“Four handicaps:

Bad Press
Doom and Gloom
Illegal Drugs (+Str to Str4 Block Guard Lino)
Knuckledusters
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The Unlucky Dark Elves started in offence and were held back on the line of scrimmage initially as the Falcons line held and counterattacked.

The Falcons attacked hard and recovered the ball (2 dice on a guy without Dodge) only to lose it with a lucky blitz and perfect throw in (2 dice without Tackle vs Blodger, then the ball is thrown in 2 squares in front of his AG5 player in the middle of the pitch - it was unlucky to scatter out of bounds in the first place with a base 3 in 8 chance...)

The Blood Falcons ended up allowing an easy score after using two Team Rerolls and not being prepared to use the last reroll to try a 1 dice Blitz.

With 5 turns left, the Falcons were soon struggling as they failed to pick up the ball to start their drive, and then had no success at all with any blocks on one turn to leave them with few options with teh ball.

They were extremely lucky to survive a 2 dice blitz with Tackle on the ball carrier (my opponent had used his RR earlier) and then have the Unlucky Witch Elf with Str4 and Diving Tackle fail her GFI to lay a tackle zone on the ball carrier.

The Falcons with no RR had limited options, and played badly, leaving their ball carrier exposed (I should have run him deep to the corner) and sure enough, the ball was knocked free by the Unlucky elves.

The ball was in the middle of a mass of players, but then was knocked to a great position for the Falcons when an Unlucky Elf leaped onto the ball and sent it bouncing around!

This great piece of luck from above allowed the Falcons to push the Unlucky Elves away from the the Falcons blitzer who scooped up the ball to tie it up at half time.

The second half started with a downpour of rain after the Falcons left their AG5 Thrower on the bench (174 SPP heh)!

The Falcons KO'd one Unlucky Elf, wasted a RR trying to KO the Unlucky Elves Str4 AV6 Witch Elf but managed to secure the ball.

The Unlucky Dark Elves pushed forward in defence and the Blood Falcons took the ball backwards, all the way to their endzone!

The Unlucky Dark Elves sent their Str 4 Diving Tackle Witch to put a TZ on the Blood Falcons ball carrier, but failed the last GFI (I was not that worried about this as I had a 2+ leap to get away from the DT and had AG5 to throw the ball upfield anyway).

This was a crucial turning point as the Falcons not only were able to get the ball caged on the line of scrimmage with relative ease (no need to leap with the Witch and hence I could move her one square further through a more direct path too) but KO'd two more Unlucky Dark Elves to have a 11 to 8 advantage!

The Unlucky Dark Elves attacked the cage and forced the Blood Falcons to push the ball upfield just short of the end zone. The Unlucky Dark Elves chased him down and lay a tackle zone on him, but the Falcons took a gamble and went for the 3+ 2+ dodge to delay scoring.

The Blood Falcons almost lost the ball as the Unlucky Dark Elves sent their drugged up Str5 Lineman dodging into the cage! A team reroll was used to make the 5+ blitz, and the block came up double skull/pows (however, I had heaps of players near by and had sidestep, so unless my opponent managed a pow and a pick up, I still had the advantage).

The Blood Falcons made a truckload of 2+ Leaps and Dodges to set up a full cage. The Unlucky Dark Elves tried to dodge into the cage again, this time with their Witch, but came in from the wrong side and had to go past a tackler when there was another path without tackle.

The rolls were:

Calamity slips past his opponent(s) unhindered.
TACKLE skill used to prevent DODGE skill.
DODGE FINAL RESULT: Calamity
TARGET: 5 --- ROLL: 2 + 0 = 2
Calamity is knocked over.
(5, 5) + 0, (3, 2) + 0, 0: Calamity has been stunned.

Coming around the other way, would have allowed the Dodge reroll which would have been the 5, and then the 2 dice blitz would have been 5 and 3, with the 5 being Dodge/Pow and a knockdown!

The Falcons finally scored and sealed a 2-1 victory.
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My it was a very tough game. Well played by my opponent who kept me under immense pressure. I think he only made one notable error and that was his T15 blitz that went past my Str4 Tackler instead of my Thrower who did not have tackle.

We both had some crazy luck at times to keep us on our toes. My opponent had a very very lucky POW, ball OOB and throw in on his turn 3 to set up a pretty certain score, but then was very unlucky not to steal the ball off me when he later had a two dice blitz with Tackle. Then the perfect scatter for me after he jumped onto the ball as well let me even up the scores.

Course, I made it harder for myself by burning two team RR early and needlessly when I only had 3 RR thanks to Doom and Gloom, so overall, my opponent played better in the first half.

In the second half, I thought we both played pretty well and it was the 3 KOs by my team early on that helped me keep an advantage.

So overall, I think my opponent outplayed me in the first half but luck allowed me to even the scores at half time. Second half, I had slighltly better luck to see me home.

Well played HollowOne, I look forward to a rematch someday. You were a good sport and gave me a real hard match. Respect.
I”