Ordo Bowl '17 Season 1 Round 4 (Game 2) AAR

[During my absence from the blog-o-sphere, I was still active on and off in the hobby. In February of this year, I joined a local gaming club, Ordo Fanaticus, in order to participate in their Blood Bowl league. This BatRep was written for and emailed to my friends after each of those games. Periodically, I will re-post them to this blog. --Zorcon]

Well... the best thing I can say about game 2 is that I bought an Apothecary!

This was round 4 (I joined 2 rounds into the league). My opponent is the leader of the league--Undead, won all 3 previous games 1-0. With his low point scores, low casualties caused, missing a player due to injury, and low star player skills his team value was proportionally low, so I received zero inducements.

The game started out with me loosing the FAME roll by more than double, giving the Undead player +2 FAME. I chose to kick-off.  At my turn 4 (first half), I was playing a near perfect game--My opponent was very worried about his chances of winning. The ball was still on the Undead side of the pitch, about half way to the goal line, one Mummy was out (regenerated a serious injury), the other mummy pinned against the sideline on the opposite side of the pitch with a Chaos Dwarf with claw, and a very good chance of me getting the ball. The Undead coach was completely shut down. On his turn 5, he began a desperate maneuver to send a Ghoul down the middle of the field. I sent the Minotaur on a Break Tackle Blitz to preempt the attempt. I rolled a Double Both Down. This opened up a bigger lane, and let a Ghoul and a Wight on to my side of the pitch. My Turn 6 I had a double dice Block to free up a double dice Blitz on the ball carrier with a Hobgoblin in range to pick up the ball. But I Double Skulled the first roll. The Undead coach was in scoring position, but ran one square from the end zone, and threw a Foul, Badly Hurting a Hobgoblin. The ball was now too far away for me to reach, so I threw 5 or so Blocks, hoping to even up the number of players going into the second half, but couldn't take anyone down. The Undead coach scores on his turn 7. We set-up for a (my) turn 8 kick off, and the Undead coach sacrifices 3 zombies for me to beat up, with the rest of his team almost in his endzone. With 2 Bull Centaurs, 3 Chaos Dwarves and a Minotaur I only managed to knock down 1 of the zombies. But I did farm some SPPs by picking up, and laterally passing the ball. First half ends Undead up 1-0.

I received the kick-off at the second half. The ball scatters favorably and plays into my off-center set up. I pick up and pass the ball, sending a ball carrying-Hobgoblin with a Bull Centaur-screen 6 squares deep into the Undead half of the pitch. My other Bull Centaur, Mino, and Clawed CD stun a couple undead players and the rest of my players form up in base-to-base with the rest of the opponent's team. On my turn 2, I am in 2 GFIs scoring range, requiring a double die Blitz from the Mino--I rolled Double Both-Down! This allowed my opponent to bring pressure onto my ball carrier. On my next turn I failed my first block attempt again, causing Bull Centaur to go down, and the opponent breaks his armor, rolls a 10 on the injury roll, and he's Badly Hurt (out for the game)! A ghoul scoops up the ball and advances towards the line of scrimmage. The Minotaur is in range to Break Tackle and Blitz again but rolls a "1" on the Break Tackle. The opponent breaks my armor, rolls a 12 for injury, and kills the Mino. My Apothecary saves him. This is where everything truly becomes the point of no return. Undead's turn, another Ghoul grabs the ball and runs in a TD. 2-0 Undead. We set up for me to receive on my turn 6. I am down to 7 players (minus 2 Hobgoblins, a Bull Centaur, and a Minotaur). There was a riot, setting the clock back a turn. Now it is my turn 5. I pick up the ball and make a tight wedge into the undead half of the pitch. The last Bull Centaur and clawed-Chaos Dwarf are my linch pins. The Hobgoblin with the ball Stunned and we roll for scatter 3-4 times, each of us with a number of opportunities for players to scoop up the bouncing ball. In the end a Chaos Dwarf found himself holding the ball. Unfortunately, at this point, I am too outnumbered, and too slow to score before the game is over--My turn 7 and 13 squares from the endzone. So I put all my effort over the next 2 turns preventing my opponent from scoring. I am down to 5 players by now (a HG, 3 CDs, and a BC). I loose the ball, but manage to sack the Ghoul receiver on my turn 8 preventing a 0-3 loss. Game ends 0-2 Undead.

My next game will be without the Minotaur and a Hobgoblin. I will get 2 Hobgoblins Journeyman for free unless I buy some players. I do have 90k in the bank, so have the option of a) buying a CD and taking a Journeyman, or b) buying 2 HGs. I probably should take the Chaos Dwarf, lump it with one Journeyman for a game, then theoretically have 12 players the game after (with the return of the two injured players). But I'm really feeling the lack of AG3 on this team, and kind of want to go with 2 HG for deepening my bench and offence/defense flexibility. Option "C" is do neither and play a "friendly" (league standings unaffected) game vs the #2 team in the league (Lizardmen) and take 440k in inducements. I could take Hthark the Unstoppable Bull Centaur star player, a re-roll, and wait to buy any players until before my next league match. Buuuut that would be facing 6x ST4 and a ST5 heavy skill team as a "recovery" game.