Nothing normal happened today. It all started when my gps took me and my bike on a highway to get to the store from the Braintree stop. I was pretty freaked out as the cars were wizzing by, and I rode back to Braintree and just took a cab to the store. Weird start for the blood bowl Sunday.
I only managed one match today because my 23 turn match (can we institute draws please?) against Ian was just too damn long and epic to give me time for my normal two matches. Ian put it well. What a freaking match.
Things started off pretty well for me, as the very first turn of the game was my defensive blitz to put 4 members of my team right next to where the kick was going to land. My blitzer failed the kickoff catch, and Ian's sneaky gobbo managed to get the ball in the scrum, but there was simply too much pressure too soon. I managed to get the ball with a gobbo and race down the sideline with a skaven protecting either end, but I failed to notice that Ian's dark elf learned leap, and he crowd surfed my poor gobbo. The bloodthirsty crowd appreciated the gift from the Sons, and they threw the ball in probably the worst place it could have been for me: right next to Ian's ogre and ag4 marauder. Ian managed to hand the ball to the his traitorous skaven lineman, and away he went toward my end zone. I had the opportunity to 1-die blitz the skaven with my blocking passer, but Nuffle decided to add injury to insult. I snaked a go-for-it with a reroll on the blitz attempt. And the ground stopped the heart of my poor passer. Thankfully, my apo finally wasn't a total gobbo and he saved the young player's life.
I don't even know what happened next. Out of frustration I gave up my sound positional play, and decided to start bashing and fouling the hell out of the sons. I managed to get that bugger clawpomber with a gang-foul, and put him out for the game (alas, I narrowly missed winning my own pizza bounty). I rolled skulls just when I thought I could push for a score, and I gave up another before halftime. 2-0 at the half, the game was all but lost.
At least the second half I started with the ball. As a wood elf coach at heart, I knew the only chance was to play some serious elf ball. I pushed my players down the field quickly, leaving my passer back with the ball to survey the field. The Blitzer Samuel Wormtail broke free, caught a pass, and the score was his for the taking. But today was not a day for risk-taking, not yet it wasn't anyway,and the Blitzer failed his go for it in the end zone. If today was a day for anything, today was for statistical outliers. Ian's next turn saw him snaking a 2+ dodge, and the score was still there. The hero of the day, passer Frank Sewergrass, sure-handedly picked up the ball in the end zone and the turn 3 score gave me some hope.
The next kick started with a riot, and the clock was pushed ahead a turn. Not looking good. Somehow, someway, the Warpdivers started to gain the numbers advantage and they managed to pop the ball from Ian's ball-carrier. Samuel Wormtail once again escaped with the ball, and this time he would not fail. The Sons' gobbo desperately flailed at the Blitzer, but the unphased Wormtail smacked the gobbo out of the game and managed a turn 8 score. Overtime.
And what an overtime it was. The Sons' won the toss and elected to receive. They set up a drive next to the sidelines, and this resulted in an epic blood bath. The crowd absolutely tore both sides to pieces, and the final player count ended up something like 6 against 5 (in favor of the Warpdivers). The Warpdivers popped the ball loose, and it dramatically bounced around amongst the scrum of downed, confused, and/or injured players. Then, the unthinkable: The Sons' steroid-freak of a Minotaur caught the ball on a 6. Note to the league, if you want to give my team problems, develop a strength 6 ball carrier. The only defensive option I had was to put players behind the Minotaur, so he would have to block and follow-on back toward Ian's end zone. Then the Minotaur surprised me, Ian, the crowd of 30-some thousand, and any analyst and player that knows anything about blood bowl: it dodged away from the scrum successfully and headed toward the end zone. Alas, amongst all of the successful catching, dodging, and avoidance of mega-traits, the creature became arrogant. It went-for-it and tripped over it's own hooves.
Turn 7. I have a narrow opening. I send a rookie gobbo down field and prepare to blitz and run away with, who else, Frank Sewergrass. He managed to distance himself a bit, but he was still in double-go-for-it range of that damn Minotaur. The reliable bastard got to my passer and knocked him down. Defying all odds, Sewergrass resisted the mighty blow of the Beast and willed himself to stay focused and on the pitch. My last chance. Sewergrass dodges from the Minotaur (3+), goes back next to him and picks up the ball (4+), dodges again (3+), resists his racism at the sight of the waiting gobbo (2+), passes to the gobbo accurately (3+), gobbo catches it (3+), and finally, the gobbo, goes for it twice to race into the end zone as time was expiring. Victory grasped from the jaws of defeat! Lo, today was no normal day. Today will be remembered as a day of outliers.
The match ended and Samuel Wormtail learned tackle. I should say he learned tackle throughout the course of the match, as he clearly had no problem smacking down that dodgy gobbo at the end of half two. It should come as no surprise that Frank Sewergrass is now Ag4. His play at the end of the game was a turning point in his career. As always, kudos to William Taft, the world's smartest toughest troll, who has likely been on the wrong end of the most POWs in the entire league. Still he stands up and persists in the face of pure carnage. Maybe one of these days he'll have a SPP to show for his efforts.
Wow. That was way too much. I'm a geek. That match just needed a report that did it justice. I should also say, kudos to Ian, who was a great sport despite the up and down frustrations of the game. Mostly because I'm a douche, I threw a gobbo at Ian's Minotaur on turn 8 of overtime. I didn't recall that this uses a pass action, and Ian disregarded the play and let me attempt my epic last second pass attempt anyway. That was very stand-up. This will indeed be a mutually-respected but heated rivalry as the season progresses.
Anyway. Now would be a good time to plug my pizza bounty. Kill Ian's clawpombing bastard. Pizza awaits you.
