The Aetolian Blood Bowl League

Seir

Schedule and Results for Week 3, which starts on 8/20 (Will be updated as games are played)

• (W) Gash Kadrak Raveners (2/0/1) - 1 vs. (L) Nine Feet Under (1/1/1) - 0
• (W) Fuzzy Funnies (3/0/0) - 3 vs. (L) Bludgy Stubblebluds (1/1/1) - 0
• (W) Rat'sLife (2/0/1) - 1 vs. (L) Pools' Patchworks (1/0/2) - 0
• (D) Go Fetch! (0/1/2 - 0) vs. (D) Squishy Hugs (2/1/0) - 0
• (L) Flawdancers (0/0/3) - 0 vs. (W) Squidtooth Lizards (1/0/2) - 2

Seir

Soooo... Given that we're in Week 3 and we've got four teams that haven't played yet, I'm going declare this a BYE week and give everyone a BYE week after Week 6 too. That way people can get a break, Plus, I don't like giving out concedes because they can make things imbalanced as the forfeiting team gives away two MVPs (10 SPP) to the winning team.

To the teams that haven't finished this week, you have until next Sunday to get your games done. Everyone this week that has played, you get a week off.

Seir

Hey all. Sorry that I've forgotten to update the schedule for this week! No update via NBC Sports unfortunately as I've been wholly distracted by XCOM: War of the Chosen. I will, however, be posting this week's schedule shortly. Tiur and Karhast have actually already played each other by the time I finish posting this. Standby!

Seir

Schedule for Week 4, which starts on 9/3 and ends on 9/10.

Commissioner Note: Obscurity and Kodaza have both notified me that Obscurity will be traveling and their game will be delayed by a day or two.

(D) Gash Kadrak Raveners (2/1/1) - 1 vs. (D) Bludgy Stubblebluds (1/2/1) - 1
(W) Fuzzy Funnies (4/0/0) - 2 vs. (L) Pools' Patchworks (1/0/3) - 0
(D) Rat'sLife (2/1/1) - 1 vs. (D) Nine Feet Under (1/2/1) - 1
(L) Go Fetch! (0/1/3) - 1 vs. (W) Flawdancers (1/0/3) - 3
(L) Squidtooth Lizards (1/0/3) - 0 vs. (W) Squishy Hugs (3/1/0) - 1

Seir

Annnnd, we are now officially on Week 5. I'm giving Obs and Kodaza some extra time to get their game done, but they have their Week 5 game this week as well. We're also halfway done with the regular season. Only four more weeks after this one until we reach the playoffs. Still very much possible for anyone to get in at this point, though Karhast's Fuzzy Funnies are getting close to clinching a berth. Anyway, I'll post the standings once Obs and Kodaza play their game, but here is the schedule for Week 5:


Gash Kadrak Raveners vs. Rat'sLife
Fuzzy Funnies vs. Squishy Hugs
Pools' Patchworks vs. Flawdancers
Go Fetch! vs. Bludgy Stubblebluds
Nine Feet Under vs. Squidtooth Lizards


The big match up this week will be Karhast's Dwarves (the Fuzzy Funnies) vs Pazradym's Nurgle team (the Squishy Hugs). Both teams are undefeated going into this matchup, have the highest team values in the league currently (and thus developed players), AND both Dwarf teams and Nurgle teams are known for playing a bashy, slow-moving game, more so the dwarves than the Nurgles. However, Pazradym's Nurgle folk can make it an absolute pain for Karhast's dwarves in just trying to pick up the ball. That game is the one to watch.

Also, another game of note will be Tiur's Khemri team (Pools' Patchworks) vs. Carmain's Wood Elf team (the Flawdancers). Carmain's team has been recovering from some rather painful injuries from the onset of the season, but had a pretty big comeback last week against Go Fetch!, Omega's Necromantic team. A Wood Elf team can absolutely cause problems for a Khemri team, and both coaches need a win this week as we go into the second half of the season. If Tiur can control the ball, he should be okay. Otherwise, it gives Carmain an excellent chance of recovering going into the later stages of the season. A developed Wood Elf team can be frightening.

The other game of note will be the Gash Kadrak Raveners vs Rat'sLife, purely because Kelliara's Skaven team will be going up against a team with ample access to the Tackle skill on the Ravener's Chaos Dwarf Blockers. Kelliara will have to keep her star Gutter Runner Khret safe. Khret is Level 4 (Emerging Star) now with 32SPP and is the most experienced and developed player in the league. As a Gutter Runner, he had the Dodge and Weeping Dagger skills inherently. However, from his level ups, he has picked up Wrestle, Side Step, and now Leap after last week's game against my Necromantic team Nine Feet Under. That is absolutely a very difficult Gutter Runner to put into the ground. It will not be good if Kodaza's dwarves manage to plant it and, worse, plant it and cause a major casualty like a stat injury or death.

In any event, as we reach the middle parts of the season, I'd like to thank all of you for participating so far. I'm glad that I have been able to introduce (or re-introduce) many of you to Blood Bowl. As Tiur has said himself, it is both frustrating and yet immensely addicting. You grow attached to your players and develop them, but even the best-laid plans can oft go awry and take them away from you. It will be interesting to see who wins it all this season.

Good luck this week, coaches.

Kelliara

To be fair, it's not like I've been TRYING to stack that one Gutter Runner so heavily. He's just hogging all the progression points, and not sharing the love at all.

Seir

Kelliara said:

To be fair, it's not like I've been TRYING to stack that one Gutter Runner so heavily. He's just hogging all the progression points, and not sharing the love at all.

Nuffle has meant for Khret to become an Emerging Star. However, this means that Nuffle also approves of the giant bullseye on him now.

Seir

While Karhast and Pazradym played their game and that is going to throw off the standings a little, Obs and Kodaza played their game from last week, so here are the updated standings for Week 5 (thus far). Note that Fuzzy Funnies (Karhast) and Squishy Hugs (Pazradym) just played, so they'll have one game more than everyone else:


Squishy Hugs (4/1/0)
Fuzzy Funnies (4/0/1)
Gash Kadrak Raveners (2/1/1)
Rat'sLife (2/1/1)
Nine Feet Under (1/2/1)
Bludgy Stubblebluds (1/2/1)
Squidtooth Lizards (1/0/3)
Pools' Patchworks (1/0/3)
Flawdancers (1/0/3)
Go Fetch! (0/1/3)


Remember that the top six will go into the playoffs, which are still open for contention as we have four more weeks after this for the regular season. Make your predictions on who will go all the way to win the Ankyrean Cup.

Kodaza

So the Gash Kadrak Raveners are tearing a hole through the league and I feel a little guilty. But the reason I've had so much success is that I'm taking so many risks. Blood Bowl is a game of huge swings, and I think perhaps people could embrace that a little more.

No one's explicitly said it, but given how many people are having their first BB experience with this league, I'm sure the question "why isn't zhe going easier on me" has gone through people's heads. But here's the thing: I kind of sort of am? I've been playing in a way that takes huge risks. Every enemy player I've injured so far was in a roll that was statistically just as likely to injure my own player.

But you miss 100% of the shots you don't take, right?

It's harder to notice the failures, though. When one of my gambits goes wrong (and a lot of them have) it's with much less fanfare. It fizzles and my turn ends and that's that. But when they work, and you lose one of your players to my success, it sure looks more impressive.

So many, many times now I've seen some of you activate a player, initiate a block, realize it's only a single die and then cancel. But I'm throwing single-die blocks more often than not, and the end result is I have three times as many casualties scored as most of you. I admit to an extent this is team privilege: my players are either dwarves (with innate Block, making single dies less risky) or goblins (in which case, I don't care if they get hurt/killed), so I have some encouragement to be reckless.

But more often than not, when one of my players takes out one of yours, it was a long shot... and it was a shot you had first, on the previous turn, these you chose not to try. That could have been you!

Blood Bowl is a chaotic game, so embrace that chaos! (Literally. HEAR THE WORD OF HASHUT.) I'm winning as much as I am because I'm playing like there's nothing to lose.

Kelliara

Kodaza said:

A bunch of stuff...

I know some of that was useful information, but all I read was "KELLIARA'S DEAD RAT-PERSON MUST BE AVENGED!"

Seir

Hey everyone. Note from the Commissioner: With Week 7 nearly upon us, we're in our last BYE week of the season. This means that you have some extra time to finish your games from last week if you have not played them. Otherwise, you get a break. Other than that, we're in the final stretch of the season and we'll have the playoffs in three weeks. For the most part, pretty much everyone is still a contender.

Now, a note about Blood Bowl and what Kodaza said. The realization is that no matter how good you are, Blood Bowl is a game of dice. Many can attest to my aptitude at rolling double skulls this season. No matter what your best laid plans are, Nuffle (BB's literal RNGesus) will have a way of dashing them. I'm an experienced player, yet Nine Feet Under are 1-3-2. I chose to go easy on people by not playing Skaven or Pro Elves. Otherwise, I'd be scoring over and over and that's not really fun for people learning the game. I decided to take a plunge and learn Necromantic as a team. So, yeah... doesn't matter how good you are. Dice can still screw you over!