FFL Wrap-Up: Preseason Week 4 Edition.

Hello, and welcome to the FFL wrap-up, a weekly write up I'll be doing primarily for the F is for Friends, Family & Friends League members but should be written so that anyone on the outside looking in can follow along.

If you haven't seen if yet you can find the FFL Draft Recap here. Following the draft the FFL placed all remaining players on waivers until September 2nd, which if you hadn't been paying attention to dates is today!

Waiver strategy, and the way managers develop their roster through them over the course of the season is an important part to some manager's "game" maybe more important than drafting. Some managers might be average drafters but are great at working the waivers, others could be operating a streaming strategy (more on this later), and then there are those who rely on their drafting and only look to the waivers when they have ugly bye week or injury situations that their depth can't handle.

For those of you who might not be the most familiar with waivers, it's a system of ordering claims for a manager's right to add a player to their roster. The ordering starts in reverse order of draft position. This meant that for FFL's initial waiver priority Optimal was first and we worked backwards from their until we reached Team 1 who had waiver priority 12. When a team excercises it's right to add someone from the waivers, it is placed on the back of the waiver priority. When putting in a claim for someone on waivers, you exercise your waiver priority even if no one else claims said player against your claim as long as the player is added to your roster. What does this mean? It means that you really don't want to claim someone off waivers that you don't have to, and that if you want someone on waivers but you don't think you'll get them because of your low priority there is no reason not to put a claim in.

This brings us to the current point of emphasis for Today's wrap-up, the initial waiver moves of FFL. It should be noted that FFL drafted the night of August 30th, which makes our first move all the more interesting.

August 31: ~7 am. Maggie's Maineiacs drops Tim Tebow (QB) PHI

What! The pick that received so much praise, dropped less than 12 hours after the draft. It should be noted that while Tim Tebow was a late round flyer, that's not to say the pick held no value. Players such as Philip Rivers, Donald Brown, Michael Floyd, Pierre Garcon, Michael Crabtree, Terrance Williams, and David Cobb had yet to be taken! I wonder what prize Maggie has their eye on.

September 1: ~12pm. Maggie's Maineiacs drops Montee Ball (RB) DEN
The last two picks of Maggie's team were not long for that roster, preemptive drops often mean that a manager has eyes on a number of players they'd be comfortable rostering  that are currently on waivers. By having open roster spots they're not forced to tie additions to specific player drops.

Waivers

September 2: ~3:30am. Agreeable (Bloodriders) drops Tyler Eifert (TE) CIN adds Heath Miller (TE) PIT

Interesting choice of waiver moves by Bloodriders, they selected Eifert in the 8th who saw a rise in his draft price as the hype continued to build. I rated that pick highly, but they've already moved on from that selection to add a TE who went undrafted. Let that be a lesson for those of you selecting TEs later in the draft! There'll be someone on the waivers whose just as good week to week. Eifert now becomes an interesting roster addition for teams who were not happy with their own TE situation.

September 2: ~3:30am. Maggie's Maineiacs adds Alfred Blue (RB) HOU
If you want to take the time to look back at Maggie's draft you'll see that they selected only two running backs in the top 12 rounds. 2! Of those two, one of them (Spiller) is currently injured and has sent Maggie scrambling to the waivers in search of not only a bit more depth, but someone worth starting week 1. They've found that in Alfred Blue who should see great use while he fills in for Foster.

September 2: ~3:30am. Walter White Walkers drops James Starks (RB) GB adds DeAngelo Williams (RB) PIT

Walter is a lucky man, lucky that he doesn't play in a cut throat league. Walter being the second year fantasy player that he is, missed out on the opportunity to handcuff his own first round RB who is already missing two weeks when the draft took place. Instead taking James Starks in the 12th round the last round Walter drafted positional players. While we might guess that he had a claim out for Blue, a player who projects to see a lot more use over the opening weeks than Williams, he at least lands his own handcuff in D. Williams.

September 2: ~3:30am. Team 1 (Antarctica Penguins) drops Ryan Fitzpatrick (QB) NYJ adds Kenny Stills (WR) MIA

So Team 1 moves on from their snub at Geno and adds some WR depth in a flyer on Kenny Stills someone who should see a good deal of work in MIA offense, at least until Parker returns from his injury.

September 2: ~3:30am Agreeable (Bloodriders) drops New York Jets (DEF) adds San Francisco 49ers (DEF)

Agreeable was having a good bit of fun at the draft but by the time the late rounds had come around their tablet had run out of power and with it their rankings and cheat sheets. While there might be inexperience in the league there's no lacking of cut throat, so it didn't seem like there was a willingness to share. I imagine Agreeable had the 49ers defense ranked their on their own sheets than they did the Jets, so the made the move on the waivers, but I'd say the Jets are the better season defense and they're now out there for the taking.

September 2: ~3:30am Maggie adds Damien Williams (RB) MIA

I had previously scanned the waiver wire for players I thought worthy of a claim and while there was some value, I decided there wasn't anyone at the time worth sacrificing waiver position. This decision only netted me a gain of one in priority (thanks to Agreeable's activity) and I lost out on no one of real consequence (two hand-cuffs) and then Damien Williams whose value is only suspect if you believe the rumors that Miami isn't happy with Lamar Miller. As I mentioned above Maggie is trying to put together some RB depth having only 2 on the roster after their pre-waiver drops. Well they've managed to add Blue who will fill in for their injured Spiller, and then hope that Damien might add some value for him as the season progresses.

September 2: ~3:30am Walter drops Percy Harvin (WR) BUF adds Eddie Royal (WR) CHI

By all accounts in a 12 team PPR league Royal should have found a roster around the 10th round when guys like Decker, M. Bryant, Funchess, and White were going, and certainly have found one in the 13th when T. Williams, M. Crabtree, P. Garcon, and M. Floyd went. So perhaps better late than never. Royal was a big reason why Malcom Floyd failed to have value last season as he pilfered targets game after game. Now he reunites with Cutler who he had a great season, just in time for K. White to possibly be missing the entire season.

Post Waivers

Since the opening waivers have closed, we've seen two additional moves.

Septermber 2: ~10am Fashion drops Jay Ajayi (RB) MIA adds Andre Williams (RB) NYG

Whether Fashion was holding onto waiver priority, or missed out on the initial salvo at left over running backs, she made a move for the expected soon to be starting running back for the NYGs by picking up Andre Williams.

September 2: ~1pm Nelson drops RGIII (QB) WAS adds Joe Flacco (QB) BAL

Not a surprising move, Nelson saves their waiver priority but moves on from their flyer on RGIII whose already been injured and relegated as the back-up. Instead picking up Joe Flacco who finished last season as the #12 fantasy QB in standard formats.


So an early picture of the league and it's managers starts to take shape. We can learn a bit about whose an active mover and who are more patient, which teams are fishing to fill perceived holes and which are sitting on their rosters. While there has already been some trade talks instigated, there has of this posts writing yet to be any trades made or, to my knowledge, offered.

We're still a little more than a week away from our first weeks match-ups, but already teams are positioning for a fast start. 

Muskets and Magic

So fantasy, particularly Epic Fantasy or High Fantasy as a setting has been following the same tropes or mold for some time. This isn't a bad thing, not usually, it's part of what we all enjoy about the genre. The medieval setting, the swords and sorcery, it could be said to be what makes fantasy fantasy. Yet, there can be more, fantasy is about creating your own worlds with their own rules, so why should they all be so similar? While there are a lot of diverse worlds out there, those that have become mainstream seem to remain close to the thread of Medieval sword and sorcery.

Recently however, I've discovered the world of Musket and Magic! Through Brian McClellan's Promise of Blood I was introduced to a world where black powder and black magic mixed to form a thrilling setting of revolution and national warfare. If you've read my piece on Epic Fantasy Warfare you know that I'm a fan of large scale battles where armies clash and fantastical elements play a part, and Promise of Blood had this and more! Gunpowder upped the explosiveness of the action scenes and had me unable to put the book down. Now I could be a very biased minority among fantasy readers as I've enjoyed the imperial time period a great deal, but it's also a refreshing change of scenery and I've found that the setting tend to lend itself to a different sort of story than the one you'll commonly read in medieval fantasy fare.

My second delving into this world of muskets and magic was The Thousand Names by Django Wexler. While the setting is a similar back drop, the devices of the story are richly unique and reads like a novel on a Napoleonic War Campaign, following an army's march through hostile country attempt to route an enemy. Once again interesting characters were juxtaposed against clashes of large armies. Lucky for me by the time I finished the second novel of this series the third had just been released! I flew through these novels faster than I managed The Powder Mage trilogy! My craving for this new subgenre cannot be sated.

Thanks to the fantastic community at /r/fantasy I've been directed towards Adrian Tchaikovsky's Guns of the Dawn. While I haven't had the chance to pick up this book yet, I can't wait to get my hands on it and take some time to sit down in my favorite chair and give it a read up in the quiet White Mountains.

If you haven't read something from the realm of muskets and magic yet I'd strongly recommend you head out and pick one up. Both of the two novels I wrote about above were debut novels for their authors and they knocked them out of the park. If you're a fan of Brandon Sanderson you absolutely have to pick up Brian McClellan's novel Promise of Blood, and if you're a fan of large war novels then The Thousand Names is a must for  you.

It's a great day for writing, and it's a great day for reading.

Thanks,

AR

Chapter 1, thoughts.

So yesterday I wrote out the first chapter of story whose purpose is to be an exploration of the Epic Fantasy Battle, and using that battlefield as the setting for the story. We touched upon The Heroes by Joe Abercrombie as being an example of a story that had used such a setting before, and yesterday was a very raw attempt at bringing out some of those ideas for a story. I wrote the brief chapter with a pacing in mind that allowed very little detailing of scenes. It was an intentional hurrying of the telling, both trying to drag the reading into the story and also raise a feeling of angst for the battle that was being fought around them. While intentional, I felt it could have been done better. I've read that a lack of detail isn't a negative as it allows the reader's mind to fill in the missing details more easily with their own imagination, but except for a few small details and guesses the reader knows almost nothing of the scene that our character, Kanis, is walking through. What do we know?

Well we know we're reading about a male named Kanis, we know that he's with an army and marching towards another army. We'll read about a hill, and some semblance of magic, but that's pretty much it for the setting outside of a battle. His opponents? Well they're both male and female, and Kanis seems to be able to tell them apart whilst killing them. What of Kanis himself? Well later in the chapter we find that he's a Minotaur, so one might extend that realization to the rest of the army around him. He also appears to be a skilled warrior, at least he views himself as being more experienced as those around him and he's capable enough to win a fight against someone he's named an Immortal.

That's almost it, we do learn two additional characters names, a Talbert, and a Kalruz. Talbert was an ally, who Kanis refers to as a greenskin, perhaps an orc, and cares enough to save the lads life whilst in the thick of battle. While Kalruz is Kanis' brother, who he'd already gone through the killing of once before. There doesn't seem to be a great deal of animosity between the two of them, despite them trying to kill each other, again. Outside of this details are sparse and we might want to flip into the next chapter to figure out what's happening/happened, or put the book down for being utterly lost and nonsensical.

The Fantasy in the Epic Battle, the apparent use of Magic, both fire and lightning being thrown at opposing armies, mention of Dawnbreakers and Skycallers. The PoV being a Minotaur, and goring an opponent tends to lend itself to Fantasy. Kalruz's weapon being able to change itself, extending into a spear then shrinking back down to a short sword, before changing all together into a mace. The disintegration into light of Kalruz after being defeated by Kanis. Perhaps they'll be expanded upon or explained, for example why was Kanis able to disintegrate someone he referred to as an Immortal?

Any thoughts or questions after reading Chapter 1 or this afterwards?

Epic Fantasy Warfare

I don't know about you, but the primary reason I read fantasy and enjoy Epic Fantasy are the chance readings for large battles between mythical forces. It's not something I've found often while reading, but one of my favorite books, "The Legend of Huma"did a fantastic job of following it's characters, telling a story, while capturing epic battles in between its pages. This wasn't some giant tomb of a story either, a simple 384 page stand alone novel was able to capture what felt as massive as a World War. This is something I look forward to when reading fantasy, some massive battle pitting armies against one another, something that only seems a common occurrence in books dubbed Epic Fantasy.

Of course there's a lot more to Epic Fantasy than armies clashing, but it does tend to happen with some regularity in those novels and this is why I favor the "genre". However, it is not the only genre to capture this feeling, for example Joe Ambercrombie's "The Heroes" itself isn't Epic Fantasy but the book's setting is one massive battle. This is the sort of story that I enjoy, and it's one that I would recommend to anyone who enjoys reading about epic battles.

Knowing that this is the sort of thing that I enjoy, it is one that comes to the fore front when I'm crafting characters and developing themes. They need to come to life during, or allow for, massive battles that show all the stops. This is something I hope to be able to bring to a head here in the coming weeks. Some tentative chapters involving characters caught up in a battle. I'm sure it won't be easy, but it's definitely something worth trying.

What's in a Story?

What's in a Story? Does it require a masters in English Literature to write one? Increasingly I'm reading the book jacket to find that the author has a masters or P.H.D. from one school or another, all to write to me about fantasy. What about the author Christopher Paolini who started writing Eragon at age 15? Certainly he's not receiving as much praise for the eloquence of his novels, but he found a great deal of success for such uneducated writing. So what is it about a story that drives readers to it? Is it the prose, the exposition, the character development! Or, perhaps it's the landscape, creatures, and characters themselves? It is likely, a combination of both, as with most things in life. A good balance, or a managing to combine them all into one book, will likely find you success with some sort of audience.

I started this blog because I felt I needed practice writing, and what better way to force yourself to write than to attempt to write about things you do on a daily basis because you enjoy. Well that has failed, playing games is one thing, but writing about playing those games is an entirely different sort of ordeal. I've decided to re-approach the blog from a different angle. I've had a world in my head for many years, and I've a number of notebooks filled with details which no doubt contradict themselves eventually. I'm going to share them with you, along with the barest ideas of plots I've scribbled out in my idle thoughts. I am no writer, no author, but I am a person with an imagination, I will share it with you.