1: +MA on a lineorc
He already had tackle and wrestle. This happened very early on and was somewhat unremarkable. However, it really gave me a great sweeper and allowed me to focus my blitzers on guard access. It was the least eventful, but he made for a good player.

2: +AG on a blitzer
First skill on a blitzer! Awesome, I can turn him into a ball carrier.

3: +AG on a blitzer
First skill on another blitzer! Great, now I have two!

4: +AG on a blitzer
First skill on a third blitzer! Oh wow....

I would go onto refer to these three as "the trinity". I knew that ag3 to ag4 is a huge difference, but I had no idea just how much better. Or how perfect it was that is was all on blitzers. Well obviously you can now pick the ball up. Secondly the entire side just got a whole lot more mobile. You can now dodge out and form cages, hit people, put that guard where you want. It's crazy how much it lifted my side. I immediately went from struggling in the conferences to challenging. Straight away.

I really wanted a double so I could give one of them dodge, and turn them into a ball carrier. My first two rolled a normal skill for their second skill so they got guard. My third one would take sure hands if he got a normal skill, but he got that double so I took dodge. And I had my main ball carrier. After that he got Sure Hands.

So I was rocking around with a “6 3 4 9 block, dodge, sure hands” ball carrier. Pretty sweet. And this brings me to the final stat:

5: +ST on my ball carrying Blitzer!
6 4 4 9 block, dodge, sure hands (and later stand firm) with the ball. My ball carrying blitzer was now a beast. Obviously an important player. However, anyone side who is challenging for the title, in fact most Premier dwellers, have some pretty good stats amongst them. Check out the Black Pearl Bounty-Board to see the best of them. Probably that st5 ag5 wardancer...

Anyway, the big deal about him was this: totally unintentionally, I had created the perfect side around him. Guard-Stand Firm spam, plus the stat-freak, marching up the ground? It is hard enough to bust into an orc cage, but when they are all guard and stand firm it became impossible. Okay, not impossible, but short of removing players it is pretty difficult. If you bring the cage corners down, they aren't going backwards. And even if you get me out of position, and get a blitz at him, you have an st4 blodger with sure hands to try to get the ball off, and he probably has an assist.

But hey, Premier coaches are pretty damn good. And there have been plenty of times when things have gone badly, and I have required him to do silly things, like dodge through tackle zones like a madman trying to score. But that extra agility just makes it so much easier. Interestingly, I played an Orc side in that season that had 3x+ST and 1x+AG and it was clear to both of us that mine was the better boosts.

So there you go, I took that side to the Premier division. I beat: 2xDark Elves, Orcs, Nurgle and Necromantic. I drew with Lizardmen and High Elves. You can read my match reports on the team page if you really want to.

When I started I had no idea that my take on Orc skills would blend so well with strong ball carrier. It is how someone who perhaps isn't the best coach going around was able to bring home a title.

Next Time – Epilogue, where to from here?