“I had my reservations about this matchup: I could have taken it before and opted for a different match instead. Claw, Mighty Blow, Juggernaut, Frenzy, Regeneration, AV9, this Oni had everything to give my team the willies, and the rest of the squad had good ST and skills and decent armor. But it went pretty well, largely to our (mostly lucky) ability to neutralize the Oni, and in part due to good overall armor rolls and favorable blocking.

Yoru no Akuma won the coin toss and elected to receive. We got a Perfect D, though we didn't do anything crazy with it. Akuma's line blocking was pretty solid, and coach Sigmar1 managed to free up his Oni, Shikei Senkoku, to blitz my Guard, Gnome Corundum, which turned out to be a mistake, as a push and an armor-fail left Shikei in contact with Undine Naiad. Naiad proceeded to fracture Shikei's skull, drawing out the team apothecary, and setting up Gnome Feldspar to knock out one of Akuma's two Sumo, Kyodaina Tsuri. Meanwhile, the other Sumo, Kotai Yama, did some knocking out of his own, sending Gnome Beryl to the dugout and opening a lane for a Samurai, Seimitsu Ken, to run out of reach with the ball. Naiad was able to sidle up on Seimitsu, but it couldn't hold him, and he slipped away for the score on turn 3.

Tsuri stayed out on defense for the next drive, setting up 11 on 10. Another Perfect D was rolled, and both Kotai and Shikei went to the LOS, a plan which was to prove disastrous, as it sent both of them to the ground, Kotai surrounded and Shikei manned up against Gnome Garnet, who earned his MVP wasting Shikei's time for a couple turns attempting to stand up on a 4+. The ball, however, popped deep into the north endzone corner, and when Sylph Apsara failed the pickup it bounced out of bounds and scattered up to midfield, where two Samurai pounced upon it, though they could not quite get their Tackle Zones onto the ball itself. The Gnomes managed to get a grip on the ball and turn the affair into a nasty scrum, where their positioning skills carried the day. Grome got a Casualty on a lino, stretching Sigmar1's resources thin; he decided not to risk a 2d-into-1/2d block on Grome with Shikei, and instead attempted to control the backside of the play. This failed when he skulled out, leaving Shikei manned up on Grome, who knocked him down and opened a hole for Apsara to slip through. Blitzer Takemina Shi broke free and knocked Apsara down, but Salamander Alpestris surfed Takemina's support and scooped the ball, while Undines Naiad and Nereid flanked Takemina himself. Gnome Feldspar killed Kotai Yama, and freed Gnome Garnet up to lend an assist to Nereid. This was in vain, as Takemina double-powed Nereid and marched onto the ball, where we had a heck of a time getting him off of it, and finally Alpestris had to settle for a dodge to get free and score the T8 TD, which fortunately was successful.

Kyodaina Tsuri stayed off the pitch for the second half, leaving the opposition with scant resources to stop a grind. We exposed Naiad on the north side of the pitch, and Shikei went barreling straight for it, knocking it down and setting up a foul that resulted in just an ejection for Hachi, putting the Nipponese further down men, and setting up another blitz by Naiad on Shikei, followed by an unsuccessful gangfoul. Shikei broke free by blitzing Alpestris, but by that time the damage had been done, and Apsara was sprinting downfield unopposed. To add injury to insult, Grome marched right up and maimed the recently-freed Oni, with Regenerate failing. For the last quarter of the game, Sigmar1 decided the team was done and just lay down and didn't get up. I repositioned a little and fouled him once to see if it would get him going, but all he did was complain that I was taking too long, so we clicked through to the last turn, where Apsara walked in the TD.

I actually feel that coach Sigmar could have made something of this squad. Hire a new Sumo, go Oni-less for a few games, this team has all the pieces to survive at the rookie level. My complaint about the roster is twofold: Sumos are too expensive, and Oni are too good (even though the price is right). 90k Sumos and 160k Oni with less awesomeness somehow (cough, Juggernaut, cough) would make for a more fun roster that was easier to manage at different TVs.”