“Bourbon Cup Round 1: Beards Escape Brutez Rematch

For the first Round of the Bourbon Cup the Box Elder Beards were slated with a rematch of their pre-season opponent: the Kunning Brutez. Their first encounter was a one-sided affair resulting in a 2-0 Beard victory with the Brutez finishing the match with 5 injured players, 2 of those being serious injuries, and 2 being deaths. This time the Brutez weren’t a fresh faced rookie squad though, and the contest was a slug fest worth the price of admission for any bash fan.

The Brutez received to start the match and set to work beating back the dwarven defensive line and pulling victims back into the waiting clutches of Star Player Nobbla Blackwart or their own infamous fouler, Bor Ogrefella. Early kicks were put onto the thick heads of the Beards, but it wasn’t until turn 3 when Bor struck red and injured Beard standout Longbeard, Bim Bonnlinn. Coach Buck elected to have the team physician see to him, and he had him set to go for the next drive. The following turn Arngrimm Addar’s rage swelled up as he watched their player stretchered off and he put that energy into KOing Black Orc, Might. Turn 5 the Black Orc Punchiest also went down unconscious following a dwarven block, next Nobbla Blackwart decapitated himself with his own chainsaw on an attempted foul. The numbers swing now in favor of the Beards, the Brutez made a sprint for the endzone and looked like they may have been able to pull away, but Box Elder was able to chase. The goblin carrier managed to get up off the ground, wriggle away, pick up the ball in the scrum, but with the endzone in his reach, he failed the final dodge needed to score.

The kickoff for the Beards landed near the sideline, followed by an early defensive shift of the Brutez to potentially position themselves to rush the sideline. Luckily for the Beards they were able to recover the ball and cut across the grain to the opposite end of the field. Part of this was because of a questionable mob of players that had suspiciously surrounded Arngrimm Addar on one of the the field. Arngrimm managed to weather the storm of boots, and eventually the Beards pulled away with Belli Bonnlinn scoring turn 8 for the win.

Coach Buck Comments:

“That opening drive of theirs was terrifying. We came in all confident with ourselves because of how the last match went, and you start to realize that match didn’t matter one bit when you’re watching your guys being pulled back into a roil of boots, and chainsaws. We were really lucky they only managed to get Bim off the field. Even with our numbers advantage they managed to put themselves in a legitimate position to score. I was confident that goblin wasn't getting up after we dropped him, but then sure enough, he was standing, he had the ball back in his hands, he had one more jump to green grass, but our guys finally got him. Whew…close one. Our drive was pretty standard. Sure grateful Argrimm came out of that one with all his limbs intact. You could sense they wanted a shot at payback for what he did to Punch last match.

Tactical Takeaways -

Defense Positioning: I needed to have my runner in position so that he could still blitz from 6 squares away on that side. At that point in the game the only option would’ve been to try and push that sideline or a troll throw, so I should’ve moved my runner so he could be one square further back for the sack attempt if he needed to.
Goblin Hunting: I repeatedly targeted the SG player, the Saw and the goblins in general, but was never able to come up with the removal. It’s a reminder that Black Orc goblins are surprisingly resilient at AV 8+ and Thick skull.
Foul Prevention: Just a good thing to be aware of when playing Black Orcs, if you get a player in contact with a Black Orc there is a high likelihood that player will be fouled. When I took the shot with my GMB piece, I didn’t process that he was going to be getting the boot/saw next turn until it was too late.
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