Primrose vs Harrier - Troll Challenges

Live Challenge No. 12 - The Trolls vs The Unbread

Happy Halloween, Trolls! Did you know that it has been over a year now since we started those Troll Challenges? To celebrate the occasion, I originally planned to go "back to the roots" in our live meetup (which was supposed to happen last Friday) and do what we originally planned for our very first challenge: Go to a nearby city to visit a certain Chinese restaurant, followed by a trip to a big indoor miniature golf course there - now that Covid restrictions are thankfully a thing of the past, which prevented us from doing this last year. Problem was, that miniature golf course is only open for visitors in the evening, which makes it very difficult to fit it into our schedule.

As an alternative, we planned to do what we actually ended up doing for our first Troll Challenge last year, which was to visit another local Chinese restaurant and then play Chinese board games, now that I got myself a proper Go set. However, after we decided to postpone our meetup to Halloween because of me recovering from sickness last week and Prim's train connections being impeded by loads of construction work, we figured that we might as well do something fitting for the season.

Our Troll Challenge, therefore, involved the Halloween edition of one of our favorite video games this year: Overcooked 2. We posted about it before, it's a cooperative game where you play as a group of cooks, running around some crazy kitchens filled with obstacles, trying to combine ingredients to finish orders on time. In this Halloween edition, however, there is a special series of levels where we are fighting off hordes of the "Unbread" - expired, moldy zombie breads which are up to no good...

Of course, the only way to fend them off is to feed them, so you are once again scrambling to cook the food they want. They are hungry and irritable, so they are going to start tearing down your barricades if they are kept waiting, and if those are down, they are starting to wreck your kitchen. Fail to deal with them for too long, and your kitchen gets utterly destroyed, which means Game Over for you.

Look, here they are already... and they want pizza!

They are not alone either...

There are eight of these "horde" levels in total in the game, and this was our challenge: Beat all eight of those levels in one sitting without failing any level. Let the Unbread prevail over us one single time and our challenge is lost, there are no second chances.

We had practiced before, and we knew that there were one or two quite failable "neck breaker" levels - one of which ended up being very close indeed. We also knew that the final level is quite brutal and leaves little room for error, and it really looked like we wouldn't make it towards the end... but thanks to some excellent teamwork and strategy by the Trolls, we managed to overcome the Unbread hordes after all... on our last legs.

While this possibly would have made a nice live stream, there isn't much to say or show about it. We do, however, have something related to show, so stay tuned for our next post.

So we successfully fought off the Unbread in Overcooked 2, but this wasn't our only spooky encounter with them this Halloween. We made some burgers for lunch, and Primrose had the idea to grab some food coloring pens and turn those buns into real life versions of the Unbread from the game.

Here are Primrose's special gluten-free buns:

Here are some bigger buns with sesame seeds for me:

...and some leftover hot dog buns too:

We decided to add lettuce, onions and chili peppers from Prim's garden, and made one version with that "Firestarter" hot sauce that I used for my Hungary-inspired burgers, and another version with smokey chipotle barbecue sauce and some squirts of expired Sriracha.

Here are my finished "Unbread" burgers.

...and here is Prim's version.

Sorry about the mess in my kitchen.

They were pretty good - standard stuff, really. Unfortunately, they got a little cold because of the loads of dinner prep stuff we had to do, but they were still enjoyable enough. Primrose liked them too.

And we should also mention the worst of our "enemies": the Zombie-Apples!!! They are big, they are fat, they are rotten and they are hungry! They´re slow because they are so big and fat but whenever one of them breaks through, it causes huge distruction! They are wrecking balls and they have to be served twice! One portion is not enough for them, they want double portions!

Originally posted by Primrose6789
And we should also mention the worst of our "enemies": the Zombie-Apples!!! They are big, they are fat, they are rotten and they are hungry! They´re slow because they are so big and fat but whenever one of them breaks through, it causes huge distruction! They are wrecking balls and they have to be served twice! One portion is not enough for them, they want double portions!
Yes, none of that will make sense for anyone not familiar with the game, but those "zombie apples" were indeed some of our enemies in the later levels from our Overcooked 2 Halloween challenge. As Primrose explained, apart from causing more destruction than the other foes, they also require two servings before they disappear.

What makes the final level so difficult, and almost cost us the challenge yesterday, is one part at the very end where you are dealing with four of them at the same time, and each of them requiring two servings. It is impossible to satisfy them all at once, so you need to prioritize to have any chances of winning. I don't think I did a great job with that either, I should have kept better track of who received one serving already, so we could give them their second one before dealing with the other foes, making them disappear and giving us one less mouth to feed.

Another challenging aspect on the mental level is that whenever one of those "zombies" is about to break through your barricades (which can be restored, but supplies are limited), you get a beeping warning sound which gets faster as they get closer and closer. Hear four of them at the same time when you're under enough pressure already and still need to communicate with your team mate, and it can get really tough to keep your "poker face".

Still, we pulled it off somehow - looks like we make a very good team.

With that out of the way, and Primrose having been creative with some new burgers yesterday too, it is time for a new cooking challenge!

As I explained already, our last live meetup was originally supposed to have a Chinese theme, but we switched to a Halloween theme when we postponed our meeting to October 31st. To compensate for that, our next cooking challenge will have a Chinese theme instead.

It's very simple, cook any kind of Chinese dish from scratch by Sunday the 13th and post about it here. No instant mixes are allowed - not that Primrose would use them to begin with, but for me, it's fair to clarify that rule.

The other Troll will judge whether we passed or not. Hope you have some ideas already, Primrose.

Here´s the final horde level of Overcooked 2 Halloween:

Okay, I did it!

It was the first time, I made french fries from scratch! Made them not only from potatoes but also from sweet potatoes as well, cause the latter were Mussgo!! But I have to admit, I was not exactly successful: the fries were still soft, even after 1 hour in the oven at 175°C!! Still soft, flexible and looked pretty sloppy.

However, Homer ate them anyway, even before I could take a pic!!

Originally posted by Primrose6789
However, Homer ate them anyway, even before I could take a pic!!
Pity, would have loved to see a picture.

Just keep trying until you get it right. Homemade French fries are a thing I would like to try as well some time. But let's do our Chinese cooking challenge first.

Sunday HORSE Race

It is back! Primrose and I decided to re-introduce the very first poker challenge we ever did on this blog, and to keep it a weekly feature on Sunday evenings. Both of us Trolls play the $1.10 HORSE on Pokerstars (19:03 CET), and see who gets further with up to one additional (and optional) bullet to take. The only thing that matters for the win is who makes it further, actual profit after taking used bullets into account is irrelevant.

Neither of us had a great start. It didn't help that I had to fight with a bad job portal in my first couple of minutes, before deciding that it's best for everyone involved if I did that after my game instead. Runouts in poker were not kind to me either. I recovered through some FL Hold'em hands, but Prim had to take her rebuy early.

From there on, things didn't look too bad for either of us. We both had decent stacks and kept them steady. I was usually a couple of chips ahead, then I found a good spot in a Stud8 part, where the quality of play left a lot to be desired, in my opinion - which is probably to be expected. We had a good low draw here, and with so many players in the pot, even a chop would be a pretty good result - if we hit our low.

PokerStars, $0.98 + $0.12 - 7 Stud H/L Limit (H.O.R.S.E.) - 250/500 (100 ante) - 6 players
Hand delivered by CardsChat

Seat 8: 2,110 (4 bb)
Seat 1: 16,912 (34 bb)
Seat 3: 16,115 (32 bb)
Seat 5: 3,000 (6 bb)
Seat 6 (Hero): 5,191 (10 bb)
Seat 7: 11,920 (24 bb)

Third Street: (600) Hero is in Seat 6
Xx Xx 3♥ BI bets 500____BI 3-bets to 1,500
Xx Xx K♥ UTG calls 500____UTG calls 1,000
Xx Xx A♠ MP calls 500____MP calls 1,000
Xx Xx A♥ MP+1 calls 500____MP+1 calls 1,000
Xx Xx 7♠ CO calls 500____CO calls 1,000
6♠ 5♦ A♦ Hero raises to 1,000____Hero calls 500

Fourth Street: (9,600) (6 players)
Xx Xx A♠ 8♠ MP checks____MP calls 1,000____MP calls 1,000
Xx Xx A♥ 6♥ MP+1 checks____MP+1 calls 1,000____MP+1 calls 1,000
Xx Xx 7♠ 4♥ CO checks____CO raises to 1,400 (all-in)
6♠ 5♦ A♦ 3♦ Hero bets 500____Hero raises to 1,500____Hero calls 500
Xx Xx 3♥ K♠ BI raises to 1,000____BI raises to 2,000
Xx Xx K♥ Q♦ UTG calls 510 (all-in)

Fifth Street: (19,510) (6 players, 2 all-in)
Xx Xx A♠ 8♠ 6♦ MP checks____MP calls 2,000
Xx Xx A♥ 6♥ 4♦ MP+1 checks____MP+1 calls 2,000
6♠ 5♦ A♦ 3♦ 4♠ Hero bets 1,000____Hero calls 591 (all-in)
Xx Xx 3♥ K♠ J♠ BI raises to 2,000

Sixth Street: (27,101) (6 players, 3 all-in)
Xx Xx A♠ 8♠ 6♦ Q♥ MP checks____MP calls 1,000
Xx Xx A♥ 6♥ 4♦ 9♣ MP+1 checks____MP+1 calls 1,000
Xx Xx 3♥ K♠ J♠ T♦ BI bets 1,000

Seventh Street: (30,101) (6 players, 3 all-in)
Xx Xx A♠ 8♠ 6♦ Q♥ Xx MP checks____MP folds
Xx Xx A♥ 6♥ 4♦ 9♣ Xx MP+1 bets 1,000____MP+1 raises to 3,000____MP+1 calls 1,000
Xx Xx 3♥ K♠ J♠ T♦ Xx BI raises to 2,000____BI raises to 4,000

Total pot: 38,101

Showdown:
Seat 7 shows 4♣ 8♣ 3♥ K♠ J♠ T♦ 2♦ (HI: high card, King)
Seat 3 shows 2♠ 6♣ A♥ 6♥ 4♦ 9♣ 5♣ (HI: a pair of Sixes; LO: 6-5-4-2-A)
Seat 8 mucks 7♥ A♣ K♥ Q♦ J♥ 9♠ 5♥ (HI: high card, Ace)
Seat 5 shows Q♠ 7♦ 7♠ 4♥ J♦ 9♦ 3♣ (HI: a pair of Sevens)
Seat 6 (Hero) mucks 6♠ 5♦ A♦ 3♦ 4♠ 8♥ K♣ (HI: high card, Ace; LO: 6-5-4-3-A)
Seat 3 wins 29,546
Seat 5 wins 8,555

Well, we did hit it, the runout was quite good, we even had some scooping potential... but one opponent with an even better starting low hand hits on 7th. I was out, and while there was still a minute or so left for a rebuy, I decided not to take it. Congrats, Prim!

The grindette kept going, and despite getting a little sleepy at those late hours, she managed to ride her 2nd bullet all the way to a 3rd ladder finish in 15th place, returning $4. Very well done!

Apart from getting a lovely start back into poker this weekend, Primrose gets the win in tonight's Troll Challenge. Maybe she can repeat her success in the following HORSE race next Sunday, or maybe we will come up with some other challenges in the meantime - apart from our Chinese cooking challenge, that is.

Originally posted by Harrier88
Sunday HORSE Race

Congrats Prim!

When I was in Australia, everywhere I went there were ads for the Melbourne Cup. I had never heard of it.

When I asked a guy in the bar what it was, he assumed I was joking.
It happened the day we left, so I didn't get to watch it.

Malbourne Cup: haven´t heard of that either. Pretty cool!

I would just like to point out that I ran into this video today:

I'm a little confused by the title...

Not to leave out...

I see you had a look around too. Yes, I also found that video.

From what I could piece together, this "banhauser" appears to be a graphical designer who focuses on 3D-modeling, and one of his areas of interest appear to be 3D-models of furnished apartments - hence those videos with the banhauser titles...

Banhauser, if you happen to find this post through a random web search... don't be alarmed, there just happens to be a bit of an in-joke involving your screen name among the forum trolls here. Keep up the nice work with the 3D-models.

...and remember to cast your votes for the unrelated banhauser entry on UrbanDictionary.

Originally posted by Harrier88
...and remember to cast your votes for the unrelated banhauser entry on UrbanDictionary.

I do hope that our new-found friend also enjoys peculiar forms of tasty nourishment...

:f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly::f_ugly:

A sick troll!

And this time it´s not me, who got sick, but poor Harrier!

Our beloved troll suffers very probably from influenza, with fever, nausea, joint pain and other nasty stuff!

Get well soon, my friend!

Thank you very much, grindette.

Today was the day where I originally planned to prepare my meal for our Chinese cooking challenge, but right now, I don't even really want to think about food.

Primrose also mentioned that she intended to prepare her meal on Tuesday, to coincide with our "No Meat Tuesday" practice.

Therefore, I decided to extend our challenge until the end of next week.

Sorry to hear that you're ill, Harrier

Sunday HORSE Race

...I don't have much to say about it. Neither Primrose nor I were in the best state of mind for this game, I believe. Prim got unlucky, took a 2nd bullet, and still no luck. I don't even know if my bullet lasted past the end of late reg. But I did have some good hands which put me into a pretty decent position, which I still ended up squandering in my unfocused state.

Hopefully, we will be better prepared next time, and can present a more interesting HORSE race next week. But as it stands, I'm this week's winner.