Norsca Union League

Season is kicking off, so start arranging games. As we have many new players, here are some reminders of the ground rules:

- The matches are preferably arranged in the Season Five board under the topic Match Day X - Matches. If you arrange the game in any other way (eg. pm or face to face) you still must post in the mentioned board the progress of your match scheduling.
- The coach with the team that plays HOME has the responsibility to contact his opponent at latest Wednesday of the match week to arrange the game. You find whom ever plays home/away in the in-game client and from the Match Day thread in the forums. Away team is of course also allowed to initiate contact.
- Time to play one Match Day is one week. Match week officially starts every Monday at 19:00 CET. Games can naturally be arranged and played earlier, if the new week is already up in-game.
- Try to give some options about the playing time already in your first contact.
- Make sure to mention the time zone you're talking about. The most common time zones used are probably CET/UTC+1 (Swedish, Central Europe) and EET/UTC+2 (Finnish, Eastern European).

About the new season, I'm probably going to go for a bit shorter and more "form-like" match reports in my own matches. But being interested in writing, I'm thinking that could write one of my longer "traditional" match reports from some other players matches each week. I would of course need the replay file of the match for the write-up. Requests for the style and method of the match report of the week would be taken but not nescessarily respected. So is anybody interested in this?

And by the way, Gron Grumbundy asked me to tell everyone that Blood Sports Spotlight has signed a broadcast deal for their second season and they have hired a stats expert.

We would like to herewith announce that necromantic gentlemen's club Gentlemen Wolf-Whistlers has now applied for the league membership.

Quote from: Mr B on November 22, 2011, 03:31:46 PM
We are now 9 with j-reedy, did we have anyone else that we are waiting for at the moment?
10 would be a nice number to have...

This was the list of players at some point:
Mr B (Bantha in game)
JerXou
Oller
Barmution
The Golden Arrow
Konna
Staffan
Luiggi
Beuneri
J-Reedy

Looking at the teams in the Feeders league, it seems Staffan is missing, any word on him?

OK, I'm going with necromantic, will sign up the team this evening.

Congrats Mr B and hope all goes well!

Let us know if we'll be seeing little Mr b or Miss b taking part  in NUL in couple of years!

Warm welcome to all the new players.

As everyone will be starting the season with new team, the original team list at the start of this thread is not anymore current. Here are the teams that are spoken for to my knowledge:

Mr B (Bantha in game) - Dragon Trainers - Norse
JerXou - Skaven
Oller - new team?
Barmution - Dark Elfys
The Golden Arrow - Fasta Stronga Betta - Ogres (should be interesting)
Konna  - new team?
Staffan  - new team?
Luiggi - Orkitis B.C. - Orcs
Beuenri - new team?
J-Reedy - new team, I'll just probably wait and see what teams every one else is taking and then pick from those that are left the one that most tickles my fanny.. I mean fancy

Continuing on the previous message here. In my opinion the most important factor in maintaining the TV differences in the league at tolerable level is to keep the amount of games teams play on equal level. More games means more spp potential and 5 sure spps for the MVP. In current situation the playoff teams get extra games and therefore they have the potential of boosting their TV further while the out-of-playoff teams have their TV stagnant. I understand that more games also means more possibilities for deaths and minus stats but for most (high AV) teams the possibility for gain is worth more than the risk. Therefore I think we should try to even the number of games teams play by organizing some extra games for out of playoff teams (playout games?).

As to the next NUL season, I'm open for all options. I would like to give the Kittens one more go and try to get redemption from those nasty NattBowlers  ;) but new teams are also OK with me.

We could also think about giving the coaches possibility of operating two different teams on different league levels i.e. coaches with old teams could start fresh teams and play them in lower division while their old teams play in the higher division. This would of course only work if enough coaches think they would have time and interest in this kind of system.

Well, I'm out of ideas now. Any more ideas or feedback, anyone?

Here are the options that come to mind in no particular order of preference:

A) 1 division w 8 teams in 1 group
- potentially punishing for lower TV teams
+ lots of games
B) 1 divison w 8 teams in 2 groups
- less games
+ groups could be evened out according to TV
C) 1 division w new (TV1000) teams.
- coaches w experienced teams are not rewarded w sticking w their teams
+ even playing ground, lots of games

With the two group option (B) I see two possibilities for playing around with the groups:
1. Two groups first play against the teams in their own group and then playoffs could be between all the teams with A1-B4, A2-B3, A3-B2 and A4-B1. (at least 4 games for each player, max 7 games)
2. two groups first play against the teams in their own group and then the two top seeds from both groups (A1, A2, B1, B2) form their own "champs" group who all play against each other while the bottom two seeds (A3, A4, B3, B4) form own "well, we made a go for it" group who all play against each other (at least 3+3 games for each player). If I understand correctly how the league settings work the first part of this would have to played within a new feeder division and the second part could be the traditional Valhalla and Ulls divisions.

OK, have to run now, weekly board-gaming evening starting soon. Will write in later with some other thoughts.

REQUIEM FOR MARCIA BREE AND EVA GABRIELLE - BLITZERS OF COUGAR KITTENS

Here they lie, aye, two of them
side by side as on the field
fierce fighter and a beautiful femme
from death they got no shield.

Marcia as brave as any
Eve as courageous as all
admirers they both had many
who cried when they were to fall.

Lightning and thunder
whom with beauty and grace
from life were to sunder
adorned with steel and lace.

Let the heavens tremble and hell shake
for when you arrive and go to play
all those gone before will break and quake
for you will jive and your enemies flay.

BLOOD SPORTS SPOTLIGT SPECIAL - LIVE FROM THE FINALS
- Welcome ya all to very special edition of you favourite magicast Blood Sports Spotlight! Today we're coming to you live from the finals match of the Norsca Union League's Valhalla Cup! I'm Gron Grumbundy and I'm going to do a play by play report for you from the match between the amazonian Cougar Kittens and undead NattBowlarna. Short note about the qualification game to the Valhalla Cup before the game begins. The undead Last Steps won the game against the skaven Flying Boom Bats BK so it'll be Valhalla Cup for the Last Steps next season! Valhalla Cup is starting to look quite living challenged with two undead teams and one Khemri team no taking the field. But on to our game today! NattBowlarna are preparing to kick off, all of their 11 players available to play are already on the field and the Kittens have chosen their starting 11! And here's the kickoff! Going high but not far, and that goes for the referee too! Looks like some of more violence minded members of audience decided to knock some sense of justice into the zebra. And Marcia Bree caught the ball! She got the ball straight off! Two Kittens are moving to guard her and now the Kittens front line goes to work! DOWN and out goes the center zombie! Alyssa scores the KO! BUT WHAT NOW! CAMERON IS DOWN! Looks like she trusted too much that the opposing player would be distracted with her chest guard, or rather lack of it. Those kind of antics are not going to work with the zombies! Here comes Little Jimbo, laying a blitz on Lana Kreuk, the front guard for the ball carrier... OOOF, that must've hurt... AND IT DID! She's been carrieb out, looks like a badly hurt! Alyssa goes down, looks like she is stunned! And now Pebblebasher is on Marcia Bree but here comes Teri Susan to assist, so Marcia is able to lay a blitz on Pebblebasher! Pushed back... Pebblebasher sidesteps, she's not getting away... UNTIL NOW! Nice dodge and she's going deep into their own side, away from the line of scrimmage. The missed block of Cameron really hurt the Kittens, as the NattBowlarna got the upper hand! And speaking of hands here comes the Klangs fist towards Anne! CLEAN KO! And looks like Cameron was knocked out too! Kittens are being taken out on left on right. I heard rumours that Cougar Kittens might be easy but I didn't believe they would go down on you this easy! Marcia is going further back, no Nattbowlarna is going to touch her. Now if her team-mates just managed to create an opening. Teri Susan takes down Ponu the Greedy! He's OK, but here comes Eva Gabrielle with mischiefous smile on... Is she going to do the thing what undead look like? YES SHE IS, she fouls the foul looking Ponu! Ponu is stunned. Referee is trying his best to act like he didn't notice anything! Hope they didn't anger the undead... Little Jimbo is blitzing again, his first blitz scored a casualty, let's see what he will do NOW... THAT MUST'VE HURT! Teri Susan took the blitz and the medical team is on the field! Looks like the hired apotechary of the Kittens is saying that she is dead! But everybody sees that Teri is still moving! Looks like they're taking the doctor away, good news to Teri as she keeps on moving but looks like she won't be doing it as fast as earlier. Looks like Jimbo smashed her hip into smithereens. Violent lover that Little Jimbo. Kittens are trying to dodge out now, they're not getting any blocks with four players already out of the play... Jennifer didn't get away and here's Kling with a block... BADLY HURT! This is magnificent! NattBowlarna are taking Kittens down at will! Kittens are looking desperate, it's just a matter of time that Marcia is caught.... Now something is happening! Christina pushs back Molle the wight and sprints deep into Nattbowlarna territory. Marcia is coming forward and prepares to launch a pass... SHE FUMBLES IT! Ball scatters to her feet and Little Jimbo is coming fast! MARCIA GOES DOWN BUT HER HEAD GOES UP! She's as dead just she can be! Hugh Grant is looking at her but he is shaking his head... Looks like Marcia Bree won't be playing anymore... I stand corrected! Looks like the NattBowlarna necromancer sneaked on to Kittens dugout and is now re-animating Marcia! She's up and walking towards the NattBowlarna dugout! That was the third blitz for Little Jimbo and his third casualty! No question about the MVP of this game! And he even got the ball! Christina is trying to blitz him down but only manages a pushback as nobody is helping her... Just five Kittens on the field. Four. Jörgen Julbent just took Scavo Huffman out with a casualty. Kittens have lost now three of their blitzers, one permanently. Little Jimbo hand offs the ball to the wight Molle Stovansson and Molle is sprinting for the goal. Nothing much to do. All Kittens are down but Christina is trying again in desperation. Nothing there, too much dodging and she goes down... NattBowlarna keep on hitting on the Kittens. Looks like they're sweeping them off their feet but now they're not scoring. Unless you're Molle who just scored a touchdown! 1-0 for the Nattbowlarna just before the end of the first half! We'll return shortly with the second half, don't go anywhere!
- Welcome back! First half injuries have been amended or not if you're playing for the Cougar Kittens, only of the Kittens KOs is returning to game, so there'll be just 9 Kittens taking the field. ...or 10 if you count Marcia Bree who is now playing as the zombie in the full 11 corpse of the NattBowlarna... Kittens kick-off a short one to left ot line of scrimmage, ball bounces a bit but stays on the field. And here comes the front line punishment of the NattBowlarna, let's see if they are as efficent as in the first half. No they aren't. They didn't get any casualties. JUST TOO KO'S! Scarlett and Anne are being carried off the field as results from blocks from the touchdown scorer Molle and the trusty mummy Kling Karlsson. Ponu the Greedy has the ball and he's caged as securely as dwarfen gold treasury. Only seven Kittens on the field now, but they're still trying. Nice combo play! Christina takes down Stan Stump and Sandra runs in to boot Stan into the ribs. Stan looks like stunned. WHAT NOW! THIS IS JUST TOO MUCH! Alyssa is lying prone and now the necromancer is commanding the zombified Marcia Bree to foul her! This is adding an insult to a beating! The ref's had it! He is going to eject Marcia Bree. The necromancer is waving his hand at the referee and pointing at a brown envelope in his other hand but the ref won't take notice! Marcia has been ejected! It's a rare day when you see same player going out of game twice in the same game! Kittens look aghasted and they're dodging away and try to form a defensive line... They make the dodges but here comes the undead rush... Oh no... Jörgen Julbent has ripped out his own left arm and is beating Natalie with it while Pebblebasher is using Eva Gabrielle as a punching bag... That's two more knockouts. This isn't even funny anymore, this is a massacre! Just five Kittens left, Jennifer Cameron is trying to blitz the ghoul with the ball. She goes down while dodging... All the Kittens are now prone on the field and Ponu the Greedy runs a TD! 2-0 for NattBowlarna! Short break before the continue the second half!
- We're back! This time Kittens staff was more efficient at the knock-out recovery, it'll be 10 amazons against 11 unded this attack. The Cougar Kittens are lining up for fast score! Jennifer Cameron and Eva Gabrielle break through the NattBowlarna lines, J-C from the left and Eva from the right! Maria has the ball up she runs to scrimmage line! She's going for a pass! Fumbles it and the ball is down! NattBowlarna take some of the Kittens around the ball go down and Ponu the Greedy is going to pick up the ball... FUMBLE! Didn't get it up and the Kittens have a chance, let's see if they use it... J-C is running deeper! She's almost at the goal line! Natalie is dodging away and sprints for the ball... She's not going to do it, too many undeads there. SHE GOT IT! AND NOW SHE IS GOING FOR A PASS! No way, no how, there are three NattBowlarna around her... IT'S A PERFECT PASS! J-C has no trouble hauling it in! Now she just has to... Where did Little Jimbo come from! J-C goes down and the ball scatters! Eva Gabrielle comes to help J-C, they manage to pushback Jimbo and J-C goes for the ball.. Fumbled! But they get a second chance, Stan Stumpen has failed his block and NattBowlarna look stunned! Probably because that being their first failed block in this game... Eva going for the ball.. doesn't get it, bounces to goal.. Nothing happening anymore, Kittens are once again beaten down and second half is almost at end. BUT WHAT NOW! LITTLE JIMB IS AT IT AGAIN! Didn't even see how he did it but Eva Gabrielle is lying on the ground and looks like she's going into the ground! She's dead! And there goes the whistle! What a beating! NattBowlarna takes it third 2-0 victory against the Cougar Kittens, this time the win makes NATTBOWLARNA THE CHAMPIONS OF THE VALHALLA CUP! Kittens look decimated. Two dead blitzers and their star-blitzer Teri Susan will their next game. We'll have to wait for the next season to see if they recover. This has been Gron Grumbundy! We'll be back next season!


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Coaches comments:
Sorry if the match report seems a bit off this week but I just had one of those games. You know the one. Opponent seems to score a knockdown on every roll and you're armor is breaking on almost every throw. Two of your blitzers get killed and third gets -MV. You're team rating goes down over 200 points. The game during which you're planning which team you'll be playing next season with. You know, that game.
Mr B played a nice game and had Nuffle on his side, and when I failed my second block of the game with both-down+skulls rerolled into double skulls he had also the control of the game. But congrats to NattBowlarna and Bantha for the championship! The Cougar Kittens WILL return with vengeance ;D

Quote from: Mr B on November 03, 2011, 09:46:02 PM
Lets see if Wednesday will be a good day for us then starting around 20 cet.

Wednesday 20 CET it shall be, c u then.

FINAL WEEK RESULTS REVIEW AND FINALS SPECULATIONS

- Welcome ya all to the Blood Sports Spotlight magicast - THE place to get your weekly dose of Norsca Union League that we affectionately call NUL. I'm Gron Grumbundy and today I'm going to review the results from the last week of play. And we'll also take a look at the final games that'll decide the fate of the Valhalla Cup championship and the teams headed to Valhalla Cup from Ull's Pasture. I'm joined by... Building suspense here... He's back because of popular demand... Let's welcome the unsung hero of our little magicast, the coffee boy extra-ordinaire, NIPPY!
- Umh, hi Gron...
- We really got a lot of feedback on your surprise appearance on the show couple of weeks ago. Seems like folks really liked your down to earth analysis of the Jungle_Boogie vs Other Brothers game! So how have you prepared for this week Nippy?
- Well um, I talked to mom and dad about the finals at breakfast... And I went to see granddad... He used to support most of the players of NattBowlarna when they were still alive so I thougt he might know something...
- So really thorough preparation there Nippy! OK, let's take a look at the results from the final week starting with Ull's Pasture. The most interesting match of course was the one between the undead Last Steps and orc Lotsa Stompin'. Last Steps were one step ahead and won the tight game with the score of 1-0. Last Steps only managed to inflict one casualty but that took the orc lineman Grotta Madbang out of both this and Stompin's next game, so they made their hits count. Lotsa Stompin' were also hitting hard and Knocked Out four undeads and everybody knows that a Knock Out is almost better than casualty against the undeads. Tight game by all accounts and that game decided that Last Steps will be fighting for the spot on Valhalla Cup. Lotsa Stompin' finished third in Ull's. Last Steps will go against Flying Boom Bats BK in the Valhalla Cup qualification game, what do you say about this match-up Nippy?
- ... Mom said that rats are nasty and that undeads smell bad so she wouldn't let any of those players into any fancy place but as one of the Last Step's mummies looks a bit like grandmommy she's rooting for the unded... Dad said that Mom was out of her mind and that Boom Bats will fly around those slow skeletons and score on every play and that Ratatask will smash the other mummy with his tail and the other one with his teeth... So I don't know..
- Brilliant analysis Nippy! In the other games in the Ull's Pasture the league had to step in and give the wins for Virgins No More and Necro Norvegicus as both Roma Victorius and Den of Dragons suffered from the health problems. The results had no large scale effect on the standings, Virgins No More had already secured the top spot and will be playing in Valhalla Cup next season. Necro Norvegicus took the fourth place ahead of Den of Dragons and Roma Victorius. Looking quickly at the players in the Ull's, the seasons biggest achievers were Lotsa Stompin's Brokk Angrytoof who won the scoring title with 4 touchdowns, Last Step's ghoul Pebblegnawer who came in second in the scoring round and really was one of the league's most effective all-around players and Ramtu the First from Last steps with two kills. In passing yards the the top spots went to orc Trokbad Hawkstrangler, dark elf Livia Legionarius and skink Xlixz of the Pond and then there naturally became numer of Elfs from Virgins No More. So it seems that Virgins No More dominated because of good efforts from all of their players. Any word about Ull's before we move into Valhalla Cup Nippy?
- Mmm... Not really if I don't have to...
- Hahaa! You really know how to tickle your audience Nippy! All right on to the Valhalla Cup! Lets start with the games that were actually played. The results were identical as to the number of touchdowns, 2-1 victories for Cougar Kittens against Staffans Hooligang and for NattBowlarna against the Other Brothers. And similarities did not end here! Both matches had a crowd of 34 thousand and both matches were reported to be real humdingers as both of them scored 19 out of 20 in the spectator surveys! And wait, there's still more! For surprisingly in both matches the undeads were the team taking the punisment! Kittens beat out the Hooligang 3-2 in casualties, all three casualties of the Hooligang failed to regenerate and one of the casualties was a death! Other Brothers on the other hand lost the casualties 2-3 but their two also casualties were also not regenerated and both of them were serious injuries! What matches! What did your folks say about these teams or games Nippy?
- ...Ummhh. Mom said that Kittens are harlots and he'll whup my behind if I ever again try to put up posters of their players but she's happy that the all-woman team managed to show those dead sand folk which one is the stronger sex... Dad said that NattBowlarna won't miss two players as they can dig up new ones whenever they want and that Other Brothers are playing a good base game and it's just a matter of time when they'll break through...
- Wise words! Ok, the third match in Valhalla was to be the Jungle_Boogie versus Flying Boom Bats BK. Unfortunately there were once again portal problems - reports have not come through if this was due to visit from the cheerleader team - and the game was delayed. Finally the league had to step in and decide on the 1 all draw! This result meant that the Cougar Kittens advanced to finals instead of Jungle_Boogie who would've needed a win to get the finals spot. Real surprising result here and reporters have been frantically trying to find out if any of the Kittens players had "entertained" league officials last week but nobody has managed to dig up any dirt on them! So the final match will see Cougar Kittens hosting NattBowlarna! This will be the third time these two teams meet. NattBowlarna have taken 2-0 victories both times so they should be favoured heavily! Of course, the undead will be missing their star wight Anders Angersson and also a rookie zombie who nobody cares about. Kittens have all of their 15 players up and ready to play. What's the word on the street on this match Nippy?
- Well... Dad said that we should really go see the match but mom won't let us because she suspects dad just wants to leer at the Kittens... So mom said she hopes the harlots get the beating they deserve... Dad didn't say anything because mom was holding a rolling pin at the moment... But my grandpa said that he saw all of the NattBowlarna players play when they still were alive and that they're just as good as they were then and maybe even fitter because they don't seem to have any fat on them... Grandpa hasn't seen the Kittens play as they won't allow their games to be shown in the old geezers home....
- Yes that's true. First time they showed a Kittens game in that retirement home in Heavenly Willows, there were heart attacks all around and mortality rate shot of the charts. And then were of course the strike of nurses following week because the surviving geezers had their vitality return to them and were harassing the nurses like it was their last day on earth... Which it probably was for some of them. Anyways, from that on, Cougar Kittens' games have not been shown in any institutions. But enough of that. So it seems that everybody thinks NattBowlarna will finally take the title?
- ...mmm.... Yeah, probably... But my pal Whizzy-Pissy said that Kittens are hotter than hell on a hot stove... And that he hopes they win because then they'll probably get drunk and flash some pus...
- AHEM! Yes, yes, some support for Cougar Kittens then. Well, we'll have to wait and see who takes the championship! We'll probably return next week with a live report from the game. I've been Gron Grumbundy! Have a week!
-...bye...


-

OK Mr. B. looks like the third encounter between the NattBowlarna and Kittens came a bit sooner than I expected. I'm a bit busy for couole of days but here are my free times that I'm 100% sure of at the moment (all times CET or GMT+1):
Sunday (6th) 7-21
Tuesday 18-21
Wednesday 18-21

Late Saturday might also be possible if I don't manage to score a date. So I'm hoping that I won't be available for gaming ;)

Seems to be quite a pickle we have here and personally I don't like pickles, they have too much vinegar. I really have to disqualify myself from answering this question, as I'm the coach of the team that would benefit the most if the decision was tie. But I have to say that a tie (or a loss to Krim) would've been a bit of a surprise if the game had been played (no offence meant Rotty, just looking at the team stats), so I'm OK with any decision be it a win or a tie for Krim.


For future games we really have to decide on a rule for the results on these connection issues.

Cougar Kittens signing up.

I also added a post on the new Blood Bowl forums about the new season. Let's see if we can lure any new players into the league.