“The match began with a "Throw Rock" kickoff result, which put one of my lineelves into the KO box. I was on the receiving end and subsequently tried to punch a hole through the Skaven lines, badly hurting a Gutter Runner and knocking out another in the process. Finally, I gave the ball to my Wardancer and quickly ran over to the other side of the pitch (badly hurting a Lineman while I was at it). However I had run too far, and his Rat Ogre mercilessly knocked the Wardancer down. He then picked up the loose ball with a linerat, but failed to dodge away from my other Wardancer. I tried to grab the ball, but failed. He then did the same thing as before (picking up the ball and failing to dodge away). This time, I successfully picked the ball up and passed it to Eramiel Kalesh, who had run into the end zone. He caught it, 1-0.

When I kicked off, his Rat Ogre knocked a lineelf in my wide zone out, and sent his players through this hole. However, his attempt to pass the ball to his Storm Vermin failed. I then put some tacklezones around the ball and sent my catcher to pick it up, but he failed. My opponent caused a turnover, and I picked up the ball and tried to hand it to a lineelf, who could try to score (with 2 gfi's). But he dropped it (stupid 1). The next action was one of the most spectatular in the entire match. His remaining Gutter Runner picked up the ball (4+ b/c it was lying in two tackle zones), dodged (2+), passed it to a linerat (3+), who caught it (3+) and scored on his last turn.

In the second half, my kickoff caused a touchback, and he gave the ball to his Rat Ogre, who then went to punch his way through my wide zone, badly hurting a lineelf on his first blitz. I tried to delay him by forcing him to block every turn, but all I got out of this were one KO and one badly hurt player. That is, until turn 5. His Rat Ogre pushed my "bait" lineman back with his first block, and since most of his players were on the ground, he then stood in two other elves' tacklezones. He had to take a one-dice block, and the result was a skull! Lots of bad luck for him, but ultimately a reward for my "baiting" tactics. I seized the loose ball, handed it to Sharim Telamon, and he ran away, with three linemen covering him. Since all but one rat were still on the ground, there was no way for him to prevent me from scoring, thus I won.

Overall, it was a highly interesting match with lots of bashing, casualties and very narrow outcomes. I won not only the match, but also lots of spp and gold, and none of my players were permanently injured, which pleased me very much. :)

Lesson learned: Never trust your Wild Animal with the ball. You will roll skulls in the worst moments. (Murphy's Law, Blood Bowl version ;-))”