There's definitely something up with this FUMBBL malarkey. I'm noticing a definite trend towards ridiculous plays by new players, working out.

I'll start by saying this isn't just a sour-grapes whine, complaining about how I've been defeated by dice. Its not, and I haven't... I'm generally defeated by 2 things:

1. 
   
2. Playing non-optimal teams (such as ogres) or picking non-optimal rosters (such as deathrollers)
   
3. Being too impulsive to plan things out, and having a point-click-rush approach to the game
   

But I'm starting to dread games now, where my opponent is a rookie.

I start off looking at a roster that looks wrong (like something I'd have gone with myself years ago). Then we'll get to kick-off and see an interesting set-up, such as 10 players on the LoS (not always a great defence). But then something kicks in. The dodge-dodge-1d block move comes off, and my follow-up 2d block eats up a reroll. My perfect cage* comes unstuck with a 1 reroll 1, leaving a -2d block to come up POW POW and put the ball free, followed by a long pass in a tackle zone to get it away. In 32 games on FUMBBL, I've played I think 3 games as my opponent's very first FUMBBL game, and been almost entirely shat on by the dice throughout each. And before I'm accused of hypocrisy, my record in those games is something like 1/1/1, and I also was the beneficiary of a similar thing in my first game (see my first blog post).

Looking back, I do wonder if my play has slipped a little as I get complacent - certainly in the most recent of these, I went for an unnecessary block with a Beast of Nurgle (failed really stupid) leaving my ball carrier open for the unskilled 1d block to clear a path, unskilled dodge, 1d blitz to knock the ball free, when the tentacles would have added another roll.

But its frustrating for more reasons than simply losing the game. I want to see this game keep growing, so I want to see new coaches come in, pick the game up, and do well. But getting good results via good dice can only take you so far... if people pick up bad habits from getting lucky dice, there will come a point when the dice fail them, or they come up against better coaches than me, and they will get hammered. Which is never fun. Well, sometimes it is...

So... am I just playing badly when I see a rookie coach against me? Or is FUMBBL secretly programmed to let noobs win, as part of some sinister masonic scheme? Or is there a third option, such as me just thinking too much into these things??

A final point: thinking about it, I've also noticed this beginner's luck issue at NAF tabletop tournaments, and on Cyanide's appalling version of the game. I guess that rules out my suspicions about FUMBBL. So its either Nuffle loving new blood, or me not being ruthless enough to exploit them.

* Note: I can't do cages, so this may be an exaggeration