“FUMBBL CUP SEMI FINAL!

The Daemons started with only 10 players and were clearly the underdogs in this match. However, the took the lead very early in the game thanks to a quick snap in offence where they pushed 5 players deep and threw the ball to a player in the middle!

The Hellbringers surrounded the cage and KOd another player upfield but could only watch in frustration as the Daemons Blitzer jumped over the top of the defenders (AG 5 and Leap!) and scored a very easy TD.

On the Hellbringers offensive drive, a backfield error saw the Daemons swarm their backfield! However a Hellbringers Troll Smasher Vomitflesh ran backwards in defence and used his mutliblock skill to bring down two defenders, badly hurting the Daemons star player Praximus Hrakk with his brutal blow. The Daemons took a desperate gamble and used their whole allocation of magic sponges to keep Hrakk in the game!

The Hellbringers recovered the ball and formed a cage that they rushed downfield. Despite having the ref watching the Hellbringers after an earlier foul on Praximus Hrakk, they could not resist fouling the dangerous lineman Charon Hulsthapp (Str 4 Block Dodge). The foul injured Hulsthapp and ended his match, but it also got the Hellbringers Hobgoblin ejected from the game! (A worthy swap in my mind as I had a long bench hehehe).

The Hellbringers scored late in the first half to tie the score.

Things were not looking good for the Daemons when both their knocked out players didn't wake up after half time and they only had 7 players lined up in defence against 11 imposing Hellbringers. However, a blitz by the Daemons put the Hellbringers backfield under pressure and an error (Bull Centaur failed GFI and Sure Feet reroll) allowed the Daemons to steal the ball and score to take an early 2-1 lead!

On the next drive the Hellbringers recovered the ball and formed a cage behind the line of scrimmage. After bashing their way forwards to KO one player and seriously injure (miss next game) the very dangerous Praximus Hrakk, the Hellbringers pushed their cage up the right hand side of the field.

The Daemons swung to their left wing to cover the Hellbringers only to have the Hellbringers swing the ball back to their own left hand side. During this passage of play, two more Daemons were knocked out (one from dodging) and their Thrower Memnon Frixes was killed by a brutal block from Chaos Dwarf Tziggoran.

The Hellbringers scored late in the second half to bring the game into overtime!

The Daemons started in offence and kept the ball deep in their own half whilst trying to find a gap in the midfield. The Hellbringers responded by injuring another player and pushing deep into Daemon territory. The Daemons managed to get a player deep into Hellbringer territory and through a long pass which was dropped.

The Hellbringers were unpanicked as they sent back two Hobgoblins to flatten the Daemon player and then recover the ball and form a cage in the middle of the field. During this passage of play, a Daemon player was knocked out dodging and their Blitzer Azazel Black was seriously injured by Chaos Dwarf Bzagrog.

The Daemons were seriously outnumbered now and could do little but watch as the Hellbringers scored the winning TD whilst they injured yet another player and knocked out a second to leave only two Dark Elves on the pitch.
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Well that was tougher than I thought thanks to the backfield errors and the blitz, but the game was always going to be pretty hard for Robofreem to win with only 10 players and me having so many with skills and there being no handicaps in FUMBBL.

Once I got rid of his leaping AG 5 player things I didn't have to worry too much about conceding another TD as long as I formed a cage or made sure my opponent never got better than a 2 dice blitz on my ball carrier.

Then again, my opponent had some awful luck in overtime where he failed many more than 1 in 6 of his 2+ dodges. That allowed me to move the ball to safety very quickly. Him using all 5? of his rerolls in the second half didn't help his cause though and I think that was a mistake.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with the result, though losing a FF was a real pain as I am now the same as my opponent Shlominus whereas a roll of 2-3 would have me one higher and a roll of 4+ would have given me two higher (+1 for winning, +1 for semi final, +1 for two TDs, +1 for two casualties, -2 for 20 FF).

But earning 70K was sweet as now I can freeboot one of the Str 6 AV 10 big guys to soak up some of the hits against Shlominus.

Anyways, top marks to Robofreem for playing with good spirits despite all the bad luck and the carnage I was dishing out to him. A very sporting opponent who didn't give up until the very end.

M”