Coach MadTias reaches 100 games! …on average

Hello FUMBBL! I’ve recently reached a milestone here: 2010-05-06 I played my <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=match&id=3000146>game</a> number <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=coachstats>2000</a>. This isn’t very unusual, in fact lots of coaches have reached 2000 games before me. But as it happens, game 2000 also pushes my <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=coachinfo&coach=12503>average number of games per team</a> to 100! (I’m sure someone will turn up who has done this before me.) Anyway, I thought I’d celebrate my 100 games average with this (freakishly long) post about my feelings towards Blood Bowl in general and FUMBBL in particular. Enjoy!

<b>100 games average</b>
The very thing that keeps bringing me back to Blood Bowl again and again is the team building. Blood Bowl wouldn’t be this fantastic without the campaign system. I love all my teams and take great pleasure in seeing them through all cycles of development. I’m also a stubborn bastard. So in my time here, I’ve committed to a few teams rather than testing this and that. It’s just what makes me happy.

No matter how much I love Blood Bowl, I would still not have played 2000 games if FUMBBL wasn’t also a great community. The community spirit is apparent everywhere; in the forum, in the chat, when spectating games, and in the <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=150567>enormous</a> <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=47750>effort</a> that people put into <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=144538>their</a> <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=74391>teams</a> here. I used to also be a Magic: the Gathering fan and play at MtG Online. I quit that in large part because the average users there were clearly socially challenged. FUMBBL on the other hand feels like home.

<b>Races and teams</b>
I’ve played over half my games with Dark Elves and Orcs. (Powergamer alert!)

Dark Elves were my first love and is my greatest today. They’re a natural fit for my playing style and the race that I’m most proficient with. My first team on the site was DE: <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=91683>Elves With Attitude</a>, retired after 101 games. Starting out, I took skills like Nerves of Steel and Sure Feet for my Blitzers. Let’s just say I’ve evolved since then. After EWA were forced into retirement I started <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=129478>Aesthetic Umbrae</a>, my most played team with 288 games and currently in the greatest shape any of my teams have ever been. I added <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=304265>Nocturama</a> to have a DE team available when Umbrae were tied up in tournaments. When Blackbox came along it was only natural for me to try that out with a DE team too, so I started <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=509927>Rano Raraku</a>.

My second team on the site was <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=91685>Teef Rippas</a>, still active Orcs with 278 games. Orcs is the race that I’ve played the most and I recently wrote a <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=blog&coach=12503&op=viewcomments&id=7979>blog about my Orc teams</a>, so I won’t repeat myself here. Lately I’ve had less fun playing Orcs though. What’s mostly putting me off is that Orcs win by brute force – there is rarely any elegance involved. When they overpower the opposition they win, and when they don’t, they lose or draw. Winning or losing, that kind of play feels kind of empty at the moment. Another thing that is putting me off is skilling the Black Orcs. If you belong to the rather vocal crowd that find Orcs to be an easy race to play, I advise you to try and run a long-lived Orc team. At TR200, rookie Black Orcs are crappy players. They need at least Block, and preferably Guard and MB as well to be effective. Skilling a Black Orc to 31 SPP at TR200 is going to take you something like 40 games. And you need all four of them with a couple of skills to be really competitive. Ageing and injuries will see you in permanent BOB recovery mode. I find it incredibly frustrating that my Orc teams are almost never well balanced.

Next stop for me was Humans, with <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=111953>Arkham Avalanche</a>, still active but moved to L. Back when I started, we were only allowed five (or was it four?) team slots in Ranked, so somewhere along the way Avalanche has had to transfer to make room for a new team. Humans are my third most played race, and the most difficult. They do fine below TR200, but once above they are not very competitive. I consider it a challenge to myself to coach Humans successfully, a challenge that has led me to create another five Humans teams, more than any other race: <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=170754>Sex Blitzers</a>, <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=175125>Adventure Galley</a>, <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=213927>Trophy Hunters</a>, <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=214560>Vaevictis Asmadi</a> and <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=289081>Ajax Aggronauts</a>. Sex Blitzers and Adventure Galley are my only teams with more losses than wins. This is because I took random skills for those teams, and winning becomes difficult without essential skills like Block and Guard. I was going through a period where I was tired of powergaming, so I took a challenging race and made it even more challenging. Trophy Hunters was my first attempt to build a competitive Human team, but is also my most failed team since it collapsed after only two games. Vaevictis Asmadi took that role instead, and is the only team still active in Ranked. Ajax Aggronauts was later added as a TR capped team to get to play more at lower TR, but was also forced into retirement.

Next I tried the slowest and bashiest races: Dwarves and Khemri, with <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=118171>Thorbardin Thunderers</a> and <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=124186>Dunkin’ Dynasty</a>. I wanted to improve my positioning game by playing the least manoeuvrable races. I didn’t much like playing any one of them, and found Khemri in particular boring because of the heavy reliance on DP (and Ramtut in tournaments). Since then I’ve returned to Dwarves with <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=436843>Dukkha</a>. With that particular theme, I’m actually having great fun playing Dorfs. Dorfs are regularly regarded as the most boring race, but I’ve come to find them quite interesting. They have to work more as a team than most races because of being a bashy team with low ST. Coupled with being so extremely slow, they need to be coached in a different way from any other race. Dorf-on-dorf games are some of the most tactically interesting games of all.

After going with AV9 for a while, I went the other way and started a Skaven team: <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=151010>Warpraiders</a>. I found Skaven to be overpowered, only losing three games in 26, all because of complete Nufflings. That almost made me lose interest in FUMBBL, because it made me realize I had become a cherry-picking powergamer (It was after this that I started the random skills Humans). I’ve since returned to Skaven with <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=357560>Cheese Ninjas</a>, and learned that Skaven aren’t overpowered at higher TR with diverse opponents. (I still believe several 9-2-4-7 Dodge players on a TR100 roster to be very good indeed, but the advantage diminishes as TR rises.) I have great fun playing Skaven as they can pull off the most amazing plays of any race, and encourage a daring playing style.

I then dabbled a bit with Chaos Dwarves: <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=240152>Argat’s Minions</a>, but didn’t like them because of the reliance on the Bull Centaurs. Without good Bulls I found CD’s boring, and because Bulls skill so much faster than the rest of the team you have to go through several cycles of boring games.

Instead I went back to AV7 with Wood Elves: <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=team&op=view&team_id=386281>Samovar Sinensis</a>, started to take part in <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=group&op=view&group=2079>ELF</a>. Like Skaven, WE can pull off the most amazing plays and are great fun, but you have to be ready to start a lot of games with less than 11 players. Being an ELF team, I start every Samovar Sinensis game with the objective to score five TD, providing me with a different experience than the elf-stalling that I usually do with my DE. It’s always exciting to push WE to the max, as it can really come back to hurt you.

So in 2000 games I have only played eight of the 21 official races. The remaining 13 have never struck my fancy: Amazons and Norse because of the generic stat lines. Chaos and Rotters because their rosters feel empty without positionals. Pro and High Elves because they are less cool than Dark Elves and less extreme than Wood Elves. Stunties because I’m too much of a competitive player (I will play Goblins in LRB5 thanks to the fun of on-roster weapons). Lizards because it would be even worse trying to skill six Saurii than four BOBs. Necro because Werewolves have Catch and not Regen (will play them in LRB5). Undead because Khemri and Necro are better defined thematically than the generic undead. And Ogres and Vampires because they are bad ideas that should never have been implemented. To each his own.

<b>Divisions</b>
I prefer Ranked. For me, open play is the perfect environment. I would probably enjoy League too, but have decided not to let FUMBBL control my time too much, so I’ve opted out of scheduled leagues. Ranked is perfect for finding fair and fun games whenever I have the time to do so.

I’d also like to respond to the recent <a href=http://fumbbl.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=21&page=7>GLN promotion piece about Blackbox</a>. I’ve been playing a lot of Blackbox recently, which has underlined for me how important the pick-up aspect of Ranked is for the fun of playing. When picking up games in Ranked, both coaches are going to look at the match-up and agree to it, creating a social contract between coaches to try and have fun <I>together</I>. An added bonus is that I will probably click on your team and get to see how much effort you’ve put into it, adding another layer of fun. In Blackbox there is no social contract and as a consequence I find coaches in general less inclined to be pleasant. Silly Behaviors™ are more prevalent in Blackbox. There is also less team-building, and I almost never have a reason to click on the opposing team. The automatic scheduler definitely affects general coach behaviour in a negative way, making the whole experience less fun to me. I would rather have all the Blackbox coaches back on gamefinder.

(The possibility to pick up <I>unfair</I> games in Ranked of course opens up a different can of worms, but I’m not going into that here. I’ll just say that I believe mature coaches should be able to work out what is fair and not.)

The smaller divisions (Faction, Stunty et al) have never appealed to me. I’m a mainstream kind of guy who likes to play in the large pond.

<b>Competition</b>
Another aspect of Ranked that I enjoy is the <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=coaches>ranking</a>. Ah yes, the much maligned CR. I’m a competitive player and I try hard to win every game. The CR table was the first long-term competition that caught my eye. I yearned to have my name up there on the first page, and still do, even if I’ve accomplished that particular goal. Of course, CR isn’t everything, and like any statistic it can be manipulated to some degree. It’s still perhaps the best long-term measure of coaching ability that FUMBBL has to offer and I’m proud to have been up there with the best of you.

The greatest competitions on FUMBBL to me are otherwise the Ranked <a href=http://fumbbl.com/help:Official+FUMBBL+Tournaments>majors</a>. No other tournaments have the epic feel of the majors. Both taking part in and following the other games in the majors brings so much excitement. Spectating a big majors game and chatting with the other specs is great fun, adding to the community feeling. The majors have inspired me enough to make my own small <a href=http://fumbbl.com/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=12537&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0>contribution</a> to the site. As a sports statistics fan, I felt FUMBBL needed someone to keep track.

At any rate I think it’s important to set goals for oneself. I’ve reached a couple of my goals here on FUMBBL (reaching the first page of the Coach Ranking, winning a SMACK and qualifying for a major f.ex.). This post is in celebration of reaching the goal of 100 games average. My current FUMBBL goals are to win a major, to reach the top 10 in the Blackbox <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=blackbox>Rankings</a> and to beat <a href=http://fumbbl.com/~Rijssiej>Rijssiej’s</a> record of five ELF trophies. There will always be something to strive for.

<b>Acknowledgements</b>
Like in any half-decent acceptance speech, I have to offer some thanks. First, of course, I’d like to thank Christer and SkiJunkie. Your efforts have provided me with hour and hours of fun and I owe you both a great debt of gratitude. Second, I’d like to thank my brother <a href=http://fumbbl.com/~spelledaren>spelledaren</a>, who introduced me to the site and nagged me to join. Thank you for finding me this treasure. Third, I’d like to thank my girlfriend for putting up with me for 2000 games. That’s one game every day for almost six years! Thank you for indulging my bizarre hobby.

There are many more who deserve my thanks. Everyone who has ever held any kind of administrative post on the site deserves credit. Currently I think <a href=http://fumbbl.com/~PurpleChest>PurpleChest</a> is doing an excellent job as tourney admin, f.ex. And thank you all the people on my <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=lists&coach=12503>whitelist</a>, you’ve all made a good impression one way or another. Of those, <a href=http://fumbbl.com/~pizzamogul>pizzamogul</a> deserves a special thank you for running ELF, where I’m currently having most of my FUMBBL fun. Several coaches have otherwise ended up on my whitelist for keeping a good spirit in the face of a severe beating, a model behaviour that I try to follow as well. Nuffle knows I don’t always succeed. On a related note, I’d also like to thank <a href=http://fumbbl.com/~Emphasy>Emphasy</a> for being my <a href=http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=coachopp&coach=12503>most played opponent</a>. We’ve had some tense games (for some reason often with me losing several players) and I was sad to see you go.

Last but not least, thank you to everyone else that I have played. We all make FUMBBL great together!

I think I should now complete my celebration with starting a Dorf team in Blackbox. Don’t you?