Chaos 7s

[Ben_S]

We enjoyed our last 7s league so much that we're about to start another.

It's 600k gold, no team re-rolls. Max 4 positionals. Players resurrect between games (in effect, all casualties are badly hurt). Player development as normal, but with a risk of get drafted to the professional leagues from the second advance onwards.

I've pretty much decided to go with Chaos (Chosen), but I'm undecided between two starting rosters:

4 Warriors
3 Beastmen
20k saved (hope to buy another Beastman after the first game)

or

3 Warriors
5 Beastmen

The latter gives me a sub from the start, but it will be a while until I can afford that fourth Warrior. Given the lack of skills - and team re-rolls - I'm guessing that I'll need all the ST4 I can get. I'm hoping MA5 will be enough on the smaller pitch, though I guess I'll probably be using Beastmen as ball carriers.

We also get to nominate a 'captain' who will start with Pro skill for free. I'm undecided whether to give that to a Beastman or a Warriors.

I don't know what the other teams will be. One coach only has Undead, as far as I know, so they're quite likely. But the previous league was largely based around speed/agility teams (2x Dark Elf and Skaven), so I wouldn't be surprised if we all swing towards bash teams this time.

Any advice much appreciated. I have a title to defend!

 

[Tiny]

Both are viable although I personally would tend towards the former. While Beastmen are the more versatile player I think getting 4 ST4 players on the pitch game 1 will be a big help and allow you to get more level ups on them from the start. Also the ST4 will really help vs other bashy teams. That said I could see the merit in spare players and faster players vs bashy teams also... It all depends on your playstyle and Chaos can be pretty good at outrunning most of the bashy teams as well as out-bashing the agility teams.

Admittedly I have never played 7s but I am currently leading in our own BB league with Chaos with 36 league points, where the next highest has 16. I have lost only 1 game out of 8 to Underworld who somehow out-bashed me and injured a bunch of guys. This is our first season so can (hopefully) only get more powerful from here. I have ensured the warriors are replaced as a matter of urgency and see the Beastmen as expendable for the most part, leaving them on the front line and having the warriors shore up the wings on defence and swapping them around for offence.

 

[Ben_S]

I'm quite liking 7s. It's a rather different game, not only due to fewer players, but the pitch. Instead of my half and your half, meeting at the LoS, there's a 'no man's land' between the teams. Though I don't have much experience of slow blocker types in this format, I'm inclined to think they're less useful as a result. Although when the opponent is on the offensive, they still have to come towards you...

I have very little, if any, experience with Chaos either, despite having the old metal All Stars team plus Lord Borak. I'll be using newer plastics instead though. (One further reason to favour the former roster is that I can use my existing Nurgle Bloaters/Pestigors.)

 

[Tiny]

The warriors are imo the best blockers in the game, mainly for doing things that aren't blocking. AG3 means they can dodge away from the front of a cage and catch a pass fairly reliably.

Lack of team rerolls will really hurt you in early games though as chaos get no skill rerolls or block on any of their players. I always take 3 rerolls on a starting chaos team and until you start to level them up, it is rarely enough.

Beastmen are amazing as having one of them be ST4 each turn makes them super versatile and great for punching a hole.

Given that you start further apart you may do well with 3 warriors 5 beasts as that gives you a little more speed but 4 warriors makes for an intimidating barrier to get through.

Is it played on a narrower pitch or just the standard one?

 

[spafe]

I'd go 4 warriors start, you should be able to afford another beastie fairly quickly and being able to hit with 5 str 4 guys (the horns blitzing) is a tough line up.

But this is just conjecture having never played 7's BB.

 

[Ben_S]

Is it played on a narrower pitch or just the standard one?

Yeah, I think it's 7 squares across the middle, but each wide zone is only 2.

First night went badly...

Game 1
Ben (Chaos) vs Paul (Dwarfs)
The whole match was played in sweltering heat, but the Chaos team got to a good start - surging forward onto their own short kick, to take possession of the ball before the Dwarfs had even moved. Though the Dwarfs did manage to dispossess the ball carrying Beastman, they were unable to stop the Chaos Warrior captain from pushing through to score.
In the uncomfortably hot conditions, only four Dwarfs were able to set up for the next drive and, despite a spirited attempt to push down their left flank, they were unable to equalise the scores before half time.
In the second half, it was only a desperate late intervention from one of the Longbeards that prevented a Beastman from giving the Chaos team a 2-0 lead. But, with both teams short on players, a Runner was able to retrieve the loose ball near his end zone and throw towards a waiting Blitzer. The pass was off target, but next turn the same Runner was able to retrieve the ball from the clutches of a nearby Beastman, dodge away, and hand off to the Blitzer to equalise with the last action of the game. Final score, 1-1.
Ben earned 60k (thanks to +2 fame that had no other effect) and bought a new Beastman. MVP fell on a Warrior, who took Block.

Game 2
Ben (Chaos) vs Robin (Pro Elf)
The lightning fast Elves took an early lead, which probably wasn't so surprising. What was more surprising was that, by the latter stages of the first half, they also had a numerical advantage, aided by a rock thrown from the crowd, which KO'd the Warrior with Block. The Chaos team were having trouble getting to grips with their nimble opponents, though the tide finally started turning with several Elves getting KO'd.
In the second half, more and more Elves had to put their bodies on the line to stall the Chaos advance. At one point, it looked like they might even snatch the ball and threaten another touch down of their own, through the agility of their two Blitzers, but in the resulting melee one was pushed off the pitch, sustaining a fracture that will see him miss his next game. (Maybe he didn't fancy facing Dwarfs!)
By the last minutes of the game, four or five Elves were unconscious, but this remained the only serious injury on their side. One Beastman resorted to a desperate pass to his colleague, but the receiver failed to catch and then failed again at picking up the ball, so there was to be no score for the Chaos team. Worse news was to come after the game, when it was revealed that one of the Warriors had suffered a smashed collar bone, leaving him with a permanent loss of strength.

So, two games in, only one point to show for it, a Chaos Warrior now practically reduced to an Orc Lineman in stats, and - MVPs aside - only 5 SPPs earned (a TD and cas vs the Dwarfs). Low TV Chaos, with no team re-rolls, is already looking like a tough choice. I did really suffer from all the Block on the Dwarf team, so I'm not looking forward to playing Norse next... Given who's in the league, I think I should get Wrestle on a couple of players, but this requires more SPPs first.

 

[Tiny]

I thought you were playing resurrection format so injuries didn't count?

Low TV Chaos are indeed super tough to play but stick with it and once your guys start to skill up you will start to pull ahead.

Wrestle is indeed a good plan in a block heavy league but I still prefer block and MB where possible, particularly vs elves and Norse who should get hurt pretty easily.

 

[Ben_S]

Ah yes - I forgot to mention that the Commissioner announced a change to that at the start of the night.

He'd previously said two rules changes from last season, one to positionals and the other being that we'd use SPPs (rather than just having one player per game advance). But then he said, 'since we're doing SPPs, I guess this means we'll do injuries too'. And apothecaries are nerfed to near uselessness, since it's an amateur-level game.

It's six matches, then play offs - plus any players with two or more advances risk getting drafted - so I don't know that I'll get many skills. I thought Chaos would be safer than Lizardmen though...

 

[spafe]

That's arough first start. Sounds like you got a little unlucky on both games (in that they could have easily moved to a win or draw respectivly with one or 2 rolls going the other way).

Chaos are tough to start with... and I suspect while better than lizards, neither are really good at 7's with that short a league format (unless you can continue teams into the next season, in which case, welcome to playing the long game!)

 

[Ben_S]

The first game could very easily have been a 2-0 win. I was within a few squares of his end zone. Then, in his last turn, he needed a 4+ pick up (with sure hands), 3+ dodge, and 3+ catch to score. It might well have been even harder had I not failed a GFI that would have marked his Blitzer (and allowed me to perhaps do something with other players). I do think he'd probably had the better of the block dice throughout the game though, to be fair, it had been a rather lucky kick off that had led to me taking the lead in the first place. And I could have been in more trouble late in the first half, had he not failed so many sweltering heat rolls.

As for the Elves, after my Warriors pushed aside the two Elves, I only needed a 3+ pick up and two GFIs to score in the last turn - and it would have been even easier if I'd managed to catch the pass in the penultimate turn instead. Given that that was easier than what the Dwarfs pulled off against me, I guess you could say I was unlucky again. But having gone 1-0 down very early, I wasn't surprised to lose - the frustrating thing was struggling (in the first half) to even injure them and (in the second half) only KOing them when I did. I'd perhaps compromised on position a couple of turns earlier in order to surf his side-stepping Blitzer, which was the only cas (so no SPPs), but the chance was too good to pass up.

We just realised afterwards that his team was actually illegal since he'd bought a Thrower - i.e. a fifth positional - after game one. Didn't spot it at the time though and it didn't make any difference (pretty sure he never even threw a pass, let alone used the skill, so a Lineman would have done the same job).

 

[Ben_S]

I just made it to 2nd place in the regular league, losing both games to the 1st places Pro Elves, drawing both with the Dwarfs who finished 3rd and winning both against the 4th place Norse. It doesn't make much difference though as the play off semi final is 2nd against 3rd, so I have to play Dwarfs and then (depending on results) either Elves or Norse in the final/wooden spoon match.

My current roster is:

Warrior - Pro (captain), Block, MB
Warrior - Block
Warrior - Block (MNG)
Warrior - regular skill tbc
Beastman - Sure Hands and regular skill tbc
Beastman - Wrestle (MNG)
Beastman - MB and regular skill tbc
Beastman

I'm down to six going in to the next game, but I have 200k gold in my treasury, which means I could hire up to three more rookie Beastmen. I could replace the MNG Warrior or even hire a Minotaur, but I'd have to sack that Warrior as we're limited to four positionals.

The Dwarfs I believe have only 7 players, including a Deathroller but no Slayers. I think he's geared to kill, rather than to play ball.

Given that, whatever happens, my final game is going to be against a mostly AV7 team, I'm tempted to spam more Mighty Blow. Even without Block, I did a reasonable job at removing opposing players from the pitch in those games. But it could be Dwarfs followed by Norse, so the lack of Block may hurt me.

Any tips or advice welcome...

 

[spafe]

I'd be boring and go block on the reminaing warrior, but maybe spice it up a little on the beastman, piling on with the mighty blow chap would be nasty potentialy, esp against the later teams as it should also be easier to protect him while he;s on the floor.

mighty blow or block could be good on the sure hands chap (mainly block as he will likely be holding theball), but maybe consider strip ball for a real ball threat, as he can get the ball loose easily then scoop it up and run.

Just a thought

 

[Ben_S]

I took MB on the Warrior, Block on the Beastman with Sure Hands (ball carrier), and Kick on the other (it doesn't synergise with MB but I wanted it somewhere).

The 'semi final' against the Dwarfs was bound to be close, after two 1-1 draws in the regular season. I got lucky when the first action of note from his Deathroller was a blitz and double skull, so took the lead half way through the first half. I got lucky again when his coach failed to argue the call and got ejected (actually I think we forgot about this on later kick off results, but getting rid of the DR was the main thing).

Somehow he still managed to equalise before half time. In his final turn, it was a two dice uphill block (only needing a push), followed by a Longbeard dodging, picking up the ball, and handing off to his Blitzer who scored (with a GFI I think). Still, most of his team were rookies (having had his best players drafted to the professional leagues in the previous matches) and he was down to six without the DR, so in the end I was able to snatch a late 2-1 win. Annoyingly it was my Block/Sure Hands guy who scored the winner and promptly got drafted.

This guaranteed me second place, but the final was against the Pro Elves who'd topped the regular season (five wins and a draw I think it was). I had just enough money to sack a Warrior and replace him with a Minotaur, but my opponent had nine players.

The first drive almost went well - the kick off managed to land next to my Mino and, though he was able to grab possession of the ball right away, I was soon able to start knocking elves down (and sometimes out). At one point early on, I was even able to floor the ball carrier and grab the loose ball myself, only to have him return the favour. I pushed him back down my right flank, but he was able to play a passing move to the opposite flank and score. The rest of the match was more of the same really. I was able to hurt some elves, but couldn't hurt enough of them seriously enough and his two Blitzers - both with Side Step and one with AG5 - were able to combine for another TD. A 2-0 defeat, but the result I always expected.

We don't expect to continue these teams but, just in case, did the usual post-game. The Mino took MVP and rolled a possible +AG. I don't remember ever rolling +AG before, but now's not the time to take it.

 

[spafe]

Depending on your group, I'd suggest it could be great to expand your teams to full BB teams with the 7's team forming the core as the entire team trys to go into the big league and set itself up. Could make for an awesome narrative and some really charming/quirky teams.

Congrats on the 2nd place btw!

 

[Tiny]

Depending on your group, I'd suggest it could be great to expand your teams to full BB teams with the 7's team forming the core as the entire team trys to go into the big league and set itself up. Could make for an awesome narrative and some really charming/quirky teams.

Congrats on the 2nd place btw!

That would be really cool actually and pretty simple to do. Just start Season 2 using the normal re-drafting rules from DZ1.

 

[Scabs]

Seven years later...Got a great deal on multiple 7's mousepad pitches. Enough for a league! Could/would love to start a league. I've even incorporated a single 7's game into our 8-game 11's league (I'm the Commish). Alas, I'm the only one in the league with the vision to appreciate the smaller, faster, quicker 7's game.

I've tried the tried-and-true "carrot and stick," including beating them with an even bigger carrot. But, some folks just don't get it, no matter how much you humiliate or threaten them.