“Good, tough game. The elves gave the ball to their str 4 lineman to start their drive, and thought they'd be able to spend some time bashing on the rats. Indeed, they were able to knock Kama out of this game, meaning my rats were without a single tackler for the duration of the game (lucky 1d block). However, his teammates really stiffened their line, refusing to be bullied by the numerically superior elves, creating a massive stalemate at the midfield line. Eventually, time was running out, forcing the elves to take drastic measures, but in the process opening up their str 4 ballboy to a blitz for the first time not surrounded by half his team. Jar the ball loose (nice dodging, boys!), then advance the ball up to my gutter who'd been conveniently "forgotten" away from the action, take the lead.

Second half, I am trying to get one of my near-skill players to score, holding the ball deep with my FA gutter Shinai. Several turns in, my boys are still no closer to the endzone, and my opponent decides to take a gamble and blitz Shinai. He's able to knock me over, but thankfully he's used up his gfi's and is unable to retrieve the loose ball. Shinai stands up, picks it up, throws it forward out of range of his only team tackle, and Sabre survives a blitz on him to dodge away and give the ball up for a score...by my near-skill linerat. :-) Very nearly secure a third score, thanks to some fortunate 1d blocking of my own, but alas, I got greedy trying to get my other near-skill rat the score, and failed the gfi into the endzone.

Still, three linerat skills, including +agi and a double (now have 3 tentacled linerats! Laugh if you want, but it causes massive frustration to opponents at times!). We have discovered we can indeed win in the post-Sai era, having retired him last match. The team looks like it has a future after all! We spent the last dozen games playing short-manned, trying desperately to get Sai to legend status...we actually won the majority of our games in that span, got Sai to legend...and discovered we'd rebuilt the team around him. Cool!”