My Third game in the Bridge City Blood Bowl League was also played in early August, just two days after the game against the Ctesiphon Crushers!
This game was against The Warman Hobbit Tossers! ANOTHER Halfling team. As with the all the games against the teams in the Stunty Divisions, they had purposely kept their Team Value low and so started the game with 380,000 gold in free "petty cash" to spend on inducements due to the difference in Current Team "Value" between our teams... and so they hired Deeproot Strongbranch - a Treeman Star Player for 280,000 gold (so I was facing a halfling team with THREE TREEMEN...) and a Halfling Master chef for 100,000 (to steal my re-rolls)... Fun times...
(for those not from around here, Warman is a small town about 20Km north of Saskatoon)
ANOTHER Ryan - Coach of the Warman Hobbit Tossers.
Starting team...
(GORKS PESTILENT BRAIN FARTS!! As I was writing this game report, nearly three weeks later, I realized, ONCE AGAIN, I FORGOT TO BRING A PLAYER - Bill S. Pestmain, in this case - and played with 13 instead of the 14 that were on my roster!? FML...)
I took a LOT MORE pictures of this game... (Largely because it was just such an AMAZING looking game - mainly because of Ryan's beautifully painted team!). However, with the exception of the things noted in Tour Play, I did not take notes and am mostly trying to piece together a narrative from foggy memory and whatever figments of memory these pictures jog...
Except for one, all of Ryans halflings are also old metal Blood Bowl miniatures - but from third edition - none of which I'd not seen before. The sole exception was the model he was using for Deeproot Strongbranch, which was a 3D print... but the model very closely matched the look of the other treeman - except that he was a smidge bigger - which one would expect of a Star Player! - and the painting tied them all together perfectly!
The Tossers kicking off to the Gnarly Gobbos! The Ball went deep into the Gobbos side of the field!
#48 Lil Bopper, the Goblin Pogoer, snatched up the ball and bounded up the field to #37, "Icky" Russ, the Goblin Doom Diver, to whom he passed off the ball... SUCCESSFULLY!
Other #3, Norg, the Trained Troll, picked up and did NOT eat "Icky" Russ and instead tossed him over the Tossers defensive line...
Where he glided a little further to land just outside the end zone....
And ran it in for the first touchdown of the game!!!
Now... here's where I get a little fuzzy on the details...
Because at the end of the drive, Dagadyr was in the Injury box - out for the game and Badly Hurt (missing the rest of this game, but no lasting injuries or further games missed...) - so the above sequence didn't all happen in one turn (I hope!).
I THINK what may have happened was after Icky Russ landed, before activating him to run in and score the touchdown... I decided to activate a number of my other players - the ones with secret weapons - because if I scored a touchdown, that would end the drive and all players that were holding secret (illegal!) weapons would be sent off...
So... in his very first game... #66, Fawkzy, the brand new Goblin Bomma, threw a bomb... The threw it at the player least likely to CATCH it (a treeman)... who CAUGHT IT, and threw it back... and missed... and it bounced around and blew up... next to it was Dagadyr the Troll (armour value 10+) and THREE halflings (armour value 7+)... all three halflings were fine... Dagadyr, gone for the game...
Now... what MAY have happened is we forgot to note the end of the turn (because blowing up my own players SHOULD have caused the end of the turn!) and the Tossers started their turn, but managed to do... SOMETHING... that ended in one of their own players being knocked down... then it was back to me and I quickly ran it in before anything else happened...
HOWEVER... I have a bad feeling that we simply both forgot that blowing up my own guy should have ended my turn and after Dagadyr got blown up I just ran in "Icky" Russ before anything else bad happened to "end" my turn (which was kind of cheating... whoopsie...)
This was, however, the high point of the game for me, and afterwards everything went downhill...
VERY... FAST...
Kicking off to the Tossers, the ball went DEEP into the Halflings backfield - as far as it could go without landing in the crowd (which means it goes to the player of the receiving teams choice!). I think the Gobbos got a kick-off event that allowed a few of them to move...
So #16, S. Maulfart, went tearing around the flank, eyes on that ball... or... maybe he just wanted to bully the lone halfling out in the back field...
#69, Jean Klean, the Goblin Ball and Chain Fanatic just ploughing through the Tossers line, knocking down trees and halflings in his way!
The halfling in the back field recovered the ball and started bringing it forward, while the forest of Treemen smacked down all that got in their way! Including Other #3 Norg the Troll...
Norg the Troll was beat down by the treemen... failed armour... failed a regeneration roll... rolled a Lasting Injury... I decided to use the Apothecary to try and end up with a lesser injury - a second casualty roll was made and that one resulted in DEATH.... so... Lasting Injury it was!!
The halfling with the ball ran up and passed if off to a teammate...
and a treeman flung him down the field where he ran in the Tossers first touchdown!
And this is just half way through the first half..
The Tossers kick off to the Gnarly Gobbos! At this point the Gobbos were down to seven players and the Tossers were still able to field a full eleven players... including THREE Treemen...
Ted "Wild Boar" Grogan rushed ahead, presumably trying to move into a position to block whoever behind him picked up the ball... and fell on his face... ending the turn... because he couldn't pass the roll ANYTHING BUT A ONE Rush roll... TWICE (because of his Sure Feet skill allows him to re-roll a failed Rush roll...)
(idiots...)
The Tossers took full advantage of this and rushed forward!
They knocked out Lil Bopper, the Goblin Pogoer, and gained possession of the ball!
But the Gobbos are absolutely savage little maniacs that just don't stop...
Team Captain, #1 Hotlicks Wobblespot blitzed the ball carried and knocked him on his ass, and the ball bounced loose...
Another Halfling stepped in to pick it up... But did NOT make it to the end zone before the first half ended!
(I think...?)
This time the Gnarly Gobbos were kicking to the Tossers... and.. I think this time the Tossers got the free move before the ball landed.. and they pounded on poor Dirk Blood and Leon Cankersore... and... whoever else was in the line of three up front with them...
The ball did not land far behind the Tossers. A pair of halflings moved to screen Lil Bopper from going for it!
Somehow Ted "Wild Boar" Grogan deked his way through the line to give chase to the ball carrier... but ended up on his face... AGAIN... for his troubles...
One of the Treemen picked up the hobbit and tossed him down the field...
Where he ran in the Tossers second touchdown!
Receiving the kick, the Gnarly Gobbos were down to five Goblin Linemen... against three Treemen and seven assorted halflings...
You can, in theory, concede games, if things are going really poorly. It is PUNISHING to do so, though. So much so that it's probably something someone would only do if they were going to quit a league all together... and it feels like they were written almost as rules for dealing with "well what do we do if someone just gets up and walks away from the table with all their toys...?" First, the conceding team loses 2-0 or, if the team they conceded to had scored MORE than two points, they keep those points, the conceding team loses all the points they had... and the conceding team loses any star player points earned for scoring those points... and they lose any star player points any of their players may have earned for anything else they did... and the conceding team doesn't get an MVP (instead the winning team gets TWO MVPS each of which get full star player points... and the conceding team gets NO MONEY and the winning team basically gets all the money they would have made...
IF you start a new drive with not enough players to place three on the line (because regardless of how many players you have, three must always start up on the centre line!?). THEN and only then can you concede and not have all of the punishing consequences outlined above... except for the you lose all your points and the team you concede to gets the higher of two or however many they have scored up to that point in the game.
Think of how badly your game would have to be going to be allowed to quit without the punishing circumstances outlined above... The absolute mauling of your team that you'd have to sit through...
Yeah...
Super glad they got that 380,000 gold in free "petty cash" to buy that third star player Treeman and "level the playing field" because wow... I totally would have rolled over them so bad otherwise...
(this might be sarcasm)
(feeling less bad about having possibly cheated earlier when cheaty bullshit like that is allowed...)
Anyway... Hotlicks wobblespot fell back to block for Lil Bopper who'd picked up the ball... Ted "Wild Boar" Grogan and Leon Cankersore flanked right to distract the halflings guarding that side...
Would Lil Bopper bound up that side and bounce RIGHT OVER the diminutive Halflings and straight past them to score another touchdown!? He's done it in the past!
Nope! The freemen threw a halfling AT Lil Bopper... they missed... but it kind of disrupted things...
Instead, Lil Bopper bounced up the field and handed it off to Ted "Wild Boar" Grogan!
Who deked between the two Treemen and dashed down the field!
He... did not make it all the way...
One of the little barefoot curs chased him down and tackled him...
The Ball was picked up by another of the furry footed cusses and he got flinged down the field by a treeman - and teammates that were cherry picking on that side of the field ran a defensive screen...
While they ran it in for ANOTHER TOUCHDOWN!!
Kicking off to the Gobbos again... with FOUR remaining on the field... against TEN on the other team. Including THREE Treemen. STILL not enough losses to just call it without punishing consequences.
I think this was the very last turn, at least...
Lil Bopper bounced back from the line and out of the way.
Leon Cankersore followed his team captain, Hotlicks Wobblespot, around the flank to try and bully some halflings...
So... yeah... five casualties and three out with penalties... LUCKILY most of the casualties were only Badly Hurt - out for this game, but no lasting effects or additional games missed.
#13 Franky Sweatscab - Goblin Lineman - ended up with a Niggling Injury. He'll miss a game and then any time a Casualty Roll is made for him - it will be at a +1 (more likely to be more seriously injured) just like Leon Cankersore. Also like Leon, Franky has a deep hatred of Treemen...
Norg the Troll's Lasting Injury ended up being -1 Strength... which is pretty devastating for a Troll - being the teams heavy hitters... everyone was suggesting that I fire him from the team and replace him. The Problem is, a) I don't have the GOLD to hire a new troll... and b) Norg has the Strong Arm skill - he's meant to hold back and be available to throw "Icky" Russ!? So, he's staying on the team for now! Norg amazingly did NOT end up with a Hatred of Treemen (or... maybe it's not so amazing... Norg is Really Stupid and hatred would require having a MEMORY to remember who you hate!)
I really do feel pretty bad about the (very likely) accidentally cheating thing...
I don't think it really gained me much in any way... I am in last place in our division and in a three way tie for second last in the league... My next game is against the team that is tied for first in the league, and, unlike all the stunty teams that played me and got 300,000 in free inducements (well, 275K, 325K, and 380k, respectively) to "even up the odds" I'm only getting 160,000 for this next game (which will buy me three bribes, so I can keep each of my secret weapon players on the field for one additional Drive... if they survive long enough!?).. where I'm going to be missing one of my Trolls!
Dirk Blood was named MVP for the Gnarly Gobbos - apparently for KILLING Tosser #5 Robert "Rolly Polly Olly" Lincoln, Halfling Hefty!? It was the only notable thing he did during the game! (the MVP is actually just randomized, you select six players and roll a d6 to determine which one becomes MVP...). I've usually tried to select players that DID things.. but more recently it's been pointed out that you can pick anyone... and I should apparently ALWAYS pick the trolls and specials to be MVP to get them star player points to eventually gain skills or stat increases!?
Hotlicks Wobblespot had also gained a few Star Player Points for injuring a halfling, so now he and Dirk Blood have enough points that they could PICK a Primary Skill.
I guess I should do that before my game tomorrow! Although doing so will increase my Team Value and thus decrease the petty cash I could gain... and thus the number of free bribes! (I'll probably do it anyway, because I am that special kind of stupid...)
S. Maulfart and "Icky" Russ both enough that he could get a RANDOM skill... but I'm not sure that's worked out so well... (it would be a SECOND random skill for Maulfart). I'll probably hold off for a bit until I get enough points to pick a skill.
At this point Im not sure what skills to PICK for any of these goblins... not a lot of them have turned out to be useful at all...
They can take Devious skills - which mostly give them different types of bonuses or abilities while fouling... but that requires an opponent to be down on the ground... not surrounded by upright teammates... and a Gobbo with fouling skill to be available to get in there and foul them... AND... IF they are actually successful, it doesn't get them any star player points for any casualties they'd cause!?
Agility skills haven't been so useful either. the ONE TIME Ted "Wild Boar" Grogan actually tried to use his Sure Feet skill... when he rolled a one while attempting to Rush... he just rolled ANOTHER ONE!?
Like, seriously, what is the point with these idiots!?
I do like the idea of rules like petty cash to give free inducements to teams that are falling behind... it's better than the sink or swim leagues back when I was running them - where things could very quickly snowball out of control if you had a few bad games in a row! But it seems like clever bastards always find ways to abuse those systems to gain advantages in ways they weren't necessarily meant to... I feel like there's got to be a fix in there... like figure out the difference in Current Team Value, add whatever the higher team spends on inducements from their treasury, but instead of just giving that amount to the team with the lower Current Team Value... maybe give them an amount equal to that, less whatever is sitting in THEIR treasury!? i.e. if one team has a CTV of 1,000K and spends nothing on inducements... and the opposing team has a CTV of 750K... but 200K in their treasury... maybe don't give them an additional 250K of free monies to spend on the game... maybe just give them the 50K...? If they feel like they need a star player to even things up... they can hire one with the money they have!? If they piss it all away and they're in the same situation the next game... sure... give them the free 250K...
There IS a mechanic that I think is SUPPOSED to deal with some of this... if you start a game with more than 100,000 gold in your treasury, there is a chance you will lose some of it. It's called Expensive Mistakes and supposed to represent people with too much money getting careless. At 100K-200K there is only a one in six chance of anything happening, and if it does, it's a Minor Incident where you only lose d3x10K gold... in the 200K-300K range there's a one in three chance of a Minor Incident. At 300K-400K there is still a 50% chance of nothing happening, and one in three chance of a Minor Incident and a one in six chance of a Major Incident - where you lose HALF the money in your Treasury.. BUT if you have 300K in your treasury, and you lose half of it... you still have enough to replace any player on your team (except a Dwarven Deathroller 170K or a Khorne Bloodspawn at 160K) and could still replace up to 2-10 regular players for most other teams, depending on the team!? at 500K there's a risk of a Catastrophe where you lose ALL of your gold except 2d6x10,000... which could still be quite a bit... It doesn't seem to be disincentive enough to stop these shenanigans...
I don't know.. It all just seems silly the way it is, to me...
maybe I'm just being sore because I wasn't a clever enough bastard to figure out how to abuse it on my own...
It's this sort of bullshit that often makes me lose interest in a game FAST!
Anyway, despite these complaints, I should be clear, I GENUINELY HAD A GOOD TIME playing Ryan and his fabulously painted team and look forward to being beat down by them again in the second round of divisional games. Well... maybe not looking forward to the beat down, per se... I'm looking forward to playing him and his team again...
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