Originally Posted by
somanyrobots
ntw and I met up yesterday for the Division E championship match! No inducements, since the teams had almost-equal TV. But the Lycanthropes had the edge, as they only needed a tie to secure their promotion, while Insert Witty Team Name Here (henceforth IWTNH) needed an outright win.
The match started off with the Lycanthropes receiving, in pouring rain; they moved for a right-side cage, and the two teams met up about the halfway line. Some light punching, until ntw rolled double skulls -> reroll -> double skulls on his first move of turn three. The Lycanthropes were in generous base contact, so they hammered their way through on the opportunity, getting a complete cage behind the skaven line and causing two KOs to boot. The necros continued to make great armor rolls, KO'ing another two rats as they parked the ball on the endzone and stalled for time. But with the entire skaven team KO'd or sleeping by the end of the first quarter, the Lycanthropes didn't have the heart to stall four whole turns, and ran in a TD, giving IWTNH four whole turns to try and equalize.
The second quarter opened with IWNTH's KOs mostly waking up, and his team massing on the line; they promptly knocked down the necros and sent a gutter runner on through for a scoring threat. The skaven kept in the middle of the field, trying to block the Lycanthropes in their own half while a thrower sat in the backfield with the ball. But a werewolf ran his way around to mark up the ball-carrier, prompting them to blitz him off and make the passing play. The waiting gutter runner made the catch and promptly tied the match with two turns left in the half. The Lycanthropes tried (halfheartedly) to engineer a pass-to-the-werewolf two-turner, but to no avail, and the half ended at a tie.
Both teams returned for the second half at full strength. IWTNH used the same strategy as before, throwing seven players on the line of scrimmage to bash their way through. And they did bash their way through, knocking down five necros, and squeaking a GR into the backfield to be the scoring threat. But the Lycanthropes matched the aggressive offense with aggressive defense. They made some risky GFIs, and marked up the ball carrier with both WWs, before putting a line of wights and ghouls in between the skaven line and their distant thrower. The skaven successfully threaded their way through though, with a pass to a gutter runner, who then ran the ball backfield to the would-be scorer. But the backfield GR failed his catch, putting the ball on the ground and giving the Lycanthropes a chance. Some zombies, a wight, and a ghoul scrambled back to the ball, KOing one GR in the process; and the other failed his pick-up the next turn, enabling a ghoul to get his grubby hands on it. At this point (turn 11), the Lycanthropes were feeling good; they had possession and a slight numbers advantage, and only needed to prevent another IWTNH score to win the division. The necros advanced with a loose cage, while IWTNH kept trying to get rats free to hit the ball carrier. And they did, twice, successfully bringing the ball-ghoul down in turn 16. The ball went off-field, but the throw-in was in the Lycanthropes favor - into the corner right by IWTNH's endzone, right next to where the ball carrier had been standing before. So the match concluding with said ghoul standing up, picking up the ball, and then running in the touchdown.
Final Score: Insert Witty Team Name Here 1 - 2 Lucky Lycanthropes
An excellent match from ntw! The dice did seem to go my way in key moments, certainly with his failed catch in the second half. I had been expecting to be playing catch-up for the last quarter, rather than making a leisurely six-turn drive. His skaven were a ruthless scoring threat (especially since I had no tackle), and if he'd made that catch it would've been a very different match.
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