We thumped the commissioner's elves pretty hard, as 600k underdogs. That was fun. Never felt like the game was out of hand, though I did let him score one. That went very well. Kozlowski had a rough game, but she drew a lot of fire for the others. For the second time in a row, my inducements have kicked patootie, after the first series full of pure fail. All four of my Casualties came off of Zara stabs and fouls from my Merc DP. The Bribe worked, and the Babes let me play a much more aggressive game even if the actual KO rolls would have gone well anyway (I wouldn't have expected to get most of my KOs back, and might have played differently).
Next challenge is tougher. I'm up against the Nawlins Angst, last year's SB champion, with 5x TPOMB (Claw too, not that I care) but only 3RR and no SH (one guy is AG4/Big Hand).
Contemplating a Chef and a Wizard.
Game is tomorrow night, probably.
My team.
My opponent.
With both teams, ignore the volume stats: we use games against Snotlings to represent our offseason. I'm 6-1-3, he's 5-1-4 this season: last season he won the superbowl from the wildcard. He's riding a 3-game winning streak, and we both have stakes: a win here would put him in the driver's seat for his division, and a win for me would make my playoff odds start lookin' pretty sweet.
My opponent, BillBrasky, has played more games than any single other FUMBBL coach. His (very similar) Blackbox team,
WMDs in the Box, is quite famous, with more losses than I have FUMBBL games all told.
Should I do any finagling? I'm packing 14 ladies and 4 TRRs with no DP and 2 each Assistant Coaches and Cheerleaders, and essentially infinite pockets for team management (630k, 4-8 games to play), though not enough to go on a Petty Cash bender at -460k.
. I could cut my fourth TRR and an AC and CL and take a Merc DP, which would leave me 15 girls. I could cut both my ACs and both my CLs and take a Babe, but if my plan is to deny RR and he's got 2 FF on me, that rings my alarm bells. I could skip the Wizard and take a Merc DP or a WApo+Babe, or 2 Babes and another rookie lina. I kinda prefer the Wiz, I think. Take away his TRRs, pop the ball, mark his carrier, and he's in trouble.
This game is important to me, because my division is EEEEEVIIIIIL! Here's the playoff picture in the NFC, and it ain't pretty. We use 3-1-0 scoring (3 points for a win) because the NFL system doesn't work with lots of ties (it rewards them slightly, which is fun when they're rare). Here's
leanque to league. (Records posted may be a couple games behind.)
Happygrue's Slann (Green Ball Attackers) pretty much have one of the two bye rounds sewn up. Nawlins can get separation for the third or fourth seed by beating me, but if he loses or ties he's first-among-equals in a three-team race. MrNomad's Undead (Seattle Unhawks) are in a similar position for another seed, though now it's looking like a two-team race.
My division looks like it may produce a bye round. Ex-Convict's Dallas POMBboys are 6-3-1 (21 VP), Relezite's Philadelphia Cheesegles are 5-5-0 (20 VP), I'm 6-1-3 (19 VP), and Burgun824's New Khemri Giants are 1-6-3 (9 VP) and just got eliminated last night. (Sorry, Burgun: you needed to beat Relezite to stay alive.
But thanks for at least costing him 2VP on your way out!) New Khemri and Dallas have yet to play, but otherwise, by some freak coincidence,
all of my rivals have tied against each other. Both Dallas and Philly beat the snot out of me (my team was weaker then), and I got the better of New Khemri twice. So Dal and Phi are all 1-4-0 (7 VP) and I'm 2-0-2 (6 VP), with games against both of them. On a tie, they get tiebreaker against me for head to head. On a win, I get tiebreaker against them. I play Conner after Brasky, and then I get Chaos Dwarfs with a terrible record but no less Tackle for it, then I close my season with my Philadelphia rematch, right after his game with Brasky. Exciting! My destiny is in my hands. It's a four-game season.
If I don't win this division (perish the thought, I'm going to win at least 3 games and I plan to win all four), my path gets a little tricky. There are basically six teams in wildcard contention. There's whatever teams come in 2nd and 3rd in my division, plus ritzi's Minnesota Wolfkings (Necro, 6-3-1/21VP) in another division. Behind us there are three teams with 14 VP (two are in Brasky's division, and he has only 16, and the third is a game behind, so could catch up): somebody can go on a run, but I think it's a three-man race for the two wildcard seeds at this point. Second place in my division may be good for a playoff berth, but third probably won't. I absolutely must beat one of my division rivals, and I can only really feel confident if I beat them both. If I win out, I probably get a bye.