So I finally played the match last night. We had a bit of trouble connecting initially, but then my opponent switched to another computer and it worked first time. He took Eldril and a babe for the inducements, which didn't seem like the best choice to me. In addition he claimed that the game didn't let him use Eldril's gaze during the first half, which is a bug I've never heard of before. In the second half he rolled a 1 both times he tried to gaze with him, so he was basically useless!
He won the toss and chose to kick first putting his DP lino on the LOS for some reason and Medea was only too glad to send him straight to the injured box with a red cross over his head!
I then gathered the deep kick with a lino on 15 spp and passed to the runner Vitriol for an early level-up. He moved quite a few players into contact and I shifted the attack over to the left after blocking away most of the pressure. His MB catcher managed to stun Hecate on the blitz, but his defending was a bit loose and I was able to open a gap through the middle and rush enough players diagonally through the gap to create a cage for Vitriol in scoring range.
He blitzed Death with his killer catcher and Badly Hurt him (damn MB catcher was a pain in the arse most of the game and I couldn't even stun him despite knocking him over with MB blitzes two or three times)! He left the way open for the score though, deciding to not risk his players, except for his rookie thrower who killed himself trying to dodge and who was not deemed worthy of the Apo! I took as many blocks as I could in my turn, KOing his +Ag catcher and almost killing his rookie blitzer with a blitz from Hecate. He was Apo'd to MNG, although my opponent claimed it was a miss-click and he was going to let him die! Vitriol just sauntered in for the opening score - 1-0!
The next kick-off was 11 v 10. The kick flew off the field (really am missing having a kicker) and was given to his thrower who stayed deep. He did a couple of blocks on the LOS and then took
when blocking my Wrodge lino with his lino without Block or Wrestle! He clearly thought it was his lino that had Wrestle and the early turn-over meant that I could pressure him straight away. Pestilence blitzed Eldril in his half and was soon supported by Spite, while the rest of the team formed a screen in my own half.
He managed to get his NoS catcher past the screen after blitzing War with the MB one, but then made a big mistake by putting his thrower next to his left sideline, thinking he would be safe there from a blitz. He clearly hadn't seen that Ruin was fast enough to get there with a GFI and agile enough to dodge through a TZ too! Before that I took all the available blocks, knocking over a lot of players and Medea Badly Hurt a level 2 catcher. I then marked his receiving threats before Pestilence made 2 GFIs to mark the thrower on the sideline. Ruin then blitzed him into the crowd, having to re-roll the GFI in the process. The ball was free near his endzone and he was able to pick it up with his Star lino. Pestilence knocked him over on the blitz though after using a re-roll and then Ruin used his +Ma to get hold of the ball and score with a GFI - 2-0!
My opponent had two turns to score one back, but only managed to get his +Ag catcher in scoring range, due to SS blocking his way on the sideline blitz. Medea took the catcher down and stunned him, so that was the end of that! A double one on a token spp throw added insult to injury! Somewhere in the proceedings Malice got Badly Hurt by his MB catcher, so I was down to 10 players for the second half.
The following drive he got a couple of catchers into scoring range, but then failed the pass to his thrower in the backfield! That let me get two side-steppers next to the ball and apply pressure in his half again. He failed to remove the TZs on the blitz, but did manage to pick the ball up with his Sure Hands thrower in 2 TZs. Thanks to DT though he didn't dare try to dodge out, but attempted a pass instead, which was fumbled thanks to the modifiers. I pushed more and more players forward and eventually gathered the ball with Ruin, who passed the ball to Vitriol in scoring range. He managed to dodge through a TZ and KO Vitriol down with a one die blitz from a lino, but the dump-off to Ruin was good and the next turn an easy dodge made it 3-0!
His following drive he tried to get more receivers forward again, but a failed one die block somewhere gave me the initiative again, I think (memory gets a bit hazy by this stage). I sent a couple of players to pressure his thrower in the backfield, while marking and containing his receivers. He threw the ball forward to his +Ag receiver, despite him being marked and unable to score and it was not hard to knock away his support players in order to take his receiver down with Hecate. Next turn Ruin got hold of the ball and threw it to Medea who was unmarked and in scoring range in his half - 4-0 on turn 15! Last turn I got a blitz and just ignored it, as most of my players where out of range. After a couple of blocks the game ended, as I didn't even bother to take my last turn.
So a surprisingly easy win on MD1. The weak inducements chosen by my opponent, combined with quite a few mistakes made by him, made the game a lot easier than it should have been. He also had a habit of putting a lot of his players in contact with mine, which was not a good idea in general and I thought he got off quite lightly with the 4 CAS he took in the first half, as my armour rolls were not great in general. My rolls were generally quite good, although I thought I played reasonably conservatively on the whole, only taking risks at the end of turns and when it was worth doing so.
Ruin picked up 8 spp (2 throws and 2 TDs), Medea accumulated 7 (2 CAS and 1 TD) and Vitriol got 4 (1 TD and 1 pass), but the only player to level was my -Ma lino who got 6 spp (1 pass + MVP). I'm leaning towards Dodge on him, even though I badly need a Kicker. He makes for good LOS fodder, which is something that my team is a bit short of at the moment!