Today was probablly the worst day of Blood Bowl I've had in ages. Last night I went to bed after a 5 to Nil nurgle pummeling at the hands of some nasty vampires. That rotton luck held fast all day today. I got seven games in on a day off (crazy! never again), and in the only tie, I lost every gutter on my tournament team, the Guard, the SB tackle wrestler, and the MA10 one turner. No Lustrian Open for me.

The Kingston Kruelty fizzled in the last 3 important games of the Human League Conference, losing two of them badly. A promising start will end at 10-1-5, which has about a 10% chance of being 3rd place once the real coaches get under way in September.

4 losses in all today, all of them violent. But the day ends on a high, as the badly beaten down 1200TV Kruelty start their SECOND Conference sprint attempt against some handsome wood elves at 23:30. In some guts against glory action, the Kruelty hold on defense in the first half, and with the help of the blazing sun, eventually out number the opposistion 9 to 4, winning 1-Nil.

The blog is to remind myself of two things. First, back to basics with the humans. Guard first on all blitzers. The human threads recently made alot of sense, and humans can do mobile Guard well. Like fast dwarves.. who can run away from real dwarves. Guard = more options = more blocks = more lucky cas and LESS enemy blocks. Guard, then Tackle, then Mighty Blow 3rd. Basic basics.

Second, stop playing on auto-pilot. I always pressure the ball when I set-up on defense, even when that's exactly what the enemy wants me to do. I always want to be ready for a lucky blitz or failed pick-up, but every bashy team in Black Box wants a human team to tie themselves up in combat mid-field on turn 1 and get their brains bashed in. I don't get lucky blitzes. Humans aren't skaven or elves and can't trap people deep reliably. I need to hang back and WAIT for a good chance on defense. I need to give the other guy an oppertunity to make a mistake, instead of charging in and making them myself. Even if pressure is a valid tactic, I need to try something new, so I can learn. I'm starting to think fend might really help me 'hold the line' on defense. I need to look at what he wants me to do and do the opposite, instead of just doing what I want to do. Too much death when I do it my way.

10-1-5 is pretty good, but I need to learn some new stuff. Better cages, better offense, better defense. Less suck.

With my MNG's back and a 13th player I'm at 1550 TV with 4 Guards on the team. I'm going to snipe Premiership games here and there from the high end of the Conference and see how it goes. I'd love to place Top 3 in that little played Premiership division, but at the very least there's a Top Ten trophy waiting if I don't use up all 300'000 gold immediately.

Go Humans.