“Ouch. Niggles on my thrower (doubles first skill... sigh. She's gone now.) and my +AG blodging lino. Bleah. 2 MNGs just make the pot all that much sweeter.

2 Pitch invasions against me to start the two halves really kind of set the scene for the hurting to come. I had some wonderfully lucky plays (dodging into 3tz to bounce his ball carrier out, which then bounced right next to my blitzer who grabbed it and threw down field for my second score to end the half), but the story was mostly AlphaX's blocking dice. Brutal. 7 CAS and I really feel like I got off lightly.

Of course the 7 CAS don't include those from fouling and sending argemone crowd surfing after the play mentioned above. In fact, I got a little annoyed that I'd blitz a goblin to make a play and suddenly I was subjected to accusations and retaliatory strikes. I was playing the ball at all times, in my opinion, and Alphax was playing for revenge. Oh, well. Made it possible to score, even though I only had 5 players for the whole second half.

If he'd gone for the plays rather than the easiest way to rough up my little av 7 girls, he would easily have won. That's what happens when you play up against a (IMHO) broken team that has 40 TR on you, I guess.

Thanks for the game, AlphaX.


[in response to the response, now that I'm a bit less bitter :) ]

For the record, the 2 SIs were caused by a crowd push and a block. Yes, I blitzed the STR 2 guys to clear a hole instead of the str 5 guys. Not because they were stunty, but because they were the only way I could make a hole.

The accusations and retaliatory bashing I referred to (and I admit now that that was a little bit of whining on my part. Sorry for that. It's an acceptable way to play, just not my favorite.) were in the initial stages of the game when I was trying to make my way through 6 or 7 Ogres and make a hole. Once he got a few girls off the pitch (I started the second half with 5, all stunned by the second PI. Very funny sight...) the complaining ceased.

Yes, I did foul one goblin. It's not something I was proud of, but there was a reason for it. Simply put, he was in my way. I was forming a cage and the downed goblin was behind it where I had no coverage. He could have made a wild block on my ball carrier and still had reasonable chances of success. The retaliatory fouling I'm referring to, AlphaX, is when you fouled someone who had no part of the play. Also, when you get the first turn and foul on that turn, it's not retaliatory. I haven't had a chance to go yet, therefore I could not have fouled you already. Does that make sense to anyone?

Regarding the crowd pushes (there were two, I believe), there were reasons for both. The first was in the first half. After the gobbo fell from the TTM, as A-X mentioned, I formed up a cage and headed down the bottom of the field. There was a goblin on the sideline and an ogre 3 spaces in. I could not have formed a complete cage with that goblin standing and the ogre in position unless I got past them. To do so would have required either moving the ogre 2 more spaces in or making enough dodge rolls to get 5 girls through 3 tzs.... OR bouncing the goblin. Sorry. Had to do it to get past. For the record, he was either stunned or KO'd by the crowd.

The second crowd push was later in the second half, as the ogres were going for a score. I had one zon close enough to do anything about it. I didn't have enough movement to put a screen infront of the cage and the goblin was in scoring range with 1 gfi. A-X was so kind as to try to scare me away from trying it, but I dodged the one zon into the cage (3+ and 4+ dodges with my +AG lino. Lucky.) and bounced the gobbo sitting on the sideline. Got the MNG mentioned above. My zon was left on the sideline and out of TZs. The ball scattered in bounds and was snagged by a blitzer who threw downfield to my catcher.

Now this is what I referred to as retaliation. He had the choice to either try to blitz to get the ball carrier (with 2 gfis, I think. It was a bit of a long shot) or blitz someone out of the way to put a tz on her (much better odds). Instead, he used the blitz to bounce my zon on the sideline. What purpose did it serve? How was that playing the ball? That was a retaliatory strike. I accept this. That's fine. Yeah, I complained some because she was a good player, but you can't claim to be victimized there.”