“----
WARNING WARNING WARNING

This match report may contain language that you find distasteful.

If you are easily offended, sensitive, have no sense of humour, or have had something tragic happen to yourself or a loved one then look away now in case you have a reaction to something in the report.

The following terms may or may not be used in the following match report:

Assault
Bad coaching
Bad luck
Bash
Block
Bloody
Crap
Crud
Death
Dice
Dice rape
Hit
Kill
Lucker
Lucky
Murder
Smash
Splatt
Unlucky
Useless
Whiner
Whining
------------------
A very challenging game and a very lucky escape for the Falcons. I made some really stupid moves but I had some luck and some good players on the pitch that made up for my dumb moves.

My opponent deserved the draw or a victory, it was only the dice that helped eat up enough turns to leave me with a last second TD to steal the victory.

Handicaps were:

Virus
Greatest (took effect before Virus)
Dusters
2 others that I don't recall

The Falcons started in offence and against all that Diving Tackle on the Fate team, it looked like a difficult score. Not helped by the first Falcons block of the second turn being a one dice Skull eating up a RR (first really dumb move, I just thought I had Guard without checking...).

Next stupid move came on turn 3. Instead of a 2+ Leap, I went for a greedy 3+ dodge (with Dodge RR). End result, a 2 then a 1 and I went down, opening up a hole to my ball carrier.

There was a mass of players around the ball, and with no RR left, the Falcons sent in their rookie Thrower Elborin Firebreath who made a 4+ pick up, and 4+ pass (with Pass RR) to a NOS Blitzer. I then needed a 5+ Dodge (with Dodge RR) and then either a 4+ or 2+ dodge to score.

The Bltizer failed the first dodge and the ball spilt free, luckily it was caught by another Falcons Blitzer who survived a blitz (2 dice rerolled) by a Fate Wardancer before leaping his way to a TD. Falcons 1-0 after 5 turns.

On the next drive, the Fate started in offence and used a RR unsuccessfully trying to force a hole down one wing and then failed a 2+ hand off.

The ball was within striking distance of 4 Falcons players including some AG5 and MA8 players!

What followed was my best move of the match (not). I went for a 3+ dodge to block off access to the ball. Except it was not 3+, it was 5+ because my opponent had Diving Tackle and I forgot to check... all before I put pressure on the ball. How stupid was that? Clearly I am too fatigued from ongoing sleep deprivation heh. Total stupidity by me to not capitalise on my opponent's bad luck there... not that a score or stop by me was guaranteed, but I could have really applied some pressure there...

All was not lost... I applied some pressure the next turn and the Fate had a reasonably difficult chance to score. A 2+ pass with the Pass and Safe Throw skills, a 4+ catch with a Catch RR and then a 4+ Dodge vs Diving Tackle with a team RR. No problems for the Fate as they made the play to tie the scores.

Just turn 8 left for both teams in the first half which fizzled into half time.

Second half the Fate started with the ball and rolled a 1 on a hand off using up the RR early. After a blitz on the wing failed to open up a gap, the Fate knocked over the Falcons line of scrimmage and a KO on one player opened up a gap for two Catchers to run through.

The Falcons stunned one Catcher and again lay Diving Tackle + Tackle on the remaining possible scorer. The Fate tried to flatten the Diving Tackler with one of their Wardancers but was unable to shift him (no Tackle so needed a Pow on one of two dice).

Unluckily for the Fate, the Falcons made the intercept roll and Safe Throw failed, using up the Fate's Team RR for the turn. The 3+ Catch was still made, but this time the 4+ dodge was not and the ball spilt free.

Then came another bonehead Malthor move. Instead of going for the easier 2+ moves to get more players to the ball and even attempt a pass or to secure it, I go for a 3+ dodge and sure enough - 2,1 and KOd myself LOL.

Luckily, I still had two players next to the ball, both with Sidestep + Tackle and one had Diving Tackle. The Fate pushed sent 4 players forward to pressure the ball. The Falcons blocked one of the players next to the ball and the Fate took a gamble by sidestepping the fallen Catcher onto the ball. The ball scattered out nicely for the Falcons and they made a pass to set up a score and take a 2-1 lead with 4 turns left in the second half.

On the next drive, the Falcons got a Blitz! The Fate looked in trouble as the Falcons penetrated and had a player under the ball, but he failed his 3+ catch attempt!

The Fate recovered the ball but fumbbled their pass attempt (very unlucky, but the Fate were in an awkward position even if the pass was made as the catching player was marked by a Tackle+Diving Tackle player).

Next Malthor bonehead move. I roll double skulls early. What do I do instead of putting at least one tackle zone on the ball? I set up another 2 dice block elsewhere and roll another double skulls!

Left the Fate with an easy pick up and score heh. At least if I had moved a player next to the ball and his Thrower first it would force my opponent to make a few more rolls, but no, I played dumb and gave away a TD when I should have capitalised on my opponent's bad luck (the blitz and then fumbbled pass).

Two turns left to steal a victory and yet another Malthor dumb move. I put my assist in the wrong spot so that my Frenzy follow up Blitz would only be one dice which could have been disasterous and should have been easily avoided. I should have had two dice on the follow up block for extra safety and the increased chance of knocking down one of his two tacklers, but I was playing dumb again.

Anyways, the Falcons get two players deep, and have two other players needing just a push to be in scoring range and there were a few Fate players close enough to possibly help with this if they were unwary.

The Fate went to blitz one of the two Falcons deep in their half and rerolled their Push+Skull into Double Skulls heh. If he had knocked me over, it would have been a slightly harder chance to score as I would need a 2+ leap instead of 2x 2+ dodges with the free Dodge RR.

Anyways, with a little bit of luck, the Falcons made a 3+ pass (with pass RR), 2+ catch, 3x GFI (go Sprint!) and the 2+ handoff to snatch a last second victory.
------------------
A very very tough game. Full credit to my opponent who pushed me all game. I did not deserve the win a tall as I made several really really stupid mistakes through mental fatigue and lack of concentration - my own fault of course - and only some unlucky dice for Isatorios gave me the chance to win. Eg, he was very unlucky to not get any pows on my sidestepper on my right wing when blitzing to start two different drives.

Then the 6+ intercept and 1 for Safe Throw using up his team RR for the turn so he could not use it for the dodge to score. Then the very lucky scatter when he fell on the ball.

I certainly did not play anywhere near my best today, it was only the luck, some great players on my team and few turns of solid play that snuck me home. Istarios was definately the better coach today and I would have been happy to have drawn the match or lost to him.

Anyway, looking forward to a rematch sometime :)









Things got more difficult when their Str4 AG5 Lino got seroiusly injured early leaving the Falcons with 10 and the ball spilt free.

”