Help me think this through (5 drive BB)

plasmoid · Post by **plasmoid** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 7:26 am

Hi all,
I'm thinking about hosting a small BB tournament, with some very alternative ground rules:

A game consists of 4 drives. Each drive ends when a TD is scored, or when the 4th turn has ended. The teams alternate as the recieving team (no matter who scores).
If the game ends in a tie, a 5th drive is played. Coin flip to decide who recieves - if the recieving team does not score in 4 turns, then the defense wins.

I hope these rules would discourage stall-grind, and encourage aggressive play.

But - which teams would be weakened (more than a little) by these rules, and which teams would rule?

Cheers
Martin

Aliboon · Post by **Aliboon** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 8:39 am

Quick, 2-turn scoring teams would massively benefit-they should have no probs in scoring in 4 turns whilst slower teams might and they wouldn't have the whole half to inflict CASs on the other team, thus reducing their chances of scoring again.

And when slow teams are forced to speed up (say if they've only 3 turns to get a score) they will quite often make mistakes and get turned-over, thus helping the quick teams even more.

This would stop the 2-1 grind, but would just mean that everyone would take elves or skaven, they'd be stupid not to imo.

plasmoid · Post by **plasmoid** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 8:45 am

2 points I forgot:
*I'm gonna tweak the team lists to compensate. This is what I need your feedback for.
*Rerolls will be replenished after every drive (I think).

Cheers
Martin

Leilond · Post by **Leilond** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:09 am

You'll have a VERY hard work then, because the change you're proposing require an intensive play-test, and (I think) cannot simply applied discussing some pages on the forum
You're not "talking" about some minor changes, you're talking about another game
I see a very interesting in your idea... a game more similar to the real american football, with the drives during you have to make those 10 yards or give the ballo to your opponent... but that will completely change the game (pheraps better, pheraps worse) and thus you need a very hard test or a very very confortable group of peaople that do not feel bad if they see their team too less effective because of you house rules

Darkson · Post by **Darkson** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 9:32 am

Gotta agree with Leilond - this isn't a minor change that a few tweaks can "fix", this is virtually a completely different game.
Sounds interesting though.

plasmoid · Post by **plasmoid** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:34 am

Right.
I know I'm overhauling. But I think the mechanics, skills etc. can remain the same.
My main focus for the first test run will be to knock down the obvious leaders, and buff the obvious losers.

I think I can find a group of tolerant testers (for a short tournament), but we'll see about that.

Hopefully the tournament will reveal if there are any more problems - and whether things change the way we suspect (which isn't guaranteed).

Cheers
Martin

plasmoid · Post by **plasmoid** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:43 am

Perhaps a crazy way to take level the field a bit:
Offense sets up first!

Post by **voyagers_uk** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:48 am

I think it is admirable martin, that you are taking this on.

this would take the game more towards NFL and to an extent Rugby League. So could attract more players.

I am not sure at limiting it to 4 or 5 sets of turns though. i would go more of a time limit route though.

Post by **voyagers_uk** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:49 am

will you be allowing kicks for field position?

Post by **voyagers_uk** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:50 am

maybe take the squad size up to 22 and have distinct Defense and Offense set-ups

Post by **voyagers_uk** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 10:55 am

That way you could have a preseason tournament and absorb new players and then have a cut of old for new players

stashman · Post by **stashman** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 1:08 pm

Offense sets up first is a cool thing. Can't really put the one-turner where you wan't him, becuse he will be stoped. But the Kick-Off Return skill will come more in use for more than the ball taker.

cyagen · Post by **cyagen** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 2:17 pm

plasmoid wrote:Perhaps a crazy way to take level the field a bit:
Offense sets up first!

Not crazy at all, maybe the only way to make sure that not only skavens and elves have a chance to play.

Post by **voyagers_uk** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:27 pm

thinking about this some more, the whole 4 turns and then change could only work with field position determined by a "punt". the Offense team had, in my opinion, best start with the ball in hand.

eg: Skaven team have the ball against a Dwarf team starting at midpoint

The Skaven set up first and the Dwarves lock them in and they move a mere 4-5 squares closer to the end-zone. They Kick and manage to get it a further 5 squares closer. the Dwarves then set-up and move the ball fwd slowly using a cage to get the ball 3 sqaures into Skaven territory in 4 turns.

they punt and the Skaven receive the ball halfway into their half.

Basically with good defense and reasonable offense you can actually drive the ball downfield. the Dwarf team may secure a TD in it's next series if they can pin the skaven back as they did in the opening drive.

However if they game is limited to 4 sets of 4 turns this will become a very low progression, low scoring way of playing. A time limit and a turn time limit would help this to move faster and allow more game play

plasmoid · Post by **plasmoid** » Wed Sep 03, 2008 3:39 pm

Hi Voyagers,
for the record - I don't have any field position cleverness in mind.

Just 4 turn drives, starting from the LOS with a kick-off as normal. On a drive, you other score, don't score, or your opponent scores. Then a new drive. Thus, with overtime, the maximum number of TDs in a game would be 5.

My main idea was to make stalling (almost) pointless, and to encourage aggressive play both on offense and defense (because, if you want to actually score on defense, you have to get moving pretty fast). I hope that it would make for some fun blood bowl

Cheers
Martin