Sports Events Man Was Not Meant to Know

 My brother and I had another game of Dreadball this afternoon. For a change of pace we were both using the "Nameless" team. Gibbering tentacled monstrosities... that for some reason want to play a sports game and not eat the ref. 

This was our first like versus like game. Despite the distinctive concept, rules-wise the Nameless are mostly a fairly vanilla team. The default team is 4 Strikers, 4 Guards, with the Guards distinguished between the Feromite (AKA "Crunchy Guards") and Undalan (AKA "Sticky Guards"). The Strikers are move 6 with no special rules, the Crunchy guards are Strength 3+ and have the Steady rule. So both can perform their roles, but neither is particularly remarkable. But what really makes the Nameless team distinctive is the Undalan/Sticky guards.

With just Strength 4+ the Sticky guards aren't that imposing. But their key advantage is their special threat rules. First, they threaten not just the three hexes immediately in front of them, but the next layer of hexes beyond that as well (i.e they effectively have reach). Second, if they threaten an opposing player, it's not just -1 die, its automatically -2. Used well, this ability can be a massive edge.

For our initial on-field players I went with 3 strikers, 2 crunchy guard , and 1 sticky guard. Vaughan went with 2 of each. 

Compared with our previous games using the Vyr-Meen and Kalyashi (both high speed, offense-focused teams) this game went at a slower pace. During my first rush I picked up the ball, one of my Steady guards fell over trying to evade... and that was about it. Thankfully Vaughan's first rush didn't do much better, so with possession at the start of my 2nd rush I scored for 3 points.

 

With his next rush Vaughan responded by absolutely pounding my sticky guard into the arena floor - with a 7 success Slam versus 1 success Dodge, that guy/thing was a sticky pile of goo. With him having two sticky guards on the field to me having none (and with Vaughan having just demonstrated how good they can be) I wasn't feeling great about things. Thankfully a very lucky scatter put the ball nicely in reach of the striker who scored the first time, and he/it put in another three points. 

With a six point lead the game was mine to lose. But then Vaughan replied with a 3 point strike of his own, and I brought my reserve sticky guard out from the subs bench to even things up.

However scoring that 3-pointer had put Vaughan's players out of position. With essentially no opposing players in their half, one of my strikers simply picked up the ball, doubled for a free Run action. One free action from a card and not fluffing a strike roll later, and it was game to me.

Overall I like the Nameless team. They aren't too extreme, but the Undalan/Sticky guards just make them that little bit different to run and to play against. And the models are cool. I could see using these as Cthuloid monsters in a sci-fi or modern investigative RPG campaign.