“Ulthuan Invitational XII Qualifier: Light Lantern: final

After a difficult victory over Silver Dart Frogs, The Wandering Feathers would face K"Chain Che'Malle in the final of the Light Lantern qualifier. The opposing lizardmen had a Temple Guardian in their ranks, augmenting the already formidable strength of the team!

With a Bloodweiser babe and a dirty trick (Distract) under our belt we started the game. Despite having only 11 players, the Feathers chose to kick rather than receive in the first half. Better defend with a full squad while you still can, right?

The first half was characterized by one of the strangest dice I've ever seen. When the lizardmen threw an unlucky quadruple skull, I was already thinking how I could best exploit this gift from Nuffle. But the only thing I got was a set of quadruple skulls myself! So the match continued as if nothing had happened.

Despite suffering an early badly hurt in the opening blocks of the game, the elves' armor held remarkably well. Thanks to a quite aggressive defense, we were able to hold the lizardmen advance reasonably well. But despite our best efforts (Distract didn't result in the hoped effect), the ball-carrying skink finally dodged through in turn 8 for the opening touchdown. With 3 stand firm players on the LoS there was no hope for a one-turner to equalize, so it remained 1-0 at halftime.

Meanwhile it had started raining and a pitch invasion was added at the kick-off of the second half. This didn't have any major consequences though. Agility 5 allowed one catcher to break through, allowing to get into scoring position. Next turn he was blitzed, but was only pushed back. There was also only a single Saurus putting a tackle zone on him. After having had such good armor rolls in the second half, I was fearing that my team would start crumbling sooner rather than later. So I decided to take a risk and go for the touchdown. After all, I feel more comfortable in the role of the underdog while defending. A 1d blitz resulted in the necessary pushback and thanks to two AG5 catchers I still needed only two 2+'s in the rain for the pass: 1-1 and still 7 turns to go for the lizardmen.

I knew that my only chance to win the game (other than a Blitz! on the kick-off) would be leaping into the cage at some point with my AG5 blodge stripball catcher. The ballcarrying skink had sure hands, but this was somewhat compensated by his ST2. Nevertheless, the lizardmen caged very well, making it difficult to get a 1d blitz opportunity. Meanwhile the other AG5 blodge catcher had been badly hurt, so the matter was getting more and more urgent for the elves. By turn 6 I decided to go all in, and the elven magic worked. After a succesful leap I got a both down result on the 1d blitz and the skink went down. Due to a lucky bounce the ball landed outside the cage. Then I managed to hit the diving tackle skink next to my thrower, as well as the Saurus next to the last remaining catcher.

The thrower managed a 3+ doge, a 4+ pick-up in the rain (thanks to the team re-roll), a 2+ dodge, a gfi and a 4+ throw (thanks to the pass re-roll). The blodge catcher caught the ball and ran off. Only the Kroxigor was capable of counterblitzing after a succesfull break tackle dodge and a gfi. The blitz resulted in a pusback, which couldn't be rerolled thanks to a failed loner roll. Nevertheless, my catcher was pushed to the sideline and still had to overcome the prehensile tail with a 4+ and a 3+ dodge. Trying to -2d blitz the blodge stand firm Kroxigor wasn't an option. The dodges worked though, and the catcher ran off to the endline. The kroxigor needed 2 gfi's to put a tackle zone on the ball-carrier, but Nuffle was with me on this one, rendering the krox useless after a failed bonehead roll. The next turn the Feathers scored the 2-1.

Chances for a one-turner were smashed to pieces by stone-throwing fans. Both the Kroxigor and my only player without side-step on the line of scrimmage went down. I think this must have been the first time I was happy to be on the receiving end of a thrown rock ;-)

And so the Wandering Feathers managed to win the Light Lantern! Thanks to Bazakastine for not losing his good mood after the incredible ball steal and up to the main draw now!”