Friday, July 21, 2017

Ordo Bowl '17 Season 2 Round 3 AAR

This round I temporarily retired my red set of dice and swapped them out to the original 2e white dice. Lets see if it made a difference. We have another 5-game BatRep this time, as both of my teams played a Friendly.

Zorcon's Premiership Game 3
Zharr'Thrak Seahawks (Chaos Dwarves) vs The Brothers Gory (Ogres)

A Hobgoblin fails a GFI on his way to score after
the crowd threw in the ball

My team had a 630k higher TV, so The Brothers Gory induced Morg'N'Thorg, a Re-Roll, and 2 Bloodweiser Kegs.

Ogres kick off and the Seahawks run in a TD down the weakside on turn 3! The Chaos Dwarves put up a great defense and The Ogres are unable to score before the clock runs out.

Seahawks kick-off opening the second half. The Brothers Gory get mired in the center of the pitch for most of the drive. But on turn 6, a Snotling made a run for it along the sideline. He took 2 GFI's to get out of range of all but 1 opponent. The little guy tripped and the ball bounced out of bounds. The crowd threw it back in play, right into Morg'N'Thorg's hands (back-left diagonal from the Minotaur in the pic above). But the Star Player couldn't catch it and dropped the ball. Then a Hobgoblin scooped up the ball and made a run for it, failing his GFI! The Ogre team attempted to make a harrowing play for a last minute TD, but after a succession of successful rolls, the thrown Snotling scatters too far away from the Endzone.

Current Roster. #10 leveled up taking Sure Hands

Chaos Dwarves win 1-0! Casualties fall in favor of the Ogres, 3-1. I killed a Snotling on turn 1, but received a Badly Hurt Hobgoblin and Chaos Dwarf, plus a Seriously injured CD.

Zorcon's Super League Friendly Game 2
Paravon City Chiefs (Vampires) vs The Ratriots (Skaven)

The Chiefs stuffing a TD attempt by the Ratriots

Special Play cards were in effect this game. Unlike the last Friendly game vs the other Vampire team, this time they impacted the game.

I lost the coin-toss but my opponent chose to kick. I play one of my Special Play cards. On every kick-off, I roll a D6+Fame (I had +1). On a 6+ opponent looses a Re-Roll. I rolled a 5 (+1) and The Ratriots are down to 2 Re-Rolls before the game starts. I ran my patented weak side set up 2-turn score play and scored in 2 turns. Now on turn 3 we kick off again and I roll a 6, causing the Skaven to loose their last Re-Roll. The rats are quick. The make an attempt to score, but I left a couple Thralls on deep defense and they stuffed the receiver. I scooped up the ball, but my TD was thwarted by the dice.

The second half opens and I kick-off, causing my opponent to loose another Re-Roll. The Rats make a good play on the weak side and get deep. Even though there was a decent cage, I managed to pop the ball carrier and the ball scatters outside the cage. A Thrall with Sure Hands picks up the ball in a Tackle Zone and I play my second Special Play Card-Make a Pass with no modifiers applied. So I threw a Long Bomb (-2) in a TZ (-1) ignoring those penalties to a Vampire. Success! The Vampire was also in a TZ and he Blitzed out, running 8 squares down field out of range of any opponents. I scored on my next turn. This time, I did not roll a 6+ during the Kick-Off and the rats did not loose a Re-Roll. My opponent played one of his Special Play cards, giving a linerat Stab and Dirty Player. The Ratriots tried to make a couple plays, but were down too many players to make anything happen.

A surprising win for the Vampires. Final score 2-0. Blood was spilled in this game--The Ratriots caused 2 casualties (a Badly Hurt and a Serious Injury), while 4 Skaven were Badly Hurt (1 self induced).

Zorcon's Premiership League Friendly Game 1
Zharr'Thrak Seahawks (Chaos Dwarves) vs The Mouse House Rejects (Dwarves)

One turn into the second half

What a game! A game to see which Dwarf team was superior. Our TV's were almost identical, so no Inducements for either coach.

I opened the game receiving the ball. I played both of my Special Play cards and my opponent played one of his right up front. One allowed me to take 2 Blitzes in a turn and the other awarded a bonus MVP, while the Mouse Hose played the Re-Roll stealing card I had last game. Unfortunately, My perfect offence for a 2 turn score failed as I was unable to pick up the ball on a 3+ with a re-roll. That set me back and wasted my 2-Blitz opening turn, but I managed to score on turn 6. My opponent punched an opening and made an attempt to score, but failed.

In the second half, The rejects brought out the Death Roller and played his second Special Play card--Give one player +1 ST and Mighty Blow (given to a Troll Slayer) for their first Block action. I kicked off. My opponent managed to get through my front line, but was blitzed on my next turn. After some scrambling with poor ball handling, I managed to get the ball into the Mouse House side of the pitch. I was unable to sustain a defense and lost the ball. the AG+1 Runner got the ball and made a dash for the endzone, ending his turn 2 squares away. I had 3 player that could reach him. Two were set up in case the Blitzer's GFI failed, the third player attempted the Blitz. A Hobgoblin and a Chaos Dwarf were adjacent to the Dwarf ball carrier, and my Bull Centar came in hard with a blitz, knocking the Dwarf Runner on his back. On turn 7 the Dwarf Runner stood up, moved into 2 Tackle Zones, picked-up the ball, threw a 1-die blitz, dodged and ran in for a TD!


Game ends in a 1-1 tie. Quite fitting for a show down between Dwarves in a Friendly game. There wasn't even a casualty! Each team only KO'd  a single opponent. Before the game, the Seahawks were given a brief on Dwarf armor weak points--We broke armor all game long. But my Hobgoblins skipped practice and it showed--None of them (even with Sure Hands) could pick up in less than 2 turns. While my opponent, The Rejects, hired an Elf trainer and taut them the fine points of dodging and passing.

P.S. The Re-Roll stealing Special Play card was essentially ineffectual this game. Even though The Mouse House had +1 Fame, only the first Kick-Off of the game was successful in taking one of my Re-Rolls, but I still had one Re-Roll left at the end of the half.

Zorcon's Super League Game 3
Paravon City Chiefs (Vampires) vs Mad Dogs of Middenheim (Humans)

Set-up for the second half

The Mad Dogs won the Coin Toss and chose to Kick-Off. The Chiefs Induced a Bloodweiser Keg.

This was a back and forth game right up to the end! Both teams sacked multiple TD attempts, and the ball traveled up and down, and to both sides of the the pitch. We both even had a (small) shot at a turn 8 hail Mary play. My dice started to falter a little in this game and I had issues with picking up the ball (3+ with Re-Roll). Blood Lust bit me a few times (pun intended), but with 5 Vampires times 16 turns, it seemed a reasonable amount.

One series of back and forth was in the first half. I had the ball and advanced deep past the line of scrimmage on the weakside. A Thrall had the ball with 3 Vampires and a Thrall running screen. The Middenheim Ogre Blitzed in and broke the screen, followed by a number of Human players marking my players, cutting off Block assists. On my next turn I brought in support and managed to push the Mad Dogs back a few squares. But on the Human's next turn they pushed 2 of my players off the pitch, and put the rest of the screen Prone including the ball carrier. The Human Thrower scooped up the ball and made a 2 turn advance towards the endzone. A Vampire Blitzed the Human Thrower and put him on the ground. A Thrall scooped up the ball and handed it off to a Vampire who dashed up the middle of the pitch through an opening. Two turns later I score.

In the end, it was a tie game, 1-1. But the Humans caused all the physical damage--5 Casualties! A self induced Badly Hurt Ogre, a Thrall and Vampire Badly Hurt, a Thrall MNG, and a Dead Thrall (with Block).

Deathbot's Super League Game 3
New Orcleans Saints (Orcs) vs Jerk store (Goblins)

Deathbot making a run for the endzone

Deathbot won +1 Fame, and Kicked-Off. The Jerk Store Induced a Bloodweiser Keg.

Unfortunately I only watched a portion of this game. But what really stood out was Deathbot loosing focus. He threw way too many 1-die Blocks that could have been 2-die with a simple move to assist. Plenty of Goblins were thrown on both sides. The Doom Diver on the Goblin team is a really smart new addition to the team (instead of scattering d8 direction when thrown, they scatter d3). I look forward to chucking one in the future.

A tough 0-1 loss for the Orcs. They were so close to tying up the game. Unfortunately for the Jerk Store, the Raiders got one thing right, and that was Blocking! Four Goblins went to the Injury Box: 3 MNG, and 1 Dead.

Final Thoughts
Swapping dice has indeed made a difference. Even though I had bad patches, the games seemed more even--Or at least games were not lost by bad dice rolls. Take the Friendly game Chorves vs Dwarves. I rolled Opponent Down and Broke Armor on almost every Block I threw, but I failed almost every Dodge, GFI, Injury, and Pick-up.

Actually, looking back, ball handling was an issue for all of my games with both teams this round. But because dice were rolling average/good in other aspects of the game, it didn't feel disasterous like my dice were last round.

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