Warpstone Avengers

[Dreamy]

On 2017-12-01 at 12:35 PM, Borke said:

 

Next up is Hench Gobbo #4, a fine specimen, as he rolled a double! I'm already pretty sure this is going to be Dirty Player. Underworld needs this extra threat on the pitch in order to keep stronger or more agile opponents from exerting too much pressure.

 With no cheap bribes and easy access to stuff like two heads and horns or big hand, doubles would seem to be more suited for wrestle, strip ball or sure hands.

 

As a first, wrestle to allow strip ball or tackle on a double, two heads and horns on singles, might be nicer than just giving a good gobbo a free ticket to the sin bin.

[Borke]

So, the second season has started for the Warpstone Avengers, and they've already played two match days.

 

MD1: I tried to forget this affair as quickly as possible. On paper I felt like a favourite to Microcuchon's Chaos, with my Claw/MB and three MB in total, as well as better movement and equal ball handling skills (Micro has a +AG Goat). But in the actual match, I could not put a dent in their armor, and the Chaos passing game was on point, leading to a 1-2 defeat. No casualties on our side, fortunately, while Microcuchon suffered a dead Loner Goat.

 

MD2: This match was played last night, and it appears as if the team had something to prove, and Nuffle was trying to make up for the recent bad luck he had bestowed upon me, because against Accu's Bullsh*t Bingo (Pro Elves), I could do nothing wrong, while for Accu everything went wrong. For one thing, the tentacles of The Huh-lk for the first time did something - I think in the end Accu only managed to get away twice, out of 8 or 9 attempts. For another thing, my players only had to look at Accu's players funny, and they removed them from the pitch; final tally: 6 KOs, 2 stat injuries and 1 death (while we suffered 1 KO total). I even managed to farm a pass on a Gobbo. It was still a very enjoyable because @Accu was a great sport about it and continued to go after the ball in even the most dire situations (one time even succeeding). End result: 2-1 for the Avengers!

 

Which brings us to now, and the conundrum of player/team development, again. I got two levels from the match, a Gobbo (normal roll, so Two Heads) and the second Thrower. As you may remember, my first Thrower got a Niggle to go with his Extra Arm. I kept him on, because I like having that ball handling safety early on - gives me the peace of mind to do blocks first, pickup later, and allows for easier vanity pass farming. My plan was to replace him once the second Thrower levels, so he can then take Extra Arm. However, the second Thrower went and rolled ... 5+5. The ultimate headache.

 

Now I have to answer two questions: What do I give to this Thrower? And do I replace the niggled Thrower, now my new Thrower has leveled but probably doesn't get Extra Arm?

 

As for what to give a Thrower on 5+5 as a first skill, I don't think there's an abvious right answer. +MA is tempting, the extra range can be very useful indeed. MB is a great skill, since Underworld Throwers can get both Claw and Block on normal rolls. I've got a Thrower built as a killer on another Underworld team of mine, and overall he has performed well for me. I could get Guard, which is never wrong, even on a player that is most likely handling the ball - if the opponent bases the BC, Guard makes it easier to blitz/block him free. But Guard doesn't get me excited. The final double I'm considering is Dodge - Blodge is a classic ball carrier setup, and with Two Heads he could eventually be quite mobile. On the other hand, though, if you have extra range with +MA, perhaps you don't need the mobility as much.

 

I think I'm currently leaning towards +MA. Which leaves the question of the niggled Thrower: keep or replace? I think I need to replace him now, otherwise I'm waiting another 3-4 matches, during which he might soak up SPP.

[Mongloom]

On 8/1/2018 at 1:31 PM, Borke said:

I think I'm currently leaning towards +MA. Which leaves the question of the niggled Thrower: keep or replace? I think I need to replace him now, otherwise I'm waiting another 3-4 matches, during which he might soak up SPP.

You must keep the thrower out of danger anyways so, if you are in doubt, dont do it and keep him. They use to die someday... 

 

Every decision you take on the 5+5 lelvel up would be the good one, no mistake is possible!

[Borke]

So, update time again!

 

I went with +MA on the second Thrower, and decided to also keep the niggled Extra Arm Thrower around for the time being.

 

MD3 was against a very mean-looking Orc team, coached by Durrun. And if the team name didn't give away their strategy ("Smash 1st, Win Later"), their skill choices and behaviour on the field certainly did: Three MB/Tackle Blitzers and two Dirty Player Linemen. The match was painful, and I don't know too many details of it any more, but I do know this: We suffered 7 KOs and 5 casualties, yet we still managed to squeeze a 1-1 tie out of this game. Oh and the Troll got a -MA, so he was promptly fired...

 

This was of course a setback, it's always slow business, leveling up a new Troll. But on the other hand, a new Troll means a new change to get Block, so we soon forgot about The Huh-lk and welcomed Tiny.

 

MD4 was then against ZioCino's Star Ratz (a Skaven team, of course). Or, a more accurate description would be: It was a match between the Warpstone Avengers (with the help of Glart and Skitter) and Jabba The Ratz - a +ST/Claw/Guard Rat Ogre monster. ZioCino used him aggressively, and with good reason, cause he easily prevented me from putting together a solid offense, by blocking/blitzing the Rat Ogre into my lines again and again, while being rather difficult to knock down at ST6. Somehow, though, we held on to the ball, and slowly we were reducing the numbers of the Skaven team, until eventually we put together enough strength to remove Jabba The Ratz from the match completely (MNG). ZioCino of course still had the Gutter Runners, but at least now I was firmly in control of the bash game. So bash we did, for a total of 6 casualties and 2 KOs given, one of which was a dead Linerat, aptly named Jar Jar Ratz. In the end, we even managed to steal the ball, and then steal it again, for a 3-0 victory at the final whistle - definitely not the result I expected from this match. Big thanks to @ZioCino, who was a great sport about it all!

 

Oh and did I say before that Trolls level up slowly? Well, not Tiny. He managed to get 3 casualties in his very first match. Unfortunately once again no double, so this time I went with Guard. I think I will need the block opportunities more than the pitch control in the coming matches.

 

And finally Dr. Weevil also leveled, and took Claw to go with his MB/+AG. I briefly considered other skills, such as Tackle (of which I only have 1 so far) or Frenzy (with +AG he can dodge away more easily to avoid getting trapped), but in the end I decided that I still want my Blitzers to be bruisers mainly - the +AG just means that occasionally Dr. Weevil can do stuff with the ball, as well

[C2MC]

Quote

Jar Jar Ratz is Dead!

[Borke]

MD5 we played against @TomasT's Nurgle side, [OCC] Game of Groans. He came in at 1530 TV to our 1430, so we induced Fez (at 50k, playing at home) and a babe. The Nurgle team was pretty non-bashy (for Nurgle), with only two MB pieces on top of the BoN, and none of them had Block. With 3 Guard and all his ST4 pieces, though, he obviously had the strength advantage over me, so all of my bashing would have to come in hit and run manner.

 

First half TomasT received and executed a perfect turn 8 score. There was very little resistance I could put up, as he was removing players at an alarming rate - by the time he scored, I was down to 5 or 6 players on the pitch. For our turn 8, we were only able to field 10 players, which unfortunately meant that Fez would have only one glorious turn on the pitch - which he spent knocking one Pestigor over, and that was it.

 

However, TomasT had only brought 12 players himself, and since I managed a few removals myself, I wasn't terribly outnumbered to start the second half. Unfortunately, that didn't last very long, yet again, and we got bogged down at the LOS for quite a while. In the end I could mount a desperate escape down the right side, with a token screen of 3-4 players supporting the advance. TomasT couldn't get to the ball carrier, but he could easily blitz the screen and then mark the BC, which left me with no choice but to risk the 3+ dodge away to score, without a reroll remaining. The dodge succeeded and I counted myself lucky to be tied 1-1 at this point. The Game of Groans had 2 turns remaining to score, numbers were about even, but then a perfect defense for once helped the Underworld team (generally, I can never take real advantage of this), because TomasT had set up heavy to one side, and we were able to hinder that advance. We took out one scoring threat and marked as well as screened the other one as much as possible. TomasT needed, I believe, a 4+, 4+, push or better on 2d, 4+, 4+, 3+, 2+ to score with team RR - and got as far as the last 4+ before the sequence failed.

 

It was a very tense match, in which I was ultimately lucky to get a draw, but also felt it was deserved because of the avalanche of removals I overcame (suffering 8 KOs and 2 casualties). My two killers were rather ineffective, only coming into swing in the second half with overall 3 casualties (one dead Rotter, one BH Perstigor, one -AV Warrior that regened). The match was still very enjoyable, cause I never felt like I was completely out of it.

 

Post match, we have 3 new levels: The MB/Claw Blitzer rolls a normal and will probably take Tackle, the +MA Thrower rolls a normal and will probably take Extra Arm (so I can replace the niggled Thrower), and the Wrestle Linerat also rolls a normal, and I'm not sure what to get, yet. I could go for Horns, which would put him into the sweeper role, but that's already the intended role for the Wrestle/Tackle Linerat. I could take Tackle again, to have redundancy, as Linerats tend to get removed. Or I could take Two Heads, cause you can never have too much mobility, and my Linerats definitely don't want to get stuck in a crowd.

[Borke]

A very brief preview of our next match against Lavajackal's Wrath of the Lich King 2 (Undead). We are getting around 100k in inducements against them - I'm torn between multiple things. They've got one MB/Tackle piece, which of course represents a danger, but it's their only Tackle piece. I don't know if the expected removals warrant an extra apo, or two babes, or if I should rather spend the inducement money offensively: a bribe, an extra reroll, or splash some of my own money to get a wizard?

 

In any case, the matchup looks ok to me, only one Tackle as mentioned, and I have two Tackle pieces, including one Wrestle/Tackle, to deal with his Ghouls. One Mummy has Stand Firm, one has Break Tackle, which could present problems (both have Guard). And Lavajackal has his own Dirty Player, of course, which could me more than mine could hurt his players. His stadium enhancement is the "Security Area", which cancels the riot and pitch invasion events???

 

Match is tonight, so wish me luck!

[wismerhill]

good luck!

[Borke]

So, I still owe everyone some updates!

 

The match against Lavajackal's Undead went reasonably well. I went with a babe + Bomber Dribblesnot in the end. Dribble didn't really accomplish much, but he provided a nice distraction for one drive! In the end I had to settle for a 1-1, which I'll take most days, especially if it comes at the cost of only one MNG. Our score was relatively safe, I couldn't really do much against their score, and the TTM one-turner didn't work.

 

Match day 7 has also already been played, against @Doulen's Sliasthorp Salmons, a human squad. This one looked rather painful on paper, with them having three Tackle pieces (fortunately all without MB). Turns out the match was pretty tame on both sides, with me having the slight edge (4 KOs, 2 cas vs. 1 KO, 1 cas; most KOs came back or happened late). In the first half, I managed to pressure the humans into scoring on turn 7, leaving me 2 turns to equalize, which again worked (two heads for the win). Second half it was our drive, and we were outnumbering the humans by this time. Additionally, several of them decided to play with the Troll, which left most of my team free to run around and into a comfortable scoring position, screened heavily on turn 15. Apparently it wasn't quite heavy enough, cause his Block/Dodge Thrower decided to dodge like a madman, making I believe several 6+ dodges to get to the BC, then rolling double pows on the 2d uphill block, making GFIs and another 4+ dodge, 4+ pickup - to then stand against the sideline, so that when I blocked him on my turn 16, I'd risk the ball going OOB and being thrown somewhere I couldn't reach. I got a Wrestle on him, but then the ball indeed bounced out - but the throw-in was reachable for my +AG Blitzer, so we were able to score 2-1. Doulen decided to only punch Gobbos a bit on his final turn, so we won!

 

Next week is an admin win, which means we will go into MD9 at 4-3-1, facing razta's Halfling replacement team. I hate Halflings...

[C2MC]

10 minutes ago, Borke said:

I hate Halflings...

A rogue Block by a Treeman kills your Warpstone Troll. You thought long and hard about whether or not to put him on the line but you figured Regeneration would save you if it came to that. Well, it didn't. Another Troll bites the dust.

Your Claw-Blitzers keep hitting the Treemen, but you roll Stuns throughout. The outcome of this game looks bleak at best.
 

The Halfling coach sits in front of his monitor, giggling to himself.

"Oh man, I'm not even playing a real team. It's pretty much Star Players and some filler!"

 

The sound of sirens can be heard in the distance... .

[Borke]

8 minutes ago, C2MC said:

A rogue Block by a Treeman kills your Warpstone Troll. You thought long and hard about whether or not to put him on the line but you figured Regeneration would save you if it came to that. Well, it didn't. Another Troll bites the dust.

Your Claw-Blitzers keep hitting the Treemen, but you roll Stuns throughout. The outcome of this game looks bleak at best.
 

The Halfling coach sits in front of his monitor, giggling to himself.

"Oh man, I'm not even playing a real team. It's pretty much Star Players and some filler!"

 

The sound of sirens can be heard in the distance... .

 

Yep, pretty much exactly what always happens. Though you forgot the 3 stolen rerolls each half. And the fact that my Blitzers can't even get a proper block in on the treemen, so they can't even fail to remove them with Claw/MB.

[C2MC]

3 minutes ago, Borke said:

The fact that my Blitzers can't even get a proper block in on the treemen, so they can't even fail to remove them with Claw/MB.

 

I don't know.

The 2D against blocks tend to get double POWs whenever one of my Ogres is blocked.

[Borke]

Last match of the season has been played, and we not only survived the Fling match (well, a rookie Thrower didn't, but who's counting), we won 3-1 and leveled two players.

 

We end the season on 18 points at 5-3-1, which sounds very good to me. 3rd place, so I'm going to guess we promote to tier 3 (there shouldn't be a double promotion from 3rd place). In any case, we're in pretty good shape, I think. I'd prefer to have some more SPP on the Troll, but on the other hand he'd only go and roll more normal levels and disappoint me some more, so perhaps it's for the better

 

Tune in next season for the continuation of our heroes' exploits!

[C2MC]

1 hour ago, Borke said:

Last match of the season has been played, and we not only survived the Fling match (well, a rookie Thrower didn't, but who's counting), we won 3-1 and leveled two players.

 

This game was so stupid, I loved every minute of it.

 

Halflings getting flung around and hitting several of their own men in the process, check.

Goblins on the LoS and not even a single stun after getting Blocked 4-5 times, check.

 

 

[Borke]

14 minutes ago, C2MC said:

 

This game was so stupid, I loved every minute of it.

 

Halflings getting flung around and hitting several of their own men in the process, check.

Goblins on the LoS and not even a single stun after getting Blocked 4-5 times, check.

 

 

 

Well, razta was cheating with his Block Tree anyway, so serves him right!

[Borke]

Right, last night's celebrations are over, time to take a good look at the team: Where are we at, and where do we want to go.

 

Tiny (Troll)

 

Season stats

Games played: 6

Armor breaks: 6

Casualties: 4

Skills: Guard

 

It's not fair to expect rapid development from a Troll, and Tiny is certainly no exception. He has broken armor a whopping 6 times in 6 matches. He can count himself lucky that he got 4 casualties out of those 6 armor breaks, otherwise he wouldn't even have Guard yet. But let's face it: most opponents have ways of dealing with one big guy, who doesn't even have Block. Multiple big guys are a lot harder to deal with, and the few matches when I had Fez and/or Glart have felt completely different, my Troll was suddenly able to be much more active. As for future development, I'm still hoping that one day, one of my Trolls rolls a double for Block, but on normal rolls is probably Stand Firm or Claw next.

 

Dr. Weevil (Blitzer)

 

Season stats

Games played: 9

TDs: 4

Passes: 2

KOs: 5

Casualties: 6

Kills: 1

Skills: MB, +AG, Claw

 

Dr. Weevil can do it all, and he often has to. He is in the first line of offense, and the last line of defense. He hasn't been brawling as much as last season, but with AG4, he doesn't have to! He makes the tactically important plays. And yes, he enjoys the highest amount of protection the team can afford in return. I am most perplexed when thinking about where I want to take Dr. Weevil from here. I want to give him "all the skillz", because with AG4 he has a much higher chance of putting them to good use. But the opportunities for skills are limited, so I have to think what's going to give the most benefit over a long period. I like Tackle, even though I already have three on the team. I like Two Heads, for even more ridiculous dodging opportunities (like dodging past an elf screen). I could see turning Dr. Weevil into a surfer with Horns+Frenzy+Juggernaut, because his AG4 allows him to dodge away afterwards, if he ends up in a compromising position. I can also see Guard+Stand Firm working out - I like mobile Guard a lot, and Underworld usually struggles to find space for Guard anywhere but on the Troll.

 

Professor Pesticide (Blitzer)

 

Season stats

Games played: 9

TDs: 1

KOs: 1

Casualties: 7

Kills: 2

Skills: MB, Claw, Tackle

 

Professor Pesticide is a simple rat. There is one thing he knows how to do, and he does it very well: inflict pain. It's true that he touched the ball once, but it was by mistake, it got stuck on his claw, and the fastest way to get rid of it again was running into the end zone. The future development for the Professor is going to be very simple: Piling On. At that point his build will be more or less complete, eventually he can get Horns+Juggernaut, or Jump Up if he's lucky.

 

Claw Finger (Thrower)

 

Season stats

Games played: 8

TDs: 4

Passes: 2

Rushing yards: 224

Skills: +MA, Extra Arm

 

Claw Finger is a quiet player, always hanging back, observing, while his teammates protect him, quarterback style. You'd imagine that with his skills, in particular with his speed, he'd be running in the touchdowns all the time, but he's a selfless player. Out of the team's 16 touchdowns this season, he only claimed 4 for himself. Further development for him will include Two Heads, Block, possibly Big Hand, possibly Leader (I mean, let's be real, he's not going to live that long).

 

Gnaw Mercy (Lineman)

 

Season stats

Games played: 9

TDs: 3

KOs: 2

Casualties: 1

Rushing yards: 56

Skills: Wrestle, Tackle, skill pending (normal)

 

Gnaw Mercy has had a rather quiet season, though he was badly hurt twice. Whenever he was around, he was quite focused on protecting the ball carrier, which resulted in the occasional opportunity for a touchdown, that he gladly accepted. Gnaw Mercy just leveled, and with his normal roll he's probably getting Horns or Two Heads (both skills that will benefit his sweeper build).

 

Globular Meltdown (Lineman)

 

Season stats

Games played: 9

KOs: 3

Casualties: 2

Kills: 1

Skills: Wrestle, Tackle

 

Alright, this is the truly unremarkable season. Globular Meltdown never touched the ball, suffered no casualties, was involved in a little bit of fighting, and that's it. But he has a positively radiant personality and his teammates respect him! (kidding aside, having two skills and surviving is an amazing feat for any Lineman on an Underworld team)

 

The assorted Hench-Gobbos left on the team account for 3 TDs between them, which means somewhere we must have lost a Gobbo that scored. Oh well... They also caused 1 whole casualty between them. The Dirty Player was an utter disappointment, while the amount of Two Heads is getting to acceptable levels (three now with a level from the last match). Let's be honest here, apart from the occasional attempts at hero cage dives, all the Gobbos are good for is creating distractions and being very mobile screen players.

[Borke]

The tension is rising, where will we end up next season, and who will our opponents be?

[wismerhill]

my guesstimate is somewhere in T3

[Borke]

16 minutes ago, wismerhill said:

my guesstimate is somewhere in T3

 

You are of great help and a pillar of the OCC community with your accurate information!

 

[Borke]

It's just one more week until season 6 starts, time to have a look at what we're up against. We have ended up in division 3A, and overall it looks like this:

 

•   Mash - Wyld Green Stompas - Orc
•   MaidenManiac - Green Bay Pukers - Nurgle
•   Larkstar - Dirty Fockers - Halfling
•   Alessus - Grand Templars - Bretonnian
•   Tys123 - Fling the F'ing 'Fling - Halfling
•   DakaMan - DakaMancers 2.0 - Necromantic
•   Renis - Särimner Feast - Norse
•   3rkons - Kernkraftwerk BB - Lizardman
•   Zulu501 - Sugar n Spice - Amazon
•   Borke - Warpstone Avengers - Underworld

I haven't looked at the teams in detail, yet, but here's a quick reaction:

• I'm currently pretty well equipped to handle the dodgy opponents with 3 Tackle on my team. This means I'm less terrified than usual of the Flings and Zons (though all three matchups still promise to be painful).
• No Elves or Skaven, just plain AG3 all around. Which means that anyone who rolled +AG or has mutations could have a considerable advantage in the ball handling department, as well as in the dodging department.
• Overall it doesn't look too bad, but I'm sure that when I look in detail, each of the teams will have several murderous bastards and a couple of graceful +AG players.

[Borke]

Let's start our analysis with one of the big question marks:

 

Alessus - Grand Templars - Bretonnian

 

Pidpad has just shown that Bretonnians are clearly overpowered. Additionally, Alessus has been in hiatus for a few seasons, the last one he played was season 1. Therefore his team is by default very much a dark horse. I'm happy to see that he's got no +AG on any player, only one Tackle, one MB (not on the same player), and still his TV is sitting at 1520 with 13 players. Two Blitzers are well-developed, one as a ball carrier, the other as a sacker. The MB Blocker has Jump Up (and is very close to the next level, presumably Piling On), a threat I shouldn't forget. And I've seen enough of Pidpad's matches last season to know that Blitzers are always a scoring threat. So, on paper I think this is winnable, but Alessus is a good coach, and Brets are surprisingly difficult to defeat.

[Alessus]

8 minutes ago, Borke said:

Let's start our analysis with one of the big question marks:

 

Alessus - Grand Templars - Bretonnian

 

Pidpad has just shown that Bretonnians are clearly overpowered. Additionally, Alessus has been in hiatus for a few seasons, the last one he played was season 1. Therefore his team is by default very much a dark horse. I'm happy to see that he's got no +AG on any player, only one Tackle, one MB (not on the same player), and still his TV is sitting at 1520 with 13 players. Two Blitzers are well-developed, one as a ball carrier, the other as a sacker. The MB Blocker has Jump Up (and is very close to the next level, presumably Piling On), a threat I shouldn't forget. And I've seen enough of Pidpad's matches last season to know that Blitzers are always a scoring threat. So, on paper I think this is winnable, but Alessus is a good coach, and Brets are surprisingly difficult to defeat.

Fortunately for you and unfortunately for me, the only player who had managed to roll a stat up was a Blitzer who had +AG and Dodge, but during the course of season 1, he was crippled permanently if I remember correctly it was a choice between a -AG or death, as he had sustained a -AV already during the placements so after the match I sacked him, which is why I have 2 rookie Blitzers.

Edited March 6, 2018 by Alessus

[Borke]

Mash - Wyld Green Stompas - Orc

 

Another coach returning from vacation, though in Mash's case it was only for two seasons. His 1850 TV sounds like a lot of skills, and therefore a lot of pain, but it's not quite as bad as that. Only three MB (excluding the Troll), only one of them combined with Tackle (of which he has a total of 3). Three Guard in total. So anyone who can neutralize his one real killer (MB/Tackle/PO/Guard) should have a much easier time. So where's all that TV coming from, you might ask. Well for one thing, he's running three Linemen, which might be a bit much at this level. Another reason is the +ST/Block Thrower - I don't think Mash is getting the full value out of that 50 TV. And lastly, the Blitzers have taken some agility skills on double rolls, one has pure Jump Up, and one is a Blodger with +MA and Tackle. Certainly a useful player, but not very high on the "kill scale". Overall, I think it's going to be a tough matchup still, I think a draw should be achievable, but a victory might be hard.

[Borke]

53 minutes ago, Alessus said:

Fortunately for you and unfortunately for me, the only player who had managed to roll a stat up was a Blitzer who had +AG and Dodge, but during the course of season 1, he was crippled permanently if I remember correctly it was a choice between a -AG or death, as he had sustained a -AV already during the placements so after the match I sacked him, which is why I have 2 rookie Blitzers.

 

Ah, gotcha. That's certainly not worth keeping.

[Borke]

Since we're analysing bash, let's continue with:

 

MaidenManiac - Green Bay Pukers - Nurgle

 

This lovely team is clocking in at 1970 TV, the highest in the division. I'm not sure whether the cash above 150k is counted in that, in which case they would actually be at 1870 TV. I'm not sure which it is, but it's still a lot - but not so much for a Nurgle team with 15 players. Their highest level player is actually the Beast (lvl 4), everyone else is lvl 3 at maximum. The Warriors are solid, all have Block, two have Guard. The BoN has Block/Guard/SF, so will be a royal pain. A Block/Tackle Pestigor, and a Block/+ST. No MB anywhere, except on the Beast. So, this is for once a Nurgle team that won't kill all your players, but rather - win?? I think they might still be able to place well (perhaps not at the top), due to the pure strength and the disruptive nature of the Nurgle team in general. And MaidenManiac has shown that he can pilot a bland Nurgle team to success.