Posted by Dynamix on 2021-07-29 17:01:40

Excellent piece

Posted by spelledaren on 2021-07-29 17:45:17

Great! I usually say that I -allow- myself to be lucky :)

Posted by garyt1 on 2021-07-29 19:02:25

Guts and glory!

Posted by pythrr on 2021-07-29 19:20:47

I thought the key to your success was:

[1] Play dorfs.
[2] Profit.

;)

Posted by Joost on 2021-07-29 22:20:55

Very nice read, thanks for creating it. I do feel the need now to play a lot more aggressive in my next game!

Posted by grant85 on 2021-07-30 03:42:29

great article. one of my favs for sure:


"It's a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get." - Arnold Palmer

Posted by Joe1982 on 2021-07-30 11:39:23

Great article - you have a gift for writing in old skool White Dwarf style. I think I mistakenly rated this 1 when I meant to rate it 6, and now I can't change it... Sorry about that, but a definite 6 from me!

Posted by Malmir on 2021-07-30 12:02:06

An enjoyable read.

Posted by policeshades on 2021-07-30 21:09:18

Great read. Influenced me to abandon my cautious style with Skaven and ended up being pasted 2-0. Not at all saying you were wrong, just that I see why percentage playing and waiting for a 2-1 win with a 1tt or 1-1 draw is so successful with the rats rather than the guys and glory approach.

Posted by Purplegoo on 2021-07-31 10:54:02

Good stuff.

Posted by MenonaLoco on 2021-07-31 22:46:33

A bit deceiving the math of the 5+ compared to the 2d blocks: There is not only success rate, but also neutral dice/fail rate.
Overall a good read. Thanks

Posted by uzkulak on 2021-08-01 01:14:58

shhh! stop telling everyone about the 5+ with rr odds!

Posted by Jogrenaught on 2021-08-01 15:34:35

I can't tell you how much your article changed my playstyle overnight. I've been playing BB for a long time. I took elves to a TT tournament yesterday (yes elves for the first time - union - I still hate all elves and cherished everyone one of my own that died). I went 2 wins, 2 ties - 6th overall in a 38 person tournament. I took early risks like the 5 plus RR a lot. It stunned some of my opponents. Sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. But overall, it was great. I had a passer with cannoneer and cloudburster and chucked that ball from my LOS like 5 or 6 times at a 4 plus RR and most of the time got a TD from it.

For someone like me that already knew the stats and percentages but played very conservatively until the yolo turn, this article is just what I needed. So thank you so much for writing it.

I learned I'm not really an elf player. Several turns of running away and making a cage just made me miss hitting things. how does one brag about this later on? But I did very well and now I know from the other side of the ball that my hatred of elves is justified.

-Jogrenaught

Posted by Wyzard on 2021-08-01 16:28:39

Good article. This describes my playstyle with 'flings - you have to know when to go fully stunty madness and let the dice (luck) do a little work. Sixes happen as often as ones but rarely does a coach try a play that needs a 6 (or a 5-6) to succeed.

If not doing the action is the same basic bad outcome as failing it then just roll some dice and see if Nuffle in on your side for a change.

Posted by Melmoth on 2021-08-02 09:49:28

Nice read..lucky bastard;-)

Posted by Mingoose on 2021-08-04 17:59:40

Great article. I realize that I have that exact described habit of wanting my opponent to fail instead of allowing myself the chance to succeed. Thinking about it deeply, I would psychologically rather the opponent win through "luck" or fail due to odds, compared to the idea of me winning through "luck" or failing due to odds. This way, I maintain the option of griping about my poor luck if the opponent manages to succeed in their rolling. Whereas if I am the one rolling and succeeding, they may have a gripe against my own luck.

Posted by keggiemckill on 2021-08-05 04:54:42

Nice. I’m not going to read it, but way to go all the same.

Posted by erased000033 on 2021-08-07 10:51:30

Thank you for this article PurpleChest I read it with great pleasure!

I have marked a few points in this article that I find very important:
1) "luck is perception"
I totally agree. statistics especially on FUMBBL where the numbers are generated by a pseudo RNG tends to flatten not only on the long term (over many games) but also on a single game. Even if you made a QUAD SKULL and at the end of the match you will complain that your opponent had less skulls than you, maybe you will find out that you rolled many more "6" in dodge or pick up shots (skull = 1) and then at the end of the match the average back to "honest". But the human brain is often shocked much more by a single bad event than by several events with "average" nice luck.

2) "Chess avoids stalemate through complexity" which is another way to say that "Chess is more complex than Blood Bowl".

This statement is also very fair. I have often talked to coaches who are much more experienced than I am and they consider Blood Bowl to be much more 'varied' than chess. The reality is the opposite. The number of variants that exist in chess is far greater than would result from a game of Blood Bowl. But Blood Bowl is a game which mathematically I would call 'maximum entropy value'. Everything in Blood Bowl is made to add elements of forced disorder (such as the kick-off table) and this makes the game 'feel' more varied when in fact it is just more 'messy'. Which a lot of people like because it's fun and because it gives everyone, even the 'veteran' coach a chance to beat a 'legendary' coack if they have a good day. In Chess the chance of a 1000 ELO player beating a 2000 ELO player is ridiculously much lower. This is the reason why many players are much more scared (or bored) to play chess than BB. Just because without a serious application and study you will never win any chess game vs expert players

3) "We often prefer to see others fail rather than risk it ourselves"

This is especially true when an inexperienced player (like me) plays against legendary coaches. The legendary or super star or very experienced coach knows when and how to risk. The example of the legendary coach jumping with the WarDancer into the dwarfs' cage is absolutely right. That is why an all-out defence in this game does not pay off - in the long run. You can only adopt the tactic of hoping for an opponent's mistake if you play against a coach who is perhaps much inferior to you. But usually in competitive divisions the level difference is not so high. So yes: buy the ticket and put on your big boy trousers!

Posted by Endzone on 2021-08-15 04:01:54

Good read.