Let's Play Blood Bowl AGAIN - Skaven Team

[Silellak]

First order of business: everyone welcome JoKa, our replacement Gutter Runner, to the team!

Gorramn Joka! Bench it is then for me...

But entertaining LP nonetheless!

Oh, don't worry, you're next. And, given the average lifespan of a Skaven, I'd guess that's pretty damn soon.

Aww, aren't they adorable?

You made me a rat ogre. D:

Less whiny, more smashy.

 

[Brother None]

Ooof, that was terribad, Silellak.

Dwarven runners can't be taken down by attacking their box, unless you're playing dwarf, chaos or orc. Your only shot is to reduce the number of dwarves in the box, and then use your speed and dodging ability to blitz in.

Not a good match indeed, but it happens against dwarves. They're a tough team to beat.

 

[Silellak]

Games 7 and 8, vs. Humans and Orcs respectively! On the first game, I forgot to display player name labels - sorry about that.

After my depressing loss last game, I believe I have to win both of these for a shot at getting into the play-offs.

My human opponent. Notice their usual Level 2 Catcher is out for this game, meaning they'll be granted a free replacement. Free replacements always seem to be Level 1 with the addition attribute of "Loner" (which makes it harder for them to use a Team Re-roll).

Pretty cool arena.

The humans are receiving, but manage to fumble the initial pick-up. Being sneaky and fast, I have little choice but to take advantage of this.

WhiskeyWolf has to make a total of 3 dodge-rolls, a pick-up roll, and 2 going-for-it rolls in order to get in the clear.

Sometimes I feel like the dice hate me, but this time...

Humans start their drive down the middle, but I don't make it easy, and they make the mistake of bringing their ball carrier next to my currently-prone Rat Ogre, apparently forgetting he's more than happy to stand-up AND beat the shit out of them in the same turn.

The ball is knocked loose and recovered by one of my Blitzers.

Skyway pisses off an Obsidian fanboy and is out for the match. Meanwhile Shuma is close to making another touch-down...

...but fails two easy dodge rolls. This must be the price for WhisleyWolf's earlier ninja-skills. Dice, you are fickle bitches.

Second half. Shuma tries to sneak by and go down. Here's something I still don't quite understand, though. I knew he had to make 3 dodge rolls but risked it anyway, since he makes each roll at 2+ and gets an automatic re-roll with the dodge skill. Looking at the feedback log, though, each roll was a 3+. I'm not sure why - the human player had no special skills, and there's only one tackle zone to go through. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell there's no feedback as to the difficulty of each dodge-roll before you make the move. Strange, because for every other roll in the game, the difficulty is very clear. Can be frustrating, especially for a dodge-happy team like mine.

VD is setting up for a pass, but with his potential receiver down, he is Blitzed with too little defense.

The ball gets knocked off the pitch and thrown over to an empty corner. Thanks to the Skaven's speed, this is actually a good thing for me.

An early turn-over during the human turn assures I am in the clear.

Game over.

Fouling time! My target is their level 4 Blitzer, who has a lot of useful skills. Would be a nice kill, but as usual, my fouling fails to provide any real result.

I get my violence fix elsewhere, though.

Having over half my team dedicated to fouling leads to an easy human touchdown...

...but it really doesn't matter.

Volly is chosen for MVP, despite not even playing in the game. That's right, the rest of you scrubs suck so hard, the guy laying around with a smashed ankle did better that you dumbfucks. Or, the ref is a Bioware fanboy.

Stats!

Volly levels up and takes a point of armor, since giving him another movement point would just counter-act his injury, and even at 6 movement he's fast enough for a lineman.

My Orc opponents. I'm starting to think AI "team values" are screwed up. They have 14 players to my 12, roughly equal level spread, and five re-rolls, yet they're still considered a lower value than me so they get inducement money. Uh...what?

Math is hard.

I choose to receive the kick-off. Skyway goes long, DU makes the pass, and...

Like clockwork.

The Orcs start their drive, but make the mistake of getting within Blitzing range of Jasede.

Shuma recovers...

...and the rest is predictable.

Not much left to do this half. Just gotta contain their goblins so they can't sneak any passes through. Elsewhere, Murrow goes down for the match.

Racover misses his friend Murrow and goes to join him on the sidelines.

I start the second half up two points but down two players. I'm not worried about a loss at this point, but the Orcs could still pull off a tie since I don't have a full line-up to contain them with, including my Ogre who was KO'd earlier. My best option is to keep their weaker Goblins down to avoid any passes, and hope for a moment to bring down their ball carrier.

The ball is knocked loose, and both teams swarm around it.

In the chaos, DU gets the ball and makes a pass for JoKa, two squares away.

...of course.

Shuma is sent down as my third casualty for the game.

The Orcs try a last-ditch pass that ends about as well as you'd expect. VD moves to recover. He makes a long pass to Volly...

...success!

Volly isn't quite fast enough to make a clean break, and gets whacked by a Goblin blitz.

He gets up and returns the favor, leaving me a pick-up and dodge roll away from another WhiskeyWolf touchdown.

Entirely unnecessary, but incredibly satisfying.

On top of everything, the Orcs also had a fan factor of 11?! How the fuck did they need inducements again?

Post-game stats!

So, we made the play-offs, and next game is a re-match against the humans! I just barely have enough for another re-roll (130k, and they cost 120k for Skaven), so I'm tempted to make the purchase before the next game. I don't really want to hire any more players at the moment for fear of over-inflating my team value too soon. We could always buy cheerleaders too, but those are lower in my scale of importance.

What say you all?

 

[Brother None]

Awesome first-turn TD thar. That's why I'm very careful about positioning, and try to take out close skavens/players before attempting the pickup

And godfuckingdammit, you roll ANOTHER STAT-UP. What the hell is this for shit?!?!

You really need to roll up a mutation, tho', they're fun.

Also, while DU fumbled that pass on JoKa, I'm not sure why you tried that pass anyway. DU was boxed up, while JoKa was flanked by an orc, not only forcing him to attempt dodges, but also making his catch roll harder.

Anyway, how many cheerleaders you got? They're an easy purchase to make early, as they're permanent and come in handy on the necessary rolls. I usually just buy 10 and then forget about it for a long time.

Rerolls are damned handy, but to be honest skavens have a lot of reroll-replacing skills anyway.

 

[Silellak]

Awesome first-turn TD their. That's why I'm very careful about positioning, and try to take out close skavens/players before attempting the pickup

And godfuckingdammit, you roll ANOTHER STAT-UP. What the hell is this for shit?!?!

You really need to roll up a mutation, tho', they're fun.

Also, while DU fumbled that pass on JoKa, I'm not sure why you tried that pass anyway. DU was boxed up, while JoKa was flanked by an orc, not only forcing him to attempt dodges, but also making his catch roll harder.

Anyway, how many cheerleaders you got? They're an easy purchase to make early, as they're permanent and come in handy on the necessary rolls. I usually just buy 10 and then forget about it for a long time.

Rerolls are damned handy, but to be honest skavens have a lot of reroll-replacing skills anyway.

Right now I think I only have a single cheerleader. I'm worried about them increasing my team value but not providing enough benefit in exchange.

I chose to pass to JoKa because I wanted the SPP for DU and JoKa, if he managed to score. I wasn't terribly worried about losing at this point so I was willing to take risks. And actually, the only Orc flanking JoKa was on the ground, so no dodge roll was needed and no catch penalty would've applied. If I were playing 'for serious' though, I probably would've just handed off to Skyway and had him make a run for it.

 

[Brother None]

Ah rite, I was looking at the next pic, where he'd scrambled back up.

Carry on then, well played, pip-pip cheerio.

 

[Jasede]

I don't really know what to suggest, I'm still stunned that I saw that my character has a skill called "Mighty Blow".

 

[Silellak]

I really wish I'd roll up a mutation on someone without it also being a stat-up. Part of the reason I did an LP with the Skaven was so I could play with mutations. So far almost all my skill choices have been boring.

I don't really know what to suggest, I'm still stunned that I saw that my character has a skill called "Mighty Blow".

Snicker. What I really need is to get you Block and then the skill that lets you use strength rather than agility to dodge. That'll make you nigh-unstoppable, especially since I seem to roll "both down" a lot when you block.

 

[Jasede]

Mutations? How does that work?

 

[Silellak]

Mutations? How does that work?

Mutations are specific to certain races and are basically just like any other skill, but also change your appearance and are typically better than most standard skills.

For instance, there's Two Heads, which gives you a bonus to dodge, Extra Arms, which makes it easer to pick up and catch the ball, Tentacles, which forces anyone trying to dodge around you to pass a Strength check, Prehensile Tail, which gives anyone dodging around you a penalty, and some others. Brother None might have a better idea, since he's actually rolled a few in his LP.

I think the only races in this version of Blood Bowl (since not all the BB races are in this game) that can mutate are Skaven and Chaos. I could be wrong, though.

 

[headache]

That's right. All Chaos players can always take Mutation though.

Here's a mutated Skaven I want to show off. On a Gunner Runner I got Horns (+1 ST when blitzing) from the Mutation list, then later I got +1 ST on him. He also had Block, so: an awesome defensive blitzer. On the same team I made a receiver with Catch, Sprint, and Sure Feet. All regular GR Agility skills, but he racked up experience and then got +1 AG. Then I gave him Leap, which was ridiculous. Not even necessary against the AI. Sorry, that one wasn't mutated. Sometimes you can get great rolls then, though I'll probably never do that well again.

With your cash... you didn't mention that you could also buy an extra Apothecary for the match, if you're willing to part with 100,000. Is that out of the question? Skaven are fragile of course, and it wouldn't affect your TV. I bought extra apos a lot for that team, but I won a lot of cash (one of those single-player competitions really cranks it out). And I should say I almost never used them, but they made me more willing to put my star GRs in harm's way.

 

[bardon777]

Here's something I still don't quite understand, though. I knew he had to make 3 dodge rolls but risked it anyway, since he makes each roll at 2+ and gets an automatic re-roll with the dodge skill. Looking at the feedback log, though, each roll was a 3+.I'm not sure why - the human player had no special skills, and there's only one tackle zone to go through

Its a little unclear from the picture but the thing about dodging is that the difficultly doesn't depend on how many tackle zones you're currently in, it depends on the number of tackles zones on the square you're dodging too(unless you have Stunty). Since you went up the sideline you went from one of his TZs to another thus adding 1 to you difficulty. If he had a person adjacent to the square you were dodging too it would have been another +1 and so forth.

 

[Silellak]

Here's something I still don't quite understand, though. I knew he had to make 3 dodge rolls but risked it anyway, since he makes each roll at 2+ and gets an automatic re-roll with the dodge skill. Looking at the feedback log, though, each roll was a 3+.I'm not sure why - the human player had no special skills, and there's only one tackle zone to go through

Its a little unclear from the picture but the thing about dodging is that the difficultly doesn't depend on how many tackle zones you're currently in, it depends on the number of tackles zones on the square you're dodging too(unless you have Stunty). Since you went up the sideline you went from one of his TZs to another thus adding 1 to you difficulty. If he had a person adjacent to the square you were dodging too it would have been another +1 and so forth.

I suppose that makes sense. It'd still be nice if there was some way to view the dodge rolls required, especially with less-than-obvious rules like dodge difficulty. It is an odd oversight, considering you can easily see the difficulty in every other action in the game, which makes me wonder if it IS just an oversight, rather than a conscious decision.

 

[bardon777]

It'd still be nice if there was some way to view the dodge rolls required, especially with less-than-obvious rules like dodge difficulty. It is an odd oversight, considering you can easily see the difficulty in every other action in the game, which makes me wonder if it IS just an oversight, rather than a conscious decision.

Agreed. Definitey makes it easier for slippery teams to make a mistake. And its an important thing to relize when you're trying to stop a dodge as well. Having 4 people on a elf wont stop him from dodging with a 2+ roll to the one square you don't have covered.

 

[Silellak]

Game 9! Just a quickie update. I wanted to do both play-off games in a single update, but I only have time for one game before the process I'm working on finishes running.

Game 9 is a rematch against the same Human team we crushed the last go-round.

I empty our team's coffers on an extra re-roll and a single cheerleader. Probably not the best idea to get rid of all of our gold in case I need a replacement player ASAP, but what can I say, I'm cocky.

Spoiler

Read: retarded

The ball lands near the line of scrimmage, and the humans fumble their pick-up. We all know what this means.

DU gets the ball and I form a wall so he can pass next turn.

The (Polish?) Ogre "sneaks" through and smashes DU in the face, sending the ball into Racofer's hands.

I get a nice turn and send pretty much all the human players down to the pitch, giving Racofer plenty of room to run...

...and run he does.

The humans set up a pretty effective wall, and grind their way down the pitch...

...but just don't have enough time to score. Though, I had one more turn after this, so just for good measure, Brother None beat the ball carrier to the ground anyway.

Volly closes the half...by getting himself killed. The apothecary makes it so he's only missing a game, but seriously...what the fuck, Volly?! I'm not even doing this on purpose!

I start off the second half in a weak/stupid position. See, the humans kicked the ball off-field, and for my kick-off event I got one-square-free-move round. So, naturally, I moved my Gutter Runners across the line of scrimmage, figuring I could hand them the ball and they' d do their thing. Wrong. When you pick the player the balls go to after a kick goes off the field, they have to be on your side. Whoops. Good to know, though.

VD hands the ball to Skyway, who makes a break for it. Jasede engages in some Ogre-on-Ogre love...

...taking their Ogre out for the match.

VD pays the price for aiding Skyway, but he's just out for the match, which will be over once Skyway scores.

Ding.

They prepare the same basic box around their Thrower as last time.

This time, however, Brother None is able to Blitz the Thrower, and the ball is knocked loose.

I have JoKa recover, because the rookie needs the SPP. Elsewhere, Racofer sends a human to the pitch, getting some additional SPP on top of the touchdown he made earlier.

JoKa, with a 1-turn head start on anyone who might be able to reach him, hides in the corner, while I try to get some last minute injuries, both through fouling and the old fashioned way. No luck, though.

Eventually the humans get close enough that JoKa walks over the line.

Tasty. The only downside to this match is that Volly will be out for the championship.

Post-match stats. 20 SPP is pretty solid, and leads to three level ups.

First is Skyway, who takes Sprint.

Second is Jasede. Unable to take Block because he doesn't have access to the General skillset without a doubles-roll, I choose Break Tackle instead, which is almost as fantastic because he can now use is 5-strength to dodge rather than his 2-agility. Before, he was prevented from Blitzing if anyone was covering him, because his chance to dodge was so pathetic. No more!

JaKa gains his first level and rolls a stat-up...

...giving him a point of Agility, quickly taking him from "rookie" to "potentially my best player". A Gutter Runner with 5 Agility is insane.

Next match is against the Orcs, and I only have 11 players, so the injuries I'm sure to take could cost me dearly if I don't score enough before then. It could easily go either way.

Once I have the money, I am finishing up my team with one final lineman, since Volly seems so prone to injury. Ratatosk, your time is almost nigh!

 

[Brother None]

Nice going from Jasede there. Ogre got an AV of 9 so they're plenty difficult to injure. But Jasede never feared and totally boned that ogre.

Good match, man, convincing victory. And MVP for meeee hurraaay!

I see you're a bit passing traumatized, tho', your passing #s have been on a steep decline for the past few matches, and you just seem to be running it in lately.

AND OH GOD ANOTHER STATUP?!?!?!? You're STEALING them from me, y'know.

(also one word to the wise on Jasede: hope for doubles, but if they don't come, some of those strength-skills are a-ok. Multiple block can be fantastic to take out multiple weaker opponents, stand firm is excellent since the AI has a tendency to try and push your big un' off the line, guard is also nice)

Also also, you did really well against the orcs first time around, but don't underestimate them. Orcs are basically humans on steroid, and in my experience potentially the toughest team to go up against.

Check out the sweet facepalm on Volly, there.

 

[Silellak]

Nice going from Jasede there. Ogre got an AV of 9 so they're plenty difficult to injure. But Jasede never feared and totally boned that ogre.

Good match, man, convincing victory. And MVP for meeee hurraaay!

I see you're a bit passing traumatized, tho', your passing #s have been on a steep decline for the past few matches, and you just seem to be running it in lately.

AND OH GOD ANOTHER STATUP?!?!?!? You're STEALING them from me, y'know.

(also one word to the wise on Jasede: hope for doubles, but if they don't come, some of those strength-skills are a-ok. Multiple block can be fantastic to take out multiple weaker opponents, stand firm is excellent since the AI has a tendency to try and push your big un' off the line, guard is also nice)

Also also, you did really well against the orcs first time around, but don't underestimate them. Orcs are basically humans on steroid, and in my experience potentially the toughest team to go up against.

Check out the sweet facepalm on Volly, there.

Ahahaha awesome.

Yeah, I learned the beauty of Multiple Block when I gave it to my Dwarven Death Roller. Multiple Block + Block + Break Tackle is ridiculous on someone with 7 strength.

 

[JoKa]

whoa...after my first games i didn't think i could be of any use for the team (two times 0 SPP) ...now i hope i can live up to the potential - and die not TOO early.

P.S.: i'll try to steal another ability-up from BN the next time, can't have him get one, can i?

 

[Silellak]

Game 10 - A rematch against the Gouged Eye Orcs for the championship!

They are down their regular Thrower, but that's about it. And I'm down a lineman, as Volly has again gotten himself injured as an excuse to stay at home and troll the Codex.

Kick-off goes to me. My strategy, as usual, is "try to get one or more Gutter Runners across the lines before the Orcs murder my team."

VD makes a solid, short-range pass...that an Orc Blitzer somehow rolls a 6 on for a very lucky interception. Take note of that SOB - he will be a thorn in my side all. Fucking. Game.

Edward R. Murrow's about to say Good Night to the world, but luckily the Apothecary has some Good Luck and brings him back.

You know what? I apologize to the entire world for that.

The Orcs continue to lay down the punishment, as one of them Frenzies WhiskeyWolf right off the pitch.

Brother None saves the fucking day, by Blitzing in and wiping out the ball carrier. Shuma makes the recovery.

Here's something I've been meaning to mention about the Skaven for awhile, but keep forgetting to. The thing I love best about them is their mobility. While the Gutter Runners may not be strong by themselves, they can move around the field better than any other player in the game, which allows them to easily assist in tackles being made. This, in turn, means they are often around when the ball carrier goes down, and they can easily make a pick-up, which in turn leads to:

The Orcs fail their pick-up, so I try to sneak the 5-agility JoKa behind the lines to grab the ball. I don't necessarily expect to score, so I'm mostly doing it to annoy them. Unfortunately, one of the Goblins has no problem tripping him, sending him to the sidelines.

The Orcs grind their way downfield. Jasede uses his new-found ability to actually dodge tackles and ends up face to face with the ball carrier.

It doesn't go well for him, but VD comes down with a case of the DU and fails to pick up the ball.

Goblin tries to be sneaky and ends up in the injury ward.

Second half. Another kick-off, another failed pick-up by the Orcs. There's a pattern here, I'm sure of it.

I opt for the same strategy, only this time I have Anthony Davis clear the way for the Gutter Runner by pounding the Goblin into the ground.

JoKa sneaks through this time, but fails on his Going For It roll, and KO's himself.

At least he got the ball to the far corner of the field, which should annoy the slow Orcs. Meanwhile, Racofer decides he's tired of playing and goes to join Volly in his forum trolling.

I put pressure on the Orcish ball carrier, but somehow he makes the following dodge rolls in a single run:

3+
4+
4+
4+
3+

The Orcs form an X at the middle of the field. Effective, but as I mentioned earlier - one thing I love about the Skaven is that they can disengage from whoever they're currently blocking and switch targets.

As long as I have at least one person next to each corner of the X, they can't aid the ball carrier if I go after him directly.

I'd forgotten at some point that the Orcs had snuck a Goblin into the far-right corner of my side. Apparently, the AI's luck had run out, and the Goblin failed the catch.

Brother None sent the Goblin to the ground while DU recovered and went for a pass to WhiskeyWolf. DU...passing...

WW does his thing (run), while Jasede does his thing (smash the only one who could reach WW out of the match).

Shocking.

Whew. Got through without any permanent injuries. Really getting sick of getting shitty pay-offs for winning, though. I realize it's random, but why isn't there a bonus for victory? Meh.

Post-game stats. Nothing too exciting, but the most important thing to note is that they played the Orcs and they're all still alive.

Trophy!

We dominate the end of season stats, both individually and as a team:

Individuals:
WhiskeyWolf: best scorer with 5 touchdowns
WhiskeyWolf: best runner with 126 yards gained
Vault Dweller: best passer (distance) with 34 yards
Jasede: most violent with 3 injuries/dead. (this is pretty sad, considering we're a Skaven team up against Dwarves and Orcs)
Dark Underlord: past passer (number) with 3 passes


Dark Underlord best passer with 3 passes?! DU?!? Best passer? Have I been wrong this whole time?!

Team:

In touchdowns with 22. Twenty-fucking-two. Daaamn.
In defense with 7 touchdowns against.
In casualties with 13 injuries/dead. I assume this is injures caused, which again, is pretty sad considering we're Skaven)
In spectators with 239,000.
In money made with 440,000.

DU levels up and I give him Kick. Perhaps not the best/most exciting choice, but I'm tired of the ball going to random locations when I kick-off. I think I'll be a much stronger team if I can put the ball (roughly) where I want to. Especially against the slower teams.

As promised, my 13th and likely final (until someone dies) new player, Ratatosk! I expect another awesome Skaven picture in return, though.

Team stats as we start the new season. Another season of human, orc, and dwarf. Boo.

Team Decline. Notice we now have 3 more cheerleaders, obtained with what money we had left after buying Ratatosk.

Finally, some Hall of Fame stats:

Next game is against the Dwarves. Sigh.

That being said, updates will now become less frequent. Next week, I will be going on vacation out of town for over a week, and so this week will be pretty busy during and after work, which in turn will very much crimp my update style. I do hope to get through one more tournament this week before my vacation, but we'll see.

Don't worry though, assuming the interest is still there, I plan to keep this LP going when I get back, and once I get back, updates should return on a more regular basis. In the meantime, you lot can try and get the thread to page 4 before I update again.

Thanks for reading this far! I hope you angry cunts are enjoying it.

 

[Silellak]

whoa...after my first games i didn't think i could be of any use for the team (two times 0 SPP) ...now i hope i can live up to the potential - and die not TOO early.

P.S.: i'll try to steal another ability-up from BN the next time, can't have him get one, can i?

See the latest update. You tried your best, but managed to get KO'd by a puny goblin, and later by your own damn self.

It's okay. I still have faith in you. Just, you know, a little less.

 

[Brother None]

While the Gutter Runners may not be strong by themselves, they can move around the field better than any other player in the game, which allows them to easily assist in tackles being made.

Yip. I pointed this out in my Lizardmen match too, as well as in one of the skaven matches. They don't blitz strong, but it's very hard to stop their blitz. Mobility only gets you so far, but I'm pleasantly surprised to see how well the orcs handle you. My first team, a dwarven one, was all but unstoppable until they ran into the orcs.

Also, a skaven team fielding the best defense of the tourney? That's just crazy-stupid.

 

[Silellak]

While the Gutter Runners may not be strong by themselves, they can move around the field better than any other player in the game, which allows them to easily assist in tackles being made.

Yip. I pointed this out in my Lizardmen match too, as well as in one of the skaven matches. They don't blitz strong, but it's very hard to stop their blitz. Mobility only gets you so far, but I'm pleasantly surprised to see how well the orcs handle you. My first team, a dwarven one, was all but unstoppable until they ran into the orcs.

Also, a skaven team fielding the best defense of the tourney? That's just crazy-stupid.

Honestly, I think it's a matter of "the best defense is a good offense". I seem to do pretty well at scoring, or at least getting the ball, during my opponent's drive, and it's hard to score against me if the ball's always heading towards your endzone.

Amusingly, the only thing my Dwarven Juggernauts faltered against were the Skaven teams. I pretty much steamrolled over everyone else. Quite literally, in fact, once I had my Death Roller pimped out.

The problem I found against the Skaven is that the Dwarfs are, by nature, a low-scoring team, while it's quite possible for the Skaven to score 2 or even 3 times during a single half. All it takes is a few lucky rolls and suddenly you're facing a score deficit you can't hope to overcome. The best strategy is to murder as many Skaven as possible before that happens, but sometimes the block rolls turn against you. You seem to handle them pretty well with your Chaos team, at least.

 

[Ratatosk]

As promised, my 13th and likely final (until someone dies) new player, Ratatosk!

Excellent... *rubs hands*

 

[Silellak]

As promised, my 13th and likely final (until someone dies) new player, Ratatosk!

Excellent... *rubs hands*

For the record, I think your drawings are far more impressive than my actual LP. Nevertheless, despite your obvious and annoying attempts at overshadowing me and all my hard work, I still greatly appreciate their addition.

 

[Brother None]

The problem I found against the Skaven is that the Dwarfs are, by nature, a low-scoring team, while it's quite possible for the Skaven to score 2 or even 3 times during a single half. All it takes is a few lucky rolls and suddenly you're facing a score deficit you can't hope to overcome. The best strategy is to murder as many Skaven as possible before that happens, but sometimes the block rolls turn against you. You seem to handle them pretty well with your Chaos team, at least.

Well, chaos teams can score faster than dwarfs, in an emergency.
The two-touch touchdowns still annoy the heck out of me, tho'. If you go back to my last playthrough against the skaven, you'll note they had two scoring opportunities, one stopped by a failed throw and the other by tentacles.

Honestly, since I rely on man coverage on gutter runners (that's to say, I put one single beastmen to cover every gutter, but don't pay special attention to blitzing them or taking them out) my game plan relies completely on holding the line (easy) and heavily blitzing the thrower, the latter of which has a high success rate since I have good blitzing specialists, but still has a good chance of failing as the thrower can just dodge his way out. So as a whole, my anti-skaven/general thrower strategy relies on luck for quite a good bit.

I've really noted that the more tackle and tentacles I grow the easier they become. Keep that in mind when facing higher-level chaos teams.

PS: I said it before but I'll say it again: your passing stats are on the low side. You're kind of underutilizing one part of the skaven gameplan, all because DU's terrible fumblitis scares you away from attempting passes?

PPS: Ratatosk's drawings are awesome.