“Centurian and a Half took the kick off. They loaded up the front line to knock down all the stronger rotters and quickly realized their mistake. With 7 longbeards tied up on the line of scrimmage, the opposing beastmen had free range to annoy and harass the 4 backfield dwarf players. Fully utilizing their better blockin, the dwarves kept the Nurgle team on their back and out of blocking position. Their blocks produced an important casualty in turn three. However, the dwarves were no able to protect every approach to the ball carrier. He was knocked down by the excellent blitzing of a beast man. By turn 4, the Nurgles opened up the cage, manipulated the ball into open field and scored.

Usually a counter score is a death sentence for a dwarf team, but to make matters worse, the Nurgle team blitzed the following kickoff. The dwarves would start thier drive with a thoroughly penetrated backfield and tackle zones on their ball handlers. But, Centurian and a Half were not done yet. They knocked out a beastman, then ended thier own drive with a failed block. A Nurgle beastman who used the blitz to get deep into Centurian space, scooped up the ball and tried to put distance between himslef and the closest longbeard. Another counter score would be the end of the game, but he fell down in excitement and breathed new life into the Dwarf team. It was turn 6. A block here and block there, and a longbeard lumbered down the field. A quick dash to get the ball, and then a 10 pace throw....COMPLETE!

The block skill (or lack of it) would prove it's usefulness when the Nurgles ended their drive with a failed block that would have freed up a useful blitzer. Turn 7, the longbeard lumbered closer to the goal and out of range of any reasonable blitz. In this coaches opinion, the game was won on this turn. The dwarves caused one more BH and one more knock out. The following turn, one more Beastman was badly hurt when trying a desperation dodge to blitz the ballcarrier and prevent the eqaulizing score. The half ended with the murder of a friendly Longbeard named James Burn. Not satisfied with one death, the Nurgles were caught fouling.

The second half started with the Dwarf team having a three man advantage, a kick off that landed in the flanks on the line of scrimmage, and a perfect defense. The Nurgles had a chance to sweep the ball to the open field, but the mass of dwarves was too much and the ball fell free when the Beast failed his dodge. The dwarves picked up the ball and pressed downfield. For two turns, the Nurgle team had chances to knock down the ball carrier. The block skill saved him both times, once able to secure the ball, the dwarves played a classic stall and scored on the last turn for the 2-1 victory.

I love this match because I got outplayed early. Draxcore out-positioned me, out-maneuvered me, and just plain beat me. I got a lucky pass play to equalize the half. If not for good blocking and a 3 man advantage, I would have lost this game. I love it because it taught me a valuable lesson in how to play my dwarves. Don't over commit anywhere, you don't have the speed or the AG to recover.”