“Excitement is in the air. Our first meeting with the veteran GoldLords. We need to win, a draw may work and a loss will send us out of the finals for sure. Wiggler is out for the match, but except for that the team is ready. GoldLords look strong, though, with superstar Lord Waldrun and three other star players. The trick to win is movement, and making sure the skinks are out of the reach of the dwarven tacklers. Luckily, the runner, blitzers and troll slayer do not have tackle. GoldLords have the fan advantage, and start with receiving the ball. We hire Wulff and his chainsaw, and we also ensure that we have some nasty tricks on hand (Illegal substitution and Exploding Runes)

Dwarves move slowly up the centre, and we fight on with our saurii and Hollow Claws, while the skinks are lying down lazily in the clear sun (very sunny). About one third into the half, the dwarves get a little eager, though, and Elder Tarquin pushes Hollow Claws through the dwarven line and into the GoldLords own backfield. Sturdy Dravan sees the danger, but falls flat on his facae when trying to stop Claws. Thus, it is open for a blitz on the ballcarrier, which Claws executes perfectly. Without any advance warning, Moleface is hit in the back by 750 kg of Kroxigor muscles, and doubles over, seriously injured. The apo manages to haul him off and get him standing for the second half, but the ball is loose! Suddenly the Scavengers goes into action. Mobster and Booster pushes Kurgak onto the ball, which pops it into the fray, but Breaker steals it and hands it over to Jungle Warrior, who runs over to our left side. Dwarves swipe aside Orange Peeler (KO'd) and four dwarves runs as slow as only dwarves can do towards Warrior. Nevertheless, Warrior cannot face four dwarves and have to retreat to the other side. The GoldLords puts heavy pressure on the Scavengers, and sends Claws off as well (KO'd), but the Scavengers manage to sneak Warrior in behind them and up along the sideline. He dodges Elder Tarquin and manages to dodge away from The Silver Spoon for the TD.

There is a little time left in the first half, but not enough to give the dwarves a realistic chance to score. It gets even worse as apo-drugged Moleface is back on the field, only to go-for-it, stumble and KO himself while carrying the ball. Scavengers are only 9 players on the field, as Claws, Idler and Mobster are still in the KO box. Nevertheless, we try to cover the ball, and manage to prevent the dwarven pass to Troll Slayer Emerald, who might have been lucky enough to get the ball over the goalline.

Second half looks bleak. We managed to score a defensive TD in the first half, but Claws, Idler and Mobster are still out, and Wulff was banned for his chainsaw. Thus, we are down 8 vs 11 for the half. Even though we start with the ball, this will be extremely difficult. Diver picks up the ball, and we try to advance along our left flank, where their defense is judged slightly weaker. Howeer, the dwarves are quick to put Diver under pressure. Diver dodges back to the midfield, and when the dwarves come after him there, he moves back to the left flank. In the meantime, our saurii linemen struggles back and forth with little overall progress. Halfway into the half, Lord Lascivious finally manage to blitz diver, who is badly hurt and have to leave the field, and the ball is loose. Lord Lascivious manages to pick it up, but he has no close-up support and is immediately blitzed by Booster and forced down, so that Warrior can pick up the ball and run with it. He gets to the wide right side of the Scavenges, but team captain Fraternizer fails to bring down Lord Waldrun at the midline (double skulls and no RR). Instead, the dwarves regain the initiative and Fratenizer and Peeler are neutralized by four dwarves, while Emerald brings down Warrior, causing him to loose the ball. Emerald and The Silver Spoon works in tandem and ends up with KO-ing Warrior, while the Silver Spoon grabs the ball and scores th TD. Only marginal time left in the half. Scavengers tries to set up Warrior for a OTTD, but a dwarven blitz prevents the score, and the game ends with a draw.

Due to our high tie-breaker we can still advance to the play-offs, and even manage to win the division, but our opponent will be the Ex-pats. A classic, where the winner is likely to win the Albion Conference this year. And our squad is complete, while the Ex-Pats are missing one Saurus (unless they fire him and buy another). It still looks good :)
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