“Playing against orcs can be tough - usually is tough - and I've been on the receiving end of many beating from the greenskins. Fortunately, today wasn't one of those days, and it was the wood elves who were the more successful bashers. How surprising is that?

The orcs received the first kick, and right from the start it was clear they intended to score, not just bash. This came as something of a relief for me. Mot only did it mean I would hopefully have a team left at the end of the game, but it also meant there was a good chance of a high-scoring (and therefore high passing) game.

But orcs are slow, and kutykuruty was in no hurry to expose his ball-carrier unnecessarily, preferring to work his way cautiously upfield with plenty of protection. But being that much faster, I was able to get in around the ball-carrier from the back and with the tree pushing in from the front, kutykuruty was forced into having to dodge with his thrower to get free. And dodging with orcs is never a good thing.

So I was able to get my thrower to the ball and a catcher into the end zone, and when you long bomb on a 2+, it's pretty much a guaranteed score.

kutykuruty then came straight back with a score of his own, pushing forward on one side of the field and then switching sides with a hand-off and a pass to get a blitzer nice and far upfield. I could still get a 2-dice blitz against him, but only with a no-skill rookie, who could only manage a push back, leaving the blitzer free to blitz himself a path and then dodge (yes, they can do it when they have to) free for the quick score.

But wood elves are wood elves, and I now had two turns left to pull ahead once more. Time for some showing-off, I think. I ran about half a dozen targets downfield and secured the ball, and then on my final turn threw a long bomb from my own side of the field, straight into the waiting hands of a catcher in the endzone.

And because it was such fun, and because I was receiving after the reset, I did exactly the same thing on my first drive of the second half.

So now the orcs were faced with a 2-TD deficit and this was always going to be a tough ask. Still, kutykuruty gave it a go, getting a blitzer nicely in the clear downfield. But his thrower was tied up, so the lateral was left up to a blitzer, and sadly it was too much to ask of him. He fumbled.

I then rubbed salt into the wound by picking up in his tackle zone and didn't even bother to try and dodge out before lobbing another long bomb downfield for the score.

By this point I was controlling the game and while I was being so lucky with my armour and injury rolls, I just went on the attack before the orcs could get set up in any kind of safe defence. And then, while trying to prevent the final TD, Spuri the goblin failed a dodge and killed himself, leaving me with the ball, three yards away from the endzone.

So of course what I did was run a different catcher into the endzone, then run the ball-carrier back for a hand-off to the thrower, who ran back to midfield so he could long bomb the score.

It was a comfortable win, thanks mostly to my incredible luck at not getting injured. If kutykuruty had been able to reduce me to eight or nine players early on, then he could have controlled the play and kept hold of the ball, rather than being forced into risky passes. When it worked, his play was great, and had the luck been a bit more even, he could easily have made this his game.

Instead, it just became a display of showing-off from my thrower, who collected a very respectable 6 for 56 to help boost my averages slightly. ( My occasional humans never get anywhere near the almost 20 yards per game passing average I've racked-up over the years.)

It also ended up being a good recovery game for me. I picked up some fans and bought myself a third catcher. My second wardancer also returned after missing a game, so now I feel like I'm almost back up to strength and ready to face my next challenge, whatever that may be.

Thanks kutykuruty. Today the luck was all mine, but maybe sometime soon we can try again and you can show me what you're capable of when you get a fair run at the dice.”