“4 Catchers: match 5

Dwarfs! My nemesis, I always have a psychological disadvantage when playing against them. Somehow I always get sucked into a slugging match that I cannot win. This time, I face 11 dwarfs, with 5MB and a few Guard. No DP, and no one on the bench. If I can get a few out early it's going to be easy, otherwise it will probably hurt a lot.

Anyway, to defeat dwarfs it helps to spread the playing field. With elves, that's easy: go with a passing game and watch the dorfs spend all their rerolls on GFIs instead of blocks. Humans however, have it slightly more difficult. Even if they're just as fast, they don't have the agility to dodge or pass reliably.

Plan B: do a bit of slugging and score before I get beaten up too much. Also, running the clock down is incredibly effective against dwarfs, their window of opportunity to score TDs end much earlier than for other races. It would have to be a mix of these two.

First drive, early BH gave me a slight edge. Second turn had us see a disconnect, so if you see strange things in the replay it's just me recreating the field. They get stuck in, and their Blitzer gets placed poorly: he was surfed a little later down the game. Turn 4 had the important dodge roll, if I failed the ball would be lost in the scrum. I managed the dodge and got in a very good position, near their endfield without threats unless the Dwarfs decided to dodge. They do recapture the ball briefly but with no backup it's not enough to stop me from getting the ball again and stall for the 1-0 at half time. Also, my Blitzer almost RIPd himself on a 1d :)

Second half started with Pouring Rain and had one of my linos MNGd, and another KOd. I thought I could get a Guard blitzer next to their ball carrier but forgot to make it a 2d block. After that, I got myself in a very bad position as my team was stuck in the tangle of Guard Dwarfs and blitzers pinned at the sidelines. Of course, to win the game they would have to score twice so they scored comfortably in turn 5.

Last drive I tried the old bait and switch to score with the 4spp Blitzer. I was counting a bit too much on the handoff to work, perhaps a bit foolish. In turn 7 I was so determined to make it work I neglected to rush receivers to score in favor of handing the Blitzer the ball, ending in failure. A last turn blitz left a possible receiver of mine (another Blitzer) standing but getting the ball to him proved futile.

Team development: 1 lino MNG, 1 lino niggled and got fired. Two skill rolls, Guard on Blitzer and +ST on Catcher. Damn, I had intended that Catcher to get DP! Had 90k to spend, 50k went into replacing the fired lino. I had expected a comment on what to take for that -AG Blitzer before this game; he got Frenzy - the reasoning being that if he's going to suck at ball handling he might as well make himself useful with something else.”