see https://boardgamegeek.com/plays/bygame/user/zorcon/subtype/All/start/2017-01-01/end/2017-12-31
maybe do a 2016 post retroactive or later in january?
Showing posts with label Video Game. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Video Game. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 2, 2018
Thursday, November 13, 2014
FLGS Used Score
I have a new FLGS!
Earlier this year, my FLGS of 30+ years closed its doors. A few weeks ago, my son went to Guardian Games for the first time. They have a huge space and Deathbot and I took our time taking it all in.
We both had a little bit of coin in our pockets and were looking for deals.
I searched through the Warmachine and Warhammer 40K used bins. I found two things of interest:
Warwitch Siren Cryx Solo for $6 (Retail $11.99) and a...
Tau Empire Sniper Drone Team (in metal) for $6 (Retail $41.25). Both were complete un-assembled models (minus packaging)
From the video game section, Deathbot scored:
"Gauntlet Seven Sorrows" for Xbox (the first) for $5 and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" RPG for Game Boy Advance
All-in-all $21 spent between the two of us and a nice pile of booty taken home.
Earlier this year, my FLGS of 30+ years closed its doors. A few weeks ago, my son went to Guardian Games for the first time. They have a huge space and Deathbot and I took our time taking it all in.
We both had a little bit of coin in our pockets and were looking for deals.
I searched through the Warmachine and Warhammer 40K used bins. I found two things of interest:
| Image taken from internets without permission. |
Warwitch Siren Cryx Solo for $6 (Retail $11.99) and a...
| Image taken from internets without permission. |
Tau Empire Sniper Drone Team (in metal) for $6 (Retail $41.25). Both were complete un-assembled models (minus packaging)
From the video game section, Deathbot scored:
"Gauntlet Seven Sorrows" for Xbox (the first) for $5 and "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" RPG for Game Boy Advance
All-in-all $21 spent between the two of us and a nice pile of booty taken home.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
DC Universe Online Review
This is posted on behalf of Laertes...
Character Creation:
This can be the heart of a superhero MMO and this one is adequate. You've quite a variety to choose from, and at this stage you choose not only your appearance, but your faction (Villain or Hero), your power set, your starting Weapon skill, your movement skill (Flight, Superspeed, or Acrobatics), and your starting mentor (there are 3 for each faction, and it impacts your quest lines). While you have a great deal of items to choose from, you character is still going to basically be human(oid), so no crab people or centaurs or mermaids. Likewise there’s three basic body types and three basic sizes within those types, so you cannot go too crazy with sliders for eyebrow shape or distance or things like that. You can really get in to different types of skins and costumes for your character as well, but do not be too caught up in that at the moment, because DCUO does something a little differently.
When it comes to your superhero “looks” most games do not have the same feature of WYSIWYG like a fantasy MMO does. That is, if your character has a cape, he ALWAYS has a cape. DCUO just combined that. So the gear you pick up and are wearing will be reflected on your character . . . if you wish it to be. By default, if you pick up a helmet, and put it on, your character will now appear with that helmet. But you also have a Style tab and you can lock changes out. Gear also comes in two forms: the regular form (which adds stats, etc.) and a “style” form, which does nothing aside from change the appearance. But regardless of the appearance, if you’re wearing a cape that adds abilities, even if you've selected a different style from the Style tab, you’re still getting the benefit of those abilities. You are still wearing that cape. But that does mean that, by default, by the time your character is level 10 it likely doesn't look like what you created to begin the game . . . except for one aspect. Your color scheme is ALWAYS your color scheme. So if you chose an Iron Man red/gold scheme, even if you later are wearing an ancient Greek helmet . . . it will be in that red/gold scheme you picked out initially.
Control Scheme:
I admit that this took some getting used to, and initially I did not think I would like it. Clearly it was designed to accommodate console game pads and I thought that this might not be a good translation to the PC. Surprisingly it works though. Mouse look is always “on”, but unlike some other games (which still have quite a few menus or mouse interactions on the screen) the keyboard in DCUO is minimized. I think where they really succeeded though is with targeting. The targeting system is quite fluid: you mouse over it and it is targeted. You can “lock” your target with the Tab key but there is no specific need. This makes combats quite free flowing, and especially works well with movement powers like flight. You hit number keys for your powers, which might seem like something of a handicap, but you don’t have that many powers or toolbars compared to most games. You have 6 power slots (1-6) total, with a slot for consumables and a slot for an activated item (Trinket). That’s it.
The game also has no auto-attack: you want to hit someone, you need to click the mouse. Left-clicks are melee attacks and right-clicks are ranged attacks. There is also blocking and block breaking. Indeed combat is basically a game in to itself, as there are numerous combos you will need skill to perform – but it can feel like a bit like combat is nothing but button mashing. It does not feel like your standard MMO where you go in, hit auto attack, and then use various powers for the rest of the combat. It’s almost the opposite – you need to use various Skills and then use your powers in between.
Powers:
This is what really can make or break a superhero RPG. In DCUO the power sets are divided in to three primary groups based on the Role the character will play: Controller, Healer, Defender. If this sounds like the “holy trinity” from back in the days of EQ, it is, but there are a couple of additional twists thrown in. First off, every character will always have at least two “loadouts”, gained at level 10: a “damage” role and a role based on your power style (Controller, Healer, Defender). You can flip back and forth (but not in combat) and it essentially gives everyone character a “solo” mode (usually Damage) and a “group” mode (usually the other). It should also be noted that the individual powers themselves are NOT simple and have quick descriptions. That Ice blast that just does damage, for example, may be modified by the role that the character is in or stack with other effects the character has. In some cases the power can change completely: someone with a base Sorcery power casts Circle of Protection in Healer mode and Circle of Destruction in Damage mode (it is the same power).
That being said, the power sets are therefore not “pure”. A Controller power set like Gadgets can suit a DPS role quite well, as can some of the Healer power sets. It is going to come down to your individual play style and what you can control and what works for YOU: there is no one BEST power set for each role. Really – they’re just different. Any or all of them can have melee attacks, or ranged attacks, or knock backs, or stuns, or AoE attacks. About the only thing that is given is that ONLY a Healer power set will heal, for example. In addition, each power set is going to have two power trees within it that you are not going to be able to completely fill, so everyone with a Fire set is not going to necessarily have the same powers.
There is a rock/paper/scissors aspect to it. Each Role has an advantage over, and is vulnerable to, one of the other roles. If the Defender is the rock, for example, then the Healer is the paper and the Controller is the scissors. This primarily comes up in PvP (more on that later).
A note on the Controller: while that power set does indeed have crowd control abilities, the primary focus is Power restoration. A good group needs all three types because the Defender will hold aggro, the Healer will keep the Defender alive, and the Controller will keep everyone supplied with Power to keep all of their abilities going.
Skills:
In addition to choosing a power set, at character creation you will also choose your initial weapon skill set. I say “initial” because unlike your power set, at level 10 (and beyond) you can choose to invest in another set of weapons later. Each weapon style has both melee and ranged aspects to it, although the special moves for each are different (and can be purchased by you). It is mainly a matter of choice, as is a power set: the ranged weapons are perhaps a bit better for Healers and Controllers but again you do not have to be that way, as you can select Martial Arts or Dual Wield and still have ranged attacks. If you have more than one weapon skill you switch them by just equipping the correct weapon. There is no ammunition or the like to worry about.
Your Speed skill is set at character creation. Of the three, I’m somewhat disappointed that teleporting (like in Champions Online) is not an option. They all work in somewhat similar fashion: you turn on the ability (you can leave it on all the time if you’d like, although you will slow down in combat), and then move around. Superspeed and Acrobatics get a super “leap” when they jump, but you need not worry as I don’t think you can die from falling damage at all (you can land with a satisfying crunch though). With Flight, you really are moving in three dimensions, and you can move up and over and through things. It can be handy for engaging certain NPCs who don’t have very good ranged weapons . . . just fly above them and let loose. They can knock you down but they have to get a special attack off. The other two powers don’t have as much advantage in combat, as it’s harder to run/climb up a wall and then be facing the right direction to attack. But rarely do you get kind of stuck like you can with Flight . . . that being said though, I still think Flight has a clear advantage, although perhaps some later skills help the other Speed skills.
Leveling:
After going through an introductory tutorial adventure (which you cannot skip, unfortunately), you start in Metropolis or Gotham City. From there you have the standard variety of quests to go through, a few of which are exploratory, but more are along story lines based primarily upon which mentor you have. What is interesting is that in many cases both Heroes and Villains will have quests in the same area, usually with different objectives – so the Gorilla troopers are not hostile to the villains, for example. Many of the quests will conclude a section with entering in to an instanced zone, usually with one or more bosses at the end. These can usually be done solo, although some of the opponents can be particularly difficult because of their special abilities (they almost all do something different) or the special objectives, and it is sometimes advisable to wait to gain a level or two before attempting some of the more difficult instances.
In addition to quests for knocking out the opposition, there are a series of exploratory quests and there are a series of collection quests. The latter can be easy to overlook as the spawns for these locations are not fixed and it is easy to miss them when flying overhead.
A note on the PvP server: it’s not that fun. Remember where I said that your newbie quests sometimes cause you to go to the same areas? That doesn't change in PvP, and so leveling is very hard on the PvP server, especially as a villain. You WILL be attacked by level 30 players at every opportunity. Seriously, why do it? You can play on the PvE server and still level and PvP when you want to.
Which brings us the queuing system. We've seen other games where you enter a queue for PvP battles. DCUO has that also (two types, more on that later) but brings in a queue system for a number of instances. You queue up for a story line with 2-4 other players (you don’t have to be in a group) and it loads it up and runs you through that instance together. I really like this concept, although I can see how it might get perhaps a bit repetitive – but it’s a good way to get experience. At every level that the instances open up (they start at level 5 and go through level 20) it will give you a quest that encourages you to compete in it (just once).
There are two additional types of PvP instances. “Arena”, where you use your main character, and “Legends”, where you use a special unlocked character. You only start with one, but can buy additional Legends characters with currency earned in game or with real money (Station Cash). This gives you the opportunity to play Two Face or Future Batman, and there are a series of different games (Iike Capture the Flag, etc) you can play. It’s quite interesting and makes it feel “lower risk” since everyone is kind of on the same playing field.
The level cap is 30, and leveling up to that cap is not particularly strenuous. Each time you level you will get either a Skill Point or a Power Point (very rarely both). Power points can be spent in either of your two power trees or, after level 10, a special “Iconic Power” section that lets you take certain power boosts or abilities from famous DC characters. Skill points are spent either in Weapon skill trees or in Speed skill trees. The Speed skill trees either give additional Speed abilities or possibly additional Powers that derive specifically from that Speed ability. Someone with Flight, for example, could take a Dive Bomb attack ability that would do damage out of the Speed tree.
You don’t need to group for most of your leveling, although doing so speeds up the process considerably. The quest system is quite generous – if you and I are on the same quest, and not grouped, and we end up attacking an NPC that we both need, we’ll both get credit. So when you do group, you can blow through the quests fairly quickly. Groups are really only necessary for the Bounties and some of the PvP events, as otherwise the queue system will create them for you. You can easily solo your way to level 30.
There is the standard looking for group system and channel, although one thing that is somewhat innovative is the use of the Combat Rating (CR). This is an aggregate of both your level AND the gear that you have, so most groups will not ask for a “level 30 healer” . . . there are a ton of those, after all. They will ask for a Healer with a “CR 93+” or something like that.
Free to Play:
As it is a Sony game, anyone with any SOE account likely has some Station Cash in the balance. There are three levels of players: a basic Free player, a Premium player, and a Legends player. The Free player is what you start with, and is limited to a certain amount of cash and only 2 characters slots. That’s about it. A Premium player is someone who has purchased something with Station Cash at some point – the cash limit is still there but the character limit changes to 6. If you exceed the cash limit you will see cash in “escrow” . . . meaning that you cannot buy really expensive stuff without being a Legends player. A Legends player is someone who pays a monthly subscription fee.
What you end up buying with Station Cash is small things like special gear (mainly cosmetic), special items for your Base, re-spec tokens, or keys for these Promethium lockboxes you sometimes can loot. But primarily what you can buy are Downloadable Content Packs (DLCs). These content packs contain extra content (duh) but each of them contains one or more new power sets. If you are a standard Free player you will only have access to a certain subset of the available power sets – the others come from DLCs. So if you want to be a Light Controller (like the Green Lantern) you’ll need to get a DLC. These are basically $10 worth of Station Cash. Other than that, there’s not really much to buy.
The cash limit is likely what you will notice the most. Because of the limitations of the crafting system (see below), you won’t have many times you will want to go to the auction house to grab some gear. But when you do check it out . . . you can’t afford it. The market is driven by level 30 players who have a LOT of cash (as you've little to spend it on before then) so expect some pretty serious inflation. How serious? Well you may have a cash limit of $2000 and be looking at gear for auction at a minimum of $30000.
Crafting:
Crafting is . . . odd. The trend in many games is to have a robust crafting system that encourages a massive secondary market for player built items. That is not DCUO. There is a crafting system yes, and it is primarily used to create item enhancements (your more advanced gear can have different “sockets” for these improvements). And like many games it relies on gathered resources to use as raw materials for these items. These are various “bits” which you need 8 of to make a “byte” (yes, clever, I know). But they are basically random spawn, and they are RARE. My highest level character has not managed to gather 8 of ANY raw material. This really discourages crafting until you are much higher in level or can run more instances to get loot.
Other details:
There are numerous other details. You get a Base too (Player housing) that you can furnish and have them in different sections of the city. There are Bounties that can be collected (special NPC bosses that spawn . . . bring friends and watch out for them). There are Leagues (guild of heroes). I didn't go in to the practice areas at your headquarters or the mechanics of some of the powers. Or the races that each Speed skill can engage in. But there’s a lot there – you can tell they wanted you to pay for this game at some point.
Replay:
This might be the weakness in DCUO. While it might seem fun to go out and create a bunch of characters, they’re going to start out in a very similar manner. You start with the same tutorial which gets you the first 3 levels. After that it depends on your mentor, but the quest lines basically are in the same areas, and after a while they begin to intersect with one another. So you might start with a Circe magic-related quest line but still get a Lex Luthor or Joker quest line later. Because there is also no one “best” power set, and it takes you a while to gain significantly different powers, it feels like your first 10 levels are very similar regardless of the character you have created. It helps if you change factions and mentors, but still if you’d like to level up several characters at the same time I really don’t recommend it. Play one for a while, then play some others . . . but eventually you’re going to likely want to invest in those DLC packs simply to get some variety interjected. I do hear that there *is* still quite a bit to do at level 30, so it is not like there is no end game.
Conclusion:
This has to be one of the more robust, “casual style” of MMO games. The solid mechanics and stable controls mean that it is an easy game to get in to with limited time and feel like you are really making progress. While at the same time if you really want to put some time in to it you can make a lot of progress, but this is one game where the casual gamer can make it to the level cap in a pretty reasonable amount of time.
| Image taken off interwebs without permission. |
Character Creation:
This can be the heart of a superhero MMO and this one is adequate. You've quite a variety to choose from, and at this stage you choose not only your appearance, but your faction (Villain or Hero), your power set, your starting Weapon skill, your movement skill (Flight, Superspeed, or Acrobatics), and your starting mentor (there are 3 for each faction, and it impacts your quest lines). While you have a great deal of items to choose from, you character is still going to basically be human(oid), so no crab people or centaurs or mermaids. Likewise there’s three basic body types and three basic sizes within those types, so you cannot go too crazy with sliders for eyebrow shape or distance or things like that. You can really get in to different types of skins and costumes for your character as well, but do not be too caught up in that at the moment, because DCUO does something a little differently.
When it comes to your superhero “looks” most games do not have the same feature of WYSIWYG like a fantasy MMO does. That is, if your character has a cape, he ALWAYS has a cape. DCUO just combined that. So the gear you pick up and are wearing will be reflected on your character . . . if you wish it to be. By default, if you pick up a helmet, and put it on, your character will now appear with that helmet. But you also have a Style tab and you can lock changes out. Gear also comes in two forms: the regular form (which adds stats, etc.) and a “style” form, which does nothing aside from change the appearance. But regardless of the appearance, if you’re wearing a cape that adds abilities, even if you've selected a different style from the Style tab, you’re still getting the benefit of those abilities. You are still wearing that cape. But that does mean that, by default, by the time your character is level 10 it likely doesn't look like what you created to begin the game . . . except for one aspect. Your color scheme is ALWAYS your color scheme. So if you chose an Iron Man red/gold scheme, even if you later are wearing an ancient Greek helmet . . . it will be in that red/gold scheme you picked out initially.
Control Scheme:
I admit that this took some getting used to, and initially I did not think I would like it. Clearly it was designed to accommodate console game pads and I thought that this might not be a good translation to the PC. Surprisingly it works though. Mouse look is always “on”, but unlike some other games (which still have quite a few menus or mouse interactions on the screen) the keyboard in DCUO is minimized. I think where they really succeeded though is with targeting. The targeting system is quite fluid: you mouse over it and it is targeted. You can “lock” your target with the Tab key but there is no specific need. This makes combats quite free flowing, and especially works well with movement powers like flight. You hit number keys for your powers, which might seem like something of a handicap, but you don’t have that many powers or toolbars compared to most games. You have 6 power slots (1-6) total, with a slot for consumables and a slot for an activated item (Trinket). That’s it.
The game also has no auto-attack: you want to hit someone, you need to click the mouse. Left-clicks are melee attacks and right-clicks are ranged attacks. There is also blocking and block breaking. Indeed combat is basically a game in to itself, as there are numerous combos you will need skill to perform – but it can feel like a bit like combat is nothing but button mashing. It does not feel like your standard MMO where you go in, hit auto attack, and then use various powers for the rest of the combat. It’s almost the opposite – you need to use various Skills and then use your powers in between.
Powers:
This is what really can make or break a superhero RPG. In DCUO the power sets are divided in to three primary groups based on the Role the character will play: Controller, Healer, Defender. If this sounds like the “holy trinity” from back in the days of EQ, it is, but there are a couple of additional twists thrown in. First off, every character will always have at least two “loadouts”, gained at level 10: a “damage” role and a role based on your power style (Controller, Healer, Defender). You can flip back and forth (but not in combat) and it essentially gives everyone character a “solo” mode (usually Damage) and a “group” mode (usually the other). It should also be noted that the individual powers themselves are NOT simple and have quick descriptions. That Ice blast that just does damage, for example, may be modified by the role that the character is in or stack with other effects the character has. In some cases the power can change completely: someone with a base Sorcery power casts Circle of Protection in Healer mode and Circle of Destruction in Damage mode (it is the same power).
That being said, the power sets are therefore not “pure”. A Controller power set like Gadgets can suit a DPS role quite well, as can some of the Healer power sets. It is going to come down to your individual play style and what you can control and what works for YOU: there is no one BEST power set for each role. Really – they’re just different. Any or all of them can have melee attacks, or ranged attacks, or knock backs, or stuns, or AoE attacks. About the only thing that is given is that ONLY a Healer power set will heal, for example. In addition, each power set is going to have two power trees within it that you are not going to be able to completely fill, so everyone with a Fire set is not going to necessarily have the same powers.
There is a rock/paper/scissors aspect to it. Each Role has an advantage over, and is vulnerable to, one of the other roles. If the Defender is the rock, for example, then the Healer is the paper and the Controller is the scissors. This primarily comes up in PvP (more on that later).
A note on the Controller: while that power set does indeed have crowd control abilities, the primary focus is Power restoration. A good group needs all three types because the Defender will hold aggro, the Healer will keep the Defender alive, and the Controller will keep everyone supplied with Power to keep all of their abilities going.
Skills:
In addition to choosing a power set, at character creation you will also choose your initial weapon skill set. I say “initial” because unlike your power set, at level 10 (and beyond) you can choose to invest in another set of weapons later. Each weapon style has both melee and ranged aspects to it, although the special moves for each are different (and can be purchased by you). It is mainly a matter of choice, as is a power set: the ranged weapons are perhaps a bit better for Healers and Controllers but again you do not have to be that way, as you can select Martial Arts or Dual Wield and still have ranged attacks. If you have more than one weapon skill you switch them by just equipping the correct weapon. There is no ammunition or the like to worry about.
Your Speed skill is set at character creation. Of the three, I’m somewhat disappointed that teleporting (like in Champions Online) is not an option. They all work in somewhat similar fashion: you turn on the ability (you can leave it on all the time if you’d like, although you will slow down in combat), and then move around. Superspeed and Acrobatics get a super “leap” when they jump, but you need not worry as I don’t think you can die from falling damage at all (you can land with a satisfying crunch though). With Flight, you really are moving in three dimensions, and you can move up and over and through things. It can be handy for engaging certain NPCs who don’t have very good ranged weapons . . . just fly above them and let loose. They can knock you down but they have to get a special attack off. The other two powers don’t have as much advantage in combat, as it’s harder to run/climb up a wall and then be facing the right direction to attack. But rarely do you get kind of stuck like you can with Flight . . . that being said though, I still think Flight has a clear advantage, although perhaps some later skills help the other Speed skills.
Leveling:
After going through an introductory tutorial adventure (which you cannot skip, unfortunately), you start in Metropolis or Gotham City. From there you have the standard variety of quests to go through, a few of which are exploratory, but more are along story lines based primarily upon which mentor you have. What is interesting is that in many cases both Heroes and Villains will have quests in the same area, usually with different objectives – so the Gorilla troopers are not hostile to the villains, for example. Many of the quests will conclude a section with entering in to an instanced zone, usually with one or more bosses at the end. These can usually be done solo, although some of the opponents can be particularly difficult because of their special abilities (they almost all do something different) or the special objectives, and it is sometimes advisable to wait to gain a level or two before attempting some of the more difficult instances.
In addition to quests for knocking out the opposition, there are a series of exploratory quests and there are a series of collection quests. The latter can be easy to overlook as the spawns for these locations are not fixed and it is easy to miss them when flying overhead.
A note on the PvP server: it’s not that fun. Remember where I said that your newbie quests sometimes cause you to go to the same areas? That doesn't change in PvP, and so leveling is very hard on the PvP server, especially as a villain. You WILL be attacked by level 30 players at every opportunity. Seriously, why do it? You can play on the PvE server and still level and PvP when you want to.
Which brings us the queuing system. We've seen other games where you enter a queue for PvP battles. DCUO has that also (two types, more on that later) but brings in a queue system for a number of instances. You queue up for a story line with 2-4 other players (you don’t have to be in a group) and it loads it up and runs you through that instance together. I really like this concept, although I can see how it might get perhaps a bit repetitive – but it’s a good way to get experience. At every level that the instances open up (they start at level 5 and go through level 20) it will give you a quest that encourages you to compete in it (just once).
There are two additional types of PvP instances. “Arena”, where you use your main character, and “Legends”, where you use a special unlocked character. You only start with one, but can buy additional Legends characters with currency earned in game or with real money (Station Cash). This gives you the opportunity to play Two Face or Future Batman, and there are a series of different games (Iike Capture the Flag, etc) you can play. It’s quite interesting and makes it feel “lower risk” since everyone is kind of on the same playing field.
The level cap is 30, and leveling up to that cap is not particularly strenuous. Each time you level you will get either a Skill Point or a Power Point (very rarely both). Power points can be spent in either of your two power trees or, after level 10, a special “Iconic Power” section that lets you take certain power boosts or abilities from famous DC characters. Skill points are spent either in Weapon skill trees or in Speed skill trees. The Speed skill trees either give additional Speed abilities or possibly additional Powers that derive specifically from that Speed ability. Someone with Flight, for example, could take a Dive Bomb attack ability that would do damage out of the Speed tree.
You don’t need to group for most of your leveling, although doing so speeds up the process considerably. The quest system is quite generous – if you and I are on the same quest, and not grouped, and we end up attacking an NPC that we both need, we’ll both get credit. So when you do group, you can blow through the quests fairly quickly. Groups are really only necessary for the Bounties and some of the PvP events, as otherwise the queue system will create them for you. You can easily solo your way to level 30.
There is the standard looking for group system and channel, although one thing that is somewhat innovative is the use of the Combat Rating (CR). This is an aggregate of both your level AND the gear that you have, so most groups will not ask for a “level 30 healer” . . . there are a ton of those, after all. They will ask for a Healer with a “CR 93+” or something like that.
Free to Play:
As it is a Sony game, anyone with any SOE account likely has some Station Cash in the balance. There are three levels of players: a basic Free player, a Premium player, and a Legends player. The Free player is what you start with, and is limited to a certain amount of cash and only 2 characters slots. That’s about it. A Premium player is someone who has purchased something with Station Cash at some point – the cash limit is still there but the character limit changes to 6. If you exceed the cash limit you will see cash in “escrow” . . . meaning that you cannot buy really expensive stuff without being a Legends player. A Legends player is someone who pays a monthly subscription fee.
What you end up buying with Station Cash is small things like special gear (mainly cosmetic), special items for your Base, re-spec tokens, or keys for these Promethium lockboxes you sometimes can loot. But primarily what you can buy are Downloadable Content Packs (DLCs). These content packs contain extra content (duh) but each of them contains one or more new power sets. If you are a standard Free player you will only have access to a certain subset of the available power sets – the others come from DLCs. So if you want to be a Light Controller (like the Green Lantern) you’ll need to get a DLC. These are basically $10 worth of Station Cash. Other than that, there’s not really much to buy.
The cash limit is likely what you will notice the most. Because of the limitations of the crafting system (see below), you won’t have many times you will want to go to the auction house to grab some gear. But when you do check it out . . . you can’t afford it. The market is driven by level 30 players who have a LOT of cash (as you've little to spend it on before then) so expect some pretty serious inflation. How serious? Well you may have a cash limit of $2000 and be looking at gear for auction at a minimum of $30000.
Crafting:
Crafting is . . . odd. The trend in many games is to have a robust crafting system that encourages a massive secondary market for player built items. That is not DCUO. There is a crafting system yes, and it is primarily used to create item enhancements (your more advanced gear can have different “sockets” for these improvements). And like many games it relies on gathered resources to use as raw materials for these items. These are various “bits” which you need 8 of to make a “byte” (yes, clever, I know). But they are basically random spawn, and they are RARE. My highest level character has not managed to gather 8 of ANY raw material. This really discourages crafting until you are much higher in level or can run more instances to get loot.
Other details:
There are numerous other details. You get a Base too (Player housing) that you can furnish and have them in different sections of the city. There are Bounties that can be collected (special NPC bosses that spawn . . . bring friends and watch out for them). There are Leagues (guild of heroes). I didn't go in to the practice areas at your headquarters or the mechanics of some of the powers. Or the races that each Speed skill can engage in. But there’s a lot there – you can tell they wanted you to pay for this game at some point.
Replay:
This might be the weakness in DCUO. While it might seem fun to go out and create a bunch of characters, they’re going to start out in a very similar manner. You start with the same tutorial which gets you the first 3 levels. After that it depends on your mentor, but the quest lines basically are in the same areas, and after a while they begin to intersect with one another. So you might start with a Circe magic-related quest line but still get a Lex Luthor or Joker quest line later. Because there is also no one “best” power set, and it takes you a while to gain significantly different powers, it feels like your first 10 levels are very similar regardless of the character you have created. It helps if you change factions and mentors, but still if you’d like to level up several characters at the same time I really don’t recommend it. Play one for a while, then play some others . . . but eventually you’re going to likely want to invest in those DLC packs simply to get some variety interjected. I do hear that there *is* still quite a bit to do at level 30, so it is not like there is no end game.
Conclusion:
This has to be one of the more robust, “casual style” of MMO games. The solid mechanics and stable controls mean that it is an easy game to get in to with limited time and feel like you are really making progress. While at the same time if you really want to put some time in to it you can make a lot of progress, but this is one game where the casual gamer can make it to the level cap in a pretty reasonable amount of time.
Saturday, July 20, 2013
State of the Pitch
This post should have gone up about a month ago, but I kept pushing it back. We have finished our first season!! Where do we stand? What will happen in season 2?
After botching my fifth game (out of 6) I assumed I wouldn't make the playoffs. But I won my last game and the team ahead of me in the standings lost their last game, propelling me into 2nd place and a post season game!
The bad news was in spades for the Amazon team. They dominated the entire season, but faced me in the last two games, and now had to face me for a third in the playoffs.
A few days later we set out to the final game of the 1 season. While not as bloody, I continued to crush the Amazons. By the end of the game it was tied 1-1 and the Orcs caused 2 casualties and 1 death. I don't remember if we were in overtime yet, but I was 1 or 2 turns from scoring (to win the game). However, Lord Grimskull decided to concede, and I agreed.
The next day, the way the game ended did not sit as well with me. I even accused my friend of being unsportsmanlike!! I regretted saying that. I also did not know that most of the other players were so unhappy with the "RNG" (random number generator). Again, before playing this season, I was blissfully unaware of such a demon.
We have taken a short break from the league. When (if) we pick up we are taking new teams and starting over--Two teams had taken too many injuries (Amazons and Necromantics), and the Orcs were too far ahead. The Dark Elf player didn't want to be the only experienced team, so we are all playing new teams.
What about my Orcs? Well, I took them into the Auld World League. So far I have played 2 games (Nurgle +200TV over me and Chaos =TV)... lost them both. I took no permanent damage (caused some), earned good SPPs, and took in 110k in prizes. I have enough to buy a back up thrower and goblin, putting me at 15 players, but I plan to play another game or two before I do. I have a Black orc with 2 SPPs and a fractured skull--I might replace him first.
After botching my fifth game (out of 6) I assumed I wouldn't make the playoffs. But I won my last game and the team ahead of me in the standings lost their last game, propelling me into 2nd place and a post season game!
The bad news was in spades for the Amazon team. They dominated the entire season, but faced me in the last two games, and now had to face me for a third in the playoffs.
We split our first two games--The Amazons handedly winning the first, and my orcs destroying the 'Zons in the next game (causing 3 casualties and 2 deaths by the end of the 5th turn).
Lord Grimskull withdrew from the match at that point. I don't blame him! But that was my first experience of someone conceding. I have never played in one of the on-line public leagues... where this is apparently common.
A few days later we set out to the final game of the 1 season. While not as bloody, I continued to crush the Amazons. By the end of the game it was tied 1-1 and the Orcs caused 2 casualties and 1 death. I don't remember if we were in overtime yet, but I was 1 or 2 turns from scoring (to win the game). However, Lord Grimskull decided to concede, and I agreed.
The next day, the way the game ended did not sit as well with me. I even accused my friend of being unsportsmanlike!! I regretted saying that. I also did not know that most of the other players were so unhappy with the "RNG" (random number generator). Again, before playing this season, I was blissfully unaware of such a demon.
We have taken a short break from the league. When (if) we pick up we are taking new teams and starting over--Two teams had taken too many injuries (Amazons and Necromantics), and the Orcs were too far ahead. The Dark Elf player didn't want to be the only experienced team, so we are all playing new teams.
What about my Orcs? Well, I took them into the Auld World League. So far I have played 2 games (Nurgle +200TV over me and Chaos =TV)... lost them both. I took no permanent damage (caused some), earned good SPPs, and took in 110k in prizes. I have enough to buy a back up thrower and goblin, putting me at 15 players, but I plan to play another game or two before I do. I have a Black orc with 2 SPPs and a fractured skull--I might replace him first.
Thursday, May 16, 2013
Blood Bowl League Batrep Day 4 - Necromantics vs Amazons
Another game completed in our Blood Bowl League. These two teams are currently leading the league--The Playoff slots are slipping away from me! The points are close, and anyone could make the post season, but only if there is an upset.
Here is Lord Grimskull's Batrep for his second game vs Laertes' Necromantics...
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Prologue:
This was a game set for disaster from the start and I guess for everyone involved. To paint the picture, Laertes has been work'n hard to actually get our game together and it was all working out, but yesterday at 3 when we played the game it was anything but. Basically I've been spending the entire bit of last week trying to get my internet fixed after (while helping a buddy) I contracted a mighty virus. This thing by itself didn't do much, nothing my anti-virus couldn't take, but somehow someway... it managed to send our public IP from our router to what I assume is a remote server that could both monitor when I was online, but also hammer the ever loving blood out of our router. To the point that no matter what we did locally (at the time) could fix it. I was two reformats in and several attempts (including an IP change from the ISP) when Laertes and I played our first game.
This thing was tragic, the lag and hiccups were so bad I couldn't reliably control my guys, including finishing setting up my line. It seemed to come and go in play-ability and I was ready to forfeit the match but Laertes urged me on to stick it out. To be fair it was a pretty exciting match if you could ignore the lag. Sadly however on turn 13 or 14 my net finally crapped out and DCed me with no hope of re-establishing a link to the game so we could finish. At that time we were 1-1 (like we were in the current game) but the ball was in Laertes's hands and he didn't have such terrible injuries.
So to fix our net we traded out the router and Bam, everything is fine. We'd been reading (though some wouldn't care to admit) that there was a chance that the somehow the router itself had been compromised and was the center of the problem. I don't know networking or anything like that well enough to comment, I'm just happy I can use my net and not be afraid that I'm going to loose everything.
-----
The replacement game was today, still 1-1, but now Laertes had serious injuries. The honest truth though is the dice seemed to rule out player skill or tactic almost completely this game. I'm not afraid to admit I got out played, and at first out diced. A lot of Defender Down rolls put me at an 8v11 early in the first. Only through complete luck did I manage a blitz that also put the ball in my hands and it turned into a game of lock down. It seemed like at every move Laertes had a counter, and while I'm getting a little better of expecting ball movement, it was very little of what I was doing this game.
The second half didn't start off any better to be honest. He punched up a good kick off and drove it far right for me. looking at my setup I could either grab the ball with my catcher (surviving a dodge roll and the pickup) or a GFI with my thrower. I had a feeling in my bones that the dodge roll wouldn't make it, I hadn't been making many of them all game, so I went with the GFI and boom down. I'd already used my reroll earlier in the turn to stop an attacker down so I was Kapoot. Before I knew it Laertes was swarming, picked up the ball with a WW and was well on his way. I needed a very specific set of circumstances to happen to even try to stop it, which was to push a guy off a blitzer so she could blitz. Even then, she was only throwing 1 dice, sure I had a reroll but you know. I get a defender down, plus an injury on the WW and I pickup the ball... complete luck. It didn't take Laertes long to grab the ball off her again and I was stuck in yet another do-or-die situation, this time my only chance required a successful dodge roll, and before it even went off I called a fail (it did). That was the first touchdown and it was like turn 12 or 13.
At the start of the next round I count my players, 10, okay so I'm not doin too bad, glad I picked up that spare. but I've never been a 2 turn scoring type so this is going to be rough. I take my chances with a pass play and it works, get a linewoman deep and Laertes' only chance is to get his super ghoul next to her in a GFI, he fails and it breaks his collarbone. Holy cow super luck again. by the next set I think I'm back to 11 and he's down to 8? I don't remember right off hand. But we're so close to the end of the game he'll need to 2 turn it and gets unlucky with a blitz pretty much ending it in 1-1.
The gist of this game.... luck, no strategy just luck. It seemed like Laertes could throw Defender Downs all day long till it was clutch then it was all pushes, you'd have to see the first half to understand that. Then he gets both of the worst injuries this game completely by luck. I know it's the name of the game but yiesh. x_X
Here is Lord Grimskull's Batrep for his second game vs Laertes' Necromantics...
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Prologue:
This was a game set for disaster from the start and I guess for everyone involved. To paint the picture, Laertes has been work'n hard to actually get our game together and it was all working out, but yesterday at 3 when we played the game it was anything but. Basically I've been spending the entire bit of last week trying to get my internet fixed after (while helping a buddy) I contracted a mighty virus. This thing by itself didn't do much, nothing my anti-virus couldn't take, but somehow someway... it managed to send our public IP from our router to what I assume is a remote server that could both monitor when I was online, but also hammer the ever loving blood out of our router. To the point that no matter what we did locally (at the time) could fix it. I was two reformats in and several attempts (including an IP change from the ISP) when Laertes and I played our first game.
This thing was tragic, the lag and hiccups were so bad I couldn't reliably control my guys, including finishing setting up my line. It seemed to come and go in play-ability and I was ready to forfeit the match but Laertes urged me on to stick it out. To be fair it was a pretty exciting match if you could ignore the lag. Sadly however on turn 13 or 14 my net finally crapped out and DCed me with no hope of re-establishing a link to the game so we could finish. At that time we were 1-1 (like we were in the current game) but the ball was in Laertes's hands and he didn't have such terrible injuries.
So to fix our net we traded out the router and Bam, everything is fine. We'd been reading (though some wouldn't care to admit) that there was a chance that the somehow the router itself had been compromised and was the center of the problem. I don't know networking or anything like that well enough to comment, I'm just happy I can use my net and not be afraid that I'm going to loose everything.
-----
The replacement game was today, still 1-1, but now Laertes had serious injuries. The honest truth though is the dice seemed to rule out player skill or tactic almost completely this game. I'm not afraid to admit I got out played, and at first out diced. A lot of Defender Down rolls put me at an 8v11 early in the first. Only through complete luck did I manage a blitz that also put the ball in my hands and it turned into a game of lock down. It seemed like at every move Laertes had a counter, and while I'm getting a little better of expecting ball movement, it was very little of what I was doing this game.
The second half didn't start off any better to be honest. He punched up a good kick off and drove it far right for me. looking at my setup I could either grab the ball with my catcher (surviving a dodge roll and the pickup) or a GFI with my thrower. I had a feeling in my bones that the dodge roll wouldn't make it, I hadn't been making many of them all game, so I went with the GFI and boom down. I'd already used my reroll earlier in the turn to stop an attacker down so I was Kapoot. Before I knew it Laertes was swarming, picked up the ball with a WW and was well on his way. I needed a very specific set of circumstances to happen to even try to stop it, which was to push a guy off a blitzer so she could blitz. Even then, she was only throwing 1 dice, sure I had a reroll but you know. I get a defender down, plus an injury on the WW and I pickup the ball... complete luck. It didn't take Laertes long to grab the ball off her again and I was stuck in yet another do-or-die situation, this time my only chance required a successful dodge roll, and before it even went off I called a fail (it did). That was the first touchdown and it was like turn 12 or 13.
At the start of the next round I count my players, 10, okay so I'm not doin too bad, glad I picked up that spare. but I've never been a 2 turn scoring type so this is going to be rough. I take my chances with a pass play and it works, get a linewoman deep and Laertes' only chance is to get his super ghoul next to her in a GFI, he fails and it breaks his collarbone. Holy cow super luck again. by the next set I think I'm back to 11 and he's down to 8? I don't remember right off hand. But we're so close to the end of the game he'll need to 2 turn it and gets unlucky with a blitz pretty much ending it in 1-1.
The gist of this game.... luck, no strategy just luck. It seemed like Laertes could throw Defender Downs all day long till it was clutch then it was all pushes, you'd have to see the first half to understand that. Then he gets both of the worst injuries this game completely by luck. I know it's the name of the game but yiesh. x_X
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Blood Bowl League Batrep Day 4 - Orcs vs Dark Elves
Orcs vs Dark Elves II
The rematch of my Orcs vs Wintervoid's Dark Elves was played today. I was confidant going into this game as the first go around was a 4-0 blow out--Although I did sustain 2 deaths in that match. For this game my goal was to:
- Punch, punch hard, and punch often (as all Orc teams should).
- Keep in mind the speed of the Dark Elves--While they aren't the fastest team out there, they are the fastest team in our league and much faster then the computer opponents the Orcs always seem to face.
- Start on defense (If I have the choice) as I am usually better at it, and it gives me time to widdle down the opponent for a second half player advantage.
- I chose not to buy a 12th player. I had 60k in the bank saving for my 3rd re-roll.
With that, on to the game...
First Half:
I set up with the troll and 2 black orcs on the line of scrimmage and everyone else deep, double covering TZs as tightly as possible. I rolled Perfect Defense on the kick-off and moved the three on the center line to my right in order to square up against his elves. The kick went deep and bodies crashed. I easily knocked down the elves, but none were going off the pitch. I lost my +1 MA Blitzer and was quickly down a player. Wintervoid moved to my right which is now the week side and after knocking down most of his guys I made a throw away 1 die block and failed. This unexpectedly left a bigger whole on my right.
The elves poured down the right side of the pitch, but I managed to crash in and knock down ball carrier (a Runner) and knocked down the deep Line-elf. But I was not able to get to the ball. I was in position to out number Wintervoid on my next turn and start my drive down the pitch.... However he made a beautiful (and lucky) play! His Runner dodged out of a TZ, dodged into the space where the ball was, pick it up, dodge out, dodge again and throw the ball to the Line-Elf, who ran it is for a TD!
OK, not what I expected, but I still have 4 turns to tie the game before half. I set up and realized I was still down a player. So I set up strong to my left and as expected, Wintervoid kicks right. I throw a few blocks and position defensively before running my Thrower up (with a GFI) to get the ball (which requires my last re-roll). He is a little more out in the open than I would like, so I throw 3 squares to my +1 AG Blitzer... Failed Catch! Wintervoid failed to get the ball and I manage to get the ball and my guys to the left of the field and march down. We spend a couple of turns ramming into each other and I suddenly find myself down to 9 players! On my turn 7, my ball carrier is 13 squares away from the endzone. I block hard and manage to get almost every elf down that is near the ball. My Blitzer needs to blitz the last standing elf to make a run down field. He makes it and I figure it would be better to GFI now as it will put me farther away from the Dark Elves. The bad news is I failed the roll, the good news is Wintervoid couldn't get to me, the bad news is now I can't reach the endzone. I tried a far fetched play to have the troll throw the goblin near the ball and then pick up to score, but that plan ended on the first attempt to block an Dark Elf. End of the half, 0-1.
Second Half:
None of my orcs recovered from KOs, and I am lining up 9 orcs vs a full team. I set up strong to the left again, leaving a Blitzer and a Thrower to cover the weak side. The kickoff result was Blitz! Wintervoid went deep getting at least 2-on-1 coverage on both my weak side players. He blitzed and KOd another Blitzer leaving me with 8 players before I even started the second half! Luckily it was a touchback, so I placed the ball in the hands of my last Blitzer with 4 Black Orcs as a running wall.
I decided to push it hard and go for a quick point, hoping to get my KOd guys back and set me up for a second pont opportunity. I had an opening that required a dodge and a GFI to win... The dodge worked but I splatted in the endzone!
On Wintervoid's turn he capitalized on my poor positioning (I was banking on a score) and pushed a Black Orc off the field and KOd another Ork! The Dark Elves picked up the ball and moved it about 5 squares down field. I had a shot at the ball carrier but got a Pushed result. Then my Troll tried to shore up my dwindling defense with a 2 die block, but rolled double skull (my third or fourth of the game).
To make matters worse, two elves ganged up on a Black Orc (one die block) and KO'd my 5th player! Everyone else on my team was knocked over on that same turn. I started my 16th turn with 6 players on the field, all prone. I didn't have a chance to stop the ball, so I passed my turn. Game ends 2-0, Dark Elves.
Post Game:
I felt like I had a good game, and honestly Wintervoid did to, but this could have been easily a 2-1 win for me. I can not think of any glaring mistakes, but my opponent didn't make any either. Its dice that did me in this game. The Coup de gras was the KOs... I got ZERO KOs or Injuries against the Dark Elves and they got 5 KOs on me?!?
I rolled well for winning being on the loosing side, but am still short 10k for a re-roll. It is hard not to buy 1-2 more players with what happened in tonight's game.
Next Up:
Back to Back games vs Amazons. They are currently leading the league, plus Lord Grimskull has played one less game--If he looses, I will still be in third place, but he will drop to second. No matter the outcome of his next game, it will not effect my game plan.
Amazons are the slowest team (besides me) and the weakest AV. My plan is to grab as many girls as I can while I march up the field!
Monday, May 6, 2013
Blood Bowl League Batrep Day 3 - Dark Elves vs Amazons
Lord Grimskull has written a Batrep for his recent Blood Bowl game...
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Elves vs Ladies Part Duex
So I entered this game a little wizened by my experience with [Draxar], most notably that while I love to play the Zons bashy they are still pretty frail and that I need to take this into account.
We flipped and [Wintervoid] won the toss and opted for me to kick off. I setup in a standard array, blitzers on the sides, linewomen setup for optimum 2 roll blocks, and my catcher deep just in case. [Wintervoid] setup accordingly, putting some space on his left (my right) and putting a blitzer and his witch there (I'd have to try to blitz that, forget it) and a good spacing to combat my lineup.
So boom, the kick! I get a chance to reset my line up, and not paying attention to where the ball is going I send my catcher up to the line to help begin my elf bashing wall. Well, I should have paid some attention, because the ball sailed right into the hands of his receiver maybe 3 squares from the line on the left side, no need to pickup and in good position... crap.
Next his first block he throws in the game dumps one of my left side blitzers, not just down but an injury first block of the game, and now there's a growing hole on my left side. Not a particularly good looking start for me but it's still early.
There's some fighting as we maneuver to the left that ends in catastrophe for me when one of my blitzer throws a double skull block, rerolls, and double skulls again opening up my left side completely uncontested as his witch strides down field and eventually for a touchdown. All this in the first two or maybe three turns of play.. I could tell it was gonna be a rough game.
The rest of the first half is a slow, slow crawl for me to score, getting it finally on the last turn in the half. It was a sludge fight with players on both sides getting hit hard and me finally having to push portions of his team off the pitch entirely to actually gain any maneuvering space. [Wintervoid] on 3 occasions had knocked the ball out of my hands and I think by turn 4 or 5 I had burned all 4 of my rerolls just to try to stay in the game.
The second half started and as the dust cleared though it was evident that of the two teams mine had taken a significantly less bashing than [Wintervoid]s as I'm able to field a full 11 and he's down to 8. Initially as I setup to kick off I throw all my meat on his right side, a ploy I hoped would drain most of his resource and distract him as I clicked to kick deep left. While he did adequately prepare for a bull rush on the right side of the field he still manage to field enough coverage to have men in the right places.
The kick! another doozie, I'm seeing a pattern with zon kicking! he gets to move 1 square on the kick and adjust accordingly, now there's a lineman on the line with my women, with only 1 tackle zone. the ball flies waaaay out of bounds, and is thus given to the nearest dude, the darned lineman. Panicked as now I see he has a straight line to my endzone on a MV7 vs my team of MV6s and he has 4 ag.... As he moved his guy nearly to the edge of his running distance I freaked and began monitoring the movements of every zon on my team. I could see that with just enough Oomph I had 4 or 5 zons who could both position and give one a chance to 2 dice blitz (but none in ranger were blitzers x-X) I could tell [Wintervoid] knew this, as with his limited resources he began tackle zoning all my options. I got a lucky break when he couldn't get away from a tackle zone which limited the number of zons he could lock up.
So after gauging who was the best choice I setup for the blitz, the first linewoman made it safely, but the blitzer... I don't know I click blitz but it must have been a "go for it" move or something because the moment she hit him she just dropped, turn over. My heart sank, I knew there was nothing I could do to stop this elf who was mere squares away from my endzone.
Suddenly! before I was even really aware I heard the buzz of a turn over. Somehow the ball handler had taken a spill and turned over the ball! I was flummoxed but quickly moved folks into position, the shear number of zons giving me plenty of wiggle space to setup a box around the ball and pick it up. The rest of the game was a slow crawl back up field. At this point the Elves were down to just 7 and even with some amazing placement which stalled out my ability to drive up field I just had too many zons for him to do anything to get the ball back.
The take away: I don't know what happened tonight, it seemed like even with AV8 my zons were really putting some hurt on his elves. I did some more passing this game because I didn't feel safe just running the ball up field, and especially with how well [Wintervoid] was positioning and blitzing. I think he had one blitzer actually get dodges through 3 tackle zones in 1 turn.
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The final score was 1-2 in favor of the Amazons. I looked over the match record and noticed that the Dark Elves sustained 6 Stuns, 8 KOs, and 1 casualty while the Amazons only sustained 1 KO--These are some tough ladies! I am really looking forward to playing them... My Orcs play the 'Zons in back to back games on the last two games of the regular season.
Sunday, May 5, 2013
Blood Bowl League BatRep Day 3 - Necromantics vs Orcs
Here is another Blood Bowl BatRep written by Laertes!
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Pre-game thoughts:
The preliminary scouting reports did not look promising. Since our opening game the Orcs had now doubled our Star Player Points and picked up key skills. They now had 4 players at level 2 versus only 1 on our team. That they had to replace two players was likely the only mitigating factor. That and fact that at least we were seeing them in game three of the season, rather in game six! While the Orcs were riding high, our team was somewhat the worse for wear. After having only rolled a “2” (twice) for the last game's winnings we had only 90,000 in the treasury, which was well short of the 140,000 we needed for another re-roll (again boys and girls, buy them early when they are cheap!). That and, in the last game, continuing our trend of not being able to make regeneration rolls a Zombie was going to have to miss this game, leaving us with only 10 – so I bought a replacement Zombie to bring us up to 11 for the start of the game. That being done, we resolved to do what we could to get this over with. Here is what I thought were our keys to the game:
Grimly we walked out on to the pitch to start the game.
First Half:
My initial mistake was in the pre-game inducements phase. I quickly skipped through it, only realizing later that by kicking in 10,000 from the treasury we would have the 100,000 necessary or an extra team re-roll, as our team rating was 90 lower than the Orcs. Having 90,000 meant I couldn't buy much: I bought a Bloodweiser Babe for 50,000 and then forgot that I could have at least bought an extra player instead. This was not starting off that well.
John lost the coin toss and I elected to kick the ball to the Orcs. The kick-off roll was favorable, giving me an extra turn (for those not in a tackle zone). I used it to get one Ghoul deep downfield to perhaps harass the ball pick up on John's turn. However the Orcs turn did not start how I wanted it to: one of the Zombies was an immediate casualty (another failed regeneration roll) and I'd be playing the next 15 turns of the game with only 10 players. That wasn't how we wanted to start.
The Orcs picked up the ball and had a pretty good block formed up at about mid-field. Still I was an opening to rush in and Blitz the ball carrier . . . well it certainly seemed like a good idea at the time. The ball carrier went down but the ball couldn't be picked up by any of the Black Orcs, and it ended the turn 3 squares closer to my end zone than it had started the turn, and now right next to two Black Orcs!
Things looked grim. The Orc Blitzer who had been blessed with +1 AG calmly picked himself up from the turf, dodged out of my tackle zones (not hard when you are AG4!), picked up the ball, and threw it to an Orc who was deep downfield. The throw was good, but the catch was not, and the Orcs turn ended. Still I thought it was a great play –the majority of my faster players were now on the wrong side of the field, and with too many Orcs near them.
Now what?
There was only one possibility, and that seemed slim: a lone Zombie. If he were to “go for it” twice he would at least be able to pick up the ball. I hardly thought it would matter – the Orc could blitz him off of the ball, pick it up and walk in to the end zone. But it was worth a shot – even with an AG2 Zombie. I had a re-roll right? If it didn't work he was going to score. He went for it, made it, and went to pick up the ball . . . and failed. And re-rolled . . . and failed again. The ball was still in his tackle zone but my turn was over and then the Orcs would simply have to knock him down, pick up the ball, and score easily.
That is when things got . . . odd for the Orcs.
They only needed to knock down a Zombie with no skills. Even on a 1 die block, that is 50% of the time if you have the “Block” skill. But the Orcs started a string of 3 straight “Attacker Down” rolls on 1 die blocks. We were both out of re-rolls this late in the second half, and these turnovers cost the Orcs. I was able to get a Wight downfield, pick the ball up and start heading up my left sideline. I was able to have the Ghouls dodge out of their engagements, cross the field and form a little bit of a cordon. But I still found myself next to two Orc players, on my [8]th turn, with a Ghoul and a Werewolf for support. Should I make a block to free the Wight? The Wight was 8 squares from the end zone so would have to “Go For It” twice to reach it. But that would mean not rolling a Dodge roll. Throw a Block with which player? If the Werewolf doesn't knock him down, Frenzy will mean he will have to throw another block, but this time at 1 die because of the position.
Doing the math in my head it seemed like the better idea to dodge out and head for the end zone. I held my breath and double-clicked on the square of the end zone I wanted him to reach. The dodge worked! The first square worked . . . and then the second! Touchdown on the last turn of the first half! Orcs had lucked out, and we had “lucked in”. We'd take it!
Second Half:
Okay now I felt a little bit better. But strangely so: this was entirely unexpected. Up 1-0 on the Orcs and having them kick off to me? Now what to do? Lining up short a player, I figured I had two objectives: either score as quickly as I could or hold on to the ball until at least turn 14. My thought was that if I managed to hold on that long and have the ball on their side of the field, they would be hard pressed to score in two turns.
The Orcs kicked off to me and the kick-off result was “rock throwing” which resulted in one of my players being stunned. Okay not a great start being down 11-10 players and already have a player taken down until my next turn. I picked up the ball with a Ghoul and began to push up the right side of the field. A few more KO's later and I'm looking at playing 11-8 and that side looks completely untenable . . . so I decide to reverse the field as best I can. This is tricky as one of the Orc blitzers has +1 MA and so moves faster than I might think. Finally the Troll is really stupid a couple of times and is doing less than clogging up the middle of the field. But in reversing the field I have not been able to push the ball up field successfully. So it comes down to this: my Ghoul still has the ball, it's our turn 14, but he is still 5-6 squares short of the center field stripe. He's covered on two sides by an Orc and the Troll. Even though he has Dodge and Block, I don't think his chances are great. If I can break free and sprint up the left sideline, I will not have much protection but force the Orcs to Blitz me on their turn 14 and they won't be able to pick up the ball: it will be on their side of the field. I figure even if they Blitz they will first have to knock him down (likely on a 1 die block, which isn't easy). The Ghoul might easily survive to turn 15 and make a further run. Now all I had to do was make a Dodge roll out of their tackle zones. Ghouls aren't AG4 (rather they are AG3) so it is not automatic, but it's still a 3+ roll: a 4 is needed for AG3 but you get a +1 for an empty square. So basically a 66% chance – and the Ghoul has Dodge, so if I fail it the first time I get another 66% chance to make it. Meaning essentially there's only a 1 in 6 chance the Ghoul will fail . . .
And fail he does.
That leaves the ball very close to our own end zone with very few players able to come back to play any kind of defense. We've only 8 players left at this point so being down 3 it's really hard to generate much pressure or coverage. The Orc Blitzer with the AG of 4 easily stands up, goes in to pick up the ball and heads towards the end zone. Now the only way to catch him is have a Ghoul make a Blitz move that involves not one but two Dodge rolls within Orc tackle zones and then make a one die block to knock down the Orc . . . needless to say that doesn't happen. Orcs score on their turn 15 to tie the game. The 8 remaining players line up for the kick off but it's really a moot point – we can't score in a single turn (nor can the Orcs) so the game is effectively over.
Post-Game:
The locker room after this game was very subdued. If you had told us before the game that we could take another 1-1 draw, we likely would have been rather elated and relieved. Instead the atmosphere was more somber – this felt like a loss. We had kept the lead for 6 of the 8 turns in the second half, only to squander it at the end.
Still, luck has a way of evening out. We had ended up scoring on a fairly lucky play (in that it required a sequence of rolls we HAD to make without a re-roll) and it was fairly unlucky that the Ghoul could not make that Dodge roll when he needed to make it. Still overall the Orcs were far unluckier in their blocks – they tended to burn their 2 re-rolls fairly early in both halves of the game so it was really not much of an advantage.
Casualties continue to plague us – it's simply too hard to be competitive on the pitch when you're down 3-4 players. If that doesn't happen perhaps there's no need for the Ghoul to make that Dodge roll, or perhaps there is more coverage available downfield.
We gained a bit of money back and our injured Zombie brings us up to 12 players. The Wight who scored the lucky touchdown went up a level and, perhaps appropriately, gained +1 of Movement Allowance. That was our only player to advance though so the Orcs now feature a level 3 player and 3 level 2 players while we still have just two level 2 players. I'm glad we got this done when we could.
Up next is Dustin who has doubtless learned a great deal since facing us the last time. We've only managed 1 touchdown per game so I hate to have it such that the only way we can win is to keep the game a 1-0 affair: that's a lot of pressure on our defense. We need to work on that scoring.
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Pre-game thoughts:
The preliminary scouting reports did not look promising. Since our opening game the Orcs had now doubled our Star Player Points and picked up key skills. They now had 4 players at level 2 versus only 1 on our team. That they had to replace two players was likely the only mitigating factor. That and fact that at least we were seeing them in game three of the season, rather in game six! While the Orcs were riding high, our team was somewhat the worse for wear. After having only rolled a “2” (twice) for the last game's winnings we had only 90,000 in the treasury, which was well short of the 140,000 we needed for another re-roll (again boys and girls, buy them early when they are cheap!). That and, in the last game, continuing our trend of not being able to make regeneration rolls a Zombie was going to have to miss this game, leaving us with only 10 – so I bought a replacement Zombie to bring us up to 11 for the start of the game. That being done, we resolved to do what we could to get this over with. Here is what I thought were our keys to the game:
- Home COOKING. Playing at home we were going to need to get some luck, either in the form of us getting some good rolls or John making some bad ones. Either way we would very likely need it. Bad luck by the opponent would mean that if they blew through their re-rolls early then things would be relatively even – having everyone with no re-rolls makes it easier.
- Stay UNHEALTHY. Always playing with fewer players on the pitch makes things unnecessarily challenging. Yes we don't have Armor Values that are that bad, nor do the Orcs all come with Mighty Blow, but this just seems to be a particular issue that we have.
- Be CAUTIOUS. Playing with one re-roll we needed to take as few chances as we could so as to both maximize our luck and to hopefully minimize our chances of getting clobbered early. While we did not need to play full out defense we knew we were going to have to watch things very closely.
Grimly we walked out on to the pitch to start the game.
First Half:
My initial mistake was in the pre-game inducements phase. I quickly skipped through it, only realizing later that by kicking in 10,000 from the treasury we would have the 100,000 necessary or an extra team re-roll, as our team rating was 90 lower than the Orcs. Having 90,000 meant I couldn't buy much: I bought a Bloodweiser Babe for 50,000 and then forgot that I could have at least bought an extra player instead. This was not starting off that well.
John lost the coin toss and I elected to kick the ball to the Orcs. The kick-off roll was favorable, giving me an extra turn (for those not in a tackle zone). I used it to get one Ghoul deep downfield to perhaps harass the ball pick up on John's turn. However the Orcs turn did not start how I wanted it to: one of the Zombies was an immediate casualty (another failed regeneration roll) and I'd be playing the next 15 turns of the game with only 10 players. That wasn't how we wanted to start.
The Orcs picked up the ball and had a pretty good block formed up at about mid-field. Still I was an opening to rush in and Blitz the ball carrier . . . well it certainly seemed like a good idea at the time. The ball carrier went down but the ball couldn't be picked up by any of the Black Orcs, and it ended the turn 3 squares closer to my end zone than it had started the turn, and now right next to two Black Orcs!
Things looked grim. The Orc Blitzer who had been blessed with +1 AG calmly picked himself up from the turf, dodged out of my tackle zones (not hard when you are AG4!), picked up the ball, and threw it to an Orc who was deep downfield. The throw was good, but the catch was not, and the Orcs turn ended. Still I thought it was a great play –the majority of my faster players were now on the wrong side of the field, and with too many Orcs near them.
Now what?
There was only one possibility, and that seemed slim: a lone Zombie. If he were to “go for it” twice he would at least be able to pick up the ball. I hardly thought it would matter – the Orc could blitz him off of the ball, pick it up and walk in to the end zone. But it was worth a shot – even with an AG2 Zombie. I had a re-roll right? If it didn't work he was going to score. He went for it, made it, and went to pick up the ball . . . and failed. And re-rolled . . . and failed again. The ball was still in his tackle zone but my turn was over and then the Orcs would simply have to knock him down, pick up the ball, and score easily.
That is when things got . . . odd for the Orcs.
They only needed to knock down a Zombie with no skills. Even on a 1 die block, that is 50% of the time if you have the “Block” skill. But the Orcs started a string of 3 straight “Attacker Down” rolls on 1 die blocks. We were both out of re-rolls this late in the second half, and these turnovers cost the Orcs. I was able to get a Wight downfield, pick the ball up and start heading up my left sideline. I was able to have the Ghouls dodge out of their engagements, cross the field and form a little bit of a cordon. But I still found myself next to two Orc players, on my [8]th turn, with a Ghoul and a Werewolf for support. Should I make a block to free the Wight? The Wight was 8 squares from the end zone so would have to “Go For It” twice to reach it. But that would mean not rolling a Dodge roll. Throw a Block with which player? If the Werewolf doesn't knock him down, Frenzy will mean he will have to throw another block, but this time at 1 die because of the position.
Doing the math in my head it seemed like the better idea to dodge out and head for the end zone. I held my breath and double-clicked on the square of the end zone I wanted him to reach. The dodge worked! The first square worked . . . and then the second! Touchdown on the last turn of the first half! Orcs had lucked out, and we had “lucked in”. We'd take it!
Second Half:
Okay now I felt a little bit better. But strangely so: this was entirely unexpected. Up 1-0 on the Orcs and having them kick off to me? Now what to do? Lining up short a player, I figured I had two objectives: either score as quickly as I could or hold on to the ball until at least turn 14. My thought was that if I managed to hold on that long and have the ball on their side of the field, they would be hard pressed to score in two turns.
The Orcs kicked off to me and the kick-off result was “rock throwing” which resulted in one of my players being stunned. Okay not a great start being down 11-10 players and already have a player taken down until my next turn. I picked up the ball with a Ghoul and began to push up the right side of the field. A few more KO's later and I'm looking at playing 11-8 and that side looks completely untenable . . . so I decide to reverse the field as best I can. This is tricky as one of the Orc blitzers has +1 MA and so moves faster than I might think. Finally the Troll is really stupid a couple of times and is doing less than clogging up the middle of the field. But in reversing the field I have not been able to push the ball up field successfully. So it comes down to this: my Ghoul still has the ball, it's our turn 14, but he is still 5-6 squares short of the center field stripe. He's covered on two sides by an Orc and the Troll. Even though he has Dodge and Block, I don't think his chances are great. If I can break free and sprint up the left sideline, I will not have much protection but force the Orcs to Blitz me on their turn 14 and they won't be able to pick up the ball: it will be on their side of the field. I figure even if they Blitz they will first have to knock him down (likely on a 1 die block, which isn't easy). The Ghoul might easily survive to turn 15 and make a further run. Now all I had to do was make a Dodge roll out of their tackle zones. Ghouls aren't AG4 (rather they are AG3) so it is not automatic, but it's still a 3+ roll: a 4 is needed for AG3 but you get a +1 for an empty square. So basically a 66% chance – and the Ghoul has Dodge, so if I fail it the first time I get another 66% chance to make it. Meaning essentially there's only a 1 in 6 chance the Ghoul will fail . . .
And fail he does.
That leaves the ball very close to our own end zone with very few players able to come back to play any kind of defense. We've only 8 players left at this point so being down 3 it's really hard to generate much pressure or coverage. The Orc Blitzer with the AG of 4 easily stands up, goes in to pick up the ball and heads towards the end zone. Now the only way to catch him is have a Ghoul make a Blitz move that involves not one but two Dodge rolls within Orc tackle zones and then make a one die block to knock down the Orc . . . needless to say that doesn't happen. Orcs score on their turn 15 to tie the game. The 8 remaining players line up for the kick off but it's really a moot point – we can't score in a single turn (nor can the Orcs) so the game is effectively over.
Post-Game:
The locker room after this game was very subdued. If you had told us before the game that we could take another 1-1 draw, we likely would have been rather elated and relieved. Instead the atmosphere was more somber – this felt like a loss. We had kept the lead for 6 of the 8 turns in the second half, only to squander it at the end.
Still, luck has a way of evening out. We had ended up scoring on a fairly lucky play (in that it required a sequence of rolls we HAD to make without a re-roll) and it was fairly unlucky that the Ghoul could not make that Dodge roll when he needed to make it. Still overall the Orcs were far unluckier in their blocks – they tended to burn their 2 re-rolls fairly early in both halves of the game so it was really not much of an advantage.
Casualties continue to plague us – it's simply too hard to be competitive on the pitch when you're down 3-4 players. If that doesn't happen perhaps there's no need for the Ghoul to make that Dodge roll, or perhaps there is more coverage available downfield.
We gained a bit of money back and our injured Zombie brings us up to 12 players. The Wight who scored the lucky touchdown went up a level and, perhaps appropriately, gained +1 of Movement Allowance. That was our only player to advance though so the Orcs now feature a level 3 player and 3 level 2 players while we still have just two level 2 players. I'm glad we got this done when we could.
Up next is Dustin who has doubtless learned a great deal since facing us the last time. We've only managed 1 touchdown per game so I hate to have it such that the only way we can win is to keep the game a 1-0 affair: that's a lot of pressure on our defense. We need to work on that scoring.
Saturday, April 27, 2013
Blood Bowl League Batrep Day 2 - Necromantics vs Amazons
Three friends and I started a Blood Bowl League. I am soo satisfied!! I have been itching to play this game for quite awhile, and it is my favorite GW game. Even though we are playing the video game and not my painted miniatures, I am still happy to be playing. We have already completed day 1--The following Batrep will close out Day 2.
I am posting this Batrep on behalf of Laertes...
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Pre-game thoughts:
I must admit that I was somewhat dreading the matchup against the Amazons. In some ways our teams are almost opposites – the Amazons start off well, with a team loaded with many starting skills, is fairly fast, and can pass, while the undead (any sort) tends to start off slowly, with few starting skills, and rely pretty much exclusively on a running game. I was afraid that we could get in to trouble quite easily against them. I'd played with them (my D-Cups team) but I'd only played against them a few times. Here is what I thought were our keys to the game:
- Play DEFENSE. This is challenging for me. If you've seen my teams play, or the teams I tend to choose, you know that I tend to play offense first and let defense be a rather secondary concern. But in previous games against the computer (playing Amazons) defense was absolutely key – trying to run up and down the field with the would fail.
- Get LUCKY. I knew I had likely erred when I purchased only 1 re-roll – I should have skimped and bought 2. I knew the Amazons would have at least 2 re-rolls plus the re-rolls from their skills. Simply put I could not afford to make many mistakes, take silly chances, or get some bad rolls. I needed to get some luck on my side: perhaps nothing huge, but a Cheering Fans roll, or a Quick Snap, or something that would help out.
- Stay UNHEALTHY. This may seem odd for an undead team but I needed to stay out of the KO and casualty box. It's just how I seem to end up playing: my teams take casualties regardless of their armor value. And with only 11 players I knew I did not wish to be facing situations where I would be facing 11 Amazons with only 9 player on my team.
That all being said, after a long while I hope the game lived up to the hype!
First Half:
My heart sank a little when I saw the Amazons didn't have 2 re-rolls . . .they had 3!! That meant the “Get Lucky” part was going to be that much harder. I won the toss and, in keeping with playing defense, elected to kick. The first kick off result was a Quick Snap – okay not that lucky for me, but not terrible either. I then thought I got a bit lucky when the Amazon thrower failed to pick up the ball. It ended their turn, but the Amazons were still in good position. I did manage to get a Ghoul deep and have him “Go for It” a few squares that put him very near the ball. I thought I was even luckier on [Lord Grimskull]'s turn when his block failed to knock down the Ghoul (only push him back). This was the game plan! It was going to be turn three, all I had to do was Dodge out of one tackle zone, pick up the ball in an empty square (no tackle zones on it) and waltz in the end zone. No problem, right?
Well, wrong.
The Ghoul managed to Dodge out of the tackle zone without effort – now to pick up the ball! But then roll a 1. No worries – I have my one re-roll, and it's a good use on a scoring play, right? Well not when you roll another 1 and end your turn. I had tried to position the team first just in case this happened but that still left me with a Wight against the sideline whom the Amazons promptly pushed off of the pitch.
The Amazons were able to pick up the ball on the next turn and start up the field, but we'd run through the midway point of the first half already and I knew I just needed to keep the scrum going and not let any Amazons deep. The Amazons completed one pass on their last turn but could not score. I did not feel too badly: we had not perhaps gotten as lucky as I might have hoped, but we had played defensively enough that there was no score. Unfortunately we had not kept ourselves unhealthy, and were only going to start the second half with 9 players. We had KO'd some players though, so it was going to be 10-9 (players) in favor of the Amazons.
Second Half:
Okay now I felt a little bit better. The lack of players meant I had to set up with some significant gaps in my line, but I felt I still could take advantage of the Amazons. Well that is unless they were to get a free turn for the defense . . . which they did. But I got what I wanted out of the kick-off: a touchback! No more sweating to see if I could pick up the ball, I could give it to any player so I gave it to my Ghoul who was closest to the line and started the “funeral march” up the field to my left.
But I started to stall out. [Lord Grimskull]'s Amazons were quick to recover and, even though I had a Flesh Golem and a Wight leading the way, they were able to quickly wall them in. I had hopes that I might be able to hand it off to my other Ghoul but again he got pushed off of the pitch . . . and now there were simply too many women in the way. I knew folks tend to underestimate the speed of a Ghoul so I was trying to get close to the end zone, punch a small hole and scoot through it, even using Dodge if necessary. But the Amazons were thick like the rain forest. But there might be one opening . . . I ran the Ghoul to the right and backwards, towards mid field and almost along the mid field stripe. There was a lot of open space but very few Amazons – and I had both Werewolves, a Flesh Golem, and a Zombie over there. That put the Amazons in a tricky position – they could put a crimp in things, but they'd have to get lucky on a few rolls. But [Lord Grimskull] couldn't roll it, leaving the Ghoul to sprint towards the right sideline now with a bit of an escort. Still the Amazons put up resistance, and when the Wight couldn't block an Amazon off of the Ghoul, the Ghoul was forced to Dodge away but made it in the end zone for the score. Unfortunately on the Amazon turn they seriously injured my Flesh Golem (yes I know he is AV10 with regeneration . . both failed).
Not many turns left so I knew I just needed to play defensively. The kick off roll gave me an extra re-roll (Cheering Fans!) and was also not a touchback (boys and girls I cannot stress enough how important it is to make your opponent always always have to roll to pick up the ball). We were still at 10-9 players (in favor of the Amazons) but I knew we needed to stay deep. [Lord Grimskull] surprised me a bit when he picked up the ball and threw it almost to mid field – it was not an accurate throw and caused a turnover but the ball also wasn't in a place I thought I could pick it up ([Lord Grimskull] said he confused is catcher and thrower: it was the catcher who threw the ball). Still we couldn't reach the ball and I didn't wish try too much – I thought I'd throw a 1 die block with my Werewolf just to get things in position. And he knocked himself down and out . . . that left a lane on the right. But time was running out – the Amazons picked up the ball and hurled it down field towards their catcher, but the Ghoul intercepts! Perhaps only the 2nd time in 70 or 80 games I've seen an interceptions and the first time my team had actually done it! I ran to the left side of the field and the Amazons could not catch the Ghoul as time expired. Hard fought to the end for a 1-0 victory.
Post-Game:
Two out of three keys to the game is not bad, is it? We had played defensively, we got some luck (and did not have any really terrible luck, perhaps the first two “1”s notwithstanding). We did not stay unhealthy – we suffered 3 casualties while causing none in return, and failed 2 of 3 regeneration rolls. We were fortunate to knock out 7 Amazons, but that doesn't get you SPP, which is something that the undead definitely need to get out of the gate quicker. I rolled a 2 for winnings, re-rolled it and also got a 2, so I don't know if we finally saved up enough or another re-roll or not.
[Lord Grimskull] played well – I think the only times I caught him were in a tendency to have the Amazons bunch up a bit. On defense that enabled the Ghoul to reverse the field and on offense that sometimes would hinder his ability to go deep on some of those pass routes. Of course, to be fair, the one thing that tends to surprise people is that the undead tend to be faster than you think, so he moment you believe you have an undead team blocked off . . .
His team was very physical – he sets up a lot of good blocks and he makes high percentage plays. That is going to make the Amazons very difficult to beat as they get more and more SPPs from league play.
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Blood Bowl Legendary Edition (Part 2)
Screen-Cap of team after adding a lineman. (click on image to enlarge) |
OK, I started playing a campaign and I'm 7 games in (part way through the second tier/period). Here is my team as it was initially built.
Greenskin Packers (Starting Line-up)
1x Troll
4x Black Orcs
4x Blitzers
1x Thrower
2x Goblin
1x Re-roll
I wanted to ground and pound with the Orcs, but sheesh, I cant get a break and play vs. any soft teams!! While you could say the Dwarves are the "weakest" team I've played against in regards to strength (# of STR 4 & 5 players), the team I played vs. had a Death Roller (STR 7)!!
Throughout Period 1 (including playoffs) I received between 200-300k in pre-match inducements as I had the lower team value. Once I hit the second period, I am much closer in team value to my opponents.
Period 1:
Win vs. Dwarf 2-0
Win vs. Ogre 2-1
Win vs. Undead 1-1
Period 1 Playoffs:
Win vs. Dwarf 2-0
Win vs. Ogre 1-0 (sustained 1 serious injury)
Period 2:
Win vs. Undead 2-0 (sustained 1 death and 1 injury)
Win vs. Khemri 1-0 (sustained 1 injury)
The last game I played was unbelievable! I received the kick-off, and started trudging slowly up field in my typical wedge along the sideline. The Khemri coach managed to squeeze someone through, after a blitz from a Blitz-ra Star Player. On my next turn, I had to move the ball carrier out of a tackle zone and failed the dodge roll. The fans threw the ball into the middle of the pitch, but I did manage to scramble and we exchanged possession twice with no movement on the pitch throughout 5-6 turns. I finally broke away on the 8th turn and fell one square short of a TD, pushed it once, and failed. First half ended 0-0.
In the next half, I kicked off deep, almost landing in his end-zone, and rushed up field. I managed to create a big jumbled up mess he couldn't get around or through. I was able to knock over the ball carrier on the 15th turn, scooped up the ball, and was just able to run it in for a TD on turn 16!! That was a close one!
So far, there have been 4 pitch invasions (out of about 16 kickoffs)... those SUCK!!! However, I think my opponents have taken the brunt of the results.
I really wish you could export/save/keep game stats, even if it was only a w/l record vs. what races. It keeps a good set of player stats by season and by career, but I'd like to be able to reference a team's past games.
While I've kept up with the Blood Bowl Living Rules Editions over the years, there are some teams that I never played or played against. I typically need to see teams (or fleets, gangs, or squads) "in action" to really understand what their capabilities are... uhm... my first enfcounter with Kemri... 4x STR 5 Tomb Mummies!! (while this is not as good as 6x STR 5 Ogres, the Ogre teams have snotlings!! :P ...which actually aren't that bad any more-- 3 snotlings taking down an orc blitzer is a little humiliating)
Kemri have reinforced my opinion from all the way back to second edition Blood Bowl-- I still hate with a passion, playing against Undead!!! Plus, I think Kemri are worse!! I've never played with/vs. a Vampire or Necromantic team, so I'm not sure how I feel about the later two undead teams.
Oh... BTW, the team that is missing in the video game is the Chaos Dwarves. (Laertes main team in the board game)
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Blood Bowl Legendary Edition (Part 1)
The latest edition of the Blood Bowl video game is a MUST BUY for any fan of the game. I had been watching the progress of the game on their website very early on in development, and was extremely excited to get the game. However, I was disappointed in only 9 playable races in the initial release. I decided to bide my time until an expansion came out to include all (or most) of the races found in the board game.
So far, I have only played a couple of games in the "classic" mode (turn-based), but it is amazing how well they captured the feel of playing the board game. There are 20 playable races, lots of customization, dirty tricks/weapons, and all the pre/post game campaign rules.
The "classic" mode was enough to sell me, but there is also a "blitz" mode (real-time) that I haven't even looked at. I bought Laertes a copy for Xmas, so we will be testing out the online "blitz" mode in the near future.
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