I was missing playing DreadBall regularly – tournament season appears to be in the Spring, and it\u2019s been difficult to play against people other than Jen for a while. I eventually approached the Cardiff League guys to see if they would allow me to join, given that I could only attend in person every fortnight (at best) and would have to play most of my games remotely via Vassal. They seem to be more organised than the last couple of leagues in Bristol – the first one followed the rules from the book and people failed to challenge or complete their assigned games in the fortnight provided each round, the second was a more open double-round-robin but I had a couple of people stand me up and found it difficult to attend on the busiest club nights, no-one else was able to attend the same nights that I was and many didn\u2019t try to arrange games on the forums (or reply to my calls for the same).<\/p>\n
The Cardiff League has a very disciplined organiser sorting out the match-ups for each week, rounding up the results and making sure it all keeps ticking along. I\u2019ve jumped in to replace one of his teams, with the team ranking and league points that they had accrued so far – 2 losses and a draw.<\/p>\n
I decided to take my Zee team along for this league, since I think a developed Zee team could be interesting to play with, and I\u2019d like the practice to try and perfect their tactics. Since I was replacing a Zee team, I only got 17 credits to boost my team rating – I bought an offensive coach and saved the rest for later. As I\u2019m starting in week five, I\u2019m hoping to organise some friendly games via Vassal so I can get some experience on the monkeys and make them better for the league games.<\/p>\n
The Cylon Conspiracy had a huge lead on me, having a few landslide victories behind them and on top of the league table. Being the underdog that I am, I got a bunch of free agents here. I got an Asterian Guard, a Sticky Nameless Guard, and two more Zees. <\/p>\n
I swarmed the pitch and managed to get a few good scores, but couldn\u2019t keep the three-point strike zone defended well enough and ended up six points down when I had to concede the game early and run to catch a train. I made enough cash after the game to buy two cards, and replace a dead Zee. Two of them managed to get experience, but not enough to gain a rank.<\/p>\n
I was hoping to squeeze this in on the same day as against the Cylon Conspiracy but the schedule was against me. Instead, we arranged this game by Vassal. It\u2019s not as hard as I thought it would be to play via Vassal, and doesn\u2019t get in the way too much.<\/p>\n
Squad Sonny had a huge team rating, 250 against my 134. This meant my underdog bonus was more than I could possibly use. I bought Buzzcut for the game, and got a few free agents – Asterian Guard and Jack, and a Teraton Jack. The Teraton spent the whole game on the bench because I\u2019ve not played with them yet, and I\u2019m not sure how best to use their abilities. Buzzcut I used for some muscle, but wanted to keep the scoring to the Zees (as poor as they are) to try and get some experience. This worked well, with my two experienced monkeys scoring early on and getting me a six point lead before half-time.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, good luck doesn\u2019t last and I wasn\u2019t able to score again – Squad Sonny managed to push enough models around to get a four-pointer, and ended up winning by two. However, with the underdog bonus I had enough to max out my cards for the next game, and still have plenty left over to buy something else. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ll buy more Zees, since there is a limit of fourteen and I would like the space for MVPs if I am the underdog again. I could buy some Cheerleaders to try and capitalise on scoring, so the cards can get me easier scores, the scores can get me fan checks, the fan checks get me the coaching dice that I\u2019ll need to help guarantee the score for next time.<\/p>\n
My two happy scorers both got Skill increases after the game, so given how close I was to a win this time (landslide, even!) I could actually get it to work next time!<\/p>\n
This was another Vassal game, but a little trickier without voice communication. I worry enough that I might be misunderstood with my voice, let alone in plain and emotionless text. The first half of the game was a frantic score-fest, with my two \u2018striker\u2019 Zees running and scoring three-pointers every rush, but having them negated instantly by a three-pointer from the Corporation Strikers. After a couple of fumbles from the humans, and a break in the scoring, I finally managed to pull ahead and started to get a lasting lead, and the game ended as a win five points up to me.<\/p>\n
Because of all the scoring, I got man<\/strike> monkey of the match, and another ability on one of my \u2018striker\u2019 Zees – who got Misdirect.<\/p>\n
After this game, I\u2019d maxed out on cards and had oodles of cash left. Looking at team rankings, I can\u2019t expect to get too many more free agents so I bought a couple more Zees (never a bad thing) and a pair of cheerleaders, just in case.<\/p>\n
Yet another Vassal game – I will be trying to make it to the store at some point, as I need to get some paints and I think I\u2019ve earned the leave at home. This was my first experience with Teratons, on either side of the pitch and they were formidable. Lots of upgrades (two Keepers) and the Teleport ability is incredibly useful! Why ever Evade again?<\/p>\n
First score went to the Teratons, and they kept the pressure up high throughout the game. Even with my new hires, there were times I only had 5 on the pitch and no subs to bring on! While not quite so back-and-forth as the previous game, the tit-for-tat was a spread out a lot more and the score didn\u2019t come near my cheerleader till near the end. My Monkey Business dice only gave me a little luck near the beginning, and I realised that Teleport can\u2019t stop a determined Zee from Stealing the ball from a Teraton – but rolling low will scupper that.<\/p>\n
My favourite points of the game were having more than half of my team in the Sin Bin thanks to injuries and fouls, and using a Running Interference card to snatch the ball before a Teraton Jack could pick it up\u2026 then doubling and running off with it! That Zee eventually sprinted off to a far corner of the pitch, where a Teraton Keeper attempted to teach him the error of his ways. It worked, but the ball scattered off the wall and straight back into the Keeper, who flubbed the catch, and a weird bounce dropped the ball into the almost undefended three-point Strike zone. That was the rush lost, and my final rush for one of the new Zees to sprint up, grab the ball (doubling with 5+ skill), and score (doubling with 5+ skill) to end the game on a 5 point win.<\/p>\n
Monkey of the Match was mine again, same Zee as before (both times, he\u2019d done nothing) and that meant a rank increase. He got Running Interference. Another Zee got a Skill increase, and three more are close to advances.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d love to play these Teratons again, it was a real challenge – but after the game they did buy a new Guard, so maybe I\u2019d best save some cash for resurrection bills\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was missing playing DreadBall regularly – tournament season appears to be in the Spring, and it\u2019s been difficult to play against people other than Jen for a while. I eventually approached the Cardiff League guys to see if they would allow me to join, given that I could only attend in person every fortnight … <\/p>\n