Well within 24 hours of my last blog entry I was offered several hard to find match ups by the White Isle regulars.

Ultwe played my Chaos Dwarfs with his flings, Xenon trimmed my High Elves with his vamps and zombificus faced my flings (and deeproot) with his undead. Andyburns, Chewie and Xenon (once we've both played 10 games) have also offered to play me with their squishy teams.

My fragile teams will be looking to play against bashers to complete the grid, and I hope to face someone I know for these games. Getting horribly butchered is a lot less painful if it's against a regular opponent as you can both laugh as a favourite player dies and you know you'll get have a rematch someday and have the opportunity to pay them back.

I'd advise all new players to try and join a league once they have got to grips with Fumbbl. Make sure you read the rules 1st and can play every game as this can ruin a league. It requires more effort and commitment than bblfging with [R] teams but is well worth it. If you can join a league that has it's own chat channel all the better.

I've met plenty of great people through the leagues I've joined Xenon, Gritter and Purplegoo in particular have become regular opponents, along with JockMcRowdy the 5 of us formed the stable FCUK in channel WhiteIsle. It also became an unoffical stable channel with most of the members of LoA Blighty and SCUM being regulars and even Synn would pop in to give us the finger and be kicked.

I jokingly call the regulars of WIL chat as "The WIL Mafia" but we do support each other in majors and tourneys. Speccing WIL and tournament games is lots of fun and we'll wear out the /cheer button supporting our league members, such as when pac got to the semi of the Lustrian. So when facing the WIL coaches in the FC expect to be /boo'd a lot.

It's also a good place to let off steam when things are going badly. Personally I don't believe in complaining to your opponent when things go wrong, but can have a good whine in chat. The guys there will comiserate or tell me to stop crying and remind me of times when I luckored them.

I'd also like to dispute the opinion that the majors are "more competitive" than leagues. Of course the majors will have many more of the best coaches on Fumbbl than even the largest league. But you can't pick and choose your games in leagues, to continually do well in the top divisions you'll need to play well and spend money wisely. Blowing money on stars and wizards may win you the title in 1 season, but you may rue spending that cash in the 2nd season when every team is gunning for you.

Finally I've found that games between mates is going to be a lot more hard fought and competitive than against a faceless opponent. Losing to a good or lucky stranger is no big deal, but a thrashing by someone you know will be remembered and require a suitable retribution when next you meet.