Let's play Blood Bowl! (Update 15: Endzone)

Fresh page for more Blood Bowl updates!

Ulminati said:

A rock? A ROCK! A FUCKING FAGGOT OGRE THREW A MOTHERFUCKING BOULDER AT US! Mike Jahn takes it in the chest, and his collarbone is smashed. There is no apo, since FSM took all the morphine with him onto the pitch. I can not justify keeping a blitzer with both -ST and -AV, and it is with a bleeding heart I must release Mike from his contract. You fought bravely, son. Codexia is proud.

Click to expand...

.....

Fuck ogres.

We have 100k gold in the bank. Should we use it to hire a new blitzer, or to have extensive surgery performed on Mike Jahn to bring him back without injuries or skills in recognition of his brave sacrifices for our team?

Click to expand...

Hopefully I will get back on the field . To leave this LP from -just- an injury is degrading, Mike Jahn must die in the glory of a great battle.

Whoa, couldn't keep track of this because my PC died. Fantastic LP, great I'm still alive, hope I'll be of more help for the team in the coming matches.

We need an update

Couple of busy days. People seem to think I have nothing better to do than fix their shitty code. Update should be up n 3-4 hours.

Just gave the orcs 6 rerolls (bringing them to 8), the blitzters each got tackle+guard+mighty blow, and the troll got piling on+block+pro. Launching blood bowl now...

Nurgle must be furious. The greenskins, in spite of his generous gifts, proved entirely inadequate to the task set before them. The matches were perhaps the most one-sided in our teams short but glorious career. There weren't highlights per se during the matches, so I'll make todays update short and to the point.

Mike Jahn joined us after the team sunk 100.000gp into surgery. His injuries were gone, but so was much of his hard-earned knowledge. He was a blank slate - a Tabula Rasa if you will, and the team set to restoring him to his former glory posthaste.


The orcs had gotten several potent upgrades (150k Team Value more than us), but the AI proved entirely unable to manage them. When playing against a team with a higher movement speed, you need to position yourself carefully, lest the opposition simply runs past you. Alas, postioning (alongside blocking, throwing, defense, offense, time sense, stalling, caging or fouling) simply isn't the AI's forté.


One 0-5 walkover later, the greenskins were humiliated and went home to cry


We sustained a single badly hurt (Zappater got pummeled by a troll), managed a Smased hand, mss next game on a blitzer by Andyman Messiah and a pair of KOs thanks to Silellaks boot. Undead Phoenix BH'ed a Black Orc with a crowd surf. Sadly, we're not afforded SPPs for those. TDs for everyone, though Azira spent the entire match on the bench for lack of any squishies for his daggers.

Mike Jahn follows in Undead Phoenix'es footsteps. The last couple of matches have shown us how awesome AG5 is, and I predict great things in his future.


A juicy MVP pushed Silellak to the treshold, and he gains a new skill. Sneaky Git may keep him on the pitch slightly longer in the future.


Andyman Messiah levels up as well. Wrestle is the obvious choice. (Well, block is the obvious choice, but I'm not taking that skill in the hopes I'll be at least slightly challenged). Still, wrestle means fewer turnovers and less RRs wasted on frenzy





Next match was against goblins. Goblins. And they had no fanatic either. I rolled my eyes, increased *every* player on their teams ST by 1. Slapped block, guard, tackle and pro on the trolls and upped their rrs to 7. But honestly. Goblins.

We employed this tactic aganst them:


Silellak fouled a troll RIP, he got apo'ed to BH


Flying Spaghetti Monster kicked a goblin so hard, he took to the air and went splat upon landing


"Ripper" Bolgrot was taken out by a rock (but regenerated)


GarfunkeL earns the honorific "Troll Slayer" for a lovely Serious Injury with a permanent Strength reduction he imparted on the lumberng hulk


ComradeCommisar takes Ripper out again, this time his regeneration cannot save him


....And it's yet another walkover. 0-5. We dole out 6 casualties and 2 RIPs (though one got APOed). Honestly, the team we have right now could easily win the Blood Bowl.


Making for a sweet total of 33 SPPs to our team. Mike Jahn scores the teams first hattrick.

The 4 teams that made it to the playoffs. We're joined by Chaos All-Stars and Skavenblight Scramblers from the other group. I'll be aiming at a 300.000 TV difference for the next 2 matches.


Mike Jahn levels up again, and is back to the Team Value he held before his second injury


Undead Phoenix levels as well. He's quickly becoming an übermensch


Another double. Since his Stab will be less valuable against the AV8 and 9 temas we're going up against, I decided it's time for him to start doing regular blocks



...And that's pretty much it. The last 2 matches were by far the easiest in the teams history. Hopefully the playoffs will be more exciting.

Breaking news!

Apparently someone made a better AI for the game.

Linky!

I'll look into importing it into our campaign.

Good, reading updates of you complaining about how easy it is is getting really old.

Brother None said:

Good, reading updates of you complaining about how easy it is is getting really old.

Click to expand...

Yeah, reading back I do come across as a whiny little bitch. :/ I blame writing stuff over several hours while prepping and uploading screenshots along with a general lack of proofreading afterwards. I'll try to tone it down, since everything that needs to be said on that topic A) as already been said and B) Belongs in the Strategy Gaming forum more tan a LP thread.

I've managed to get the AI imported. The team progression tweaks requires a new campaign to be started, so I'll still be buffing opponents manually. The short test game I had seemed to be some improvement at least. The AI made less unnecessary GFIs. While its defensive positioning is still iffy, it's overall better at guarding the ball before attempting risky plays. It also seems to be better at selecting which players to block with (Block/MB chaos warriors before rookie beastmen). Finally, I haven't seen a single facepalm-worthy dodge. I thought I had one when it moved away from a shadowing player, but it turned out it actually used the ag4 two heads to lure my shadowing lino away to free another marked player.

The Litmus test is still going to be whether or not it moves its receivers away in turn 7. In the test game I had, the dice were too one-sided for it to have much of a chance to show its stuff. It's too early to say for sure, but first impressions are good.

Yay I am back to normal.

We need a good update with the new AI!

It'll be a day or two before I have time to sit down and play the next matches. Patience

new ai is a definite improvement so far, they block people out of tackle zones instead of trying stupid dodges, and I've so far only seen them do really stupid stuff(sending people deep into my territory when I have the ball close to their endzone, and charging through 3 tackle zones to block a guy they are next to) only when they've exhausted all possibility of regaining the ball

He'd better not try to steal my thunder, else I'll feed him to a Troll Slayer

Update incoming in an hour or so. Someone dies. Will it be one of ours? Only time will tell

Oh please Frith don't let it be me!

Finally got my lazy ass around playing this match. I've had around 5 glasses of whiskey tonight, so my game sense is a bit off. But hey, what's the worst that could happen?

Astute viewers may notice that we've played against these guys in a previous tournament. The main thing that held them back then was a lack of rerolls. Nurgle has rectified this in a big way, and they have been joined by a famous bard to make up for the untimely death of Trash in a game vs goblins. (Am I reading this right? Goblins? Strange things are afoot when AI plays AI).

I was momentairely tempted to spend some of our 340k in inducements on a spare apo and some bribes. But then I remembered we're too badass for that kind of popamole difficulty adjustment shit.

The Chaos All-Stars receiver has an AG of 4, a MA of 8, dodge, sure hands and two heads. He's basically a beefy gutterrunner on crack-cocaine. If he survives this match, we may just have to poach him for our lineup.


Kickoff!

The crowd are unable to contain themselves. Rioting all over the pitch sees half the players going down. Including, mercifully, most of our line of scrimmage. Cleve, Kaiserin and Defjam101 all have block, claw, mighty blow and tackle -- They friggin' hurt!

....As demonstrated by Cleve. His titanium bones shatters Brother Nones legs, and he goes down clutching the bloody remains of his knees!



We use the apothecary. Huge mistake! For a moment, I thought this were LRB4 rules, in which a niggling injury is a terrible, terrible handicap. In hindsight, I should've let Brother None run with the injury. LRB5 niggles are NOTHING compared to LRB4, in which they gave a 1 in 6 chance every game of the player being unavailable.



Meanwhile, a botched pickup roll from the All-Stars opens up an oppertunity for ComradeCommisar to blitz the carrier and take it to 1-0

























The Barbarian moves to secure the ball...


...But Aziras shadowing causes a turnover before the goats can defend him properly

Surprisingly intelligent cage setup. Initially, Elwro was going to mark Wartig. A 1d block from ComradeCommi would've opened the door for Mike Jahn to blitz the barbarian.


Further analysis of the scatter locations for the ball in the case of going out of bounds revealed Chaos were in a better position to recover it. So we went for a Cage Crumbler™ instead.


Zappater fails a go for it. Trips in his own bootlazes, and suffers a minor concussion. He'll wake up before next weeks match. Probably












nomask7 shows how they deal with suspected jews in the third reich. With apothecary wasted on Brother Nones knee, there is nothing we can do. You fought bravely, Azira. Codexia is proud


Since we've managed to get some receivers into the Chaos half, Mike Jahn decides it's time for the Barbarian to meet his fans



The scatter is practically a present for Flying Spaghetti Monster


Andy frees the ball


ComradeCommisar avenges Azira! Not content with knocking the furfag down, he shows the world why we wear spiked cowboy boots. A vicious stomp to the nether regions lets out a collective groan of agony from every single male spectator in the stadium.

No more for the goats. Gentlemen, ComradeCommisar just gave us a new signiature move. Learn from him.

FSM shares the with Mike Jahn


Resulting in a sweet 1-0 lead!

Halfway through the first half, and we're out of replacement players. These brave few eleven are all that's standing between the beautiful, chaste maiden that is Codexias honor, and the machete rape gangs of the furfag mutants.



anus_pounder puts his guard skill to good use, allowing Elwro to introduce himself to the Barbarian...

...resulting in a perfect scatter...

...Which allows ComradeCommisar to send the ball on to GarfunkeL!




GarfunkeL survives the blitz...

...Allowing FSM to get into the endzone to receive...



Chaos manage to end the half with 3 KOs, none of which wake up before halftime.


After a full half of being repeatedly punched in the face by Cleve, Brother None finally snaps and brings CowZilla down


Sillelak is quick to seize the initiative!

Through expert techniques taught to him by Shaolin monks, he manages to break several of Cleves titanium bones. Sadly, the All-Stars has a mechanic om hand. Cleve will return momentairely, once he has received spare parts


We need to score quickly for a chance for our KO'ed players to wake up. Flying Spaghetti Monster makes for the endzone...



anus_pounder hands off to Mike_Jahn...

...Who makes a sweet pass to FSM!



Only one of you wake up!


Cleve's rage continues unchecked. GarfunkeL called Grimoire popamole, resulting in massive butthurt. For GarfunkeL. Ouch.


Brother None sees the writing on the wall and fakes a knockout before I manage to send him in to distract a raging aussie nutter


ComradeCommisar lands a sweet uppercut on DefJam101, sending teeth and spittle flying


nomask7 continues his crusade against jews, tranny elves and horses.



We leave a gap in our defenses, hoping to lure the furfags into slipping up and exposing their carrier


As expected, a greedy shift allows ComradeCommisar to get intimate with a goat


The scatter is decent. FSM faces a 4+ pickup with rr. 75% success chance is acceptable.


Success! We can live with an inaccurate pass to anus_pounder, as we've screened him quite well. Everything but a 1 (fumbled pass) and we're golden





The Barbarian lets rip with a speed normally reserved for german tanks cruising through Poland



anus_pounder with a pass to ComradeCommisar sets the Commie up for a lovely blitz into range of the endzone


....Wait, what!? Butterfingers! Amateur! Shit, this is looking bad.

Is this how you repay the brave sacrifices of your BROs? You should be ashamed.


The furfags are, for some reason, hesitant to retreive the ball. There is a slight chance of redemption



....And it is intercepted by a rookie in 2 tackle zones.


Fortunately, Cleves spare parts were not bolted on correctly. In an embarrasing demonstration of engineering ineptitude, he loses a leg on the pitch in the middle of a blitz


Undead Phoenix blitzes ComradeCommisar free

...Allowing him to reach the endzone in the final turn of the match...

Mike Jahn prepares to end the game on a high note

BUTTERFINGERS!


The scatter is abysmal, allowing the Barbarian to pick it up and throw a long bomb


...And it's 3-2

All of our winnings are gone to spiraling expenses. But it's our first 20/20 match rating

Fraps didn't save the screenshot of the player stats screen

....And Flying Spaghetti Monster finally has his wish. Back on page 1, you wanted me to shape you into a Tough Guy. Here is your mighty blow. Revel in your badassery!

3-2 ? Looks better. Can't wait for the Orcs to make a comeback and the dwarfs to make an appearance.

So is the new AI a noticeable improvement, then?

Very awesome stuff.

Can't wait to see some more with the improved AI.

Wait, the apothecary result for BN was badly hurt but he came back in the second half to punch Cleve? What a badass. Or a bug.

I finally bought it! All emofag assassins should go that way, pounded into grime by a raging chaos warrior.

This thread just had massive
Please continue.


Oh, and no, apo fixing someone to "badly hurt" does result in said player returning to the game in the next kick-off. So if you're in the late parts of the game, haven't used your apo, you might be tempted to do so, even on a simple "badly hurt", if it means you can get your starplayer back on his feet for more face-grinding.

The final is going to be a rematch against orcland raiders. They still retain their Nurgle-granted gifts from before. Add in some new brains, and the fac tthat 3 of them apparently skilled in their last match vs. skaven, and we may be in for some hurting. Against other humans, orcs are by far one of the hardest matchups. From a baseline AV of 9, to an abundance of ag3 players, to 9 positionals with ST access, they are nearly unstoppable in the hands of a decent coach.

Looking at our opponents, they seem fairly heavy on Mighty Blow at the expense of guard. We may see a match in which Undead Phoenix makes like a wardancer and leaps into cages. It'll be quite exciting.

TV diff is 200k in the orcs favour. I'll leave them as-is and try to get the match done soonish. There's a lot of thunder outside atm, and I don't want to record half a match, only to have power failure mess everything up.

Moar update!