I definitely recommend them. They can do a little bit of everything really well, but only a little. Two ST5 from the get-go, but just two others starting with Block. Up to four MA7, AV7 is balanced as many slow-moving, regenerating, expendable roadblocks (in two different flavours) as you can afford. It's a lovely team to develop and, generally, they just keep marching onward thanks to the Regen.SunDevil wrote:That I have - tell him hello for me!Ulthuan_Express wrote:Ahh Chance, you've been chatting with my good friend SappyHalfling on Xbox Live, haven't you? Glad you're enjoying the tale of this team! It was listening to 3DB's Undead episode - and particularly Drew Buccicone's thoughts on the team - that really made me pick them, and I'm pleased to say it was a great selection, I love 'em.
There are few who can risist the silky smooth sounds of Drew Buccicone.
Good luck in the final! I love Undead as well, but have only played them in tournies, never in a season...yet.
Plus SappyHalfling is definitely up for helping you get the 1000 games played achievement, too. Signing up for the upcoming NAF Championship has certainly reinvigorated the Blood Bowl juices of my entire League.
Anyways:
Match Eight - The PWCBBL Season One Final: "Time Bandits" - Dwarf
Here was a new one on me for the league: I had a little over 150k to spend on inducements (all thanks to the Deathroller rostered on the other team). I had three options: a Wizard, a 5th Re-Roll and a Babe, or Helmut Wulf. I agonised somewhat between them, knowing that the chainsaw had been completely ineffective both against the Lizardmen team in an earlier round, and also against this Dwarf team in the Semi-Final itself. So Wulf was out, and the simple 2D6 against Dwarven armour 9 seemed somewhat risky to me, so I went for the RR and Babe, as I was envisaging a lot of Tackle on my Ghouls, and a number of KOs.
Our skill-capped league means you can only have any skill added four times to your team at one time. So the Dwarves had four Guard and four Mighty Blow. The skill cap itself was put in place to stop the likes of Dwarves spamming Guard and Mighty Blow on EVERYONE, so this was the worst-case scenario. Runners had Block, also, to make it run throughout the team, and a Blitzer had ST4. Not to mention the Deathroller (again).
By this time, my team looked like this. Not markedly different from a few matches before, but a skill up here and there, mostly on the Ghouls:
1. David Yorksherman (Z)
2. Scamperly Dickson (S)
3. Cashley Coal (G) Sure Hands, Block
4. Patrik Verde (W) Tackle
5. Antonio Abbadons (M) Block
6. Colin Shambles (M) Guard, Stand Firm
7. Superbo Pirouettes (G)
8. Ian Wightwightwight (W) Guard
9. Nicholas Le Sulka (G) Block, Sidestep
10. Liam Dready (S)
12. Niggling Splinterburn (Z)
13. Nozzle O'Dreary (Z) Kick
14. Thierribly Hungry (G) Block, Sidestep
4 x RR, FF x 9
So, here we go. I won the FAME with +1, just under 30k fans for the Final. Here it goes pear-shaped. I lost the Kick roll and had to kick. I figured the Mummies could survive on the front line, so put them there as usual. This is where I should have put my Zombies, as with the very first block of the game, the Deathroller charts my Blocking Mummy. He regens, thankfully, but the next block KOs a Zombie.
It wasn't pretty.
The Dwarves rumble down the pitch to score on their Turn 7, and I have two turns to equalise. Let me say at this point that my opponent - who is an awesome guy - had never played, or even seen Undead before, and was going with the flow and learning what my team could do as we went. To an extent, we were discussing what we'd do insofar as individual moves and their outcomes (pointing out, for instance where Guard, Tackle, Sidestep, etc would have an effect later on in the turn). So when he equalised and kicked to me, I went balls-to-the-wall to score in 2 turns.
It was set up so that a I had a Ghoul who could catch the ball, dodge away and score with 2 GFIs on the last turn, the only problem was that the ball was on the floor on the LOS (in no TZs, at least) with no re-rolls. So the pattern was 3+, 3+, 4+, 3+ (Dodge Re-roll), 2+, 2+ to make it 1-1.
Quite predictably, I failed the pick-up and it was Half Time. Just for gits and shiggles, he suggested I see if I could have made it. So, I went a-rolling and made every single one. His only response was 'WOW', as a 2-turn TD with MA7 is not something he's been used to seeing with his Dwarves. From then on, he was definitely wary of my attacking potential.
He kicked to me in the second half, but it didn't get any better. My caging attempts were flattened, my dodging was tackled, my attempts to bash back were completely in vain. To illustrate the point, I managed to stun a single Dwarf in the entire match.
One. Freaking. Dwarf.
Only once in the whole match did I roll above 9 on 2D6 in the match, even with the occasional Mighty Blow thrown in there. It was the complete opposite to my match against the Skaven, where at any point I was seemingly guaranteed to roll 9+ on the dice. All in all, it was fairly pointless. No way could I hold onto the ball, but there was no way for him to score as we got bogged down in the mire of block and counter-block, with all dreams of taking the ball away dashed for my under-strength Undead side, who had lost one Wight and three Ghouls to Casualties (leaving only a Tackling Wight and the completely unskilled Ghoul on the pitch).
The Dwarf grinding game (which he freely admitted was the only way he knew how to play Blood Bowl, while I retorted that's the only way Dwarves are supposed to play the game anyway, so good on him!) reigned supreme.
A cracking match, a huge load of fun, but no championship gold for the Dead and Gooners. Ah well, they're off to the NAF Championship in may, at least.
The Schedule:
Vampires (Won 2-0)
Skaven (Won 2-0)
Humans (Won 3-0)
Lizardmen (Drawn 1-1)
Orcs (Won 2-0)
QF: Necromantic (Won 3-2 in Extra Time)
SF: Lizardmen (Won 2-1)
F: Dwarf (Lost 1-0)
Conclusions:
I love the Undead, and I hate Dwarves. It's not quite that simple, but that's a good conclusion. Plenty of twists and turns on the way to the final of the first League I've been the commissioner of, but definitely a success. The Undead - along with most of the other teams - won't be coming back in their current form for the second season, but it's been great.
As this thread now turns into the preparation for the 'actual' Blood Bowl (who would have thought as a 12 year old picking up this game for the first time that I'd be able to say that at the age of 28?) and into the collection, assembly and painting of a coach and sideline models/counters, my only question is what team do I play in PWCBBL Season 2?