Ordo Bowl '17 Season 1 Round 4 (Game 3) 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]

This counts as a make up game for missing round 1 of the league.

A turn of events with a player dropping out of the league moved my schedule up to play the former 2nd place team (now 3rd place)--Lizardmen with 440k higher team value. I did not get to play a friendly game first, so I was still down a Minotaur and Hobgoblin. With inducements I purchased Hthark (a Bull Centuar Star Player) and a Chaos Dwarf Mercenary.

On to the recap. Skinks are fassssst! I not only underestimated their speed, but I also misjudged the brutality of 6x ST4 Sauruses and a ST5 Kroxigor. I lost the flip and kicked off to the lizards. The offence crashes the line of scrimmage and makes a play to slide down my sideline. The Chaos Dwarves are outmatched--they can't make a favorable block, the Hobgoblins fair worse with one getting KO'd. But a Hthark blitz's with a break tackle out of the pack to get in base to base with a skink ball carrier. On the lizardman turn 2, they pull a reverse, with a dodge, a pass completion, and run the ball in for a TD. Now I am starting my *second* turn down a point. Ungh! This is going to be a long game.
 
I set up to receive the kickoff down a player. Rolling on the kickoff table, we get Throw a Rock, knocking out Hthark, my star player! Now I am down 2 players (including my best player) before I even get the ball. I had set up my offence strong to my side of the field and the ball lands favorably. I get the ball to a Bull Centaur with a hand off, set up a cage and keep as many players as possible out of block range. The lizardmen crash in hard, pushing a Chaos Dwarf off the pitch, and badly hurting a Hobgoblin. Over the next few turns my 2 Bull Centaurs work in tandem to crawl the ball down field even though I was down players overall. Eventually, I was in striking distance and broke a Bull Centaur free with a Blitz, allowing the other Bull Centaur with the ball to sprint down the sideline next to him. It wasn't far enough to score, but I was positioned so only skinks could reach us. Remarkably, the skinks managed to single die block the ball carrier and knock him down--but there was no one left to pick up the ball. On my turn 7, with a Blitz, a Bull Centaur picked up the ball on a 4+ (with re-roll), 3 Go for Its (re-roll-able), I tie the game. On turn 8 of the first half, I kick off and we take turns cracking heads.
 
I get to receive the ball opening the second half with 10 men to 11. I set up slightly strong to my side of the pitch and the ball lands favorably. I again try to have a hobgoblin hand off the ball to a Bull Centaur, but the hand off fails. Fortunately the ball lands back in the Hobgoblin's hand, although my turn still ends. Besides that fail, things seem to be going well with Hthark back in play. I am also getting the feel for Chaos Dwarves. While one-on-one, a Chaos Dwarf cant throw favorable blocks vs all the high strength lizardmen, on the flip side, they can still tie up the opposition with their high AV and thick skull. I begin to loosen up my offence and stop trying to line up 1 or 2 die blocks (committing 2-3 players per Saurus) and instead focus on tying up more players. I manage to score on turn 3 of the second half, taking the lead 2-1.
 
A Hobgoblin was KO'd during the previous drive, so I am setting up to kick-off 9 players to 11. I had a Hobgoblin with kick, so I tried to kick the ball short. The ball bounce favorably towards the line of scrimmage and the kick off table allowed all of my players to move one square. I got all three Bull Centaurs onto the opponents side of the pitch and backed all my Chaos Dwarves away from the opponent's high strength players. The lizardman threw a double die blitz and rolled double push. He wanted to take me down and re-rolled, resulting in a double skull, ending his turn with the ball exposed. I move on the ball and a Bull Centaur picks it up with Hthark and the other Bull Centaur running a screen. The rest of my team starts to move towards the ball. Over the next few rounds, the lizardman targets all the Hobgoblins, while using the Kroxigor and swarming skinks to stop my advancement. Before I realize it, I am down to 7 players on the pitch (including an injured Bull Centaur). I focus of clearing out some players and manage to laterally blitz a couple players off the pitch and squash some skinks bringing my opponent down to 8 players. The Kroxagor finally takes down the ball carrier and a skink scoops up the ball and makes a pass across field. The receiver isn't very deep, it is my turn 7, and I manage to get a Chaos Dwarf to Blitz the Skink with the ball. The lizard player has 2 turns to get the ball back and score. His turn 7 ended early with a double failed 2+ Dodge. I shored up defense of the ball, adding 3 tackle zones on the ball. I ended my turn throwing a block on a skink that was in range to pick up the ball and killed him. Now we are down to the last turn of the game. The opposing coach has a plan to get the ball and pass it to score, tying the game. It requires a Saurus for 2 go for its and a blitz (to free up the ball) and then a Skink to pick up, pass, and then another Skink to catch and score--The Saurus successfully makes the Blitz, knocking the Chaos Dwarf onto the ball, scattering it. To the dismay of the lizardman coach, the ball scatters onto the Saurus that threw the Blitz and he rolled a 6, catching the ball, ending his turn and the game. I win 2-1.
 
I suffered 3 casualties (a Hobgoblin and a Bull Centaur out for the game), and a Hobgoblin loosing a Movement and missing a game. I caused 1 casualty, killing the skink on my last turn of the game.
Post game, I had enough money in my treasury I had to spend it or risk loosing a chunk of it. So I bought my 5th Chaos Dwarf, and my 5th Hobgoblin, totaling 13 players, with 1 Hobgoblin missing the next game.