“Yet another typical game against Quaruk - fast-moving, high-scoring, challenging, fun.

I've come to realise that my play style - at least on offence - can be accurately described as House-of-Cards-in-a-Breeze style. I set up very precisely, fully expecting to be able to do exactly what I plan, and this is usually *spoiler alert!* throw a pass to a catcher just behind the line who can run it back to the passer and hand-off ready for a long bomb on the following turn to any of the various potential targets I've run downfield into scoring range. It's an obvious strategy, it's fun, and it gives me lots of passing yards.

It's also fairly easy to defend against.

It also relies on a lot of nice dice, and when things go wrong, it's usually a complete disaster.

So today, my first attempt ended almost immediately with a pitch invasion that stunned the thrower, as well as a couple of the potential catchers. Fortunately, Quaruk had set his skinks far enough back that they couldn't make it to the ball, but it did mean the thrower had to go for it twice in order to reach the ball on his following turn, and his only available target was on the line of scrimmage. However, after a rerolled failed dodge and a hand-off in a TZ, I was still able to run in the score on turn 2.

On offence, the Jungle Fighters had two very clear goals. The first was to keep the ball safe and score as quickly as possible, the second was to deal with my MB tackling wardancer who, let's face it, was likely to make mincemeat of the skinks if he ever got close enough. The scoring part Quaruk took care of easily enough, but the lucky old wardancer survived a series of blitzes and fouls and was still there ready for the reset after the Jungle Fighters had got the touchdown.

Then came the second house of cards moments, when the thrower rolled a double 1 on the pass. Again, the skins were too far back to capitalise, but this time the sauruses were ready. The first one sent the pesky wardancer off to the BH box, the second stunned the thrower. Then the skins came along and stole the ball.

That's the problem with the Jungle Fighters - not only do you have these blodging sauruses, but you also have to deal with not one, not two, but THREE skins who all have +MA and +AG. And side step. They're better ball handlers than the elves and they just do not fall over - especially once your only tackler is missing the whole of the second half.

So, of course, the Jungle Fighters got the ball to start the second half, and with very little chance of stopping the skinks, I went for the saurus instead. Tree blitz time! A lucky hit on a three-skill saurus resulted in a niggler, so Quaruk used the apo and converted it to a death. Typical.

But it still wasn't enough to stop the blue tide and Quaruk soon put the game beyond reach with another quick score. I then squeezed in a late score, just to make it look closer than it really was, and that was that.

So another loss, and the loss of some fans, but some good cash and four skill rolls to compensate. Yet again, I failed to use either my own, or the spare apothecary I picked up, but when I see the mess Quaruk's made of his attempt, maybe this wasn't such a bad idea. It would have been nice to keep the tackler on for the second half, but really, using an apo on a BH is just asking for trouble later on.

So, there you have it. A nice fun game to start the day and now I'm off for a late breakfast.”