So, it's been an interesting few weeks.
For starters, my second match to get me into the Semi-Finals was cancelled. My opponent was pretty crook and couldn't make it to the original time. I told him to call me up if he felt better during the week, but never happened.
So... free ticket into the Semi-Finals.
The semi and grand final were held on the one day, with the Semi's starting in the morning while the Grand Final starting early afternoon.
To be honest, I don't remember much of my Semi-Final game. All I can remember, is that it was a damn good game. I know it started off well for me, I think I turned over the opponent and a fairly large scrum happened where I was losing the numbers battle, but came out slightly ahead with a touchdown. In the 2nd half, I think the opposite happened , where I got turned over and a touchdown scored on me. So we went into Sudden Death Overtime at 1-1. I went into it with no re-rolls, but a full team up against 8 Orcs. Looked like it may have been over at one point, I had used my numbers advantage but he was giving a last ditch attempt at a pass to a Black Orc. Pass went wild, and I capitalized by getting many guys on the ball and driving up the field. Came down to turn 24, where I had to blitz my way out and a go for it on the line! Luckily my luck held strong and I got my touchdown.
That's unfinished business part 1 taken care of. These Orcs had tied against me earlier in the season by a miracle touchdown. Part 2 was now to defeat Dark Elves in the grand final who had given me my only loss of the season.
The Grand Final was an odd game (and so was the fight for 3rd place). With no idea on how progression will work next season, people pretty much emptied their treasuries. I went full force, a Wizard, Hack En Slash and 2 Bloodweiser Babes. My opponent took a Wizard. Game was looking to be ordinary in the first turn, he received, one sided defense and running up the field for a 2 turn touchdown until...
His ball carrier tripped. That's right, fell flat on his face stunned, losing posession of the ball. Now here I was thinking "My, all those other Elves look like a nice Fireball target if they only stood still" and that chance happened upon me. Fireballed 7 Elves, 3 knock outs, 2 stuns. Not a bad result for zero turns worth of work.
I ended up grabbing the ball and making my way up field while smashing the crap out of the Dark Elves. Crowd pushes, regular thumpings, the works. I was wary of a Lightning Bolt on my ball carrier (up field on his own, but no Darkies in range) but decided to stall a turn. So scored on my 7th and that was pretty much the Half.
I was feeling good about the second half. 1 up against Elves and I was receiving, couldn't get any better. However, I focused a bit too much on one side with a loose cage going up the sideline. Fireballed and snagged the ball carrier. A Dark Elf waltzed in, to pass the ball, and fumbled it... into the crowd, and the ball ended up where he basically wanted it anyway. Not so good a result, the Dark Elves capitalized driving down the other side and scored on the 4th.
So a draw game with 4 turns to go. The Dark Elves pretty much kept on sitting a few lines back to stall my advance, while my guys struggled forwards, going right, going middle, going left. Eventually I had to take a bit of a risk, I left the ball carrier open for a Blitz that would be 2 dice against. Luckily the Dark Elves screwed up earlier than that (But not before putting some pressure on the carrier). So after a few pushes around the place to get tackle zones off the ball carrier, he waltzed in with a go for it on the line to grab the 2nd touchdown.
At this point, it was the end of my 8th. So only a riot could save my opponent. Low and behold, a riot turns up on the kick off table! Crap I think! But then I roll the dice to see what happens, and the game moves forward. End of game!
It was a great game really, in fact, pretty much the opposite of my previous game against these Dark Elves. Last time I could barely break armour, but this time I seemed to do it plenty (I actually ended up killing both of his Witch Elves). He started off with 16 players (odd for Dark Elves, but with no inducements in the finals, it could be done). By the end of the game, he could only just field a full team (About 4-5 sat in the knock out box most of the game, he didn't get a single knock out back until the last drive that got riotted). So yeah, payback for the loss earlier in the season complete :D
So with all that done and dusted, the Khemri rose to the top of the league. The Heralds of Osiris brought death and destruction and managed to win the Grand Final.
Now back to their tombs they go, a well earned rest. Most likely won't be playing them again next season. I think LRB6 will probably kill them, and I want to take the opportunity to play another team. It's plausible though that I may ressurect them in a later season.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Heralds pass first hurdle
Figured I'd update about my Khemri team.
I just had my first finals game last night. After being shafted from 2nd place due to scoring less touchdowns (same differential, just less overall), I have to fight my way to the very top (Being in 2nd place, would allow for me to if I won, had a week off, if lost, a 2nd chance).
So the first game and possibly the last of the season for me, was up against a Chaos team from the other conference (our league was split into two conferences of 11 players each. Everyone played everyone else, and on the bye match, the players from each conference who had a bye played each other). Things were looking good right from the start, after he received and grabbed the ball and caged up a bit, his Minotaur (with Claws) tried to have a go at one of my Mummies. Unfortunately for the poor fella, it was a Blizzard. After pushinjg my Mummy back, the Minotaur fell on his face in the icy conditions.
That being done, I went about smacking his team backwards. Keeping a constant eye on the minotaur (always enough guard and strength around him so if he blitzed, it'd be 2 dice against, or if he got up, I'd just knock him back down). I did in fact punch the minotaur with a skeleton, but with a push and a double down... I took the both down hoping I might be able to take him out early. Unfortunately, the Minotaur gored a Skeleton who regenerated the harsh wounds. I eventually managed to pummel him enough and surged through to snatch the ball and drive for a touchdown. Things were looking up, as I could foresee a 2-1 victory happening rather than a 1-1 tie with sudden death overtime.
After the setup, strangely I thought he caged up a little further back. I ran a few guys along the side to herd him towards the centre. A chance happens, and I get a hole in his lines and send 2 guys onto the ball carrier (unfortunately, I wanted to blitz him then and there, but a Chaos Warrior refused to go down to open my path). I sent 2 guys up within distance of scoring a touchdown, and sat back. Unfortunately for the chaos, the turn ended when the ball carrier tried to dodge away and fell on his face. I scooped up the ball, handed off, and with a go for it had a 2 touchdown lead going into the 2nd half, and receiving to boot!
The 2nd half saw me smacking the Chaos back a little bit, then fumbling the ball. I managed to pick it up, and went towards the left side of the pitch to cage up (As the Chaos were busy pushing a mummy around, I figured I could go off to one side and hold off 3 of his guys). A little bit of a scrum happened, and I decided with most of his guys in one place, and Chaos not being super fast movers I'd make a run for it with my Thro-Ra. He got out of Blitz range, but a Chaos Warrior was right on his tail. Lucky for me, his blocking actually freed up a Blitz-Ra to get down there to assist, so the Thro-Ra just blitzed the Chaos Warrior down and run in for the touchdown.
Can't remember much of the last few turns. Minotaur ran along the sidelines to keep a Skeleton and Blitz-Ra busy. My Thro-Ra went in to try and turn over the ball and knocked the ball carrier down. However, the next beastman just grabbed the ball and ran into my half. With the Blitz-Ra on that half occupied by the Minotaur, I couldn't manage to stop the Beastman trotting in to get a touchdown.
So game end, final score 3-1. Casualties 2-2. Unfortunately for me, I had 3 guys ready for skill up and only one skilled up (Got a casualty which was good, but then stole the MVP to boot). So frustratingly enough, I'll be going into the 2nd round of the finals with pretty much the same team.
Still first hurdle down, just 3 more to go. If I win the next game, I'll be where I was last year (which was only top 4 for finals). Let's hope I can go all the way to the top.
I just had my first finals game last night. After being shafted from 2nd place due to scoring less touchdowns (same differential, just less overall), I have to fight my way to the very top (Being in 2nd place, would allow for me to if I won, had a week off, if lost, a 2nd chance).
So the first game and possibly the last of the season for me, was up against a Chaos team from the other conference (our league was split into two conferences of 11 players each. Everyone played everyone else, and on the bye match, the players from each conference who had a bye played each other). Things were looking good right from the start, after he received and grabbed the ball and caged up a bit, his Minotaur (with Claws) tried to have a go at one of my Mummies. Unfortunately for the poor fella, it was a Blizzard. After pushinjg my Mummy back, the Minotaur fell on his face in the icy conditions.
That being done, I went about smacking his team backwards. Keeping a constant eye on the minotaur (always enough guard and strength around him so if he blitzed, it'd be 2 dice against, or if he got up, I'd just knock him back down). I did in fact punch the minotaur with a skeleton, but with a push and a double down... I took the both down hoping I might be able to take him out early. Unfortunately, the Minotaur gored a Skeleton who regenerated the harsh wounds. I eventually managed to pummel him enough and surged through to snatch the ball and drive for a touchdown. Things were looking up, as I could foresee a 2-1 victory happening rather than a 1-1 tie with sudden death overtime.
After the setup, strangely I thought he caged up a little further back. I ran a few guys along the side to herd him towards the centre. A chance happens, and I get a hole in his lines and send 2 guys onto the ball carrier (unfortunately, I wanted to blitz him then and there, but a Chaos Warrior refused to go down to open my path). I sent 2 guys up within distance of scoring a touchdown, and sat back. Unfortunately for the chaos, the turn ended when the ball carrier tried to dodge away and fell on his face. I scooped up the ball, handed off, and with a go for it had a 2 touchdown lead going into the 2nd half, and receiving to boot!
The 2nd half saw me smacking the Chaos back a little bit, then fumbling the ball. I managed to pick it up, and went towards the left side of the pitch to cage up (As the Chaos were busy pushing a mummy around, I figured I could go off to one side and hold off 3 of his guys). A little bit of a scrum happened, and I decided with most of his guys in one place, and Chaos not being super fast movers I'd make a run for it with my Thro-Ra. He got out of Blitz range, but a Chaos Warrior was right on his tail. Lucky for me, his blocking actually freed up a Blitz-Ra to get down there to assist, so the Thro-Ra just blitzed the Chaos Warrior down and run in for the touchdown.
Can't remember much of the last few turns. Minotaur ran along the sidelines to keep a Skeleton and Blitz-Ra busy. My Thro-Ra went in to try and turn over the ball and knocked the ball carrier down. However, the next beastman just grabbed the ball and ran into my half. With the Blitz-Ra on that half occupied by the Minotaur, I couldn't manage to stop the Beastman trotting in to get a touchdown.
So game end, final score 3-1. Casualties 2-2. Unfortunately for me, I had 3 guys ready for skill up and only one skilled up (Got a casualty which was good, but then stole the MVP to boot). So frustratingly enough, I'll be going into the 2nd round of the finals with pretty much the same team.
Still first hurdle down, just 3 more to go. If I win the next game, I'll be where I was last year (which was only top 4 for finals). Let's hope I can go all the way to the top.
Monday, October 12, 2009
Been even longer
Well... the last time was a mere 9 days, now it's been an entire month.
Been fairly busy with various bits and pieces really, but here's the low down of what's been happening.
Dogs of War - Progressing well enough. Asarnil and his buddy Deathfang are taking a bit longer than I suspected. A lot of work to get a Dragon looking good. However, Asarnil himself is nearly done and is looking ace I think. I may end up throwing a few Duellists in this month so I can spend a bit more time on Deathfang.
Blood Angels - I made a decision. I was spending too much time per Blood Angel to get them done at a decent page. Was that a bad thing? No. I was painting good quality stuff, multiple layers and all that. It just meant, I made the decision to drop them from the Tale of 40k painters. I'll just continue on at my own page.
Mordheim/Posssessed - I can't remember if I mentioned this much, but there's a Mordheim league taking place in the Bloodbowl off-season time. I've chosen Possessed, because I wanted an interesting conversion opportunity. I've been enjoying things so far, I got some magnets for arm swaps and all that. The only slightly frustrating thing is the Chaos Spawn is HUGE, and way too large to be a Possessed. I'm gonna stick with one for now, but at some time later I really have to convert and sculpt my own (Time I don't really have for this season). Also, last Sunday we had our first Mordheim get together to build terrain. Was a good day overall, even if only about 8 people turned up. Gonna have to churn out a few more buildings to get our first table done.
Bloodbowl - Been a while I think. I had my first loss against the top of the table Dark Elves. I drew facing one of the top contender Wood Elf team (a somewhat miraculous 3-3 for the slow moving Khemri). I then beat the 4th placed Chaos team. The Wood Elves failed to win, so got knocked out of the finals. So unfortunately that leaves me in 3rd place (I have the same record and touchdown diff as the 2nd placed team, but he has more touchdowns so I assume that's what counts). This means, I have to fight my way to the finals everyway. Our finals are done the same way AFL does theirs (top teams play each other, the winner has a bye. Bottom teams are strictly elimination all the way through). So it's gonna be tough, got a Chaos team with lots of block and a nasty looking Minotaur to deal with.
Warmaster - I actually picked up an Undead warmaster army in blisters/boxes fairly cheap. So could be that you'll see a warmaster army from me sometime next year or in the free time. Should be a change of pace to paint smaller stuff that I'm not doing to any particular deadline.
Go - Go I haven't talked much about in my blog, but I figure now is a good time to speak up a bit about it. Go is an ancient Asian board game. Go look it up on wikipedia for more information. To be frank, it kicks the crap out of Chess in complexity overall. I'm a decent player I'll say, definately wouldn't rate myself as good, although of course, others below me might. But I like decent, there's plenty of room for improvement left in me, and people (like the Pro's) way above me.
Anyway, recently at the start of October, I attended the Australian Go Nationals. Was a great event. I arrived on the Thursday night, and pretty much just watched a bit of tv and went to bed (Wasn't exactly prepared to be wandering around an unknown city at night right after I arrived). Friday kicked off with a teaching day, where I met some of the people running the event, others as well. Around midday, the professional player An Young Gil arrived, and gave us a lecture on 'Connections on the 2nd line'. Was very informative. He later played a simultaneous game against about 8 people. On the Saturday and Sunday were game days. There were some slight hitches at the start, but once things got going it worked out relatively well.
There were 3 divisions at the Nationals. The first was the Open Division, for people ranked 3dan and above. This is a non-handicapped division, and is played for representative points (A system Australia uses to determine who goes oversea's to represent Australia in some of the international events). The 2nd division was 2dan to 3kyu, this is the division I played in at the 3kyu rank. The final division was the 3rd division, for 4kyu to 15kyu ranked players.
I played 5 games (With 1 bye due to the odd number of people in my division). I managed to win 2 games, and lost 3. All were very good games, the games I lost being very close indeed. While the games I won, had fairly tense fights going on, whoever died would surely resign (And luckily I lived).
At the end of the day, everyone who attended got a japanese style fan. A bit dodgy in quality (or I don't know how to close fans properly. Kept on tangling itself up) but still a nice touch to award all who attended. I got mine signed by An Young Gil.
Overall, had an enjoyable time in Melbourne. Kind've nice to see a bit more of it, as every time I've been there has been for work and just driving off to wherever we've had a meeting.
Hmm... I think that's all that's happened really. It has been a long month.
Been fairly busy with various bits and pieces really, but here's the low down of what's been happening.
Dogs of War - Progressing well enough. Asarnil and his buddy Deathfang are taking a bit longer than I suspected. A lot of work to get a Dragon looking good. However, Asarnil himself is nearly done and is looking ace I think. I may end up throwing a few Duellists in this month so I can spend a bit more time on Deathfang.
Blood Angels - I made a decision. I was spending too much time per Blood Angel to get them done at a decent page. Was that a bad thing? No. I was painting good quality stuff, multiple layers and all that. It just meant, I made the decision to drop them from the Tale of 40k painters. I'll just continue on at my own page.
Mordheim/Posssessed - I can't remember if I mentioned this much, but there's a Mordheim league taking place in the Bloodbowl off-season time. I've chosen Possessed, because I wanted an interesting conversion opportunity. I've been enjoying things so far, I got some magnets for arm swaps and all that. The only slightly frustrating thing is the Chaos Spawn is HUGE, and way too large to be a Possessed. I'm gonna stick with one for now, but at some time later I really have to convert and sculpt my own (Time I don't really have for this season). Also, last Sunday we had our first Mordheim get together to build terrain. Was a good day overall, even if only about 8 people turned up. Gonna have to churn out a few more buildings to get our first table done.
Bloodbowl - Been a while I think. I had my first loss against the top of the table Dark Elves. I drew facing one of the top contender Wood Elf team (a somewhat miraculous 3-3 for the slow moving Khemri). I then beat the 4th placed Chaos team. The Wood Elves failed to win, so got knocked out of the finals. So unfortunately that leaves me in 3rd place (I have the same record and touchdown diff as the 2nd placed team, but he has more touchdowns so I assume that's what counts). This means, I have to fight my way to the finals everyway. Our finals are done the same way AFL does theirs (top teams play each other, the winner has a bye. Bottom teams are strictly elimination all the way through). So it's gonna be tough, got a Chaos team with lots of block and a nasty looking Minotaur to deal with.
Warmaster - I actually picked up an Undead warmaster army in blisters/boxes fairly cheap. So could be that you'll see a warmaster army from me sometime next year or in the free time. Should be a change of pace to paint smaller stuff that I'm not doing to any particular deadline.
Go - Go I haven't talked much about in my blog, but I figure now is a good time to speak up a bit about it. Go is an ancient Asian board game. Go look it up on wikipedia for more information. To be frank, it kicks the crap out of Chess in complexity overall. I'm a decent player I'll say, definately wouldn't rate myself as good, although of course, others below me might. But I like decent, there's plenty of room for improvement left in me, and people (like the Pro's) way above me.
Anyway, recently at the start of October, I attended the Australian Go Nationals. Was a great event. I arrived on the Thursday night, and pretty much just watched a bit of tv and went to bed (Wasn't exactly prepared to be wandering around an unknown city at night right after I arrived). Friday kicked off with a teaching day, where I met some of the people running the event, others as well. Around midday, the professional player An Young Gil arrived, and gave us a lecture on 'Connections on the 2nd line'. Was very informative. He later played a simultaneous game against about 8 people. On the Saturday and Sunday were game days. There were some slight hitches at the start, but once things got going it worked out relatively well.
There were 3 divisions at the Nationals. The first was the Open Division, for people ranked 3dan and above. This is a non-handicapped division, and is played for representative points (A system Australia uses to determine who goes oversea's to represent Australia in some of the international events). The 2nd division was 2dan to 3kyu, this is the division I played in at the 3kyu rank. The final division was the 3rd division, for 4kyu to 15kyu ranked players.
I played 5 games (With 1 bye due to the odd number of people in my division). I managed to win 2 games, and lost 3. All were very good games, the games I lost being very close indeed. While the games I won, had fairly tense fights going on, whoever died would surely resign (And luckily I lived).
At the end of the day, everyone who attended got a japanese style fan. A bit dodgy in quality (or I don't know how to close fans properly. Kept on tangling itself up) but still a nice touch to award all who attended. I got mine signed by An Young Gil.
Overall, had an enjoyable time in Melbourne. Kind've nice to see a bit more of it, as every time I've been there has been for work and just driving off to wherever we've had a meeting.
Hmm... I think that's all that's happened really. It has been a long month.
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