Playoff Preview

There's nothing like playoff hockey! Although the Comets and Thistles failed to qualify for this year's tournament, the second-year Bearcats will be making their first playoff appearance. The previous expansion team, the Millionaires, won the Creighton Cup in just their second season. Will lightning strike twice with the Cats? Let's find out! Below are the matchups for the best-of-five opening round.

Victorias (1st) vs. Millionaires (4th)

The Vics' 13 wins and +26 goal differential were both the best in history. Their offense (3.25 goals per game) and defense (1.95 goals against per game) were tops in the league. Can anything stop this squad from a steamrolling to a threepeat? Here's one troubling stat: 2-2-0. That was the Vics' record against their first-round opponent, the Millies. Against everyone else, they went 11-2-3, so why the .500 record versus a team that finished 7-8-5 on the season with a -7 differential? Maybe it was bad luck, but this was the dance partner the Vics absolutely didn't want. Even so, I'm picking the Vics to win this playoff series in four games.

Bearcats (2nd) vs. Bulldogs (3rd)

Goaltender Hap Holmes and rookie phenom Joe Malone led the plucky Bearcats to a surprise second-place finish. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, got solid contributions from up and down their balanced lineup. The teams had similar goal differentials (+7 for the Cats, +5 for the Dogs) and their season series was pretty close, going 2-1-1 for the Cats. A Bulldogs win would be a mild upset, but the team has really been coming together in recent weeks, so perhaps this veteran Dogs squad is peaking at the right time. I'm concerned enough by their dead-last penalty kill (68%), however, to call this one for the Cats in five.

Conquest of Nerath

Conquest of Nerath is a board game based on 4e D&D. When it was first released, many years ago, I didn't feel that I could justify the expense. This year, however, as I was looking for cool board game ideas for Nathaniel for Christmas, I got to thinking about Nerath again and figured it would be very much to his liking, as it's a D&D product but also heavily influenced by Axis & Allies, which is probably his all-time favorite board game. I managed to get a copy of Nerath on eBay for a reasonable price, and today we got set up for our first game.

Axis & Allies in a D&D setting really is the best way to describe this game. Oh, and freakin' awesome is probably another way. I mean, just look at that map and all those delightful units! In addition to typical military units like infantry, ships, and siege engines, there are skeletons, elementals, golems, and, of course, dragons! We haven't rolled a single die yet, but we had tons of fun setting up our empires this afternoon. Nathaniel will be playing as the human and dwarven alliance of Nerath (gray pieces in the upper-left) and will be teamed with Matthew as the Vailin alliance of elves and humans (yellow pieces in the lower-right). I'll be controlling the two evil factions, the undead Karkoth (black pieces in the upper-right) and the monstrous Iron Circle (red pieces in the lower-left). 

In addition to the large-scale battles between opposing armies, the game has a dungeon-exploring component, too, as certain types of units can delve into famous dungeons of D&D's history (Temple of Elemental Evil, Tomb of Horrors, etc.) and claim powerful treasures to aid their faction. It will be interesting to weigh the risks and benefits of dungeon exploration, as the heroes who venture out in search of treasure are, naturally, unavailable to help out on the battlefield. 

Can't wait go get started!

Record Setters

Always a bridesmaid! Star forward Newsy Lalonde of the Victorias has just completed his third season of play, and, for the third year in a row, he's likely to finish runner-up in the Forward MVP race. Back in Season 6, his first campaign, he established rookie records of 12 goals 25 points and finished runner-up to  18-goal-scorer Gord Roberts for Forward MVP. Last year, Lalonde set single-season records of 19 goals and 37 points, and yet still lost the MVP trophy to Comets forward Blair Russell, who had 17 goals and 31 points but dominated at both ends of the ice as an elite defensive forward (his +12 was tops among all forwards) as well as an offensive threat. This year, Lalonde has continued to excel with 14 goals and 31 points, but once again he's been overshadowed. Frank McGee eclipsed Lalonde's goal-scoring record with a stunning 21, while Lalonde's teammate Cyclone Taylor racked up a new single-season mark of 41 points. And what's more, Lalonde lost one of his rookie records, as well, when Bearcats freshman Joe Malone tallied 14 goals. I guess Lalonde will just need to find solace in his Season 6 Rookie of the Year award, his Season 7 Scoring Title, his Season 7 Playoff MVP trophy, and the back-to-back Creighton Cups that the Vics won in his first two years -- and, when it's all said and done, a third straight title this year?

McGee Magic

No one in my historical hockey league will ever catch Cyclone Taylor for most career points. Taylor entered Season 8 with 195, a whopping 40 points more than second-place Gord Roberts. He's the Gretzky of this league. 

Taylor's point totals are beefed up by the prodigious number of assists he amasses by dishing passes to his talented Victorias teammates. When it comes solely to goals, however, it's a different story. The goal-scoring king is not Taylor, but that one-eyed wonder, Frank McGee. Coming into this season, McGee had scored a career total of 86, ahead of Taylor (77), Roberts (75), and Thistles winger Alf Smith (69). A strong season by any of those challengers could put that player within striking distance of McGee.

Yeah, not so much! Although Taylor, Roberts, and Smith are having solid campaigns, they're all trailing a rejuvenated McGee, who just became the first player in league history to score 20 goals in a season. The previous record for most goals in a single season was 19, set just last year by young superstar Newsy Lalonde. Before that, Roberts had scored 18 in Season 6, and McGee had first set the bar at 18 in Season 2. McGee still has one game remaining on the schedule, so we'll see if he can get to 21 or beyond.

Dreams Do Come True!

Cavill. Warhammer. Let's do this!

Seriously, what a ride! This dyed-in-the-wool Snyderbrony was feeling on top of the world when Henry Cavill showed up as Superman in the post-credits scene in Black Adam. Would that brief scene presage a return to Snyder's vision of an epic, mythological superhero multiverse? A rejection of Warner's cowardly and ham-fisted attempts to copy Disney's cookie-cutter Marvel flicks? Turns out, not so much. Cavill's cameo was his last time wearing the cape. The new creative regime at Warner is rebooting the DC cinematic universe with new actors, so Cavill is out. 

We were just talking about what might be next for our family's favorite actor (Bond, perhaps?!) when the news dropped that Cavill had found his next big project: Warhammer! In partnership with Amazon, Cavill is going to produce and star in a Warhammer series. I can't even say how many times the boys and I have chatted about which character in the Warhammer universe we'd love to see Cavill play. The Emperor of Mankind? Horus? Guilliman? Eisenhorn? Gaunt? Can't he play more than one?!

What's Next?

The boys are inching closer to the end of our Tales of the Ternion superhero campaign. Well, not the end, but the climax of the current story arc. This campaign has really exceeded my wildest expectations, and it's been an absolute joy to weave together all those old modern-setting Front Porch campaigns from the '90s into something like a single narrative that fits neatly within this multiverse. I have a follow-up campaign planned out that will take place during the same timeframe and involve some of the same characters, but that game requires our 3D terrain, and, well, we all know that I haven't made too much progress in painting it!

So, what's next? Matthew asked me yesterday what's on tap for after we finish this phase of Tales. For the first time in a long time, I don't have the next thing lined up. I anticipate we'll wrap this storyline around Christmastime, so I'll get a bit of a breather as the boys and I devote our time toward some of their awesome gaming-related gifts. But what is the next campaign? I have to admit that I'm not terribly motivated to cook up another long-term adventure in either the fantasy or sci-fi settings of the Shattered Realm universe and would much rather get the boys into the Druid Cycle, but they know little about that setting and don't seem especially eager to dive in at this point. I get it -- the Shattered Realm stuff is what they know and love. 

Meanwhile, I've been buying and painting Doctor Who Exterminate! miniatures as that wargame line nears the end of its lifespan. I'm looking forward to playing out some cool "what if?" battles, like Cybermen vs. Ice Warriors, or a Time War conflict of Gallifreyans vs. Daleks. But hey, since I've got all these great minis, why not use them for a roleplaying campaign too? Dare I try my hand at a Doctor Who storyline? It feels almost like sacrilege for me to approach that setting, but I would dearly love to get the boys interested in the Whoniverse. So, I'll put on my thinking cap (a fez, of course) and see what ideas start to grow...

Rounding the Final Bend

Each team has now played 15 of their 20 games, so we're entering the home stretch! Our playoff qualifiers will most likely be the Victorias, Bearcats, Millionaires, and Bulldogs (in that order), with the Comets and Thistles probably missing out on the dance. Can anyone stop the Vics (12-2-3 and a staggering +23 goal differential) from claiming their third straight Creighton Cup and fifth overall?

We also have some fascinating races for individual awards, headlined by a Rookie of the Year battle between the Cats' Joe Malone and the Millies' Harry Cameron. For most of the season, I've assumed left winger Malone (9 G, 8 A, +4) would claim the prize, but Cameron (5 G, 13 A, +5) is now leading in total points and plus/minus, and, as a defenseman, his offensive totals are even more impressive. I'm glad we'll get to see both of these dynamic rookies in the playoffs, perhaps in a first-round matchup!

More Playtest Content!

The third playtest packet for One D&D is now available here!

Monday TARDIS Blues

Grandfather Nurgle was the guest of honor at our Thanksgiving this year (henceforth it will be known as "That Pancake Thanksgiving"), and he continued to share his blessings on my birthday. Since we weren't in any shape to continue our Tales of the Ternion superhero campaign, I tried to get some painting done. As I'm still trying to avoid tackling the growing pile (it's now a full shelf) of 3D-printed buildings, I made some progress on my Doctor Who Exterminate! miniatures, finishing up my unit of UNIT infantry. I got to work on the TARDIS and thought I could knock it out quickly. Hey, it's only two colors, right? Well, even with careful drybrushing to get the tiny raised lettering of "Police Box" and "Public Call", I managed to screw up the "Public Call" on one side really badly. I could strip off all the paint and start the whole model over from scratch, but I also have to acknowledge that my my kids and I are the only ones who will ever see this stuff and it doesn't have to be perfect. Heck, the boys have been playing a multi-battle campaign with the Necrons against all of our other factions and half the models they're using are half-finished, just undercoated, or not even painted at all! They're having fun, and that's what matters at the end of the day. I need to learn that lesson, because I was still grumbling about the janky TARDIS lettering on my way to work this morning. Going through all the emails I missed over the long weekend, I saw that my team had chipped in to get me a Games Workshop gift certificate for my birthday. I'm going to spend it on something fun that the boys and I can all enjoy together, and not worry so much if it's painted to a "parade ready" (or even "battle ready") standard. 

(That sounded convincing, right?)

Midseason Report

With Season 8 now at the halfway point, I'm checking in on how various storylines are unfolding. It's been quite an interesting campaign so far!

I'm not surprised to find the Victories in first place at 7-1-2 with a league-leading +13 goal differential. However, I've been stunned by the one-eighty turnaround of the Bearcats, who have clawed their way to second place at 5-1-4; they're also coming by those points honestly, as their differential is a solid +7. How does a team that won two out of twenty games in its inaugural season improve so quickly? Mostly by using different -- by which I mean better -- players! Last year's trade-deadline acquisition Scotty Davidson (6 G, 7 A, +5), rookie star Joe Malone (6 G, 6 A, +5), and offseason pickup Graham Drinkwater (4 G 3 A, +7) are leading the charge. 

I can't go throwing around goal and assist totals without mentioning the scoring race. I expected the Vics' Newsy Lalonde to run roughshod over the league en route to a second storing title and potentially a first Forward MVP trophy, but the third-year superstar has been overshadowed by one of the league's golden oldies, One-Eye Frank McGee. McGee is the league's all-time leader in goals scored and a two-time Forward MVP, but the second of those trophies came way back in Season 3. McGee has been a good but not great contributor to the Comets' offense in recent seasons, and I thought his best days were behind him. Not so! With eleven goals in ten games (no one else has more than seven), McGee is delivering a vintage performance. If he wants more hardware, he'll have competition from teammates George Richardson and Dick Irvin, the aforementioned Lalonde and Davidson, along with the Bulldogs' Tommy Dunderdale and the Millionaires' Duke Keats, but I'm really enjoying McGee's resurgence. 

Time Is Not On My Side

It turns out that I'm late to the party with Doctor Who Exterminate! The Miniatures Game, as the line is being cancelled at the end of the year due to the BBC electing not to renew Warlord's license to produce Who games. Yikes! Fortunately, I'm not too late, and although my copy of the core game has yet to arrive, I've already placed an order for ALL THEIR ICE WARRIORS. Well, maybe not all, but enough to put a nice little army together. They have a couple of promotional offers going on now, so I'll take advantage of the deals before the line is formally retired. I have my eye on a couple of Doctor and companion sets as well...

Doctor Who Exterminate! The Miniatures Game

I've nearly completed painting the free Warhammer Age of Sigmar set that came as a result of our Warhammer+ membership and, of course, I'm still dreading the massive array of 3D-printed buildings I have yet to tackle. (At least I've been smart enough not to print any more buildings!) 

How else can I procrastinate? Why not invest in an entirely new wargame and paint all of those miniatures first?! Done! 

I just ordered a copy of  the rather awkwardly titled Doctor Who Exterminate! The Miniatures Game from Warlord Games. The starter set has plastic Daleks and Cybermen, but the rest of the line appears to be pewter. I'd prefer plastic, but I'm very keen on staging some cool Whoniverse battles, so if the minis need to be metal, fair enough. I don't know anything about the game stats and how the individual factions play, but I will most likely look to field a strike team of my beloved Ice Warriors. Maybe a team-up between those stolid Martians and Earth's plucky UNIT troopers against a massive Dalek invasion? 

Cats on the Prowl!

Last season, the expansion Bearcats went 2-11-7. Rookie of the Year goaltender Hap Holmes showed flashes of brilliance, but two wins in twenty games is...well...two wins in twenty games. Late in their inaugural campaign, the Cats traded for power forward Scotty Davidson and then in the offseason they  swapped captain Billy Gilmour for offensive defenseman Graham Drinkwater. They also used the first overall pick to draft "Phantom" Joe Malone, a rookie winger with unlimited potential. With an improved roster, the Cats looked to take a step forward in their second campaign.

A step? More like a pounce! The Cats surpassed their year-one win total after precisely three games and now sit in sole possession of first place at 3-0-2 at the one-quarter mark of the season. How are they doing it? Their offense (2.80 goals per game) and power play (a league-worst 17.65%) are modest improvements over last season, but the real reason is goal prevention, where their 1.60 goals allowed per game and 87.50% penalty kill are both ranked second in the league. A much-improved Holmes has a lot to do with that. 

Are they truly the league's best team? I don't think they'll be in first place at the end of the regular season, but I definitely see them making the playoffs. And with Holmes playing at such an elite level, who knows? Maybe they run the table and follow in the footsteps of the previous expansion team, the Millionaires, who won the Creighton Cup in just their second season of play.

So...many...buildings...

We've made a lot of 28mm-scale buildings with our 3D printer. A lot. The intent is to use all this 3D terrain for modern-setting campaigns in the Front Porch multiverse. For example, our Tales of the Ternion superhero campaign currently uses flat maps, but it's just crying out for a more dynamic environment to host all the larger-than-life action of characters who can scale walls, leap over buildings, hurl vehicles down the street, etc. I'm also knee-deep in narrative for a spinoff campaign that involves a zombie outbreak in a sleepy little town. With scores of zombie minis from Zombicide, the vast array of 3D buildings we've printed, and custom hero minis from Hero Forge, it's going to have absolutely blockbuster visuals! 

There's only one problem: I have to paint all this stuff!

Looking at the gargantuan pile of gray plastic in the corner of our game room actually fills me with anxiety. First-world problems, I know, but I'm kind of freaking out about how long it's going to take to paint these buildings. I'm also looking for any excuse to put it off, so various other paint projects keep moving to the head of the line. Just yesterday, in fact, I received the latest free mini that comes with my Warhammer+ subscription; it's a chaos sorcerer (with a bevy of cute-yet-evil little familiars!) for Warhammer Age of Sigmar, but I'll repurpose it for our Shattered Realm D&D campaign. After that? Well, do I have any other unpainted models besides the buildings...?

Phantom Joe

I'm now underway with another season of historical hockey, and each of the six teams has played one game apiece. Last night featured the Millionaires visiting the Bearcats. As an expansion team last year, the Bearcats went 2-11-7, and one of the few bright spots was securing the first overall pick in the entry draft. They used that selection to nab left wing Joe Malone, a phenomenal offensive talent. Malone struggled for much of his debut, however, and the Millionaires led the Cats 2-0 after two periods. Rookie defenseman Harry Cameron led the way for the Millies with a goal and an assist, stealing Malone's thunder. In the third, two goals in thirty seconds lifted the Cats into a 2-2 tie, and it looked like the game would end in a draw. Then, in the closing seconds, Harry Trihey's slick pass found Malone in the slot, and the rookie snapped the puck past new Millies goaltender Riley Hern to give the hometown Bearcats a stunning come-from-behind win. Phantom Joe, as he was called in real life, had just appeared out of nowhere to record the winning tally after over 59 minutes of frustration. I'm excited to watch his (and Cameron's) rookie season unfold!

Lego D&D

Check this out! D&D as a Lego Ideas set!!!

Six Questions

I have a new team -- the undead! -- lined up for my next season of Blitz Bowl, but I have to admit that I'm longing to get back on the ice. I'm leaning toward bumping Blitz for Season 8 of my historical Strat-O-Matic hockey league. Below are six burning questions, one for each team!

• Bearcats: With top-ranked rookie Joe Malone and perhaps some better luck for promising goaltender Hap Holmes, can the Bearcats contend for a playoff spot in their second season of play?
• Bulldogs: Goaltender Paddy Moran carried this team and covered up a lot of poor play by the guys in front of him. Can Gord Roberts, Bruce Stuart, Frank Patrick, and all the underperforming Dogs return to form?
• Comets: After a first-place finish and career years from Forward MVP Blair Russell and Defenseman MVP Mike Grant, can the Comets rebound from their playoff collapse and dethrone the Vics?
• Millionaires: Can new netminder Riley Hern, a two-time Goaltender MVP, help the Millies recover from a league-worst -20 goal differential and 3.30 goals against per game? 
• Thistles: Will trading for former Playoff MVP Hugh Lehman (their third goaltender in eight seasons) help the Thistles end their curse and win their first-ever Creighton Cup?
• Victorias: After winning titles in Seasons 6 and 7, will the lordly Vics pull off a threepeat behind superstars Cyclone Taylor and Newsy Lalonde?

Expert Classes

Another batch of One D&D playtest rules dropped today! Hot takes incoming!

• Semantics: These rules focus on three character classes -- the Bard, Ranger, and Rogue. These three vagabonds now belong to a group called Experts. We've seen the term "expert" in recent years as part of the nifty Sidekick rules. Here, the Experts are billed as polymaths who are good at a variety of things and have aspects of other classes. Pardon my pedantry, but isn't that kind of the opposite of what "expert" means? To me, the Fighter is an "expert" because he does one thing really well. He's an expert at fighting. The Bard, in contrast, is a jack-of-all trades but not an expert at any of them. Anyway, semantics aside, we're seeing a bit more 4e influence here with classes grouped into four categories (Expert, Mage, Priest, and Warrior) arranged around party roles.
• Inspiration: Bards now use their Inspiration die to add to a failed d20 roll (a minor but crucial change to the previous rule where the recipient of the die had to add it before learning the success or failure of the roll) and can now use the die to provide minor healing. That's cool, but it appears that the Bard's healing capabilities were nerfed in other ways, such as the removal of direct access to the uber-handy Cure Wounds spell.
• More semantics: The doc includes references to Cantrips and 0-Level spells. They're the same thing, I assume?
• Ranger: The Ranger has always been problematic in 5e, and Wizards has been tinkering with this class a lot over the years. I saw a beefed-up Hunter's Mark to provide for consistent (though minor) extra damage. There was also a super fun update to the now-14th-level Superior Hunter's Defense, which is now like Uncanny Dodge but then redirects the other half of the damage to another creature (other than the attacker) within 5 feet of the Ranger. Full disclosure: Some of the Ranger updates I saw may already be canon, as I haven't kept up fully with the latest 5e rulebooks. 
• Rogue: Did they really need any tweaks? I was pretty stunned to see the 13th-level Subtle Strikes class ability, which provides advantage on attack rolls against any creature within 5 feet of a non-incapacitated ally of the Rogue. Yikes! Broken!!
• Rules Updates: There are lots and lots of small or not-so-small rules changes. Shortswords are now simple weapons, the Long Rest now restores all lost Hit Dice (not half). I don't have strong opinions about any given rule change, but as they start to pile up, One D&D is feeling more and more like a new edition and not just a refresh of 5e...

Season 8 Awards

Time to wrap up Season 8 with the individual awards!

Position Player MVP: Nap Lajoie, Blue Legs
It was a crowded field, but this year's MVP is Nap Lajoie, who was the all-around best position player. He tied with George Davis for the league lead in homers (four) and was at or near top of many offensive categories along with Fred Clarke of the Resolutes, Roger Connor of the Canaries, and Cap Anson of the Haymakers. What gave Lajoie the edge was defense; as a second baseman, Lajoie provided significant value with his glove, in contrast to the aforementioned sluggers. Ironically, Lajoie was only league-average at his position, but it was also the best season ever for second baseman defense, and in a different campaign his defensive metrics might have led the league.

Pitcher MVP: Cy Young, Haymakers
Last year, the Haymakers' Amos Rusie became the first reliever to win this award; in all honesty, he could easily have won it this year too. In the best season we've ever had for relief pitchers, Joe McGinnity of the Resolutes and Vic Willis of the Blue Legs joined Rusie in a trio of absolutely dominant bullpen stars. The MVP award, however, goes to the pitcher who provided far and away the most total value. Cy Young pitched a league-high 92 innings over 11 starts, posting a 7-1 record and a 2.05 ERA that was more than a run better than any other starter. The icing on the cake was that he also pitched the first no-hitter in league history (on Opening Day!) and became just the third pitcher to hit a home run. 

Playoff MVP: Tim Keefe, Blue Legs
Nap Lajoie drove in a lot of runs and Mike "King" Kelly was phenomenal at the plate as well as behind it, but the unequivocal MVP of this series was starting pitcher Tim Keefe. The Legs paid a steep price to pry this ace away from the Canaries, but he delivered in every way -- especially in the championship series. Keefe went 2-0 with a 1.59 ERA in 17 innings pitched to help the Blue Legs end their curse.

Creighton Cup Finals, Game 3

I won't bury the lede: The Blue Legs are cursed no more! Here's how it went down...

For Game 3, the series shifted to the Resolutes' park. Down two games to none, their backs were to the wall. In a rematch of Game 1, they sent Christy Mathewson to face Tim Keefe.

This time, it was the Legs who scored first. Keeler led off the game with a single and promptly stole second. He later scored on King Kelly's two-out single. 

It was clear that Keefe wouldn't need much run support. He cruised through the first three innings, retiring the first nine batters in order. Pete Hill drew a leadoff walk in the bottom of the fourth, but Kelly threw him out on an attempted steal. Kelly would throw Hill out again in the sixth, and throughout the series was actually better at nabbing would-be base thieves than his more accomplished rival, Connie Mack.

In the top of the sixth, Dan Brouthers, Kelly, and Sam Crawford hit three consecutive singles, giving the Legs a vital insurance run. They got another one in the seventh, when shortstop Monte Ward drew a walk and made it to second on Keefe's sacrifice. A two-out single from Nap Lajoie brought Ward home to make it 3-0. 

As the end of their championship hopes drew nearer, the Resolutes continued to battle. Fred Clarke led off the bottom of the seventh with a double. He scored several batters later on a single by pinch-hitter Jim O'Rourke to cut the deficit to two. 

Joe McGinnity took over for Mathewson in the eighth. With his team down 3-1, he was tasked with holding the line and preventing any further damage. The veteran closer threw two innings of scoreless relief to do his part. His teammates, however, were unable to mount a comeback. 

Keefe cruised through the eighth and then turned the ball over to Vic Willis. It was the star reliever's first appearance in the series, and he was shaky. A single to Clarke and a walk to Grant put two runners on with nobody out. Now with the winning run at the plate, the Resolutes sought to deliver the knockout blow. John McGraw popped out, however, and then Mack bounced a lazy grounder to short. Ward to Lajoie to Brouthers for a 6-4-3 double play. Game over, curse over. The Blue Legs are champions once more!

Creighton Cup Finals, Game 2

In Game 2, the Blue Legs put the ball into the hands of veteran Al Spalding, whose breakout season moved him past longtime ace Old Hoss Radbourn on the team's depth chart. The Resolutes countered with curveball specialist (and power hitter!) John Clarkson.

Both pitchers were sharp, generating groundball outs and preventing hard contact. The game was scoreless until the top of the third, when John McGraw singled, narrowly stole second, and scored on Pete Hill's single. Once again, the Resolutes struck first, but once again the Blue Legs would respond quickly.

In the bottom of the frame, Spalding smacked a single to help his own cause. With one on and two out, Nap Lajoie drove in the home team's first run -- for the second straight game -- with a booming triple. Dan Brouthers then plated Lajoie with a single, giving the Legs a 2-1 lead.

The Blue Legs would add to their advantage in the fifth. Following a leadoff triple from Willie Keeler, Nap Lajoie lofted a sacrifice fly to make it 3-1. Spalding was cruising, and the home fans were getting louder with every harmless grounder he induced. 

One of those grounders, however, almost came back to haunt them. With one out in the sixth, sure-handed third baseman Jimmy Collins somehow muffed a Pete Hill chopper, giving the Resolutes a rare baserunner. The speedy Hill attempted to swipe second, but Mike "King" Kelly made a perfect throw to eliminate the threat.

It was still 3-1 in the top of the eighth. After Connie Mack singled with two outs, the desperate Resolutes lifted Clarkson for pinch hitter Jim O'Rourke, who popped out to end the inning. Now hard-throwing southpaw Rube Waddell would be tasked with shutting down the Legs in the bottom of the eighth. 

Waddell didn't miss many bats, so the Legs soon had opportunities to score. With men on first and second but two outs, the Legs opted to pinch hit for Spalding. The veteran had done his duty, tossing eight innings of one-run ball. Pinch hitter Frank Chance dug in and looked to extend his team's lead. He scorched Waddell's offering right up the middle to bring home another run. 

With a 4-1 edge in the ninth, the Legs had a decision to make. Now that Spalding was out, would they bring in regular closer Vic Willis, or that proud warrior, Old Hoss Radbourn? Radbourn had lost his last three starts against the Resolutes, including a 19-4 drubbing that has gone down in infamy as the most lopsided game in league history. Well, I do have a bit of a flair for drama, so of course I brought in Radbourn! This guy had a chip on his shoulder and wanted revenge. But...would he get it?

Facing the top of the order, Radbourn needed just three outs to secure the win. Hill grounded out, but the next batter, Hughie Jennings, hit a rocket to center field. Sam Crawford got a late jump and could only curse under his breath as the ball sailed over his head. Jennings had a standup double, and the Resolutes had at least a modicum of hope. Radbourn struck out Elmer Flick with ruthless efficiency, bringing up the visitors' best power hitter, first baseman Jake Beckley. The defending Position Player MVP, Beckley was looking to drive one over the right-field fence. Instead, he hit a lazy popup into the glove of Lajoie. For one night, at least, Radbourn had exorcised his demons.

Game 2 thus ended a 4-1 triumph for the Blue Legs. They now travel to the Resolutes' park needing just one win to claim the championship.

Creighton Cup Finals, Game 1

Playoff baseball! Does it get any better than this?! (Ask me again if the Yankees manage to win a ring this year...)

The Blue Legs hosted the Resolutes for Game 1 of the best-of-five Season 8 championship series. The story tonight was all about pitching. The Legs handed the ball to new ace Tim Keefe, acquired during the offseason for just this very purpose: to pitch this team to a championship and end their seven-year title drought. Opposing Keefe was Christy Mathewson, starting for the Resolutes in place of the injured John Clarkson. 

Keefe struck out Pete Hill to open the game, eliciting a hearty cheer from the Legs' long-suffering fans. The crowd fell silent a moment later, however, when Hughie Jennings drove one to the gap and hustled to third for a triple. He scored on Elmer Flick's sacrifice fly to give the visitors a 1-0 lead.

In the bottom of the first, Wee Willie Keeler led off with a single. Would he test the arm of Connie Mack, the league's best defensive catcher? Hell yes! Keeler swiped second and scurried home on Nap Lajoie's ensuing single. Keeler and Lajoie have been the Legs' one-two punch this season, so it wasn't surprising to see them manufacture their team's first run. 

After both teams drew blood in the opening frame, Keefe and Mathewson settled in for an old-fashioned pitcher's duel. Both men are classic strikeout pitchers, mixing velocity and movement to generate plenty of swings and misses. Mathewson in particular was masterful, complementing his heater with a maddening screwball that toyed with the Legs' hitters inning after inning.

We didn't see another run until the bottom of the eighth, when the Legs started to catch up to Mathewson's offerings. With two on and two out, Sam Crawford and Jimmy Collins hit back-to-back run-scoring singles to make it 3-1 for the home team. 

The Resolutes had one more chance in the top of the ninth. Although the Legs had closer Vic Willis ready to roll, Keefe came out to finish what he started. The visitors made him work for it. Frank Grant tripled to lead off, and then promptly came home on John McGraw's groundout. Down to the their last two outs and trailing by a run, the Resolutes sent Mack and pinch hitter Jim O'Rourke to the plate, but neither could reach base. The game ended 3-2 for the Blue Legs, who are now two wins away from breaking their championship curse!

Championship Preview

We now bid farewell to the Haymakers and the Canaries, as our finalists for the Season 8 Creighton Cup will be the first-place Blue Legs and the second-place Resolutes. Storylines abound!

Legacy

The Blue Legs are suffering through the longest championship drought in the league; they won the inaugural Creighton Cup in Season 1, but haven't tasted the champagne of victory ever since, despite reaching the finals three more times before this year. The Resolutes, meanwhile, claimed their first title in Season 6 and have now reached the finals in three consecutive seasons; they're hoping to forge a dynasty and dethrone the Haymakers as the league's premiere franchise.

Rivalry

First of all, we've got a rematch of the epic Season 6 championship series. As chronicled on this blog in earlier posts, the Legs were leading two games to one in the best-of-five series, and then Christy Mathewson and John Clarkson tossed back-to-back shutouts -- eighteen straight scoreless innings! -- to lead the Resolutes to the championship. This season, the Resolutes humiliated the Blue Legs again with a 19-4 drubbing that ranks as the most lopsided victory in eight seasons of play. The Legs will be looking to avenge both of these historic failures here in the Season 8 finals.

Injuries

The Blue Legs lost more man-games to injury than any team in league history. At one point around midseason, it got so bad that backup shortstop Joe Tinker played left field because the Legs only had two healthy outfielders on their roster. The Resolutes were relatively healthy all year, except for speedy slugger Elmer Flick, who lost time to two separate injuries. Late in the season, key pitchers went down on both sides. Blue Legs hurler Al Spalding, tied for second in the league in wins this season, won't be available until Game 2, nor will the Resolutes' co-ace Clarkson. 

Offense & Defense

Before the season, the Legs traded for elite pitcher Tim Keefe, who quickly became their number-one starter. Even so, the team still finished last in runs allowed (3.92) and their porous defense was only marginally better than the perennially fielding-challenged Haymakers. What allowed the Blue Legs to claim first place was a league-leading 4.29 runs scored per game. As for the Resolutes, they ranked second in runs scored, second in runs allowed, and second in team defense -- no wonder they finished in second place!

Game 1 coming up this weekend!

The Long Road to Victory

I don't think I've ever actually finished a game of Axis & Allies. Here at our house, we've certainly started quite a few, and we've played the shorter D-Day version to completion, but getting all the way to the end of a full game of Axis & Allies is no small feat. Over the past couple of months, Nathaniel has been chipping away at a solo game in which he played both sides. Yesterday, he mounted one final assault on Japan that ended the game in favor of the Allies. After admiring his work for a bit, he cleaned up the board and immediately set up the D-Day version!

Warhammer Cafe

Today we crossed an item off my bucket list by taking the Warner Bros. studio tour in Burbank. I'm a lifelong, dyed-in-the-wool WB fan, so this place is the center of the entertainment universe as far as I'm concerned. After a very enjoyable day at the studio, we headed to nearby Monrovia to visit the one-of-a-kind Warhammer Cafe. 

It's a cool place! They have more inventory than a typical Games Workshop store, as well as some other nifty Warhammer stuff. The cafe menu is a bit limited, but we very much enjoyed our drinks and cookies. Highly recommended if you're ever passing through that area!

Space Race

Our first Catan Starfarers game was quite a space race, with all three of us staying within a few victory points of each other. I pulled ahead toward the end and came within a point of winning, which led Matthew to focus his efforts on spoiling my relationship with one of the four alien species. As Matthew tried to win by forging friendships with aliens, and I pivoted to building colonies, we both kind of lost track of Nathaniel, who quietly put himself in a position to terraform an ice world and build a colony, which gave him enough victory points to claim the win!

Catan Starfarers

Matthew got Catan Starfarers for his birthday and our fledgling empires (I'm red, Matthew is white, and Nathaniel is blue) are just now beginning to push beyond our core systems (at the bottom of the photo) into the vast reaches space! Loving it so far!

Three-Way Tie

With a few days off from work, I'm making my way quickly through baseball games. Now at the midpoint of Season 8, the Canaries remain in the cellar at 3-9, but the other three teams -- the Blue Legs, Haymakers, and Resolutes -- are all tied for first place at 7-5. Most likely, two of these three teams will meet in the best-of-five Creighton Cup championship series. Which ones? All three are flawed. The Haymakers have a shoddy defense and their pitchers (aside from Cy Young and Amos Rusie) have been prone to meltdowns, the Resolutes are benefiting from the whims of good fortune (a .583 record but a run differential that suggests they should have a.489 winning percentage), and the Blue Legs are suffering through the worst stretch of injuries I've ever seen in a Strat-O-Matic season. With newly acquired ace Tim Keefe pitching like it's Season 2 again, the Blue Legs are perhaps the favorites, but will injuries completely derail their chances before the season's end?

Birds Grounded

Let's take a quick look at eight ballplayers:

• Billy Hamilton (rf)
• Ed Delahanty (lf)
• Roger Connor (1b)
• Honus Wagner (ss)
• George Davis (3b)
• Hugh Duffy (cf)
• Buck Ewing (c)
• George Wright (2b)

It's practically a "Who's Who" of nineteenth-century superstars. It's also the starting lineup of my Strat-O-Matic Canaries team, which is floating in the toilet with a 1-7 record and league-worst -8 run differential. Their offense (if you can call it that) is averaging 2.25 runs per game, which, despite the addition of the walk-happy Hamilton, is down significantly from last year's meager offering (2.88). These guys were no-hit on Opening Day and were shut out again last night. Although it's true that offense is down league-wide this season, and we're still talking about a very small sample size, I'm stunned by just how terribly the Canaries have hit. Even with some positive regression, I think the Canaries are in too deep of a hole to make a playoff run this season. Perhaps their luck will change in Season 9...

Survey Says

I've logged my feedback on the first round of One D&D playtest materials. Here's to many more!

YOUNG NO-HITS CANARIES!

It was a festive atmosphere in...well...whatever city the Haymakers play in. (In real life, it was Troy, New York.) On a sunny afternoon, the league's most successful franchise unfurled their fourth Creighton Cup banner to the polite applause of a fanbase that has become accustomed to winning. After the ceremony, the Haymakers took the field to face the new-look Canaries. Cy Young assumed his customary perch on the mound, making his eighth consecutive Opening Day start.

Young was sharp right from the first pitch. The Canaries, including new leadoff man and on-base machine Billy Hamilton, just couldn't barrel up to the veteran's heater. Young sent the visitors down in order in the first and again in the second. His teammates tagged Canaries starter Addie Joss for a run in the bottom of the second on a double by Deacon White, but Joss was otherwise nearly as masterful as Young. Joss was, indeed, the reason the Canaries had shipped longtime ace Tim Keefe to the Blue Legs in exchange for Hamilton, and the third-year hurler did everything in his power to reward the Canaries' confidence in him. 

Sadly for Joss, Young was on another level. He dispatched the Canaries again in the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth. The league's all-time winningest pitcher was perfect through six full innings. Then came a very eventful seventh.

Billy Hamilton is truly the toughest out in the circuit. He drew a leadoff walk in the top of the inning, ending Young's bid for a perfect game. The no-no was still intact, but a rattled Young then promptly walked Hugh Duffy. Two on and nobody out, but a double play and a popout retired the side.

The score remained 1-0 for the home team in the bottom of the frame. With second baseman Bid McPhee on second and only one out, Young came to the plate. The modern play would be to bunt in that situation, but this is the nineteenth century, damn it, and these pitcher swing the bat! Young went up there to try to help his own cause, but he came up lame running to first in a failed attempt to beat out a grounder. A hush fell over the Haymakers' faithful as their star pitcher winced in pain. With some help from Dr. Dee Twenty (injuries in Strat-O-Matic are resolved by a die roll), Young remained in the game. The next batter, Joe Kelley, hit a ringing double to bring home McPhee, making it 2-0.

The score, however, was almost irrelevant. The question remained: Could Young toss the first no-hitter in league history? He needed six more outs, and the team would not take any chances with their defense. They pulled iron-gloved Jesse Burkett from left, shifted Kelley into Burkett's spot, and inserted plus-plus defender Ned Hanlon in center. Young hardly needed help from his outfielders, though, as the Canaries struggled to make solid contact. He breezed through the top of the eighth, and after his teammates were retired in order, he came out for the ninth inning and a date with destiny.

Due up were the eight, nine, and one spots in the lineup. George Wright grounded out meekly. One down, two to go. Joss, batting ninth, was replaced by pinch hitter Wilbert Robinson, who met the same fate as Wright. Down to their final out, the Canaries had the best-possible candidate to break up the no-no: Billy Hamilton. A weak grounder to shortstop Bobby Wallace was best Hamilton could offer. 

For Young, it was a piece of history. In this league or otherwise, I've never had a pitcher throw a no-hitter in Strat-O-Matic. In fact, I never thought I'd see one. What a way to start the season!

Opening Day

Plaaaaay ball! It's Opening Day for the eighth season of my nineteenth-century Strat-O-Matic baseball league. The Haymakers host the Canaries and the Resolutes host the Blue Legs. 

Last year, the Haymakers won the Creighton Cup, their fourth title in the seven-season history of this league. Will their dominance continue? Will the blockbuster offseason trade between the Canaries and Blue Legs help get either of these teams get back on track? Will the Resolutes reach the championship series for a third consecutive year? I can't wait to find out the answers to all these questions and more!

The Sigmar Cup: Season 2

The Reavers went out and took care of business in the Season 2 Sigmar Cup championship, defeating the reigning champion Giants by a 12-6 score and avenging their overtime loss to these same Giants in the Season 1 title match. Although the Giants opened the game with a relentless physical attack, the Reavers found their footing and matched the dwarves point for point. Gradually, the Reavers pushed the Giants back to midfield and injured enough dwarven players to open up the space they needed to leverage their superior speed. The turning point came about midway through the match when the Reavers' blitzer and catcher double-teamed a lone dwarven lineman, bringing him down and allowing the catcher to scoop up a loose ball and run it into the end zone for the game's only touchdown. The Giants came back strong, but the Reavers' blitzer shrugged off several punishing hits to deny the dwarves some key points on challenge cards in the closing minutes, and time expired before the Giants could close the gap on their human foes.

Now that Season 2 is in the books, I'll turn back to Strat-O-Matic for a while. Perhaps when I'm ready to return to Blitz Bowl, I'll add a fifth team. Skaven? Undead? Goblins?

Sigmar Cup: Season 2 Preview

In the first season of my Blitz Bowl league, the Giants upset the first-place Reavers with an overtime victory in the championship game. This season, the Reavers came back with a vengeance and dominated the league with a record of 8-2-2 and a whopping +41 point differential. Anything less that a title will be a huge failure for this Reavers team. So, can they seal the deal at last? Let's take a look at the numbers!

Aside from the debut of the halfling Grasshuggers team, the key storyline from this season has been the enormous drop in touchdowns as teams have scored (and prevented their opponents from scoring) by focusing on challenge cards instead of the end zone. Teams scored 1.46 touchdowns per game last year, while this time around it was just 0.69. The first-place Reavers suffered the steepest decline, from 1.63 to 0.75.

The Reavers, however, were very effective at adapting their offense to this new style. They scored a league-best 11.17 points per game, down just slightly from last season. Their success in Season 2, however, was driven largely by what they did on the other side of the ball; the Reavers allowed a miniscule 7.75 points per game -- tops in the league and nearly three full points per game better than last year's squad. 

Once again, it will be Reavers against Giants for the Sigmar Cup. With the Reavers boasting the league's best offense and best defense, do the Giants -- the defending champions -- have a prayer? They did finish with the second-best offense and defense, and they were also the only team to pose a serious challenge to the Reavers, who went 2-2-0 against the Giants compared to 6-0-2 against the rest of the league. The Giants will bring their punishing, physical game yet again in our Season 2 Sigmar Cup, but I think the Reavers are just too good to blow it twice in a row.

Races & Backgrounds

Over my lunch hour, I blitzed through the first playtest document -- rules that cover races and backgrounds, as well as feats and other content that plugs into the two aforementioned topics -- and I have some hot takes!

• In One D&D, a new character's ability score increases are determined by the character's background choice, not their race. Interesting! Class is the single most important decision in the character creation process, and players often consider only races that provide bonuses to the most important ability scores for that class. That's why we get so many dwarf clerics and elf wizards. However, is this change just going to repeat the same problem and drive players toward particular backgrounds instead of races? If you want to play a fighter, example, why wouldn't you choose the soldier background to get the +2 Strength and +1 Constitution? Maybe it's not an issue, because...
• There are simple and clear rules for creating and customizing backgrounds. I absolutely love these background rules, and I foresee so many campaign-specific options for really cool backgrounds that give players exactly what they want from a stat perspective but also fit neatly into the story. These backgrounds are also very well balanced. In classic 5e, some background benefits were way more useful than others. Now all backgrounds grant a feat. If I'm creating my own unique background, I can select the ability score improvements and the feat (among other, fluffier choices) that work best for my chosen character class and character concept. But hang on, might those background-related feats be a sign that D&D is sliding back into some bad habits?
• Any time feats come up, I get worried. Earlier editions of D&D (and Pathfinder) got bogged down in a "feat tax" that railroaded players into taking specific feats in order to keep pace with other players and (in particular for 4e) with monsters that scaled up aggressively as the players leveled up. If you didn't want that 30th-level kobold to kill you, you really needed to ensure you had every bonus you could possibly scrape together. I really liked that feats in classic 5e were optional, but that does not appear to be the case anymore with One. I'll be keeping a very close eye on feats throughout this playtest.
• What else did I notice? Well, there's a lot more use of the Inspiration mechanic. (Inspiration is so incidental to classic 5e that I feel a definition is necessary here: Inspiration is a single-use benefit that allows a player to gain advantage on a d20 roll.) In One, we'll see Inspiration pop up in all sorts of interesting places, most notably on rolls of natural 20. That's right, if you roll a 20 on any check (sorry, "test" -- I see they've upgraded to the trendier lingo), you get Inspiration!
• Although we only have rules for races and backgrounds at this point, I'm seeing a major uptick in features that you can use a number of times equal to your proficiency bonus and then require a long rest to recharge. In comparison, I see way fewer features that recharge on a short rest. For my beloved fighter, I'll be eager to see whether Action Surge and Second Wind still recharge on a short rest, or if they get revised to this proficiency-based model. 
• Last but not least, Primal magic returns! I'm suddenly having 4e flashbacks, but hey, maybe we'll end up with a One D&D shaman class?!

Here Comes One D&D

Well, at least it isn't an entirely new edition, but it's definitely a bigger change than I was hoping for. In any case, I'm grateful for the opportunity to playtest and provide feedback. 

Okay, One D&D, let's do this!

Trades That Shaped the League

Before getting started with my next hockey campaign, I thought it might be interesting to look back on the past seven seasons and reflect on trades that have fundamentally altered the course of this league.

Prior to Season 1: Thistles trade Gord Roberts (LW) to Bulldogs for Jack Ruttan (LW/C)

I conducted a brief tournament prior to the start of Season 1 so that I could learn the rules of Strat-O-Matic hockey and tweak the rosters for balance. For those brief few games, Gord Roberts, arguably the second-best player in league history after Cyclone Taylor, was a Thistle. I didn't see his potential; what I saw was a (seemingly) low shooting percentage, less positional flexibility, and a greater likelihood to take penalties. So when I swapped Roberts and Ruttan, I didn't realize it would end up being the most lopsided trade imaginable. How lopsided? Ruttan has managed to get into 40 regular-season games and has collected nine measly goals (and only two before this most recent season); Roberts, meanwhile, has suited up for every one of his team's 104 regular-season games and has scored 75 goals, the third-most ever.

Season 1: Bulldogs trade Alf Smith (RW) to Thistles for Ernie Russell (RW)

It didn't take me long to realize my mistake with Roberts. Alf Smith was a similar player, and I was sure I had badly underestimated his potential, as well. To make it up to the Thistles for the loss of Roberts, I had the Bulldogs trade Smith to the Thistles for Ernie Russell. To justify the trade in narrative terms, I noted that Smith had started the season out stone-cold. While this trade wasn't quite as lopsided as the notorious Roberts/Ruttan swap -- Smith has scored 69 goals in 104 games, whereas Russell has 28 in 81 -- it does make me wonder how everything would have turned out if Roberts had stayed on the Thistles and Smith had stayed on the Bulldogs!

Season 2: Bulldogs trade George Richardson (RW/LW/C) to Comets for Scotty Davidson (RW)

Richardson was a spare part on the Bulldogs but has blossomed into a star with the Comets, and now holds the captaincy. I certainly didn't anticipate his rise to prominence when I made this trade in Season 2. That year, Richardson finished twenty-fourth in the league in total points, but in Season 3, his first full season with the Comets, he jumped all the way to eighth. He's remained a top-tier player ever since (finishing tenth, eleventh, twelfth, and seventh over the past four seasons). Davidson, meanwhile, was a useful player for the Bulldogs until he was shipped to the expansion Bearcats midway through Season 7.

After Season 2: Thistles trade Tommy Dunderdale (C/RW) and Paddy Moran (G) to Bulldogs for Riley Hern (G) and Harvey Pulford (D)

Although the Roberts/Ruttan trade was the most lopsided, I'd have to say that this trade would rank as the most impactful overall. Dunderdale was coming off of a down year, but still had MVP-caliber talent. The Dogs put him on a line with Bruce Stuart and Gord Roberts, and the rest is history; that trio has become the most dominant line in the league. For the Thistles, the centerpiece of the deal was Hern, who's won two Goaltender MVP trophies in the five seasons since that trade. Clearly, both teams benefited from the exchange; the Dogs, however, ultimately came out on top. While Pulford was little more than a throw-in who played just a dozen games for the Thistles, Moran has performed very well in goal for the Bulldogs, and even won the Playoff MVP trophy in Season 4 and Goaltender MVP in Season 7. The Thistles, meanwhile, are still seeking their first title, and Hern has been the worst playoff goaltender of all time, with a horrific 3-11 record and .877 save percentage.

Season 4: Millionaires trade Fred Whitcroft (RW/D) to Thistles for Harry Westwick (C/RW)

When the Millies joined the league for Season 4, they had zero natural centers on their roster. They made do as best they could until they were able to flip Fred Whitcroft to the Thistles for Harry Westwick, a center who was playing out of position at right wing because the Thistles were already loaded up the middle. Westwick made an immediate impact for the Millies, and was even better in Season 5 when he finished tenth in the league in total points and helped the Millies win the Creighton Cup in just their second year of existence. 

It's no coincidence that the Victorias are nowhere to be found on this list. In order to keep things interesting and to make all the franchises feel unique, I've adopted a "franchise philosophy" that governs how I handle personnel decisions (drafts, trades, etc.) and in-game tactics (matchups, line combinations, etc.). In terms of personnel decisions, I've set the Vics up to be extremely conservative, hanging on to their players (even when it's slightly disadvantageous to do so) and making only minor, "safe" trades. Seems like that approach has worked out pretty well for them so far!

The Most Dangerous Game

We made a quick trip to see Amy's parents this weekend, and her sister's family was also in town for a visit. Matthew and Nathaniel are enjoying the opportunity to spend time with their cousin Daniel. We introduced Daniel to Betrayal at House on the Hill, and our first game was a brief adventure in which the characters started out attending an open house for an old mansion that was for sale. It turned out that Matthew's Shopkeeper Lady was a Russian spy and already owned the property, and was using the open house as a pretense for capturing subjects for her bizarre experiments. She quickly imprisoned the rest of us in a basement of horrors, where we had to battle Cold War-era zombies. Some lucky tile placement, however, allowed us to escape unscathed.

My brother-in-law Ben, Daniel's father, joined us for a much longer second game. This time, we had all received mysterious invitations to a gathering at the house, only to realize that my character, Sports Gal, had sent the invitations and was preparing to hunt the others for sport, a la "The Most Dangerous Game", all the while filming the carnage to create a TV show. As I had Sports Gal roam the halls with her trusty crossbow, the others fled to pursue their own secret objectives. As I later learned, they could win by rewriting the script of the show, but it required succeeding on a series of knowledge checks. Nathaniel's Brainy Kid and Ben's Doctor Guy set up shop in a semi-secure location to pen a new ending to the show, while Matthew's Shopkeeper Lady and Daniel's Dude Bro kept my character busy. Virtually all the heroes were grievously injured, but they managed to create a new ending and kill Sports Gal -- thereby securing a lucrative TV contract of their own!

Touchdowns Down

Absence makes the heart grow fonder, and I'm already looking forward to another Strat-O-Matic campaign. In the meantime, I'm in the early stages of Season 2 of my Blitz Bowl football league. After the Giants (dwarves) were a surprise winner in Season 1, the Avengers (elves), Reavers (humans), and expansion Grasshuggers (halflings) are all looking to dethrone the champs!

How's it going so far? The Reavers (3-0-1) have once again claimed their spot atop the standings, but the first-year Grasshuggers (3-1-0) are right on their spiked heels. The halflings are a fun team to play, full of nifty free actions that give them tons of tactical flexibility. The other key narrative this year is that scoring is down. Here at the one-third mark of the season -- alert! small sample size! alert! -- teams are scoring 9.88 points per game, compared to 11.04 points per game in Season 1. That's a drop of more than a full point per game, but it's nothing compared to the absolute plunge in touchdowns per game. (Reminder: Blitz Bowl touchdowns are worth three points.) Last year, teams found the end zone 1.46 times per game, whereas this season it's a paltry 0.56. Yowzers! 

It is indeed a small sample size, but I think this trend will hold. As I'm learning this game, I'm seeing the importance of those one- and two-point challenge cards; I'm planning ahead to set up easy points, but also, crucially, looking for ways to deny the other team from claiming cards on their next turn. Essentially, I'm slowing the game down and learning how to win through defense rather than high-octane offense. For example, one standout contest from Season 1 was a 20-19 triumph for the Avengers in which they and the Reavers combined for six touchdowns; at one point, the teams traded touchdowns on four consecutive turns. Contrast that shootout with a game from this season in which the Grasshuggers defeated the Giants 10-6; not only did neither team score a touchdown, but the halflings won the game despite never moving the ball past midfield. To the (fictional) spectators in the Mortal Realms, football probably seems a lot more boring now!

Mirror Monsters and Ghost Sharks

Betrayal at House on the Hill is one of my all-time favorite board games. As you explore the mysterious house, you have to work with your fellow adventurers to overcome obstacles and acquire useful items -- but all the while knowing that someone in the group will eventually betray you. It's great that Bob found that shotgun, but do we really want him to have all the weapons...?

When Hasbro announced a third edition for the game, I placed my preorder immediately. This morning the game showed up on our doorstep, and the timing was perfect. Matthew and Amy are in Fresno this weekend for Junior Olympics (side note: Matthew is crushing it!), so Nathaniel and I had a perfect opportunity to dive into the game, learn all the new rules, and play the hell out of it.

One of the simplest but most effective additions is the characters' motivation for being in the house in the first place. In earlier editions, the characters have no reason for being there until the "haunt" is triggered and the game switches from cooperative to one-against-all as the traitor seeks to defeat his or her former allies. In this edition, players select a backstory (e.g., they're a team of paranormal investigators, they're searching for a friend who disappeared in the house, etc.), and that backstory determines the possible haunts. My only criticism thus far is that the haunts seem to trigger sooner than in the previous edition, but some might consider that a feature and not a defect.

Nathaniel and I played the game twice today, each time controlling two characters apiece. In the first game, my Sports Gal quickly got sucked into an alternate universe through a haunted mirror while evil mirror monsters chased the other characters around the house, nearly driving my Doctor Guy insane on their very first onslaught. Sports Gal was able to provide cryptic clues from her mirrorverse prison, allowing Nathaniel's Brainy Kid to bring her home and banish the monsters. For our second try, we kept the same characters. Sports Gal again triggered the haunt, this time dying instantly when a ghostly shark devoured her as a magical water-spouting idol threatened to flood the entire house. As the water cascaded down from the second story, the other characters searched for explosives and then rallied in the basement, where Nathaniel's Dude Bro stuffed our makeshift bomb into the shark's mouth and obliterated it. Two missions, two wins! Next time, though, I may opt to leave Sports Gal at home...

D&D Trailer

I am very, very excited...

Hot Stove Action!

As a league, my nineteenth-century baseball teams scored an average of 3.69 runs per game during our most recent season. How is it, then, that the Canaries -- a team with Hugh Duffy, Ed Delahanty, Roger Connor, and Honus Wagner at the top of its batting order -- could manage only a measly 2.88? I'm sure luck played an outsized role, but as I looked back over the past several seasons, the Canaries have consistently scored well below the league average. 

Heading into Season 8, they needed to make a change. With pitching as their only real asset, the Canaries put starters Tim Keefe, Kid Nichols, and Addie Joss on the trading block to see what sort of match they could make with a team that had surplus offense but was in the market for pitching. Enter the Blue Legs, a perennially high-scoring team with serious run-prevention issues. The Legs could offer outfielder and leadoff man Billy Hamilton, owner the highest on-base percentage in the entire league. Fundamentally, this trade ended up being Keefe for Hamilton, but I needed to throw in a couple of other players to ensure each team had the right number of pitchers and position players; as such, Tommy McCarthy went to the Blue Legs for his second tour with that franchise, and, likewise, veteran pitcher Pud Galvin returned to the Canaries, with whom he was a Playoff MVP way back in Season 4. 

So, at the end of the day, we've got ourselves a blockbuster trade in an otherwise quiet Hot Stove season prior to Season 8. It's hard to imagine Tim Keefe pitching for anyone other than the Canaries -- he's been their Opening Day starter for seven straight seasons -- but the team has spent the last three years below the .500 mark, and perhaps this trade will help get them sorted out.

And when the Canaries take the field for their Season 8 debut against the Haymakers, it won't be Keefe throwing the first pitch, but rather third-year phenom Addie Joss taking over as the staff ace.

The Sigmar Cup

Tonight I completed the brief first season of my Blitz Bowl league. Although I've been playing all the games myself, Matthew and Nathaniel really got into it, asking about the game results as if these were actual sporting events! Matthew was rooting for the elves all week long and Nathaniel (not surprisingly) was a dwarf booster, so there was precious little love for the humies. 

As I mentioned in the previous post, the title match for our first-ever Sigmar Cup would feature the first-place human Reavers against the second-place dwarf Giants. The Reavers won the coin toss and took possession of the ball, scoring three early points on Challenge cards and keeping the ball away from their foes. After the dwarves botched several attempts to break through the human line, the Reaver thrower lofted a pass to his catcher, who sprinted into the end zone for the game's first touchdown. As Blitz Bowl touchdowns are worth three points, the score was now 6-0 for the Reavers before the Giants had even touched the ball.

Game over? Hardly! The stolid dwarves dug in and began to chip away at their opponents' lead. One exciting highlight came midway through the match when the dwarf troll slayer bulldozed his way into the end zone for his team's only touchdown. Both squads picked up a few more points on Challenge cards, and it was 10-8 in favor of the Reavers late in the game. The Giants scored two late points to draw even, and then, on the very first turn of overtime, earned a single Challenge point that the Reavers could not match on their own turn. And thus the game ended with a score of 11-10. The Giants have won the first Sigmar Cup!

Doctors and Daleks

Yeah, I'm gonna be all over this...

Blitz Bowl Season 1

I'm playing a quick three-team Blitz Bowl league this week during my time off. Each of the three teams -- the human Reavers, the duardin (dwarf) Giants, and the aelf (elf) Avengers -- play the others four times, for a total of eight games apiece. Then the top two teams meet in a single winner-take-all championship game.

Tonight I wrapped up the regular season, and although the Avengers started off with a bang, they finished at 2-4-2 and failed to qualify for the championship. The Giants (3-3-2) came in second, so they will meet the first-place Reavers (3-1-4) for the title. It should be a great game, with the defense-minded Giants (a league-best 9.75 points allowed per game) going up against the high-scoring Reavers (tops in the circuit with 11.88 points scored per game). I'll do a full write-up this weekend for the championship match. After that, I'll start preparing for a much longer Season 2, in which I'll introduce a fourth team -- the halfling Grasshuggers!

Super Cars

The National Automobile Museum in Reno is one of my very favorite museums. The last time we took the boys there, they probably weren't old enough to appreciate it. 

As we toured the exhibits today, I treated my family to an impromptu retrospective on my beloved Elmira's many connections to automotive history, from the Philion quadricycle to American LaFrance fire engines to the Brothers Bodine. Here's a shot of their American LaFrance engine, manufacturing in good old Elmira, New York!

They also had one of the old Adam West-era Batmobiles on display, which Matthew was excited to see after getting into a lot of Batman video games lately. 

The reason for this post, however, is a connection to our Tales of the Ternion campaign. I nearly walked right past this beautiful Lincoln-Zephyr...

It then dawned on me that it was the favored vehicle of Ian "I'm missing a finger!" Silverstone, the British used-car salesman who has factored in numerous Front Porch campaigns set during the middle part of the twentieth century. The boys learned about Silverstone recently in our Tales superhero campaign as they've been working to unravel a decades-long conspiracy that links together all of my modern-setting campaigns.

Victory in Ulfenkarn!

As I predicted, there was considerable deliberation about how to mount our assault. Ultimately, we agreed to take out the initial guardians first, then split up to destroy the four phylacteries that protected the undead soul of Radukar. The vampire-lord would spawn as soon as the first phylactery was destroyed, so we needed weaken him by eliminating these magical vessels as quickly as possible. 

The subordinate vampires and undead ogres were no match for our party's prowess, so we moved into position for a near-simultaneous phylactery smashing. Nathaniel's sturdy dwarf and my nimble swordfighter moved toward the two phylacteries in Radukar's throne room, while Matthew's musket-wielding monster hunter and his stalwart priestess each headed for a phylactery in one of the adjoining wings. (The game requires you to take four heroes on each adventure, so we rotate among a couple of supporting heroes, of whom the priestess is probably the most effective.)

The destruction of the phylacteries went off almost without a hitch, and we were lucky to have Radukar spawn in front of Nathaniel's dwarf, as he was the tank of the party. The unexpected appearance of another undead ogre put the poor dwarf between two powerful foes, but I managed to move my swordfighter into position for a flurry of attacks that took down the vampire-lord and ended the game!

Here's a shot of the final scene, with the two heroes who were in the throne room for that final turn.

Since Nathaniel had been the one to open the mysterious envelope when we completed Blackstone Fortress, this time Matthew got the honor.

What secrets were contained therein? I won't give away any spoilers, but the ending was not altogether positive for the city of Ulfenkarn and its champions. The fight against evil will continue, but for now, we'll put Cursed City aside to focus on other things. It was a great game, perhaps not the novel and wildly fun experience we had with Blackstone, but the character development and legacy mechanics in Cursed City were rather more sophisticated than in its earlier cousin. The boys and I would love to see a new edition of Blackstone that incorporates all the great stuff that Cursed introduced. In any case, they're both magnificent games and we absolutely got our money's worth out of them!

Into the Ebon Citadel!

Over the past few months, other games have gotten in the way of our finishing Cursed City, but now that I've got a nice little week of vacation, I was determined that we were going to complete this game just as we vanquished its spiritual predecessor, Blackstone Fortress. Over the weekend, we did one final mission to level up a couple of our secondary characters and prepare us for our final assault on the Ebon Citadel, home to Radukar the Wolf, vampire-lord of Ulfenkarn. 

Here's a couple pics of the Ebon Citadel map, including (at the top) the throne room of Radukar!

It's hard to see the individual minis, but Radukar himself is not present. He'll show up once we start to cause trouble. In the meantime, we'll have to deal with his undead ogre and vampire minions. 

If we prevail, we'll be able to open the mysterious sealed envelope that was included in the box. As with Blackstone, it no doubt wraps up this first storyline, provides some sort of final reward for the party, and hints at adventures to come.

The attack on Radular's lair begins today, but we'll probably spend a couple of hours arguing over how to approach the mission before we actually get started. That's half the fun! Wish us luck!

Season 7 Awards

Before undertaking the tedious task of updating career stats for all the players, I'll wrap up Season 7 with the individual awards!

Scoring Champion: Newsy Lalonde, RW, Victorias

With 19 goals and 18 assists, Lalonde's 37 regular-season points were three more than teammate Cyclone Taylor's total. In just his second season, Lalonde has established himself as the league's premiere offensive player. (Offensive in more ways than one, because his 32 penalty minutes were just four shy of the league lead!)

Forward MVP: Blair Russell, LW, Comets

A star player in earlier seasons, Russell had been pretty quiet over the last couple of years before breaking out with 17 goals (second in the league). That number, combined with his +12 rating (third in the league but first among forwards), tell the story of his superlative two-way game. 

Defenseman MVP: Mike Grant, Comets

Grant suffered an injury early in the first game of the season and missed the next couple of contests. When he came back, he came back with a vengeance. Grant racked up 30 points and posted a +13 rating (second only to teammate and fellow blueliner Lester Patrick at +22), cementing his place in the holy trinity of defensemen alongside fellow trophy winners Cyclone Taylor (five times) and Hod Stuart (once).

Goaltender MVP: Paddy Moran, Bulldogs

Moran paced the circuit with a 2.40 goals-against average and .921 save percentage, almost single-handedly dragging his underperforming team into the postseason. To earn this award, Moran had to outduel four-time winner Bowse Hutton, although Hutton and the Victorias got the last laugh in the playoffs. 

Rookie of the Year: Hap Holmes, G, Bearcats

Holmes edged Thistles winger Jack Darragh to become the first goaltender to win this award. On a first-year team that won only two of its twenty games, Holmes was one of the few bright spots. His .913 save percentage looks exceptional, but it was actually just a few ticks above league average (.910) because expansion diluted the talent pool, resulting in a banner year for netminders. Even so, Holmes was arguably the Cats' best player, and I see nothing but greatness ahead of him.

Playoff MVP: Newsy Lalonde, RW, Victorias

Cyclone Taylor had one more point and a substantially better plus/minus, and Bowse Hutton put up an eye-popping .941 save percentage, but this year's Playoff MVP goes to their teammate Lalonde, who scored a record 9 goals in this postseason, when no one else had more than 5. Though twice injured during the Vics' championship run, Lalonde was a warrior who instilled absolute terror in foes every time he touched the puck.

The City Is Growing!

I haven't posted much about our 3D printer since those earlier warehouse pics because we've been troubleshooting some bed adhesion issues. Now we're using a raft with each print and it's working out very well. Construction of our city continues apace!

Above is a free model that Corvus Games Terrain allows you to download from their site. Why not include a game shop in our town?!

I love this model because it's so versatile. It's a modular design, so you can print and stack as many stories as you like. I'm going to use the same files to create a three-story building next. As you can see, there's an empty rectangular space just above the door and street-level windows; this area is for gluing one of the many signs that were included among the files, so I'll glue different signs onto this building and its future three-story cousin. Plus, the building has internal floors, so you have lots of opportunities for interior play as well!  

And now my favorite: the pizza parlor! I might re-print the roof to try to get better resolution on the letters and numbers on the sign, but for now it's fine. We also have quite a backlog of stuff to print, as Matthew and I went on a bit of a shopping spree on Corvus this morning, purchasing files for more city shops, an industrial building, and a military base. 

Just please don't ask me about how these are going to get painted...