“My fist is sore - from slamming it down against the top of my desk, over and over again at the start of this match. For the first time in ages I get to play against a team that (at least potentially) will play fast and score quickly, thereby granting me a nice chunk of offence time. Also, it's not sunny, and there's no blizzard, it's just nice weather. Also, I get to receive. So finally, it looks like I'm going to get my chance to throw some long bombs...

Throw a rock...on the passer...KO. Never mind the fact that he was the only player back deep and my offence was suddenly completely screwed, HE WAS MY THROWER! A couple of ugly turns followed, with The_Demon going after the ball with a wardancer, while Zara went for the catchers with her stabby-stab, and generally, everyone else went for everyone else. But to cut a long story short, I scored.

The thrower stayed in the KO box. So did one of the wardancers and a catcher. The_Demon pushed forward, but not so quickly that there was going to be any chance for me to get any more turns of offence in the first half.

Or the second, apparently. For a couple of turns it was touch-and-go, but then I started losing players until the KO box was full. And once I was down to half a team and The_Demon was able to control the action, he kept the ball safely away from anyone in my team who might possible make a go at trying to get it (which was probably only my tree anyway, given that his thrower has ST5 and AG5 and MA8 (what a beast!) And while he had the spare time, he took to getting in a few fouls, one of which killed my remaining wardancer and one which seriously injured the tree (-AG, which I could have let go, what with his already being as un-agile as he can possibly get, but I clicked the apo instinctively when I saw the injury. At least this way he isn't going to miss a match.)

Along came turn 8, finally. With a block of six players in the endzone and just outside, The_Demon threw a quick pass for the score...and failed to catch it! it bounced out, was thrown back in and was there for me to get in a short pass, so that at least I didn't finish the game with no passing at all!

So after all that, I break my run of losses with a draw in the most unlikely of circumstances. I certainly didn't deserve it. However, my sympathy is somewhat limited as The_Demon could easily have won this one by three or four scores if he could have been bothered to make the effort rather than phoning-in his performance. Still, as it happens so often, I can only imagine the pleasure of the win is worth more than the excitement of a more animated game. Personally, I wouldn't know. I rarely win and I never stall so I have no idea what it feels like, but looking at it from the receiving end, it looks somewhat unsatisfying.

The plan to get the squad up to 16 players was a dumb idea and I've already abandoned it. Apart from the dead wardancer, I retired anyone with an injury after the game (there were two linemen and the back-up thrower). I was going to go all the way and just leave myself with the tree and thrower, but in the end I figured it was probably better to keep the catchers and at least one player in the team who could make some effort to stop the opposition (the second wardancer). Also, I kept the vanilla linemen because why not? That brings my TR down to a more respectable 1890 - which is still way too high really, but that's about as low as it's ever going to get with two legends in the squad.

I guess things will be easier once one of them dies (as one of them surely will before long). At that point I think I should go with two separate teams. The tree can continue his quest for MVPs and longevity records, while the thrower can concentrate on the passing game without the TR drain of a 14-skill treeman dragging the team down.

But in the meantime, Bloodbowl life will go on and a few more wood elves will die. (So life won't, in fact, go on for them, I suppose). And let's face it, the passing game certainly can't get any more pathetic than this...

...can it?”