FOFC Bloodbowl league...Any takers?

[Glengoyne]

A buddy of mine, and occasional FOFC poster(Whar), has started playing Bloodbowl at fumbbl.com with his brother. We are considering starting up a league there. A while back a few people had expressed interest in doing this. The three of us are looking for a few others who would be interested in giving this a try.

If you are interested, post here, and we'll see where this leads.

[Whar]

I will be out tonight playing if any one is interested. You can find me on the irc server for fumbbl irc.fumbbl.com in the #fumbbl_academy channel. This is a channel for fledgling coaches.

[SirFozzie]

I play some over at FUMBBL, maybe after my trip I'll hit you guys up for a game

[BYU 14]

I used to love Blood Bowl, I would most likely be up for it....I will take a look at the sight later.

[Airhog]

Im game :D

[Calis]

Mark Blood Bowl up as another game I always thought looked cool as hell but never tried.

[Warhammer]

Ah man, first diplomacy, now this. All I have is two FOF leagues, a Formula De league, normal gaming nights, plus an FTF blood bowl league. I need to clone myself.

I guess I need to sit this out for now. Count me in for BB league 2.

[Arctus]

Glengoyne,

I'm definately interested, I've already visited downloaded the client. I haven't played Bloodbowl in over 10 years though, I need to relearn how to play. I'll try to re-digest the rules and play a few games in the near future.

[Marc Vaughan]

Definitely interested - but very rusty ..

[SirFozzie]

Arctus, make sure you download the Living Rulebook at www.blood-bowl.com (GW is the one who maintains it)

[Airhog]

Sirfozzie: that site is in german, and I couldn't find the rule book on there..

[Airhog]

found a link for it...

http://www.specialist-games.com/bloodbowl/l_rule_bbok_b.htm

[Alf]

I am playing a lot at francebloodbowl.com :) . Haven't been at fumbbl.com yet.

How are the "games" organized ? A fixed schedule or open games ?

[SirFozzie]

Alf: They can be done either, it tracks all results (the game auto reports results) and does the skill rolls/aging rolls for you through a web client.

[Alf]

ok, I might set up an account there too :) /me is an addict

[Warhammer]

Alf,

fumbbl.com is a great site. I used to play there all the time. You can have multiple teams and games that are outside of leagues are set up using IRC.

[KWhit]

What is Blood Bowl?

[Warhammer]

What is Blood Bowl?

Take Warhammer or Warhammer 40k (no that is not where I got my nick), take those races and turn them into football teams. Voila, you have Blood Bowl.

The game plays out as a cross between rugby and football. It is a tongue in cheek game, but it is loads of fun, especially in a league.

Some teams are smashmouth teams that want to beat or foul the snot out of their opponents. Other teams, such as the Wood Elves, rely on speed and agility to score, and not be squished. Other teams rely on loads of cheap players to overwhelm their opponents.

[Alf]

Account setup, 1st orcish team under creation for testing purposes.

[KWhit]

Take Warhammer or Warhammer 40k (no that is not where I got my nick), take those races and turn them into football teams. Voila, you have Blood Bowl.

The game plays out as a cross between rugby and football. It is a tongue in cheek game, but it is loads of fun, especially in a league.

Some teams are smashmouth teams that want to beat or foul the snot out of their opponents. Other teams, such as the Wood Elves, rely on speed and agility to score, and not be squished. Other teams rely on loads of cheap players to overwhelm their opponents.
Interesting. Are the games simmed or do you play them out? If you play them out, is there playcalling? How long does a typical game take?

[Marc Vaughan]

Turn by turn control of the teams players .... dice based decision making, very cool game imho :D

[Warhammer]

Interesting. Are the games simmed or do you play them out? If you play them out, is there playcalling? How long does a typical game take?

As Marc said. Although, you can develop plays for specific teams, such as "Da Cage" for da Orcs. Typical game can take anywhere from 1-1/2 hours to 2 hours, but it depends on how fast you play. Each game is a maximum of 16 turns (less overtime) and each turn is timed at 4 mintues, unless you fail a roll.

If anyone needs help on selecting a team let me know. Gotta say the best names are for Orcish teams:

Da Trower
Da Runner
Da Bwitzer
Da Thumper
etc.

[Whar]

The site has a series of divisions. I currently have teams in the 'Unranked' Division. Game play is open in that you can play anyone anytime. The site suggest you play at least 10 different coaches before recycling but in the Unranked Division this is just a loose suggestion.

For the adventurous there is a Faction system which is kinda like English Premiere league. You play 8 game every 2 weeks and based the results you move up or down factions. This league is considered the toughest.

One of the problems with the site is people 'cherry-pick' games. That is they restrict their play to certain racial opponents. Since Dwarves, Undead, Chaos, and others make their success based of bashing the holy heck out of their opponents. This produces a number of casualties. Since people invest time in developing a player they do not want to lose them. So often teams will focus on playing Elves or Skaven which make their success as speed teams.

I would like to get a group of players that play a wide range of teams and in turn accept games from an equally wide range.

My coach name is Whar. You can find my on the irc.fumbll.com server channel #fumbbl. I would be happy to help anyone set up the client and get a game going. I have a few teams that have never played or have one game so they would be even to a new coach.

To get started take these steps...

Go to fumbll.com
create an account
log into account
click 'Home' or 'Overview' to bring up personal team page
follow the link 'Create a team'
select Unranked division and select a team name (keep it clean :) ) and race
team creation page should be up select Fan Factor of 6 or more and add one re roll (you will want both of these)
click the 'buy a player' button
Since you have your fan factor and rerolls you have your maximun budget for 11 players. You can buy more but most people go for extra re rolls with any extra money. Fan factor is big since it determines how much money you get per game. more money faster development. You must have 11 players to submit the team.
Once happy with your selections click submit team for approval
find the 'user guide' on the fumbbl.com site. This can be a bit hard.
Click the Installing Java link in guide
Download and install the Java JRE 1.4.2 lastest version
Download the 8.3 beta of Blood Bowl client (found under the Downloads link Essentials)
Download the 8.4 patch (Same page as the 8.3)
Unzip 8.3 into a blood bowl directory
Unzip 8.4 patch over the 8.3
Launch Blood Bowl client select Options from first window
Under options find the 'Fumbbl log in' option and click it
Close Blood Bowl Client
Return to fumbbl.com and bring up your personal teams page
If your team has been approved (they only check for bad words) it should have a green 'R' next to it ... win loss record ... rankings coaches/teams ... and a 'play' button.
Click the 'play' button (launching game like this auto loads your team)
A window pops up ... select 'No Proxy' .. game name leave blank ... server = IP that will host game (enter even if you are the one hosting) and Port = 8080.
You have two options now "launch as Server" (click if you will host game) or "Launch as client" (click if you will not host game)
Slaughter your opponent

Once a match is finish the stats are immediately uploaded. Money is transfered to your team treasury, star points are added to appropriate players, and ratings are adjusted.

[Chas in Cinti]

The only miniature painting I could ever get myself to do was for my Orc Bloodbowl team. I used to LOVE playing Blood Bowl. Haven't played in years, I'll run over and take a look. Oh, and I did get to 200 posts BEFORE my 5-year anny at this site... :)

[Katon]

Got an account, setting up a team. It's ages since I played Blood Bowl - it'll take me a while to get back up to speed.

[Whar]

The Basic Races

Orcs - Orcs are a bashie team. They are a step slower than Humans, most of the team will move about 5 spaces a turn. Their Black Orc Blockers are brutal and their Blitzers are solid. Orc Lineman are nothing special but still solid. The orc 9 Armor Value means they like to get close to their opponents and mix it up. Against many teams this mean knocking a lot of players out and gaining man power advantages late in the game. Due to poor Agility scores Orcs have 2 players on their team that have a shot of picking up the ball. If these two guys are not on the field getting the ball up can be an adventure.

Humans - Humans have a nice range of skills. Decent spd. Decent positional players. Good Blizters. And a solid stat line. Humans are the standard team and play well against most races.

High Elves - Good spd. Fantastic Agility. Can go end zone to end zone in a turn almost. Very good positional players. This team is very expensive which is bad to start but gives it strong potential down the road.

Wood elves - Pure speed. This team flys around the field. Can easily go end zone to end zone in a turn. The Pitch is 26 spaces long including endzones 3 wood elves (max number of players that can advance the ball is 3 on one turn) can cover 32 spaces in one turn. And those are your initial players with a few upgrades the wood elves can reach 36 to 39 spaces. Agility is just as strong as any elf team. Armor Values of 7 make this team a bit fragile.

Norse - strange team. All the players have Block which makes them nice and bashie yet the all the players have an AV of 7 same as wood elves. No clue how to win with this team. No to imply they are bad just that I do not know their strats.

Amazons - Fast team all the players have dodge. This makes them hard to lock down and can run right by you. Wood elves have players that can do the same but every Amazon player can.

Lizardmen - This is my main team. Lizards have a very strong front line in Sauruses. These guys have STR 4 which makes them tough to push around. They have a back line of Skinks. These guys are extremely fast and very tough to lock down. However if all skinks are eliminated then this team ceases being an offensive threat. The 1 Agl of the rest of the team means no one is going to pick up a loose ball any time soon.

Dwarves - 3 yards and a cloud of dust is a break away play for these guys. To call these guys slow is an insult to turtles and snails. The dwarves are a 'cage' style team like the orcs. That is they get the ball form a defensive perimeter around it and then walk it, and I mean walk, to the end zone. Most Dwarves have Block and Thick Skull which makes them tough to stop and tough to hurt. Dwarf team often see man power advantage towards the end of the game. Their Troll Slayers are wonderful.

Snotlings/Halflings/etc - These teams suck! But can be fun to play. There basic offensive is to give the ball to a small guy and have an Ogre/Troll/Treeman throw the little fella down field. If done correctly the little guy jumps up and scurries to the end zone. It is rarely possible to do this right. These teams have a high 'fun' factor with plenty of odd balls player types. This can be a welcomed diversion from more serious teams. At the same time these teams present genuine challenge to a coach that wants to try to win with them.

Chaos Dwarves - An extremely good team. All the linemen have Block and Tackle which makes them the best defensive linemen in the game. The Bull Centaurs are very good. If you can get the ball in their hands a score is almost guaranteed. Access to Minotuars and Trolls give added STR against opposing teams. Teams is a blend of speed and strength.

Skaven - An evil version of the Wood Elves. They have less STR than the elves and very weak linemen. This team wins by outscoring its opponent.

Those are the teams I have played

[Whar]

Gameplay tips

Be careful ending a player turn. Generally you need to click on the player to end his turn. If you click on an empty square by accident it will move the player. I have ended a couple of turns by moving my Kroxigor out of a tackle zone by accident.

The client is unforgiving. Once you select an option and move a space you are commited. If you selected move but wanted to blitz there is no way to go back and change it that I am aware of. If you have not moved a spaced or performed any action you can switch to an other player.

To use a re-roll outside the pop up window click on the spot showing the number of rerolls that you have remaining. In the case of blocking dice this is the only way to reroll a block.

Perform all non roll moves first. Since your turn ends on the first failed roll in most cases make sure to complete all moves that do not produce a turn ending situation first.

Protect the ball. Whenever the bowl is on the ground try to get a few linemen around it before going to pick it up. This has two benefits. First if you should drop the ball on your pick up attempt it might scatter onto a linemen giving him a second chance. Second if you do drop the ball and end your turn your line men might give you the protection you need to keep the bad guys off the ball and give you an other turn at picking it up.

Beware the out of bounds line. If a player is on the edge of the map and suffers a knock back directly out of play he is removed from play until the next score. Also he must survive an armor roll as the crazed fans pummel him until he can get to the safety of the team box. Keep in mind when playing teams with Frenzy (Dwarf Troll Slayers) that any player one space away from the edge can be pushed out too.

[Glengoyne]

Definitely interested - but very rusty ..
Hey Join the crowd. A disorganized mob of stunties could run the table against my team now.

[Glengoyne]

Oh and I should mention I'm a bit behind the eight-ball on this, as a thunder shower fritzed my PC's video card, and I won't be getting a new one until Friday.

[Airhog]

Well, I registered, but still no e-mail...

[BYU 14]

Question...

On the site it says you need to own the board game, wouldn't know where to find a copy now outside of Ebay, is this true or is that just a "disclaimer?"

[SirFozzie]

disclaimer, a CYA.

[BYU 14]

Got a couple of teams, are we going to form a formal FOFC league?

[Arctus]

I've made myself a couple of teams as well, and managed to get in three matches tonight.

[Glengoyne]

I'd like to get a list of everyone who is in, and then setup our own league with divisions and such. Essentially I'm thinking of bloodbowl american football style, where each team plays a set schedule. I don't know how well that would work, but I think that is how I see it working best. Say we put together a schedule and then everyone plays one game every so many days.

so two things...are you in....and what do you think of the proposed format.

[Whar]

I am in and the format sounds fine by me.

Coach name - Whar
Team Name - Darwin's Theory

[Alf]

I am in
Coach Name - Alf115
Team Name - Ye Olf NFL Boys (some Orcosh team) in the Ranked teams

PS : thing is, as I am living in France, most game time for me are at 9-11 pm french time (3-5pm your time)

[Arctus]

I'm in (barring an extremely aggressive schedule) and the format is fine.

[BYU 14]

I'm in (barring an extremely aggressive schedule) and the format is fine.

I am in too and agree on the schedule, 1 game a week, 2 max....

My teams are in unranked, Coach name BYU14

[Airhog]

My coaches name is Airhog
My team name is Orchish Snouts

[Glengoyne]

I'm definately thinking in the area of one game a week. They take some time and coordination to pull off.

Something that Whar mentioned to me is that we should be careful to only play these league teams against each other, in scheduled games because the players get better with experience. So if someone went and played 6 games a week outside the league, or even if a few players in the league played each other a lot their teams would improve with the experience. So the league teams should be limited to "sanctioned play". Well either that or only played with the Fumbbl login turned off, so stats and spps aren't recorded.

[Arctus]

I'm definately thinking in the area of one game a week. They take some time and coordination to pull off.

Something that Whar mentioned to me is that we should be careful to only play these league teams against each other, in scheduled games because the players get better with experience. So if someone went and played 6 games a week outside the league, or even if a few players in the league played each other a lot their teams would improve with the experience. So the league teams should be limited to "sanctioned play". Well either that or only played with the Fumbbl login turned off, so stats and spps aren't recorded.

Makes sense to me. Its easy enough to check your oponents record and verify that he's not paying non-league games with his team. I recommend anyone caught doing so be forced to continue the league with a brand new team.

[Katon]

I'm in, and the proposed schedule sounds fine. I'd also strongly agree with limiting league teams to only league matches - it's the only way to stop things getting unbalanced.

[Whar]

I will create a group tonight called Front Office Bloodbowl. PM me (Whar) with the team name you want to operate in this league. These are the league rules unless anyone objects.

No team may play extra games outside of the league sanctions games.
Team Wizards will not be allowed for the first season.
Only one game per week will be scheduled.
Each team is allowed 2 pre-season games to assist with starting money and better knowledge of your team.
League play will begin Sunday (08/21) with games needing to be complete by the following Saturday (08/27)
If the league has 8 or more teams we will play one game against each team followed by 2 tournaments. The top 4 in a play-off and the remainder in a best of the rest.
If the league has 7 or fewer teams we will play each team once and 1 or 2 teams twice to get to about an 8 game season.

Coachs are allowed to play Pre season games after 08/21 but must complete both of them prior to the first league game. They are not required. The benefit is a little extra money but you risk injury.

Fouling. Some people like it and some hate it. The league will have no hard rule on it. The game lets a coach commit one foul per turn. Often the foul is the 'smart' play and often it is done simply to injury an important player. The fans come to a match for both blood and bowl so we must provide for both. That means someone can by up 4 nothing and commits a foul on the 16th and final turn of the game.

If you are new to Bloodbowl stick to the more traditional teams. Many of the teams listed in the Java client are not 'official' and can out-right suck. Snotling, Halflings, Vampires, and goblins are not very competetive. Download the Living Rule book (google Blood Bowl Living Rules) and select a race from there. Most will do you right. Orcs, Humans, elves, and dwarves all field solid teams.

So if you are interested in league play PM me in the next couple days. Any team with 2 or fewer games is eligible. I will post the schedule and results of the weeks play in the Dynasty section. If any rule is objectable let me know or if any rule needs further explaination.

[Glengoyne]

We're the Black Powder Bulls.

My Chaos Dwarves prepare for their debut in the cellar.

[Whar]

Invites sent too

Orcish Snouts - Orcs - Airhog
Ye Olf NFL Boys - Orcs - Alf
London Mauler - Dwarves - BYU 14
Black Power Bulls - Chaos Dwarves -Glengoyne
Darwin's Theory - Lizardmen - Whar

[Arctus]

Whar,

Last night I sent you a PM requesting to join the league.

[Airhog]

Id like to play a game or 2 before the season starts, especially since I have never played blood bowl. Anyone up for a game saturday afternoon or sunday afternoon?

[Whar]

I will be on tonight and tomorrow Airhog.

Join the irc server ... irc.fumbbl.com ... the main channel is #fumbbl. I will be on around 6 pacific time. If any one is interested I have about 4 teams outside the league that I can play ranging from STR teams to SPD teams.

[Glengoyne]

Id like to play a game or 2 before the season starts, especially since I have never played blood bowl. Anyone up for a game saturday afternoon or sunday afternoon?
I'm interested. Since I have played bloodbowl,and I suck, you might offer my stunties the rare opportunity for a Touch down or two. I'm Pacific time, and I'm looking to be free Early Saturday afternoon/Late Morning or late Sunday Afternoon. I don't have any IRC setup at home, so we'll have to coordinate through PMs at FOFC. Hopefully before gametime, I'll have the FUMBBL IRC setup and working. I'll firm up my schedule tonight and send a PM.