“Post match whine:

WhatBall outplayed us. Was pretty close until mid-second half, and then things fell apart over two consecutive turns. Oh well. Good game.

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A proper write-up after a few hours contemplation:

This match up was interesting as it pitted not only two roughly evenly matched TV skaven squads, but two teams with very similar builds. Both sporting One-Turner rats, both with a dedicated blitzing rat. This had all the making of a good match up.

With the first turn VVV's pesky killer blitzer removed one of our gutter runners for the match. Say what you want, people, the skill set of Claw, Mighty Blow, and Piling On, and any of its variants, is very useful. In fact, it's vital. One of the fundamentals of this game is that it is easier to score or defend when your opponent is fielding less players than you. Now, does it need to be spammed on every player? No, that's cheesy. But having at least one is crucial, especially for skavens, if you wish to compete against bash teams. We answered back by knocking out one of their gutter runners, as they secured the ball in the backfield. They moved the cage forward, and we were able to blitz down the thrower holding the ball, sending in a gutter runner to recover the loose ball. The ball was quickly set loose by that same blitzer, and they recovered getting far enough towards to goal line to make stopping them improbable. So, we went about smashing any rat we could get our hands on, including a foul to their killer, KO'ing him in the process. When they crossed over into the endzone things were looking pretty good for us to even the score before the end of the half. That's when all three of their KO'ed rats woke up. We faced a wall of Tackle, Diving Tackle, and Shadowing between us and the equalizing score. In the end a failed dodge closed the half.

By the start of turn three things were looking bleak, but we were able to break out with a pass to a line rat and run within scoring range. But there's no getting away from gutter runners. A 1d POW set the ball loose and they scurried away with in. We were able to catch up, and even got a hit against the ball carrier, but to no avail. When we really needed it, we had to waste a RR on a double skull block, only for our gutter runner to fail the GFI on the blitz to take down the rat with the ball.

After that, the match was all but over, then a favorable Blitz! result on the kick off was the nail in the coffin. We managed to recover the ball from them, but chose to play it safe rather than go for the TD, and this resulted in the third TD for VVV.

Conclusion:

Those gutter runners and their skill sets were murderous to face. They were always just were they needed to be to stop any of my rats from skipping away with the ball. I tip my hat to coach WhatBall for that. Both coaches were plagued by double skulls, and it really could have gone either way. I should have taken a more aggressive stance while on offense, but you live and learn.”