“This was a game I should have lost, but managed to win after everything spiralled out of control for extremegrazedknee on the final few turns.

I began with a fairly comfortable score, keeping both throwers back and giving them each a touch of the ball - letting the old croc do the collecting work and allowing the new boy the glory of the long bomb. The Woad Elves then replied with a similarly comfortable quick score, and five turns in we were back where we started.

So I was all prepared to do the whole thing again, when the Woads pulled a sneaky blitz out of the bag, succeeding in getting three catchers and a wardancer around the ball and leaving me in a tricky position. I wasn't able to get to the ball carrier, so I did what I could to clear away his little helpers and put him in as many tackle zones as possible...

...which he then promptly leapt out of, ran away and scored, leaving me the chance for a one-turner before the half. So I took the opportunity and promptly messed it up - well, it wasn't all my fault, it was also that annoying rule that allows dodgers to deliberately fall over when it suits them. I should point out, of course, that I've used that very rule to my own advantage many times, and when I do it it's clever and sneaky but when it's done against me, it's just wrong!

Anyway, we moved into the second half with me a score down and looking at having to defend yet again. I tried, but those wood elves, they're hard to stop, and before I knew what was going on, one of extremegrazedknee's wardancers was in my endzone and the other one - with the ball - was about to dodge into clear air and throw for the score.

Splat! He failed the dodge, failed the armour roll and marched off to the BH box, leaving the ball sitting there within easy reach of my thrower and with a catcher already downfield. All I had to do was blitz away the catcher standing beside it (and also, sadly for him, beside the sideline) and the ball was mine. One turn later, so was the score.

A somewhat displeased extremegrazedknee set up ready to claw back the lead, and with three or four turns left, it looked likely he was going to do it. But events were already unravelling and luck was draining away from the Woad Elves. A thrown rock KOd the catcher he had back deep to collect the kick, and the ball then landed right in his endzone. This gave me a turn to prepare my defence and put as many of his players into TZ as possible - including the ball carrier.

But it made no difference. extremegrazedknee freed up one of his catchers with a blitz, dodged the ball-carrier into space and made the pass, then ran the catcher right across the field until he was safely out of blitz range. I managed to get two players up next to him - one with tackle - but all it needed was a 2+ dodge and the game was done.

In short, the rest of the game went like this: he failed his dodge, I got the ball, legged it downfield, survived a blitz, handed off to one of my ST4 linemen and ran it in on the final turn. Poor old extremegrazedknee could do nothing about it, even though he tried desperately, and he was somewhat unhappy at the end of the match, quite justifiably seeing as how he'd been on course for a 3-1 win until halfway through the second half.

His first failed score was pure bad luck, and I've been in that situation myself many times so I know just how frustrating it is. Tripping and dropping the ball is bad enough, but injuring yourself in the process is horrible, and having a non-side-stepping catcher standing against the sideline and knowing he's off to the stands is just painful.

The second failed score I'm a little less sympathetic about. Needing only a 2+ for the dodge extremegrazedknee chose to go for an unnecessary blitz first, and when it resulted in a pushback, he burned a reroll on it, even though the ball-carrier was in the TZ of someone with tackle - and everyone rolls a 1 from time to time. Personally, I'd have made sure of the score and forgotten the blitz. Personally, I'd probably have rolled snake eyes on the dodge, but at least I would have had the opportunity.

So it was a hard loss for the Woad Elves to bear and I suspect my next game against extremegrazedknee may involve a certain amount of revenge bashing, but that's life. For my lot it was a surprising and most welcome win, and I picked up two guards afterwards, one on the tree, and one on the ST4 lineman, so suddenly my front line is looking pretty solid - except, perhaps against lizards.

It wasn't a great passing game, and I suspect the next few are going to be similar. Trying to get Chocolateorange up to scratch while still giving Easypeasy a handful of yards means neither is getting anything like the stats I expect of my throwers and part of me is secretly hoping Easypeasy gets killed soon and saves me the trouble of trying to decide how to manage two throwers (and also greatly reduces my TR at the same time).

NO, RETIRING IS NOT AN OPTION!

Also, I'm finding playing two wood elf teams really confusing. Twice during this game I went to multi-block with the tree before remembering that this one doesn't have the skill yet.

I really am a bear of little brain.
”