“Preamble: When the draw was made and I saw I was up against Aflo’s Little Green Pikeys Goblins I knew I was on a hiding to nothing. Playing goblins is never easy because if you win, you are expected to and if you lose then you are a bad coach. Looking down my rival coach’s team list, I saw that he had a couple of superstar gobbos who would warrant plenty of attention from my tackle/mighty blow Blitzers.

I made a rather simple plan, if you get the choice, receive, score early and then spend the half denying the Goblins a score while pounding on them as often as possible, while looking to engineer a turnover that I could take advantage of. Optimistically I wanted 5+ casualties over the course of the game and hopefully a simple victory. So with my plan in place I was ready for the game……however the best laid plans of mice and men, oft go awry. Oh how true this proved to be.

First half: At first all goes accordingly with me electing to receive and the ball going deep into my half. The Pikeys were evidently better prepared than the Ruffnecks as they started the game with a blitz, and were able to secure a foothold in my half. No real danger as my thrower was next to the ball and would be able to pick up and move the ball out of harm’s way. The sight of the overly excited goblins, lead by the two superstars completely distracted him causing him to fumble the ball with no protection around.

Some nice dodging and a rerolled blitz allowed the Pikeys to get hold of the ball, and put enough of goblins between the danger men (i.e. tackle blitzers) and the ball-carrier to prevent an easy blitz. Very clever coaching from Aflo. It left me with little or no options save for a one die block on the ball-carrier, with my no block thrower, which resulted in a push. A quick turn spent successfully stalling and then the score. 1-0 Pikeys. I am pretty sure this is not how either of us envisioned the first four turns of the game turning out. Much less the fact that the goblin armour was holding up, with no KO’s and only one armour break during the first quarter of the match.

A foolish attempt to get some easy spps cost me in the next drive as I passed (Passing Orcs? WTF?? More on that later! - ed) to a player without Sure Hands forgetting superstar goblin 2 with his ag4 and stripball. Needless to say, ball was knocked out of his hands (-2db). Then a failed dodge and a failure to stun (again) the ball carrier left me 2-0 down at half time. Wondering where it had all gone wrong. Looking back I made a few mistakes in that first half, but only one truly criminal one. Great coaching allied to good dice allowed the Pikeys to go in with a full deserved lead at the interval.

Second half: With my plan in ruins and staring a humiliating exit at the hands of a goblin team. I glumly kicked off the second half and watched as the chainsaw ripped through a blitzers armour in two successive turns (thankfully both were only stunned, chainsaw was going to have to get some punishment). The ref however saw the goblins gang fouling and then was unimpressed by the attempted bribe. (Turning point? – ed) Allowing me to swarm the ball-carrier’s position. A failed GFI (snakes to the rescue) gave me a shot at the ball-carrier and when the ball landed right in a throwers hands, he made a break and regular pass to the waiting blitzer who GFI’d to pull one back midway through the half. 2-1 Pikeys.

With the ref taking a dim view of the cheating goblins, and their AV7 finally showing some sign of crumbling the Ruffnecks could smell an equaliser. A blitz with the ball carrier committed the goblins to one side of the pitch and the Orcs swarmed around them. The superstar gobbo was finally downed and stunned while in an attempt to break free the ball-carrier blitzed a hole down the flank and ran through, before his sure feet failed him, dropping the ball at the feet of an Orc. The Ruffnecks were able to clear a path for a pass and pound off to score the equalising TD. 2-2.

Overtime: The all important coin toss was won by the Little Green Pikeys and the fans knew that they were in for some OT TTM action for a OTT. An untimely Really Stupid (and wasted RR) put paid to that idea, giving the Orcs a chance to turn over the ball. A failed 2+ dodge away from a tackle blitzer (see that reroll above) left the ball deep and unprotected in the Pikey’s half. The Ruffnecks were able to pick up the ball and run in for the winning TD the third turn of overtime. 3-2 Ruffnecks!

Aftermath: First I would like to offer my thanks and condolences to Aflo for being a fantastic opponent and for contributing to a great game.

I’m sure he was dreaming of an Orc scalp at half time after a first half in which he played perfectly. In fact for 12 turns he seemed to be able to do no wrong, until a failed GFI when the Pikey’s were gearing up to score their third touchdown turned the whole game on its head. In a move that owed a lot to the fact that I mainly play elves, I was able to make the most of the turnover and score from midway in my own half.

From then on in, the dice where with me and completely deserted Aflo at key moments (final turn of normal time, TTM attempt in T1 OT and in that ultimately decisive failed dodge). On the balance of play, I think an overtime win was probably justified, but I could have had few complaints if it had gone the other way as it was close right the way through.

Thanks again to Aflo and the Little Green Pikeys. The Ruffnecks are onto round two of the Warpstone Open Qualifiers to face a rather decent looking Elf team.

(Match report is from my point of view and spectators and my opponent will probably disagree with my version of events.)”