“Running into the LC winners in the second round, while having a guard rogre and two block/dp linemen mng:ed didn't sound like a fun prospect of a game.

Oh how wrong I was!

I had 55k of gold to spend the game, and chose to recruit a new lineman. In retrospect, I probably should have freebooted two linemen instead.

Oh how I wish I had no mng:s and could have afforded a wiz instead...

Oh well, I'll come better prepped next year.

The game was, like I hinted, incredibly fun. I managed to take the lead in his drive, after his monster cage exposed a hole: vanity. Trying to skill up the "right" player led to losing the ball - something my gutter runner was able to capitalize upon!

At this point, I still had all my four monstrous GR:s in play, and all players lost was KO/BH, and possibly one ejection. I managed to steal the ball, pass it to a well positioned player, and run out of harm's way.

Thus, I scored 1-0 in the 6th turn. Maybe if I could hold him back 'til halftime, I could go for 2-0 in the second half and win the game?

Well, that wasn't easy. I had seven players to choose from, and no KO:s to hope for. I could have positioned my passblockers better perhaps, and that might be why he managed to score in the end. With the goblin I was going to blitz, when my dodge failed.

Oh well, still a shot at scoring 2-1 in the second half and thus have a fighting chance?

Certainly! But I lost 2 gutter runners in the end of the half, and never really had much of a chance since.

In the second half, I managed to score to take the lead (yay speed, ag5 and well...yeah, that's it).

I contemplated positioning my remaining two gutter runners offensively, hoping for a blitz roll, steal the ball and score, as that might be my only chance.

Well, I didn't. And the kick-off roll wasn't blitz either.

Buuut, I did manage to break his cage once. A thrower held the ball, with block but no dodge. One corner didn't have guard, so I tied that player up with a storm vermin. My ag5 dauntless, horns leap GR then sprung into action and removed the ball from out of the thrower's hands.

Unfortunately, I had to blitz the player away from my other gutter runner. I did manage to get hold of the ball - but never get it out of harm's way.

That was about as close as I came. At that point, my wish for nothing but badly hurt injuries had also come true, save one apothed rip on a gutter runner.

In the end, the injury tally wasn't too bad - my already niggled -ma +st claw tackle SV was niggled yet again, and thus retired. A +ag lino died, and two strong players will miss the next game.

Nothing I can't rebuild from.

Hope to see rafa again in a tourney with these teams!

Gl from now on.”