“It's so easy to look at a team of vampires and think, oh this will be easy, most of the team are unskilled thralls. But it never is that easy. Vampires are tough hombres - especially once they've picked up some useful skills. ST4 and AG4 is just such a tough combination to deal with.

What's even harder to deal with is a vampire team coached by someone who actually knows what they're doing. I've played plenty of games against coaches that have never once bothered to use hypnotic gaze, and that puts a vampire team at a severe disadvantage. You're paying for HG, so why not use it. And use it properly.

No problem with that here. Apart from one slightly embarrassing moment I'll get to in a minute, Java knew exactly what he was doing with HG and used it brilliantly. This was especially true for his second TD. I'd stolen the ball off him and had it right back in my own endzone, protected by a 3-player defensive line. There was no way Java was going to break through, so instead he leapt in with the AG5 vampire, knocked the ball free and saw it land right in the far corner. There was no way to get through to it... except there was by squeezing a vampire in to HG my catcher and free up a path to the ball. Pure genius!

The embarrassing moment came on Java's first possession. Ezekiel, his best player had the ball but was standing right beside the tree, so he decided to dodge away and run downfield. Sure enough he failed his bloodlust - not a problem, there were plenty of thralls about, but in a moment of pure brain freeze, Java forgot he was thirsty and ran him downfield anyway. This kindly took him out of play and left the ball out in the open and within easy reach of my thrower so I was literally handed my second TD on a plate.

Apart from that though, the vampires proved to be a formidable bunch. They were fearless in attacking the tree, rather than simply running away from it, and this took away a lot of my offensive power - especially after Ezekiel took out my wardancer and one of his own thralls in the same turn. In fact, he finished the game with two wood elves and two thralls to his tally and has just gone on to become blood.co.uk's first legend. Good job!

SOME THiNGS I LEARNED

The obvious one is never under-estimate vampires.
Also, watch out for hypnotic gaze.
Also, I need to give one of my players kick. It's such a useful thing to be able to place the ball pretty much exactly where you want it - deep if you think you can outrun your opponent of if they're going to struggle to get it back upfield quickly, shallow if they've left a gap on one side of their defence you can make use of. It's not a skill I often take, as there always seems to be something I'd rather have first, but it's definitely one I'll use from now on.

So another draw - and one I have to say I was lucky to get. That second TD was a gift and if it had been 2-2 at the half instead of 3-1, I don't think I would have had enough of a team left to prevent Java finishing 4-3 up. Still, I'll take what I can and be grateful for it. A draw, a fun game, some good chat, and a couple of funny moments to remember.”