“I love games like this - fast, high-scoring and surprisingly tactical. I had some poor luck at crucial points, but I certainly can't complain, because Thoriin was just as unlucky on occasion and also, I really messed up a perfect chance to go 2-0 up early on and have no one to blame but myself for it.

So off we go...

I received, and ran a typical two-turn score via a nice long bomb. It wasn't quite as easy as that makes it sound, because Thoriin's [R]ats have some pretty nifty gutter runners that easily out-moved and out-blocked my catchers, but my MA9 wardancer makes for a fairly useful back-up catcher when he has to.

Then came the first of the [R]ats's one-turn attempts, and it was all going so nicely until the poor gutter runner tripped on his final go for it, leaving himself stunned and the ball conveniently near my thrower. So I ran a few players downfield and set up for another nice long bomb to get the ball comfortably into a reasonable pocket downfield. There was the fearsome wrestle/strip ball runner to worry about, but he was pretty much on his own and I had four players nearby. Anyway, off I went, picking up the ball and then realising that having just run into the TZ of Skitter Stab-Stab, my thrower was still one square out of range of his target. Damn! I threw to a closer target instead, but despite his sure feet, he tripped while trying to get to safety and because of my poor positioning of players, the rats were able to get hold of the loose ball without trouble and then get it back down for the score.

The second shaven score came on the following drive, and this time I can fairly safely blame the dice for my failure. I set it up as usual, ad then because of the blanket coverage from the rats I needed to get someone down for a blitz to free-up a catcher. And in order to get the blitzer free I either had to dodge (which would have been the obvious decision) or block the linerat standing next to him with my rookie first. Needless to say, I chose the block, rolled double both over and then rerolled it to double skulls.

As a reward for this blunder, Les [R]ats kindly killed one of my catchers on the way to getting themselves the go-ahead score.

Still, there was everything to play for, so I played on and managed a second score on my final turn.

But then there was a one-turner of course. For a while I thought I might have got away with it as Thoriin concentrated on trying to knock down the tree first, and because his luck was no better than mine, he found himself with the MA10 runner in the tree's TZ. But that's where Thoriin's bad luck ended for the turn and the little fella caught the pass, dodged free and then made all his go for it and dodges downfield, making up for his poor effort earlier.

And then with the rats receiving at the start of the second half, he did the same thing again and scored once more, despite the fact that I'd rolled a blitz on the kick-off.

So that was basically it for the wood elves. I did pull one back in typical fashion with another long bomb, but that still left me 3-4 down and the rats with the ball.

There then followed the longest drive of the game, at the end of which Morta II was yet again down by my endzone with the ball and there was no one on my team who could reach him. Still, I ran the wardancer down just for the fun of it. And then on his final turn, Thoriin went for a quick block before scoring and, with no rerolls left, rolled a double skull!

Suddenly I was in with a chance. A two-dice blitz, with tackle, could free up the ball and possibly even send it out of bounds. A lucky throw in would then allow my thrower to get to the ball, pass downfield to one of the catchers who was in easy range of the endzone and I would have secured a last-turn draw with an epic play worthy of its own paragraph in the match report...

So I also rolled double skulls, and that was that.

I'm not bitter. It was an excellent game and fun from start to finish. So much more fun than a 2-1 slug-fest. And the rewards were amazing. No lost fans, and 3 skill rolls - which were a double for both catchers and a +AG for the thrower on his final skill. I would happily have lost 0-10 and had half-a-dozen players die for that result. Okay, so my TR has sky-rocketed, but that's okay. I'm sure someone will kindly bring it down again over the next few games!

A perfect way to spend a Sunday morning!”