Note: This post came out a tad longer then my previous, so for ease of reading I'm going to attempt to use some BBCode. I hope it is to your liking!

This post is dedicated my first player to "Skill Up", Nooba Free! We're all really proud of him here, and we hope his accomplishments will inspire others to get it in gear. But more on him later.

Today I played against a new opponent playing a Chaos team. This team I really enjoyed playing. They had decent speed, but they didn't seem especially tough nor did they have some of my more troublesome skill such as Tackle or Block. I feel like my Halflings matched up against them superbly.

The Gameplan

My usual strategy hasn't been working. It generally involves avoiding TZ's like the plague on both Defense and Offense and getting my guys into the backfield regardless of situation. This has all been based on different articles I've read, but I think I was a bit overzealous. My play was just far too passive. I was constantly running from contact and just sort of hoping my opponent would fail.

Instead, just for something completely different, I played today super aggressively. I didn't shy from contact and I tackled as much as possible while on Defense. I also did a lot more forceful blocking on offensive plays, trying to create holes for my dodgey halflings.

The overall result was a lot more KO's and injuries... on both teams. I'm unsure how even it came out to be, but I did notice that my team had far more reserves then my opponent. Having cheap players tends to do that, I suppose. One of the halfling strengths seems to be their expendability!!

GAME 1

My first game against the beasts of Chaos ended quite abruptly, losing out on almost an entire half for some unknown reason. My opponent and I decided it must've been a glitch with JBBowl...

The highlights of the game involved a fumbled kick reception near the line of scrimmage. As we fought over fumbles, I made sure to leave a couple halflings down field in the off chance I could get a pass off, but that never came. Eventually he scored on the last play of the drive.

Next drive, I was on defense. Since I was being more aggressive, I decided not to use the normal strategy of keeping most of my halflings half back. Instead I used a spread formation designed to give a lot of field coverage. Unfortunately right after my first turn, the game ended.

Final Score: 0-1

GAME 2

Due to the technical difficulties, we decided to do a rematch. Since I was down a player from the last game, I decided to try using my Star Player for the first time. Having three trees is a feeling I had not had before! This also likely helped attribute to my aggression.

This game was much more exciting, although I sensed my opponent might have been getting frustrated with my insane LUCK. He was nice about it though, and he helped me see some of the risks I was taking.

First Half

I kicked to him first, throwing all but two Halflings within 3 squares of the line (Aggression, remember?). The ball went north, so I used my trees to push and hold half of his team south, or at least tie them up. About five turns in I had 5 halflings either Badly Hurt or KO'd, while he was only missing 1 player.

He began a fast run downfield, and with a hand off ended up from the goal line to past the line of scrimmage in one turn. Outnumbered, I decided to fling a guy towards my goal line to defend....and... he was injured. Damn.

Two turns later, he scored. I would have one turn to try and respond this half.

He defended with a solid line down the middle, 0 people in the backfield. It was another perfect Fling opportunity!

I set up Deadwood on the line, one tree two spaces behind him, and one three more spaces back. This way, I hoped the tree would be close enough to where I could have a chance at a fling no matter the location of the kick.

Unfortunately none of my players recovered. Six players down, I had to put two next to deadwood, two surrounding my far tree, and one ahead of the near tree.

He got a "Blitz" kick off, and after knocking out another halfling, the ball landed no where near me, so the half ended.

Score: 0-1

Second Half

For the second half, I put my guys in a spread formation to give everyone a chance at the ball while throwing my three trees on his only three defenders on the line. Then he got a SECOND Blitz!

He brought in some extra help against my trees, but he was mostly ineffective. I took my halfling with the ball north and set him up in a tight cage. The cage was a bit TOO tight, actually, and I had a really hard time escaping it. But I managed to push out and rush my guy up the side line, with a line of protection even.... but I ended up 8 spaces away from the end zone.

He managed to push me back a bit further, so now I was 9 squares away. I ran along the sideline and got within two squares, but I had NO protection... everyone was too far or tied up with his guys now.

He ran up and blitzed me... all I needed to do was survive 1 roll.... but no such luck. He stunned me, even, and I fumbled next to the goal line. He quickly surrounded the ball on the next turn, and even though I had two guys near by, he had more and there were too many TZ's, even for halflings, to move around safely.

I managed to stand up with my stunned ball carrier... And since he had the least Dodges to make to get to the ball, I decided to go for it!

I didn't know the odds, I went Han Solo with it. But apparently I was picking up the ball in two TZ's, forcing me to need a 6 roll!! I rolled a 2. So... Team Reroll! This time I came up with a 6, and from there I waltzed into the endzone!

Score: 1-1

The next kick off went horribly, and he ran it up the sideline in two turns... I had a weak side line, so that's totally my fault. I won't make that mistake again.

Score: 1-2

With two turns to go, I decided to get into Fling formation. His formation was a bit tougher this time, but he still had all his guys within a few squares of the scrimmage. With this in mind, I put all three trees in the center of the line, as he had only one defender there, and I threw three Halflings behind them. The other four I spread out, giving plenty of space to find the ball.

The kick went touchback, and I gave it to my close halfling. After pushing back the one defender with Deadwood, I made a perfect pass! My 'Fling happily skipped into the end zone! My opponent also mentioned I should check out the odds on this one... and yet again, ANOTHER perfect 6 was required, and I had made it!

Score: 2-2

With the score now tied and only 2 turns remaining, I was in a great position to get my first non-loss.

But.... I got ANOTHER horrid kick that ended up on my side of scrimmage. I had some better sideline coverage this time, but it still didn't seem to matter. He blitz'd the closest defender and ran it up the sideline in those final two turns.

Final Score: 2-3


Final Notes

Today, my Halflings played against a team named completely after Fast Food Restaurants. I really feel this gave a great undernote to the games and I'm sure that's why my little guys were so fired up and vicious. They still lost... but hey, 2 touchdowns is pretty damn good!

Things I Learned

I've also taken to watching other players play and trying to see what formations they like to use. Not just starting formations either, but more importantly "mid-drive" formations. These seem far more key to me. Setting up protections, forcing opponents to move where you want them to, etc. I have a lot to learn yet, but I feel like I've picked up quite a bit.

1. 
   
2. Aggression with Halflings is not a bad thing. Fear of Death is the same as Fear of Winning. I likely won't be as aggressive going forward, especially with some of my defensive formations, but I need to get physical if I want to slow down or even prevent my opponent scoring.
   
   
3. Somewhat related to the above, and I mentioned it earlier... but... Halflings are disposable. One of my advantages should be a large reserve. If I can get a team with low reserve, I can easily get myself in a position to outnumber them late in the half.
   
   
4. I've got to protect those sidelines! Two easy touchdowns due to poor sideline protection. It's inexcusable.
   
   
5. Using a Tight Cage makes you a prisoner. Luckily this is slighty mitigated by the Stunty/Dodge combo, but against Tackle teams, I'm going to be in trouble using those formations.
   
   
6. Trees need to be mobile. I've got to push the envelope with them more, because they are brutal when they can block. Against the Norse they seemed to be out of position a lot, but I've got to make putting them in good locations a priority. Blitzing 4 squares is viable!!
   
   
7. Fan Factor is pretty important to me. A lot of strategies suggest against my high Fan Factor, but I feel like my income is all that's allowing me to keep going with the upkeep costs I endure. Every game I need to buy a Chef, likely a couple new Halflings, and treasury willing, my Star Player. I'm glad I picked up as much as I did.
   
   
8. Finally, I learned Halflings are a luck based team. I NEED the Chef. I NEED those sixes. My victories are going to come from controlling fate... by submitting myself to it, that is.
   

And then there's Nooba Free... the one I mentioned at the start of this post. Well, I decided based on numerous suggestions, articles, and even some of my own spectating to pick up Side Step. Watching people dance on sidelines to kill time without much fear, and just overall increasing the survivability of my Halfling... I look forward to playing around with it. He also received a nice +1 AG.

Lastly, for some practical knowledge for those who'd like to know, I also found this resource today for some Halfling Strategy:

http://www.fabbl.net/files/Halfling%20Secrets%20LRB%205.pdf

I'm not completely sure if this is new information or not, but I've been searching for a couple weeks now and this is the first time I've seen it. I figure some of you might enjoy giving it a read.

Anyway, that's it for today! Stay tuned for my next update, as I hope to be showing off my figures for my real/physical Blood Bowl team soon.