This is a Game report between Explicit Virtue and my own 1st Airborne. It was written by Explicit Virtues Manager (Ken Savage) who kindly gave me permission to post it here.
So my next game is vs 1st Airborne managed by Khorne Dogg.
Block as the single skillup on his ogre is nasty, and the strip ball blitzer might be annoying. For the most part, I'd keep the ball on my runner so dump off will negate a bit of that strip ball terror. He has two blodge catchers - even though they're ST2 they'll still be bloody hard to take down. One good thing is that he's only got 11 players, so any KOs/injuries I can inflict will leave him shorthanded as I'll be starting with 12 players.
Speaking of which, I have 140k of inducements and I decided to plump for a mercenary witch elf (110k+30k) as my 12th player.
Start of game, we roll very sunny for weather - so -1 to all passes.
Khorne Dogg rolls 4 for fans +4 FF = 8000 fans. I roll 8 +1FF = 9000 fans. First blood to me with +1FAME. I also roll higher for kickoff and choose to receive. I decide not to risk my kicker, so he starts the game in the reserves.
Turn 1 and Khorne Dogg puts the ogre in the middle of the pitch, funnily enough I keep all my players well away from him. kickoff result is a riot which pushes the timer forward 1 turn to turn 2. I start by knocking a few LOS guys down, getting the ball and moving it back a few squares. Highlight for me is my witch elf blitzing a catcher. She not only knocks him off his feet, but also KOs him! Nice start. The WE and my #17 blitzer move into the human backlines. The next couple of turns involve me moving for a better position to move forward, and Khorne Dogg getting good coverage on my players each time. Oh, and me dodging away from the ogre any time I can!
On turn 4 my #9 lineman puts the human #7 lineman down and it's a casualty - a roll of 38 means he's fine. Khorne Dogg's starts his turn 4 by counting the squares for his ogre to get to the ball carrier - 7, so 2GFI just to put a tackle zone on. He opts not to do that, instead choosing to blitz my defensive blitzer. This requires 1 GFI and he rolls a 1 just before the block! The ogre goes down in a heap and the humans are caught out of position! I go to move the runner forward with the ball, but realise he's 8 squares instead of 7 away from the receiver - so I need to pass instead of handoff. I need a reroll for the pass, but make the completion and blitzer sprints down the field with the ball with 3 lineman forming a cage around him. Khorne Dogg tries to move to cover and succeeds in KOing a journeyman lineman, but not able to get near the ball carrier. Turn 6 and I can score, but choose to stall on the line - MV8 blodging catchers can score ok in 3 turns, I don't want to make it too easy! Khorne Dogg responds by KOing my merc witch elf on his turn 6. On turn 7, Khorne Dogg launches an assault on my ball carrier's cage to try and put a tackle zone on the ball carrier. He only gets a push when he needed the defender to go down, which leave a 6+ dodge to get a tackle zone. He tries but the 4 leaves his lineman on his face. On my turn 8 it's time to score, but I can get a 3 dice blitz on a catcher first. Figuring I have a reroll anyway, I try it and my blitzer scores a casualty on his #3 catcher - a roll of 17 means he's ok. No point in risking anything else, and my #2 blitzer walks in the turn 8 touchdown for 1:0 to the dark elves.
Human turn 8 and we roll for KOs, but all the players are quite comfy in the KO bin and none come out. KO result is a 7 so the weather changes - a little more cloud comes out and it's perfect weather, which will make those passes a little easier. Not much happens apart from the human thrower making a completion for a SPP and the half ends with my Dark Elves 1:0 to the good.
2nd half and KOs are rolled - my JM lineman wakes up but the witch elf stays down. Unfortunately, the human catcher manages to rouse himself too. So we start the 2nd half with my 11 players vs 9 for the humans. KO result is brilliant coaching. I roll a 3, with +1FAME means I'm guaranteed another precious reroll - Khorne Dogg rolls 5 so gets one too. My kick skill finds the touchline and stays in, giving Khorne Dogg's catcher a scary GFI roll in order to get the ball - but he succeeds and passes it to the catcher. With the numbers advantage, I start moving forward and send two blitzers into his backlines and keep his other players covered. Turn 2 and it's a 1 for bonehead, so the ogre stands stupidly. Khorne Dogg moves the catcher forward and covers him with a makeshift cage. With the ogre boneheaded - I spy a way through for a blitz with my blitzer. I get linemen to stand beside the catcher and the blitz comes in - only to give a both down when both have block. I dodge away, not wanting to use a reroll so soon. Turn 3 and Khorne Dogg spies a route through my defence. He throws one block which puts a dark elf down (1+1 for armor). He then tries to dodge the catcher out, rolling 1 then another 1 for the dodge reroll. Five 1s in a row now for the humans. Worse comes for the catcher as his armor breaks and he's injured - 47 means he'll miss next game. Dark Elves are very good on the break, my #5 runner gets the ball, passes it forward to #1 blitzer who sprints up the pitch 3 from the line - Khorne Dogg has nothing that can get that far back even with GFIs. I spend the rest of the turn throwing blocks and I manage to put every single human down (except the ogre, of couse) though they're all OK. Turn 4 and Khorne Dogg's only standing player is the ogre. He decides to blitz and rolls 1 for bonehead. He burns a reroll and passes the loner roll with a 4 so he can reroll bonehead - and gets another 1. That's seven 1s in 8 rolls now, Nuffle has truly deserted the poor humans in this half! On my turn 4, I get a 2 dice blitz on the ogre and he goes down but doesn't break armor. I take pity on the bad luck of the humans and don't stall - my #1 blitzer takes the TD to give the humans a new start on a new drive. It's 2:0 to the Dark Elves.
Turn 5 and the kickoff result is Get the ref - that could be nasty if either side decides to use it! My witch elf also wakes up, so i have my full 12 to choose from again against only 8 humans. After throwing some LOS blocks with nothing worse than 1 defender going down, the thrower goes to get the ball and throw it to the catcher. Pickup 1, surehand reroll 3. Pass 1, pass reroll 1. That fumbled throw means it's TEN 1s in 14 rolls with the number dice - truly unbelievably unlucky rolling. I'm starting to think that poor rolling is all in the name, as our northern Khorne Dogg gets truly bad rolls too! I sent a stream of dark elves rushing upfield towards the ball.
Turn 6 and my charge was obviously ill advised - his thrower does get the ball and throws to a lineman, who runs down the field through the middle. He then covers my avenues to get back to defense, I sent way too many people up the right wing. My turn 6 and I move back a bit, my turn ends when I 2d blitz with a lineman and get bothdown/att down. I notice he's a JM, so I roll loner and pass - and I get the exact same bothdown/attdown on the block dice. I can hear the human blitzer chuckle as I go down.... Turn 7 and the human lineman runs forward and gets 4 squares from home, though he's a little exposed if my dodge rolls can hold! I do move men back and get a 2 dice blitz. First roll is bothdown - which is ok as both players are linemen and it would stop the score. I reroll it though and get defender down which ends Khorne Dogg's chances of scoring. I move a blitzer 7 squares from home, considering a turn 7 or 8 pass action. My runner dodges and does get the ball, moving forward to stand safe behind a wall of dark elves. However, I lose my last reroll to an illegal procedure by forgetting to move my turn counter - so I'll have to do the turn 8 pass without rerolls!
Turn 8 and the humans move to try and cover my obvious plan, finishing with the ogre throwing another blitz which fails to break armor. The whole game, the ogre failed to break armor even once - which I was ecstatic about after the pro elves carved me up in the last game without mighty blow! My turn 8 and I blitzed the human marking my planned receiver, knocking him down. I then blocked another lineman out of the way who threatened an interception. Putting the final plan into action, the runner ran forward for a short pass. He makes the 3+ throw and #2 blitzer makes the 2+ catch and runs into the endzone for a turn 8 touchdown for 3:0 to the dark elves.
Well, the first half was a tense tactical battle where I was quite happy to go in 1:0 up. The ogre was a bit of a pain, but thankfully his mighty blow was misfiring and he did get a couple of 1s which reduced his effectiveness.
Where both sides were getting rolls going well in the first half, the second half introduced the worst run of dice I think i've ever seen. Even being 2 players down, I think the humans did have a good chance of getting an equaliser in the second half. That is, of course, until the run of ten 1s in 14 rolls. The first couple, we could laugh at. The next few were "no way, that's really unlucky". The last few, I was actually wishing for my opponent to start getting better luck. Still, luck does balance out and I feel sorry for Khorne Dogg's next opponent as they're sure to be on the wrong side of some very strong rolling by him!
A few skillups for me. My #1 blitzer scored the critical second touchdown so I gave him the MVP for his first skillup - he got a normal skill which will be dodge. With two touchdowns, my #2 blitzer got a skillup too - he got a normal roll too, so dodge for him as well. Khorne Dogg gave the MVP to his #7 linesman, who got a normal skill which he's going to consider.
Winnings, Khorne Dogg rolled a 6 - so 60k for the losing team is always good, maybe the bad rolling is turning around for him? I rolled a 1, which I rerolled for winning into a 5 giving total winnings of 70k. I now have enough to replace my dead blitzer, which i'll consider. I might save up for a witch elf though.
For fan factor, I had 3 dice to roll and had 1 to beat - which I did easily.
Final action of the game, Khorne Dogg had 4 fan factor and had to roll above 4 on two dice to avoid losing a point.
I don't think anyone reading will be suprised to hear that he rolled a 1+1
So as you can see things didn't go exactly to plan but there is always next time.
Till next time
KD
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