Ordo Bowl '17 Season 1 Finals 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]

I played my playoff game vs Undead last Thursday.

My opponent hired a wizard with his inducement. I won the coin toss and chose to kick-off.

First half. What a grind! I kicked deep, and we immediately commenced beating each other up. I was able to keep the undead on their side of the pitch for about 5 turns. A Ghoul broke free and got past the line of scrimmage. A Bull Centaur caught him and put him down on turn 6. A hobgoblin scooped up the ball and handed it off to another HG. He and the other Bull Centaur made a run for the endzone. I had the undead completely locked down except for 2 Ghouls. On my turn 8 I needed a 2-die Block, a 2-die Blitz and 2 GFIs. I failed the second GFI, broke armor, and serious injury on turn 8, ending the half 0-0.

Second half. I am receiving. The ball scatters 2 squares from the line of scrimmage, and the Undead get a Blitz! On his free turn, a ghoul gets under the ball and catches it!!! The opposing coach also manages to stun 3 players and get 4 defenders around the ball before my first turn of the half. I close in, trying to keep lanes closed while keeping the 2 Mummies busy. We go back and forth a few rounds like this with no one gaining an advantage. Finally a Mummy takes down one of my defenders, which allows a chain of blocks to free up the Ghoul ball carrier. Ho makes a run for it. This Ghoul has +1 MA and is sitting 10 squares from the endzone--# Dodges and 2 GFI to score. He fails the second GFI, broke armor, and serious injury. That was only turn 2!!. I caught a serious lucky break, although at the time I felt Karmacly avenged with the Undead's lucky kick-off, and my GFI fail to score last half. The next 4 turns were a comical scene of me trying to pick up the ball with my Sure Hands Hobgoblin and handing it off to a Bull Centaur (with the intent he would make a run for it and be harder to take down). However, I did slowly manage to make some progress by moving the Bull Centaur first on a couple of turns. But every advance on my turn was stopped by a timely Ghoul Blitz. Even though I was removing players off the pitch (mostly by way of KO) and had a serious numbers advantage, I just could not get the ball into the Bull Centaurs hands until my turn 6. Then the wizard zapped the BC with a lightning bolt, putting him down, but not breaking armor. He got 2 Ghouls to the ball, with one picking it up. On my turn I took them both down and the ball scattered close enough for a Hobgoblin to score with 2 GFIs. I went for it and failed the second GFI. Fortunately the ball scattered to the left. His nearest player was a prone Ghoul and with 2 GFIs, he could only get adjacent to the ball--guess what... he failed the second GFI, broke armor, and serious injury! On my turn 7 my prone Sure Hands Hobgoblin stands up and tries to pick up the ball in the endzone--Nope, scatters to the right! The undead player has no-one in reach. My turn 8, I position a Hobgoblin to the left and right of the ball and send a third HG in to pick up the ball. This time *IF* he fails, there is still potential to catch the scattered ball and score. This time old "Sure Hands" is flanking the ball, so an unskilled HG comes running up field to try and pick up the ball--I score on turn 16! My opponent had one turn left to bash heads and he took it, but did not break any armor.

Game ends, I win 1-0. The Casualty side of the game also ends in my favor at 3-1, with 2-1 of that due to self inflicted wounds from failed GFIs. This was a real nail bitter. The store was already announcing the countdown to close and it looked like the game was going to end in a 0-0 tie. The commissioner was prepared to open up the club house for us to finish, but that last second score was a surprisingly tedious and difficult point.

My final stats for the season (8 games + 1 game play-off) are: 8-1-0, 12 TDs for, 4 TD against, 17 casualties for, 8 casualties against. Factoring in the Friendly game, my 10-game stat totals are: 8-2-0, 12 TDs for, 6 TD against, 20 casualties for, 9 casualties against.

The upper league is still in the semi-finals of there playoffs--Pro Elf vs Necromantic (Won) and Dark Elf vs Lizardman (TBA). I am interested in playing the eventual winner of that league, but will have to see how things end up there and if that player is also interested.