“Note, luck readings out due to the game hanging repeatedly and thus many reloads/reconnects.
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It was certainly not my day at the office. Pre game started with my opponent making all 5 of his niggle rolls, but me failing 1 out of 3, and that one being my Troll so the apoth went there and then.

As Shlominus said, I started in defence but got a blitz. It didn't help. I got 3 hits, and a blitz to knock one or none over and burnt a reroll on a double skulls.

My next turn, another double skulls burning another reroll.

I basically could not knock any of his players over for the first half of the opening half. Two double Skulls rolls by my Troll in the first half (Pro failing both times) summed it up. My Piling On CD did no damage, nor did my solitary foul, whereas I had a couple knocked out and one injured by his fouls and two Piling On players. Eventually, I accounted for a couple of his Hobbos.

I managed to knock the ball loose late in the first half, and tried to score rather than defend which allowed my opponent the turn 8 TD. I failed my 3+ dodge with reroll to get to the ball whereas he made the 3+ pick up, 3+ throw, 3+ catch and maybe some GFI. Them's the dice.

Second half I had 11 vs 10 I believe, but I had more Hobbos. The Get the Ref roll basically changed the whole game around. I blitzed his Dirty Player with my PO CD and only knocked him over.

From there it was game over. His PO was safe on the sideline behind a Bull Centaur and he blitzed my PO CD, knocked him over and then fouled him over two turns and badly injured him. It was not a mistake not to attack the Hobbo as described by my opponent. He was too far away for me for most of the game for me to get two dice as well as protect the ball given my players were in tackle zones and he had two Bull Centaurs with Break Tackle roaming around.

Instead I focussed on protecting the ball and being in a position to possibly score with his more potent players around. As the turns went on, more and more of my players left the pitch through fouls or Piling On blocks/blitzes.

Late in the second half, my opponent made a mistake by focusing on my two Bull Centaurs that were in his half. He surrounded one and fouled it, not seeing a fallen Hobbo just inside his half. This Hobbo got up and ran and sprinted (GFI twice) to be within scoring distance and also safe from my opponent's players since he had sent them to surround my Bull Centaur. I managed to the score and overtime it was!

In Overtime I won the toss and received, and had 11 players still (lots of Hobbos) vs 9 on my opponent's team. Crucially however, I did not have either my Dirty Player nor a Piling On player, whilst my opponent still had his Piling On Troll, Piling On CD and his DP.

Bad luck continued to haunt me as my +6 foul on his Troll netted a roll of 3 and thus did not penetrate his armour. His +3 foul on my Bull Centaur badly injured it.

We kept exchanging blows whilst I kept the ball safe. Whilst I had the numbers, he had the more dangerous players. We both took some players out.

On turn 6, I went to set up the win. Just needed to GFI one square then hand off to a Hobbo and my opponent would not be able to stop me scoring. Roll 1, rerolled to a 1. Fell over.

This dampened my chances severely as he repositioned. I still had a decent chance to set up, but tactically I chose the option with lower rolls, but riskier overall in that I would not be able to score if I failed (I wanted to pick up the ball, dodge with Pro and hand off to another Hobbo who would run close to the end zone). I failed the dodge and was thus too far to score. In hindsight, I should have moved the potential scorer closer to the end zone first, then tried to pick up the ball and dodge. At least I would then be in range to try a pass or another hand off.

So it came down to a 1-1 draw in overtime and my opponent won the D6 roll to win the first FUMBBL Cup. A bit of a capricious way to determine the winner (I said this before the roll) but that is FUMBBL hehehe.
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Oh well. I made a few tactical errors in the game, and so did my opponent, I dare say he made more than me hehehe.

Although we both had some good luck go our way, I think it is fair to say that my opponent benefitted from lucky rolls more than I. The Get the Ref roll was almost a match winner, but my inability to hurt his players (other than his Hobbos) and his frequent KOing and Injuring of my CDs and Bull Centaurs left me with very few options.

I had a good decent chance to win in overtime but the snake-eyes cost me followed, by probably choosing the poorer option in trying a hand off rather than running downfield towards the end zone.

So despite all the bad luck (I did have some nice rolls, like KOing his Bull Centaur when he had the ball) I really only have myself to blame for that draw and then losing the D6 roll for FUMBBL Cup Championship.

I should have stopped his first half score with my Bull Centaur on turn 8 instead of going for an unlikely score myself. And in overtime, I should have played my turn 7 differently to give myself a second chance at scoring.

But that's javabowl. I certainly had some very good luck in my earlier games in the Cup (eg knocking out most of Evo's team in the first half, and getting the Ref myself against Sinner in game 1) so I can't cry foul hehehe.

At least I suffered nothing more than a SI MNG and got through the tourney undefeated (thanks to no handicap rolls of course hehehe).

The game was enjoyable despite getting fouled repeatedly (and I don't blame my opponent) and being on the end of more bad rolls than good and I am sure some of the up to 51 specs had a good time so all in all, a not a bad way to finish the tourney.

Now onto the DivX tourney with my Zharrduk Terrors!



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