Blood Bowl LP attempt #2 -

[Strelok]

So, the last attempt at this was killed by fucking up the team transfer settings resulting in our team being in a limbo where it couldn't join any leagues. However, with the recent announcement that Games Workshop is bringing back specialist games, I figured I may as well make one last attempt at this. This time I'm not going to make that mistake, and we instead will be doing the Brettonians, and I'll be doing more breif, digestible write ups instead of play by plays.

With that said, much like any good xcom or Dwarf Fortress LP, I'll be needing names. So we need people to either volunteer themselves or others, to the point of 11.

Here is a

Spoiler: Current Team Statistics

W/D/L: 2/1/1 + 1 DC Forefeit
Treasury: 30,000
Team Value: 1200

Mewothkip: 3 Touchdowns, 1 Permanent Injury Inflicted
Coster: 2 Temporary Injuries Inflicted
Melchett: 1 Touchdown, 1 Temporary Injury Inflicted, 1 Pass Completed
Smutley: 1 Touchdown
Saney: 1 Permanent Injury Inflicted

Spoiler: Dead and Retired Players

Nobody yet.

Spoiler: Current Roster

Note that rerolls are only worth 1/2 their post creation purchase price twords team value.
Fanfactor can be neither bought nor sold after team creation, and is instead earned or lost based on team performance and a dice roll.

Spoiler: Current Stadium

A note on names. I will be needing replacement names as this goes on. Priority is given to those who specifically request a name either in the thread or in a private conversation. After that it's those who answered yes on the poll at the top. If we somehow still need names, I'm choosing random kiwi members.

Spoiler: Name Waiting List

Skeealator
Dr Boe Jangles Esq
Altissimo

 

[Strelok]

Ok, so, decided to just get on with it and use the rosters for last time, anyone who wants in will probably be a lineman as Brettonian ones die in droves. With that said, let's show the roster and what the positionals mean.

Spoiler: Roster

Spoiler: Positional: Blitzer

The Blitzer, also known in fluff terms as "Knights", are the backbone of the Brettonian team. With both general and passing access on normal skill ups, they are going to be the primary ball carriers of any drive. However, Dauntless and Block means they can handle themselves in a fight, and are often the primary hitters, despite not having strength access. The first skill ups for them will likely involve skills like Sure Hands and Pass to ensure a healthy passing and running game. Any doubles will probably see them getting Mighty Blow to hit harder for killers. Those that are built as ball carriers will instead get Agility skills. Both types will get Dodge at some point as Dodge is useful in both moving and taking hits.

Spoiler: Positional: Blocker

Aka Yeomen. Despite being called Blockers, the truth is they are the Blitzers of the team, as wrestle means they can knock down ANYONE on a Both Down result, even if they have block. While this won't cause any injuries, it makes them an excellent ball hawk, and if combined with tackle and strip ball, means that anyone without sure hands is going to lose the ball as long as skulls aren't rolled. Strength Access means they will be getting Guard as a first skill however, as Brettonians need the assists in a scrum.

Spoiler: Positional: Lineman

Aka filthy Peasants. These guys are fodder, pure and simple. AG 2 means once they're stuck in they aren't going anywhere, and AV7 means when they're put down they tend to stay down. However fend at least means the opponent can't follow up, so they are great at stalling an offensive drive, and if they manage to not get stunned or worse, they make excellent markers for STR4/5 Players when combined with the Knight's Dauntless skill, allowing 2 die blocks.

You'll also note they only have general skill access on normal rolls. The first to level up will get kick, everyone else block. It gets tricky after that point to decide what skills are best, but the fact that they both can't handle the ball, and have a tendancy to eat dirt, means they will probably never survive to level 2, let alone level 3 or beyond. Expect constant turnover.

Now with all that taken in, you're probably thinking "This team seems like a bit of a schizophrenic mess". The anwser is yes, yes it is. The Brettonians were a roster that had been floating around various communities for ages, in two forms, the one you see before, and one where the Blitzers had Strength instead of Passing Access. While this would no doubt make them make a whole lot more sense, the problem is it would have made them just a poor man's Orc team.

Anyway hopefully we can get our first match in after thanksgiving, and maybe everyone will survive it too.

 

[Wood Glue]

Low AG and AV linemen with fend looks entertaining set up to spectate. Seems like the highly expendable Bretonian lineman makes natural dirty player too, since you'll quickly get full roster and will usually gladly risk one peasant in fouling bothersome opponents.

Sign me in if when you need more fodder to the line of scrimmage.

 

[Strelok]

Low AG and AV linemen with fend looks entertaining set up to spectate. Seems like the highly expendable Bretonian lineman makes natural dirty player too, since you'll quickly get full roster and will usually gladly risk one peasant in fouling bothersome opponents.

Sign me in if when you need more fodder to the line of scrimmage.

I completely overlooked posting the values of them, mostly because bb2s out of match interface is a bit of a disaster. The next patch is supposed to fix a lot of that, but exactly when this patch is coming out is another matter entirely

Blitzers/Knights: 110k
Blockers/Yeomen: 70k
Linemen/Peasants: 40k

Yes, the peasants have the value of a goblin.

 

[Strelok]

And we managed to get our first match going, against yet another brettonian team, the Friday Knight Lights.

Spoiler: Enemy Roster

Now a few things I notice right off the back. One, this is a team with a theme, a sadly rare sight on Cyanide Blood Bowl. However, what I do notice is two key details. First off, in the matchup image, I note then have 170k on us in team value, a not insignifigant margin. However, on the flip side, they have comitted perhaps the single biggest noob trap of the Brettonian team. Can you spot it compared to my team?

Yes, they have all 4 Yeomen and only 3 Peasants. Now this might seem like a solid idea, after all the Peasants are rather crap and the Yeomen are much stronger, but the problem is in the tradeoff. In order to start with this roster you need to drop yourself to 2 rerolls, something that is exceedingly dangerous for non-elf teams. Rerolls double in price after team creation, but new players don't, which means it's better to take the reroll first.

You may also notice a new skill symbol, the red shield.

Spoiler: Guard

This makes those pieces keys to watch out for.

That said, due to the differences we get quite a lot of petty cash, and I opted for these inducements.

Spoiler: Inducements

The Bloodweiser babes give a +1 to recovery rolls from KO's, while the extra team training means I will have 4 rerolls per half to my opponent's two.

The match starts off promising enough, we win the opening coin toss and elect to receive. We also are the home team, which could be important much later when field enhancements come intro play, but for now doesn't mean anything.

Now to start the match my opponent adopts a defensive formation I like to call "complete and utter garbage"

Spoiler: garbage

While three men on the LOS is standard practice, the actual formation allows massive gaps down the middle and sidelines where I could run right past without dealing with dodging.

The kickoff comes and we get a highkick, which means I can elect to move someone under the ball directly. This allows us to cage up fairly early and form a slow, grinding line forward, much like a dwarven team would cause. Meowthkip scores a KO on The Knight Be Giants on turn 2, whcih means he's removed from the field and has to roll a d6 to determine if he wakes up. A breakway near turn 3 allows Smutley to get the ball to her, and she is running free to the endzone by turn 4, when Knight Be Giants is joined by two of his friends in the KO bin.

Although I'd prefer to stall things to buy time, the Knights are able to get a man free and I don't want to risk it.

Spoiler: turn 4

Knight Be Giants fails to recover from his knockout, but his friends do. However the offensive effort of the Knights are lacking this time, and the ball never gets near a danger zone. However, What DOES happen is on turn 7.

Spoiler

Coster smashes up an opposing Lineman, and the result is Badly Hurt, so while Three Dog will be able to continue his career later, he won't be bothering us anymore, and Coster gains 2 SPPs.

The second half, and it's again us kicking off. This is where the danger lies, as it's fairly common for blood bowl games to go either 1-1 or 2-1. Thankfully, my opponent decides to line up in a formation I call "Salty as fuck".

Spoiler: So Salty

As you can see, he's dedicated 60% of his remaining team to beating the piss out of 3 useless linemen, instead of protecting the ball. However a failed dodge on my first turn means I'm not able to capitalize this, and instead have to scramble Meowthkip, Surtur, and Smutley after a breakway receiver.

Spoiler: Containment

However, the Knights make one of the worst mistakes you can make in Blood Bowl, they opened the cage too soon. By turn 12 Dynastia and Raygun have managed to run around the back of the Knights formation and start harassing the ball carrier, and Raygun on the last move of turn 12 blitzes on a risky 1 die block, tackling the ball carrier and knocking the ball loose. He is immediatly stunned the next turn in repayment.

Mewothkip abandons the containment effort that Smutly and Surtur have handled to rush forward to the scrum, where she manages to retreive the ball after a knocked down player is slammed into it, bouncing at around several peasants who can't catch it to save their lives.

Spoiler: Meowthkip with the ball

With the entire left flank clear, Meowth makes a break for it, and is able to secure enough distance that she can't be hit in one turn. The scrum devolves into nothing more than a moshpit, as both teams abandon any attempt at strategic play and just want to hurt each other. Eventually, one team strikes a decisive blow.

Spoiler: Goddamn Coster

Unfortunatly, the Knight's apothecary is able to patch him up, but Coster is still awarded the SPPs, bringing him 2 shy of leveling up. Meowth runs in the second TD on turn 16, affording us a 2-0 win and her a level up.

Spoiler: winners

Post match we win 70,000 gold, bringing us to 80k total, where I spend 50k to buy a team apothecary, with the rest being saved up to another Blocker. We also had a nice amount of SPPs given out.

Spoiler: SPPs

Coster gets 2 SPPs for each of his inflicted injuries, Meowth 3 each for her TDs, and both Smutley and Prom Knight are given 5 SPPs as the randomly chosen MVPs. The important number though is 6, which is the amount of SPPs needed for the first level up.

Mewothkip levels up, and rolls snake eyes, which as a double means she can take skills from Strength or Agility in addition to Passing and General. She is granted Mighty Blow, as since Blitzers have Dauntless, they will be taking on the higher strength paces more often, and those are something I'd like to have armor breaks on more often.

Spoiler: Mighty Blow

And with that our first match is done, and a victory to boot. A great start to our career, and perhaps a sign of things to come.

 

[Skeletor]

Put me in, coach. This looks fun.

 

[Strelok]

As a note this and the first pc version should still be 40% off on Steam, and theres also the free 2d version over at fumbbl, all use the same exact rules for the most part. Only diffrence is bb2 now has the long proposed bank rule, and the wholly made up stadium enhancements rule.

The brettonian team is a BB2 exclusive, although fumbbl has had plans to add them to the player run leages for years, along with a couple dozen other unofficial teams

 

[Strelok]

No game yet, haven't had time, still recouperating from spending 6 hours in the back of a car from Baltimore to upstate NY. However, I'd like to talk a moment about something I mentioned in passing last game.

The changes from LRB6 to BB2, specifically the Bank Rule, Inducements, Stadiums, and how they play into our long term strategy.

In LRb6, the last edition of Blood Bowl Rules released before the dissolution of the Blood Bowl Committee, there was a bit of a fuss raised over Jervis Johnson vetoing (As the only actual GW employee, every rule had to be personally approved by him) a"Bank" rule that the rest of the group had agreed upon.

Spoiler: actual propsed bank rule

"The NAF offers a banking service which can hold up to 200,000 gold pieces for a team so they do not have to risk carrying excess amounts of gold when travelling between matches. Gold saved in the bank should be recorded on the team roster but is not added to Team Value when determining inducements, allowing your team to save for purchases without penalty. You can only add to or remove gold from the bank during the Post-game sequence (see page 29)."

Now Cyanide, in making BB2, took the spirit of this rule more than the letter, and simplified it down to essentially the first 150,000 gold not counting twords team value, everything after does. In both cases this rule serves the same purpose, preventing high armor, bashy teams from stockpiling so much cash they never have to worry about player turnover. However, BB2 included a further change to how inducements work.

In LRB6, you are granted petty cash equal to the difference in TV as the lesser team. This cash can be used to purchase inducements as noted in game 1. However you cannot combine petty cash and treasury cash. If you have 90k in petty cash and want to buy 150k in inducements, you MUST spend 150k in treasury, and then your opponent is granted petty cash if Your Team Value + Cash is greater than his TV. So in other words there are very, VERY few occasions you would ever spend cash on inducements.

In BB2, it was changed so cash transferred to petty cash didn't add TV, AND you could make up the difference. So in that scenario you would instead spend 60k. However, since any cash past 150k is counted anyway, and you'd realistically never want to spend that nest egg as you need it incase players die, it achieves a similar result, except it encourages spending cash on inducements.

This however brings me to a further point, a way to sink away money without giving up team value in matchmaking, or inducements in league play. And that is Stadium Upgrades. Stadium upgrades give buffs or maluses to each team equally, and can essentially be seen as a way to play an enforced house rule on on opponent, usually to your favor. The cost of upgrading your stadium is 100k to get it to level 2, then 100k for the actual effect, with further costs to upgrade the stadium to new, purely cosmetic levels (so a max level stadium is essentially a bragging rights thing "Look how well my team is doing, I could afford to dump this much money").

So what was the point of all that, well quite Simpy, if we see even one or two ragequits, we will likely have the cash to get one of these stadium enhancements, and as such we need to look at which one we would want. I've included all of them in the spoiler tag below.

Spoiler: Stadium Upgrades

Magic Dome: "The weather always starts at 'nice' and the 'Changing Weather' kick-off event is cancelled.
Security Gate: The 'Riot' and 'Pitch Invasion' kick-off events are cancelled.
Beer Stand: +1 to Injury Rolls when a player is pushed off the pitch
Astrogranite: +1 to Armor Rolls when a player fails a Go For It roll.
Elf Turf: -1 to Armor Rolls when a player fails a Go For It roll.
Royal Box: Doubles all gains and losses of Fan Factor.
Squig Sandwhich Kisosk: ''Throw a Rock' and 'Get the Ref' kick-off events are cancelled.
Nuffle Alter: Star players cost 50k less to hire.
Magicians's Shop: Both teams receive a free wizard.
Referee Rest Area: Both teams receive a free bribe.

Now we are infact only looking at two, the most fun ones, which I included at the bottom. Both will result in far dirtier, more fun play, and I've put it to a vote which we will use. I'll explain what each does.

Bribes: A bribe is a straight 1d6 roll, on a 2+, the referee will ignore an infraction and not send the player off. But what sends a player off? Well there are two ways a player can get sent off. The first is if they have an illegal weapon, such as a chainsaw. In that case a player is automatically ejected from the game at the end of the drive they took place in, which is either when a TD is scored, or when the halftime whistle blows. The other time is when fouling. When a player commits a foul (stomping a downed player), they roll the usual armor and injury rolls of 2d6. If either of these result in doubles, the referee notices the blatant foul and ejects the player (but not anyone assisting the foul).

Wizard: One per game, at either the start or end of your turn, you may cast a single spell. You have the choice of two types of spells, Lighting Bolt, or Fireball. Both, if successful, knock a player down and roll the normal knockdown effects as if they were blocked. The difference is how successful they are. A lightning Bolt is cast on a single player, and on a 1d6 is a straight 2+ chance. The Fireball instead is cast on a 3x3 area, and is a 4+ on the 1d6. So while the lightning bolt is more reliable, the fireball can be far more devastating, especially when performed on a standard X formation cage.

 

[Strelok]

Here we go, game two of the Kiwi Krusade against autism. And by Autism I mean our next opponent.

Spoiler: Filthy Fucking Elves

The injured player is not in our game, instead, a free mercenary is, who is a default lineman with the skill Loner. As usual, we have two new skills to take note of.

Spoiler: Skills

Now, despite being someone who dabbles in elf coaching (although my main team is, naturally, the Skaven)... I fucking hate elves. Elves are bullshit personified because of their AG4, which means they can usually dodge on a 2+ into open space, and pickup an unmolested ball as such. Even on their linemen. Every game against elves is an ordeal in frustration, and Dark Elves are the second worse of the lot because by having AV8 and Blitzers with strength access, they can actually put a physical fight up as well. Elves of course have problems in the long term, with expensive players and getting hurt alot, but neither of those help us in the short term.

A tv difference of 60k sees us gain the Bloodweiser Babes, which as you should recall gives us a +1 to KO recovery rolls, making it a 66% chance someone wakes up instead of 50%.

Unlike the previous match, the weather promises to be a problem, as it is a sunny day outside...

Spoiler: A Very Sunny Day Indeed

However, we win the coin toss and elect to recieve, and the first sign things might not be as sunny as the weather is the kickoff.

Spoiler: Double Goddamnit

Another reroll for the Elves, bringing them up to 3, on par with us, but as they have AV4, they don't need them as much. The ball lands right in the middle of our formation, and the scrum starts immediately. A quick amount of blows happen to the elf team, with Connor scoring a stun on the Loner Elf. Much more shoving later, and Knight Smutley is in control of the ball, with a wall of Brettonians between him and the elves.

The scrum continues much as always, with an attempt to form a cage on the right flank that's held up by a downed elf next to the ball carrier. Connor meanwhile scores yet another armor break, this time sending a player to the KO bin. Hellblazer meanwhile, takes a kick to the head from an elf, that leaves him in quite a state.

Spoiler: Pain

Now he will have to suck it up, since as a rule I reserve apothecaries for permanent injuries. The scrum continues just as brutal as before, with the downed elf blitzing Smutley on a 1db and scoring a defneder down. The ball bounces far outside of the scrum, assisted by Dynastia fumbling the scatter catch.

For, I joke not, the next 4 turns, neither team is able to secure the ball, untill the Elves manage to get it loose and far away, and much like before the remaining players are too stuck in to get to him, and resort to just trying to hurt each other. Connor somehow scores 2 more KOs, and a 4th KO is scored by Surtur. Unfortunately for them, KOs aren't worth anything, so the big board in the OP won't reflect them. To finish out the half, Ronald Raygun, assisted by Meowthkip, Surtur, and Melchet, stomp the elf with Guard in a foul, and KO him, as the opposing ball carrier runs in the TD.

To start the next half, two elves wake up, including the one with Guard fouled right as the whistle blew. As such we only have a 2 man advantage, counting our man out as well. Even worse, we're the kicking team now.

As the ball is kicked off, we are met with another problem. The weather has changed back to the default state, meaning the elves already great passing game will no longer be impeded by the glare of the sun. The kickoff also lands on the side they are attempting to start off on as well. But then, Nuffle was always a fickle god, and his fickleness paid back in kind.

Spoiler: Oops

And with that, our chances in this game come right back. A swarm of Kiwis come around the flanks of the elves, and by the end of the turn we have set every stinkin elf except the kickoff reciever in our scrum's clutches.

Spoiler: The Scrum

Naturally the reciver is still able to grab the ball, and stays safely out of range of our efforts, but his compatriots are less fortunate. The elves manage to push one of ours away, dodge two of theirs away, knock Ronald Raygun down, and move Marjan down the line but not out of contact with elves. We respond simply by laying out 4 elves, and burning a reroll when Dynastia fails a GFI to get into contact with the ballcarrier, although the reroll succeeds.

The elves burn a reroll redoing a failed dodge, in the backfield behind us, which proves disasterous when they roll a 1 trying to hand the ball off immediatly afterwards. Now the ball is sitting right infront of Melchett. Two turns later, and we've both staked out the ball to the point where picking the damn thing up is impossible.

Spoiler: Grab it, I dare ya

However, two tuns of shoving and something finally happens, an elf falls ontop the ball, jarring it loose... and right into the hands of Saney. Despite being in contact with an elf, we are able to free him up to run around and hand the ball off... To Meowthkip who had been jostled twords the endzone by the elves, yet left unmolested. During the same scrum Melchett manages to Badly Hurt an elf, earning her two SPPs and a spot on the board.

The score was now 1-1 with 3 turns of gameplay remaining.

The kickoff is uneventful as ever, but the elves are quickly upon us, with percision, and are able to form a half cage on the sidelines that we can't penetrate, things are looking grim, and on turn 16, the last turn of the game, the elves have a semi clear path. With no rerolls, they need to pass a 2+ dodge roll, and two 2+ GFIs. In other words slighly over a 50/50 shot.

Spoiler: And the result is...

Jumping the screenshot gun bit, but the elves score. With out last turn we make some ineffective blocks, and Melchett grabs the ball and does a quick pass to get a SPP.

So, unfortunatly our first loss, and the post game results aren't as nice either.

Spoiler: post game

So, not enough SPPs to level anyone up, a key player unable to play the next game (as well as a Peasant in much the same shape who I didn't seem to catch when he got hurt), and a frankly insulting amount of money. Ah well, that's Blood Bowl! See you all around next time. I'll leave you with the current state of the team.

Spoiler: team

 

[Wood Glue]

Damn elves, meeting them is bad enough without getting spat on by Lady Luck. Used to play Khemri team and facing elves was always pure misery until you had put down more than third of their team. Then again managing to permanently maim one of those perfectly passing long-eared pansies always brings a smile on one's face.

 

[Dr. Boe Jangles Esq.]

I'm so in for this shit.

 

[Strelok]

Damn elves, meeting them is bad enough without getting spat on by Lady Luck. Used to play Khemri team and facing elves was always pure misery until you had put down more than third of their team. Then again managing to permanently maim one of those perfectly passing long-eared pansies always brings a smile on one's face.

I'd consider being a Khemri coach pure misery to begin with.

 

[Strelok]

I fucked up. Not in a major way, but in a way that's gonna hurt us a bit in the long run. What am I talking about, why it's me fucking up and misinterpreting the garbage UI. Yes that's right, it's time for Match #3!

So to start off, here's the matchmaker screen that greets me.

Spoiler: Matchmaker

So we're facing another Brettonian team, and they have a TV advantage of 50 on us. So of course I bought the Babes, except I completely forgot that Cyanide's UI is garbage and I should always double check. See, we wren't a TV 930 team. We were, in fact, a TV 1,100 team. See that 930 didnt include the two free journeymen (2x40) we get for not having a full roster. So, to sum it up... I spent our entire fucking treasury on a +1 to knockout rolls. Great. Fantastic. Fucking Ace.

Anyway onto the match. Our opponents Roster is the standard Brettonian fare. All default names and all lvl 1 so no need to show the roster, just know it's the uusual 4 Knights, 4 yeomen, 3 Filthy Peasants with 2 rerolls build.

We're the away team, and we win the coinflip and elect to receive. As per our previous match, we are down Knight Hellblazer and Peasant Coster. We are instead joined by a pair of journeymen peasants going by the names Handsome Earl and Old Tiwtch. As was explained in the previous match, they are rookie linemen with the Loner Skill.

Spoiler: Kickoff

The Man sets up in a fairly aggressive defensive formation, and in return the Krusaders do so as well on the offense, with Meowthkip taking front and center of the assault. Smutley is sitting back past the end of the screenshot to return the ball if it's kicked deep. The opening moves see Meowthkip KO one of the Man's peasants, Smutley successfully retrieving the long kick with nary a fuss, and ending with Surtur and Melchette attempting a blitz on the far left flank, only for the opposing Yeoman's "Wrestle" skill to bring him and Mel down.

Spoiler: the end result

Note the guy on the far right started the turn down, its just exceedingly hard to capture moments in the replay function.

The Mans anwser is to move their men into base contact with the men in the front center, blitz Surtur on the sideline, and then run the blitzer and two others to surround the defensive cage. This action starts yet another Scrum, infact a remarkably long one. Blocks are thrown, blood flies, the ball goes nowhere, and a constant back and forth occurs, with little actual progress made by either side. A few events stand out however. On turn 3 of the Man's play, Saney is Badly Hurt by Lothaire the Pious, and will have to sit the rest of the match out. Meowthkip avenges Saney in the immediate next turn, and in style.

Spoiler: Damn Girl

Yes, we have our very first permanent injury on either side of the ball. I'll have to check to team later to see if this might even be a forced retirement, as a niggling injury, while tolerable, is still not something you want on a fresh faced, easily replaceable rookie. Old Twitch meanwhile proves to be a completly useless twat, failing a 2db and then eating the reroll with his Loner skill. However this breakup doesn't last long, as the scrum continues in full force, with the action, and the ball, slowly drifting to the left side of the field though the push and shove.

It's on Turn 5 where Smutley is finally able to form a breakaway, supported partially by Marijan. However, it's anything but a secure breakaway, and it's a given he will be forced into having to defend himself.

Spoiler: The Field

Sure enough, the Man sends one of their peasants to harass Smutley, putting it in base contact with him and Marijan. However, their attempt at actually sacking Smutley is thwarted when the blitzer fails the final GFI roll needed to take him down, and falls flat on his ass. Marijan punches the Peasant away, and Smutley is safely in the backfield, where he is able to stall for time, bringing it in on turn 8.

The opponent still gets their turn 8, and my defensive formation is to simply shove Marijan and the two mercs on the LOS and everyone else at the back of the field. Old Twitch takes a KO, and the halftime whistle blows.

Now, remember the kickoff event? How it was Swealtering Heat? Well the heat takes it's toll, and one of the Man's Knights is unable to take the field, complaining of fatigue and stress. This puts the game at a 9v9 as we each have an injured man and the Kiwis a KO.

The kickoff event allows the defenders to reorganize their defense, but I'm satisfied with it so the match starts anew. Both teams are arranged in fairly standard formations for a Brettonian team.

Spoiler: 2nd Half

The frontline takes its 3 free hits, with no serious injuries, and the Man's players rush forward to get people into base contact to allow some hits to happen in later turns. They form their cage on their left flank (our right), and end the turn. The Krusaders response is to knock around the two contactors, and end outr turn, maintaining the screen down the field. Marijan is KO'd afterwards, and his blitzer moves into contact with one of the Peasants down the line. The cage advances, and Raygun is hit by a peasant who rolls a both down, ending the turn, and stunning both of them.

Again a scrum develops for several turns, and by turn 13 the ball carrier has managed to worm hi way though to the outskirts, and rushes home free. A masterful doge + Blitz + 1db (a 22% chance, 44% with RR, which she did have to use on the dodge) by Melchette sees the TD run stopped dead in it's tracks. She gains posession of the ball as well, however she's by herself, and a reassertion by the Man is sure to follow. And it does, as she is surrounded by 3 of the Man's best players, two Yeomen and a Knight, and knocked on the ground. Quickly getting up, and joined by Meowthkip and Dynastia, she attempts to protected the downed ball. However, the existing base contact prevents that safety, and meowthkip is even Badly Hurt, sending our current Star Player to the sidelines till next match. A Yeoman grabs the ball, and on turn 15 the match becomes 1-1.

Our turn 16 consists of a desperate ploy to set up a 2 turn TD, that fails when Smutley fumbles his pass attempt. The final turn of the Man involves a bunch of ineffectual hits, and our turn 16 is much the same. Thus, the match ends in a draw, bringing us to 1s across the board.

Spoiler: Stats and Experience

Not Pictured: Us receivng 50,000 gold coins

So after that match, we are in pretty much the same shape as before, except not as crap. Smutley gained enough XP to level up, Meowth gained a couple points twords her next level, and Raygun joins the frustratingly large number of players who have received an MVP but nothing else, leaving them on the cusp of leveling, and we gained another Fan Factor point, bringing us to 2.

Spoiler: Smutley's Level Up

Smutley's level up wasnt enough to get him a doubles skill or a stat point, so we got something we've desperatly been lacking. A primary ball retreiver. With this skill pickup the the ball is far less frustrating, going from a 66% to a 88% chance of succeeding. However keep in mind all this does really is save us a reroll, as you cant use an auto reroll AND a team one. This skill also prevents a player with strip ball from knocking the ball loose on a normal push. We will likely build a second Knight along these lines as well to use as a runner.

Spoiler: Current Roster

Unfortunately my fuckup with the inducements cost us having a third Yeoman by this point, but all things considered I can't complain. We're back to full health, we got some more skills under our belt, and we didn't lose. So all and all I consider this match a good refresher for the team. As usual check the OP for overall team stats and such.

 

[Strelok]

Some news, they just released a preview of the upcoming patch that adds the grid in and player/skill cards. This will allow the LP to be a billion times more understandable as you know who exactly is where. So that's great.

Spoiler: The Preview

Depending on how soon this patch comes out, It might be able to be in by next update.

EDIT: For those reading, no word on when this update is, but I'm not doing the LP till then, as the higher you climb in TV the more skills come into play.

 

[Strelok]

The update is out, and a game attempt was made. Unfortunatly I suffered a DC and the game didn't like to reconnect, so we suffered a forefeit. The only thing of note that happened was Coster taking a Smashed Hip. He will stay on the roster for the time being as we need some Blockers, not replacement linemen, but if we ever get the cash he will likely be cut.

Spoiler: Alas poor Coster

That said, despite the game only lasting a couple turns, I did want to show the new overview screens we have at our disposal. Starting with the much improved pitch view.

Spoiler: Pitch

As you can see, at a glance we can now see every skill every player has, which is extraordinarily useful, although of course the opponent has that same tool now as well. There also is the grid to make mentally plotting movement much easier. There also is a view that shows names instead of skills, but it's much less useful as while you might know your players by name, the opponent's players would be less so.

We also now have stats per player view, which was always tracked in the backend but never displayed, for instance we can now see just how bloody useless Marjan is.

Spoiler: So fucking Useless

The other improvements are that you can reconnect to a disconnected game, which didn't quite work for me but in theory is nice, see oppoennts roster before the match starts to help decide inducements, expand the dice log, and other various small changes.

Lastly, they announced that anyone who owns the game will get the first 4 post launch DLC races that are coming out for free as long as they own the base game before the DLC comes out, which is great. the Races are Norse, Undead, Necromantic, and Nurgle, which barring Amazons means we'll have all of the arguably "tier 1" races.

 

[Randall Fragg]

Hey, can you add me to the wait list? This looks like fun.

 

[Strelok]

Hey, can you add me to the wait list? This looks like fun.

I can, and also bring an early crimbus present, another match report!. Technically this game was 2 days ago, btu I really didn't feel like writing it up because the iOS/Android game Subterfuge is driving me completely and utterly insane with paranoia. Here's an LP of that one from some group I never heard of that gives a good feel for how that works.

But on topic, Blood Bowl!

Now as mentioned, we had another loss notch on our belt from the game crashing and refusing to connect, and during the brief period that game lasted, Coster took a nasty blow that cost him a movement point. This means Coster will be given the honor of always being on the Line of Scrimmage to be punched first. But all permanent injuries also make them miss a match, so instead Coster's spot is taken by a mercenary.

As the game now allows us to see the opposing roster, I actually can make an informed decision about inducements. Or rather I will when I can actually buy some. However, we are the higher ranked team so we didn't get any.

Spoiler: Orcs

A bog standard starting Orc team, which curiously decided to buy 2 Babes as their inducements.

The coinflip comes and the Krusaders elect to receive the ball to start. We elect to use a more agressive start, even though against Orcs this could go poorly if we fail the wrong block.

Spoiler: Start

Also yes, we have a grid! And nameplates! Now there is both this view and the one that shows skills instead of names. You'll have to say which you guys prefer, but for now I'll switch as appropriate. That said keep in mind these are replay shots, in the actual game I'm exclusively using skill views.

The kickoff is nice weather, and as such nothing much happens, just an extra 1 scatter on the kickoff. It lands nest to SMutley, who immediately picks it up and runs up the pitch. He fumbles the pickup at first but his Sure Hands he gained allows him to reroll it for free, so his pickup didn't cost us a vital reroll early in the turn.

Melchette, Raygun, and Marjan start the beginnings of a cage around Smutley, and the LOS fight starts in earnest. Surtur rolls double skulls and burns the first reroll of the game, but gets the pow on the retry, Saney pushes his Orc back, and the Merc floors his Orc.

In return the Orcs get back into base contact, and punch Meowthkip to the floor on the blitz. We then move the cage to the left flank, and with Hellblazer as the new upperleft corner assisted by Dynastia, a Black Orc is smacked to the ground and the cage is still unmolested and steadily marching. A rematch of the LOS match sees 2 orcs floored and one pushed, and Saney breaks away to come assist the cage. Connor and Meowthkip are left staring down a black orc apeice.

We then trade Knockouts, with Hellblazer being knocked out by the Black Orc Big Stokka and the Orc Blitzer Night Train KOing himself on a failed GFI run.

A bit of pushing and shoving and we're a quarter into the match, and Smutley has managed to Badly Hurt the Orc Lineman Azgask, ensuring the Orcs will be down a man all match.

Spoiler: well fuck

We're out of position, and the Orcs know it. Smutley is blitzed by Buzz and the ball is knocked loose. Qucikly the Orcs have the ball, and attempt a handoff to Stampere who has pushed Saney back earlier. However, a failed dodge and Bronko, the current Ball Carrier, has dropped the ball near da Fridge, and is KO'd.

A few punches and Melchett is able to knock out the Big Black Dick.. err Orc and grab the ball, and then run twords the endzone. The Orcs immediately suffer a turnover and all hangs in Mel's hands.

Spoiler: Can She Do it?

It would require 2 GFIs and we no longer have any rerolls for the half, but, thankfully, she manages it

All the KO'd players are restored to consciousness in the half time break, so the Orcs are in total down 1 player from us.

The Second half the Orcs line up with a desire to lay pain.

Spoiler: Smash Da Humie Gitz!

Marjan is immediatly KO'd, and the Orcs form a cage, but we have one secret weapon to stop them. I don't give a single shit about the safety of any of you. We feed more and more men into the grinder, as although we constantly are smashed down, no actual injuries occur. By Turn 13 however the Orcs manage a breakaway to the left flank.

Spoiler: Breakways

Saney however manages a heroic Dodge into double GFi into 1 die block on the ball carrier, burning a reroll on the dodge, and wrestling the carrier and himself to the ground. The Orcs again pick the ball up, bu Meowthkip blitzes and knocks it loose again.

The Orcs AGAIN pick up the ball, but this time lose it by fumbling a hand over attempt. The ball chain bounces to the Orc Thrower Spazza again who catches it. It is now Turn 16.

Ronald Raygun runs over to Spazza, and Saney gets off the ground and Blitzes the ball carrier, both knocking the ball loose and sending the poor bastard to the infirmary with a broken neck (-1 Agility). The Orcs are unable to move the ball in any meaningful capacity, and the Krusaders win 1-0.

Spoiler: Final Score

The fucking Merc steals the MVP, and while we can hire him, we do not as we instead ar elooking to get some non-fodder players. With our winnings we buy a new Blocker, and Wood Glue is now on the team!

Spoiler: Roster

And with that, I leave you till next time.

 

[Wood Glue]

Can't wait for horrible injuries and early retirement.

Nice job on grinding that orc offense to halt, but losing one of the early MVPs to a merc is a real kick in the groin.

 

[Silver]

eyyyy nice going!

 

[Sweet and Savoury]

Nice game. I might have to grab it.