“Orcs. Developed orcs. With 290K to spend on inducements. I know how this is going to go.

Actually, my first surprise came when I saw that highball hadn't gone for Ugroth Bolgrot and a spare bribe, which is what usually happens when I play as the overdog. (Is that a real word?) Instead, I was treated to Varag and his annoying jump up.

Sunny. (Typical). Orcs received. And then came my second surprise when the weather changed to nice. A good day for passing then. Except that the orcs were on offence. And eight turns later, the orcs were still on offence, with the ball only slightly into my half thanks to an unbelievable - and quite untypical - defence by the woodies. I weathered the orcs' first turn bash with no more than a single player knocked over, and soon after that I managed to SI his thrower - being the only player on his team with sure hands. Things were looking up.

The next few turns were messy, with a lot of scrabbling for the ball. I had a couple of chances to get in and get it, but sadly I chose those turns to roll a pair of double 1s just when I didn't need them. On turn 7 I managed to finally get hold of the ball, but fumbled the 3+ pass to make it a scoreless first half.

Woo hoo! Second half and here comes the ball over my side. It was something of a disappointment that both the KOd wardancers stayed out, but I still had enough of an offence to get well downfield. Sadly, the kick was shallow, and I didn't have the manpower to hang about throwing unnecessary long bombs, so I had to settle for a 4 yard pass. But the catcher made it all the way downfield without falling over, and with some barely placing and a lucky blitz, I was pretty much in the clear.

Except for the orc blitzer who dodged out of a TZ, went for it twice, blitzed me into the KO box and left the ball way back in the endzone. Ho hum. Still, not to worry, catcher number four was there to pick up the pieces. He was just in range... except for the failed gfi, then the second failed gfi. And to add insult to injury, one of the orc blitzers then ran in and picked the ball up first try on the following turn.

And from that point on, it was a gentle stroll up the full length of the pitch for the green tide of death. With only four woodies remaining, there was not a lot of defence possible and the blitzing tree fell over after his first blitz, to be quickly surrounded by orcs determined to keep him there.

So a total disappointment from the passing point of view - especially as the back-up thrower suffered a -AV for his trouble - and a generally frustrating second half with too few players and some unlucky dice. Still, that first half was something I'm going to remember for a while. It was a gutsy defence and I was pleased with the way I was able to control the flow of the game for so long. Of course, a lot of the reason for that was because highball just couldn't break my armour for the first few turns, and when he finally started, it was only to send me as far as the KO box.

So now I feel like I need to play another game, so I can get in a couple of long bombs before I call it a night, but it's already way too late to start another game. Darn!”