In 3A, Romances With Wolves played against Nota's Disciples of Innoruuk. I was going into the game a big underdog on skills, but with enough inducements to take a wizard (160K), which is exactly what I did. Nota won the toss, chose to kick, and proceeded to do what his team does best, which is hug the offense and force you to make blocks against all the blodgers, 4 of whom have SS (two blitzers and both witches). I did what I could, but the end result was that a strength 4 blodge/SS/Leap/Tackle witch elf ended up prone but not stunned next to my rookie ghoul with the ball, and because she is Str 4, got a 2d jump up block on him the following turn. To exacerbate matters, she KILLED him, so the ghoul lasted for exactly one block, having been just hired on. I then used my wizard to get 1/4 KD, which was useless, and the dark elves scored on turn 6/6. In return, I did KO 4 players, one of them by a DP gang foul (the DP did not get ejected on his first foul, for a change).
Being down 0-1, I received again, with 2/4 elves waking up, and a Riot giving me 3 turns to run offense instead of two. That had consequences for the rest of the game, as the extra turn allowed me to take all my blocks on the LoS instead of trying to rush in the equalizer in hopes of salvaging the game. The elf armor finally started breaking for real, and in the span of the next 3 turns, a blodge/guard lino got BHed, another lino (with Kick) got MNG, and a blitzer was killed, but the apothecary fixed him into a BH (meaning he was back immediately). I also got a free shot at the STR 4 witch, when she ran into my half of the field to create pressure, albeit completely on her own. While that cost me position, I simply could not pass up the opportunity to hit her, so she got sandwiched and blitzed by a WW, who tackled her down for a KO. I also came within a 3+ roll of equalizing, but the wight failed the catch, and that was that.
To open the second half, 1/4 elves woke up from KO, the monster witch elf not amongst them, so I kicked off with an 11 on 7 player advantage, and both wolves active (my wolf woke up from KO at halftime). What followed was a half of excruciating chase after elves, who made everything they asked of their d6. I believe one end of turn dodge was failed, but beyond that, EVERYTHING worked, including things like dodges into 2 TZs, dump-offs out of 2 TZs to a marked receiver through an interceptor, and multiple pickups and GFI. Eventually Nota fell victim to his own success, when on turn 15/14 his witch elf threw a double-gfi 3+ pass to his side-stepping blitzer, but my wolf was in the way, and finally rolled a 6. Interception. It's especially funny because for two turns in a row I could have picked up the ball on a 2-3 GFI-pickup, but both times failed the GFI, scattering the ball in a way that was very favorable to the elves (in the second case it was 1/8 chance the ball ends up unmarked, and that's exactly what happened). In the meanwhile, my DP zombie gang fouled the assassin twice, stunning him the first time and killing him outright the second time. The kill also earned him an ejection, so that was the end of fouling (I was too busy chasing after the elves thereafter). Anyway, the interception got returned for a touchdown, while I was rewarded for not skull-hunting a witch elf (I didn't pile on to the KO turn 15/15) by having the same wolf KILLED by a "why not" turn 16/15 blitz. Had he POed, he would have been prone, and most likely not gotten touched (there were much easier blitz targets in range for simple SPP hunting...). Obviously regen failed. 1-1 final socre.
GG - was a great game, except for the fact that my already slim hopes of doing well this season now became virtually non-existent.
The armor breaks were a very special story this game. I had a chance to throw a LOT of blocks, ending up with 32/52 KD, 21/43 armor breaks, and 25 total injury rolls (a crowd surf and a dose of piling on RRs happened). On those 25 injury rolls I got 4 CAS (BH, MNG, DEAD -> BH, DEAD), 7 KOs and 14 stuns. Basically, exactly what one might expect from 25 injury rolls, DP and MB notwithstanding. In return, the elves broke my armor 6/18 times, which is also about average. On those 6 injury rolls, they got DEAD, DEAD, BH, KO, KO, Stun. I mean, SERIOUSLY? They did almost as much damage on 6 injury rolls, without MB, as I did on 25 injury rolls WITH MB?
As has been typical for the last 3 games, the opposing team did not fail d6, it simply DOES NOT HAPPEN. 1 fall on 50+ dodges, several of which were into one or more TZs, no failed pickups, no failed passes, no failed catches, no failed gfi. In fact, the break I got wasn't because Nota failed a throw, it was because I finally rolled a 6 myself to intercept the pass. The only thing that didn't work spectacularly was 3/8 KO wakeups, which without babes is actually only 1 below "expected". Still, that was a sub-par result and had a large impact on the flow of the game.
I know I should maintain more composure and worry less about things out of my control, like players dying. Please allow me to put this in perspective, and then I will shut up. Over the last 6 games, I've lost (to death, and in two cases, smashed collar bones):
2 Flesh Golems
3 Ghouls
1 Wight
1 Werewolf
2 Zombies
Two of the ghouls were valuable, the wight and werewolf were irreplaceable (Str 4/ Blodge wight; MB/PO werewolf). That's an ENTIRE TEAM WORTH OF PLAYERS, in 6 games. It would not be debilitating if I had agi 4 and had a shot at leveling up replacements. But I am not, and I now have 6 rookie positionals in a division full of 2000+ teams. In other words, my team has just been retired, even though it has at least 8 more games to play in S22. I know you can recover from some attrition. I don't see how I can recover from fielding 6 rookies backed up by one decent golem and one star wolf.