Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

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mattski
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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by mattski »

Ramblings from an interested observer of things that I was thinking about when I was bored at work. How about some of these for things to think about:

1) Allow teams to trade players even if they cannot normally play for the team. If you are successful enough to get a player with 10 Exp points but haven't spent them another team might be able to tempt you into a swap deal if they have a player that you couldn't normally get.

2) The only drawback about the above is that you can only trade players (because the game obviously has no money) which might be a little limiting so of course one answer to this could be the introduction of...

3) End of season draft. There are a number of ways that you could do this. Maybe every team that is not in the league at the end of each week you randomly select one player from their roster and they will go into the draft pool. At the end of the season teams will pick in reverse order of success. Of course you could tweak this any way that the league wanted. Having a draft of players that the other teams cannot get any way. Or maybe a team wants to draft an extra player of a type that they already have (i.e. they are allowed to have three midfielders normally but if they take one in the draft they are allowed to have four until they go back to three for whatever reason. And you could even say that the no.1 pick comes with 3 exp points (or 2 or 5 etc) unless the team which takes him couldn't normally in which case he then has zero.

You may like, you may not but I like thinking about it anyway and it is one of the lovely things about a balanced game like this that just invites tinkering with!

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by Spiky »

Thanks for your input! :) I was thinking of something along the same lines myself

The Elfball league mechanics could very easily support a system where you keep track of players with experience which are fired by teams so they can be re-hired by other teams in the league.

I'd still only let teams hire the allowed player types though, as this keeps the 'flavour' and playstyle of each race intact - I don't think you'd be able to break rosters as such by adding in different positions if you wanted though... It would just mean teams would become more generic and less different.

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by mattski »

I totally understand the concern of all teams becoming incredibly similar but depending on the level of player turnover would one player a season on a team that they couldn't normally get prove to have that much of an effect? If the players in the draft were only of unique positions it could prove to be an interesting coaches choice if a really good player was there which didn't fit their playing style. If you were a total skill player how easy would it be to pass over the chance to field a widowmaker??!

Anyways, just throwing ideas out there which may or may not fly in the 'real world'.

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by Spiky »

We had a couple more league games last night - finally I won a game!

I played Xenolith's ratmen while Sann0638 played Charon

Main interesting points as follows

1) I decided to try fielding my Ice Troll for the face-off using my bribed referee. He won the face-off against a Wrat and having him in a central position from the start was really helpful. I'd consider this tactic for future matches especially where the team's I'm facing don't have monsters. This means if I do lose him, I don't think it would be a massive disadvantage as I'd bring on an extra hunter from reserves.

2) We're playing where the length of the game = 2 decks of cards. The game swung backwards and forwards a couple of times, where Xenolith threatened my goal circle a couple of times before attrition came into play and I was able to score, although it did take me nearly all of 2 decks to do it.

3) I'm concerned that our timing rules might become a crutch for me if I focus on the bash before walking in an easy score. I'm going to need to work on strategies for scoring more quickly especially when it comes to getting back into tournament games where you only play to 1 deck of cards. There's no reason that Valks can't score quickly - I suspect it's the coach :)

4) While risky, I'm still learning that 2 dice challenges can pay off if you're only needing 1 success. My Strikers sacked the ball carrier several times on 2 dice tackles, and my Hunters also picked up and passed the ball.

Cheers,
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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

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Both my dervishes skilled up! There go a couple of cheerleaders. They are my main scorers at the moment, getting into the opponent's half and providing a removal threat, then getting ready to receive the ball with a perfect spiral. Gave one Steady, ready to get Sprinter, and the other Buff, possibly for the Face-off.

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

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Going to try Samhaino in my next game, tomorrow, resisting the temptation to field the skilled dervishes straight away!

Fun last game, in which my Dogs managed to reduce Andy's Pharoahs to two players. Then it started to go wrong, with a midfielder taking out two of my defenders in one turn (Dashing to tackle again). That midfielder had to die, which meant that I was then stuck with 4 of my guys against a lone croc, who could move every turn!

Eventually managed a sneaky hit on him, producing an auto win, but it was not easy!

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by sann0638 »

@Mattski - one big advantage of the transfer system is that all teams could then have a cheater. This would be the perfect antidote to sann's trademarked "lying on the floor after sprinting" beardiness :D

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by mrinprophet »

All this league playing goodness makes me want more for a local league. :x

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by bouncergriim »

mrinprophet wrote:All this league playing goodness makes me want more for a local league. :x
yeah when your closest regular opponent is 500miles away it puts a damper on that doesn't it. :lol:

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by mattski »

sann0638 wrote:@Mattski - one big advantage of the transfer system is that all teams could then have a cheater. This would be the perfect antidote to sann's trademarked "lying on the floor after sprinting" beardiness :D
One of the key things to consider about a transfer is what type of league that the people playing in it want (which sounds kind of obvious I know). If you have a relatively high player turnover in terms of the players on the field combined with coaches who are playing mainly because they want to enjoy playing then having players that you can't normally get would really add to the fun of things I think. It also means that it adds an extra layer of decision making about when you are forced to let players go. It is one thing to drop a shell of a midfielder but quite another if you are looking at a slightly damaged widowmaker!

Perhaps if coaches don't like the draft system of players that they can't normally get then maybe have a pool that any and all players that are released go into. Then, if a teams wants to sign a player they can take one from the pool rather than from their own team list. Personally I think the idea of an end of season draft with a handful of unique players would just add to the flavour but that could be just me.

Would love to be able to play in an online league and hopefully one day the software will be around to do just that. Great reading about your league though chaps.

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by bouncergriim »

if you are playing with two decks and no one has scored after the first is exhausted do you allow injured in the infirmary to move to the bench as though a new test has started? That could be a way of keeping a long game from being an exersize in attrition.

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by sann0638 »

Not currently, but it's a good idea. Seems to be working okay at the moment, but worth bearing in mind.

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by sann0638 »

Fantastic game v Spiky this evening, using Samhaino for the first time against his Valks. Started with the Horror in the middle as I set up second (setting up first this would have been a bad idea, as his bribed ref meant he could have popped the ice troll there). He promptly flopped, and spent a vast amount of time on the deck, waiting for a chance to do anything useful. It did not come :D

First test was a bit of a nightmare. Quite a few flops at important moments, and some big hits on my players meant I could do very little. One of the bright moments was getting a potioned hunter with buff and grapple and a potioned thrower with buff, who was to prove critical. I was optimistic occasionally, but it never lasted long, and Spiky scored on the last card of the first deck. 1-0.

Managed to set up with 6 for the second test, put the Horror in the middle, faced off against the Ice Troll, who wasn't sent off, and promptly killed my Horror. Boo. Then my Buff thrower went to work, needing Impact challenged against everything but usually only on one success, so making them fairly easily with Buff. Big pile up in the middle with many flops on both sides, then the thrower managed a breakaway, taking a hunter with him. Spiky's midfielder just needed to get my hunter down, but the dice weren't with him, so the hunter picked it up and scored. 1-1.

4 of mine set up for the 4th, with the buff thrower in the middle who promptly despatched the midfielder against him. The hunters then set to with abandon, bashing people until they fell over, which made them safe. Had to fail eventually, and did, then got a little bit surrounded. Went for the kamikaze dash for the line with the Safety on the ball, which meant the ball was very close to his circle, and then the lateness of the hour told, as Spiky pushed my penultimate player to the sin bin and then momentarily forgot this meant my remaining hunter could move every turn. A tackle and score was all it took. 1-2.

Looking forward to using a painted Horror next time, as this will make him more effective no doubt!

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by GalakStarscraper »

I just wanted to thank you guys for the game reports.

Chris and I are saving money on the side now and our hope is to sometime in the future move Elfball to a mass market done box and extras inside it in an effort to move it into many stores. Chris and I strongly believe that this is a great game and we definitely are in agreement that we want to do what we can to make it easier to purchase by more folks so that leagues like this can be more common.

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Re: Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

Post by sann0638 »

Copied from the Impact! forum:
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2 matches were played this evening, and the spreadsheet has been updated. There are now two rankings sheets, one for coaches and one for races, as we are all now considering moving on to a second race, and are going to try to work through them before repeating one that someone else has used.

Spreadsheet here.

My Dogs took on Martyn's Ratmen, which was the first game with League skills for both of us - my Dervishes had Steady and Buff, and he had a courier with Steal and a Safety with Grapple. The Steal courier bit the dust quite quickly and got a stat decrease, which a potion didn't save, so didn't have a chance to see how that went, but the Grapple Safety was a constant threat, especially with Jog 7 and in conjunction with the Wrats, who are hard and difficult to take down with Dodge 3.

My Dervishes are immense, however, and I love them to bits. The Steady Dervish (Mad Jimmy) scored both my goals, and consequently is now Steady/Sprinter, so if he doesn't die he could turn into a goal machine. We'll see. My general tactic is to gather my players near the half way line, with the Defenders despatching anyone who comes to close. Pick up the ball with a midfielder or thrower, then get the ball to a Dervish who can get into scoring range pretty easily.

There is a fair amount of attrition, but by itself it's not a viable tactic because you do also have to worry about the ball, and you can easily come unstuck if you just concentrate on killing the oppo.

We played with conditional successes for the first time, and I don't think I noticed much difference. It added a bit of tension, for example when he tackled my defender, and started with 0 net successes, then went 1,2,3, rolling 2 stars and then a bullseye, meaning my defender was in theory injured. I say in theory because he then managed 9 successes, making full use of the conditional fun. We thought that 9 successes on an injury should mean that the player jumps to his feet and does a few laps of the track, just to show off.

Still having lots of fun - thinking at the moment that I will continue with Dogs until my Steady/Sprinter bites the dust, Charon is going to ditch the Pharoahs because they keep losing, Spiky is carrying on with Valkyries until he finishes painting them, and Xenolith is going to try out one of his shiny new teams from his massive Impact order that arrived recently.

Game on!

Mike
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