“Our return to Middle Earth was made all the more pleasing as we were greeted off our ship by our allies and cousins the Wood Elf – Mirkwood Maulers.

They would be our first stop upon our journey through the Freeworld in the Fellowship of the Ring tournament, and although we anticipated a difficult game at least it was assured to be both a pleasurable and memorable one.

The game began with a shallow kick landing near our LOS – the wood elves rejoiced, and with the ever present threat of the highly skilled Wardancers we had to resort to tactics more akin to the forces of Mordor and cage our ball carrier. We slowly began the march, taking down the Wood elves where we could, and combined with their inability to dodge away from us some of their numbers began to fall. A poor defensive move by us left our ball carrier vulnerable and later prone. What then appeared to be a safe, albeit free ball, amidst the un-elf-like abilities of our opponents then turned out to become a great feat of speed and agility as the wood elves dodged into the fray, scooped up the ball, through and caught and finally followed up by a great sprint and 2 GFIs to take them beyond blitzing distance, but within TZ reach… thankfully for us, this would be the only dexterous manoeuvre they would make, but it did leave us out of scoring position and them within!

We did what we could to hamper any assistance this lone elf might receive, moved one of our men into a pinning position... and hoped! It seemed luck was with us, with even little to do the lone Mauler failed to dodge away and let the ball spill. We immediately surround it and attempted a pass for a score… we failed. The rest of the half was marred with further failed attempts to do anything with the ball.

Second half and it was the Maulers attempt to attack, but only 7 of their numbers were fielded. Not satisfied with the blood that had already been spilt, the no doubt Mordor filled crowd poured onto the field and roughed up both teams, 2 of our numbers succumbed and 3 of the wood elves… their difficult job further compounded by a kick to the opposite side of the field.

The Maulers stood up to the job however despite their dire situation and despite a total of 8 block dice over 2 turns on the Wardancers… they could not be taken down… they scored relatively easily to make it 1 – 0 early in the second half.

On offense again, this time a touchback meant we could play elf bowl. We stormed up both flanks, leaving our thrower deep… we unintentionally seriously injured one of the Maulers, and more failed dodging left another badly hurt. Our pass was true and we made a break… a Wardancer threatened but couldn’t hope to make it through on their form today, we levelled the score 1 – 1.

Now late in the second half, only 5 or 6 wood elves could line up for the offense, and a perfect defence really put the game back in our hands. One wardancer blitzed through our line, but the other failed to leave his marker and stumbled! We charged through and took the ball… we were brought back down by a crafty lino, but despite this… a couple blocks, a pickup – handoff – and a GFI later we scored in the final seconds to make it 2 -1!

Although it was a warm and welcoming victory for our fans… our hearts did not feel rejoice in it.

To Rohan next… to meet warriors fatigued by their last game!

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The only 2 good points in a game plagued by terrible luck on Purps part were the untouchable Wardancers and the single successful elfbowl move he made to almost score in the first half… which he then failed. :)
Despite this and several reloads though he remained fun to play \o/ - hope you get MUCH better luck in your next games. :)

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