“Warpstone Open IX Qualifier XIII: Round 1!

Pig Sty Ally had me scared enough that I induced a babe with petty cash. This proved to be totally worth it, as Chainsaw won the toss and decided to let his Necro offense work me over with a BH and 3 KOs in the opening turns. Reeling a bit the elves rallied on defense and walled up and hoped for an opening as their numbers dwindled.

Patience persevered, and on turn 6 we were presented with a loose cage where Hicks could attempt a 75% dodge in for the 2d on the ball. Hicks not only pulled off the bltiz, he KOed the ghoul, caught the bounce and then dodged back out to relative safety. The play of the game for sure!

Of course, safety is relative, and for his trouble he was KOed next turn by Palm Descended from Heaven, but with the presence of mind of a true pro managed to shuffle the ball off in the correct direction as he went down. The Landlady managed to pickup but snaked the first GFI to safety and down she went.

Another fortunate scatter allowed Hudson to grab the ball and run into scoring range - but not out of range of the angelic Palm. A critical play followed as Palm pushed/RR pushed allowing Hudson to SS for a 1d, but Palm got the pow/push and piled on Hudson to KO him - a good thing as it was an easy score if he were still on the pitch. In the end, it was a tense half with only four elves left but the score was prevented. While coach 'saw was witnessed throwing chairs on the way to the locker room and mumbling about snakes, the babe worked her magic on Hicks but left three other elves passed out on the sidelines.

As the second half started, coach 'grue made a gambit to the north marking Palm with Riply in what proved to be a poorly calculated risk which the Nercos exploited with a KO and BH on Ripley (which the apo saved). With 6 elves left any hope of stalling vanished and a desperate run along the north sideline ensued.

Another elf KOed and things look grim as coach Chainsaw builds a wall but strangely opted to keep Palm tucked safely away rather than using his talents along the sideline, forcing a GFI with the Landlord to seal the wall - snakes alive! The elves have a chance! Hicks rescues the day again by blitzing the lone ghoul out of the way allowing Hudson to run it in.

Up 1-0 it's 11 on 8 as the elves cling to the hope they can pull a Gandalf, because OT looks ugly. The fans do their part to help out with a well placed rock at the Landlady. Coach Chainsaw won't have her to yell at about snaking any more GFI!

In the resulting confusion the zombies fail to seal any kind of cage allowing a 1d blitz on the ball which pops it free. The bounce is excellent but the greedy happygrue wants to eat his cake too and tries and ill-advised 3+ pickup with no RR to fall back on. The ball bounces behind Necro lines, and it's all too easy now for Evil Spirit of the Fire Cloud to pick it up and rush it to the other side of the pitch. Strangely though, Coach saw opts to block with the Landlord, saving the blitz for an outnumbered Palm to -2d/-2d (resulting in Palm KOing himself). This leaves the half cage totally isolated and plenty of elves free to rush in. Ripley tries to surf Bone for style points but the fun is spoiled by a pair of pows. With the Golem still on the board, coach 'saw is able to open a path past Hudson for a 4+ 4+ 3+ shot at a tie game but comes up short. Elves mob the remaining scoring options but Chainsaw chains the ghoul halfway out and makes a fantastic last ditch attempt to throw in the TD but fumbles at the last second. Great game sir!”