“Seems like the Jadefire never showed up, and I don't think I'm disappointed about that, even though we believe in the fun of the game :) Two points and a 2-0 TD difference is added to my score, so even though I have an even TD score, I have a positive modifier, which can only get better if I win the next two games, which I would need to do to have any chance at the top three spots. But that's dreamin... first, we have some orcs to expedite. Chances should be quite good, as I have skills and weight and speed, while the orcs are in dire need of everything, and only two players can tackle my skinks, and one of them can pile onto prone players. Have to watch out for those two, but otherwise... Oh, forgot to mention that they also have Dribblesnot, the star player bomber. So, the plan is to neutralise Junior and Knuckles, and Dribblesnot of course, and then it should be easy if NUFFLE wills it :)

Given the fairly recent promotion of the Mo'rodaz to the main league, one would think that I for once would have the advantage in fans, but no, nothing like it. Seems like the fans are fickle and remember the first two matches of the season quite well. Or maybe they just ordered a monthly Cabalvision certificate and need to sit home to get their moneys worth. With the prices of Cabalvision viewing rights these days, I wouldn't be surprised :)

Orcs are choosing to receive, and we use our normal wedge formation. Orcs are building up a powerful centre, and quickly pushes our LOS back and topples Claws and Brewer, while Lightning sidesteps, only to be hunted down by Knuckles. Thunderstruck, the orc thrower, reaches the deep kick, and picks it up, and runs forward, but is left without guards. Dribblesnot fires up his first bomb for the day and aims for our two right flank saurii, but Idler surprises us all by intercepting the throw and tossing th bomb back at the prone Knuckles. He desperately manages to wriggle away, but Lucky is caght by the explosion and toppled.

This allows us to come in strong from the right, and Idler, supported by Lightning who is now back on his feet, blitzes the leftmost orc flanker, rookie Black orc Da professur and topples him. This allows Idler to get down field to mark Dribblesnot, and Protector and Warrior can crowd around the prone Knuckles to allow Breaker a chance to foul him. Unfortunately, the war yell of a skink can apparently be heard by a referee, so thus alerted, the ref promptly banned Breaker from further play...

Roadblock and Junior pushes Protector away from Dribblesnot to allow him another chance at a bomb, which he throws with better accuracy in between Idler and Protector, but it is Da professur who takes the hardest hit from the bomb. Knuckles gerts off the ground and tackles Warrior, and brings him to the ground, but Warrior wiggles away when knuckles tries to pile onto him. Thunderstruck advances the ball almost to the centre line, and is well protected there, but the orcs have made no attempt so far to cross the centreline and try to score. We spot a weakness in the orcish cage, however, and attacks again from our right. Protector blocks and stuns Lucky, and Claws and Lightning together succeeds in toppling Tantrum. Hopefully, with Tantrum prone and far away from the mainaction and any possible help from his teammates, he will be more confused than a help to the orcs. With lucky and Tantrum out of the way, team captain Fraternizer can blitz Dribblesnot, and with a mighty tackle, Dribblesnot's throwing hand is smashed, sending him to the hospital. This opens up the orcish left flank, and Swimmer and Warrior can get in there to mark down Thunderstruck. Roadblock and Hightower are also maked down by saurii, and so the orcs are left with two sidestepping skinks marking down their thrower, and only one free asset, Junior.

It looked quite good, but the orcs use their few assets well. Da Professur is back on his feet and marks down Idler, allowing Roadblock to knock Warrior out of the game. Then, Junior stuns Swimmer, and Hightower and Thumbs knocks Booster out as well, and suddenly, Thunderstruck is free to act. He gets back behind the two black orcs Hightower and Thumbs, but makes no attempt to advance further. This gives us a tiny chance to repair the situation, even though we are now down 8 players to the orcs 10. Brewer topples Orcules and Fraternizer takes care of Junior, but Claws fails to understand his role in the bigger picture, and refuses to blitz Thumbs to mark down the ballcarrier. While Fraternizer and Claws discusses this finer point of Blood Bowl tactic, we have only Wiggler to stand in the way of three orcs... gah...

The orcs are still more interested in hitting Scavenger players than advancing the ball, though, so when a very eager Da Professur headbutts Lightning and both fall prone, Fraternizer has had time to end his discussion with Claws (you may not think this a big deal with Fraternizer being captain and all, but it takes a certain courage to stand up to a mouth full of teeth walking around on two legs and being 6 feet 6 inches...), and Claws has finally agreed to mark down the two black orcs in return for a shiny two-penny from Fraternizer when the game is over. Claws now can go eagerly into action, holding up the two, and Idler helps him while Fraternizer blitzes around Idler and takes down Thunderstruck. The ball is loose, and our two remaining skinks can try some elfball. Swimmer runs into a scoring position, but the pass from Wiggler never arrives, as the nincompoop fumbles the ball. Luckily, it bounces onto the safer side of Fraternizer.

We have a certainamount of control now, but orcs have some resources available to them. Fortunately, they are more engaged in mayhem, and topples Lightning and rewer without any more injury thantheir pride. Knuckles are then free to put himself in a sweeper position, and in a mighty effort, Thunderstruck gets back onto his feet and dodges Idler to reach the ball. Despite Idlers best efforts, Thunderstruck even manages to pick up the ball and throw it to Knuckles... only to watch Idler's long arms reach out and grab it out of the air. His second interception of the day (the first was a bomb), and Idler is having a field day!

Fraternizer pushes Thunderstruck away, and lets Wiggler mark him down, and Swimmer takes care of Knuckles, but the orcs instead stuns Brewer, thus freeing up Junior and Roadblock. Junior marks down Idler, but Roadblock stumbles on his blitz, and trips himself up. Being outnumbered and with little time left of th half, we do not try anything fancy. Fraternizer blitzes over the prone Roadblck and hits Junior in the side, shoving him to the ground, and thus freed up, Idler can run in his first career touchdown! 1-0 Scavengers!

Booster is back for the line-up, but not Warrior, so we are only 10 against 11 orcs (or rather, 9 orcs and two gobbos), so we need to try something sneaky, like a blitz! Protector gets the honour, and got his sights set on Junior, but orcs have tough armour, and even though Junior is toppled, his armour holds. We also send Winner up for a potential score if Thunderstruck screws up his pick-up. Thunderstruck doesn't, and is also protectoed by the gobbos who comes running up to him. The scrimmage line is the usual mayhem, and in an orgy of violence, Junior knocks out Swimmer and Da Professur sends team captain Fraternizer off the field badly hurt. Nope, says, the apothecary to the stolid team captain. No real danger, you can get on again after some half-time restitution. In their eagerness, orcs have forgotten to put anyone in scoring position, so all we do is to consolidate on the line, while Brewer sends Orcules off the orc Blitzer Orcules badly hurt, but the orc apothecary patches him up again, so he too will be back after halftime. Winner moves up to mark down Thunderstruck, on the odd chance that something great will happen, and for his efforts he get an orc fist to his stomach, sending him down prone, while the two crazy gobbos scream their heads off in support. Thus ebbs the first half out with some more scrambling and shoving on the line of scrimmage, and with Hightower surfed off the field and into the Scavenger fan stands, who promtly knock him senseless. Good fans :)

Nobody bother to come out of the KO box after halftime, so we are up one TD but down one player. Luckily we are receiving now, and should be able to increase our lead to 2-0, thus ending the game in our favour. We have a heavier line than teh orcs, and so pushes the line backwards, while Fraternizer tackles Scratch to the ground and Wiggler catches the high kick and takes the ball to the middle of our half of the field. The Mo'rodaz are pushing back, sending Knuckles and Stabba around our right flank while Junior blitzes Winner and tackles him to the ground on our left flank. We are not interested in our right flank, since we have decided to go left anyway, and our free saurii, Lightning, blitzes and topples Junior and Wiggler can advance protected by Winner. knuckles is marked down, and the troll is toppled, but the orcs have plenty of resources left, and concentrate them on the ballcarrier and his supports. Roadblck and Junior holds off the two saurii, and Orcules blocks the way forward, while the two gobbos tries to get Wiggler down, but Scratch is tripped by Lightnings tail, and his blitz ends ignominously in a tumble and fall.

This allows us to counterattack, and lightning and Fraternizer topples the orc line, while a blitzing Brewer, sends Orcules crashing to the ground. Winner holds the divetackling Stabba awy from Wiggler, who can then advance the ball to within reach of the goalline. Desperate actions are needed, and Junior gets to his feet and dodges away from Fraternizer to blitz Wiggler, who in a plit second decides to drop the ball and wrestle the oncoming mountain to the ground. Da Professur shoves protector back, releasing Thunestruck, but as he scrambles for the loose ball, he gets too eager and trips over himself and lands heavily jst beside the ball. Ball is still loose, but Wiggler is first on his feet and can grab the ball and run it to our second TD of the day, just as a crosstackle from Brewer sends Scratch off the field badly hurt. 2-0 Scavengers and only half of the second half is left. This we cannot loose, particularly not with Warrior back and we are now 10 vs 10.

Orcs set up for a flying gobbo, and are eager to start. Quick on their feet, they pushes our line of scrimmage back, toppling Claws, Lightning and Brewer, and Thunderstruck easily grabs the ball and paseses it to Stabba, who catches it just as easily. We ignore the risks and chooses to attack, letting Booster blitz Junior so we can move two saurii (Booster and Idler) to mark the gobbo, while Warrior and Wiggler advances on each flank. Only Winner holds back, in case the flying gobbo isn't flying far enough... The orcs attack the line and pushes it further back, and Roadblock succeeds in knocking out Lightning, and then comes the flying gobbo! Stabba is tossed, and lands elegantly on our right side, just far enough for him to run in the first orc TD of the day. 2-1 Scavengers and still some time left on the clock.

We are 9 vs 10 now, but go for the score. Idler opens up the orc left flank, allowing Fraternizer to sneak a blitz on Stabba. Unfortunately it was unsuccesful, and the gobbo sidesteps away. Warrior gets into a scoring position while the other holds off the orcs, allowing Wiggler to pick up the ball and carry it to the midline, protected to the rear by Winner. Tantrum, endeared now to the idea of tossing gobbos, grabs Stabba and aims for Wiggler, but fumbles the throw, and Stabba has more than enough trouble by staying on his feet. THe orcs sends Thunderstruck to be sweeper, While Junior moves behind the line of scrimmage on our side, tackling Winner down onto the field and marking down Wiggler, while Knuckles piles onto Brewer to knock him of the field.

Winner supports Protector, who sends Thumbs off the field badly hurt, while Idler sends Hightower the same way. Frternizer suceeds in stunning Knuckles as well, bringing the effective strength of the orcs down to seven, equal with the Scavengers. However, since we had no one free to take out Junior, Wiggler has to make himself scarce, and barely dodges away from him to run towards Warrior, handing the ball off to him, and then Warrior can score our third TD of the day.

No we are 10 players, to the orcs 8, and the orcs try the only gthing they can try, another flying gobbo. However, the uproar caused by the 3rd score among Mo'rodaz' fans takes a long time to quite down, and play is halted as skulls (not all of them dead) and diverse vegetables pelt the field. The referee is kind enough to let time run, so whwen the riot is finally quieted, there is just enough time for Thunderstruck to catch the ball and pass it off to Junior, who promptly misses the catch, and then the ref calls of the match. A solid 3-1 victory and a healthy 5-1 in casualties brings us in a strong position before the final round. If the Vagabonds win their matches, I will be in the play-offs for the second eason in a row!

Idler had a great match, and Claws, for some reason, got the MVP. Maybe they enjoyed the on-field argument between him and Fraternizer?






”