“This was a challenging match, played under time constraints. On the Orc side it came down to two profoundly ill-timed dice fails, plus a bonehead move in Turn 15 that made a tying score impossible.

The first half was a classic full-squad Orc drive up the left side of the field, with Loners marking Sauruses out of action where possible. My strategy was to rely on the Orc advantage in terms of Block skill, and hope for more downs, and dicefails on my opponent's part. No such luck. Opponent did an excellent job keeping Skinks away from harm and as a result there were few armour breaks. Then in Turn 7 the Orcs made our move, and promptly 1-1'd the handoff to a Blitzer in no TZs. So much for the drive. I had the impression the block dice favoured the Lizards in this drive so I went into the replay: of 34 2d blocks, only 1 was double-both-down or skull, and 65% were downing blocks (Pow or Pow/Push). (Avg would be 4/34 bothdown, 56% down). My block dice were exactly average at 56%, and NO bothdowns of 23 2d blocks made (although I would have survived some of those), so I can't complain too much.

The second half saw the Lizzies receive, and the point was more or less conceded on a defensive 1-1 GFI with reroll that was totally unnecessary (aren't they all). The recovery blitz was there but required a 3+ dodge with reroll, which failed and ended that effort as well. A 1/36 and a 1/9 at exactly the wrong times, similar to the 1/9 catch fail from half 1. Nuffle has a sense of humour -- saves us both from the 1/9 bothdown scourge but then hits us (or me, I guess) with 1/9s of a different kind.

The Orcs then had 3 turns to tie and the Lizzies retreated, which felt very strange -- so strange that I totally neglected the Saurus who was stunned on the kickoff, who then got up and blitzed my unguarded Thrower in Turn 16, ending any hope of recovery.

A good match, kind of silly dice but in the end another reminder that I don't have a clue how to bash properly! Best of luck to Oil in future games.
”