League Results
Prem Spr 10

Wilfreyzi:

Well, well. I likes humans me.

The final saw me giving up 90k in inducements after purchasing a 5th reroll, so Stu took a babe. He won the toss and chose to receive, but the humans got themselves a blitz. It didn't come to much though, as I couldn't knock over the orc blitzer, so contented myself with closing a few gaps and readying the team to put on the pressure.

Stu cages and grabs the ball with the blodge thrower and makes a little headway from the LOS. But the blitz means I can pin corners of the cage, and a stupid troll means I am able to get a 1 dicer on the ball carrier, but having burned a reroll can't wrestle him down. Stu cages again, and this time I fashion what I think is a 2 dicer on the ball carrier, only to realise it's a 1 dicer. Hmm. A flash helps out though, and the ball is loose.

Next follows four turns of the orcs recovering the ball, me getting it back, then the orcs again, until finally I knock over the S4 blitzer who has grabbed the ball and AG4 does the rest for 1-0 at the half against the kick. By this stage, I have BH a rookie black orc and Stu has killed/apo to MNG a guarding blitzer.

Second half and the ball lands kindly for my thrower, and the humans scoop it up and cage off. Knowing I don't have to score, and have all 3 AG4 players on the pitch, I'm confident I can fashion a chance. It's just whether the armour can stand up for a score, ideally in turn 14 or later.

And so I play stand off Blood Bowl, allowing Stu just a blitz a turn for the first three. He's forced to keep leaving orcs in tackle zones to at least make me throw dice, but the humans aren't failing block dice and a blitzer even -AV an orc blitzer. Not to be outdone, Stu kills another one of my guarding blitzer, but by this stage the three AG4 players have worked their magic and the ball is deep in orc territory.

Stu has to take risks to at least get at the ball carrier, and they don't come off and the humans are eventually able to stall out until turn 16 before scoring the second.

Orcs set about bashing me for the last turn, so I blitz them again and nothing comes of it.

Another good game, two or three times I thought I had Stu in the first half, only for him to recover superbly. He played very well with what he had, but eventually the AG4 came to my rescue. Second half with the 3 AG4 players the orcs struggled as I steadfastly refused to get into contact.

Very enjoyable game and a great season for me to be fair, with a team I've not used and didn't know what to expect of. +FF and the team gets it's 4th +AG - this time on the ogre....

Thanks for the game Stu.

Stu:

Not much to add really, the humans piled on the pressure right from the start with a blitz and I couldn't get any momentum going. With my cage being attacked from all sides I eventually had a terrible turn with a failed jump up, a failed 2 dice block from a Black orc that I rerolled and a failed 3 dice block by the troll that turned me over. From there I lost the ball and got it back twice before losing it again and conceding the TD. In the second half the humans are 1 up and have the ball and are well in control. I didn't really know how to play it, but figured I had to risk putting pressure on the ball and of course as soon as I did this gave the Cutthroats the opening they needed to race up the sideline. I never got enough players back to prevent them stalling for another turn 8 score. Then I got blitzed again just to rub it it, which was quite funny.

Wilfreyzi:

Another nerve-wracking game against Luke that had to be decided in OT. I had forgotten to roll a skill for one of my catchers before the game, but managed to roll 11 and the team's third +AG. It was to prove quite crucial.

I won the toss and decided to receive. After hitting the LOS, I moved everyone else and threw a completion with the thrower. Then I decided to try a blitz with the ogre, which worked very nicely as he MNG a mighty blow/guard orc blitzer, despite the apo, and the humans were away. Luke came back hard though, getting a BH on a human blitzer and I had to use my apo to prevent a -AV on a wrestle/guard lino.

Luke played good defence, but perhaps forgot that the catcher was now AG4, and after I was boxed into a corner I was forced to employ Porritbowl and leg the catcher through on his own. An attempted 4+ dodge to make it difficult for Luke to get back failed. Squig FC knocked everyone else over, but with the 4 dice could not cough up the ball and I scored in my turn 6.

Luke receives, but a good kick right by the sideline means he can't secure the ball early. Average block dice also mean he is not knocking over humans, and I can line up the cover. A good turn 7 for Luke means a blitzer is within range, but I knock him flat in my turn 8 and that is that.

Second half and another great kick from the humans means the ball is on the LOS. Luke recovers well, and grabs it with the thrower, and then follows several turns of close play. I had around 3 shots at the ball carrier, but either failed GFI or dodges early and couldn't come up with the ball. In the end, two KOs and an impeccably well-behaved troll mean I have to back off, and choose not to reroll stuff after getting down to 1 reroll left. Luke scores in turn 16.

The one turner is on, especially after I get a quick snap. I block the catcher into position, manage to get him the ball in 2 tackle zones, but he can't make the dodge to score.

In OT I have 1 reroll, Luke has 2, but I crucially win the toss and move forward as much as I can, knowing if I get the AG4 in range it's pretty much curtains for the orcs. Luke has a very good second turn though, killing a blitzer and knocking everything over while marking up the front of my route. I have BH a black orc by this stage, but after weighing up the options go for a 1 dice on thrower, pow, 1 dice on blitzer to surf and the catcher is home free to score the winner.

Really could have gone either way this game - that early cas helped me enormously and the AG4 catcher was awesome throughout. Luke broke armour enough to have caused me more problems, but I was fortunate until the RIP in OT. Cracking game all the same, and the humans have made it to the final!!

+FF is good, and I've replaced the blitzer as the team has a higher TV than Stu's orcs for the final anyway. Cheers for the game Luke.

Luke:

Stu:

Bsking:

Stu:

dwarfcoach:

Geggster:

Absolutely terrific game, which whilst disappointing to lose, was a blinder to play in and reason why we play this daft game.

David's 7 guard team plus death roller elected to receive and set into my team. Quickly he caged in my half but was possibly over-extended and the ball was soon on the floor. I recovered it but couldn't get safe. The resulting bounce took the ball out and rather annoyingly (for two slow teams) ended up on my own goal-line without too many players anywhere near. A couple of turns of bad dice from us both and the ball was still on my goal-line until it was scooped up by a runner for 1-0. Damn.

2nd half - was confident of a decent drive but David's armour rolls (previously below average and not good enough) sparked into life, especially prevalent as his defence tightened on the ball and a couple mummies were taken out due to trollslayer silliness. I had little choice as the time started to slip by to head up the pitch, attempt to mark as many dwarves as possible and pray that the straight pow didn't come on the blodge/sidestep ballcarrier. It didn't come and David used his last reroll to dodge out a runner (which would have made my task really difficult). Suffice to say, that failed, and my ballcarrier dodged for the equaliser. 1-1.

There was still time for a winner in normal time but the dwarves needed more than 3 turns, without reroll, to get down the pitch to score.

OVERTIME - and the Skulls won the kick-off. I think at that stage we both thought this had turned in my favour however fate wasn't done and a much-needed Blitz! (and ball landing in the endzone) put me straight on the back foot. I failed the pick up and over the next couple of turns David managed to get his dwarves slowly downfield through a mixture of blocking, dodging and further trollslayer silliness. His standfirm player was legendary throughout but especially here in overtime and he soon got his chance on the ball, rolling the POW and stunning the player. The battle had turned and despite some mummy action, there just wasn't the players, or the agility, to defend against the growing numbers on my goal-line and David triumphed.

Well done to him, his pesky trollslayers and best of luck in the semi. Smashing game all round.

Bsking:

Wow.  Paul says it in his match report, an incredible game that was hugely fun to be involved in.  See Paul's match report for the description of the game, and I will add some “colour commentary” onto some of the terms he used above:

“trollslayer silliness” – Throughout the whole game they must have made between 14-18 dauntless rolls against the Tomb Guardians.  First one that failed was the final one I made against a Tomb Guardian in overtime, but then rolled Both Down/Pow-dodge so it made no difference.  The Troll Slayers clearly had been listening to the pre-match team talk!

“standfirm player was legendary” –Was he ever! In Paul’s drive and in overtime combined he stood up to 6 or 7 two dice blocks without flinching.  Created problems left, right and centre on Pauls turns and then put the ball carrier down in overtime to cap what was truly a “dwarf of the match” performance.

“more than three turns, without reroll” – Worth noting that after burning the remaining re-roll on the second half dodge (that still failed), the dwarves didn’t need a single re-roll throughout the remainder of that half or in overtime.  The dice decided to behave themselves in an extraordinary way, and even with a few one-dicers thrown in didn’t cause me any problems.

As Paul says, a terrific game that was tense throughout, and I was fortunate to come out on the winning side of.  So a bruised and battered (1 –AG Longbeard (with Guard), and 1 MNG G/MB Blitzer!) BVB soldier on.  Bring on the Orcs!

Lee:

Wilfreyzi:

Great game this one, and another that ended in overtime. Having been picked, the Cutthroats found themselves down 180k and missing a blitzer, so took a merc with dauntless to equal things up.

Lee received, but a short kick bounced right next to the touchline and the S4 thrower couldn't reach it. The humans saw their chance, and worked a push on to the ball, which with a kindly bounce was quickly in Cutthroat hands and we were looking for a turnover score. It was fairly nip/tuck, as I had to progress across the pitch and up to the end zone, but the humans made a lot of dodges - mostly on 6s - and with Lee's blitzers all on the other wing after some indifferent blocking the humans could stall it out. I took a risk in turn 7 to blitz a blodge guard blitzer and then surf him, with the crowd MNG'ing him, but Lee decided to apo. 1-0 at the half.

Second half starts much the same for the humans, safely securing the ball and knocking back the orcs in range. But then my dodge dice failed me, and Lee's block dice continued. To be fair - I don't think either of us had to use rerolls for failed blocks, apart from shots at the ball carrier, but the major difference was the humans could dodge, the orcs couldn't. Still, I got bottled up on the right and despite surfing 2 orcs, Lee managed a 3+ dodge and 2 GFI pow on the ball carrier, with the ball ending in the crowd and thrown towards my endzone.

I worked the chance to punt it to safety, but then shenanigans as I 1, reroll 1'd the dodge with my AG4 dodge lino. Hmmm. Lee wasted no time in picking up to equalise.

And so to OT. The humans had 1 reroll, the orcs had none, which turned out to be crucial. I won the toss this time and grabbed the ball early with the AG4 thrower. Again, it was still nip/tuck with lots of head scratching, but here my dauntless merc blitzer earned his money. Eventually I ran a catcher through after making the hole and threw the ball to him with the AG4 thrower.

Lee had to make dodges, but he was succeeding this time, and threw 4 dice at the blodge/side step catcher but couldn't come up with a pow. In fairness, the catcher was surrounded by 2 AG4 players, but you never know with BB. Fortunately it was at this point that Lee informed me it was sudden death, as I was preparing to stall out the 3 remaining turns of OT :)

A blitz freed the catcher and he scored the winner. Crap winnings, even with the reroll, but no perms means we have a healthy team to face Luke's orcs. Great game Lee. I was gutted not to win in normal time really, but my humans managed to dodge virtually all game and that was probably the difference.

Luke:

What can I say, I had awesome luck breaking armour for the heck of it and quickly removing players, 4 by turn 3 and maybe 7 by turn 8.  I think I managed something like 5 stuns, over 12 KOs and 5 casualties over the course of the game.  While Toms dice were as bad as my were good, double 1'ing or double skulling frequently, the game was not even a contest.  

mrbrownesquire:

Luke:

Indigo:

Bsking:

JJB:

Geggster:

Playoff drama kicked off early with this game as we were certs to meet, even though the regular season hadn't ended. Allan decided against the bribe for the deathroller (fearful of a chef robbing all his rerolls) and so he wanting to make the most of him first half. Unfortunately for Allan, the DR didn't do any damage on offence until late in the half, but when he did - and coupled with a bad khemri turn, the dwarves had a decent chance. A skellie, back as a safety as an afterthought, rescued the situation for the Skulls with a one-dice take down for 0-0 at the half. 

2nd half - the khemri made slow progress (go figure) until a failed dauntless roll gave the Skulls a wing to exploit. It all looked good - especially after Allan had burnt his last reroll on a GFI to get a makeshift barrier, but the Skulls weren't finished with the excitement quad-downing the blitz (to move the cage into range). The crowd held their breath as the dwarves got two dice on the ball - but couldn't knock it down. They managed two more the following turn after some mild shenanigans too - but the blodger was safe and managed to get the winner. Phew. The Skulls roll on.

bigallium:

My main aim in this game was to do a lot better than when we met in the league, and hopefully that would give me a shot at a win (probably needing OT). Well that was achieved, although the one nil win to Pual was probably the right result. Paul held a solid defence and when it looked like I had no-where to go, I did a massive switch, but of course this left a runner all alone. Paul needed a Pow/Pow dodge on the one dice blitz as I had a blocker ready to clear him if not. He got it and I was seeing a one nil result all over. The DR was good, and stopped Paul making the inroads into my offence as before. But ZERO armour breaks by the DR, or any one else for that matter, meant I could not get through. Removed the Guarding Blitzer late on, which did help in the 2nd half.
said 2nd half went pretty much as expected, and as Paul described. If I had got the blodger down (with a blocker, so tackle in play) then OT was almost certain, as the ball was right on the side line and the turn Paul would have spent recovering would have made it very difficult, and the ball could have ended up miles away. But it wasn't to be (too many double skulls early in the half meant no re-rolls when really needed). Ho Hum. A good, tense game, even if the crowd had all gone to the hot dog stand (1TD and about 5 or 6 armour breaks in the whole game!).
With the World Cup about to start and the cricket season in full swing, maybe this was the best result for both coaches!!! Good luck Paul, and thanks for a very decent game. Treble anyone?