GD Bloodbowl League – Week 3

Once again we’ve come to the end of a week in the GD Bloodbowl league. Following are the results, the table, the new fixtures and a match report for my own game against Mike.

Results:

Once again anyone who wants to describe their games in the comments below is welcome, nay encouraged, to do so. SAeN and Chimp failed to organise their game so it’s going down as a 1:1 draw.

Bravescales (Mike) 3:0 The Philosorats (Dante)

No Punt Intended (SAeN) 1:1 Eringrad Eagles (Chimp)

Ultramegasaurus (Arsewisely) 2:1 Casual Cottagers (EGTF)

League Table:

Fairly basic now, but hopefully a source of tension in the future. It’s also worth pointing out that I have no idea what criteria is used if a team ties for top spot, as goal difference isn’t mentioned on the in game table.

1. Bravescales 7
2. The Philosorats 6
3. Ultramegasaurus 6
4. Casual Cottagers 4
5. Eringrad Eagles 1
6. No Punt Intended 1

Fixtures:

Once again I’m going to ask everyone to get these done by Tuesday at the latest in the hopes that we can keep the league moving briskly. Let me know if that’s a problem for you and we’ll work something out.

The title race is hotting up current leader Mike faces a game against last placed SAeN, but no game is easy in bloodbowl, meanwhile Paul and I will be looking to keep pace with games against Chimp and Ed respectively. The latter of whom be looking to put some points on the board to stay in the running for second place.

Bravescales (Mike) vs No Punt Intended (SAeN)

Ultramegasaurus (Arsewisely)vs Eringrad Eagles (Chimp)

The Philosorats (Dante) vs Casual Cottagers (EGTF)

Match Report:

Setup

Voltail picks up block, rending him very hard to put down when he runs into the backfield, however Neitszcheese will miss the next game, dramatically cutting down on my offensive options. To balance this out a new thrower, Lucratious, joins the team.

My strategy remains the same as before, run at the skinks and while holding the Saurus in place, and bank on them not being able to pick up the ball. The only modifier is that one of Mike’s skinks has +1 movement, something I promptly forget about for the rest of the game.

Kick Off

Immediately I spot a mistake in Mike’s initial setup, he’s left big holes down both his flanks, I deploy my Runners wide with the idea of handing the ball of to them and driving deep into the backfield. Using my linerates to keep the Saurus in place. The kick spurs a riot, cutting the half short, and drops the ball right into the pocket behind my lines, perfect.

I smoothly move players around the ball and pick it up, then move my thrower for the easiest of passes to the lurking Voltail. My thrower then proceeds to cock this up so badly he throws the ball behind him, practically handing it to the lizards.

Fuck.

Mike promptly takes advantage of this, he lays waste to the front line with his Krox and Saurus and dashes a Skink through. The Skink does exactly what Skinks aren’t mean to do and picks the ball up smoothly and easily. He’s on his own though and is easily surrounded and blocks, which despite me having several dice and re-rolling doesn’t do anything more than push him slightly sideways. I surround him with every man I have (I still don’t understand how stunty works, but I hate it) and he dashes free easily and plonks the ball in the endzone.

Touchdown Bravescales

Crap, well that was as bad a start as they come, but I can still get it back, right? Mike’s covered his flanks now, but that still leaves the Runners with a simple dodge to make it into the back. No problem

There’s a problem. The kick off result is a pitch invasion, which has a random chance of knocking down each player. Random in this case has apparently meant ‘totally screwing me over without touching Mike’. Most of my team is down for two turns, and there’s only three turns left in the half. Desperately trying to keep things going I move the throwers back to cover the ball and hand it over to Prato, who slips through the line while Pythagorat runs into the backfield. Unfortunately with so many men down I have no way to pin down the Saurus, and after my sole standing Linerat fails his dodge roll trying to help them the Saurus chase after Prato and beat the crap out of him. He then covers my remaining players (not hard) and goes to grab the ball with a Skink. Mercifully he fumbles, but he manages to move the ball into trickier position by doing so.

I go to move my Gutter Runners up to take advantage and one immediately fails a simple dodge, turnover. I can’t do anything right at the moment. Mike grabs the ball with a Skink and runs it down the field into a cage of Saurus. I simply don’t have the standing players to break the cage and the sole Gutter Runner I manage to move into position knocks himself out trying to get the ball free. Nevertheless I retrieve the ball and make a hopeful lob downfield in order to clear my lines, which fails horribly when the thrower drops it at his feet. Again.

Mike then grabs the ball and passes it between two Skinks under my nose, just to rub it in.

Half Time

Okay, let’s try and draw a line under the mess of the first half and move on.

A horrible kick lands off the pitch, letting Mike hand it to a Skink without a pickup roll. He then knocks my scrimmage line for six, again and proceeds to saunter through my lines like they aren’t even there.

Touchdown Bravescales

God I hate stunty as much as I fail to understand it. The real kicker is that I’ve failed my mobility and ball skills so badly I haven’t had a chance to exploit it’s weaknesses and beat on the Skinks. Already I’m daydreaming of playing with a bashier team, or sweet ball handling Elves.

Okay, let’s try the hand off and run up the side again. This time Mike kicks too short, meaning I can hand it to a Gutter Runner without picking up or passing. The Runner then fails the most basic of dodges and hands the ball back to Mike. Who scores again.

Touchdown Bravescales

My notes for the half at this point descend into gibberish and incoherent rage. What I can say it that I tried ever riskier plays in the hopes of grabbing a swift point back and that I failed damn near everything, while Skinks ran through my lines all day and all night.

Aftermath

After an appalling game which has thrown a major wrench into my title chances, the only real positives are that I made a bit of cash, which I squirrel away for future Rat Ogre purchasing, and that a Gutter Runner levelled, I’m not entirely sure how, but it gives me a second blodger at list. Also no-one was injured, which with Neitzscheese’s recovery means I can field all four Gutter Runners with two subs for my next match against Ed.

Bloody stunty.