“Match 2 – Orangutan Ragnoff vs Profligate Primatologists

The Orangutan Ragnoffs started with the ball, but seem to have some trouble getting started, but after they did get started they were able to knock out one of the what else facing them. They started shifting things to cover the south edge of the field. Profligate Primatologists (elves) reacted strongly moving south, and a wardancerer knocked the strongest line ape to the turf.

In the 2nd turn several more elves were knocked to the turf, although none were badly hurt and banana oh slowly started bringing the ball up the pitch, elves responded, to some extent simply by standing up and moving away, and but they did foul out one line ape and several others rushed the ball carrier chimpanzee.

Silverback was enraged and threw one of the attackers to the ground allowing the chimpanzee to run up and hand off the ball and align chimps printed for the end zone, but could not make it before the elves started to react. And they reacted in a surprising way, ignoring the 4 apes rushing for the end zone, they quickly started beating up and knocking down the apes remaining in the middle of the field. The apes, somewhat disoriented and overwhelmed were not able to return the favor, and the line ape, Bonabaha scored before any one could tell him to do otherwise. Perhaps we should not have promised an entire bunch of bananas to each player who scored the first touchdown?

The apes set up in defense, and it was clear that they only followed a fairly standard defense, it was also clear it was not particularly effective as the elves immediately started blasting through the holes. Before the apes could even figure out what happened, over half the team was in their backfield, including the one carrying the rock. Could we say half the team? All but 2 of the elves made it back there.

What else do the monkeys do, they swarmed! The silverback roared his displeasure (and still had not bothered moving from the starting space) but Ook Ook hit a rookie line elf so hard that he would not return this game. They did not actually think they could contain the agile elves, but hopefully in the press of bodies somebody would slip.

One of the wardancers 's leaped and quickly knocked out the faster of the chimpanzees, which opened a hole for the very agile elf catcher to sneak through and score quickly, and we settled in for the 3rd kickoff of the first half. Earlier the reps have been bribed and the elves had already use their bribe, and now another privateer. The Orangutan Ragnoff's started showing their teeth.

After receiving the ball a couple elves were knocked down, one was passed around back to a line ape who jumped on his stomach and knocked him out of the game. They were unable to knock down one of the stronger elves and the elves started reacting. Once again the fast chimp was knocked to the ground and stunned. A couple elves sneak through to the backfield once again, and suddenly the chimp with the ball is under pressure a desperate plan is hatched as there is little time left in the half, several line ships scattered downfield. The plan is the chimp dodges away from the nearby elf, moves up and throws a desperate pass to the other Chimp, who scampers forward to hand it off to another line ape ... But the first chimp slips and is brought down back near his own goal line resulting in the 2nd elf score of the half as the half ends.

As the 2nd have started, Profligate Primatologists carried the rock and the apes were simply not able to match their agility, resulting in another score for the elves, but the wear and tear was finally catching up with the Profligate Primatologists and they were not able to field the full team.

The apes getting angry were able to score, with 3 turns remaining. Surprisingly, this time there were few enough elves at the apes swarmed after the kickoff, and when the overconfident elves accidentally dropped the ball the apes were able to push them away, pick up the ball and head for the endzone. Time was running out, each team would have only one more shot as the Orangutan Ragnoffsurprisingly tied the game!

The silverback, Oranganoff the Ook, was already calling his postgame banana smoothie (a breach of protocol to be sure, they are only supposed to get those smoothies if they win, but the silverback considered coming back from a 3-1 deficit to tie the game a pretty substantial feet). Most of the team lined up near their own goal line, content to watch the unfortunate line apes get pummeled by the elves. As they were chuckling away all the sudden a wardancer came out of the scrum with the ball much closer to the goal line than the apes could have predicted. He sprinted down, leaped over the line and scored in a single play! There were only 7 elves on the field, how could they have done that!

Frustrated and confused, the apes tried to duplicate the feet, but just could not figure out how. In frustration they finally decided to try and the chimp in the backfield cut so excited he ran up, grabbed the ball, tucked it under his arm and ran for his fellow apes...

...but forgot to hand off or pass the ball before time expired!

Result, 4 – 3 win for Profligate Primatologists and the sad and banana-less hike home for the Orangutan Ragnoffs - who are yet to get to taste the postgame banana smoothie victory drink!

(Note, I have never known how to actually perform a one turn touchdown, or how to defend against it. Both were painfully obvious in this game. m0gw41 even granted me a few minutes to try to look up how to set up for a one turn touchdown, but none of the setups match the situation on the field and I just could not figure it out. All the examples I saw had the 3 opponents line up side-by-side in the middle of the field, the elves were spread out and I just could not figure out how to set up the correct push chains, but all became irrelevant when I hit move with the player in the backfield rather than handoff and/or pass. It was a good game, and my emotions were crazy after being down 3 – 1 with only 5 turns remaining and managing to tie it in four turns - oinly to lose to a 1 turn TD! I strongly considered stalling, to eliminate the possibility of a one turn touchdown, but I could not find a way to protect the ballcarrier on my turn 7 from the leaping wardancers and had already had too much experience with how quickly I would find the ball on the ground if I left the opportunity. I knew the one turn touchdown required several rolls to go correctly and all I could hope that failed one of the blocks, dodges or go-for-its. However, he did not.)

2nd Note: I was going to put in the players names that accomplish the feats above in the text, but I usually do that from the replay. We had to stop playing one night and pick it up the next night, and the replay seems to fail at that point in the sequence and we cannot load or see it.
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