“This game is possibly best summed up by the phrase, perfect defence...and perfect offence.

Honestly, for most of this match everything worked exactly as planned - never a bad dice roll except once (which I'll get to) and even the risky plays worked out just the way they were supposed to. I rolled a lot of POWs. So, to be fair, did TheGe - at least in the first half - and at one point I had five in the KO box, along with a corpse. But having half the opposing team off the field is no good to you if you can't get going with your dice, and this is what happened to TheGe, failing just those rolls he really needed to make.

So, the usual start, with a turn 2 touchdown for Sensation and a full squad for the reset. The dark elves then began their assault on the woodies and the death came almost straight away. Then came my one bad dice roll, when Thursdaynight messed up his multi-block and knocked himself over right at the start of my turn. Needless to say, this allowed the dark elves to knock some more woodies off the pitch and move the ball downfield. One turn later, having recovered from his trip, Thursdaynight blitzed to put the ball-carrier in a TZ (actually, I managed to put the ball-carrier in four TZ, but three of them were then got rid of).

Having used up all his rerolls earlier while KO-ing half my team, TheGe didn't have one spare when he really needed it, and of course the ball-carrier tripped. It was then easy enough for one of my catchers to nip in and get the ball, run it down and hand off to a wardancer who made it far enough downfield to be almost out of range...

Almost. But a desperate dark elf lineman did managed to reach him for a 1-dice blitz which pushed him against the sideline, and then the lineman went for and dodged into a TZ to block the wardancer. It was a brilliant move, and forced me to have to make a 1-dice blitz to free myself. If any of the luck had been on TheGe's side, I would have skulled it. But of course I didn't, and it was 2-0.

All my KOs then came back. I set up deliberately to prevent the 1-turner and then watched as TheGe casually dismantled my cunning defence, injuring one player and then pushing another around the tree so that he was in range with his MA8 blitzer...who then fumbled the catch.

I can't remember the exact order of my kick-off results, but somewhere in there was a blitz and a perfect D and one of these came on the kick-off for the second half, messing up the dark elves' offence and allowing me to score another quick touchdown. Then, with the score now at 3-0, I got another blitz result, and was able to get a catcher onto the ball and two more players protecting him.

At this point it could so easily have been 4-0, but TheGe put up an excellent defence from a terrible position and not only prevented the score, but even got the ball away to the far side of the field. There then followed two or three of the best turns in the game, with both teams making great plays and the ball slowly working its way down towards my endzone. At one point, I had the ball-carrier on the sideline, in two TZs and things were looking good for a fourth wood elf score...

But finally, when it was too late to make a difference, my luck ran out and I rolled a double skull (with no reroll) and the dark elves were able to push through the rest of my defence and claim a consolation score.

So, a win and a death. I can live with that. Rubbish gold and no new fans, and even though I can afford to replace the dead lineman, I'm not going to. A loner will be just as useful in the next game, and I was looking to pick up another catcher, so I'll wait and see what kind of a team I have after my next game. If the loner racks up and SPPs, I'll buy him, otherwise it's the catcher.

Let's see...”