Meditations on the Cult of Position: Med IV up Groundhog Day

[Smurf]

Activation rule.

If it is unimportant, or slightly helpful, move players into position that do not need dice rolls. Usually this means bringing guys from the back field forward, or move a way to form defence.

The Play
Whatever you have to do this turn goes here.

Finish
Pick on the 2d blocks, avoiding big guys unless they are not subject to Really Stupid of Bonehead.
Or
Any moving away that requires rolling.

Position
If your defence a good web of tackle zones to imped movement. Players with abilities are positioned to make it hardest for a blitz to bust through.

Attack: Simple trick is the L drive, look at the movement scores and see how much of your opponent cannot reach you. You tackle zones to slow down the defence. Use 'those' players to pin down the priorities on the other team. Create as much difficulty for your opponent.

Know your cage, know your opponent's cage tactics
Be aware of the hold off pass, sneaky player gets through and stands on the TD and some 'narly' dude throws an awesome long bomb demonstrating your weakness.

Remember to protect your key players and target your opponent's.

My favourite is my 'Dune'defence and Keep One Deep. The player hangs about not doing much, sure eventually the opponent will mark them but go with it. When the ball goes loose on offence turn you have the chance to scoop it up and get it to the KOP who scores. I did this to a few teams and the look of fear in their faces subsided when they realised they were not playing me.

[mattgslater]

Excellent. Let's have some concrete examples rather than a list of truisms. Honestly, I'd love to have that kind of discussion.

Patience, my friend. We must discuss the mechanics of walking before we can fine-tune our tailfeathers.

[Joemanji]

You have been saying that for years.

[mattgslater]

You have been saying that for years.

We've actually made pretty good progress in that time. Big subject, volunteer effort, gotta temper your expectations. Especially early in the process, before the ball has any time to get rolling and build momentum, to turn its inertia in its favor. Frankly, for two years I felt like I've been on the precipice of something huge, but just a little bigger than me, you know? Like I've had some glimpse of the divine and through my bleary vision, I can just make out enough to communicate what sounds like an insane raving, but is a vision of a formal reality beyond that to which we have heretofore been privy.

S'okay, though. Meditation the Second coming tonight or tomorrow. Much will be made clear soon.

[Carnis]

I'd also like to see something concrete/like to see actions, nothing would convince me better than a 10-0-0 W-T-L FUMBBL orc team (that's what Mattgslater plays, right?), as Matt said he signed up yesterday .

[JaM]

Interesting. Really like where this is going now .

Even better (??), I think I am slowly beginning to understand matt. Unless he makes another one of those posts full of American Football jargon again. In that case I'm lost (again).

[sunnyside]

Does anybody else the get impression from those last couple posts that Matt might be high?

Anyway when it comes to positioning I think it breaks roughly down into a few sorts of things.

There are arrangments coaches should know. The cage should be the first thing most coaches learn, but they should also get things like the stack defense and some other defenses, side step corners, sideline cages, screens that sort of thing.

There are also maneuvers coaches should know. Simple but useful things like how to chainpush, make diagonal crowd pushes and the more elaborate machinations of MA6 one turn touchdowns and how to get extra blocks when you recieve by chain pushing your guys into players not on the LOS.

However those two groups are the sort of thing you could put on some kind of blood bowl test. They're kinda like openings in chess, you can just memorize them (and you should).

It's when your outside of that envelope that I think I and others could improve. Or perhaps it might be possible to move more things into the "memorize it and do it" catagory.

[Carnis]

Does anybody else the get impression from those last couple posts that Matt might be high?

I think one of the ramblings in his latest posts reminded me of a Lovecraftian Cthulhu cultist =).

[mattgslater]

Phnglui mgwl'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah nagl fhtagn.

[nick_nameless]

So, this thread was a real tease so far. Any substance coming to the meditations soon?

[mattgslater]

Sorry, man. Blood Bowl has to wait for life. Meditation number two is half-done, and will be finished over the weekend or early next week, if I can't get to it today. Descartes was rich, but I have to pay rent.

[nick_nameless]

Sorry, man. Blood Bowl has to wait for life. Meditation number two is half-done, and will be finished over the weekend or early next week, if I can't get to it today. Descartes was rich, but I have to pay rent.

Fair enough, Kind Sir! My mouse is just begging me to stop with all the page refreshing...

[mattgslater]

Cult of Position Meditation the Second

Da Boyz In Da Bubblez

Longtime gamers sometimes identify with one fantasy race or class. You can see it if you go to any game con: there are elf people, dwarf people, wizard people, klingon people, hobbit people and others.

Me, I was born with green skin and big teef. I love everything orcish! When I started working at a game store where the staff played Blood Bowl in 1996, my first question when they finally roped me into playing was, "are there Orcs?" Orcs being a good team for a newbie, they were my first team, and I played them for years and years before I picked up another team.

It was only after I'd stayed away from Orcs for years, and eventually come back to them, that I saw what I didn't know I'd been looking at all along. I was putting the touches on a goblin model, and I put him down next to an orc. When I did, I realized that I had subconsciously put him about 60mm away. Then the funniest thing happened. I had this weird daydream, almost a hallucination. The orc model turned to me, pointed his choppa at the goblin, and said, "Heez too skwarez away. Datz 'cuz I be da Boy in da Bubble."

And then it dawned on me. Each player has a bubble, an aura, about him, in the form of a TZ. When two players get within two squares of each other, they create a "force field" of sorts, that I will call a structure. This structure is a thing and it has properties that can be discussed. Frankly, the concepts discussed in this meditiation should generally be part of the intuitive vocabulary of experienced Blood Bowl coaches. But from these concrete terms for two-player structures will arise more complex formations, some of which may not be so obvious.

Two players on the same team standing next to each other can support each other from all sides but the outside. Blocking one of these two players and following in guarantees you'll be marked by one or both players. These two players form what is called in American Football special teams terminology a wall or wedge, depending on whether their relationship is lateral or diagonal. Players in a vertical "wall" (vertical from the perspective of the opponent) form a trap in American Football offense or a stack in defense. A wall or wedge exerts a field four squares wide, while a vertical stack is three squares wide. A stack, and sometimes a wedge, can be used to prevent the player in the rear from getting hit. For our purposes, we will refer to two players back-to-back as a stack, using the term "trap" later, as a broader term for one player protecting another.

If you put the two players one or two squares apart, their Tackle Zones interact, but they can't protect each other from as many places. Two players placed one square apart form what I call a fence. It is possible to open a hole in a fence by knocking one of the players down, or to narrow the fence into a wall or wedge by pushing one of the players. Also, there is only one square in front of a fence where neighboring players can lend or prevent an assist, rather than two such squares as in a wall. For this reason, a fence is not as strong as a wall. However, a fence is five squares wide, wider than the wall.

If you put the players three squares apart, they create the widest possible separation, a screen. It is not possible to get through a screen without dodging repeatedly into one Tackle Zone, and a screen is six squares wide. Screens are not firm enough to stop a determined AG5 player, and players in a screen cannot protect one another against blocking by lending assists. Also, a screen can be "broken" up the middle with just one push. However, if properly reinforced, screens can be the most important structure of all, because they allow the most space control.

In this meditation, we have identified the most basic two-player structures. In further meditations, we will establish a vocabulary for compound structures, with one structure supporting another. We will see how these compound structures are the basic currency of Blood Bowl, and we will identify the philosophies used in building these structures with and against various Blood Bowl styles and races.

[Joemanji]

Use these diagrams:

[Anglakhel]

Nice discussion.

Using the diagrams within the body of your meditation would definitely improve understanding for many readers, particularly as you build from the basics into more complex spatial relationships.

Use diagrams and clearly label them.