Pitch Invasion - September

Pitch Invasion events (soon to be renamed Bucks Open One-Dayers) are a staple of the UK south tournament calendar. Held once a month in High Wycombe, they usually attract some quality coaches and are a great place to try new things with their generous skill package. Plus, 4 games in a day means that a NAF shield is up for grabs with just 12 coaches, which tends to be around the numbers we get. This is also where team Pitch Invaders (GreenSkinPhil, CptOats and myself) gets its name, as we all met at one of these events.

This time around, I thought I'd give my Onions a rest after 15 straight NAF games with them, and bring out the rats. I enjoyed them immensely when I took them last Pitch Invasion, they definitely suit my playstyle and I feel are a team worth getting to learn if you want to be competitive, as they are all over the scene. I brought the following roster:

Player	Skills
Rat Ogre	Juggernaut
Stormvermin	Tackle, Mighty Blow
Stormvermin	N/A
Gutter Runner	Strip Ball, Wrestle
Gutter Runner	Block
Gutter Runner	Sidestep
Thrower	N/A
Linerat	Kick
4x Linerat	N/A
1x Apothecary
3x RR, 2x Coaches, 1x Fans

Juggernaut Rogre is a no-brainer, helps with the 1-turn, is always a surf threat and makes blitzing with the thing a lot more reliable. It's also a good counter to control teams relying on Stand Firm or Fend to slow you down. Everything else I went back and forth about a few times. In the end, I tried to go for a roster that had answers to most threats: Tackle/MB to counter Stunties and Elves, Strip Ball/Wrestle for reliable ball removal, Kick to get the initiative on slow teams and Sidestep to make sure I can still 1-turn even if I'm down players. I also went for an Apo instead of a 13th player, so that if the key positional for any given matchup was removed, I had a chance to bring him back.

A tool for each matchup and an Apo to keep them around. Sounds good in theory, but how would it work in practice? (spoiler: not great).

Round 1: CptOats, Old World Alliance

We opened the day with a Pitch Invaders showdown. First matchup of the day with Sure Hands, but I knew CptOats was bringing OWA so this was always a possibility. He brought Grombrindal and a Treeman, which meant potentially 3 lots of Mighty Blow per turn - a scary prospect for AV8+! Fortunately for me, he also brought a rather anemic 12 players, 2 of which were Flings. His turn 1 started well, with his LoS blocks removing two of my players (one permanently), the ball getting recovered easily and put in a cage. CptOats' luck didn't last very long though, as soon the casualties started to mount... on the OWA side. It started with a 1D block that saw his Catcher Skull himself out of the game, and was followed by a couple Dwarves getting CASd out. Numbers down, the OWA team was under intense pressure, and the rats were clustering around the ball. The only hope for the mixed team was for the Treeman to blitz the Rogre out of the way, leaving a clear-ish path for the carrier to get away from the rodent mob. Of course, the tree immediately decides to root, and though a reroll saves it it then proceeds to knock itself over trying to rush, and this time the reroll is no good. With the carrier now wide open, the ball quickly changes hands and is hurried away from the mess by a Gutter Runner, scoring on turn 8. Second half, and Skaven to receive. CptOats' team is now severely depleted, while the rats can still field a full 11. Defending with OWA vs Skaven is a tough proposition at the best of times, but with the Catcher out, the Treeman rooting on turn 1 and a serious dent on the Dwarfs, it might as well be impossible. The Skaven feint left, then push right, banging it in turn 4 to secure the 2-0 and confident in their chances for the 3-0.

But as we all know, such hubris is the best way to attract Nuffle's attention. As the ball is kicked at the start of turn 5, the OWA thrower recovers the ball and stands just outside of Gutter Runner range while their LoS men make modest advances. Meanwhile the rats go full aggressive, basing the Thrower with both GRs and putting most of the team nearby to capitalise on the inevitable sacking. Two linerats are left in the backfield as safeties, but more as an afterthought than anything else. Something the Skaven would come to regret, as the thrower proceeds to dodge out, rush to position and hurl the ball 6 squares downfield to a human Blitzer, who easily catches in the rain and bolts for the end zone. The safeties spring into action, but the second linerat manages to knock itself down (and out) by snaking the rush to hit (third snake of the game, thanks CptOats for reminding me!), leaving the Blitzer to blitz the other linerat away, then run it in for a spectacular 2-1.

Of course, this still leaves the Skaven another couple turns to score, which they do, because Skaven. 3-1, but a couple rolls go differently and it could easily have been a 2-2, or a 1-2. Well played CptOats, and a great game!

Round 2: Besters, Wood Elves

Remember when I said these tournaments attract quality coaches? Well, Besters is one of them. Highest ranked in the world with both High Elves and Union, selected for Team England and with a winrate of 66.65 over 1000 (!) NAF ranked games. I confess I had been hoping to get the chance to play Besters. Would have preferred to play against his Union, but Woodies are close enough I suppose, especially considering he turned a Wardancer into a pseudo-Union Blitzer with Sidestep and Diving Tackle. Another unusual pick was a Sure Hands/Dodge Thrower, which gave him an easy way to keep the ball safe from my Ball Hawk Gutter Runner.

I won the toss and elected to kick. The first round of blocks left me with a KOd linerat and a couple stuns, but otherwise the Skaven were mostly intact. I decided to go all-out for the stacked Wardancer, hitting it turn after turn with the Tackle/Mighty Blow rat and using him in tandem with the Rogre for that Tackle/Prehensile Tail combo. This kept him out of the game, but it also kept my main killer pieces busy, and despite a number of knockdowns I did not manage to remove him until fairly late in the half. Meanwhile, the rest of the team was pressing the Elves hard into the sideline, hoping to apply enough pressure to force an early score. The best chance of the game came turn 6, where the Rogre had a clear blitz on a line elf standing next to the carrier, only a few squares away from the end zone. First hit is double push, and Rogre knocks itself over trying to rush for the second. With 2 rerolls left, I consider using one but decide that the likelihood of Plan Rogre succeeding is not high enough to compromise the 1-turn, so I let it go. Besters protects the stall well, and scores on his 8. His team has been thoroughly thinned down, including both Wardancers gone, and cannot fully defend the 1-turn so he leaves me with 3++ dodges to score, making the 1 turn roughly a 60% chance with 2 rerolls according to Dave's Action Calculator. Ball makes it to the Gutter easily, and pushes work as expected, leaving it in range. Dodges are fine, but it's the 2+ rush that trips the rats up, with snakeeyes putting an end to the 1-turn attempt and sealing the 1-0 in the first half.

Second half, and we're looking for the draw. The KOd Wardancer does not come back, the Woodies are still down their best players, so it's definitely looking possible. The rats advance cautiously, zig-zagging down the pitch to gain a couple extra squares each turn. The final zag is a risky one, with a couple rushes needed to fully build the cage on the other side, but we do it in the safest possible order and need only one reroll to complete the cage in comfortable scoring range by turn 6. At this point, Besters' only hope is a cage dive, so he sets himself up and sends the catcher in. Needs a 5 to get in, gets it the first time. Needs a pow to take down my Blodge carrier, gets it right away. Ball bounces out into a complicated position, but Besters' dice are hot and his thrower successfully does the 4+ dodge, 4+ pickup, 3+ dodge, 2+ dodge to retrieve the ball and get it out, without so much as a dodge or sure hands reroll. Still, the thrower can't go very far, and the ball is quickly recovered by the rats. This has thrown my Skaven into such disarray, though, that I can't properly protect the ball and have to run it in on my 7, giving Besters's Elves 2 whole turns to score. Not good.

Still, I have Kick, I have the numbers, and he's out of rerolls, so we do have a chance. He pushes through my right flank, putting 3 scoring threats in place and holding the ball on his catcher, tantalisingly only 3 GFIs away from a 2-die blitz. I consider that option, but end up choosing to nullify the threats instead. The most advanced Catcher is blitzed and powed down. A second Catcher is double-based, and a tackle roadblock is put in its way to the end zone. The remaining threat, a Lineman, is triple based. The two remaining Linerats are placed in the Thrower's path, forcing 3+ dodges and rushes to get into throwing position. Even if he gets there, it will be a 4+ pass as it will be a short pass, and it's sunny. I've done what I could, all in Nuffle's hands now... and he scores. 1-2. I had a chat with Besters afterward, to see if he had any suggestions how I could have defended that better. He suggested maybe going for that blitz on the thrower, or maybe trying to stall one more turn on the offense. At the time, the stall felt impossible with the resources I had left, but perhaps I missed something there. Had I been playing Union, I would probably have gone for the stall, but having to dodge out any protectors on a 3+ and having only ST2 blodge felt far too dangerous. As for the blitz, having put things into the calculator, I get roughly a 10% chance of Besters scoring with the defence I put up (so in other words, 90% chance of a draw). 3 GFIs and a 2-dicer, needing a pow or a both down, comes to about 72% with 2 rerolls, but this would not have completely removed his chance to score. I think probably the best play there was a combination - base that first Catcher instead of blitzing him, base the other threats, and try for the blitz on the thrower. Hard to calculate exactly what the chances of that hybrid play would have been but I reckon better than either one on its own. Something to take away!

Round 3: GColeman76, Skaven

Another Pitch Invasion regular, and another top-shelf coach. Team Wales mainstay, 68% winrate with Skaven and part of the 2022 UKTC winning team. I had played GColeman76 twice before, losing once and winning once, and had a good memory of both games, so I was looking forward to going again, especially considering his rating with Skaven! His roster was somewhat different to mine, having opted to bring a full-positional roster with all 4 Runners and 2 Throwers. This came at the cost of a reroll, but he compensated by putting Leader on his thrower. He brought the full 13, too, instead of the Apo. Annoyingly, this would be the third matchup of the day with Sure Hands, so again no Strip Ball shenanigans. Still, no Tackle, so I had the edge there at least.

I win the toss again, and elect to kick. He removes a Linerat and stuns a couple others, protects the ball but leaves a GR exposed. 3 dice with Tackle MB take it down, but no damage. His retaliation has no Tackle but doesn't need it, and sends on of my GRs out right off the bat. We continue sniping at each other for a couple turns, until a failed dodge leaves an opening on the ball, which I jump on. Ball is loose, I try a hero play with a GR to retrieve it and go. The GR gets 1, 2, 3, 4 dodges without even using the skill reroll, and finally fails the 5th, passing it on the reroll. Ball is a 3+, 3+ away now, and at this point I figure I might as well, and try for the 6th - no dice, reroll fails as well, ball scatters. I manage to recover it and run next turn, but it's little more than a potato at this point and the breakthrough is quickly ended by a 3D blitz. Armour is not broken, and I have a chance to recover, the ball, but it fails and GColeman76 takes the ball back for the final time, and scores in his 8th. With a full team, he can put up a devilishly difficult 1TTD defence, and after a good 10 minutes of thinking about it my attempt fails at the first hurdle as the Rogre rolls double pow on the first go. First half, 0-1.

I'm back to a full team (just!) for the second half, as is my opponent. Early blocks do nothing, and though I eventually manage to take down a GR, he does the same, and I am reduced to one vs his three. Attrition is not going my way, and after 3 turns of holding the ball in my half he has put enough pressure on that I cannot safely hold it any longer. My sole remaining GR potatoes off into the distance ball in hand, getting as far as it can from the opponent rats. I can bring it only meagre protection, not enough to stop a 2-die but enough at least to stop the 3. 2-die does it (albeit with a reroll) and the runner is down, but not out. The silver lining here is that GColeman76's recovery is not great - he has no rats in range that can easily pick up the ball, and I am able to block the ball free and pick it back up with my GR. A couple more turns of the ball changing hands ensue, and by turn 7 I feel I have exhausted my luck and bang it in. Again, leaving 2 turns to score vs a good coach with a fast team might as well be a concession, but I feel at this stage with him down to 1 reroll and my Tackle MB piece still active I have a chance.

...and then Nuffle goes and delivers me a Blitz! GColeman76 has heavily loaded the right flank, leaving the left untouched including an unmarked Linerat on the LoS. This allows me to blitz the single Linerat left screening his Thrower, and push through to threaten him. This leaves the left flank wide open, but I have a couple rats and my Tackle/MB killer well within range to stop any pushes through that side. His Thrower picks up successfully and passes to a GR that exploits the new opening on the left flank and bolts downfield with a single other GR as an escort. 3D with tackle puts an end to that rush, but I can only watch in horror as the ball bounces directly onto the second GR... who catches it. All I can do next is overload the rat and pray, but in my haste I leave him a chainpush to free it from the harder dodges. I notice this just in time, and put a couple more rats in to at least make him have to do some 3++ instead of just 2++. And then... he fails! Final score, 1-1.

I can't help but feel like I got away with that one. I suppose the Blitz didn't end up changing much I don't think, other than perhaps making GColeman76 switch sides for his scoring attempt. The bounce was lucky for him, the dodge fail was lucky for me... Either way, I got outpositioned, and though he did get somewhat lucky with the bash game, I think I played the early part of my drive quite poorly. I think I have grown too used to Elves dodging on a 2+ and being able to reposition reliably - something to bear in mind for practice games!

Round 4: Frodo, Ogres (with Griff)

Yet another Tabletop Republic regular! Frodo is always a pleasure to play, and I was very happy to draw him for round 4, especially since I hadn't had the chance to play him for a while. I was less happy to see his roster - the infamous Griff Ogres build. Still, not a bad matchup for my Skaven, especially with the Tackle/Mighty Blow Stormvermin. As we started the pre-match rolling, I was looking forward to a nice fun game to round out the evening. Oh, if I'd only known...

Frodo chooses to receive. I brace for the LoS blocks, but all he manages is 1 stun and a KO. I barely have time to sigh in relief before he blitzes my Tackle Mighty Blow piece straight into the dugout, and only the timely intervention of my Apo stops him from going into the CAS box. In doing this, though, he leaves Griff wide open for an uphill Strip Ball/Wrestle blitz (Finally! a team with no Sure Hands!). First roll is skull push, but a reroll turns it into a push/both down and out goes the ball. Bounce goes onto an Ogre, fails, then onto a Linerat... who catches. This would have been great, if not for the fact that the rat in question was standing between three Ogres, and had just stood up that turn so could not leave its precarious position. Oops.

Sure enough, the hapless rat gets punched into the KO box in short order. Ball bounces onto an ogre, who catches it on a 6. Ball Hawk rat gets stomped on by a Gnoblar, CAS. So I'm now on turn 2 of Frodo's half, 4 players down including my two most important pieces. Yikes. I pull back, and try to at least remove some Gnoblars while putting pressure on him to move towards the end zone. I manage to KO a Gnoblar, but my joy is short-lived as he immediately knocks down then fouls my Rogre to death. There goes my 1-turn, at the low low price of a sent-off Gnoblar. I am now down to 6. Gnoblar hunting does not produce any results, but my turn 5 brings an opportunity - 2++ 3++ dodge with my Block GR for a 2D uphill on the blockless Ogre carrier. Not the best odds in the world but probably as good as I'm going to get this half. GR fails the 3++ and CASes itself in the process. So much for that.

Perhaps scared of the turn 8 bonehead, Frodo scores on his 7, leaving me 2 turns to equalise. My KOs come back, thankfully, so I can field most of a team, and most importantly I can bring a Thrower, GR and two Stormvermin to bear. He is a couple Gnoblars down, too, which helps. Kick-off event delivers a time-out, which actually makes things worse for me, as it means I have to protect the ball for an extra turn unless I want to get hit with 4 mighty blow blocks AND risk a TTM on his 8th. I recover the ball, get it to the GR, run it forward and screen it off with my few remaining pieces to protect it. Frodo attempts a 1D Gnoblar blitz, which fails, and puts Griff in the way in an attempt to force me to score quickly. I am about to, but figure I have a free shot on the big man first - 1D, even a push is good as it puts him out of blitzing range of my GR if I go full move to the other side. But it's better than a push - it's a pow! And a KO! GR is now safe to bolt to the other side of the pitch. All that's left now is to dodge my all-important Tackle Mighty Blow Stormvermin away and... oh. Oh no. He trips, CASes himself AGAIN. No Apo this time. Fuck.

Second half starts. Griff is still out, but I have a grand total of 1 GR, 1 Thrower, 1 Stormvermin and 3 Linerats. My plan is to keep the ball back as long as possible, then dodge my other players away from the Ogres over a few turns so I have enough free pieces to screen the GR for one turn as it crosses the pitch. Nuffle, of course, has other plans, and I proceed to fail near enough every dodge I attempt for the first 4 turns, losing more rats in the process. Soon enough I am down to 4 total, forcing me to go for the pitch-crossing attempt now. GR goes up, I need 2 dodges for this to work. First dodge fails, passes on reroll. Second dodge fails. Ogre blitzes the GR, nails it in one, dead. Ball stays on the pitch, gets picked up by a Gnoblar, Frodo scores on the 16th. 1-2.

Not much to say about that game. Frodo was a perfect gentleman throughout, celebrating at first but as the CASes continued to pile on he turned apologetic. I am trying to think what I could have done better - maybe making the blitz on the Tackle/MB blitzer harder? Waited a bit longer for that sack on Griff, giving my blitzers a chance to remove Gnoblars and stop the inevitable foul? After turn 3 my team was so wrecked that I struggle to think how I could have made any sort of meaningful play that didn't risk further destruction. All in all, a pretty miserable end to a tough day of Blood Bowl.

Closing Thoughts

I don't feel like I learned much from this one. I think I played well vs. Besters and Frodo, and ultimately dice didn't go my way. Likewise, I think CptOats played very well, and the CAS dice denied him any real chance at a win. But to paraphrase Pitch Invasion TO nonumber, sometimes it do be like that! More importantly, mefspores was also at this Pitch Invasion after deciding to join last minute. She took on a Dark Elf team for the first time to achieve her best ever tournament record of 2-1-1, going up against two of the Pitch Invaders and beating CptOats and making GreenSkinPhil sweat bullets for the win, a feat we all celebrated together later at the pub. Very well done!