“Lustrian Challenge V - Qualifier XV - Round 1

As we ended the GLT, so we began the Lustrian. Ours is the first game of the tournament to be played.

What can we say in this one? There is a general philosophy of lizardmen that says "sauruses protect skinks, skinks protect ball". In this one, the skinks rather rapidly became a non-factor as the exited the pitch at an alarming rate.

First drive (Legion receiving), we get harrassed a bit early with a PD and a short kick. The lizards put a TZ on the ball in several turns, but we bashed them back time and again. With some KO help, we broke through and tied up the sauruses (and krox, and Slibli) at midfield, leaving blitzers to deal with the pursuing skinks. We took out 1, but the other -2db pushed us into the end zone for an early score...OOPS! 1-0, but an embarrassing lack of a stall.

We play defense for 3 turns, as skinks zip up past us with the ball in a risky run, but they make all their GFIs and keep the ball safe enough. All we can do is punch our way in with a Tackle/DT blitzer and mark the ball, and crowd some help in to prevent him being blitzed away. A fortuitous saurus skull/rr/skull block on an accidental 1db gives us 3 Tacklers in range of the ball, and we clean house, secure the ball, and foul off a Wrestle skink (trading our Kick/DP in return, via the ref). Still 1-0 at the half.

With just 2 skinks remaining, we kick away, and there's a Pitch Invasion! Just 5 lizards are left standing (to our 8 orcs left after the melee), and on top of it the krox goes dumb. A desperate -2db costs the Bloodstorm a turnover, and we are close enough to scoop up the ball with Brakgul Deathbringer, who has 2 TD and 2 cas on the night. The krox got loose to 1db push him to the sideline and mark him with SF, but he blitzed his way free and scored early. 2-0.

Up 2-0, we kicked away to a field devoid of skinks, having cleared the final 2 the previous drive. A lulzy pass from the AG2 saurus to Slibli provided some laughs, but we quickly took the ball back and started a brawl at midfield as we handed the ball to Misha to score with. 3-0 Final.

GG Nelphine. Too many little thing went wrong for you in this one, and it all snowballed, costing you your skinks and a chance at moving the ball effectively.”