Season 4 Championship

Season 4 of Blitz Bowl madness has come to an end! Who walked (or, rather, limped) away with the coveted Sigmar Cup? Read on!

After my debacle the other night with a miscounted score, I started the championship game over from the beginning. This time, the game couldn't have played out more differently: In my first attempt, the teams grappled in a gritty grudge match, while the rebooted game featured touchdowns on the game's first three turns! The Reavers connected for a passing touchdown during their first sequence, then the Giants ran for a score on their first possession, and then the Reavers notched a running TD on their second turn. Madness! The excitement didn't end there, however, as the Giants made some aggressive plays to rack up challenge cards, and we were all tied up at 9 before the dust had settled. Both defenses held firm for the middle portion of the game, and as the clock started winding down, the dwarves ran for a touchdown to open up a 15-10 lead. Their defense pulled back to guard against a big TD, forcing Reavers to go after challenge cards in the hope of picking up enough points to chip away at the Giants' advantage. By the final turn, the Reavers still trailed, 15-13. They put themselves in excellent position to score two points on a challenge card to tie the game and send it to overtime. It all came down to one dice roll: An armor saving throw by one of the dwarf players. If he failed the save, the Reavers would claim the points and tie the game, but if he made the save, the Giants would hang on for the win. The odds? The dwarf needed a five-up on a D6 check. Oh, the drama! I must have let that D6 rattle around in my closed fist for at least half-a-minute before I hurled it down on the board.

Five.

The dwarf held his ground, the Reavers failed to claim the points, and the Giants won the game and their second Sigmar Cup in franchise history. Congrats to the Giants on winning the most exciting game of Blitz Bowl I think I've ever played!

Season 4 Playoffs

It's playoff time! Here we go!

Wild Card: Champions at Reavers

After being humiliated 11-1 by the Avengers in their first-ever playoff appearance last season, the undead Champions came into this Wild Card matchup determined to have a better showing. The red-hot Reavers, however, jumped out to a quick 8-0 lead. The Champions made things interesting on a rare five-point touchdown (three points for the TD plus a two-point challenge card) midway through the game, but they never threatened again. The Reavers put the game away with a late touchdown and the final was 15-6 in favor of the two-time defending titlists. The humans then set their sights on a threepeat, but first they would need to defeat the rival Giants -- who are, ironically, dwarves and not actual giants -- the only other franchise in this league that has claimed a Sigmar Cup.

Championship: Reavers at Giants

These two titans were meeting for the Cup for the third time in four seasons. Early in the contest, the Giants got the ball deep into Reaver territory, and it was all the humans could do to keep it out of their end zone. The teams picked up a few points on challenge cards over the next several rounds, until, around the halfway point of the game, the Reavers managed to heave the ball to midfield in the hope of mounting an offensive push of their own. The Giants briefly took the lead on more points from challenge cards, so it was 5-4 in their favor until the Reavers picked up a card that made it 6-5. And that's when I realized something was wrong, as I couldn't account for the score. Somewhere along the way, I had miscounted the points. (Either that, or Tzeentch is up to his old tricks!) In such a tight contest, a single point might well be the difference. With no clear resolution that was fair to both teams, I decided to toss the whole game and start again. We'll try again tomorrow!

Season 4 Recap

Tonight was the final regular-season game of my Blitz Bowl league. Here's how the five teams fared in Season 4:

• Giants (9-5-2): The dwarves set a new league record for wins and denied the Reavers a fourth straight first-place finish. This dominant team boasted the league's best offense (10.50 points per game) and second-best defense (8.81 points against per game), and tied the Reavers for the best point differential (+27).
• Reavers (7-5-4): Their quest for a third straight Sigmar Cup will continue, but first they'll need to get past the Champions in the Wild Card game. The Reavers didn't muster much on offense this year, but their defense (8.06 points against per game) was the best in the circuit.
• Champions (7-8-1): It took a nerve-wracking win in their last regular-season game to secure a Wild Card spot for the second straight year. With a point differential of exactly zero, this team is the very definition of average.
• Grasshuggers (6-8-2): The halflings remain the only team in the league that has never reached the postseason, but they made things interesting in the last few games and narrowly missed out.
• Avengers (5-8-3): They led the league in touchdowns (14) yet again, but there isn't much else I can say about this team. Last season's runners-up for the Sigmar Cup finished dead last this year, and their point differential of -29 was the worst for any team in league history.

Next up: The Wild Card game between the Reavers and the Champions for the right to face the Giants in the championship!

Which Team Reigns Supreme?

I've been solo-playing a lot of sports games over the past couple of years, so I thought it might be interesting to take a broader look across the three leagues -- baseball, hockey, and football -- to see how all the teams have fared. Who are the lordly Yankees or Canadiens of my fantasy leagues, and who are the title-starved Mariners or Senators?

In the table below, I've listed the teams in order of championships won. Each entry also includes the sport, the number of seasons the team has existed, and the number of seasons the league has existed (the latter two numbers are different only if a given franchise is an expansion team).

 

Team	Sport	Titles	Team Seasons	League Seasons
Haymakers	Baseball	5	9	9
Victorias	Hockey	4	8	8
Reavers	Football	2	3	3
Bulldogs	Hockey	2	8	8
Blue Legs	Baseball	2	9	9
Giants	Football	1	3	3
Millionaires	Hockey	1	5	8
Resolutes	Baseball	1	5	9
Comets	Hockey	1	8	8
Canaries	Baseball	1	9	9
Champions	Football	0	1	3
Grasshuggers	Football	0	2	3
Bearcats	Hockey	0	2	8
Avengers	Football	0	3	3
Thistles	Hockey	0	8	8

Where we have ties -- for example, with all the teams that each have won a single championship -- the tiebreaker is a lower number of team seasons. A team that has achieved a certain level of success in fewer seasons is more dominant than one that had more opportunities to do so but failed. 

Some good news, at least, for the lowly Thistles: As of this writing, in Season 9 of my hockey league, they're in first place. Could this be the year they rise out of the basement?

Opening Day

From Blitz Bowl straight to baseball! Now I'm on to Season 9 of my nineteenth-century Strat-O-Matic baseball league. Last season, the Blue Legs ended their title drought with a dominant series win over their chief rivals, the Resolutes. Tonight, the Legs hosted the Haymakers on Opening Day, with a marquee pitching matchup featuring reigning Pitcher MVP Cy Young against Tim Keefe, who just won the Playoff MVP award for leading the Legs to victory in his first campaign with that team after many years as the Canaries' ace. Young got the better of Keefe in this contest, as the Haymakers eked out a 3-2 victory over the defending champions. Can't wait to see how this season plays out!

Reavers Repeat!

The Season 3 Sigmar Cup goes to the Reavers! 

The title game opened with slow, cautious play on both sides. The Reavers managed to keep the ball away from the Avengers and claim points here and there on challenge cards. With leads of 5-2 and 6-3, the defending champs looked for an opportunity to deliver a knockout blow in the second half. A fumble by their thrower, however, led to a wild series of plays, by which the agile Avengers got the ball into the hands of their speedy catcher, who sprinted for the end zone and a potential game-tying touchdown. To make it, he needed a 5 or 6 on a d6 roll, but despite a card allowing him a reroll, the best he could muster was a 4. As such, he ended just shy of the goal line, where a Reaver lineman pounded him into the turf. From there, the Reavers looked to run down the clock. Both teams claimed a few more challenge points, and the final score ended up 11-7. With back-to-back titles, the Reavers have now staked their claim to a mini-dynasty. Can they make it a threepeat in Season 4?

Undead Turned

With the regular season at an end, it's time for the Blitz Bowl Season 3 playoffs! Who's in and who's out?

The Reavers claimed their third straight first-place finish, but it was only on the basis of tiebreakers over the Avengers: Both teams had identical points and wins, but the Reavers won the season series 2-1-1. As such, they earned a bye into the championship game, while the Avengers settled for second place and would host the third-place Champions. The unlucky Giants, with the league's second-fewest wins despite the second-best point differential, just missed the cut, as did the Grasshuggers, who got hot way too late after a winless first half of the season.

In the wild-card game, the Avengers jumped out to a quick start. The fleet-footed elves racked up five points on challenge cards while the plodding undead struggled to impose their usual brand of physical punishment. The unequivocal highlight of the game came when an Avenger lineman, backed up into his own end zone, hurled a long pass to the catcher, who then sprinted to the Champions' end zone for the touchdown. It was the longest touchdown play in league history. The Champions managed to pick up a single point on their next turn, but the game ended shortly thereafter due to the ten-point mercy rule. With an 11-1 victory, the Avengers notched the most dominant postseason win we've yet seen in this Blitz Bowl league. Next they'll face the Reavers in the championship game...

Spoiler Alert!

We're at the three-quarter mark of the Blitz Bowl season, and the red-hot Champions -- an expansion team consisting of various types of cadaverous undead -- have moved into first place at 7-5-1. Perhaps the biggest story, though, is the Grasshoppers' stunning turnaround. Those plucky halflings started the season 0-8-1, but have now won four in row -- they've beaten all four of the teams in front of them! It may be too late for them to make a playoff run, but at the very least, they can play the role of spoiler for the last quarter of the season.

Halftime!

I've blitzed my way to the halfway point of Season 3 of my Blitz Bowl league. The Reavers, defending champs, are tops at 4-1-3, with a league-best point differential (+27), offense (11.13 points per game), and defense (7.75 points allowed per game). About the only thing they're not leading the league in is touchdowns, as the run-and-gun Avengers rank first in that stat. The Avengers are also in second place at 4-2-2, followed by the Giants (3-1-4). If the playoffs started today, those would be the teams. The expansion Champions are holding their own at 4-4-0 and will likely threaten the clubs above them for a playoff spot. The only team that is basically out of the running is the second-year Grasshuggers, who are limping along at an abysmal 0-7-1 thanks to a league-worst offense and defense.

ARE YOU READY FOR SOME FOOTBAAAAAAL?!?!?

Yes. Yes I am.

Season 3 of my Blitz Bowl league commences this weekend with the human Reavers defending their Season 2 title against the dwarf Giants, the elf Avengers, the halfling Grasshuggers, and the brand-new Champions, a team made up of various types of undead. With five franchises now in the league, each team will play a total of 16 regular-season games (up from 12 in Season 2 and 8 in Season 1). In a change from the past two seasons, we'll add a Wild Card round to the playoffs. The first-place team will get a bye into the championship game, and then the second- and third-place teams will have a play-in game to see who joins them. Will we see the Reavers and Giants battle in the title game for the third season in a row, or will another team crash the party?

Season 8 Awards

Time to put my hockey stuff away and get ready for some Blitz Bowl football. But first, the awards! The lowly Thistles and the middling Millionaires failed to claim any individual trophies, but the other four teams are represented in the list below.

Scoring Champion: Cyclone Taylor, D, Victorias
Taylor set a single-season record with 41 points (12 goals, 29 assists) and beat runner-up Frank McGee by eight points to claim yet another scoring title. There's just no stopping the greatest player in league history.

Forward MVP: Frank McGee, LW, Comets
McGee, the league's all-time leader in goals scored, broke Newsy Lalonde's record of 19 goals in a season (set just last year) with 21. The one-eyed wonder had 33 total points to lead all forwards, although Lalonde was right behind him with 31 and had a much better plus-minus (+9 vs. McGee's -5). I really agonized over which star should get this trophy, but at the end of the day, a forward's job is to score goals, and this year McGee bested Lalonde in that category 21 to 14. McGee now has three Forward MVPs, moving him into a tie with the Bulldogs' Gord Roberts for the most of any forward.

Defenseman MVP: Cyclone Taylor, Victorias

Taylor really is the best in the business, as evinced by his sixth Defenseman MVP trophy in eight seasons. Not only did he rack up a record 41 points, he led the league in plus-minus at +16, which was six better than any other defenseman. A rejuvenated Graham Drinkwater of the Bearcats and Taylor's steady teammate Phat Wilson also received consideration, but how do you not give this award to Taylor? We might as well name the award after him.

Goaltender MVP: Hap Holmes, Bearcats

Holmes dueled runner-up Bowse Hutton of the Vics all season, and while Hutton had a slightly better goals-against average (1.95 vs. Holmes's 2.00), Holmes, more importantly, led all goalies in save percentage with .936 vs. Hutton's .931. Needless to say, this was a very close call, but Holmes got bonus points for pulling his mediocre Bearcats team all the way from dead last to second place.

Rookie of the Year: Joe Malone, LW, Bearcats

Speaking of that mediocre Bearcats team, Malone certainly did his share, as well, to get the Cats into the playoffs. Phantom Joe scored a new rookie record of 14 goals, and his 24 points put him sixth overall in the league in scoring. I see great things ahead for Malone, who will likely challenge for Scoring Championships and Forward MVPs in the years to come.

Playoff MVP: Tommy Dunderdale, RW, Bulldogs

Gord Roberts led the league in playoff goals with eight, but his series-ending injury robbed him of the opportunity to add a Playoff MVP to his sizable collection of trophies. Instead, his teammate and linemate Tommy Dunderdale claims this award, as Dunderdale led the league in playoff points (6 goals, 8 assists), and scored some clutch goals in both series, most notably the pivotal overtime goal in Game 3 of the Dogs' first-round matchup against the Bearcats.

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?

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.

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!

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!

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!

Grudge Match

I picked up the wood elves set for Blitz Bowl (technically, it's for Blood Bowl, but the two games use the same miniatures) to see how a pass-focused team plays in comparison to the versatile humans and the run-based dwarves. In today's game, Matthew elected to play the elves, and Nathaniel claimed the dwarves. Although Matthew scored a pretty touchdown in the early going, the dwarves soon caught up and began to grind out points on challenge cards. The game ended with a 14-8 triumph for the dwarves, and in observing the action I learned a great deal that I'll be able to apply to my league once I get through my hockey playoffs.

Touchdown!

Is it just me, or does it seem like every NFL game reaches a point in the fourth quarter after which defenses evaporate and the teams keep trading scores until the clock runs out? Nathaniel and I got to experience that phenomenon today in our first-ever game of Blitz Bowl. 

I've been waiting for the latest edition of this slimmed-down version of Games Workshop's celebrated Blood Bowl to be released, but with Amy and Matthew enjoying the gifts of Grandfather Nurgle, today seemed as good a day as any to drive up to our semi-local Barnes & Noble and pick up a copy of the soon-to-be-obsolete current edition. This boxed set includes models for humans and dwarves, but also game stats for all the other factions. I'll see if I can pick up the models for another team or two and create my own solo-play league, like with my historical Strat-O-Matic stuff. 

First, of course, I needed to learn how to play the game. Nathaniel and I worked our way through the "drills" that teach the basics of the rules, and then we jumped into our first match. He opted for the fleet-footed humans, leaving me the slow but solid dwarves. I jumped out to an early 6-0 lead after completing some objective cards (one or two points each) and scoring the game's first touchdown (three points). Nathaniel fought his way back and we were running neck-and-neck as time (measured by the deck of objective cards) was running out. Nathaniel pulled into the lead at 12-10. On my penultimate turn, one of my lumbering linemen managed to pick up the ball at midfield and went rumbling, bumbling, stumbling toward the end zone. Nathaniel deployed his forces for a goal-line stand, but, on my last turn, this surprisingly balletic bruiser managed to spin away from the defenders and leap into the end zone. I scored three for the touchdown and another point for completing an objective, so that put me in front 14-12. Nathaniel had just one last turn and needed a touchdown to win or two points' worth of objectives to tie. With half my team off the pitch due to injury, there was a lot of open space for the ol' two-minute drill. Nathaniel managed to run the ball, hand off to another player, and then run again into the end zone on the very last action of his final turn. With that buzzer-beater, the humans came out on top by a 15-14 margin!

New GW Board Games

Games Workshop just announced a ton of new board games. Check out the full list here. I'm going to tag Blitz Bowl (a streamlined version of Blood Bowl) and Space Marine Adventures (a cooperative 40k board game) to remember to check back for them in a few months!