Let's Play Blood Bowl - Chaos Team

[Brother None]

Huzzah! Since Anthony Davis either died or had his evil Bethesda overlords call him back from playing foul "turn-based" (AKA "ancient, non-immersive, non-innovative") games, we'll pick up here for another Let's Play.

First Competition - The Clean Cup
Match 1 - Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Mittledorf Smashers (Human)
Match 2 - Grudge Bearers (Dwarf) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas
Match 3 - Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Warfire Wanderers (Skaven)
Playoffs Match 1 - Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Warfire Wanderers (Skaven)

Intermission

Second Competition - The Aerial Cup
Match 1 - Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Mittledorf Smashers (Human)
Match 2 - Grudge Bearers (Dwarf) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas
Match 3 - Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Noxious Nibblers (Skaven)
Playoffs Match 1 - Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Noxious Nibblers (Skaven)
Playoffs Match 2 - Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Grudge Bearers (Dwarf)

Third Competition - Orc-Toof Cup
Match 1: Slaanesh Seaskuas vs The Marauders (Human)
Match 2: Dwarf Anvils (Dwarf) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas
Match 3: Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Tunnellers (Skaven)
Playoffs Match 1: Slaanesh Seaskuas vs The Marauders (Human)

Fourth Competition - The Joy Cup
Match 1: Slaanesh Seaskuas vs The Forked Tongues (Lizardmen)
Match 2: Lowdown Rats (Goblin) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas
Match 3: Slaanesh Seaskuas vs The Lightning Leaves (Wood Elf)
Playoffs Match 1: Skavenblight Scramblers (Skaven) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas
Playoffs Match 2: The Dwarf Giants (Dwarf) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas

Fifth Competition - Creator Cup
Match 1: Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Lustria Croakers (Lizardmen)
Match 2: 'Alf Pint Punterz (Goblin) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas
Match 3: Slaanesh Seaskuas vs The Athelorn Avengers (Wood Elf)
Playoffs Match 1: Reikland Reavers (Human) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas
Playoffs Match 2: The Dwarf Giants (Dwarf) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas

Sixth Competition - Purity Cup
Playoffs Match 1 - Slaanesh Seaskuas vs Skavenblight Scramblers (Skaven)
Playoffs Match 2 - Reikland Reavers (Human) vs Slaanesh Seaskuas
Playoffs Match 3 - Slaanesh Seaskuas vs The Dwarf Giants (Dwarf)

I'm currently saving at 800x600 with a pretty low quality. It works well in the sense that the images are pretty small, but if you guys think I need to up the quality or resolution then I will...

Begin a campaign!

I'm playing a classic campaign, medium difficult. Anthony went over quite a lot of rules in his LP so, errr, I won't.

Except for a few reminders:
This is a basic gridiron game. You run or pass the ball until someone has it in possession in the opposition endzone. Touchdown. Whoever has the most wins.

The game is all about blocking. Blocking has 5 different results: blocker down (red skull), both down (red skull with yellow star), push (blue arrow), defender stumbles (yellow star with exclamation point) and defender down (yellow star). You never want blocker down, and both down is kind of sucky since it means a win for whoever has the block skills. Chaos teams start with no skills, so needless to say I really want a block skill.
Defender stumbles is the same as defender down, only if the defender has a dodge skill he can evade.

Every other test happens with normal 6-sided dice. Chances of success vary wildly. Going for it is a simple 2+ test. A long pass with no skills for it can be 5+ or 6+. Picking up the ball for my beast-men is a 3+ test, so a 2/3rd chance of success. Decent, but not great.

Every team has a certain value. If one team's value is greater, the other team will get the difference in cash to hire players, buy extra rerolls or bribe the ref. After every match individual players get Star Player Points, for deaths caused, TDs scores, catches made, etc. etc. SPPs eventually lead to level ups, which lead to skills or mutations. You'll see that when we get there.

Other than running and blocking, a number of things can be attempted only once per turn: picking up the ball, passing the ball, blitzing (which means running ánd attacking, normally you can do only one) and fouling (kicking a player who is down).

If you fail any criticial roll - and most rolls are critical rolls - you get a turnover, and it becomes your opponent's turn. Turnovers are frequent; they happen if a blocker goes down, if you fail to pick up the ball, if you fumble a pass, if you get knocked down when running, if you get sent off for a foul. Needless to say, it's key to know how to plan your actions, and make sure that the riskier ones come later.

The Slaanesh Seaskuas are ready to do some damage.

The roster. I didn't want to break the LP-noob tradition of naming the team after Codexers, but I don't really care about any of you individually, so I just went with whoever replied to my Who Should I Let's Play thread (assuming they actually had something to say)...

As you can see, we have no starting skills. The Minotaur has a few typical bash-em-in-the-face skills (Frenzy, which makes him follow-up on blocks, tough blow which makes him hit harder), but otherwise the only ones with skills are the beastmen having horns, which gives them +1 ST when blitzing. Ok I guess, but nothing to write home about. Getting skills in quick is a must, as the team currently has no specialists.

You can actually pick appearances a bit, and I did, so there's some differences between players, though it won't help you tell them apart. Normally no problem since you can turn on name displays in the match, but I kind of forgot.

I find it a bad idea to buy a big guy on an initial team, normally, but the Minotaur isn't prohibitively expensive, so I just swapped him for one Chaos Man.

I blew the rest of the money on <s>whores and alcohol</s>two rerolls and a single cheerleader.

The first match is against a bunch of stinking Hummies. Shouldn't be a big deal, only I kind of suck against passing teams. I had a few test-runs with chaos teams before I started this LP, and both matches against humans ended 1-1, BOTH WITH A TD FROM THE HUMMIES IN THEIR FINAL TURN. Let's hope the third time doesn't end as badly...

 

[Brother None]

First match!

On a bruising team it's often a good idea to kick rather than receive, as you can grind down the opposing team on their possession, but I'm a bit scared of the human TD acumen so I'll just receive instead.

The Wall is not a bad lineup if you're planning to just bash your way through and run it in. Attract center and strong blitz are also ok for that.

And WE'RE OFF! The game actually has some fun commentators, only they get really repetitive after a while.

Not much happened in our first turns so I skipped straight to this. I kind of failed to properly box up my guys and down plenty of humans, so they're putting in a pretty effective blitz on my runner (that's Monocause, I think)

I tried for a bit to make a route for my runner to escape from, but then it occurred to me that this was a bit stupid, and I should just slay the entire human line. First injury of the match, hopefully with many more to come.

If you see red dice, it means your opponent can pick the results. I usually don't try tackles in those situations, even at the end of the turn, but the AI sometimes will. Above we see a good example of why you shouldn't, as he tried to tackle a chaosman with a beastman and linebacker in his tackle zone. Obviously I picked blocker down, and that's a turnover.

With most humans eating dirt, Monocause has no problem running it in! Touch touch touch touch! Down down down down!

OMFG HAWT

Oh wow this is embarrassing. A full drive in and I only injured one opposing team player. That means they can still field a full team in their possession, and that means they're a threat to score.

This is what I like to call "weak side blitz", a slightly adapted version of normal weak side. I have guys on both edges ready to blitz, but the center is just holding the line and nothing more. There's four guys back for man coverage, but I'll usually move at least one into the center line or to assist the blitz. Consider it a kind of Tampa 2. Very good against passing teams, like humans or elves.

Two turns to go and I managed to blitz one chaos man into the interior of their defense. No surprise, their thrower takes off into the backline, with my blitzer chasing him. I CHARGE, AND...

...

Fuck. The runner escapes, and attempts a throw, but, well...

Ha-ha! Kinda lucked out there, tho', the dude at the bottom of the screen is in good position to score if he eludes the tackles (and he likely will)
Half time! Second half!

I kick-off (if you received in the first half you kick-off in the second, makes sense) and roll a nice event: Blitz! Everyone not in an enemy tackle zone gets a free move. I move a flew players around to cover and then try to blitz the left side, where the ball will land...

...Uh, ok. I know I shouldn't use a reroll here because it's not a vital attack but fuck that, I want to bullrush my way through and run my blitzer in their thrower's face. REROLL!!!!

...

...

This is what you gotta love and hate about Blood Bowl. The dice can really hate your ass, but then again it can be equally shitty for your opponent.

Moving on, their thrower picks up the ball and takes the center of the field. Honestly, their tactics is allright, but they're not thinking ahead enough. What are they doing wrong?

's right. Leaving one linebacker to cover two chaos men is stupid. I knock him over with childish ease, and let my free chaos man blitz the thrower. Throwers have low strength, so even on his own he gets two dice. Do you feel another FFFFUUUU coming?

Nope! Ill timed screenshot, but it was a picture perfect knockout.

It doesn't take me long to move kingcomrade in position. I've been pretty lucky on pick-up rolls, though I had to reroll the first one, and he's in perfect scoring position. However, my turn is over here, and the humans manage to box me in right quick.

What's worse, on the other side of the field they actually manage to injure Rabidredneck. Nothing permanent, but seriously kind of embarrassing to be manhandled by humans this way.

Revenge is so, so sweet. Gouged his eye out, in fact, and that'll bother him for a while.

Another human knocks himself out attempting a block, which leaves a linebacker and a thrower to cover 3 beastmen and one chaosman...

Yeah right

Ding-dong!

kingcomrade runs it in for a score!

Looking better but still an understaffed injury ward by chaos standards.

By this point I more or less won the match, as few teams can score 2 times in 4 turns. Still, it helps that I lucked out on my kickoff and pinned it into their redzone.

An...interesting way to end your turn, humans. You bunch of ninnies.

I managed to get a beastman in the face of the thrower. I tried following with a chaosman but he knocked himself out while going for it (going for it means running over your movement allowed to a maximum of 2 squares, you have to roll 2 or higher each time you do so you'll usually make it, but every now and again you'll fumble it)

The thrower escapes my blitz, attempts a pass, and...

Seriously, you guys suck.

Just to see if I could make matters worse for the human, I have SerratedBiz try to pick up the ball to run it in. A risky move; he has to dodge two blocks, attempt a pick-up and probably roll two goings for it. He dodges the first block and succeeds in the pickup, but...

Hmmm. Too bad. As you can see, even if he goes for it (the green squares with dice in it), he'll end up one step short for a TD. Spent the rest of the last turn kicking some humans in the groin, and that's the game...

Victory! Team stats!

I really wish they'd put some logic in the MVP, it's kind of lame this way.

As you can see, I caused 2 injuries and 3 KOs. Really, really weak. In fact, the entire game was played more like a skill team than a basher team, but hey, I won and that's what counts. The injury dice were kind of against me the whole game (though humans have decent armor so they're not incredibly easy to injure), but I had some damn good luck with him fumbling both his passes. They were both pretty tough, long passes, but he might have made 'em and it'd have been a tie rather than a win.

I blew the entire 80000 of winnings on cheerleaders, because I know that's how you guys would've wanted it.

To be continued!

 

[OSK]

The random MVP is a carry over from the table top game where there's really no objective way to choose the recipient of 5 SPP. But they should include an option, in the blitz mode at least, to actually give it to the best performing player.

 

[WetWorks]

Lookin' good.
More...

 

[GarfunkeL]

Cheerleaders! :fap:fap:fap:fap:

 

[Ogg]

The random MVP is a carry over from the table top game where there's really no objective way to choose the recipient of 5 SPP. But they should include an option, in the blitz mode at least, to actually give it to the best performing player.

Random MVP is also a good way to spread the experience points. It's quite useful with teams like chaos wihich, at the very beginning, have absolutely no skills or with some units like throwers who get only 1 SPP by pass.

 

[Mantiis]

I gots a question about the minotaur - I tend to not have him on the line of scrimmage but just behind the line so that his first turn is a blitz, this means that he only fails on a 1. It also means he usually breaks the line on the first turn. Is this a bad strategy? I fail to see what bonus there is to having him on the front line right at the start apart from the whole 'that's where you are supposed to put the big guy for all races...' attitude.

Thoughts?

 

[Ogg]

I gots a question about the minotaur - I tend to not have him on the line of scrimmage but just behind the line so that his first turn is a blitz, this means that he only fails on a 1. It also means he usually breaks the line on the first turn. Is this a bad strategy? I fail to see what bonus there is to having him on the front line right at the start apart from the whole 'that's where you are supposed to put the big guy for all races...' attitude.

Thoughts?

The minotaur has got Horns, so using Blitz is quite logical, I guess. Most teams have their Big Guys on the Front line since it's their strongest and most armored unit, but Chaos teams have Chaos Warriors to build their first wall.

That being said, you only have one blitz per turn and you may not want to use it in such a predictable way.

I find it a bad idea to buy a big guy on an initial team, normally, but the Minotaur isn't prohibitively expensive, so I just swapped him for one Chaos Man.

I think buying a Minotaur was a pretty good idea. In most teams, Big Guys are idiots and can spend several turns doing nothing you ordered for they didn't understand the orders. Minotaurs aren't idiots, they're feral beasts and are quite delighted to run and fight (strength of 5 plus 1 thanks to horns when they use Blitz). Thus they'll rarely refuse your orders if you ask them to Block.[/quote]

 

[SerratedBiz]

w00t. It's pretty cool to see my name in there, too bad I couldn't score a TD though.

On the other hand, Chaos looks like they're very big on the bashing side, so why so few of the Warriors? Is there a limit to them or did you run out of money with the minotaur?

Edit: Just read about the minotaur for one Chaos man part. Still, is there a limit to how many Warriors you can have in one team? I read somewhere there are limits to how many of a certain position you can play with.

 

[kingcomrade]

kingcomrade wins again

They key to winning Blood Bowl is to have a kingcomrade on your team.

 

[HanoverF]

Limit of 4 Chaos Warriors.

The Minotaur can either block or blitz on a roll >1, so it's not really necessary to hold him back. Plus he can assist at the line so your warriors or beastmen can try to clear out the guys and leave him to blitz someone deeper in the other teams zone. I usually prefer not to blitz with the Minotaur cause if I roll a 1 (which happens too often, shit rng is shit) no one else can blitz.

If you hit N a couple times it will show the names in the screenshots, so we can cheer when kingcomrade gets decapitated. (This does make selecting players very fucking finicky though)

 

[Mantiis]

The Minotaur can either block or blitz on a roll >1, so it's not really necessary to hold him back. Plus he can assist at the line so your warriors or beastmen can try to clear out the guys and leave him to blitz someone deeper in the other teams zone. I usually prefer not to blitz with the Minotaur cause if I roll a 1 (which happens too often, shit rng is shit) no one else can blitz.

No he blitzes on > 1 but only blocks on 4-6 which is why I have him off to the right of scrimmage. He also has a tentacle to prevent faggot elves from dodging past him. I don't always blitz with him but if i need to then i do.

 

[Brother None]

Edit: Just read about the minotaur for one Chaos man part. Still, is there a limit to how many Warriors you can have in one team? I read somewhere there are limits to how many of a certain position you can play with.

There's always a limit of 16 players. You can have 1 minotaur, 4 chaos men, 11 beastmen.

My next team purchase will be a chaosman. When I say "swapped" I just mean I didn't want to buy an a minotaur and 4 chaos men, as it'd leave me short on funds to buy rerolls. And you need rerolls as a chaos team.

I went for "just fieldable" with 11 players since you need to have 11 players at kickoff. But you'll notice I haven't made any fouls, because that'd mean having to play with 10 when the dude's sent off. I'll foul up more later, it's fun.

The Minotaur can either block or blitz on a roll >1, so it's not really necessary to hold him back. Plus he can assist at the line so your warriors or beastmen can try to clear out the guys and leave him to blitz someone deeper in the other teams zone. I usually prefer not to blitz with the Minotaur cause if I roll a 1 (which happens too often, shit rng is shit) no one else can blitz.

If you hit N a couple times it will show the names in the screenshots, so we can cheer when kingcomrade gets decapitated. (This does make selecting players very fucking finicky though)

I know, I just forgot for this game.

And yeah, while I do like the Minotaur and he seems more reliable than most big 'uns, I still prefer having him wrestle the opposition big'un on the line. Holding the line is key to a good blitz.

No he blitzes on > 1 but only blocks on 4-6 which is why I have him off to the right of scrimmage. He also has a tentacle to prevent faggot elves from dodging past him. I don't always blitz with him but if i need to then i do.

No. He blocks or blitzes at a 2+. Any other action, like getting up, moving to another position, or whatever, take a 4+ roll (or was it 5+). Block or blitz is 2+. It's in the description of his wild animal skill.

 

[Mantiis]

Wild Animals are uncontrollable creatures that rarely do exactly what a coach wants of them. In fact, just about all you can really rely on them to do is lash out at opposing players that move too close to them! To represent this, immediately after declaring an Action with a Wild Animal, roll a D6, adding 2 to the roll if taking a Block or Blitz Action. On a roll of 1-3, the Wild Animal does not move and roars in rage instead, and the Action is wasted.

Fuck, failed my comprehension roll.

 

[Shuma]

Yeah, there are few reasons to put a Mino behind the lines. Although the Horns bonus is nice, it isn't usually necessary. You risk a 16% chance of losing your blitz for little extra benefit. Loner and no block makes the roll unnecessarily risky as well. Though, it is sometimes nice to blitz an opposing Big Guy or Deathroller using Horns to get the extra STR to take them out. However, usually it's best to blitz with your beasties since the 4 STR will allow a 2D block in most situations.

 

[headache]

Last night I just learned that replays, including for multiplayer, are automatically saved and viewable under One Player -> Load -> Replay. If you didn't know I imagine it's handy for screenshots.

Also, I can rewatch when I kicked off to the Orcs in MP with only 7 Skaven on the field and made a TD in three turns. Made a gateway along the right edge for my 1 Gutter Runner who managed to pick up the ball first and force-pass it to the left corner. I was up 1-0, and I was just trying to keep the ball away. Trying to pick it up, they failed to Go For It (no rerolls). My GR dodged away from the one guy on him, picked it up again, and scored. He passed it to himself! (Blood Bowl Fever: Catch it!)

 

[Brother None]

Second match!

The second one is the one most people tend to fear in a campaign - against the dwarfs. Dwarfs are one of the three teams I had a test match against (together with humans and wood elves) and I did pretty well, as long as I didn't try engaging them in a battle of brawn.

A friendly warning, my own experience is that you'll be staring at this screen...a lot. The loading times in this game are pretty annoying sometimes, though it runs smoothly otherwise.

I got to call the toss and went for heads. No luck, so they're the receiving team. I went for the Wall formation, that I used offensively against the humans, as I find it works well both offensively and defensively against basher teams.

The kick landed the ball pretty close to the 50-yard line, which can be good or bad. In this case it's good, as the dwarf runner failed his pick-up roll, causing a turnover and giving me the opportunity to blitz for the ball.

First death! Vortexx knocked one of the dwarfs over so hard, his head came flying off! Hazard of the trade, ya lil' runt.

An effective blitz by HanoverF and good deconstructing of the middle line on, and we've got a clear path to the ball.

Got it! Only...his position kind of sucks, if I just let him stand there he's guaranteed to be down next turn. So...I try to run it back behind the line.

D'oh. Oh well, still guarding the ball.

The first things the dwarves do is try and pick up the ball. Normally a runner should do well here, he has a 3+ chance and a reroll thanks to his sure hands skill. Only it does become a 4+ chance because he's trying it right next to one of my own guys. Still, dwarves had some incredibly bad luck on these rolls.

A few headknockings later Vortexx picks up the ball and is safely behind the line. Notice the way my guys are lined up in the center of the field, two beastmen, a chaosman and a minotaur against two troll slayers. Should be ok, right?

Guess again. And with me constantly needing my blitz elsewhere, Jim Cojones pretty much spends the rest of this half taking a prolonged nap, due to failing Wild Animal rolls

I decide it's time to grab luck by its balls, and just twist to see if something good comes out. The slowness of dwarves is really a weakness you need to exploit, so rather than try to box out of their holding move I'm just moving Vortexx across the field. Should be ok, it's just two going for it rolls...

Oh Goddammit.

And that's it for kingcomrade, he'll be recovering one the sideline the rest of the possession. Injuries are rare with high-armored teams, but if you play headknockers you still should expect one or maybe even two. That's why it kind of sucks that I only have 11 players, as the injury means I could be fielding 10 next drive. Should be ok as I took out a few of them, too.

Miracle on miracles, Vortexx gets up, knocks over the ballcarier and picks up the ball. Smooth. I moved the chaosman Shuma in for extra muscle in the hope that Vortexx wouldn't be knocked down next turn.

Here's a bit of typical randomness from the AI. If you're blitzing a thrower team and got possession of the ball deep in their territory, wood elves and humans will still position receivers in your half. That's ok, in my opinion, because it means they can capitalize on turnovers. But dwarves?! What the heck, guys?

Sadly, the dwarven box-in move is painfully efficient. The havoc wreaked in the middle line even allows them to move troll slayers in, and they're nasty lil' fuckers.

And one of the blockers headbutts Vortexx in a kind of casual, disinterested way. Fuck you, too.

Wanting to push their advantage, the dwarves blitz in a new blocker, Skragni. He has one going for it roll before he hits Hanover and...fumbles it. Thanks, guys. I would've used a reroll there considering the half is almost over, but not the dwarves, apparently.

Even if I don't manage to run that damned thing in, at least I have it boxed up nicely, and they're not taking it anywhere. Also, notice how I'm blitzing Jim Cojones? He still failed his wild animal check.

Notice how on the right side of the field SerratedBiz and rabidredneck are pinning two dwarves to the sidelines. Rabidredneck is about to knock one of them down to give Biz a free shot at the other one, knocking that dwarf out of the field, leading to one of my favourite bits in Blood Bowl.

FAN MAYHEM!

Monocause has the ball! For about a turn, as he soon gets blitzed and knocked down again.

That dwarf then gets knocked down by Vortexx. This is the essence of tough grind play; if you haven't got enough coverage, holding possession for more than one turn can be tough enough.

Vortexx fails to pick up the ball. Boooooo!

And their...Trollslayer picks it up? Weirdness, but ok. I have one chance left to score, if I knock down the trollslayer, pick up the ball and run it in. I move in rabidredneck for support, so I have two dice against the dude, and...

Yeah. Typical.

Halftime! Kingcomrade actually manages to get back up again, giving us a numerical edge (of one). This is exactly why injuries can be game-changers, by the way, cause enough and you leave your opponent helpless.

In the second half they kicked the ball very nicely, deep in my left field. They immediately follow up with a somewhat awkward strong side blitz, and move to try to take the middle of the line apart...

Here's why you have to hate dwarves. I have superior strength, so I get to pick the dice. Normally an insta-win, even if it's both down I at least get a turnover out of it. No such luck against dwarves, both these results fuck me over.

Luckily, they try the same thing on the left side right after, only there one of my options is blocker down. Good.

"He made picking that ball up look easy!"

Obviously, I'm not engaging their left side blitz. I left two guys to take the knocks there, effectively destroyed their center line (good luck there), blitzed the right side and had Ogg follow with the ball. Looking good.

It's good to have you back, Jim.

At this point I'd normally feel pretty secure, but dwarves are hardy fuckers. They're not fast enough to catch up with Ogg in one turn, but as you can see even one dwarf can put together a good blitz. The troll slayer's "dauntless" skill means he can roll to ignore the opponent's superior strength, and this one uses it to down rabidredneck.

Thank God.

Not taking any chances here, so I just have Ogg punch it in first thing in the turn.

Booyah! Where's my sharpie?

Next turn, here's a typical strategy I use. If I just want to hold them off rather than build an effective attack, I'll blitz people deep and just hope it'll delay them at least a turn. It usually does.

Last move of last turn. *sigh* Typical. I so need block skills.

Results! A middling rating, but plenty of carnage, with 2 KOs, 3 casualties and 1 death total. Measly numbers, but not bad for armored teams. You can also see the dwarves made more than me, not sure why that is, but their fan factor went down and mine went up. Fan factor is really important in certain kickoff events, which can be pretty deadly.

Not sure how they calculate occupation per half. I'm pretty sure the only time they touched my half was with that one blitzer running around, I had them pinned in their half the entire match. But they probably just mean where the ball is, and it did spend a bit of time on my half, especially in the second half. Still, kept 'em pinned well

Stats! Good job on the kill, Vortexx, but it's OldSkoolKamikaze's MVP that pushes him to a level-up

Chaos men need to throw double for passing or agility skills, but I'm really looking for general, strength and mutation anyway, and they're up for all of those.

Here's what I picked. I said I needed the block skill and yeah, honestly, that's what I should've picked, but I couldn't resist putting in one mutation for the start, and tentacle seems like a handy one for people holding the line, though I'm not sure about that description: is that a STR test on top of an AGI test, a STR test replacing the AGI test, or a STR or AGI test depending on which one is lower?

If anyone has any advice on mutations, please provide.

Oh yeah. All the ladies love 'em some OldSkoolKamikaze!

Standings. We're in group 1 in an 4-team competition. The regular season is a bit pointless in a 4-team competititon since we'll all meet again the playoffs, but it's a good time to earn points and money.

The Hummies are doing pretty bad, they got beat by the Skavens, which is exactly the team we'll be up against next.

I picked up an infirmary. They're usually a bit unnecessary for heavily armored teams, but if someone gets killed or heavily injured it's nice to have one available. Infirmaries basically allow you to reroll injury rolls once, turning permanent injuries into just missing one game.

 

[OSK]

Oh yeah. All the ladies love 'em some OldSkoolKamikaze!

Fuck yeah they do. This game is surprisingly accurate.

 

[krbkkr]

Good read.

I have some concerns about the long-term appeal of the single player game though. It looks like the AI's stupidity could be predictable enough to be exploited fairly quickly.

Does the single-player campaign mode have leagues or is it an endless cycle of cup tournaments?

 

[Shuma]

From da rulebook:

TENTACLES
The player may attempt to use this skill when an opposing player
attempts to dodge or leap out of any of his tackle zones. Each coach
rolls a D6 and adds their player’s ST value to the score. The opposing
player adds 1 to his result. If the result for the tentacled player is higher
than the final result of the moving player, then the moving player is held
firm, and his action ends immediately. If a player attempts to leave the
tackle zone of several players that have the Tentacles ability, then only
one of the opposing players may attempt to grab him with the tentacle.


I prefer Prehensile Tail against the dodge-happy CPU, but both are good.

 

[Rabidredneck]

My Chaos Warrior hasn't done much but fall down so far, perhaps a couple sacrifices to the Dark Gods might be in order?

I think I'll hang around the dwarf bar tonight, see if a couple 'vounteers' come stumbling out....

 

[Brother None]

I have some concerns about the long-term appeal of the single player game though. It looks like the AI's stupidity could be predictable enough to be exploited fairly quickly.

Does the single-player campaign mode have leagues or is it an endless cycle of cup tournaments?

A number of tiered cup tournaments in campaign mode, I'll show you the map next time I get there (after this cup). You can also do a competition or a one-off match.

I'm also a bit worried about the challenge level, but I remember winning some with my dwarves early on too before getting pwned in the 2nd or 3rd cup. We'll see. It's kind of odd challenge-wise because you can get really frustrated early on as you're still dealing with the steep learning curve. But yeah, some limit in the AI keeps it from remaining a challenge indefinitely.

I can't say I've found any exploits so far, tho'. Just some random oddness in the way they play, at times.

I prefer Prehensile Tail against the dodge-happy CPU, but both are good.

Huh. It does read like Prehensile Tail is better. I'll probably pick those for my other chaosmen when the time comes.

Still, at least this way I can make plenty of tentacle rape jokes when it's time to face the wood elves.

I really should be going for block, sure hands and kicker (I like the skill) in my next few level-ups. What other mutations are good, tho'? I like the looks of extra arms for my runner. Same for foul appearance which should make him hard to down. Is Claw any good? Its description is a bit nebulous.

My Chaos Warrior hasn't done much but fall down so far, perhaps a couple sacrifices to the Dark Gods might be in order?

I think I'll hang around the dwarf bar tonight, see if a couple 'vounteers' come stumbling out....

That's not true! You...uh...got injured in the first match...oh yeah...
(edit: actually, you and SerratedBiz did pretty well on the right side of the field, stomping the few dwarves foolish enough to stay there, during the first possession, aruond turns 4-7)

By the way, someone help me figure out the statlines - number - Most Valuable Player - Touchdowns - Passes completed - Receptions - IT? (interception?) - Deaths caused - Casualties caused - KOs caused - TC? (turnover caused?) - Yards Passing - Yards Running - Injuries Taken - Knock Outs taken - IT? (intercepted passes?) - Tackles (taken?) - Star Player Points

That it? And every one of those is worth a set number of points (5 for MVP, 3 per TD, 1 per pass, etc) and those are added up and dealt out? I don't get why Vortexx gets 2 points for a death, casualtie and turnover caused, while HanoverF *also* gets two points with only a casualty, turnover caused and tackle suffered to his name.

(should really just read the manual but redding is teh hard)

 

[krbkkr]

According to the tabletop rules, you only get SPPs for these:

Pass completed: 1 SPP
Casualty caused: 2 SPP
Interception: 2 SPP
Touchdown: 3 SPP
MVP: 5 SPP

So perhaps some skills to help your chaps inflict much-desired casualties could be useful for levelling (and would be funny to see as well), e.g. mighty blow, claw

 

[HanoverF]

Prehensile tail is crap, maybe if all your players had it, it would be better, but as it is, against dodge happy teams like wood elves and skinks prehensile tail is useless.

You only get SPP for touchdowns, casualties, passes, interceptions, and MVP. Don't get extra spp for the casualty being a death, or if they use apothacary and it sends the player to the sidelines.

 

[Brother None]

Huh. Makes sense on the point scoring, but again kind of sucks. But that's classic rules for you, they could implement a much complexer XP system now.

So perhaps some skills to help your chaps inflict much-desired casualties could be useful for levelling (and would be funny to see as well), e.g. mighty blow, claw

Was planning to. Still waiting for someone to explain claw to me, and any other mutations that help injure players. Or is claw = serrated claw, the one WetWorks1 suggested?

Two heads probably looks cool, but is it any good?