“Dear Vanyar,

It seems that fatigue has finally crept up on us. Fate had it that we were to face the Minions of the Swamp in any case… it seems the Rings are attracted to the minions of Sauron, and it chooses wisely.

On parchment, the game was to be ours, and sure enough in the first moments we had reduced their numbers to nine and even evicted their star Wight, sadly, on both counts they were to regenerate… and this despite the opening drive belonging to them.

We wasted little time in procuring the ball as I, Tarius “Current: Top Blocker – MVP – and Captain of the Team” surfed their dangerously positioned Ghoul. Whilst I, Tarius “Current: Top Blocker – MVP – and Captain of the Team” remained awkwardly positioned we moved the ball quick haste towards the opposite flank as our Lion Warrior dodged from his marker and gained position to receive the pass.

A Ghoul sought to remove me, to send me into my adoring fans… fool he was indeed to think that my fans would do anything but lather me with gratefully fond affection and carry me to the reserves box, but even this was not to be and I stood stoic and steadfast.

Unfortunately, try as I might to lead by example, our rookie Lineman could not dodge from his marker to make the pass, and so, scoreless it ended.

Half time reflection was a bitter reminder that we sorely lacked good tacklers on the team, indeed the Ghouls had gone unchecked and when we did knock them down, mocking they stood once again… but the second half would be ours!

We lined up to receive, our cunning strategy was to take out a key Mummy early and leave the other too far away to offer aid. I, Tarius “Current: Top Blocker – MVP – and Captain of the Team” beat a mummy to the ground and we ganged upon him with boots… alas, this Mummy was tougher than the others of the team… As the Mummy stood to tie us up, so too did the hordes of Undead swarm. We quickly found ourselves outnumbered, KOs flying in all directions. Scant of numbers we broke through, backing away and caging at the opposite flank. All finally looked well as the Undead offered a meagre swarm… our most agile tried to dodge from his marker to lend a hand at removing the Undead and opening a scoring position, but all was in vain as he fell… so dumbfounded were we that we were caught napping and the Undead set upon us.

We were easily swarmed upon and the ball spilt into the crowd. Their Ghoul set after it, but luckily they marked our only tackler poorly, and dodging free, with two blows he took the Ghoul down… the score for both teams was now all but non-existent! As we now numbered only 6 players the Undead began fouling to the extreme… 2 more fell into the KO box before the half ended!

OVERTIME! A complete half. With only nine men able to be fielded, we were happy that we were to receive first, and neither team had any room for mistakes! Ignoring blocking we went to the flank, caging our ball carrier. The Undead however numbered too many and quickly caged us. We tried to break through and tied up some of their key players, but the zombies and ghouls kept coming, quickly bolstered by Wights. A rethink was in order - we burst through the top of the Undead cage and moved back to try and get some distance for a long detour. The Undead had an opportunity to blitz us, thankfully, they threw one too many blocks and their Ghoul hit the ground hard… we were free, and finally scored.

Still, with a whole half of Overtime remaining the Undead fought back. They arrived en-masse and tied us up quickly; we tried to return in kind, but were quickly put to the ground or KO box. There was little we could do to stop the emphatic charge of Ghouls and Wights. The game ended a draw… but the powers that have guided us this far again wrought their Magic and we won the Coin Toss to advance!

We will take greater heed of our opponents next time… we will not fail you fellow Countrymen of Vanyar!

Regards,
Tarius “Current: Top Blocker – MVP – and Captain of the Team”

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This was quite a battle!

It wasn’t about what went right so much as what went wrong. The first half went swimmingly for me, taking out Wotfuds Tackle+MB Wight straight away. By the time I came to make the pass for the score, the lack of RR was always going to be a problem, and it was. I got lucky with the Tarius surf which was a re-rolled 1d block, both down - both times.

The second half I screwed up big time. Concentrated too hard on removing a mummy (Why do I do this with Mummies, you’d think it was a deep seeded hatred for my parents :) ), and despite a +5 AV roll, failed to even stun the blighter… this really got me tied up. When I eventually got into scoring position snakes scuppered me and let Wotfudboy really bash us.

Overtime needed a quick score by me due to only 9 men that were destined for the KO box lest we hurry. Neither of us had RRs and I made a silly mistake that would have got a lino surfed, but both down just sent him to the ground. I made the only move I could to get out of the cage but was still within range once Wotfudboy freed his men up. Luckily for me double skulls put pay to that and I scored. Four turns left, and without the ReRolls Wotfudboy just marked me out with zombies and his tacklers while the mummies started KOing and Stunning… he scored very easily much to my disgrace!

Coin went in my favour cos I’m a big fat cheat! :P

Very good game Wotfudboy… you deserved the win in honesty.
My hat also goes off to Azure too who managed a good win over a tough coach and a tough team in the Two Towers for us!

I need some tacklers asap! :)
”