Here's the initial Roster:
Explosive Lords
Rosco, Roscopp & Bodini - 3 Nurgle Warriors - 330K
Caza, Jams & Montez - 3 Pestigor - 240K
Colin, Justin, Arnold, Graham & Barry - 5 Rotters - 200K
3 Rerolls - 210K
20K banked
The rest of the league are Goblins, 2xSkaven, Human, Wood Elves, 2xOrcs and one other player who's not signed up yet.
My first match was the one I felt least confident about - Wood Elves. Easily the best team in the league and I had no skills to try and eliminate his Wardancer with.
Match 1: Wood Elves
We sit down and he rolls a 12 to my 4 for gate. +2 FAME to him then, good start there. The Weather turns out to be somewhat on my side, it's very Sunny which might scupper his scoring plans. The ball lands short AND I roll a Blitz. But a pair of failed catches results in a touchback. Which is quickly converted into "Catcher near my end zone with the ball, one pestigor down the other one marked." Sure enough my attempted Blitz on the Catcher fails and I'm 1-0 down. No real loss, I'll be recieving and don't plan to let go of the ball for the rest of the game.
It's clear very early on in my Offense that he hasn't played many matches, but he's also been coached well in how to play Wood Elves and has rolled a Perfect Defense. Very early in my drive he gets a lucky KO on a Rotter and starts to play a very defensive numbers game. No matter how aggressive I am all I can manage to get is a single Blitz per turn and march one square up the pitch. He's consistently knocking down my team - Foul Appearance does Jack all
and as such my drive grinds to a halt after a couple of really poor rolls and I end up 9 squares short of the End zone in turn 8 with a double layer of elves in the way. I figure out a way to score but Quad skulls ends that attempt.The second half doesn't start out well, he kicks the ball very deep. Something which is softened slightly by a High Kick result. By this time I realised that he's switched into a completely defensive mode of thinking. He's flat out refusing to use his Wardancer to leap/blitz my ball carrier. Additionally my zigzagging up the pitch has confused him and he's not sure where to commit his men. Again I end up a man down thanks to a lucky KO on a Rotter. While I'm rolling OK and playing well he's just crucifying me in the Blocking war.
Sadly he rallies and Jams the Pestigor is left 8 squares away from the TD line and he has a giant pile of Elves in the way. I look at the pitch for a good couple of minutes. I have basically one Blitz to get through as there is no-one relevant in range of a Block. Then I suddenly notice that he has this point in his formation (There are more elves either side of this.)
Code: Select all
....L..
...T.L.
..L....
...L..P
My opponent sets up and gets a COMP on a linemen, who promptly gets the MVP (Curse your pointy ears!) and takes Block. My MVP lands on Caza (#5 Pestigor, Damn you Nurgle! Pestigors don't need MVPs!). I gain 50K and 1FF while he gains 60K plus the 1FF. I'm halfway to my Beast, he's halfway to his 2nd Wardancer.
1-1 Draw, which I'm actually rather pleased with. Those Wood Elves were kicking my ass hard and he only made the one error that I could captialise on.
The team itself played very well. My opponent was breaking AV a lot more than I was and managed a total of 3 KOs to my 1. Still the squad held together well and having three Pestigors was massive. Without that many MA6 threats I wouldn't have managed to score the TD. They were just enough to force him to spread too thin.
But considering that first match I really should have gone with the Beast of Nurgle to start, Tentacles plus Mighty Blow would have utterly changed that match.
Next matches plan is to COMP with Caza and score with both Jams and Montez. Hopefully that results in an Extra Arms Pestigor and a Block Pestigor.
While it's unlikely my team will skill up much over this duration I am looking forward to playing next Tuesday's match. Even if I should have played Undead.
