This season of Blood Bowl ended very much like the previous season did. I went up against Umbra's orcs with my dwarves in the semi final, and I lost. In both cases my dwarf team was reasonably developed but the orcs had a far higher team value and could clearly beat my team up and down the field quite effortlessly.
I find bash on bash matchups like this where one team is vastly ahead not much fun honestly. When you are a dodgy team you have a lot more options to try to make plays against a more powerful bash team but when the opponent has just as much Guard and Mighty Blow as you do but also has seven more Strength... it just feels absurd.
Still, I gave it a go. I was feeling really off before the game, distracted mightily by things outside Blood Bowl. It showed in my play and I didn't give Umbra the run for his money that I had hoped.
With my giant pile of inducement money I bought a chainsaw and a bombardier Star Player and also a wizard. I hoped that I could chop his team down to size in the early going. I did injure a dude with the bombardier but the enemy apothecary fixed him. I must say, throwing bombs at the enemies each turn is a hell of a lot of fun, even if it isn't necessarily that good.
In any case I tried to leverage my start players to inflict some hurt but the orcs managed to score early and clear them both off of the field. I had a plan to stop the TD but the loner dwarf I was forced to bring to the match rolled snake eyes and knocked himself down at a critical moment. In fact this happened twice that the first roll I made on a turn was a 2 die block and my dude fell down - even if the teams had been even that would be enough to lose me the game.
I tried to answer with a touchdown of my own in the first half but couldn't make it happen. That same loner dwarf who screwed up the defence also managed to fumble the ball and cost me my touchdown on the backswing - that guy is not getting hired by my team!
The second half went even worse than the first. The orcs pounded my team to bits, and I made a desperate attempt to run around them to score but got stymied, my blocks amounting to nothing. By turn 12 I had only four dwarves left on the field and three of those were down. Frustrated, I conceded the match to get out of it without anyone else getting injured.
That concession was wrong. With three dwarves down I should have just passed the turn, let Umbra foul me brutally, and hope that my dudes wouldn't accrue any lasting injuries. I would only have to cope with 3 fouls and a knockdown, I think, and even though I could easily get dudes killed that way it would have been worth the risk to get the cash and experience from finishing off the match.
In any case Umbra bashed the hell out of my team and ended my playoff run. Funnily enough I think I actually have a better shot at winning the finals than he does, because he goes on to face an elf team. I have better ball carrying, way more Tackle, and a much lower team value than Umbra does. The elves will get a wizard and all kinds of other goodies against him and I think he rates to lose in the finals. I don't know that I am favoured to win by any means but I think I rate to do better.
Next season I am starting with a 10 dwarf roster and only 20k in the bank. I need 70k just to get my full team, never mind needing to get a 12th player to have a bench. Plus I have to fire and replace my blitzer who has a niggling injury once I accumulate enough cash to do that. Next year will definitely be a rebuilding year. Maybe I can reverse my fortunes - last season I kept setting fire to all my cash because the dwarves were so healthy and then hit a massive rash of injuries and deaths near the end that ruined me. Perhaps the coming year can begin with money problems and an injured lineup and end with me flush and sporting a bunch of dwarves ready to rumble.
We can only hope that the dice will provide.
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