The Warpdivers finally suffered their first loss tonight at the hands of the Sons of Northern Darkness. Things didn't look good early, as William Taft, the academically gifted troll, suffered a badly hurt on turn 2 (or 3?) and failed his regen roll. I thought Nuffle had changed his mind when a Skaven lineman broke free for a score. Ian had a dicey chance to blitz the escaped lineman but his first action of the turn showed him snake eyes with his two-headed dodging goblin. This resulted in Ian's Dirty ClawPOMBer being exposed to a crowd surf, but four rolls that would have a 1/9 chance of failure would be required to push the bastard into the hands of the eager fans. My better judgment prevailed, and I took the score, but I will never make that decision again. That player must die.
The Warpdivers played some sound defense to keep the lead before the half, but the casualties started to pile (-on) up. Without the troll and down significant numbers, the Warpdivers played some intentionally soft D in the second half; the thinking being Ian would not be able to stall til turn 7, as my well-intentioned Gobbo wizard was waiting on the sidelines. After he scored, I had 5 turns to score with limited positionals, and I tried to run out the clock on my offensive drive. My players were being no help at all. Failed dodges willy-nilly, bad block dice, etc. led to a much more difficult situation than desired. I freed up a blitzer who would then be able to get in scoring position on turn 7, but the play required my passer to not be completely useless. Ian recovered the errant pass, but I decided to use my Wizard as a gobbo was still in a good scoring position. Lightning fail, and Ian won in overtime easily.
As every single member of the Warpdiver's staff failed miserably in this game (two failed apos and a failed wizard), the manager, yours truly, decided to install a serious overhaul in the coaching staff after the game: two new assistant coaches and a fourth reroll. To bring up the morale after this emotionally-draining loss, 2 cheerleaders were also hired.
The Warpdivers got two more games against the League's two Orc teams after the loss. Nuffle, that trickster, decided to be a friend again. Dodges were succeeding almost every time; my players were actually causing casualties; and touchdowns came easy. The team suffered no serious set-backs, and all of the Skaven are developing nicely. However, William Taft is maybe not as brilliant as I previously thought. He has yet to gain a single SPP and failed his Really Stupid rolls with regularity during my games against the Orcs. Perhaps he is really dim after all, or perhaps he's a rebellious troll genius, who has grown unhappy with his role on the team, namely to stand up in front of a ton of guys so that they can hit him in the face repeatedly. I can't be blamed; he's just really good at what he does.
