap, and that's even better

But fouling is not a riskless action, the odds of being sent off are pretty high, so fouling every turn doesn't seem like a good strategy anyway. It doesn't give you much, and it costs you much.
As you said, it was completely gratuitous, because it had no purpose.
This is the big difference.

On the other hand, refusing a game because the opposing player has a DP (or asking for a "no foul" game) just seems stupid to me, and unbalances the game.

and for the part in red, that would have been the part that would have really pissed me off. I mean, at least be honest, you were trying to kill him, why do you apologize?

[mattgslater]

I'd rather play a coach who doesn't foul a lot. I've only once taken a Dirty Player in the new rules, just because I only really foul when there's a tactical reason. I find it very annoying when a coach who already has total control of the game starts fouling. It's one thing if there's a remote shot at a blitz, or if it's the first half, but I had to retire a beautiful team not long ago because my opponent had me on the ground and wouldn't stop fouling (and killing guys, then apologizing) every turn, even though I had no mathematical shot at the ball or even an irrelevant 1d blitz. That did piss me off. It was completely gratuitous.

What you are talking about is a different issue. The purpose is to win. If your wardancer failed his leap, then my DP zombie is here to be sure he doesn't get another shot at it, either now or next half.
IMHO DP zombies are worth their cost cause they are very TV efficient and give you a real possibility to remove a player that could disrupt your plans. And other than that, many WD eventually hesitate to make that leap, and that's even better

But fouling is not a riskless action, the odds of being sent off are pretty high, so fouling every turn doesn't seem like a good strategy anyway. It doesn't give you much, and it costs you much.
As you said, it was completely gratuitous, because it had no purpose.
This is the big difference.

On the other hand, refusing a game because the opposing player has a DP (or asking for a "no foul" game) just seems stupid to me, and unbalances the game.

and for the part in red, that would have been the part that would have really pissed me off. I mean, at least be honest, you were trying to kill him, why do you apologize?

He wasn't trying to kill him, he was trying to guarantee that I didn't somehow spontaneously grow the Leap skill and +2 MA, then Leap, dodge, GFI twice and 2d his carrier.

No, apologizing doesn't annoy me. It's not necessary, but I appreciate that you'd rather roll the BH than the Dead. Fouling against a 3-man squad with no standing players and no shot at a relevant action, that annoys me. Especially when it kills two statfreaks.

[RandomOracle]

Fouling against a 3-man squad with no standing players and no shot at a relevant action, that annoys me. Especially when it kills two statfreaks.

That's called community service.

[Carnis]

The funny thing is that, crippled as the Wildsquigz are, almost nobody will play against them. People would rather get abused by the Underbelly or play hopeless, pointless games with speed teams against my High Elves, than take on my sad-sack Orcs who seem somehow to have offended Nuffle beyond recourse.

Sad but true, you can only get easy games with TV 1900+ teams in B. This means facing CDBs with claws though. So build for it. Your team looks 100% healthy to me, you are your blitzers. However, you will need to handoff some TDs off to the BOBs at some point.

I wonder why you put Da Face in the FC and not the wildsquigz! That ballcarrier alone was reason enough imo.

[mattgslater]

Sad but true, you can only get easy games with TV 1900+ teams in B. This means facing CDBs with claws though. So build for it. Your team looks 100% healthy to me, you are your blitzers. However, you will need to handoff some TDs off to the BOBs at some point.

I wonder why you put Da Face in the FC and not the wildsquigz! That ballcarrier alone was reason enough imo.

5-game losing streak, my first ever (not a personal losing streak (15 years, never lost more than 3 in a row), won games with other teams in that span, but I'd never had a team with a 5-game losing streak before, and I kind of lost heart. Need to find a way to get them back to winning, skill up the BOBs. Funny that you'd say, "you are your Blitzers." I've in the past said, "you are your BOBs." I always figured the most important traits a Blitzer carried were the ones he started with (MA6, AG3, Block), and the most important traits for the BOB are his ST and his first two skills.

Part of the problem is just luck: my BOBs haven't just been dying, the new guys have been getting KO'ed and failing 75% catches left and right. Part of the problem is that I learned in the old days, and I'm very much an adherent of the "take it as it comes" school of positioning and the "spread the love" school of blocking and SPP; I understand the idea that you want to use your best players to do the important things in the new rules, but after so many years of making championships off people because they played that way, I just can't get my gut to accept it. As such, I don't play very well when I'm down men with an AG3 team. That means I have to have players who can take hits. Rookie BOBs on a 1900 squad simply do not fit the bill. And now I've got two of them, not to mention I'm probably gonna have to fire and replace the Troll soon. One lost BOB at a time, no sweat. Two, that's harder.

[Jimmy Fantastic]

I think BOBs are not so important now to be honest with the clawpomb menace at large. RandomOracle has started a team where he doesnt try too hard to skill his bobs and if he does he just gives them guard.
I think the new way to play orcs is to skill the blitzers up to be t-pombers and use the bobs more in an expendable support role.

[mattgslater]

I think BOBs are not so important now to be honest with the clawpomb menace at large. RandomOracle has started a team where he doesnt try too hard to skill his bobs and if he does he just gives them guard.
I think the new way to play orcs is to skill the blitzers up to be t-pombers and use the bobs more in an expendable support role.

Yeah, I'm temperamentally unsuited to numbers gaming: I like to do a little damage, sure, but I'd rather beat your 11 with my 11. I fully understand the power of POMB, and I'll take it and use it as a late skill sometimes, but just like Dirty Player, I refuse to make it into a core element of a team strategy. If I have to clear the pitch to win the game, I must not be good enough. So if I'm going to win with Orcs, it has to be in spite of the new PO, more than because of it.

Truth is, in the era of the Clawbomb, taking any Orcs to the FUMBBL Cup is kind of silly. The TV curve makes them a Tier 1.5 team now.

JackassRampant (all games LRB6) record with Orcs: 34/18/28 (regulation time 33/20/27)
JackassRampant (all games LRB6) record with other races: 52/20/23 (all regulation time)

I have played harder coaching opposition with the Orcs, but they've actually done pretty well against 170+ coaches; their losses often come against coaches in the 140s and 150s, and the numbers game seems to be the main driver: if I take more than 2 Cas with Orcs, I do pretty badly (1-4-8; the win was vs Bloodwine), and if you factor those games out, my distribution is pretty much the same as it is for all my teams (33-14-20).

Edited: Please read this par too.

Wanna know why they do well against 170+ coaches? Distribution. The best example is the Wildsquigz games against Films I Like and Crimson Horns.

Malmir is great; as an offensive coach he's far more consistent than me, but that just makes it strength on strength. He's a pomber, I'm a wall, so psychology dictates he has to receive first no matter who wins the toss. If Films I Like can't deal any damage, they can't get any mileage, and they're a couple bad rolls away from a brutal 0-1 loss that set his team back and knocked him off the top of the CR charts.

Bloodwine sucks. He got a lot better after I played him and watched some tape and gave him some pointers, but he still sucks. He made all kinds of stupid mistakes, but his Mino was on fire, so while he still lost, he managed to make an entertaining 2-1 game, and came out much stronger than he went in.

Bloodwine, possibly the worst coach on FUMBBL, took basically the same team as Malmir's, only not nearly as well designed, and played it against the same team at the same point on its development curve, and got a better result.

[Jimmy Fantastic]

I don't agree that taking orcs is silly to be honest, have a look at Purple chests team - http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team& ... _id=439449

10 guards is pretty scary for chaos and of course he has a lot of mb spam with a bit of po too.
It is important to remember that chaos are an av 8 team so enough mb/po will give you a good shot in the attrition battle.
Orc teams can also afford to take a lot more tackle than the chaos teams and to be honest I fancy the chances of an agility team winning the FC rather than a clawpomb team.
Rejecting one of the best basher skills on a basher team seems strange to me but of course it's your choice to handicap yourself.