Chainsmurfs

[mattgslater]

http://www.fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=t ... _id=710302

Finally got a Grab guy. Now, to find someone who'll play against a 1310k team with 10 Block and 8 Guard.

Oh, and overall unbeaten streak now at 21.
Dwarfs: 5-3-0
High Elves: 1-2-0
Nurglings (Stunty Leeg): 1-2-0
Undead: 4-3-0
Overall: 11-10-0

Basically, it's the same as my overall record, except that instead of it being 5/2/3 W/T/L, I've gone to 5/5/0. Strange. Not complaining.

[mattgslater]

Okay, 10 games in. My Nurglings broke my streak at 22, on the strength of Nuffle and my stupidity working in cahoots (had I played smart, it would have been a tie). Then these guys lost and tied on the same late-turn positioning mistake twice in a row. Sigh. Hopefully that means I'll learn.

Record: 5 wins, 4 draws, 1 loss
Score: 11 TDs for, 5 against
Casualties: 23 for, 9 against. Notably, 14-2 in wins, 9-7 in non-wins. 10 of the Cas in wins were in 2 games with 5 each.
Surfs: 16 for, 1 against
Blocks: 648 thrown, 321 taken (4 per turn made, 2 per turn taken)
Fouls: 6 made, 6 taken.

TV: 1.44M
6 Blockers, Max Positionals, 3 RR, Apo, FF 7
Blockers: 1x Guard/Grab (23), 4x Guard (11, 11, 9, 6), 1x Rookie (2)
Blitzers: 2x Guard (9, 7)
Runners: 1x Guard (15... forever), 1x Block/KOR (23)
Slayers: 1x Guard (10), 1x Rookie (5... also forever)

Wins vs: Dwarfs, High Elves, Slann, Chaos Dwarfs (twice). The CD coach (BenJHarris2) was pretty darn noobish when we played: his CR was right around 140. We played 2 games with different teams over a week, and I watched some of his replays and sent him some tips, and now he's almost back to 150! He still can't play me , but he's ready to rumble in Ranked, so it's only a matter of time.
Ties vs: Undead, Dwarf, Orc, Ogre.
Loss vs: Nurgle. That one should have been a 1-1 tie, but I lost 0-1.

Notably, I'm really 2-3-1 against competitive teams, 1-1-0 against silly teams with decent coaching, and 2-0-0 against novice coaches. That's pretty much the same as my Ranked record with most smashmouth teams.

As you'd expect, it's getting harder now that I've hit the point of diminishing returns on Guard. 10 games in, I've still only got one Grab Blocker, and only 2 more have made it within an MVP. Haven't got much use of Grab yet, mostly because I've only got one and have had trouble keeping Frenzy on the pitch. He's used it twice meaningfully: once it mattered, once he got a cas. MVPs seem to be falling primarily on 2 guys, and one of them is the Block/KOR Runner. So my Grab guy is almost as close to Stand Firm as the next three guys are to Grab. Also, I've been dealing with bash consistently, have been missing Slayers intermittently, and haven't been able to use my full playbook. 10 games in, and the Chainsmurfs are not yet a reality.

Still, optimistic that this plan is workable in a league format. The first half of the first season I'm playing a tough, competitive Dwarf team that tries to wear its opponents out and win in regulation or overtime. The second half, the games begin. I can live with that.

[mattgslater]

Hmmm... Block/KOR Runner is missing the next game. The Guard Runner finally got Block in the last game (a 1-0 win against a MB-intensive Pact squad: now I'm 6-4-1).

His absence brings my TV from 1.46M to 1.34M.

There is something exhilarating about having 9 Guards and 11 Blocks on 11 players at 1.34M, being a well-placed MVP and Cas away from fielding 11 at 1.4 or so.

There is something frightening about fielding a team with 11 men and only 3 guys to handle the ball.

Just confirming, it's worth it keeping him on, right? If nothing else, the higher value makes it easier to find games. Right? Or should I scratch my healthy positional developing on track in the interest of pushing the Insane Guard Overload envelope?

[Ullis]

I don't think Guard on a dwarf runner makes sense. There's enough S access on the team to guarantee enough Guard. Also the runners are fragile compared to the rest of the team and their main purpose has to be ball handling or as safeties due to AG3.

[mattgslater]

What is this "enough Guard" thing of which you speak? I have never heard of such a phrasing.

Seriously, Guard is a pretty good skill for a ball-handler or a safety: this particular player uses Guard every single game, usually several times. On defense having a mobile Guard player in the backfield your opponent can't cover his man with one guy to ensure a 1d blitz, and that getting multiple men on the carrier in the cage is relatively useless if you can't clear out the cage itself. It's particularly good in scrums, though, and I've learned that the key to Dwarfs is to win all the scrums, and that'll put a fair chunk of your games in the W column: from there it's just a matter of squeezing out more Ws and fewer Ls. Guard and Block are the two best skills for winning scrums, and I intend to field a defense with 11 of each, while never hitting, or even approaching, the Spiraling Expense threshold.

[dines]

Wow just checked your last game: 91 blocks! Crazy!

[mattgslater]

Wow just checked your last game: 91 blocks! Crazy!

And people wonder why I play slow. You'd play slow too if you threw 6 blocks a turn!

Number of blocks speaks to style and tendencies more than anything else: my elves throw a lot of blocks too (fewer, but a lot). But part of it is just the team's relative assets: they're slow-moving and overloaded on Block/Guard. When your only tool is a hammer, everything looks like a nail.