Since I will not be participating in The Golden Tentacle 2014 myself, I thought it would be fun to release some sample rosters of teams that I would consider playing in the tournament myself. Not that I am a fantastic coach, but I think the tournament build rules presents some interesting options. So in these segments, I will pick a random flavor and dissect my decisions to play them.

First up is Chaos Pact. I chose them because they have an interesting roster that could really benefit from the rule set. First of all, with 3 Big Guys (Minotaur, Troll, and Ogre), they are the only team in the game that starts with 3 automatic Mighty Blow Pieces. Once you add 2 more Mighty Blow pieces with the skill package, then they are the only team that will be able to be fielded with 5 Mighty Blow players on the field. The ability to remove players, combined with extra +2 Player Points per casualty, it could be an interesting advantage. The down side is that the Chaos Pact eats re-rolls, has unreliable Big Men Negative Traits, and has a roster with minimal starting skills. That is where we begin ...

The basic breakdown is 12 players and 2 Re-Rolls that bring the roster total to 1,100,000gp.

The Skills package is as follows:

• Block on Minotaur (30,000gp Doubles Skill)
• Claw + Mighty Blow on Marauder (2 x 20,000gp Regular Skills = 40,000gp)
• Claw + Mighty Blow on Marauder (2 x 20,000gp Regular Skills = 40,000gp)
• Block on Marauder (20,000gp Regular Skill)
• Guard on Marauder (20,000gp Regular Skill)

• Grand Total is the Tournament Maximum of 150,000gps, with no player having more than 40,000gps, and no skill being taken more than twice.

In this build, I chose 12 players. With a fragile Goblin and Dark Elf, combined with all but 3 of the remaining players (Lewdgrip, Ogre, Troll) only having armor 8, the team is relatively fragile. I suspect there will be a decent amount of Mighty Blow, or Mighty Blow/Block, or Mighty Blow Piling On at the Tournament, so it is more than reasonable that some players will be KO’d, if not removed for the rest of the game. Having the extra player is good security. Starting with all 3 Big Men is a must, though they really suck up the team value. With their negative traits and lack of starting Block skill, they are not that reliable. Therefore, I really want to use them, especially the Troll and Ogre, as late-turn hitting pieces of pillars to suck up the action in the middle of the pitch.

I did, however, give the Minotaur the Block skill. The goal with him is to hit every turn. Since he has Frenzy, he will often get a follow up hit if the first one is a push. While I would like to avoid Blitzing with him if possible (to enable blitzing with the Claw / Mighty Blow Marauders), having him hit once or twice (with Frenzy) per turn should result in a knock down. Hopefully Mighty Blow will then help clear some players from the pitch. Even with 5 Strength (or 6 Strength with Horns on a Blitz), the number of Block-heavy tournament teams (such as Dwarves, Norse, Humans, Amazons, etc) should mean that the Minotaur has a high chance of Blocking himself down for a turnover if he doesn’t have the skill.

The beauty of the team will be the 2 Claw/Mighty Blow Marauders. Claw/Mighty Blow is a deadly combo that will be great for taking players off the pitch and earning +2 Casualty points per injury. Though they lack Block, I would move an assisting player in to help with the block, or the Guard skilled Marauder in to assist for a 2-Die-Block. Hopefully they will not roll Skulls and/or Both Downs. If they don’t, then they could start slicing through the competition.

Lewdgrip Whiparm does make an appearance. Apart for putting him on here for theme, he does actually offer decent ball handling mechanics with built-in re-rolls for picking up the ball and throwing it. He does lack Dodge and Block, so he will not be in the thick of the battle. However, as he does have Sure Hands and Pass (including Strong Arm as well), you should not need to worry about burning your precious few Re-Rolls on ball handling skills. Those skills can therefore be reserved to maximizing the damage output of the team. He also has tentacles, but since he does not have the hitting skills, it may only be useful in emergency situations. The lesser emphasized benefit with Lewdgrip is that for this tournament he gets the Fan Favorite skill. This enables bonuses on Kickoff Table results that can help swing an event or bonus re-roll in the team’s favor.

The Goblin and Dark Elf also offer flavor to the team, but will be agile and nimble players to hopefully receive the ball from Lewgrip (if necessary). I would normally play this team as a running team with Lewdgrip in a cage. However, if the stuff hits the fan and some trickery is needed, the Goblin and Dark Elf would make good receiving targets. Obviously the Dark Elf has better attribute stats and AG4 to catch the ball and get moving. So the Dark Elf is the better target. The Goblin though has Dodge and Stunty, and therefore makes a better secondary target. Though both players have Animosity, that only applies if they are passing the ball, not receiving it. So since Lewdgrip does not have Animosity, they can receive it without a Animosity roll.

I chose not to use the Skaven player, as it really does not offer much to the team in this build. For an extra point of movement, the Skaven sacrifices 1 point of armor. As ruthless as tournament hitting can be, I just do not see him lasting that long without any skills.

The remaining Marauders are decent filler. I chose one to have Block for another reliable piece on par with a starting Human Blitzer. One alternative could be to give Block to the Dark Elf instead. The advantage would be protecting the Dark Elf and making him a better ball carrier. However, my goal is to keep the Dark Elf out the the smashing lines, and therefore I would like to maximize Block on a Marauder with AV8 who will be in the thick of hitting.

Another Marauder I gave Guard to. I chose him instead of the Troll or Ogre for four reasons. First, he is more mobile than either. As they should be tying up pieces in the middle of the field, he will be more free to roam and apply Guard where needed. This hopefully will work in tandem with the Mighty Blow/Claw Marauders on Blitzes to provide them 2-Die-Blocks. The second reason to give him Guard is that the Troll and Ogre have negative traits Really Stupid and Bone Head. Both negative traits cause them to lose their tackle zones, and therefore stop assisting on the block. The third reason not to give them Guard is that is that if they are that close to the action anyway, hopefully they can hit with their Strength 5 at the end of the turn and knock down an opponent with their Mighty Blow skill. I would rather have them knock down an opponent than potentially one of the remaining 6 players on the pitch without the Mighty Blow skill. The last reason not to give them Guard is that they should be hitting, but don’t have the protection of Block. That means that there will be a good chance they will suffer a knock down a couple of times a game. If they are down, they cannot assist a block. The beauty of giving Guard to an unskilled Marauder is that I do not plan on hitting with him. Not hitting with an unskilled Marauder is not really any disadvantage. Not hitting with a Mighty Blow piece on this team undermines the way it is built.

Hopefully this post has given you some good ideas for playing Chaos Pact at The Golden Tentacle 2014 or some ideas to apply to other teams or tournaments. I doubt that people will be playing Chaos Pact anyway, as it is not a popular team. But it sure does look fun :)


Jason

Exciting news folks on the pre-release of the new EBBL Field. This field is a 40mm scaled digital field commissioned by the EBBL for release into the Fantasy Football community. While there are several high quality downloadable standard sized (29mm) fields that can be printed off, we noticed a lack of high quality ones. We have a snapshot of the field below, but the real one is much higher resolution to where you can actually see the grain in the individual planks of wood.

Every coach who signs up for The Golden Tentacle 2014 will receive a link to download the field. After the tournament, the field will be available to the masses.

We have just been Both Down Approved, by the #1 Podcast for the Golden Tentacle Tournament.

What does that mean? Well for starters, that they have been big supporters of what we have been doing here.

Secondly, they have sprinkled some love over us for the Reverse Raffle Drawing. Some of these dice have come from their Orclahoma Bowl and Spikey Cup Tournaments, as well as Nuffleween 2: The Revenge.

Every day more excitement builds for The Golden Tournament 2014.

Tomorrow (January 15, 2014) registration opens. Until then, here are a few more swag pics of things coming in....