In my quest to try to move to being a not bad player, I really decided to push and do a BBT run, and to do it with teams I hadn't really ever played before. As I really just got back into the game somewhat recently having played mostly in the CRP, there was also some rust to shake off there. Here's my post-mortem of each team and how I felt about them.

Becoming What I Hate - Amazons

First up is the Amazons. Amazons were always one of my least favorite teams to face (only behind Khemri), so I figured part of trying to become a good player should be playing races I don't like to face, to learn their strengths and weaknesses better. I had never played Amazons before, and they got off to a bad start, dropping their first 3 games. They did rally in the end, and got back to .500 by the end. Frankly... I don't know how much I really learned about 'zons in this except that I hate them from both sides in the ball. They were more instructive in teaching me about what I like to play from my own playstyle preferences actually. I'll include a section on my insights into that later in summary. 'Zons simply feel so slow to me. And I never wanted to try to base them more and bash, because they are so fragile as well, and unlike Elves the 3+ dodges left me feeling that I wasn't actually able play the dodge away and avoid hits games, because they would inevitably fail some important dodges and get out of position. Certainly they are still a strong low-tv team, and I snaked some wins off that, but I don't think I will ever be playing with 'zons again.

Khorny Punchline - Khorne

Now I have played chaos before, but it was mostly in CRP, and Khorne felt different enough to try out them. In the end, I find I just like them less than chaos. I like bash, but the frenzy on the ST4 pieces felt like I was just getting out of position all the time. The team did get off to a good start, 4/0/0, but then they ran into a couple of games where they took a lot of injuries and wrecked their development. From there, everything kind of went downhill and they ended my only team with a losing record. Frankly, if I'm going to play a chaos team, I think I'll stick to Chaos or Nurgle at this point. I like bashing, but I want to still be able to control my positioning better. I'm sure there are many coaches better at being able to mitigate the frenzy downsides than me, but I'm just not there yet.

Wardancing With My Elf - Wood Elf

My main takeaway from this team is, wood elves feel undercosted in terms of BBT points. Teams at low TV are best when they have a couple of star players with a bunch of bodies, wood elfs just start like that. War Dancers are so good at low TV, and this team got off to a great start, with only 1 loss with 4 games left to go. The first of those last 4 games though, blasted the development of the team, with mass casualties including 2 SI and 2 deaths. From there, they lost all their remaining games, with 2 of them being games, I think, were pretty unlucky games where dice turned ties into losses. Of course I know I got good dice at many stages along the way, and it all balances out in the end, I simply think this team ended up the short end of the dice at the end of its run. Even still, those losses did not change my opinion on the overall strength of the team, I think they are undercosted by points. In terms of my enjoyment of this team, limiting blocks and just using the war dancers lead to a lot of wins, but frankly bored me. I like to be able to hit some too, and even when they were winning, this teams particular playstyle wasn't the most enjoyable for me. Still, I may use them again in some future BBT run if they remain cheap on point cost.

Skink And Dunk - Lizards

Oh Lizards, my new beloved. I find out Lizards are my perfect team. They fit my playstyle perfectly, I love them in every way. There's not much more to say about them honestly, every part of them clicked with me. This team got very lucky in a lot of ways, from matchups to dice and ended up doing very well, finishing 9/4/2 and grabbing the racial lead. I acknowledge winning is more fun than losing, but I honestly believe I would loved this team even if they had done worse from a win/loss perspective. The bash, they're fast, they're everything I want.


Final Thoughts:

This run taught me what I want in a team. I like to make the menz die, so I want some bash capability. But I also really like speed. I like to reposition a lot, and run around the other teams. Lizards, with their large number of high strength players and high movement everywhere fit my playstyle perfectly. Woodies give me the movement I want, but lack the bashing potential. 'Zons felt slow and substandard bashers, so I hated them. Khorne can bash, but isn't just slow, it sends itself out of position on its own, so they also aren't among my favorites.

In terms of my attempts to stop being bad at the game, I think all I really succeeded in doing was shaking off my rust from years off. I suspect I'm about as good now as I was then, which isn't terribly good. Ah well, the only way to get better is to keep playing, I suppose.

This run also taught me that I am not a good sport under pressure, and need to regulate my emotions better. When playing games with the Lizards toward the end of the run where they had the chance to take the lead, I felt stressed and was MUCH more likely to whine and complain during the game. There was a game with the woodies where the dice were comical and they lost (happens every once in while to everyone of course), and I was laughing and happy enough with it. But minor things would go wrong in my later Lizard games and I would whine and complain and rage. This isn't acceptable and I need to do better. On the one hand, playing more in high pressure games would probably acclimatize me more to it, so that I could handle myself better (I will always be a very competitive person though), but on the other its not reasonable for me to act that way as I practice in those situations.

As for my next steps, I'm at a bit of a loss of what to do. I don't think I have the time to run another BBT squad this season, so I'm really not sure what to do in the meantime. I'll probably start building a Lizard team for majors, but I'm open to suggestions of what to do now. Also as to what races to try in my next BBT run to continue learning and trying new things. Anyone who's bothered to read through this, thank you! And let me know any advice you have for me moving forward.