“FUMBBL Black Cup VII - Round 1

Facing Chaos and 120 TV down considered taking Hackenslash but in the end plumped for 2 babes as given the amount of Mb I'd be facing, it felt inevitable that I would be shorthanded at some point.

I won the toss and elected to receive figuring that my best chance was to get a TD on the board and hope to upset his offence enough to prevent a score in the second half. First turn of first half - great start with a knockdown, stun, KO (on the Sf,block guard beastman) and BH on the dodge, tackle, block batsman sets me up nicely. My opponent mostly stands back so then in my second turn I go for a gfi blitz and use up a re-roll on the GFI and roll double skulls. I then get a bit out of position and play pretty poorly for a couple of turns. Oppo is clever and uses a push to place the St5 warrior next to my ghoul ball carrier and takes him down easily. So at my turn 4, the ball is loose and I'm out of position but still up 11 vs 9. I loos a zombie (-Ma - regen fail) to mighty hit from the Mino and more importantly one of the fleshies gets stunned on a well placed foul. I make a poor attempt at switching the play from one flank to the other but immediately loose the other fleshie to a BH (regen fail). My oppo responds well and covered the flank and I make a rather desperate bid to keep going sending the wolf with the ball down one side screened by the rookie ghoul and my skilled wight. My oppo deals with this easily and Pow stuns the wolf - so only two turns left and badly out of position. Time for a very long shot and my ag4 wight picks up the ball and dodges through multiple tzs (4+, 3+ 2+) to try and get close to the end zone but fails a GFI and spills the ball. Opposing coach takes the opportunity to blitz my other wolf who is also stunned and takes out another zombie with a BH which regenerates. He then secures the ball and puts a beastman in scoring zone for his last turn. On my final turn then I dodge the ghoul to assist and one die block the ball carrier - skull re roll push/pow and tackle takes him down! Zerker then picks the ball up on a 2+ and makes the GFI to score what was a very unlikely TD. In his last turn of the first half, the opposing coach stuns the two zombies and BH's another one - successfully regenerated.

So to the second half and we line up 11 vs 10 - his KO'd beastman returning. The next eight turns are mega punishment with player after player making his way to the KO box and my wolves surviving multiple fouls. This should probably be an example of how not to defend vs chaos and I was lucky that the players went mostly to the KO box and not many casualties. Another foul on Zooop - the ag4 wolf results in a BH which is regenerated and his Dp being sent off by the ref. I end up with two players on the pitch and can do nothing to stop the score in T8. So my final turn of the game - LoS blocks and only a stun and two knockdowns but I surround the block guard stand firm beastman and foul him with 6 assists - he is killed and the apo fails - re rolled to killed - I get a new Zombie - yay! My opponent did not need to use a single re-roll during the second half.

So to overtime! I still have 2 re-rolls and thanks to the babes have full 11 players whilst the chaos team line up with only 8 players and 4 re-rolls. The chaos team win the toss and elect to receive and my kicker manages to place the ball right in the back of his half near the endzone. I get perfect defence which feels like its hugely important given that I outnumber the opposition and it gives me the chance to place a wolf where he can pressure the ball. In his first turn of the second half and before securing the ball, he makes a series of block and uses a re-roll to change double skulls but then two block later hits double skulls again. My team leaps at the opportunity and runs around the LoS to put as many players in reach of the ball as possible. He picks the ball up but is isolated and support fails to arrive after a failed dodge with reroll. I use my tackle wight to blitz his blodging ball-carrier and a powpush frees the ball for Zoop to pick up and score - game over!

Nuffle was certainly kind to me in this game - I hope it carries on into the rest of the Cup!”