Match Report: OCC Division 2C Match 6

Black Widows (amazon, Hobnail) v The Grey Haven Guard (high elf, me)

One of the trickier games I've had this season, and as it's late I only have time for a short report.

Hobnail's team is built on bash, and although he doesn't have a piling on player he is a vicious fouler and generally prefers to kill elves than to outscore them.

He won the toss and elected to receive, and at the kickoff the weather turned wet. My kick was right in the corner of the end zone. The 'zons pushed back the LOS but couldn't do any damage, and one of the ST blitzers charged my line to try to bring down Telthanthor. Meanwhile he dropped a thrower and a catcher back to get the ball, but they couldn't pick it up.

My turn was pretty uneventful, although I started the process which was to continue throughout the match of blitzing with my ST4 mighty blow tackle catcher and failing to remove any 'zons from the field. Those fur bikinis clearly offer a great deal of protection!

The key moment in the match happened in Hobnail's second turn, when with most of his team engaged on the LOS, and not having marked my catchers who I'd sent round the side, Hobnail's thrower failed to pick up the wet ball and it scattered out of play. The crowd threw the ball back into the middle of the field, whereupon Gil-Galad was able to jog forward, pick it up and run home a score on turn 2. I could have stalled, but frankly I just wanted to get a TD on the board and give Hobnail another chance of failing to pick it up.

This chance came quite quickly, since although this time the kick was more central, Hobnail again put all his attention into the LOS. He recovered the ball with his thrower, but didn't have the range to get it into the pocket he'd built in the middle and so attempted to throw it in. Of course the pass failed and yet again the ball fell kindly for me and I had the chance to grab the ball with nothing ahead of me. This time however I somehow contrived to stuff things up.

What I should have done, I think, was to use my pace on the catchers to get the ball and outrun the covering defenders, but instead I made a pocket for Cirdan midway inside the amazon half on the right hand side, allowing Hobnail to get players ahead of me. I had the chance to pull back and change the angle of attack but chose not to, trying to thrust forward through the defence, which turned out to be an error as the brutal amazonian blitzers managed to injure Legolas, forcing the use of my apothecary. My catchers and thrower were isolated in the pocket from the rest of my team, and although I was able to make a space for Cirdan to escape into the centre and screen him off, a good blitz and some GFIs allowed the 'zons to surround him and, crucially, get their DT catcher into contact.

If I could have dodged clear I would have been able to pass the ball to Alawe waiting in the end zone, but it was not to be and Cirdan came crashing down. Hobnail snaffled the ball and sprinted off towards the end zone but Telthanthor and a couple of rookie linemen were able to delay him long enough to ensure the half ended 1-0 to me.

In the second half I received and a pitch invasion clobbered half of the amazons, and I quickly moved the ball to one side. Again, however I managed to stuff things up, firstly allowing Hobnail to get players back, secondly by rolling a series of bad dice to ensure I couldn't block the marking amazons away, and thirdly by failing a pass into the cage.

To make things worse, Hobnail began removing players and I could just not hurt those 'zons however often I hit them. I was forced to grab the ball with Gil-Galad and scurry off with it towards my end zone, and meanwhile Hobnail systematically began removing my players from the pitch. On turn 13 however I saw an opportunity - Maedhros blitzed a marker away from Cirdan by the centre circle, and Gil-Galad sprinted forward to hand him the ball. Meanwhile Glorfindel dodged away from his 2 markers and ran for the corner of the pitch near the end zone, enabling Cirdan to pass the ball to him.

Only two amazons were in range, and neither had tackle or wrestle, and so with side step and blodge I felt I had a good chance. Unfortunately the 'zons' dice held up and they KO'd Glorfindel to boot! There was only one chance to cement the win, and Cirdan took it, dodging and weaving through traffic, picking up the ball in a TZ and dodging through players yet again to score on turn 15!

Two amazon turns left, and I just let them score, not bothering to defend. The girls did manage to corner Cirdan with a late blitz and gang foul, but he survived unscathed and the game ended with a 2-1 win.

Match Report: OCC Division 2C Match 5

The Grey Haven Guard (high elf, me) v Khorne Flakes Browl (chaos, Frubeng)

I described this team as being “somewhat battered” when I originally reviewed the teams in my division, and I stand by that – frankly it was hard to see how this team had a TV of 2100.

The warriors were all pretty much rookies – none had mighty blow or claw, and there was only one guard (who was niggled). The beastmen had a fair amount of block and guard, together with stat ups, but there was no tackle at all and only one mighty blow (the other was out injured). Basically, on paper I had a huge advantage.

The mino was the best player – an eldritch mutated horror with claws and tentacles, but also a bit of a player with block and guard. Thank God he didn’t have stand firm.

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Due to scheduling issues we were actually playing at 5am my time, so I wasn’t really awake and I made a couple of quite bad errors.

I won the toss and decided to kick, I normally receive against bashy teams but with the exception of the minotaur this lot weren’t too scary. I set up in my usual chevron formation, defending the wide zones.

First block on the LOS – KO. Second block – push. Third block – stun. Blitz! – KO on Gil-Galad. Down three players in the first turn!

And for the next few turns that was just the way it went – Frubeng continually rolled pows against blodgers, getting three more KOs (one from Glorfindel  getting snake eyes on a dodge) and a BH on my ST4 lineman Telthanthor. I kept blitzing his niggled beastman and kept getting pushes. On turn 4 he commented that he didn’t see how things could be going any better, and with only 5 elves on the pitch at that point I was forced to agree.

Finally he made a move down my left hand side – abandoning the tight cage and screening off his ball carrier (a +1AG dodge chaos warrior). I’d had enough by now and decided to roll some dice. Felagund revved his engines and dodged into the cage (into 2TZs), blitzing down the ball carrier in a half dice block. The ball scattered to a block chaos warrior who grabbed the ball on the roll of a 5, despite Tananmyr being in close attendance.

The chaos team were infuriated by this impudence and pulled off a really nice crowdsurf on Felagund next turn – this was the same pitch that Felagund had killed a ST6 chaos warrior with a crowdsurf on MD9 last season, and clearly there was some karma at work as the crowd left him with a damaged back. I called over the apo, who stroked his beard a couple of times and then offered to kill Felagund instead. I declined the proffered quietus, and after the game I’ll have to decide whether to drop the niggled catcher (wrestle, dodge, tackle).

The chaos team couldn’t get the ball loose however, and I had the chance to crowdsurf the ball carrier next turn on a 1D block, but rolled a both down.  Finally Vanval dodged through a tackle zone right along the very left hand side of the pitch and smashed down the ball carrier, the ball bouncing clear.

And all of a sudden, with I think 3 elves on the pitch at this stage vs 9 chaos, I had the chance to get the ball to safety. Only Tananmyr, Vanval and a block lineman were left standing and all the chaos team were in my half of the field. As a result of Vanval’s blitz however the ball had bounced to the half way line, and my lineman dodged away from his marker, picked up the ball and hurled it down the pitch towards the chaos line…

…or rather, that’s what he *meant* to do. What actually happened was that the bright sunlight distracted him and he fumbled it. This left the chaos coach one chance to score on turn 8 – he could stand up his AG4 chaos warrior, pick the ball up and pass it to his 3 armed beastman with a medium sized pass to score. The sunlight was the bane of this play too, however, and the pass was inaccurate.

Now, bizarrely (did I mention that I had 3 elves left on the pitch?) I had the chance to score myself. I needed to (i) make a series of dodges with Tananmyr, which I did. Then (ii) pick the ball up in a TZ. Check. Now (iii) dodge away. Yep. Now I needed to make a short pass to Vanval, who needed to catch the ball in a TZ, make a 2+ dodge with a reroll and then 2GFIs to score (I had a team RR left). Sadly however the chaos coach was able to make an astonishing interception of Tananmyr’s pass, meaning that the first half ended scoreless!

I lined up with 9 guys vs 11 in the second half, and here I made my first stupid mistake of the game. For the second time in about 6 games I didn’t put 3 people on the LOS, and since Cyanide then puts the lowest numbered player there instead, and Cirdan is number 1 on my roster, this meant that I had everyone on the halfway line and no-one to get the ball. Pro tip – never put your positionals as low numbered players!

Still, it was fine. Vanval knocked a hole in the centre-left of the chaos line, and I ran Glorfindel, Vanval and Legolas through there to make a little pocket midway into the chaos half, just left of centre. Cirdan has MV7 so legged it back to get the ball. The chaos team sent too many players through my lines chasing Cirdan (3 I think – 2 would have been enough), and charged his minotaur into the pocket of receivers.

Vanval dealt with the minotaur in short order, stunning it, and I made a semi cage around him for protection before Cirdan dashed forwards and made a short pass to him.

It wasn’t completely safe, but I was taking a risk that Vanval’s blodge ST4 and my surrounding guard players would keep him upright – if it worked then half the chaos team would be out of position. And it did work! In order to get a 2D block with a rookie beastman the chaos team had to roll some dice, one of which was a GFI which they duly failed.

There then followed recreation of the Alamo, in which a few plucky high elves stalled with the ball in the corner for three turns, repelling everything the chaos team could throw at them. Every so often Vanval would dart out and punch someone before retreating back into the cage – I was so vulnerable to a snakeyes here (and I made my second bad error on a follow up at one point, which meant that I had to dodge through a tackle zone) but the dice held up for me very well. Finally the minotaur broke through and I was forced to score with a hand off to a lineman on turn 14.

There were three turns to hold out in order to secure the win, and the chaos team determined to score using their MV8 beast. I held up the initial thrust down the right and even got a 2D blitz going on the ball carrier with Vanval, but couldn’t down him. In the end Frubeng cut to my left and rushed down the wing, but he had reckoned without Gil-Galad’s MV9 and ST4. Gil-Galad put the annoying beast on the deck, handing me a 1-0 win!

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So, a really really tough game. You could tell Frubeng was a T1 coach last season – he gave me absolutely nothing for free throughout the game, except for the last couple of turns where he was rolling dice to try to get the draw. A draw would probably have been a fair result after the appalling first four turns, but some real heroics from Felagund saved the day.

Speaking of Felagund, I’m not sure what to do. With AV7 and a niggle he’ll spend a lot of time in the injury box, but wrodge and his movement will give him some safety. Since he’s got an important role in the team I think I have to keep him, at least until I have another tackler.

Delay

Week 5 was delayed by server problems and issues with the OCC website. Should take place very early tomorrow morning.

Match Report: OCC Division 2C Match 4

Lesser Horned Ones (chaos, Youleaf) v The Grey Haven Guard (high elf, me)

The Horned Ones had been badly beaten up in their previous game – a bit of a nuffling against my MD5 opponent, also a chaos team. As a result of that beating they had had a level 4 chaos warrior killed and a level 6 warrior MNG, so I was facing only three chaos warriors in this match, two of them relatively fresh.

The remaining chaos warrior was level 6 and had MB but no claw, tackle or piling on, so was relatively formidable but not too bad.

There was a fair amount of tackle on the team – three tackle beastmen, one of whom was ST4. The second tackle beast was their main ball carrier, with +2MV and extra arms (although carrying a -1MV injury so only MV7). The final tackle beast was the real danger, having wrestle and mighty blow.

The real unknown was the minotaur, with block, claw and tentacles. Clearly the performance of this piece would have a huge impact on the game.

I was missing two skilled linemen for the match (1 dead, 1 MNG), and so hired another rookie. I was giving away a wizard in inducements.

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I won the toss and decided to receive, as I really dislike that slow bashy drive followed by a score on turn 8 that sucks in half your team and causes a bunch of casualties. I much prefer against bash to score midway through the first half and then try to hold out for a halftime lead – if successful that generally means I won’t lose the match and my slow opponent is playing for the draw.

The kick was relatively short, and I knocked over the LOS and blitzed the wrackle beast with Vanval, knocking a hole for three players – Vanval, Legolas and Felagund – to run around the left side of the defensive line. My new lineman Estel picked up the ball and threw it to Cirdan deep in the backfield.

The minotaur charged forwards to blitz Legolas on the far left, but couldn’t knock him over, and I added a couple of extra players to the melee in Gil-Galad and Tananmyr. There were three turns of punching in the left hand wide zone, but although I got a MB hit on the minotaur I couldn’t remove him from the pitch, and when Youleaf finally ran some players forward to pressure Cirdan on turn 4 I decided not to stall any longer and scored on turn 5 with Cirdan dashing forward and passing to Felagund in a little pocket I’d managed to hollow out in the centre of the melee. My plan was to give the chaos team a sniff of an equaliser in the hope my opponent would overextend in rushing for the TD giving me the chance for a second TD.

The chaos drive, however, got off to an unbelievable start with a KO and a casualty on the LOS, and then Cirdan being badly hurt in a blitz in the same turn. With only 8 players against 11 things were looking grim, but on turn 6 the chaos team miscalculated and game me a chance to get the ball.

Youleaf had pushed the edges of his cage into contact with my players to put pressure on me, but had forgotten that Telthanthor is as strong as a man who is as strong as a chaos warrior, and he smashed down the level 6 chaos warrior via a block, allowing Tananmyr to nip into the cage with a guard assist before Felagund blitzed the three-armed ball carrier. The ball landed badly for me however, and I failed a dodge which would have been needed to cover the ball, and the ball bounced next to Tananmyr. The chaos coach hit Tananmyr four times trying to put him down and only succeeded on the last attempt, before the three armed beastman leaped to his feet, picked up the ball, made 2 GFIs and put in a quick pass to a nearby rookie beastman. This rookie charged off down the pitch and handed the ball to the rookie chaos warrior very close to the line!

It was all a bit desperate now, but Legolas dodged away from the minotaur, evading his tentacles, to put a tackle zone on the warrior. Telthanthor, still flushed with triumph after battering the level 6 warrior, also dodged away before rushing back to blitz the warrior down. Felagund also dodged through traffic to put a TZ on the ball, and although Telthanthor was knocked over when the rookie warrior stood up, in order to score the chaos team needed a rookie beastman to dodge into a TZ, pick up the ball in a TZ, and then dodge away and make 2 GFIs to score. Youleaf failed the first dodge and the half ended 1-0 to me.

The second half began with another fairly nondescript kick, and the chaos team gathered the ball centrally and formed a cage in the middle of the field just behind the LOS. I lined up my defence in the normal U shape to cover the middle and restrict lateral movement, and Vanval niggled a rookie beastman while Glorfindel KO’d another. The chaos team identified a weakness in my lines on the right and were able to punch through it, forming a cage inside my half with five players. They were cut off from the rest of the team however, and I ran players around to cover and KO'd the MB-wrackler beast. The chaos team blitzed through again however, with the MV7 beastman running in the equaliser on turn 11, which was fine - I was worried about an 8 turn grinding drive, but one of the charming things about chaos teams is how easy the beastmen are to get off the field and, isolated from his minotaur and one of the chaos warriors, Youleaf probably felt that he had to take the TD and try his luck on defence.

And… since I’m writing this almost a week after the game, I can’t for the life of me remember what happened next. I know in broad terms that I scored a 4 turn TD, leaving my opponent 2 turns to equalise. I can't remember exactly how it went, but I don't ever remember feeling unduly threatened. I know that I made the executive (and wrong) decision to stall for one turn by the chaos end zone, and after a series of dodges and a blitz the chaos coach managed to get back with a rookie chaos warrior to mark the catcher, and then used the wizard at the start of MY turn. Fortunately the wizard fizzled out, but even if it had worked then I would have had the chance to blitz the warrior away with one of my ST 4 catchers and get the ball back before the chaos team could take advantage of it.

The chaos coach then miscounted thinking he only had 1 turn left, and then was forced to try an incredibly unlikely play to score on turn 16 by chainpushing with a frenzying minotaur.  This failed, and since I’d run a potential receiver into the chaos half on my turn 15, I was able to nab the ball and score a third with the final play of the game.

Hey ho, must be getting old!

One level up from the game – Felagund hit 31 SPP and took tackle, so I now have 2 tacklers on the team at last. The MVP went, fittingly, to Telthanthor and he has 21 SPPs. With his injury it’s still a fair old way to 31 SPPs and block, but this takes him a third of it.

Next game is against tackle-less chaos.

Match Report: OCC Division 2C Game 3

Ghouls Gone Wild! (undead, Antonlunau) v The Grey Haven Guard (high elf, me)

This undead team had stormed up the divisions into tier 2 and had several really excellent players. The stars were the wights – Ulric the Maimer (165SPP) with +1MV, tackle, mighty blow, juggernaught and piling on, and Oswald the Haunter with tackle, mighty blow and +1AG. There was also a truly excellent mummy – with block, dodge, stand firm and guard. The zombie roster was unusually strong, with a ST4, mighty blow, tackle zombie being a particular highlight. Finally there were a couple of ghouls with diving tackle and blodge.

Having watched a few recent games, Anton’s strategy seems to be to wreck face with Ulric the Maimer and let the rest take care of itself. My goal was to target the two wights where possible, in the hope that taking them out would improve the survivability of my team. The mummies and turbo-zombies were tough but since they are so slow I hoped to outmanoeuvre them.

The game kicked off in the pouring rain, with the undead coach choosing to receive. Straight away Ulric the Maimer imposed himself on the game, killing Kiendan (dodge, wrestle lino) outright on the LOS. With a heavy heart I chose not to use the apo and let him die, expecting more serious injuries during the game. Luck swung my way however when a ghoul fumbled the wet ball on pickup, and I ran catchers around the right side and put pressure on the ball. Gil-Galad swooped in to attempt the pickup but he too dropped it!

The undead team rushed back to defend, but I had blodgers between the LOS and the ball and their high strength players couldn’t get back, leaving me to fight the ghouls for the ball. Vanval smashed a rookie ghoul into the injuries box, allowing Gil-Galad  to pick up at the second attempt and hare off for the line. The undead continued to try to get close to him, but it was too far and a high elf TD looked a certainty, particularly as Vanval managed to KO one of the diving tackle ghouls with a blitz. I was just considering whether to stall until turn 4 when a double 1 on a dodge ended my turn.

Lightning flashed out, stunning Gil-Galad, and the diving tackle, sidestep ghoul tried to pick the ball up but dropped it a second time! There followed a couple of turns of ghouls v catchers around the ball, before Felagund finally wrestled the annoying ghoul to the ground and Gil-Galad was able to nip in for a TD in the corner on turn 5.

On the kickoff I rolled my fourth blitz of the season, and yet again I was able to get catchers around the ball and gather my own kick on the right hand side with Legolas. The undead swarmed all over the pocket, knocking over Legolas. Felagund picked up the ball, but it was hard to keep him safe. The two mummies bashed two elves out of the way (as a result Alawe will now miss next week’s game against a chaos team) and Oswald the Haunter dashed though the gap for a 1D blitz, but I got another stroke of luck as the undead failed the required GFI. Felagund cut left into the clear space and on turn 8 he handed the ball to Tananmyr who jogged home for a TD and a 2-0 lead at half time.

OK, so despite the death, things were going well at this stage. I felt that a touchdown would give me the win, and so I determined to score quickly and then just stall out the game.

I set up with Cirdan deep and, mindful of the possibility of a blitz, I defended the wide zones. An undead blitz duly materialised, with the ball right on the centre line in the left hand wide zone. The undead team rushed over to pressure the ball but couldn’t clear all of my elves out of the way and the ball simply bounced back over the line into the undead half for a touchback! I handed the ball to Gil-Galad on the right side of the pitch, and there was only a single rookie ghoul between him and the line. Vanval rushed forwards to hospitalise the unfortunate ghoul, and Gil-Galad ran in the third touchdown unopposed on turn 9.

With the game all but won I wasn’t too interested in stopping the undead from scoring, and didn’t put up too much of a fight to prevent a close cage forming. I had misjudged the situation however and it turned out the undead weren’t too bothered about scoring either, but instead just wanted to kill off elves. I managed to foul off Ulric the Maimer with Vanval (I used an expensive player since I figured that at worst I’d have him sent off but alive), and as the undead advance slowed down I decided to have a crack at getting the ball. A nasty little scrum ensued mid way into my half, and with a bit of chain pushing I was eventually able to prise the ball loose. On turn 16 I was able to hand it off to Elrohir who made a couple of GFIs to score a fourth TD for 4-0.

On turn 16 I took the usual beating, with Elrohir’s life being saved by the apothecary, but the game ended 4-0 to the Guard!

Iframe link

A link to my team roster sheet from BBM, as well as the current league position, is here:

http://bbm.jcmag.fr/BloodBowlManager.WebSite/ClassementUnique.aspx?Id=7758&lang=en-US

With one game to play in week 2 I am one of four teams on 4 points, and with a TV of 2140. Elrohir has joined the team as a lineman - hopefully he will fare slightly better than his father Elrond who was killed in I think his second game.

Match Report: OCC Division 2C Matches 1 and 2

Match 1

The Grey Haven Guard (high elf, me) v I Just Blitzed Your Mum (dark elf, AndyDavo)

I won the toss and elected to receive. I picked up the ball and contented myself knocking over the LOS and keeping a strong centre. Andy responded by running a player around the end of my line, and so I passed the ball to Legolas and made a loose cage on the left hand side. I had miscalculated however (the first of three bad errors I made in the game), and the dark elves' ST5 lineman was able to peel back an opening for one of the witch elves to dance through and 1D frenzy Legolas off the pitch!

I got lucky however and the ball fell safely, but with my team badly out of position I was forced to pick the ball up with Cirdan and fire in a pass to Vanval to score on turn 3.

I was rewarded with a blitz from the kick off, and three of my players dashed into the dark elf half getting under the ball. Felagund caught the kickoff but was blitzed down by a witch elf, and the dark elves recovered and caged up in their half. I formed a strong line, but again the ST5 lineman showed the way, bashing a hole in the end of the line and allowing 2 players to run clear on my right side.

Seeing the threat, I pulled players to mark up the runners and tried a blitz with Vanval to take out their dirty player. A double 1 on a GFI thouigh left me badly out of position and the dark elves poured through the centre. The Guard players retreated as best they could and (unwisely) tried a dodge into 3 TZs to get a 1D blitz on the ball carrier rather than picking off an exposed dark elf. This failed, leaving an easy score for the dark elves.

Deciding to stall, the dark elves focussed on killing off my team and managed to badly hurt Vanval with a foul. Since I felt I needed my only tackle player I used the apo, and then in return Kiendan  badly hurt the mighty blow-piling on witch before the dark elves walked in the equaliser.

As the second half began I again rolled a blitz, this time right on the centre line in a wide zone. This time I managed to get players under the kick and form a rough cage. The remaining witch elf again performed a heroic series of dodges to get a 1D blitz on the ball carrier, but this time Legolas held firm and I was able to make a series of three blocks and blitzes to surf the irritating witch, who was badly hurt.

After a couple of turns of brawling, however, an early double 1 on a dodge ended my turn early and gave Andy a chance to get the ball. The 1D blitz worked and a dark elf blitzer dodged round the side of the line to get the ball and hare off up the pitch. Felagund brought him down however and Cirdan was able to scoop up the ball and fire in a pass to Glorfindel to score for a 2-1 lead mid-way through the second half.

It all went a bit wrong on the last drive however, as a basic positioning error let Andy waltz through my lines. I had a couple of chances to stop the ball but couldn't do it, and the match finished 2-2.

After the game I had two level ups - Vanval rolled a 12 for +1ST! This gives him ST4, block, dodge, mighty blow and tackle and gives me 2 ST4 catchers. Legolas however made a normal roll to give him block.

Despized (orc, Zunk) v The Grey Haven Guard (high elf, me)

I won the toss and again elected to receive. The orcs lined up in usual orcish fashion, protecting the wide zones with their ST4 blitzers, but Vanval knocked over the chap on the extreme right of the line allowing me to tiptoe four players around the edge and into the orc half. Meanwhile Cirdan picked up the ball and dropped deep. The orcs responded by marking up my players but didn’t send anyone to menace Cirdan, and so rather than scoring my receivers bashed a hole in the defence and escaped to the centre of the field.

It was hard to create any kind of safe pocket with all the guard and stand firm on the orc players, and I was quickly surrounded. Over the next couple of turns I used my guard players to hit back, but the net closed inexorably around them until I was forced to score with a pass to Felagund on turn 5.

I was awarded with my third blitz of the season on the ensuing kick off, and managed to get three players around the ball which was halfway inside the orc half and about 4 squares from the right sideline. On of the ST 4 tackle blitzers charged back to KO Legolas however, catching the bouncing ball on a natural 6 (the orc coach needed a 6 and used a reroll to get it). The orcs then tried to fight their way out of trouble but all the blodge, guard and sidestep that I was able to bring to bear ensured that this was tricky and in the next two turns I rolled 8 dice against the ball carrier (4 of them with tackle) but was unable to put him down.

The monstrous orc finally burst clear of the scrum and charged to the half way line, with only Legolas and a lineman between him and the line. An early double 1 on a dodge however meant that I didn’t have the chance to put in a block, and I was forced to call on the wizard to bring him down with seconds to go until the half time whistle, and…

…the wizard failed. A last gasp 2D-against blitz from Legolas (which would have needed double pows to work) also failed, leaving the orc blitzer to thunder home to tie the score as the half ended.

No blitz for me in the second half kickoff, although Haldir on LOS duty took his second permanent injury which will mean he now retires – adding a fractured skull to his broken neck. I didn’t do much except form a line, but I was provided with a wonderful stroke of luck after a couple of turns when the orc thrower tried a GFI to get the ball into a safe cage and rolled a double 1! The way was easy to open, as one of the orc blitzers had piled on, and so Gil-Galad smashed a marker out of the way to make the space and then cut left towards the sideline, while Glorfindel ran to pick the ball up under the nose of a black orc, then dodged away and flipped a short pass to Gil-Galad. My remaining catchers then made a screen around Gil-Galad.

The orcs marked up my players but couldn’t get to Gil-Galad. I ran round them and stalled for a turn by the end zone (which proved to be critical) before scoring on turn 12.

Four turns for the orcs to equalise and this time my defence held firm. The ball was in a loose cage very quickly, but I kept my columns, and even used Gil-Galad to blitz a hole for Glorfindel to put a tackle zone on the ball carrier, which forced the orcs to waste their turn’s blitz clearing him away. On my turn 15 there were 2 orcs who could get to the end zone, and I crowdsurfed one and stunned the other, giving me a 2-1 win!