The FUMBBL-experiment 2.0

The FUMBBL-experiment 2.0

I wrote about a FUMBBL-experiment a while back and since then I've started a second round for two reasons. One, I like the slann and vampire teams and two, I wanted to see if I could get better results a second time around, using what I've learned from my first attempt.

Slann

My slann team, the Kreuzberg City Croakers have now played seven games and lost none (4-3-0), which I'm very happy with.

The first thing I did with this team was to get a linefrog to 6 SPPs in order to have a wrestler.
I also didn't focus on the catchers (they'll get SPPs eventually) and I've just got three on the team. I find this enough and it makes the team more resilient overall. It also helps to keep the TV low.
I deceided to stay on twelve players for TV-reasons and as an experiment, I gave one linefrog mighty blow on a double. The idea is to give him block followed by tackle and that is cheaper than a blitzer with the same set of skills. Might give blitzers a try, but I'd rather have twelve players than fall back to eleven (for the same TV impact).

I was also very fortunate to roll a doubles on a catcher, which got guard. I'm honestly not too happy about that choice. In a tournament, yes, but in a leauge, it's a great risk to leap in with the catcher, because he'll be out the turn after. In hindsight, I should maybe have gone for pass followed by sure hands.

Another thing that I've done less is leap. I play the team as a human team with the ability to leap, but not as plan A. This has helped me get better results. So much that I've started to understand why the winner of Preußenbowl II, DocMaXX (playing slann) just had three rerolls on his roster.

The slann are moving up the list of my favorite teams and I can't wait for JBones kickstarter to launch, so I can start playing slann in tournaments. I hope that I'll stay as excited once I do.

Vampires

I haven't gotten as far in to the vampire experiment. The Friedrichshain Fangs have now played two games (0-1-1), but I went with block as the first skill on a vampire. It's going to be interesting to see, if it's a better choice than dodge for the first vamp to skill.

I also went with kick on the first thrall to level up. Wrestle is a good choice and I was leaning towards it, but this being an experiment, I wanted to see what impact kick could have. This early, wrestle isn't as needed, but the second thrall to level up will get wrestle (except on a double).

Vamps aren't as high up on my list of teams, but I'd like to field them in a tabletop tournament as well. The next Stockbowl Cup I go to maybe. I'm also going to play some games with them in our open tabletop league, since I've got the team (unpainted).

Preußenbowl II

Preußenbowl II

The tournament year of 2016 started off with Preußembowl II and since this is the year of the dark elf for me, I was playing dark elves.

My roster was the same one that I took for Stockbowl Cup VI, but in this tournament you didn't get all the skills from game 1. For day one I went with dodge on a blitzer, block on a witch and wrestle on the second witch.

The draw was up on the Thursday before the tournament and I had halflings in the first game. I had mixed feelings about the match up. It's considered an automatic win, but having played halflings, I know that it isn't. This was going to be tough if I had to play without rerolls.

Game 1 vs Halflings (peterd)

Weather Pouring Rain

FAME -1

I won the toss and decided to kick the ball, since it was pouring rain. I was hoping for a weather change before I were to receive the ball.

The half started out great for me, rolling a blitz and being allowed a reroll (the master chef just stole one).

I positioned my bloding blitzer under the ball, but he didn't manage to catch it.
The ball scattered on a screening blitzer, who caught it.

In my opponents first turn, the ball was blitzed free and no one managed to pick it up until later in the half (I think it was around turn 5 or 6)

The ball is blitzed free

The ball bounced in to a fortunate spot for me and I could scoop it up and score in turn 8.

Fortunate bounce for the dark elves

I was feeling good about this game. All I needed to do was to keep the ball until turn 16. Easy, right?

The half started with me not having a single reroll and there was no weather change.

The kick was deep and the ball landed just in front of my endzone.

Of course, my runner didn't manage to pick the ball up and my opponent threw a halfing to get it. He almost scored, but after a failed pick up, the ball scattered out into the crowd and was thrown in to the middle of my half.

I secured the ball, but just wanted to make a two die block before picking it up (to surf a halfling), but rolled both down skull. My Runner was KOed and the halfling stunned. I still think it was the right move, since the risk of failure was the same as picking the ball up, but the reward was one less halfling on the pitch (who could pick the ball up).

Get the ball!

This mean that the trees could now reach the ball and we had a scrum on our hands.

This lasted until turn 16, when a halfling dodeged through, picked the ball and handed it to a friend, who then scored.

Not the worst start to the tournament, but it could have been better.

1-1 (2-2)

Game 2 vs Gobbos (Segga)

Weather nice

FAME +1

I elected to receive the ball and hopefully get a couple of goblis of the field.
My opponent left his chainsaw exposed, so I blitzed him and got him injured on turn 1.

The plan worked and I scored in turn 8. He also had to bring a secret weapon on in his turn 8, which meant one less bribe.

In the second half, I managed to steal the ball twice for TDs in turn 14 and turn 16.

Great kick for the dark elves

3-0 (3-0)

Game 3 vs Dark elf (Ignaz)

Weather Nice

FAME -1

I decided to receive the ball since we both had 11 players, I felt that this game would probably be won by the team that managed to get the upper hand early.

I managed to KO one of his linemen, but I then KOed one of my blitzers on a dodge (with a reroll).
The dodge was very important, since it would have put the blitzer in scoring range on turn 6 and it would have forced my opponent to either go for him or attack the rest of the team with the ball on the other side of the pitch.

A mirror match

I then followed up the KO blitz with an error in turn 7 and changed my mind mid turn. I made the blitz on the wrong side of the field and it cost me the TD, since I had miscounted the squares. I couldn't get into a good position and had to settle with going into halftime 0-0.

I didn't get my KOed blitzer back, but he got his lineman back.
Remember what I said about the team with the upper hand winning the game?
Well, I was right.

As I kick off to him I roll a perfect defense, but I don't really think it through and line up in a very stupid way. I was tilting due to my misstake in the first half.

He gets a lot of blocks in on me and stunns two players. That was it. I couldn't replay and he started KOing and injuring my players. Three players were out in turn 3 and I could do nothing but watch at this point. I tried to put pressure on his ball carrier and manged to do so, with half the number of players, but it wasn't to be.

(My CAS on him came in my turn 16)

0-1 (1-1)

(Second day and I now had dodge on all my blitzers)

Game 4 vs Humans (Jonny_Kanone)

Weather nice

FAME -1

I deceided to kick this game and it was all looking good up to about turn 5.

After turn 1

Before that turn, I was doing the classic dodge back elf defence, but in turn 5 he went all in and engaged my elves with his guard blitzers. I should have dodged out again, but I starting blocking, but the blocks didn't go my way and I was stuck.
He swung around and I could blitz his catcher, which was the only player covering his ball carring thrower.

Before the scrum

I had to make some GFIs to get there and failed the one for the blitz, but rerolled it. Sadly, it was a push back, so the witch had to make a third GFI. A one. Anything but a one...

If I had succeded, I had a blitzer free, who could have marked the ball carrier after a 3+ and a 2+ dodge.

He left an opening for a blitz in my turn 7 as well, which I took. It was a one die with the wrestle witch. A push, which meant that I had to do a -2d block. A skull and a push. If there hadn't been a skull on either dice (nor a both down), I could then have blocked the ball carrier with a lineman.

I started the second half with 8 elves and end it with 5. Double 1s ended my hopes of a draw and he could get the ball and scored in his turn 16.

0-2 (0-5)

Game 5 vs Khemri (Raykieboy)

Weather nice

FAME -1

I kicked the ball to him in the first half and line up in a standard elf defence, letting him move one square each turn. I also marked his ball carrier, so he had to use his blitz there, so he didn't even move forward every turn. In his turn 8, he blitzed the front guy in a column and knocked him down, but he didn't manage the 5+, 5+, 4+ dodge with his throw-ra and lost the ball. I picked it up, passed it and handed it off. After two GFIs, I scored in turn 8.

His turn 8. Blitz on the left column

He put me under pressure mid second half, so I had to score, but wasn't too worried that the Khemri team would score more than once.

Kicking off

We lined up for the kick and he didn't protect the ball and rolled a double skull/skull with a tomb guardian. I ran my team forward and stole the ball in turn 16, for the score.

But we had a riot on the ensuing kick off, which meant that it was Khemri pass time.
His hopes of scoring was ended on a interception though (not that it was likely anyways).

3-0 (4-2)

Conclusion & Thoughts

Am I happy with my result? Not really. It could have been better in game 3 and 4, but I made some errors, which cost me the games.The roster I'm using isn't really optimised for this type of tournament, due to the low amount of rerolls. Mainly on day 1, where I just had 3 dodge. At Stockbowl Cup VI, where I had all my skills from game 1, this wasn't so much of a problem.

Further more, the advantage that tier 2 got on day one made this even more obvious.

I am however happy that it went better than last year, where I ended on 1-1-3, also with dark elves.

It also made me think about the Dungonbow where you get three skills day one and three day two (one double), like the NAFC. The difference then is that it's the same for all teams, so I won't see a block ogre and three guard blitzers plus either a tackle or a mighty blow blitzers on day one. 

I am however considering bringing an assassin to the Dungeonbowl.

Stop laughing and here me out.

The ruleset encourages tier 1 teams and almost all of them have AV7 players.

Let's have a look at the tier 1 teams, which are chaos dwarves, dwarf, wood elves, skaven, norse, lizardmen, orcs, undead and amazons.

Obvious here are wood elves, skaven, norse and amazons. They're almost complete AV7 teams and have access to blodgers.

Then there's some teams that are mixed. Chaos dwarves, lizardmen and undead come to mind. They all share something, their ball carrier will probably have AV7.

So out of the tier 1 teams, there's only two teams, where the stab is really bad (orcs and dwarves), but for both teams, the shadowing isn't half bad. I might be able to force my opponent to blitz the assassin off, rather than move forward.

On the other hand, it's risky. Another AV7 player that's unprotected.

I did play against this roster at the NAFC last year (my only loss) and the assassin was quite good, if he's positioned correctly. Forcing your opponent to roll more dice is always good and having a safe shot at AV7 players isn't bad. It reserves rerolls.

It's also an excuse to get him painted.
I'll think about it some more, but I like the idea. If not only for playing a different roster.

Thanks for reading

FUMBBL

This is my first post for 2016 and it's been a while since I posted anything. The reason for that is that I'm currently traveling with my family. This means I haven't been painting much lately, but I think I'll finish the dark elves 2.0 tournament list for Preußenbowl 2016 in time. Here's a wip on the last two members, the witch elves (and the rest of the team in background).

wip witch elves

So, what will this post be about?

Well, when the rest of the family went to bed, I played some FUMBBL and I tried two teams that I've been curious about. The Slann and Vampires and this post will be some thoughts on both teams as well as some lessons learned. I'm glad that I did this experiment on FUMBBL since I didn't have to do it on tabletop. 

Vampires

I got the GW team off eBay a while back, but I haven't played a game with them on tabletop yet, so I thought that I'd try them on FUMBBL, just to see what they were all about. I started with 3 vamps, 8 thralls and 4 rerolls. The first lesson, thralls aren't that tough. In my second game, I had just 11 players and wished that I would have started with 4 vamps instead of three.

The team is very fragile and you have to get used to playing men down, even if you start with a bench. It's a fun team and if you don't roll ones, they can be very effective. I however rolled ones for my bloodlusts and thens for the bites, which got me outnumbered fast.

I had some fun games, but also some very frustrating games.

This is not an easy team to play.

After ten games, my record was 2-3-5

Slann

I had to try this team out since I'm getting them in a future kickstarter this spring.

I started the team with the croaxigor, 3 catchers, 4 rerolls and 7 linefrogs. I like the start of the team and I will use the same starting roster on tabletop. The reason for starting with the craoxigor is that I really like that miniature, so he was a must.

I enjoyed playing slann more than the vamps and after 14 games my record was 5-0-9, but I should have stopped after 10 games. By then, my record was 5-0-5.

After four games I had enough money for a blitzer, so I thought I'd give one a try and that's when it went wrong. After another couple of games, I bought a second blitzer. They're very expensive players and I don't feel that they are worth their keep. I'd rather have a linefrog with wrestle and strip ball for 10k less than a blitzer and that's the key for both slann and vamps, team value.

Lessons learned

Both vampires and slann need to watch their team value closely. Naturally, getting your vamps and slann catchers to blodge seems like the best thing to do, but I'm not so sure to be honest. By the time you've reached that TV your opponents will have a tackler or two. Lacking basic skills means that you're behind almost every other team in the skill rase.

Vampires

I got the advice to skill all my vampires with dodge first, but I believe, that the first vampire that skills should get block first. You need a blitzer and I'd give that vampire mighty blow and tackle before dodge. After that I'd follow up with two vamps with dodge and give the fourth one block. I'd also try and skill some thralls with wrestle.

Slann

Getting dodge on the catcher is fine and a logical choice, but after that I'd probably not give all four block. Sure hands seems like a good skill for leaping in and stealing striped balls. Side step also seems like a good choice. If I didn't have a linefrog with wrestle and strip ball, I'd give those skills to a catcher. 

Getting a linefrog with wrestle and strip ball is first priority though. If you can, hand of to a linefrog and score. Getting points on the catchers is easy, but will just drive your TV.

I'll stay away from the blitzers in future. At least until I've got a couple of good line frogs on my team.

I'll give both teams another go and try something else than blodge. 

Wish me luck!

X-Mas Bowl, a tale of three losses

X-Mas Bowl, a tale of three losses

This was my worst tournament to date and the report will be quite short, since I'm trying to forget and move on.
But it's not all bad. There's probably some lessons to be had from these three games.

The Gesundbrunnen Picknick Packers (thanks to Kohli for the picture)

Game 1 vs Norse (Kohli)

FAME -1

Blizzard

I got the honor of kicking of and it was going well at the start of the game. I forced him to the sidelines and could even surf his Yeti, but my defense was also split in two. I did however manage to get the ball on the ground, but an unlucky bounce saw his runner take of with the ball, out of my reach. I then focused on removing his players with fouls and blocks. Sadly I didn't manage to do more than KOs.
He scored in his turn 8 and my flung 'fling scattered back, out of reach of the endzone in my turn 8. I did manage to CAS two of his players.
He got all his KOs back and it was 11 vs 10. All i could hope for was a draw.

After my turn 9 (thanks to Kohli for the picture)

I moved up the pitch, screening my ballcarrier, but he still managed to mark the ballcarrier as I was beginning to run low on 'flings. Puggy was called in for the blitz on the ulfwerner marking the ballcarrier and he skulled. I used a loner reroll and failed. Puggy went down and the norse had a good shoot at the ball, but thanks to dodge, they couldn't get the ballcarrier down. It did cost me a turn of advancing and I had to score soon to tie the game.

Moving forward, I couldn't completely screen the ballcarrier of and my opponent could blitz him with his Yeti (which was prone), but I felt that this would be the best option for me. It wouldn't be a 3d block and the Yeti didn't have block nor tackle. As it turned out, the block was a push and a both down. My opponent went for the both down and my 'fling was stunned.
In my last turn, I picked the ball up, handed it off, threw a 'fling, but the flung 'fling didn't land and I lost the game. Even if he would have landed, he would have had to make a GFI, so it was far from certain.

This was a close game where I felt that I had a good chance of tieing or even winning, but all his KOs came back and I didn't  cause enough casualties or rather not early enough.

0-1 (3-3)

Game 2 vs Pro Elves (Heroic_Tackle)

FAME +1

Blizzard

I elect to receive the ball in the hope of getting some elves of the pitch, which I do, but just KOs.
I move up the pitch, screening my ballcarrier of and it's looking promising, but as I approach the endzone, my opponent goes for it and dodges in with a blitzer with dodge. He doesn't even need to use the reroll on the dodge for 5+ and the ball is on the floor. A catcher snatches the ball and runs off. I can't do much about it and I'm fouling and hitting, hoping to get a man advantage in the second half.

Turn 1 for the Picknick Packers

That doesn't work since all of his KOs come back and it's 11 vs 11. He scores late in the half and I go for a OTTD, which succeeds. It's now 1-2 and he moves a couple of targets forward for the score. I don't even bother defending and move everything forward, throwing a 'fling which blitzes the thrower in his backfield. I can't get the thrower down and he easily scores in his turn 16.

1-3 (1-2)

Game 3 vs Wood Elves (Seagull)

FAME -1
Nice weather

This game was close. I moved up the pitch, trying to get some elves out, but couldn't manage anything but KOs.
In my opponents turn 7, he leaps with his strip ball wardancer (without a reroll) and get's a hit on the ballcarrier. To add insult to injury, the wardancer picks the ball up and dodges back out, which means that the half ends 0-0 and without any casualties. This is however my fault, since I could have made it harder for my opponent.

The picknick Packers moving up the field (thanks to Kohli for the picture)

In the second half, my opponent gets his KOs back and it's 11 vs 11. I managed to stop him from scoring twice, but I can't do so a third time and it's 0-1. I fail the landing in my turn 16 and thus landing me last place at this tournament.

0-1 (1-0)

This means that I drop a total of 9,08 in NAF ranking with the 'flings. I don't think I'll get back up above 150 again.
Did I mention, that this was my 13th NAF tournament? Yes, the unlucky number 13.

My next tournament will be Preußenbowl and it's got even more adventitious rules for 'flings. I might play them again, just to prove to myself that I can play them or let them rest until I've forgot all about this tournament. I guess it depends on my progress with the dark elves 2.0.

Thanks for reading

Roster for X-Mas Bowl, flowers and dark elves

I haven't posted since StockBowl Cup VI report, but I've been busy painting.

But first, I'd like to talk about my roster for the X-Mas Bowl on the 13th of december.
It's a very small tournament here in Berlin and it's just going to be three games and around 10 coaches taking part.

I asked on twitter if I should go for undead or halflings and the result was undead. Since then, the rules for the tournament have changed and I've painted four dark elf linemen.

Dark elf linemen (I need to work on my photography)

What does the linemen have to do with it you ask? Well, my plan was to play haflings at the Preußenbowl in February next year, but by the looks of it, I'll get my dark elves done in time. That means that I'd like to play my dark elves 2.0 and the main reason for that would be that it will be the most recently finished team, but also because next year will be the year of the dark elf for me. I'd like to play them at the Dungeonbowl and also at Eur'Open. I also feel like Preußenbowl is one of the tournaments in which I'd have a chance at a NAF trophy and a tournament win.

This menas that I'll play less halflings next year, so why not play them next weekend? Just for fun and who knows, I might reclaim the #1 spot as the best halfling player in Sweden, if I win three games (not going to happen). The roster will be the standard one with:

2 Trees (2x block)
10 'flings (4x side step)
Master Chef
Peggy
Deeproot
AC
Cheerleader

To inspire the Gesundbrunnen Picknick Packers, I've added some flowers to their bases and display base. I've been meaning to do this for a while and I've finally come around to doing so. I wanted to add something to the bases, so they don't look "flat".

Here's some pictures



Wish me luck at the tournament!
Flower Power!

StockBowl Cup VI

StockBowl Cup VI

I was really looking forward to this tournament since I had a great time last year and it's one of the best organised tournaments that I've been to. As it turned out, I had a great tournament and just like last year, it was decided on the buzzer, but more on that later.

This year I was playing dark elves and you'll find my roster here.

As I was waiting for the first draw I walked aroud talking to some of the coaches I knew and spotted this team from equilibri, The Plaugeboy Bunnies. Excellent team. Sadly though, there's no best painted at StockBowl Cup, but if there were, I'm sure this team would have been in the runnig for it.

The Plagueboy Bunnies

The first draw was up and I was facing wood elves...

Game 1 vs Wood Elves (vs goldbaek)

FAME +2
Sleeping ball

My opponent was playing with
1 Tree
2 Wardancers (Strip Ball, Mighty Blow)
3 Catchers
1 Thrower (Leader)
4 Linemen (Wrestle, 2x Dodge)
2 RR

I got to decide if I wanted to kick or not and opted to receive the ball with the hope of getting some elves of the field. Hopefully the strip ball wardancers, as I saw him as the biggest threat to my team.
I set up a screen and moved up the pitch. I did allow my opponent a blitz with the catcher, but it would be a -2d block and even if the ball was knocked lose it was very likely that I'd be able to recover. My opponent went for the blitz and got a double pow. I could however recover the ball with a blodging blitzer.

Moving up the pitch before the catcher blitz

After the catcher blitz it was quite uneventfull until my opponent leaped over my screen with the strip ball wardancer in turn 6. He placed the wardancer in the way of my advance and I gladly surfed it. The crowed obviosly on my side decided to injure the wardancer. That was it, no more strip ball and I had the numbers advatage 11 to 9 due to the tree being rooted.

After the surf

However, my opponent managed to knock the blitzer closes to the endzone, which left me with far less options of a hand off target for a score. I had a shoot with a witch elf and decided to go for it. I blitzed the witch out of a scrum and dodged out. Staying on her feet, I counted the number of squares left to the endzone and realized that I had misscounted. She was one square short and I should have done a 3+ dodge before going for the 2+ dodge, which would have enabled me to score. A huge misstake on my part.
Note to self, count first, then recount before roling any dice.

The half ended 0-0 and I knew that the second half would be tough. I couldn't let him score.

The secod half starts with him catching the kicked ball with a catcher and then moving backwards to the waiting thrower for a hand off. 1. Reroll. 1.

I had essentially been given a free blitz, but I couldn't get to the ball, just put him under pressure.
In his turn 2, he managed to get the ball to a catcher and cage up, but left one of the corners in base to base with one of my players. I took the block and could blitz with my wrestle witch and after some ball scattering, the ball landed outside of the cage in two tackle zones.
I went for the pick up with one of the blitzers and managed to pick it up and dodge away.

Getting away with the ball

My opponent then went for a blitz with the remaining wardancer and needed a 3+ to get away. 2. Reroll. 2.

I could then move away and set up a secure screen and score in my turn 16.
My oponent tried to get to the ball, but didn't manage to either dodge through or knock my ball carrier down.

1-0 (2-1)

Game 2 vs Lizards (vs Skuld)

FAME +1
Playfull ball

My opponent was playing with
6 Saurus (2x Block, Guard, Mighty Blow, Wrestle)
1 Kroxigor (Block)
5 Skinks
3 RR

I started the game by kicking deep to him and I think he failed the first pick up, but caged up and moved down the field in turn 2.

Lizards moving down the pitch

Lizards moving down the pitch

He managed to CAS my guard blitzer in turn 3 and eventulally scored. I however had two or three turns left to score and set of down one side. That he got perfect defence didn't help.

After the perfect defence

He dodges through my screen and goes for a skink blitz, but can't bring my ball carrier down. He the decided to move the kroxigor to cover the ball carrier. he just needed to dodge once with it to do so. I jokingly said that the kroxigor will fall over and kill himself. My opponent failed the dodge and the Kroxigor fell down and killed himself. We both laughed.
After that I scored in my turn 8.

With the Kroxigor out, I was feeling a lot better about this game. All I had to do now was stall long enough for him to no have or at least having a hard time scoring in his turn.

I scored in my turn 14, giving him three turns to score. Longer than I would have liked, but better having a draw in the bag and a potential win at that.

He didn't manage to score and I had my second win of the day.

2-1 (0-2)

Game 3 vs Dark Elves (vs Harza)

FAME +1
Sleeping ball

My opponent was playing with
3 Blitzers (Dodge, Guard, Side Step)
1 Witch Elf (Wrestle)
1 Runner (Leader)
1 Assasin (Dodge)
7 Linemen
2 RR

I started the game off by kicking the ball deep. My opponent then elected to go for the ball the first thing he did. 1. Reroll. 1.

This meant that I for the second time this tournament got a free blitz. I put pressure on the ball and even picked it up. My guard blitzer is CASed in turn 2 and I respond by CASing his guard blitzer. The ball changed hands a couple of times, but I could bring it in for a score in turn 6. I only score because I had a player KOed and wanted to get to chances at getting my player back and I was also down in numbers, which meant that I didn't think I could keep the ball safe enough to stall further. I also figured, that if he scored 1-1 I'd have my drive to score the wining TD.

He doesn't manage to score, so it's 1-0 at halftime.

I'm feeling confident for the second half, but the drive starts with a thrown rock, which takes CASes one of my remaining blitzers. Already down in numbers. I pick the ball up and move forward. He then blitzes a witch elf with the assassin, CASing her, which meant that it was 11 vs 8. Not great.

I must say that I gave this game away. I played badly and left a hole for him to get through, which he did.. Funny though, I tried to use dump off with my runner to have the ball land among my players, making it difficult for him to pick the ball up. The pass was inaccurate, which was fine, but it scattered back to the runner, who caught it. A lot of dice rolling for nothing.
He stole the ball and scored in his turn 15

I didn't mange the one turner, so the game ended 1-1.

1-1 (1-1)

Game 4 vs Chaos Dwarves (vs Kaju)

FAME -1
Sleepig ball

My opponent was playing with
2 Bulls (2x Break Tackle)
6 Dwarves (3x Guard, Mighty Blow)
4 Hobgoblins
3 RR
Apo

This was one of the match ups I didn't like to see due to the amount of tackle, but it was a good opportunity to see if my roster would work, eventhough it just had 2 rerolls.

I start the game off by electing to kick and I'm lucky and granted with a deep kick.

My opponent kept a bull and two hobgoblins in the back and tried the pick up with the bull (after some blocks and a blitz), but failed to pick the ball up. I was hapy with that since it meant that my opponent would be stressed at the end of the drive, needing to move the ball forward faster than he'd like.

I made no advance to cover the ball or pressure him. Instead I tried to knock down some dwarves and screen them, so they couldn't move up the pitch. My opponent then managed to pick the ball up in turn 2, but didn't enter my half of the pitch. I kept doding back one square and got a lucky KO on the mighty blow dwarf. My opponent CAS-fouled one of linemen, but that is all that happened in the first half. I stopped him from scoring in his turn 8.

In my drive, I receive the ball and moved up the pitch, screening and then scoring in my turn 15.
Me being lucky again, the ensuing kick was also deep and my opponent couldn't score in his turn 16 due to the many tacklezones on his intended receiver, if he'd made the long pass in the first place.

1-0 (0-1)

Game 5 vs undead (vs Kfoged)

FAME +1
Stab ball

My opponent was playing with
2 Mummies (Guard, Block)
2 Wights (Guard, Frenzy)
3 Ghouls (2x Block)
2 Skeletons
4 Zombies
3 RR
AC
Cheer

I elect to kick and I'm awarded with both a deep kick and a riot.
Great start to the game!

I try to elfscreen and I'm doing an okay job of it until I hit a 1 reroll 1 and he can advance more than I would have liked. I also make a big misstake in turn 15, going to the ball carrier when he caged up in my half. He could just blitz a hole and make two GFIs for the score. I should have just gone for a cage corner and marked his ball carrier. He could still have score, but would have had to roll more dice.

The half ends with 0-1 (1-1) since I can't set the one turner up in a correct way.
I need more practice when it comes to one turners.

The second half starts with a blitz and he puts me under pressure, but his ghouls can't dodge even if their life depended on it. We counted it to six ghould dodges during the game and three successes and all dodges had the dodge reroll. My opponent was unlucky, to say the least.

The set up before the blitz

I move down one side and screen. When the picture was taken, I was considering switching sides, but my opponent cleverly postioned his ghoul at the bottom in such a way that I needed to blitzes to go through.

Moving up a side

In my 12th turn I'm faced with the decision of stalling out for the draw or scoring and hoping that I can either steal the ball or keep the draw. I go for the TD and cross my fingers.

We set up again and it's another deep kick. Good for me.
I roll on the kick off table and it's a blitz!!

After my blitz

I try not to overcommit and just send a couple of players down within striking distance of the ball.

My opponent then fails the pick up and the ball scatters accross the field parallell with his endzone.
After some lucky breaks for me I can scope up the ball and score in my 16th turn!

2-1 (2-1)

This places me on the top table against the defending StockBowl Cup Champion and we're four coaches with a chance of walking away with the NAF trophy.

The last draw

Game 6 vs Lizards (vs MartinS)

FAME +0
Sleeping ball

My opponent was playing with
6 Saurus (5x Block)
1 Kroxigor (Block)
6 Skinks
2 RR

I kick ed the ball and tried to elfscreen, stopping him from advancing to much. I also tried to blitz a skink every turn, if possible and divide some of the sauruses from the cage. One of my blitzers goes down (CAS) in his 3rd turn. A big blow to my team. I needed my blodgers to stay on the field.

Trying to keep the cage at bay

It all looks good until that dreaded 1 reroll 1 and he moves his cage down my left side in his turn 7.
I notice, that he's left a small hole in his cage and go for it. A 4+ dodge to hit the skink ball carrier with the wrestle witch.The dodge is successful, but I skull the blitz. Reroll, skull. The skink runs the ball in for a 0-1 lead.

In hindsight, I made a stupid error here. I should have dodged with my other witch elf first, taking the assist away from the skink, then having two dice blocks instead, but I just had that 1 reroll 1 fresh in my mind and didn't want to risk it. I also wanted to keep the second witch for the ball, but talking to Kfoged later, that was also stupid. Don't plan for a pick up if you're not sure of getting the ball first. If I would have prevented the score, I would have had a better chance at winning the game/tournament.

On the following kick off, the ball started flapping (-1 to passes).
I set up for a one turn TD, but didin't even try since I'd mad an error in my set up.

In the second half, I tried to go for one side and I was hoping that he'd move his team over to that side, which he did. The problem with going back to the other side was that his team is equally fast. I also missed that one of his sauruses could blitz my ball carrier with GFIs, which he did and the ball was on the ground. He managed to pick it up with a skink, but I blitz the skink down. I then failed the pick up, but so did he in his following turn. His kroxigor was also standing around for two turns without doing anything (no tacklezones) and I could go through a hole in his line, set up a screen and score in my 14th turn. I did so to be able to steal the ball or stall out for the draw. It worked in game 5. Maybe I'd be lucky twice in a row.

Set up for the last kick off

It's once again a deep kick and he picks the ball up but moves the skink back towards his endzone. I cover his receivers and send some players up in scoring range, but he moves his skink even further away. He's got one chance, a long pass, with a stunty player and a flappy ball to a receiver in two tacklezones. He fails the pass and the ball scatters off target. The game ends in a draw.

1-1 (1-1)

We were now three coaches on 4-2-0 and we didn't know who'd won.
It was down to tiebreakers, opponent score being the first one. As it turned out, MartinS and I had the same opponent score of 42, but he had a better TD and CAS raiting, thus winning the tournament. So for the second year in a row, I dididn't win the tournament/stunty cup on tiebreakers, but, I was still very happy with my performance and a second place is still good. My best placement to date. You can view the tournament results here.

I got to go home with this

Conclusions/Leasons Learned

There's some things that I need to do better and one of them is the one turner. I need to practice it and not just pictures. I need to set it up on a board and learning it that way. That's leason number 1.

The second leasons woul be that I need to take better decisions in my turn 7 when I'm defending. I could have stopped MartinS by doding the second witch elf in to remove the assists. I didn't need to get to the ball to stop him. The same goes for game 5. I didn't need to get the ball or push my opponents ghoul back. It would have been better to forcing my opponent to roll more dice.

Regarding my roster, I was very happy with it, but I think it's due to the fact that you get all your skills from the start at StockBowl Cup. For Dungeonbowl I might need to rethink the roster a bit. Depending on the amount of tackle, three dodge players might not be enough (Block and wrestle on witches and dodge on a blitzer day 1).
I also found that my opponents ignored my runner since he didn't have leader or any other skills. I might keep him because his MA7 was very useful for getting the ball or giving assists.

I'd also like to thank Mago and Ozt for a great tournament!

Thank you for reading

Roster for Stock Bowl Cup VI

So, here we go. (Probably) The last tournament for the year and it's Stock Bowl Cup VI.
I had a great time last year where I lost the stunty cup on one point of opponent score and was in the running for most cas.

This time I'll be playing dark elves, but I was very much tempted to play halflings. However, I didn't like how the last tournament (Underground Cup) went and I'd like to improve with the dark elves.

Let's have a look at the roster. Since I don't have anything but 4 blitzers, 2 witches, 4 linemen and a runner painted, that's what I'm going for. I'll probably play a different roster once my dark evles 2.0 are finished, but it's going to be a while.

For skills, I went with the 5+1 pack and here is where the changes to my normal dark elf roster comes.I decided to skip leader on the runner in favour of dodge on a blitzer and I went for block on a witch instead of wrestle. I'm hoping that having four blodgers and a wrodger will be a tough nut for my opponent to crack.

Finger's crossed, that I won't have to face too many dwarves. I'm hoping that it will make the team a bit more resiliant and it forces me to play safer since I've only got two rerolls. That's also why I went for the AC and Cheer, to hopefully get me more rerolls.

4 Blitzers (3x Dodge, Guard)
2 Witches (Block, Wrestle)
Runner
4 Linemen
2 RR
AC
Cheer

Wish me luck!