MD10 Vs The Kleevland Klaw Killas Coached by Gunter Dorkson
“Are you sure It’ll be okay? They are Orcs.”
“Don’t worry High Coach, don’t worry…” Leaons coaxed Remtharion onto his Coaching Throne in the dugout. “They have a lot of goblins on the team and no killer, it’ll be fine. The team’s coming on well now, thanks to my new hires…”
“Alright, I’ll try. But Rifeldin, have my bed brought out so I can hide under it if things go poorly.”
*****
So we start of kicking, and things go pretty well. Sulion displays the value of block on the LOS by staying upright against three push/bothdown rolls, and no one died. We transition into hedges and our only loner is K.Oed as the Black orcs move into aggressive contact.
At this stage I take a bit of a risk and move up my guard to block the black orcs. This is risky due to two of them having sidestep, very unusual, but very concerning of this sort of action. However, my plan was to blitz one with a wrestler if they stayed upright in an awkward position, so it seemed worth a try.
We are rewarded for fighting directly with two knocked down black orcs and a K.Oed line orc. A sack attempt is open, but the team reroll was already used on a double skull, so we just mark the carrier instead.
The Orcs manage to blitz their carrier free and move to the side, but set up around Nessendont for a gang foul, then turn over on a blockless block before they can. He and a guard line elf are able to get a free 2 dice hit on the ball, knock it free, but it bounces in the middle of three orcs so we can’t risk a pickup.
After a fight with all four guard, we manage to get the ball in only a single tacklezone, then fail a 2+ pickup with Neon and a black orc catches the bounce. We try to fight it off of him in a massive brawl with far too much contact for my liking, but several block on block bothdowns stall us and we can’t get it loose. Though in a shock, Alanalanath levels by MNGing a rookie orc blitzer in a an end of turn two dice block to avoid contact. Their Apo brings him back, but this is now the second time we’re seeing a surprisingly violent side to Alanalanath.
*****
“Get away, you beastly orc! I will not be pushed around! I will not be threatened! I am a PRINCE! I WILL NOT BE THREATENED!”
“Is he… alright?” asked Remtharion, leaning down for the High Coaching Throne.
“He’s just been like this since Indomita joined the team,” said Leona. “She’s been a good influence.”
“PROVE YOUR WORTH, FOOLS!” screamed Indomita. “Are you elves, or mice?!”
*****
The black orc is finally able to escape the scrum, but it takes a dodge for him to do it. Indomita brings him down and catches the ball, so while we protect her as best we can Alanalanath starts sprinting for the endzone.
Then Adventurous Fereldon, previously to slowest learning of the Lineselves MNGs the orcs only tackle blitzer! This does come at the cost of not protecting Indomita properly though, and she is knocked down. The other cost is Elixion is killed.
*****
“Send in the Apothecary!” shouted Remtharion.
“Him again?” said the Elf maiden. “Really?”
“We could just let him die,” said Leonas. “I mean, I’m just saying he’s kind of broken already…”
“DO IT!”
“Oh goddess, fine, I’ll heal him.” The elf maiden mopped Elixions brow with a delicate handkerchief. “He’ll just die again though, I don’t know why I bother…”
*****
Elixion is just MNG again. Well, not like a high elf team needs a thrower, right? I made this decision right down at the wire, but ultimately I didn’t want to lose a blodger, so I took the risk. Maybe not the right call.
Neon is required to leap in for a 3+ pickup, then dodges away and passes to Alanalanath for a touchdown. There is an extra LOS, but we survive and our pair of K.Os come back.
In the second half I balls up my offence a bit. Indomita has the ball going up the side, but the Orcs are able to block the way a little more than I expected. I try to block a way through, but a run of pushes leaves things stuck. Indomita(Rookie Catcher) had to make a 3+, then 2+ dodge as well as 2 GFIs to get through. The first dodge eats the team reroll, but I say fuck up and rick the naked GFIs across the endzone.
By divine miracle, there is somehow no tripwire and she scores. I got impatient on the offense again, now that my apo was out I wanted the game wrapped up with a 2-0 lead and then to hide for the rest of the match. I should have played it cooler, but nuffle covered me this time.
It's the orcs on the offense again, and they rush forward potential receivers, obviously intending to risk it for the win. But they leave an opening, and Alanalnaath plus Tathron are able to rush through and sack the thrower on his own in the backfield.
Unfortunate my dodge dice disappear in the followup, and the orcs recover the ball, but fluff a pass. Neon gets the ball, and is caged. As the last action of the turn, Extraordinary Illgoth tries to dodge away from a mass orc orcs, falls, and kills himself! That’s one of our Guard elves dead.
The orcs swarm Neon in his little flimsy gace, but then he just jumps over them and passed the ball up to Indomita for a third touchdown!
On the orcs last drive we just hang back as much as possible to preserve elven life, and the match ends 3-1 to the Greater Ulthuan Exiles!
*****
Overall, a good game. I was in a lot more contact for this game than I would have liked, and a dead guard Line elf and MNG thrower was probably not unexpected. The dream of having a bench continues to be a dream, we’re still on loners for the bit at least.
We did get three levels though, and very welcome ones!
First, Alanalanath, who rolled a normal. I thought very hard on this one, and appreciate the advice I received from you all. I could really see the argument both ways, but in the end I went with wrestle.
My reasoning goes that when I have successfully extracted the ball after a sack, I do in fact almost always manage to pass it away or make a screen. I’m sure this will not always be possible and I will likely lose my next game to Alanalanath being wrestled down while escaping with the ball. But with his higher speed Alanalanath gets a great deal of sacking opportunities beyond just leaping in suicidally, so I think Wrestle fits him better. I think having more sacking opportunities forces my opponent to play more carefully or make mistakes.
This doesn't mean I won't take more expendable wrestle catchers in the future, I will and will hopefully let them take the risks if something happens to Neon Dieon. The potential of having Alanalanath wrestle seem worth it more than a safer ball carrier. The OFL isn't exactly crawling with elves, and when against them I prefer to aim for a shoot-out for the SPP gain anyway.
He also soaked up yet another MVP this game, along with a Cas and touchdown, so he’s well on the way to leap already.
Second, we have Adventurous Ferledon, a block line elf who now has kick. With the death of a Guard Line Elf, there is more room at the back for him, so it seems worth it to have a kicker instead of a blodger. I’ll just have to make sure I remember to use him.
Last is Indomita, a rookie catcher who rolled a double! So she now has Mighty Blow! Rapidly feeding her until she has block as well is now a priority, but it will hopefully help my feeling of being bashed off the pitch if I’m taking a few more people with me each match.
Fits the fluff nicely as well. Good one, nuffle. Worth the sacrifice of a guard elf, hopefully.
140k Gold. I had been leaning toward buying a batch of line elves, but now that wouldn’t get me to twelve players anymore. I could just buy a stadium enhancement and continue with loners for a while longer. But I just really don’t know what to make of the Stadium enhancements. The wizard one seems likely to win me games, but maybe at the cost of shortening the lives of my players as they’re hit by lightning bolts. It’s just such a strange feature that it's hard to tell whether its even a good move or not!