[Mika]

OK, as a quick remedy, I've now added Hidden tags to all games within the page 9. Let me know if it works.

Please don't venture to former pages as they'll load slowly, only page 9 has been dealt with Hidden tags.

I'll probably do this for the rest of the pages when I have time.

[Mika]

HLPBowlers vs Raging Smashers (humie), Game 18, third quarter (up to turn 12).

Hidden Text: Show

And it's our turn to receive the kick. The standard deployment to the LoS, note the one lineman behind Spoon, whispering him what to do. He is the figurative devil standing physically behind him.


It's a kick (is it just me or does the humie look a bit depressed already?)


You know, you just gotta love dem orks. There's something sincere and authentic in them!


It's a good kick, landing directly on to our finish line. Moc Crak goes to screen the ball, while Swashmebuckle awaits for the command to pick it up.


Black Knight, Black Dynamite and Scourge flatten the front line. That's to be expected, but no stuns or injuries are inflicted.


Mammoth blitzes a Mighty Blow + Guard blitzer in attempt to remove him from the game. It's unfortunately only a push


Trak provides direct cover for Swashmebuckle, who picks up the ball. Don't fail me now Orc!


As for why, that's because if he fumbles the ball and it ends out of bounds, the audience will kick the ball, possibly even to humies!

Our 9th turn ends like this, with Spoon standing alone scratching his head. It was Trak who was supposed to tell him what to do. Note the stronger deployment on right side.


On their turn, the humies stand their players up, and manage to blitz Scotty.



That is also a push, so the first two blitzes have not really cleared the way.

Our turn #10

Swashmebuckle advances the ball further, and closer to the center.


The linos provide front cover, while in the question of back cover we trust in the stronger front cover, i.e. Spoon and the Black Boyz. Scared yet?


Mad Max and Mammoth then try to frenzy push a lino out of bounds to the gentle hands (and ironed boots) or the crowd. Mad Max rolls too well, and knocks the lino down.


He proceeds to close the center field in anticipation of the ball carrier switching over to the left side. We shall see whether the opposition reacts to this threat.


Remember when I said Spoon needs constant supervision gentle aid for peak performance? Well, Scourge does that here


Unfortunately, Spoon is too far away from the opponent to make a block. Thus he has to move one square to get connected with the lineman. Come on troll, you can do it!


He does! Wunderbar!

Dynamite and Knight make their consequent one step forwards moves to get connected and possibly to block something next turn - that is unless they are blocked first.


Scotty and Srihag then block down the opposition players next to them. Thanks to Black Dynamite, Srihag can do this with two dice, while Scotty had to deal with a single die.


And that's our 10th.

Opposition goes like this:


So Scotty goes down. Fair enough.

Their catcher runs in the middle of our pitch, behind the LoS. Now remember what I said about the back side of the cage? The one that relied on the LoS players not letting anyone through? Well, there you have it.


And it's not only one Catcher, there's two of them.


Finally, like Putin on his invasion to Crimea, the final deal is to keep the reinforcements route open. That's why Srihag gets blocked.


But the blitzer is a slippery one, and resumes standing on his feet, albeit a couple of feet further back.

Finally to test the limits of our LoS, there's a probing attack on Black Dynamite. Having block, he principally says GTFO with this dice.


It's our 11th turn

The plan has not changed, the ball must be brought to the opposition scoring line, and Swashmebuckle continues with steely eyed determination towards the LoS line where the stronger guys make their pay checks.


Like the fish cleaning the dirt from cachelot's teeth, so do our linos follow Swashmebuckle.


Hey Scourge, could you shove that lino away so that Mad Max can move?


"Okie-dokie coach!"

Yes young ones, you'll find our cage almost fully operational now!


Meanwhile on the right hand side
Given the STR4 blitzer humies have acquired (probably due to a large intake of steroids), the situation needs clearing. And Black Knight is just the kind of cleaner for the job. He blocks the first guy standing next to him, knocking him down on the process.


This allows Scotty to block the other blitzer that knocked HIM down last turn.


Revenge is a dish best served young, alive and kicking!

Uh, wait? Re-roll that!



Seeing a definite lack of POW here...

Srihag moves in to LoS to provide assistance for Black Dynamite


And finally Mammothtank makes the cage fully operational


Yes, I goofed. Should've done that earlier. Especially with that re-roll that could have back fired.

Spoon is not to block this turn. I repeat, do NOT let the troll block anything!

That's the end of our 11th.


The humies play dishonest game. The sort where you gang up on a player and punch them with impunity. Like Dynamite experiences here.


Scotty goes down once again, pray for Nuffle the armor holds!


And it does

That's their 11th in a nutshell.

Our 12th starts

Black Knight is having none of this dirty steroid stuff, and blocks the offender


Which allows Scotty to blitz again the guy who knocked HIM down.


"Did not get enuff of it, huh?"

Srihag then disconnects from the LoS, probably leaving astonished Black Dynamite behind. That's a 67% success probability for the dodge, with an automatic re-roll, so that's around 84 % IIRC.


Meanwhile, Swashmebuckle has moved behind the safety offered only by the Big Looming Guys.


That's our 12th right there.

A lino blitzes Scotty. This is starting to become some kind of habit. Well, we are sporting AV9 while the humies have AV8, so that's a trade I'm willing to make.


Black Dynamite ain't having any of that successive probing attacks.


"Humie go home or me make humie go home!"

Oh, a re-roll??



"Huh hur, me make humie go home!"

Turnover

[Mika]

HLPBowlers vs Raging Smasher (humie), Game 18, Final quarter (up to turn 16 with outcome)

Hidden Text: Show

Our 13th turn starts equally well. Come on now guys!


Hooray for Block. What would we do without you? Whact could we do without you?


Finally, Black Dynamite has had enough of these skull shenanigans, and blocks properly. That catcher goes doooown


Spoon, it's all up to you now! You have to spear head our assault on the humies!


The troll agrees for once. I mean, he hasn't provided disappointment for most part in this game?

The rest of the cage moves up in unison


Our lino shows to couple of more veteran orcs how it's done.


And he isn't done yet. He moves to assist further blocks. And makes Scotty more safe close to the pitch's border.


Scotty makes a daring one die block, but it's only a push. So ends our 13th turn.

One humie runs next to Black Knight. He probably attempts to tie him to that square. If that's the case, he succeeds, but probably receives a proper punch to the face.


Scotty is blitzed once again.


You'd think he'd get a Thick Skull skill after this match, but that's apparently more harder than it seems.

The ever friendly and assisting lino Trak goes down.


But that Orcish AV9 is tough to break, and he isn't even stunned by this block.

Like a wolf pack nibbling at the exposed joints of their prey, Mok Crak gets pushed at the other side of the pitch. Dem humies are like flies! They are everywhere but where your fist lands!


This guy prevents our expansion to left


While this guy becomes a road block in front


And that's their #13 there.

Wasting no time and giving no rest for the lino who just ran nearly half the pitch, Scourge makes his move and attacks the opposition while they are exhausted. That's the spirit, orc!


Spoon follows the suite. It's amazing, I'm now complaining that he doesn't screw things up!


The rest follow, leaving Swashmebuckle near the end zone


Here Mammothtank provides cover for the back side of the cage.


And here we can see Mammothtank re-rolling the injury roll of the opposition


Still nope

With Mammothtank prone on the ground, Mok Crak goes in to protect the left flank.


Black Dynamite delivers the comma ending the sentence.


It could be POW as well, but that's semantics.

That's our 14th done.

Now, let's see the action on the right side of the LoS, where a 3 vs 3 fair fight man vs orcs is going.

Trak goes down easily


Scotty gets pushed around


And Black Knight goes finally down.


It was a valiant effort boyz and you did your best 

Mok Crak baits a turnover here, but at the cost of his teeth.


Re-roll!



....

Well at least it's their re-roll gone now.

Three guys gather around Black Dynamite


And apparently beat the crap out of him too


Well it ain't going like in the text books boyz. Luckily no injuries or stuns, and it's our 15th turn

Scourge is once again the trail blazer


Mad Max moves to upper right corner of the cage


And once again Mika realizes he got the sequence wrong for a safe play. Mad Max should have moved only after the blitz result of the Mammothtank was known.


Which happens to be a POW this time. But it well could have been double skulls. We have seen him pull those stunts too!


This is the final greeting from Mammoth to the prone player. His boot bottoms say "Bad" and "Mofo" for those interested


The cage being complete, Swashmebuckle is once again safe to threaten the touch down.


But we opt to play time. Hsss, nobody tell that to 'umies!

Scotty makes a push, but that's it.


He isn't particularly prone to surfing, as Black Knight's body shields him from a direct attack.
The humies must blitz him from behind to push him towards the blitzer, who could then surf him. However, the 'umies should have more important things to blitz with the cage nearing their scoring line.

That's our turn 15.

They attempt to add people in front of our cage!




A worthy effort, but futile.

Mok Crak gets punched down once again. What is this, time to play punching bag or what?


Uh oh, that doesn't bode well for our heroic Right LoS players that have taken a significant beating in this match


Like a punch me Elmo, Scotty gets up and is smacked down once again


Black Knight is pushed to the border


And one more player is added to the mix. Well AI, the more you put them there, the less we have in front of our cage.


Fear not boyz, the end is nigh!

Our turn #16.

Check this action out. Mad Max moves one square.


Like that.

Observe how the path Mad Max opened is now tackle zone free.






Aw yeah, boyz get up from the pitch, it's the final turn of the game!

We deploy to a formation I call stupid AI defensive formation


Oh, a free chance of injuring their players?


Don't mind if we do! Mammoth, you go!

This end result here, with Mammoth lying on his back with a big flash symbol on him and an opposing player lying next to him tells the whole story. The first one did not work, Mammoth jumped on it, and that didn't work either.


A lino chooses to protect Mad Max from a blitz


While Trak provides assistance for Scotty.


This is it boyz! Our final stand! (For appropriate music, I recommend this)


I know we haf been through lot in diz game, but diz is da end. Today marks the day we stand firm, or die trying!

Opposition #16
The ball pick up succeeds


There in comes the blitz. It's Scourge!




Re-roll!

Scourge resists once again!


Black Knight gets pushed!


And that's the best they could do! We won!

Click here for the match outcome

Hidden Text: Show

Oooh no, superstars like us don't get paid nearly enough for the stuff we do


Re-roll!



That's better!

Our Most Valuable Player is Blackbelt Jones


And the SPPs are as such
Spoon and Black Dynamite caused injuries, Srihag and Swashmebuckle scored

Next we go against da elfies!

[Mika]

Alright, I have added hidden tags to all matches played. You should have easier time in browsing through the games played with this modification.

Page 8 image links are indeed broken and not recoverable through ImgSafe. Luckily Blood Bowl 2 has a built in recorder that allows replaying the matches, hopefully allowing me to take new screen shots. However, I'd first like to get the rest of the matches out of the way before fixing those.

And whoa there's been a lot of writing in the exploits of HLPBowlers. Being divided over half a year, it hasn't felt like that much at any point, it's just that when you try to go through them in a single evening...

[Scotty]

Hiding the posts made this whole thread instantly more readable, thank you.

[Mika]

Hey, it's better that people can read the thread! Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

I've also repaired the image links in the game against Crawling Scorers on Page 8. Since there is two other games to fix, I might do that tomorrow.

EDIT: Links to the Bronze Breakers match are now repaired.

EDIT^2: Links to Copper Hammers match are now repaired. All matches played should now be accessible.

Given the strong painkillers I've had to use to endure the pain associated with the wisdom tooth removal, we will have to see whether I can post the elf game tomorrow.

[Mika]

Blood Bowl II has been updated, and the team roster is more easy to follow. Everybody is visible, their skills and their player value is too! It's a welcome change! Additionally, the Necromantic team has been launched. So during the writing of this Let's Play, three more teams have been added to the game (Norse, Undead and Necromantic)

The current HLPBowlers roster looks like this:


Now you can boast your player value to everybody!

HLPBowlers vs Bright Silverleaves (High Elves), Game 19, First quarter (up to turn #4)

Hidden Text: Show

The Silverleaves team is a typical High Elf one. They don't have a big guy, and everything is polished to the perfection. I hate them already.


Their team stats do not display anything alarming or particularly dangerous towards us.


Since we are once again back in the line and sport a higher valued team, they get to pick the inducements


A Halfling Master Chef and Star Player called Dolfar? The Master Chef could potentially rob our game if he manages to steal all our re-rolls - the smell of well cooked food from the Elven pitch may be too much of a temptation for the hardest Orcs to ignore.

And Dolfar looks like this, so that you know who to punch boyz.


Given that the HLPBowlers sports several big fisted dudes, it is likely that the attrition of war Blood Bowl favors us. Hence we kick.


This is our line up, this time with more careful placement of players behind each other. It's not that we are particularly afraid of the elf bash (HAH!), but because we are afraid of dem elves dodging through our lines otherwise.


It's a kick!


And we could change the position of our players to match the elves'. Not much point in there.


Dolfar picks the ball, and the ball happened to land on him. Pretty much.


The elves reposition their players first to block our access before committing to breaking our lines


The line elf blitzes Blackbelt Jones, not only knocking him down, but also stunning him.






And before the information of the Blackbelt's unfortunate incident has faded, we already get a breakthrough attempt. It's an elf catcher, ready to pick up the tossed ball if it ever gets launched from their side. The problem for the elves is that they sent only one catcher, making this one quite easy prey for us.



Our Turn #1 starts with Rakclaw reinforcing the hole caused by Blackbelt falling down.



Seeing the opportunity, Mammothtank blitzes






Mammoth you are NOT allowed to jump. I repeat, do NOT JUMP! (This is to keep the line closed). The catcher is stunned by this blitz, eh, good enough I suppose.

Our right hand fellas get connected once again to the elves, while Swashmebuckle, Scotty and Srihag provide defense in depth.


And that's our Turn #1. We hand it over to the elves.

Elf Turn #2

The ball is brough slightly closer to the LoS, but the elves are not easy ones to tie into honest orc vs elf bashing competition. We don't get easy blocks on this one.


Their well statted catcher blitzes Black Knight




And this right here would be a turnover.

Our turn #2.

HLPBowlers does not tolerate such blitzing actions next to our LoS, so Scotty and Srihag deliver our response to this transgression






Remember that Srihag has Frenzy, so he blocks twice. That's some crowd surfing art right there. It's still very important that our defensive network remains intact so he returns back to the guard station Scotty was located in before.



Rakclaw moves back to Spoon to support his decision making


And it's a double push from Spoon.


Finally, Mad Max and Mammothtank take one step front to have that one more square of reach if needed for the next turn


That would end our turn.

Elf Turn #3

But so do the elves take advantage of our weaknesses, even they prey on the weak. The niggled and unskilled Rakclaw gets blitzed straight from the beginning.


Since the elf lineman has Wrestle, both players fall down but no injury rolls are performed and the elven turn continues. This is the reason why we have defense in depth, had it been a single player with no back up behind him, we would be looking at elves seeping through our line like nothing!

They seem to be extending to left


But that's pretty much all they could do as well.

Our turn #3

Mad Max has not forgotten the catcher in our side. He blitzes the nuisance, hoping for a player removal.


The block roll is good


But no armor break occurs, so he returns back to the guard station


Blackbelt Jones then takes a good old honest block


He manages to knock the elf down with Both Down, as he has Block and the elf doesn't.

Spoon takes a block action as well




Will you look at that grunt he is making!  Oh and the block was a stun.


As is becoming customary, Black Knight flattens one more. Scotty and Srihag ran to assist, that's because the elf has dodge and wrestle. Specifically both down could leave a gap in our defenses.




... which in the end was unnecessary caution as the elf was knocked out.

Our third turn ends with guys advancing and pressing for attack from the right hand side, which has less resistance


Elf turn #4

We see a reinforcing action towards right


A cheeky block against Spoon


Which was re-rolled to this


Aand the troll goes down once again. Luckily, given the numbers advantage we have, they couldn't press the attack further.

Our turn #4.

Spoon agrees to stand up, don't you Spoon?


Yes he does, good boy!

Blackbelt blocks an elf that had parked in front of him. Oh will they ever learn?


Given that Spoon is up, Rakclaw takes a block next.


We take the push thank you.

Scourge runs up for a flanking maneuver


Mad Max guards the catcher


Scotty moves further up to get connected


Determining that the center pitch is strong enough, Swashmebuckle moves to left to provide back up


...which becomes specifically important now that Mammothtank has a clear shot at the ball carrier


Nope nope nope


Re-roll!



As ridiculous as that is, it is enough. Dolfar doesn't have block!

Mammoth then sends his regards to the Star Player.

"With love from HLPBowlers"

The ball makes a very interesting scatter, and drops behind our front line. Now this is a very interesting development!

[Mika]

HLPBowlers vs Bright Silverleaves (High Elves), Game 19, Second quarter (Turns 5-8)

Hidden Text: Show

Elf turn #5

The elves stand up their players - well at least some of them - and probably panicked on losing the ball. Their next move is extremely risky and cheeky. It's just that these spoiled rich brats have no concept of pain or their actual physical prowess compared to other species.

The attempt to run past our lines and pick up the ball. Yes. They can do that occasionally.


Yes, they got there. How about the pick-up?


No, and the re-roll fails as well. Turnover

Well well well, power shifts quickly in this game. Our turn #5

Scourge advances, flattening a player.


You know Scourge, it would be really good if you managed to injure somebody. You would level up, and would gain new options of hurting people.

Blackbelt clears the path furthermore, knowing in his heart that even if he rolled a push, this will still contribute to the game, and possibly lessen the ridicule of him not being able to punch the pouncy elf to da face.


Mad Max takes one down on the left flank


Srihag continues on the right


And Mammothtank blitz-pushes one away from ze ball


Rakclaw pushes the final annoyance away


Spoon, would you kindly cover the left bottom corner of the cage?


He does, which allows Swashmebuckle to attempt picking up ze ball


Sure Hands saves our re-rolls again


Finally, Scotty moves in to the center. Another Mighty Blow blitzer is well received in the pitch center.


A fantastic turn.

Elf turn #6

We see movement in our backfield


And just as we finished moving Scotty to the center field, he is receiving a blitz


He goes down, allowing another elf to roam freely.


But but, they are attempting to block our path!






Stay still you wine drinking fairy! (And yes High Elves are ridiculously good at dodging)

Finally, our Turn #6 arrives.

The following images should capture the spirit of WAAAAGH!




Then Black Knight moves back to the center to lock in the downed players


Scotty takes one down


And moves to tie in another


Mammothtank makes a slight nudge towards Spoon, telling Spoon to get his ass on the front




Finally, Mad Max knocks the pesky catcher out




Our sixth turn leaves us in the center field, and the elves lying on the ground!


Elf turn #7

We do see one hopeful attempting to stop us. It's probably like this:


Just replace the goggles with armor and you know what I mean



Then another one stands up and takes one step further. The elves, they can be really annoying like that.


Luckily, Scotty has HAD it with these mothertrucking dodges in this mothertrucking match


It does get re-rolled, but hey, at least one re-roll is burned then.


Another escapes from Scourge


And we see a blitz against - drum roll - Scotty!




I can't believe it, Scotty is down again! We really need a jump up skill for him!

That's the end of their turn

Our turn #7

We start with Blackbelt Jones blocking away the opposition. What? They were asking for it


Oh!



A stat injury to a Star Player? Well done Blackbelt!

Scourge does not like to be tied, and blocks another away.


Still no SPPs there Scourge!

The pivotal block for this half is shown here. Black Dynamite rolls a push, meaning that we have to shift our direction. Going through those three elves there would require too much time which we don't have anymore! At least you got the elf away from Swashmebuckle.


Mammoth is the first to go


Mad Max runs to assist


Swashmebuckle moves in to the makeshift cage


... And then we block!

Black Knight takes one down


Rakclaw stuns another


Which clears path for Srihag to move in to assist the cage. Yes, he needs to dodge away, but he has Dodge. Nice to use some elfy skill against the elfs for once.


The icing of our figurative cake is Spoon blitzing at the end of this turn. Yes you can close your eyes now.


Of course, what else would you expect from him?


...

Wait!



    

I suppose Spoon fell down to fool the ref?

Anyways, it's a turnover. A stylish turnover if I may add.

The Elf turn #8 starts with a blitz. They pretty much have to try to stop us.



Blackbelt "Thou shall not pass!"

And we get another opportunist attempting to block our path


That's their #8.

Our Turn #8, the final turn.

Basic Math says that since Swashmebuckle has a movement of 5 +2 (Go For Its), and the score line is 8 tiles away, it's not possible for him to score. It has to be either Mad Max or Mammoth. He launches the ball to Mad Max:


Woot! Our first pass??!!



Unfortunately, Mad Max fumbles the catch

Re-roll!



And foiled again! Dangit Mad Max! You had a 67 % chance of catching it, TWICE!







Well at least we have had some attrition rate on the opposition in this game 

[Spoon]

Death really seemed to have cured my stupidity 

[Mika]

Death really seemed to have cured my stupidity 

You are now vulnerable, and that makes you more dangerous than ever.

[Mika]

HLPBowlers vs Bright Silverleaves (High Elves), Game 19, Third quarter (turns 9-12)

Hidden Text: Show

Our turn #9



Our receiving formation is like this. Most of you already recognize this as our offensive formation. And defensive formation for anybody else than those dodgers.

The elves throw the ball, and it's a high kick


Mad Max attempts to receive the ball


He fails.

As usual, we gather around the ball to help Swashmebuckle pick it up assist Swashmebuckle if he fumbles it up.


Ball being secured, we initiate the blocking actions. And no, Swashmebuckle didn't exactly pick it up at this point.






[Sigh] Sometimes even a knockdown is too much to ask.

Alright Dynamite and Blackbelt, engage an elf from both sides!

Srihag, blitz!


Second block provided to you by Frenzy!




Good, one elf out. Swashmebuckle, go pick it up now!


He succeeds! Great!

Elf turn #9

The elves uncharacteristically strengthen their center field and provide a second layer of defense


Oh the blitz? That's against Scourge


One of them dodges away from Black Knight's clutches


Which allows a second block straight in the middle of our defenses


Note that the elf doesn't have block or wrestle , so Scourge knocks him down, and it's a stun.

Turnover

Our turn #10

Black Knight starts to knock opposition down. Good


Oh, and an injury? What a wonderful surprise! What kind of injury is it?


A Badly Hurt elf, and Black Knight can once again live with a clean conscience


Our cage takes immediate advantage of the removed player


Scotty closes the cage, looking intently to the center of the pitch. Where ever you need a raging blitzing green skin, here you got a good one. Mad Max moves in to assist the cage as well.


Blackbelt knocks one down. Pay attention to the actions of this Black Orc during this half and maybe you'll learn something.


Hey Spoon, move a bit!


I take that as a no then. Mutters: Had to happen at some point

Like a mid range tactical bruise missile, Srihag moves in to blitz


You know what, I want that elf down for the beginning of the next turn! Sure, go wrestle with him Srihag! Make sure his armor gets extra muddy! 


Then Scourge knocks one down, but no dice on the injury. C'mon game!


The Orcish horde is very effective at knocking players down as can be seen from the aftermath of our #10 turn



Elf turn #10

Somebody attempts to stop us?


Then we see a dodge


And a blitz against Mad Max. It's the very same elf that wrestled Srihag to the ground!



Mad Max goes down.


It's our Turn #11, started by nobody else but Blackbelt


That elf is down again.

Scourge takes the responsibility of the next one.


Nope, could not break his armor

Mammothtank goes next, blitzing



 






A class act, it's miss all games for that Elf!

But cool guys do not lament or ponder what they have done, they have a job to do, and Mammoth's is trailblazing!


Swashmebuckle follows the suit


Our turn #11 ends in this position


Elf turn #11

A dodge


And given the apparent superior local strength, a blitz is mounted against Mammothtank


And Mammoth takes a beating, but is not even stunned


Then there's the inevitable long dodge, which works again.


That's their turn #11


Our Turn #12

Mammoth having already scored, I (inform the men and) instruct Scotty to blitz instead


Oh well


Then we just fill the gap, there's really no rush for us at this rate


Black Dynamite fills in to provide some needed muscle


Mad Max moves in to make it harder for the elf to dodge


And Trak is the backup


Scourge lands once again a clean hit


But the elf is just merely knocked down. You seriously need to up the ante, Scourge!

Spoon blocks one


But no. Not knock outs are achieved this turn.

Black Knight finally advances one step



Elf turn #12

They dodge one away


And blitz Mad Max


Which doesn't work very well either, so we are about even.

[Mika]

HLPBowlers vs Bright Silverleaves (High Elves), Game 19, Final quarter (Turns 13-16)

Hidden Text: Show

Our turn #13
Blackbelt continues the knock-the-opposing-elf-down tradition


It's a stun

Black Dynamite moves in to assist, and Scotty blitzes


Mammothtank advances to keep this elf player in check


Swashmebuckle steps up


And the rest follow. Black Knight punches a particularly well developed elf down here.


While Scourge keeps company for this elf


Mad Max performs a POW operation


... and that's our turn in the wrap. Nothing significant or interesting happened



Elf turn #13

It's an attempted dodge from the Mammothtank




Re-roll saves!

And we get a blitz against Mad Max


Which turns out to be an anticlimatic push


And one more elf runs to reach the ball carrier. He gets to the side


And that's it. It's our turn #14

Swashmebuckle hits it!


And the rest follow, even if it requires taking a go for it, looking at you Black Dynamite


Scotty removes the immediate threat around Mad Max. By blitzing, what else?




Scotty: You owe me!

And runs to screen of the bottom of the cage, Trak does not have any skills


Scourge follows the elf who just ran away


And Mad Max screens of another pathway


The question of the hour is will Spoon make it to the cage this turn?


He actually does!


And that's our #14. Still nothing significant happened. Although, not surprisingly, as the opposition has suffered quite an attrition on this match. But we're still looking for a bit more of that sweet sweet Kerr-runch!


Elf turn #14

A blitz was mounted against Mad Max


Oh no!


Oh, he is just Badly Hurt. Not worth Apoing at this point of the game. Last minute deaths have been known to happen...




Stay still you dodging gits!


Our turn #15
Blackbelt goes and knocks down that one pesky elf one more time



No injury. What the zog, game? I mean, that's like 8th time he's delivered a Mighty Blow block on the elf, and nothing but stuns!

Scotty, take that one guy down!


Well well well, we might have an elf symphatiser here in our midst. Re-roll that!


Scotty!       

Are you trying to lose us the game or what?

Turnover


Elf turn #15

As expected the elves attack the weakest link, Trak




But that's only a push


Perhaps it was the towering Spoon that scared this elf away


And this guy clearly does not want to get pushed to the crowd.



Our turn #16, do NOT screw this up boyz!

Black Knight goes to provide support


Scourge blitzes


He rolls well


Oh, an armor break?








He finally levels up! Huzzah for Scourge!

A Badly Hurt elf is lying next to him. He is quickly carried away by stretchers


Blackbelt! What the hell are you doing orc?!!


Re-roll!



No injuries either. What happened to his Mighty Blow?

Anyways, Swashmebuckle has seen enough incompetence for this turn that he does not risk the touchdown. Not even with a pass.


And our thrower scores again




Do the gorilla!


We may have to start looking for another thrower, Swashmebuckle is starting to hog up a lot of touch downs!

The elven losses are considerable




As opposed to our Mad Max dozing of in the injury pit



And we are once again kicking the ball, thus a tight defense network is needed. This one is called "missing one orc" formation


Swashmebuckle kicks


And we have an extra re-roll that we will never get to use. Wooo!


Elf turn #16

They form a sparse screen and pick up the ball


We see one escaping


And one blitzing Blackbelt Jones




Re-roll!



 

Oh what?





So Blackbelt's mojo was finally re-discovered!

Click here for the match outcome

Hidden Text: Show

We roll 4 for winnings


The game is 1-0, and Srihag gets the Most Valuable Player award! Congratulations Srihag!


The game stats are like this


And the total number of SPPs gained is significant for us


Netting us three level ups in total! Swashmebuckle, Scourge and Mammothtank, congratulations on your promotions!

[Mika]

The HLPBowlers level ups are as follows:

Click here for Scourge's level up

Hidden Text: Show

Scourge earns Mighty Blow



I love the Teal'c fashion he is having!

Click here for Mammoth's level up

Hidden Text: Show

Mammothtank rolls #10 for the level up. This means improved armor value, improved mobility, or any normal skill


For the blitzer, it is very important to stay mobile. So you get extra movement! Congratulations!



Now there's a chin to break ice with!

Click here for Swashmebuckle's level up!

Hidden Text: Show

Swashmebuckle rolls a double!


And gets guard so that he can also participate more in the bashing game, just by standing there!

The HLPBowlers roster looks like this after the game

[Mika]

The next match is against the dark dork elves

HLPBowlers vs Lighting Hearts (dark elves), Game 20, First quarter (turns 1-4)

Hidden Text: Show

We go against this merry little bunch of fellas today


Their players are not too skilled as of yet. A couple of Side Stepping persons will prove to be a nuisance to get rid of.


They hire Eldril Sidewinder, the amnesiac Star Player who goes on by helping any elves, despite having forgotten which faction he belonged to. A Bloodweiser Babe has been added to the mix as well.


"Horned Rat Gutters" stadium? 


This is Eldril. He can hypnotize people.


We won the coin toss, so we are actually kicking. Remember, it's elves. If we score quickly, I don't want to play defensive for the rest of the game. I much prefer the elves score quickly.


This is our defensive formation. As you can see, I've taken an extra square between the pitch border and the players, this is because of Frenzied Witch Elves.


And we go!


Well a Quick Snap ain't too bad


Elf turn #1

They start from the arrow formation


After some moves for pitch control, we see their first action. And it's nasty, their assassin attempts to stab Spoon!


Spoon's armor holds, but he definitely is at much greater risk of getting assassinated than he used to be.

The other witch elf picks up the ball. Luckily, as she won't be able to do anything worse


Having moved the players, we finally see the Blitz action. It's by nobody else than Eldril, and against Black Dynamite!


However, the outcome is somewhat anticlimatic


Finally, line elf defends the super star


Our turn #1

Since our defensive lines weren't broken, this is quite an easy turn. Rakclaw assists


And Scotty blitzes


And reduces the head count already by one. It's a knock out


And as much as the elves tried to protect Eldril, they found themselves in a situation where their defences crumble. Black Dynamite discusses the Blitz action with Eldril. With his fists!


Eldril goes back to the grass roots level.

Swashmebuckle goes to talk to Spoon. Can't imagine topics but I suspect it might have something to do with eating.


Srihag closes the right flank, as the witch would have difficult time attacking Srihag alone.


Mad Max and Mammoth reinforce the defensive line on the left


And Spoon blocks


Well I sort of counted on this and Spoon going down isn't actually a problem. Perhaps he'll be able to repeat the incident last time where he hurted somebody with Both Down?

Nope, the opponent is just stunned. At least the assassin is down for the next turn.

Turnover

Elf turn #2

We see the elves concentrating their players around the ball carrier


And Eldril runs back? What do they have on their minds?






"You will obey me!"

Great, Blackbelt must now break the hypnosis. He doesn't even provide tackle zones.

Then we get a blitz against Scourge




Which indicates that Scourge goes down. Will this be a breakthrough attempt?

Interestingly, no. Instead, it's our turn #2.



[Sigh] And I had such high hopes for you troll

Scotty, Swashmebuckle and Rakclaw reinforce the left hand side


Black Dynamite provides a flanking support for the right


Srihag moves in to assist


Mammothtank engages in the fisticuffs. What ever you do, don't lose to the zoggin' elves!




It's a stun. Good. Now don't jump, and everything will be alright.

Mad Max blocks Eldril


It's the second one that catches and injures him


Good. One less annoyance on the pitch.

Black Knight then blocks the last standing line elf on the right, not very successfully.


Blackbelt goes head to head against the witch elf


  

Re-roll!

Whatever, you can go wrestle with her.


Our second turn ends in this


Elf Turn #3

The first hopeful is running away from Black Knight. This is a grave receiving threat and must be dealt with.


The witch elf moves closer to the left

Are they attempting to dodge through our left flank?

The elves guard the ball in a very tight group


Hmmm, this could work to our advantage.

The second witch elf then blocks Mad Max, and Mad Max goes down


Our turn #3

Srihag checks the guy who got past our defensive line


The more effective defense is of course, to steal the ball from the elves.

Scourge takes one down like that


Black Dynamite does the same


Scotty blitzes the guy next to the ball carrier, he is the last line of defense


The result leaves something to be wished for.


Alright, push him then.

Swashmebuckle goes first in attempts to knock the second witch elf down


That's a push.

Rakclaw is next on the line, and that's two pushes


Black Knight moves to stop the elves from switching sides


And our wall-o-orc looks like this for the end of Turn #3


Elf turn #4

The scoring threat just laughs at our petty attempts at arresting him.


A blitzer blocks Scotty


Re-roll!



Nice. Scotty goes down with a one die block. Will they escape our clutches this turn?

Unfortunately, they had to attempt a one die block against Mad Max. It didn't go well for them


Turnover

Our turn #4

Did someone say punch buffet? 

Scourge blocks first the ball carrier


The witch goes down! The ball scatters next to the border!


Scotty rolls a push once again. He pushes the guy on the ball.

The does a lengthy scatter, and ends up next to the recently downed witch elf.

Mammothtank continues next with a block, attempting to push the elf Blitzer out of the pitch. Unfortunately, this was the fella who had Side Step. He literally side steps Mammoths push.


Black Knight moves in to tighten the loop


Blackbelt attempts to knock down the Witch elf again. No such luck today.


Swashmebuckle finally nails the direct hit


Yay, the witch is down!

Rakclaw moves in to assist the SNAFU at left hand side.


Srihag reaches the runaway once again


"You ain't passing us without a dodge check, pal!"

Black Dynamite blocks the assassin










Well, that Fear Maker met his maker

Black Dynamite levels up too


Spoon goes to assist the cage break up on the right hand side. Just get your ass over there troll, Guard is needed!


Mad Max makes it harder to escape skimming the border


And that's our turn #4.

[Mika]

HLPBowlers vs Lighting Hearts (Dark Elves), Game 20, Second quarter (Turns 5-8)

Hidden Text: Show

Elf turn #5

You know the reason why Witch Elves are annoying? It's because they have Jump Up skill, meaning that even if you knock them down, their movement is not reduced.


This one jumps up and picks up the ball from a tackle zone. Easy.


The next jump up blitzes Scourge


Who was apparently completely unaware that something like that could happen




Then there's the desperation block


Re-roll!

And it gets Scotty too


We see one line elf escaping the clutches of several of our players. Come on guys!


Our turn #5

Black Dynamite reinforces the fighting match going on in the right hand side


Black Knight runs into action by blocking one hopeful down


Blackbelt pushes another


Mammothtank goes next




and stuns the elf


Spoon attempts a turnover with this block


Close your eyes folk, this is gonna be a re-roll!



What do you know, Spoon isn't hampered by Loner either this time.



Beware of Spoon's wrist!



You know, it would have been far more useful had you done this in the first games than in the last ones!

And finally, Mad Max skulls the crowd surf attempt


Dangit!   

Turnover

Elf turn #6

They seem to be regrouping their forces as well


However, the one die blitz doesn't seem to work well


Re-roll!



So Scourge goes down.

So does Scotty


Stoopid lucky one die blocks

However, it is at this point when they simply ran out of elves. Note the prone players lying on the ground preventing the access behind our lines.

Our turn #6

Scotty blitzes first. The blitzer has to go back.


A push is good enough in this case


Check it out, the Elves are in 2x3 block, all they way to the pitch border. 

So Black Knight starts the blocking.












So they broke his hip! 


Yes, the Apothecary re-examines the patient


But this doctor agrees with the former one, it's a clear broken hip bone. The injured player will never be as fast as he used to be.

Now, what actually happened there? The Black Knight's punch actually stunned the player he hit, but this became a chain push which pushed the guy nearest to the border out, and it was the crowd who injured him. Note that it was also a prone elf who went out. Nasty game ain't it? Being prone doesn't protect you from chain pushes or from fouling.

Swashmebuckle runs in to capitalize on the possible ball scatter


Blackbelt moves to participate in the siege of elves


Black Dynamite makes it sure nobody will escape through the gaps


Srihag catches once again the fella who ran away.


Then Spoon takes a three die block. Come on you only need a push!




The witch is out! The witch is out from this game!




And she's Badly Hurt


Black Dynamite reinforces the top right corner of our siege ring


And Rakclaw does so too


That's our turn #6. Pretty awesome turn if you ask me. It could have only been better had the crowdsurfs been done with frenzied players, but alas.

Elf turn #7. Seeing a definite lack of players, eh?

The guy at the score line runs away once again. Luckily we reinforced the siege ring so that passes and breakthrough are quite impossible


Rakclaw then gets blocked, it's a three dice against block, first I've seen


Needless to say, push was selected.

And they ran out of actions. Our turn #7

Black Knight blocks once again


Black Dynamite pushes next


Rakclaw closes the escape route from pushes, from this point on they are going to get crowdsurfed if anyone manages a push


Swashmebuckle blocks, but this guy had side step. He falls down one square away from the border.


Scourge moves in to add some muscle to that corner


Scotty, anticipating a ball loss event, runs to scoring range.


And Blackbelt goes to foul!


It's probably not nice to be on the receiving end of Black Orc whacking you down with his bare hands.


Quick! The ref didn't notice! 

Srihag catches the guy at the score line once again


That's our turn #7

Elf turn #8

The guy at the score line escapes Srihag. Again!



Then we get a lucky two die against block


That knocks Black Dynamite down.

And it's our turn #8

Black Knight pushes


Spoon moves to guard


And Mammothtank blitzes the ball carrier




Here we actually take Both Down as the witch has Wrestle, meaning this wont be a turn over. The ball scatters out of bounds, and the audience kicks it very close to the opposition score line :  

Swashmebuckle blocks as he is sort of out of the scoring game


Nice Orcidas boots you got there, mister


And Scotty takes the opportunity, and runs for the ball


He scooooooores!




And it's half time!




I didn't realize we had already removed 5 of their players


But the knocked out guy comes back for the next half.

[Scotty]

Wooooo, getting **** done!

[Spoon]

haha, not a lot left of the elf team 

When a player gets injured by getting shoved off the field, does that still grant SSP to the one that pushed?

[Mika]

haha, not a lot left of the elf team 

When a player gets injured by getting shoved off the field, does that still grant SSP to the one that pushed?

No, SPPs are always granted to the person doing the injuring, which in this case would be the crowd. I bet the crowd  is enjoying their hard earned SPPs in the booze tent next to the border that HLPBowlers set up for them (crowd surf injury rolls +1). That tent offering cheap bad tasting strong moonshine is of course only valid on our home turf.

[Mika]

HLPBowlers vs Lighting Hearts (Dark Elves), Third quarter (turns 9-12)

Hidden Text: Show

We can finally start a proper offensive drive, deployment as usual.


It's a kick (yeah the dark elves are born taekwondokas, that's a aerial spinning reverse kick that just hit the ball)


They get perfect defense, but apparently their defense was already perfect


You know the story at this point, everybody gathers around the ball and then we block


Scourge makes a new acquaintance, the witch elf


It's just that the witch is skilled in wrestling, and does have jump up that prompted Scourge to wisely select push instead.

Blackbelt has the same problem of rolling turn over or a push.


Black Knight here is slightly more lucky, he gets to knock one elf down since he can't wrestle or block.


Scotty provides our blitz


Knocks the elf down and runs to assist


Black Dynamite then takes the last line of defense down


Mammoth closes the blitzing gap - or attempts to do so. Spoon, don't even think about it!


And that's our turn #9

Elf turn #9

We get a blitz near the ball! The witch elf assists!


Mokcrak goes down, allowing access to Swashmebuckle. Luckily the blitz is already spent


Scotty takes this one, but he's fine


And one dude reinforces the area where elves surround Scotty. Don't ask.


This time, Blackbelt not only pays attention, but also serves it with a fist!




No re-roll!

Turnover

Our turn #10

Scourge moves to assist


Srihag closes the cage in case this something goes horribly wrong.


Swashmebuckle moves to assist (D'oh on this movement)


And enraged Mad Max blitzes the elf blitzer. Get rid of him! Push him at least!


Yay us! The Orcish Horde shows its strength once again




I'm, of course, being sarcastic.

Spoon, try to scare crap out of that elf!


Mammoth blocks him again, but no dice - that elf just wont go down!


Black Knight then knocks the recently risen elf back to the ground

"And stay there!"

Blackbelt pushes


And Dynamite pushes


Seriously, what's wrong with you guys? You were doing so well on the first half!

Scotty creates a diversion in the opposition back field.


You know Scotty, this has usually netted a massive kill squad after the player. You sure you want to do this?

And that's our turn #10.

Elf turn #10

Well they did send a massive kill squad after Scotty. Even blitzed him! (Why AI why?)


Scotty stubbornly remains on his feet. At least we ain't getting knocked down either. It's just that our strategy relies more on that happening than the elves'.



Then we get one escaping the proximity of the ball, while the witch elf has moved to threaten our flank.


That's it from their part this time.

Our turn #11

You know, as much as I like witch elves (when I play Dark Elves), this one has gotta go. Mokcrak, provide assist!


Srihag, it's your show! This witch elf doesn't have sidestep so you are cleared to push her out!






She's knocked out. Good.

Swashmebuckle picks up the ball


He succeeds, so you already know that the cage will inevitably follow (with bash teams that is)


Spoon manages to take a step forwards this time


Black Knight is successfully tying three elf players, and knocks the dude without block or wrestle down, third time's the charm!


And Scotty dodges away


What? He made it! That's pre-posterous!


And so ends our Turn #11. Prepare for the inevitable cage grind to their half.

Elf turn #11

Scotty attracts the opposition like thirsty people attract vultures in the desert!


Whoa, that dude just abandoned his post in front of our cage!

Apparently, the opposition coach realized his mistake one second later, and fixes it by sending another player to fill in the only guard station.


This is probably to prevent us from throwing the ball to Scotty and thys scoring


Another player reinforces the station in our path. No matter


And Scotty gets blitzed




He is just down. No prob, boss. This one was a very successful ruse (for the AI, I doubt any human would have done that)

Our turn #12

Blackbelt attempts to remove the pesky Elf blitzer, but he's once again just pushing him. However, this led to another block by Black Dynamite, who didn't miss.


Now, will Spoon spearhead our advance and provide a formidable cage corner?


He does!  So the ball follows


And the cage followed


Oh, that's Black Knight knocking down the elf for the fourth time. This time it's a stun.

The twelth turn ends to a position like this


Elf turn #12.

I suppose they just realized that oh crap, the ball was south, not on Scotty!






But they just couldn't resist the temptation of leaving Scotty alone


Mammothtank gets blitzed


Uh uh, this might be bad, it's a direct hit


It wasn't that bad. He just fell down. Then the last lineman runs away


And that's their turn #12.

[Mika]

HLPBowlers vs Lighting Hearts (Dark Elves), Final Quarter (turns 13-16)

Hidden Text: Show

Roight, it's our turn #13
Srihag takes a block against the pesky elf. He could actually take two blocks, but this time one was enough.


Disappointingly, this aerial departure resulted only in to a stun.


Scourge here attempts to lose us the game


Re-roll!

Yeah, that's better.


It would have been even better had you injured that elf.

Mad Max then closes the left hand bottom corner of the forming cage


And the ball follows soon afterwards


Everything being closed up, Spoon blocks


And Mammoth blitzes from the ground






But it's still just a stun.

Our 13th ends with us being in a closed group formation.


Elf turn #13

We do see a bunch of running








But I just don't see the point why the elves would like to get into contact with Orcs. Especially if we outnumber them.

Blackbelt is blitzed


But eh, that's nothing, especially with a one die.


And it's our Turn #14

The unshaken Blackbelt pushes the blitzer away


Black Dynamite clears the path on the right hand side


Scotty gets to pay back some of the bruises he got deep in the opponent side




It's a knock down. Bruise from bruise, eh?

Scourge becomes the new top right hand man orc in the cage


The ball follows, as do the rest


Srihag runs in to provide assistance


So Mad Max blocks the pesky side stepping and fending line elf


Just wrestle him down. I want him prone for the next turn!

Spoon excels here in double pushes


And that's our #14 turn there.

Elf turn #14

They are regrouping to our front again!


Then again, they could be trying to remove Mammoth from the pitch




...

Or run away from him


Not really seeing the point here elves!

Our turn #15

This guy found himself between two black orcs. That's not good for your career!


Scourge pushes this guy away


Mammoth blocks the blitzer who blitzed him. He just doesn't like to get blitzed from behind




Alright Mammoth, I think you've made your point!

Scotty blitzes then. That dodge, you know elf, doesn't help you here!




Scotty goes further up to catch another elf in his tackle zone


The ball handling you can probably imagine


Black Knight closes the blitzing gap


The rest of the turn is about making history. Or making history of our opponent.



That wrodge didn't help against Srihag either.


Spoon gets a three die


Sadly, no injuries, knock outs or stuns resulted.

Our #15 ends here to this position.


Elf turn #15

We see some regrouping, but I believe most of their players are just too far away.



Mad Max is blitzed


But that's nothing.


Wonder what's the point of this then?


And it's our turn #16.

We of course, want to leave something as a goodbye gift for the elves.




That's a bruise from us, and the elf is stunned

Scourge blitzes, and manages a push


He moves to aid Spoon


And Mammoth closes the gap


Scotty runs


Swashmebuckle follows


The fact that orcs pass in a game against elves is of course an insult towards elves.


Swashmebuckle succeeds in passing


Scotty fumbles the ball! Yes, re-roll!






Yeaaaaah!

The attrition happened only on the first half, we didn't get anybody out on the second


And we have the standard defensive play, no witch elves around this time.


We kick


And it's a blitz! For us!


Who would we like to kill today?

Srihag attempts to rid the world of this elf


It's a clean hit, but no injury


Our back up line then takes one step forwards


And our blitz is over

Elf turn #16





Hey, leave Scourge alone!

They manage to pick up the ball just in front of everybody's nose


And there comes the blitz against Scourge


Scourge probably is laughing at this point


"Dat da best you can do elvies?"

We see somebody running


And somebody attempting a breakthrough


Sigh.


Today really wasn't the dark elves' finest hour

Click here for the match outcome

Hidden Text: Show

Our MVP is Trak


We got quite a load of SPPs from this game - including pass


And that's our roster after the match.


Congratulations, Black Dynamite and Scotty leveled up!