DAY TWO
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| I think a fourth side stepper would have been a better choice, as I didn't use sprint at all. |
Game One – vs Cantaloupe’s
Chaos
Gate
8-5
We
last faced each other for some Wood Elf vs Wood Elf violence at last summer’s
Cake, and I think he was after some revenge.
The
game started well for the skinks: Hemlock failed to catch the hand off, but
another skink grabbed it, allowing the krox to kill a chaos warrior. A both
down blitz on my ball carrier left the ball fairly safe, but even with a reroll
the skinks couldn’t pick it up and the minotaur killed the krox! The ball
passed between the teams, whilst 2 skinks dodged to death and the chaos team
killed Hemlock, the sprinting skink and one of the side stepping skinks: with
an earlier crowd surf and some knock outs, this left 3 skinks on pitch. One held
the ball tightly as the beast swarmed in and killed him. The ball bounced free,
but the remaining skinks couldn’t pick it up and another was swiftly knocked
out.
Once
the beastmen finally managed to get the ball, the final remaining skink ran up
to the ball carrier and, with a ½ die block, joined most of his friends in the
dead & injured box. With a short pass and hand off, the chaos were able to
score at the end of the first half.
Fortunately,
all the knock outs came back (hurray for babes!), meaning the skinks could line
up with 5 players – one with side step. Who was killed by the minotaur
immediately. The first turn saw another skink dead, one knocked out, one
stunned and one bravely staying on his feet. In a bit of a panic, the surviving
skink blitzed the minotaur for a push. The minotaur blitzed back to stun the
brave skink, whilst the previously stunned skink was fouled to death.
There
followed several turns of various members of the chaos team (including the
minotaur) fouling the remaining skink for stuns – until turn 7, where a
beastman finally managed to kill him. The chaos team scored in the hopes the
knocked out skink would return to be killed… This gave me two turns to score,
and a pitch invasion decimated his team (the minotaur, 3 chaos warriors and a
beastman down). Unfortunately, a failed pick up using the reroll took away that
brief hope, but the chaos team also sadly failed their goal, knocking out
rather than killing the skink on their blitz.
Final
score: TD 0-2; CAS 1-10
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| I know they look like Slaan, but they are skinks; honest! |
Game Two – vs BlocknRoll’s
Chaos Pact
Gate
8-5
The
game started with pouring rain, but the first kick off calmed this down to nice
weather. For the fifth game, I’d won both fame and the kick off and again chose
to go first. The krox stunned the ogre and a skink managed to knock out a
marauder on a both down – but failed to pick up the ball first. Bomber
Dribblesnot then fumbled his bomb – but was ok. The krox then hit the troll
over whilst skinks got the ball to Hemlock, who ran up the pitch with skinks
running up as distractions (with some uncanny dodging to make up for previous
games). His big guys stood up and the skaven blitzed Hemlock – hurray for side
step! However, Hemlock can’t dodge. The Pact team got as close around the ball
as they could, with tentacles to make it as difficult as possible for me to get
it – but his skaven also can’t dodge and his third reroll was used to end turn
3. A bit of lucky dodging let the skinks score.
The
next drive started with relief on his side – sure hands meant he was able to
pick the ball up. Short lived relief, though, with a both down block ending the
turn. A quick blitz left the ball in the hands of a supporting skink. A three
dice block stripped the ball loose, where the skaven managed to catch it. A
stun from the chainsaw resulted in him being sent off, with some relief from
the skinks! In response, the krox killed the minotaur – and the troll killed a
side stepping skink. The Krox failed to knock the ball loose, but the next turn
the ogre boneheaded when he was meant to blitz, meaning the skaven had to dodge
and as established both yesterday and previously in this game, skaven can’t
dodge. So the skinks grabbed the ball and scored.
This
gave him a chance to achieve a one turn touchdown, but even with a reroll from
the kick off table the goblin failed to pay enough attention to accept the hand
off.
The
second half started with a continuation of bad luck for BlocknRoll: the troll
blocked with a skull and 2 both downs. He passed the loner roll to get a pow.
The ogre fumbled the throw team mate, but the goblin landed safely. The turn
ended with a marauder double skulling a skink. Hemlock raced in to stab and KO
the goblin – a marauder caught the bouncing ball, so the skinks swarmed in to
put as many tackle zones around him as they could – but forgot he could just
hand off to the dark elf, which he promptly did. A quick blitz on the dark elf
went from a push/skull to double skull on the reroll so the dark elf could
blitz away. The krox knocked out the troll, but the skinks used a reroll to go
from a skull to a skull on their second attempt to hit the dark elf. Blitzing
away, the dark elf needed a reroll to keep from falling but managed to score.
So
my turn 4 started with a skink dying on a GFI to hand off the ball, even with
the free reroll we’d both just won. The dark elf also failed a GFI with reroll
so the krox killed the ogre… and a failed dodge resulted in a knocked out
skink. The skaven just about managed to get the ball so was swarmed with skinks
whilst Hemlock attempted to stab the dark elf. The Pact then failed their GFI
for a blitz; the skinks pushed the ball around ineffectively whilst the krox
killed a marauder. More pushing on his turn and a failed dodge on mine ended
the game.
Final
Score: TD 2-1; CAS 3-1
This
was more down to his bad luck than my skill, although for both of us rerolls
were basically useless.
Game Three – vs Australopithecus’s
Ogres
Gate
3-8 meant I lost fame for the first time – and he had two lots! Another new
opponent for me, as well.
Another
game starting in the pouring rain. Again, I was going first but this time a
blitz meant the weather was staying bad – the blitz was not very successful.
Hemlock tried stabbing a snotling with no joy. The ball was quickly recovered,
but again a skink failed a dodge in an effort to offer protection. An ogre,
needing a reroll on the GFI, successfully blitzed the ball carrier to knock the
ball loose, but couldn’t pick it up. Hemlock managed to kill a snotling whilst
another skink failed a GFI in an attempt to add tackle zones to the ball. An
ogre then blitzed with a reroll: 5 out of 6 dice came up skulls, but the sixth
was the pow he needed – but his snotlings still couldn’t pick up the ball.
The
krox – feeling very outnumbered – killed an ogre whilst a group of plucky
skinks pushed another onto the ball, and as it bounced free one caught it. The
ball carrier was pushed around whilst Hemlock was knocked down – a snotling then
got himself sent off for fouling without breaking armour. The skinks were
unable to break a route through the ogres defence, and the ball carrier failed
a dodge to drop the ball in the open. Even with a reroll, the ogre nearest the
ball was unable to pick it up so the skinks grabbed it and ran. Just in time,
too; the ogre chased them down but failed the GFI needed to hit them. The krox killed
another ogre and the skinks ran the ball in to score on turn 6.
A
high kick let a snotling catch the ball. An ogre stood by another snotling in a
good position for a throw teammate attempt. The only problem was the skink in
his tackle zone. Not to worry: another ogre was on hand to take him out… but
decided to bonehead instead. Another ogre was called up to be the star and
blitz the skink away… and he also boneheaded to the premature snickers of the
skink: the snotling accepted the handoff and the ogre threw him down the pitch,
ignoring the skink’s attempts to stop him. The throw was wild, however, and the
snotling too afraid to land so close to skinks and knocked himself out. The
skinks were too excited by this turn of events to pick up the ball – although one
had the foresight to run down the pitch in case they achieved it. Fortunately,
the ogres also couldn’t grab the ball, although they did put a tackle zone on
the running skink – so the skinks knocked over an ogre and pushed off the one
giving the tackle zone only to once again fail the pick up (pouring bloody
rain). In vengeance, an ogre finally managed to kill a skink before a both down
ended the half.
The
second half started a little more successfully for the ogres: a bit worried by
Hemlock’s ability to (fairly easily) take out snotlings, they blitzed to knock
him down, then sent in some snotlings to kick him to stunned. The snotling in
charge of picking up the ball was too busy watching this and the ball scattered
loose. The skinks raced down the pitch to get as close as they could until one
eventually failed a dodge. This clearly intimidated the snotlings by the ball,
as they still couldn’t pick it up. Hemlock stabbed the snotling nearest him as
the skinks near the ball in the backfield carefully lined themselves up by the
ball – with a side stepper in the end zone and the vague hope a failed pick up
would bounce the ball into his hands for a score… the failed pick up achieved,
a skink earlier in the chain clearly hadn’t been listening and caught the ball.
The ogres, too far away to achieve much, killed a skink still by them. Brave
little snotling attempted to hit the ball carrier for a push, and the skinks
scored.
In
the next kick off, the ball flew wild assisting the throw teammate attempt.
Again, the ogre behaved well but the snotling messed up his landing and was
carted off the pitch to the dead and injured box. The skinks grabbed the ball
but failed to hand it off, leaving it precariously near the side line where an
ogre similarly couldn’t get it – but the skinks tried again and ran down the
pitch with it, only for the ball carrier to be stunned by a punch from an ogre.
Annoyed, Hemlock stabbed the ogre player who’d managed to grab the ball (putting
them in the KO box), but the other skinks couldn’t make the most of this. A
snotling grabbed the ball… but knocked itself out on a dodge. The skinks
grabbed it, but again couldn’t hand it off successfully. The ogres seemed in a
state of confusion by the point, giving the skinks just enough time to grab the
ball and score to end the game.
Final
score: TD 3-0; CAS 4-2
It
was the pouring rain that won me the game.
So:
final scores!
Pleased
to note that of the 5 Exiles in attendance, 4 were in the top 10 and that
I placed higher than both the people who beat me (Canteloup and Lunchmoney). I’m
also very amused that of Canteloup’s 14 total casualties, 10 were against my
little skinks! (By my reckoning, I caused 2 more and took 2 less casualties
than is showing in the record, so wonder if I gave a score sheet the wrong way
round; I also think I conceded one fewer touchdowns, so maybe my notes are just
wrong…. If someone I played can see an error in one of the scores I’ve given
above – most likely BlocknRoll or Australopithecus, as I didn’t write down the
final score at the time – please let me know).
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| Exiles on Tour! |
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