“We finally met the first of the two Orc teams in the season. They bring a bench (13 players) vs. our minimalistic 11. But most of their players are rookies, so who knows.
They kick and leave the goblin and a lino on the bench. Central kick, we punch and cage. They try to dodge into the cage to blitz Copperhead who is hanging onto the ball but predictably fail. We control the center and switch side. They hunt skinks but don't break armor. We find an opening and we are in TD range by turn 3. Asp BH's himself on a greedy 1D block on the troll. We score at turn 4 - orcs are slow maybe they will not score back.
We try an asymmetric defense setup. If they want to punch sauri they must expose one side. They don't take the bait and put no players in contact on the LoS. Blitz! And Boa has a tackle zone on the landing spot. But they blitz a skink instead, and a blitzer KO himself on a 1D block that goes skull. Fair I guess as we did the same before. Copperhead is in the back so it's Lancehead with his regular AG3 who has to attempt the pickup but fails. But the bounce is good and we have 3 tackle zones on the ball. They blitz the skink on the ball and the bounce is good again - between sauri. The skink is punched onto the ball without following up and the bounce is still next to the two sauri. The referee spots a foul and it's now 10 vs. 9 for us. We bring reinforcements from the back. It's a big brawl around the ball. They push Python onto the ball and now the bounce is good for them - free of snakes! The thrower easily picks up and hides. But with a chainpush we can get Boa next to the thrower and the block is good. The ball is free. Copperhead gets closer. Poor Lancehead is killed. Copperhead gets the ball and scores again by turn 7.
Second half is 8 of us vs. their full squad (Python was fouled into KO in turn 8 and did not recover). We defend deep - probably better if they score than if they kill our team! But the reroll is (wasted) on the troll bone-heading, so the turn ends very quickly when a BoB goes skull/both down on the first block of the turn. Brawl by the LoS and their thrower picks up the ball and waits by one side. We consolidate the defense. They pass to the goblin who handoff to a lino. Are those orcs or elves? We put two skinks on the ball and Boa blitzes himslef free to cover the side. They punch both skinks but only one goes down. They try to dodge out but it's snake eyes for them - the goblin catches the ball. We cannot get a 2D blitz on the ball without a way too risky play, so we use this turn to consolidate our position and to punch all the orcs who did not have a chance to punch us due to the turnover. Copperhead who was waiting in the back starts coming forward. We might be able to score again. The orcs punch two more players into KO but they mark our skink instead of our sauri, and a double both down from a Bob ends the turn prematurely again - before the orcs remove Boa from the ball carrier. Even if we are 6 vs. 10 we clearly have a better position - unfortunately the block on the ball fails. This might be their chance. But the orcs blitz a skink and dodge a Bob out (misclick?) so they are in a really bad position now. The goblin goes down this time and the ball stays within bounds. Cottonmouth gets the ball and runs. One of their linos could blitz with 2 gfi. Instead they go the violent way and try to punch and foul our few remaining players. The Kroxi is only KO'd. Phew. We score in turn 7. They try a one turn touchdown throwing the goblin but it fails.”
They kick and leave the goblin and a lino on the bench. Central kick, we punch and cage. They try to dodge into the cage to blitz Copperhead who is hanging onto the ball but predictably fail. We control the center and switch side. They hunt skinks but don't break armor. We find an opening and we are in TD range by turn 3. Asp BH's himself on a greedy 1D block on the troll. We score at turn 4 - orcs are slow maybe they will not score back.
We try an asymmetric defense setup. If they want to punch sauri they must expose one side. They don't take the bait and put no players in contact on the LoS. Blitz! And Boa has a tackle zone on the landing spot. But they blitz a skink instead, and a blitzer KO himself on a 1D block that goes skull. Fair I guess as we did the same before. Copperhead is in the back so it's Lancehead with his regular AG3 who has to attempt the pickup but fails. But the bounce is good and we have 3 tackle zones on the ball. They blitz the skink on the ball and the bounce is good again - between sauri. The skink is punched onto the ball without following up and the bounce is still next to the two sauri. The referee spots a foul and it's now 10 vs. 9 for us. We bring reinforcements from the back. It's a big brawl around the ball. They push Python onto the ball and now the bounce is good for them - free of snakes! The thrower easily picks up and hides. But with a chainpush we can get Boa next to the thrower and the block is good. The ball is free. Copperhead gets closer. Poor Lancehead is killed. Copperhead gets the ball and scores again by turn 7.
Second half is 8 of us vs. their full squad (Python was fouled into KO in turn 8 and did not recover). We defend deep - probably better if they score than if they kill our team! But the reroll is (wasted) on the troll bone-heading, so the turn ends very quickly when a BoB goes skull/both down on the first block of the turn. Brawl by the LoS and their thrower picks up the ball and waits by one side. We consolidate the defense. They pass to the goblin who handoff to a lino. Are those orcs or elves? We put two skinks on the ball and Boa blitzes himslef free to cover the side. They punch both skinks but only one goes down. They try to dodge out but it's snake eyes for them - the goblin catches the ball. We cannot get a 2D blitz on the ball without a way too risky play, so we use this turn to consolidate our position and to punch all the orcs who did not have a chance to punch us due to the turnover. Copperhead who was waiting in the back starts coming forward. We might be able to score again. The orcs punch two more players into KO but they mark our skink instead of our sauri, and a double both down from a Bob ends the turn prematurely again - before the orcs remove Boa from the ball carrier. Even if we are 6 vs. 10 we clearly have a better position - unfortunately the block on the ball fails. This might be their chance. But the orcs blitz a skink and dodge a Bob out (misclick?) so they are in a really bad position now. The goblin goes down this time and the ball stays within bounds. Cottonmouth gets the ball and runs. One of their linos could blitz with 2 gfi. Instead they go the violent way and try to punch and foul our few remaining players. The Kroxi is only KO'd. Phew. We score in turn 7. They try a one turn touchdown throwing the goblin but it fails.”