“B Minors - Round I

It's a TR187 mirror match! Grod's orcs are almost identical to ours, right down to the # of skills, stat-ups (both sides have an AGI4 blitzer) and even injuries! We do have a wizard hired which may give us a bit of a boost. Their sole niggler plays on and we are kicking.

They collect the ball with their blodge AGI4 blitzer and get in a gang foul on our troll - just a stun! By turn 2 everyone's near the center and it's looking like a real block-fest. We see the ball carrier + 5 other enemy orcs standing in a fireball-able spot and unleash the wizard! He manages to only knock over 2/6 targets.. bah! Still it's enough for us to get at the ball carrier, stunning him with a blitz and knocking the ball free. But a good turn from Grod sees them steal back the ball while our turn 3 is very poor, with a miscounted blitz only giving us 1d instead of 2! Ouch!

They try and take advantage by running the ball down one side in the hands of their DP, but we quickly knock him over, sending the ball into the crowd who gleefully toss it right back into the brawl in the center. It's a big green mess of punches- though at one stage their AGI4 blodger manages to dodge in and snatch the ball. We manage to push him around and eventually get the POW we need with the black orc who delivered it catching the ball on the bounce. We've also had the better injury dice with their guard lineorc in the BH box, and their stand firm BoB saved from a MNG by their apo. On turn 7 we break through, handing the ball off to a blitzer on the half way line who sprints deep down the far side from most of their players. We get players in to block the way through to him and score to take the lead on turn 8!

They kick for the 2nd half and start piling on the pressure immediately, getting a good blitz on turn 2 that dislodges the ball in our backfield. Then they have a fantastic turn 3, catching the bouncing ball with their stand firm black orc early on, then surrounding him with players. We try our best to get players back, eventually getting a single die block on him that can't dislodge the ball, and they push on to score on turn 5.

They kick and roll up a blitz! Argh! This lets them mess up our first turn plans and get players in towards where the ball is going to land deep in our half. In fact we never get a chance at winning it as we are scrambling to keep them from scoring - never even getting a player into their half. They have a slight chance on turn 7, but a -2d blitz doesn't work, and they save their rerolls for overtime. On turn 8 they kill a blitzer with a DP foul, burning up our apo to save him.

*** OVERTIME ***
Our troll sleeps on but we will be receiving. Lets hope it's better than the last two times we've received! We have 1 RR while the orcs facing us have 2.

They kick and get a perfect defence. This messes up our first turn quite a bit, but we're still able to knock over and then DP foul a block/guard BoB into the BH box- result! We then push through, slowly getting the upper hand in blocks, and eventually scoring on turn 5 without ever losing the ball. They will have 3 turns to try and get a cointoss!

A fan has noticed that Mary, their +MA lineorc has finally come out from the reserves box for the first time all game, and vengefully hurls a rock MNG'ing him! Meanwhile, they aren't getting anywhere with their hurried touchdown attempt, fumbling the ball on turn 1 and then unluckily dropping the catch on turn 2 that would have given them a chance of getting in range for turn 3.

Good game Grod!”