The first game in my countdown to 200 Box games was between my Dynasts on Parade and kuku's nigromanteros.

I've bolded some of the questions and observations I would particulary like the input of other coaches on - but any and all feedback is much appreciated!

Looking at the rosters before the game I was feeling rather confident - nigromanteros had only one Tackle, only one Flesh Golem (the other one, which was also their only Guard, was MNG for the occasion) only one Blodger (a Ghoul) and an AV 7 Wight which I would do my best to remove ASAP. On the other hand there's always a wild-card element vs. Necromantic -Saurus hate Claw, and MB can easily remove a Skink per turn.

I win the coin flip, but as I usually do, I choose to kick. I feel that kicking first gives me more control of the pacing of the match, plus it’s easier to attack while outnumbered than to defend while doing so -for Lizardmen especially.

Since he has a Blodge ghoul, and MA 8 players, but no Sure Hands, I kick dead center - a touchback is the last thing I want.

I wish Lizardmen could afford to take Kick early - they are definitely one of the teams that can make good use of it, but Saurus are always looking forward to the next "core" skill -Block/Guard/Tackle etc.- and can almost never afford to take support skills.

Despite Claw, no harm is done on the line, but a foul removes a Saurus turn 1, with the ref none the wiser.

I advance a Saurus and some Skinks up the open right flank to force him to pick a side and defend the ball, but keep most of my players central without moving them. I rarely see others end their turn with players un-moved, but I do it often -maybe I'm too reactive? Or just too lazy to optimise their positioning completely. In any case, it works -he cages up on the left flank immediately.

I chain-push a saurus into his cage, but it is blocked down immediately and doesn’t accomplish much. Not surprising, but it was worth a try.

My defense isn’t deep enough, kuku breaks through it and screens -forcing me to resort to a Skink blitz in turn 3. But this long-shot maneuver fails on a dodge and and my Block skink is KOed – maybe it would have been better not to try to attack the ball, just to regroup and try to pressure a score? I've come to hold the opinion that in desperation, you should never be afraid to try desperate stunts, but perhaps I'm a little too eager to try the high-risk, high-reward options even when it's not necessary.

My opponent, when he runs into a corner with the ball on turn 4, chooses the one that's closest to the majority of my players, for some reason that's not clear to me. That allows me to put on more pressure than I otherwise would be able to, but when my opponent scores in turn 5/4 it still seems at least one turn premature. With that much time to equalize I can't help but feel that my defense was successful, even though I was overrun and will start my own drive 2 players down.

Once we're all set up again, the kick scatters shallow and the blocks on the line remove a zombie, who doesn't regenerate. I blitz the AV 7 player aggressively, and push forward with my Saurus, marking his Wights and Werewolves and setting up a loose screen. Shoving my Saurus in his face like this and giving him free Claw/MB blocks might be unwise, but the idea is to use my strength advantage to force him out of position - he'll have to dedicate multiple players to the blocks and won't be able to use those players to Blitz where he wants to.

In hindsight, although my Krox is stunned it works pretty well. But although I get to run down the open side and screen up, I make two significant mistakes in turn 6. First, I chain-push a zombie onto the Sidestep wolf, allowing him to free himself, and secondly, I move within 2 squares of the sideline with my Skinks instead of staying a little closer to the centre and fouling his Block Werewolf. This will be important later.

With his Sidestep Wolf free, he gets to use it to Blitz, and park it adjacent to my ball carrier. Bad news. But in his eagerness to block, he then ends up occupying all the squares it could Sidestep to - that seems like a mistake.

On my turn I'm able to Block away the wolf, but because I went so close to the sidelines, I can't make space to block away the screening Ghoul, and I'm forced to make three Stunty dodges to score in turn 7/7.

It works out, this time, but it feels like I made an avoidable mistake and was just lucky enough not to pay for it.

Turn 8 is uneventful, save that he gave me yet another opportunity to blitz his AV 7 wight -but its armor held.

For the second half, my Saurus recovers, meaning we're even on numbers with me receiving. Wonderful.

Better yet, the kick-off event is Get the Ref - he has been merrily fouling all first half to good effect without being made to pay for it, so now I have a chance to pay him back! Journeyman Skinks make excellent foulers.

(I tend not to foul often, unless I have a bribe, I already have a numbers advantage on the pitch or I'm playing against POMB -in which case I foul as aggressively as my positioning permits to keep 'em honest. Looking at the way most of my opponents play, maybe I ought to foul more?)

I start out aggressively again, with a blitz on the AV 7 Wight and a diversionary advance of the Krox, but waste a reroll and turn over with most of my team unmoved, by going for an early pickup, because I don't want to move most of my players before I know whether I'll have a reroll to use and where the ball will end up. I don't even make most of my LoS blocks, for the simple reason that I don't have Block on all my Saurus yet and I don't want to burn a reroll on that. With such a foul-happy opponent and the ball so deep however, I'm not very worried. Maybe I should even have saved the reroll?

My diversionary Krox and forward Saurus perform admirably, pulling his whole team into a cluster in the center to bring them down and foul them. I feel it's fair to say my opponent overcommitted here, but he could hardly ignore them completely either, so I'm not sure how much merit is due to the tactic of pressing forward with strength to tie up space and players, and how much is down to a mistake.

To take advantage of all the clear space to move the ball forward, I perform a hand-off which was arguably unnecessary. 3+ with Catch worked out fine but I have played games where even a 2+ with catch in the middle of a cage ended up with the ball lost and exposed, so maybe I should be more conservative?

I move my players forward on the right flank, not quite as close to the sideline this time to hopefully avoid the difficulties in the previous half. I have to foul an unimportant zombie with a valuable Skink because I've inadvertently enabled him to chain-push the zombie next to my ball carrier, but I have the bribe as a safety net so it works out. Still, again, an avoidable risk.

I run a skink down on the left flank as well, partly as a diversion, partly to run up and put tackle zones in inconvenient places if he ignores it.

On his turn, he breaks open a cage corner and puts his Side Step wolf next to my ball carrier again, but again I am able to occupy all the squares it could sidestep to and push it away. I re-establish the integrity of my screen, but not without another bad foul that fortunately works out. I leave one Saurus on the ground to make sure it isn't surfed, which is possibly unnecessary, since there was a free, screened square behind him, but experience has taught me that people can be very ingenious when there is a whiff of an opportunity for a surf.

In turn 4 I block away the markers and escape with the ball, out of range of most of his team and behind a screen of Skinks. He prioritizes making blocks over putting pressure on the ball, so when I am lucky enough to remove his ghoul in turn 5, I feel like I'll probably be able to stall until turn 8, as long as I can keep the Sidestep wolf occupied fighting Saurus.

That's not quite so however. He spends turn 5 fighting Saurus, but in turn 6 he applies enough pressure that after I fail to blitz my ST 5 saurus free to keep his wight busy, I take the score in turn 7/6 just to be on the safe side.

I set up wide with two safeties, and kick dead center, knowing that it will be difficult to stop werewolves from two-turning, especially if the kick is good - but I am very lucky and get a Blitz in turn 7.

I blitz the AV 7 wight (again to no avail) and put a Skink tackle zone on the ball, hoping for the best.

My opponent chooses to blitz the offending Saurus rather than the obstructive Skink, and as a result fails the 4+ pickup.

I blitz a werewolf down and mark the other one, unable to stop either completely. It comes down to die rolls now, but I feel my odds are good -and indeed, my opponent first fails to blitz away the Block Skink marking his werewolf (double both down) then fails the 3+ pickup required to attempt the equalizing pass.

End result: 2-1 and a WIN for Dynasts on Parade.

A win, but on review, a game where it feels like every lucky break went in my favor, and it still came down to the die rolls in the very last turn. I've got to do better than that.