Whew! Rough game for my dark elves. Here is the box score. His hobgoblins accounted for 2 RIP and a long bomb at the end of OT. More on that in a bit.
It has been a tough stretch of games the past couple of days, with 5 losses out of 6 matches! And joining the NCBB league with a brand new team that is around 50 TR lower than the league average doesn't improve my chances of getting some wins anytime soon. =D
But, I'm still having fun - so it is all good.

Summary of the match - IntrepidFool's Dark Elves vs. GIBraag's Chaos Dwarves:

Half 1-
1. Chaos Dwarves receive and begin to slowly march down the field in their cage. I did a standard delay tactic for agile vs. bashy - using a couple of guys to try and pressure the ball while keeping everyone else 1 square away. On turn 6, he had to start taking chances to try and score. On both turn 7 and turn 8, he used good postioning of his players and made some timely block rolls in order to cross the goal line as his time expired.
2. At this point, I believe I only had 1 player in the KO box and was able to field 10. I had 1 turn with the ball and attempted a short pass for SPP. Failed. Foreshadowing for things to come? Hmmm....

Half 2-
1. Things started off well. I believe we both had 10 players to start - each with a KO still in the box. I received the kickoff and moved into the center. I used 2d blocks to push his dwarves off the line. He would stand them up and move them back in. We exchanged blows like this for a couple of turns until a hole opened up on the bottom of the defense. I scooted through it with my cage and attempted to outrun his much slower dwarves. He made some good moves/blocks on his turn and managed to sprint/blitz a Bull Centaur to put a TZ on my ball carier. But, it wasn't quite enough. A dodge to an uncontested square and a score in turn 5 for my dark elves.
2. He got the ball back and tried to score before the end of regulation. But, he didn't quite have enough time/luck. He did manage to hurt some of my players - I believe I suffered a KO, a BH, and a SI:M to this point.

OT-
1. Woot - I won the toss and had 9 guys on the pitch to his 11(?). Still, I liked my odds with the ball better than without it. He received an extra reroll - the second time he won that event (even though my FF was 1 higher); so we now each had 1 reroll in OT. So, I received the kick and again moved into a central postion and slowly beat the dwarves away. I managed an early KO which helped with the numbers but also had to use up my only reroll to avoid a knockdown on my first block attempt. On turn 2, he managed a timely blitz and 1d block with his bull centaur to put the ball on the ground. However, doing this put him in a vulnerable state for his defense - all of his faster players were in my backfield or on the ground. All I had to do was pick up the ball in an uncontested square and it would be gg. Alas, I rolled a 1 on the pickup attempt.
2. The ball then shuffled around for a turn or two. I had a second opportunity on turn 4 to close the game: I made a contested ball pickup, dodge, handoff - and the player moved into the clear. There was a bull centaur on the ground that could be a threat next turn. No problem though, 2 simple GFI's and I would be untouchable. 1 on the first attempt. Boink - boink! Hair pulling time. =P
3.Okay, things don't look good now. I had a player killed when I 2d blocked a hobbo and rolled 2x skull: RIP. I received another SI:M on a foul. So, down to around 7 players on the pitch at this point. During the scrum that followed over the next couple of turns, I had a guy knocked off the pitch and another guy was killed by a hobbo on a block! Wow! 5 guys left -- definitely not looking good for me. Then some positive luck. GIBragg failed a pickup and the ball went out of bounds - and reappeared on the goal line! Okay - I have a chance - need a dodge, pickup, and 2x gfi. Dodge was successful, 1st gfi okay, pickup - boink.. *sigh* Okay, gg I'm thinking - this one is all over.
4. But, I had one more chance because he failed another pickup. Wow - must be because centaurs can't reach the ground with their hands?! My linelf dodged away - made a crazy, contested pickup - okay now - simple dodge to an open square and a GFI ftw. (Not that a win would have mattered since my poor team could field only 7 players in the next match!) But, no! Down on the dodge roll... Roflmao at this point.
5. On turn 7, he moved a hobbo 6 paces away from my end zone (to be in position to score in turn 8), picked up the ball with another hobbo, moved as close as he could, and then chucked a Long Bomb with no rerolls - SUCCESS!!! Jaw dropping time! We both LOL on that one. Then his hobbo strolled into the end zone in turn 8 - I only had 2 players on the pitch at this point. Heheh.

It was a crazy game and put a punctuation mark on my long losing streak. But even with the frustration and bizarre events, I had a great time. My opponent was a nice player and a good sport. I hope he does well in the tournament - he should matchup fine in future games considering all the SPP he earned in round 1. =P

Until next time,
IntrepidFool