Seasons Greetings

Hi all,

Tiny Manero has put on his Santa suit and hung his stockings over the fire place - so Christmas must be just around the corner.

Have a great Christmas and a good New Year and I'll see you all on-line in 2012.

Dave

(aka Axebreaker)

FNF VI - Round 9 Completed

Greetings Blood Bowl Fans,

Another round of the FNF VI has been successfully completed. And it was another exciting round. The stand-out game being the 7-0 win recorded by the Wood Elves of Passing Fancy. Establishing a new FNF record - and one that will difficult to beat!  The other 13 teams in the league combined to scored an additional 18 TDs - for a total of 25 TD for the round - equaling last week's season high. But  let's not forget the casualties! There was a total of 29 injuries from all causes - including three Deaths!! And it was another good week for Cabalvision with all but one game uploaded and available for viewing.

Here are Jim and Bob with their selection of some of the best highlights from this week's games.

And a big thanks to all Coaches for completing their games this week!

Round 10 has begun and, as mentioned last week - due to the Christmas break, there is no fixed end date for this one. Hopefully, we can get every game done by sometime in the first week of January. Please contact your opponent as soon as possible to start planning when you are both available to play your game amid Christmas commitments and holiday plans :)

I will be out of town (and away from my PC) from 23 Dec-2 Jan inclusive. So I won't be able to validate games etc.

Good Luck

Dave

(aka Axebreaker)

Dark Elf Draw

The Har Ganeth Blades had their first draw of the season last night in a brutal 1-1 tie against the Orcs of Uruk Ho!

While the game finished up as a draw - the Dark Elves can count themselves lucky to walk away with the Competition Point. Some poor decisions by the Orcs really deprived them of the victory they fully deserved. An Orc Blitzer forgot to Blitz just before Half-Time, depriving the Orcs of a certain TD and only a failed (and somewhat gratuitous) Orc pass allowed the Blades to score mid-way through the second half. 

But if the result on the scoreboard was even - that was not the case in the casualty count. With Dark Elves suffering 6 casualties (including an Apoth'd Death and two Serious Injuries) and 4 KOs to the Orcs none! Strangely, the match stats list 8 casualties for the Dark Elves - which was not the case!?! A full replay of the match is available on Cabalvision.

Thanks to Phil for the game - he was terribly unfortunate not win this one - and good luck with the rest of the season

Dave

(aka Axebreaker) 

Squaring the Circle

A Guide to Better Understanding Disturbing Presence

Another Community Service announcement on behalf of the House of Axebreaker

Over the last few weeks while watching the replays of FNF games on Cabalvision - it stuck me that the graphic Cyanide uses to represent Disturbing Presence [DP] can be quite misleading.

The DP rule states:

 "... any player must subtract -1 from the d6 when they pass, intercept or catch for each opposing player with Disturbing Presence that is within three squares of them, even if the Disturbing Presence player is Prone or Stunned."

Cyanide have chosen to represent the presence of this skill with a sickly green circle that has a hazy outline and looks like this:

But "within three squares" is actually a 7x7 square that is not at all well represented by a circle - especially on the diagonals. The true area-of-effect of DP in the above example is considerably bigger than that indicated by the graphic. DP actually covers the area shown below by the green square:

No doubt Cyanide would argue that it is not intended to be a hard-and-fast template, but a symbolic representation of the skill for aesthetic purposes only - just like other mutations such as Extra-Heads, Extra-arms, Tentacles, Foul Appearance etc are depicted graphically. And while this is a reasonably plausible argument -  it can, nevertheless, still be quite confusing. Especially in the heat-of-the-moment of a game where coaches have to make a whole bunch of decisions within the 2 minute time-frame. 

To further illustrate this - here is an actual example from a game played this week between the Disease of Drakenmoor  and the Erengrad Easybeats. 

The Easybeats thrower, #6 Helmut Rosulver, picks up the loose ball [1], runs down-field and attempts a Quick Pass [2] to #3 Seneschal Fentleberry [3].  Rosulver appears to be in the clear and well outside the hazy green circle of Disturbing Presence generated by the prone Nurgle Warrior, #1 Vlad Malaria [4].

Helmut Rosulver rolls a 2, but uses his Pass skill to re-roll, and rolls a 3. Enough for the pass to normally succeed (4+ modified by +1 for a Quick Pass) But (as shown below) a tell-tale blue Disturbing Presence icon appears above Vlad Malaria that indicates there was actually an additional -1 due to DP and the pass scatters.  

As illustrated below by the green square, the graphic depiction of DP by the hazy green circle was a poor indication of the actual area-of-effect of the skill. Had Rosulver moved instead to the square to the right (next to the sideline) and attempted the pass - it would still have been a Quick Pass and would have succeeded. 

So, the bottom line is, that while green circle and haze effects of the Disturbing Presence graphics might look good - it is not an accurate indicator of the area-of-effect of this skill. 

I recommend that you use the "G" hot-key to bring up the grid squares and manually count them off yourself if you want to try to pass or catch the ball anywhere near an opponent with DP. At least the graphic does give a clear indication that an opponent has the skill  - and that's a lot more than you get when facing other skills that can cut short your brilliant TD play - such as Pass Block or Diving Tackle etc. Conversely, I'd also recommend using the "G" hot-key if you have a player with DP and want to move him into the best possible position to seriously mess with your opponent's throwing game.

Dave

(aka Axebreaker)

FNF VI - Round 8 Rolled!

Hi Blood Bowl fans,

Round 8 of the FNF league has been completed! It was another action packed week with a season record of 25 Touch Downs scored. There were also 28 casualties from all causes - but, sadly for the crowds that filled the stadiums this week, there was just the one death. It was also the best week to date for Cabalvision coverage with all games being broadcast and available for viewing!

With just five games left in the regular season, everyone's thoughts are starting to turn to the finals  Although at least one Coach thinks there is an "unassailable group of 5" that has a lock on the four semi-final positions - don't forget that most of these higher ranked teams are composed of squishy, lightly armoured players - so there is still plenty to play for and every team has a chance to have a big impact on the season's final outcome! 

Here are Jim and Bob with their selection of some of the best highlights from this week's games. 

The calendar has just been rolled and Round 9 has begun and is, in theory, scheduled to run until late Thursday night 22 December. But, as Christmas is fast approaching, there will be plenty of flexibility in the duration of the next couple of rounds. It would be great if we could complete Round 9 before Christmas - so all coaches are strongly encouraged to contact their opponent soon as possible - and we'll see how we go :)  

Round 10 will not, obviously, begin until all the Round 9 matches have been played and will  hopefully be completed sometime in early January. I will be out of town (and away from my PC) 23 Dec - 2 Jan inclusive. 

Good luck to all,

Dave

(aka Axebreaker)

Dark Elves Win Another

The Har Ganeth Blades began, what is hopefully, their long climb out of the cellar last night with an emphatic 4-1 victory over the Traitors of Valhalla.

While the Dark Elves again managed to avoid the appallingly clumsy plays that characterised the team's performance earlier in the season - the scoreline had less to do with their performance and a lot to do with the shocking luck of their Norse opponents. Two of the Blades Touch Downs came from simple Norse passes that went astray and third from a Blitz on the Kick-Off at the start of the second half! A full replay is available on Cabalvision.

The impressiveness of the scoreline was somewhat off-set by injuries that will see the Blades two players short for next round's encounter with the Orcs of Uruk Ho!  But the 60,000 gp purse collected at the end of the match does mean the Dark Elves can afford to hire a new player to fill the spot left by the death of their Blitzer, Gáen Scaros two weeks ago. The team is remaining tight-lipped (or are just indecisive) regarding who the replacement will be - but rumor has it they are canvassing widely and interviewing a number of novice Blitzers, Assassins and Witch Elves for the vacancy.

Dave

(aka Axebreaker)

Commissioner e-incommunicado

Hi all,

Apparently Telstra is having a massive problem with it's e-mail system - I haven't been able to send or receive e-mails since yesterday afternoon. And, according to the Bigpond website, this problem may well continue until at least tomorrow.

So, if you need to contact me regarding the FNF - phone or text me on 0402 926 442 or you can use the "Comments" option to this message on the FNF Blog page.

Dave
(aka Axebreaker)

FNF VI - Round 7 Complete

Hi there FNF Fans,

Another week has gone by and another round of the FNF has been completed. And what a week!  In addition to 19 TDs scored - this round was by far the most violent of the season with 31 casualties from all causes - including a season high five fatalities! So, if you like watching some on-field carnage, tune into Cabalvision where all but one of the matches is available.  

As usual, Jim and Bob are here to present their selection of some the best highlights from the week.

This week also saw the return of coach Qman to league as he kindly steps-in mid-season to take over The Fluffy Pussy Cats from the late great toldorn.*

Round 8 has been rolled and is scheduled to run until late Thursday night 15 December

Good luck everyone,

Dave

(aka Axebreaker)

* "late"? Actually, he's not really dead. "great"? Okay, okay - the whole statement was a complete lie!

Dark Elves Actually Win

The Har Ganeth Blades won their second game of the season last night with a convincing 2-1 victory over the Morrowdale Mountain Men.

In a very welcome reversal of form - the Dark Elves put on a near flawless performance in last night's game. They didn't drop or fumble the ball once during the entire game and there was none of the usual clumsy falls when dodging away from their opponents. They even won the Biff with the Dwarf team now two players lighter as the result of a death and a crippling injury forcing an early retirement. A full replay of the match is available on Cabalvision.

The heavy armour and robust constitutions of the Dwarfs meant that Silent Steel enjoyed little success with his new "two-for-one" stabbing technique - but the Blade's assassin is reportedly very much looking forward to next week's game against the much less well protected Norse.

Thanks to Givo for the game - the Dark Elves' luck has to change from time-to-time and unfortunately for him it was this week -  good luck with the rest of the season. 

Dave  

(aka Axebreaker)

Round 6 Done

Hi FNF fans,

The sixth round of the sixth season has just been completed. As usual it was an action packed week with teams scoring a combined total of 20 Touch Downs. Casualties, however, were at a season low of just 19 from all causes - but that did include two deaths to keep all the more blood-thirsty fans quite happy. Once again, it was another good round for Cabalvision subscribers with all but one match broadcast on the premiere Blood Bowl channel.

Here are Jim and Bob with some of the best of this week's highlights.

Round 7 has begun and is scheduled to run until late Thursday night 8 Decemeber.

Dave

(aka Axebreaker)

Dark Elves Lose Again

The Har Ganeth Blades lost their fifth match of the season last night - defeated by The Erengrad Easybeats 2-1

In what has become an all too familiar pattern -  poor ball handling derailed several offensive drives and turned the ball over to the opposition. To make matters worse, the Dark Elves most promising Blitzer, Gaén Scaros, was fatally injured - so bad were his wounds that the Apothecary's attempts to revive him completely failed. A full replay is available on Cabalvision!

Once again, the only bright spot was provided by the assassin, Silent Steel, who has improved his knife-work to the point where he now feels confident on being able to stab two opponents at the same time.

Dave

(aka Axebreaker)