Nov 21, 2016

XMas Bowl II

XMas Bowl II

It was time for the second installment of XMas Bowl and this time it had grown to four game in one day. I was on the fence for a while regarding what race to take, but finally decided on undead, scene my wood elves weren't quite ready yet.

As the deadline for rosters were pushed forward I had another think about what to take and decided that I wanted to play with the miniatures that were painted. So, I borrowed a treeman from my halfling team and two elves from my pro elf/dark elf team.

Roster

Treeman
2x Wardancers (Strip Ball)
3x Catchers
1x Thrower (Leader)
4x Linemen (2x Wrestle)
1x Reroll
Apo

Strip ball and leader were no brainers, but I went with wrestle rather than tackle on the second wardancer because I wanted to spread out the skills and also get two extra pieces, with whom I could safely block.

Without further ado, let's get on with the games (but I didn't take notes, so it will be a brief report).

Game 1 vs Skaven

I started the game by kicking the ball, which I wasn't too sad about. He moved up the pitch fast and scored in his second turn. In those two turns he also managed to use both his rerolls due to a double skull and him forgetting that we had a blizzard. 

For this tournament the weather is either a blizzard (4-10) or nice weather (2-3 and 11-12).
That is also a big reason for me taking wood elves, due to their pure speed.

This meant that I'd have the ball for almost the whole game, if I could hang on to it.
My opponent had chosen block for all of his four gutter runners, which meant that it should be tricky for him getting the ball of me.

He kicked to me and a catcher caught the ball on a high kick and then ran to hide in my backfield.

Catcher with the ball in the backfield
I then just tried to hit as many rats as I could while protecting the ball and moving from side to side.
It worked well and I even injured a linerat, but he had spares, so it didn't really matter in the long run.

He did however manage to make it difficult for me. I had to blitz a thrower away from my ball carrier (the catcher), dodge another catcher out and in to the endzone, then dodge the catcher with the ball out and throw a quick pass to the catcher in the endzone. It worked, even if I started both dodges off with a one.

The second half started with the crowed throwing a stone at a linerat, which was then injured. This meant that I was up on players and could slowly move up the field with the ball and score in my turn 16.

As you can see for the picture, my opponent focused way to much on the treeman trying to take it out with his ratogre (which blocked itself down). I was happy with this, since it left my team free to move around his team.
Elves moving up the pitch
Game 2 vs Ogres

Second game and I was up against ogres. This could be really tricky, if my opponent managed to get my elves off the field. 

I chose to receive the ball, hoping to get a shot in at Grotty, but it wasn't to be. 
Kick off
I scored in my second turn, hoping to steal the ball from him and be up by 2-0, because I didn't think he'd go for the throw that early in the game and even if he would have, that would have either meant that I got the ball back or that I could just pick it up in my backfield.

What happen though, was that I managed to tie him up on the sidelines and steal the ball.
I was then up 2-0 at the break.

The second half was a disaster for my opponent and he just kept rolling 1s.
I stole the ball twice and ended up winning 4-0.

It also put me in second place for most TDs, but as a slann player had won his game by 5-0, it was one TD behind.

Game 3 vs Chaos Pact

I started the game of by kicking and it was a deep kick, which meant that I could get my players between his two lines, i.e. the cage and the LOS players. I even got a shot at the ball with strip ball and the ball was on the ground. My thrower dodged in, and passed it to a catcher, who just needed to catch the ball to run in and score. A 1. Catch skill. Another 1!

A real shame, but nothing I could do about it. My opponent managed to get the ball and ran away from my team. I should have been able to catch him, but I failed a dodge and he could just keep on moving away from my now downed team. It was 0-1 in turn 8, but I still had my one turn TD attempt. 

I set up and should have been able to score, with a bit of luck (GFIs on 3+), but he got a perfect defense and that rendered my chances to less than zero.

As he kicked off the second half, the weather changed to nice and I scored in turn 2. I did so, because I wanted to win the game. Maybe I should have gone for the tie, but I felt like I could do it.

He got the ball and started his turn with a double skull with the ogre. Excellent, I thought, but I didn't manage to get the ball and right when he needed it, he managed to stun all my players, who could safely reach the ball carrier (except for a KOed wardancer). I followed that turn up by failing a GFI for a hit on the ball and he was off again and I couldn't catch him. I tried, but nothing worked. I had two turns ending in missed dodges.

In hindsight, I shouldn't have gone too aggressive after the ogre blocked itself down.
Sometimes it's better to play it cool and get the draw instead of a loss. It could still have turned in to a win, since there was a whole half to play.

Game 4 vs Orcs

I started the game by kicking a deep kick and rolling a blitz on the kick off table. I could have scored in my turn 1, but I wanted to chew up time and decided on stalling. He did blitz the wardancer with the ball and rolled a pow, so I ended up stalling the whole half, i.e. we fought for the ball in his backfield, before I could secure it and just dance around his team.

I then scored fast in my drive, since it didn't really matter if he got the TD in for 2-1 and I had a shot at a 3-0, which would have been good for the most TDs award.

I ended up stopping him (surfing his ball carrier and having a lucky throw in), but sadly, he managed to GFI twice for the hit on the catcher with the ball (see picture, up to the right) and stun him. That meant that I had to go a long way with another catcher for the pass to the wardacner, who was the only player that could score. Sadly, the catcher didn't manage to pick the ball up in a tackle zone and the game ended 2-0.

The last chance for the orcs to stop the 3-0
Conclusion

Wood elves are a fun team to play and I'll play them in my next two tournaments as well (mainly to those tournaments also having best painted awards, which I'll also go for). I should however sometimes just play it cool as I lost game 3 due to it not working out, but it could easily have gone my way with either the catch or the one turner.

Runner Up
I ended up in second place, which I was happy with.
I was one TD short for the Most TDs award, but I was till happy with nine TDs in four games.

Thanks for reading.

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