With a nice game 2, my team was in an ok position with 12 players, my team for game 3 was:
Rat Ogre
2 Storm Vermin (one with Guard, one with -1 Mv)
3 Gutter Runners (one with Block)
6 Linerats
Fan Factor 2
3 Rerolls
12Players, Team Value 1110
Unfortunately I hadn’t been able to play and (un)friendly games in the league which may have allowed me to get a much needed apothecary.
For the third game of the league I was playing Norse
A str 4 big wolf
1 Blitzer that had gained tackle
1 Thrower
2 Runners
6 Linemen
11 players, slightly lower team rating which allowed my opponent to purchase the bloodwiser babes inducement (which didn’t have any effect on the game).
Now 2 advantages I had was that my rat ogre was the strongest player on the field and my opponent only had 11 players, so if I started taking them off I’d have numbers advantage for the rest of the match which might make up for facing an army with block everywhere.
My opponent won the toss and decided to kick. My tactic to avoid the 2-1 grind was to score late in the 1st half hope to stop him equalising in the same half.
First turn the rat ogre surfed a lineman, and the crowd badly hurt him, a few norse were knocked over, and a gutter runner picked up the ball staying in my half out of range of his players, while another gutter runner sprinted down the right hand flank. Not a bad start the norse were down to 10 players for the rest of the game and I still had 12.
The norse responded my stunning a few players and knocking over a few more, but importantly the norse blitzer who had stayed back as a safety blitzed the gutter runner who had made a break for it knocking him over. I responded by creating another crowd surfing opportunity for the rat ogre (but this time the crowd only tickled the victim, and he would return for the next drive). The gutter runner passed the ball to another gutter runner on the left flank who sprinted into the norse half on the left hand flank (out of range of the blitzer), and all norse in range to get to him were knocked over.
The norse moved 2 players down towards the gutter runner, while another round of pick on the lineman that had stood up in the norse tackle zones, luckily no-one was permenantly hurt. However a linerat was badly hurt evening up the players on the pitch to 10 each.
I decided to stall a bit, with the ball carrying gutter runner moving to one square away from the end zone. I knocked over one of the norse sent towards the gutter runner, and put two tackle zones on the other one.
The norse had had enough of the rat ogre, and I had forgot that their runners had dauntless. A dauntless runner stood up and blitzed the rat ogre (with the help of an assist), and badly hurt the rat ogre. There goes my main advantages for the match :(
With the norse surrounding my weakened LOS and the threat of them blitzing the ball carrier soon I scored turn 4, a bit earlier than I would have liked.
I set-up 3 rats on the LOS, but put the rest aggressively forwards as I needed to pressure the ball carrier. 2 gutter runners were on either flank 3 squares from the centre line and one square away from the sideline, but a linerat was put one square forwards and inwards to prevent a crowd surf.
The norse hit a gutter runner and knocked him over, however the thrower failed to pick up the ball, and my opponent didn’t want to waste a reroll this early in the half.
My storm vermin made a hole, and two gutter runner sprinted through, one was able to go for it twice to get a tackle zone on the thrower next to the ball, and another was a couple of squares behind.
The norse responded by blitzing the second gutter runner (knocking him over), and the thrower blocked the gutter runner, pushing him (but not knocking him over) into another norse tackle zone. The gutter runner dodged away from the norse covering him, ran round the thrower, picked up the ball, and then dodged away for a lightning fast touchdown.
I did roughly the same set-up again for the third drive, and a lucky kick put the ball on the end zone line. This time the norse thrower picked up the ball, but he was still deep in the norse half. The norse smashed the skaven front line (stunning a few), but also blitzed another linerat into the badly hurt bin.
The skaven responded as before with the storm vermin making a whole (guard really helped here) and 2 gutter runners stormed through. The gutter runners were still a few squares away from the norse thrower.
The norse consolidated their control of the mid field, and had a safe pocket ready for the ball. The norse thrower moved up, but fumbled the throw. Feeling it would be rude not to, a gutter runner dodged out of a tackle zone, picked up the ball in the thrower’s tackle zone, and dodged out to run the ball in for a turn 8 score.
I was running out of players fast (with the rat ogre and linerats badly hurt), but with a 3-0 half time lead I should win, I just had to win with no serious injuries.
Last turn of the half the norse beat up the 3 linerats on the LOS as much as possible, one linerat that was knocked out but returned for the second half, and with that it was onto the second half.
I was down to 8 players, and my storm vermin and gutter runners did their best, but couldn’t stop the norse line. However with gutsy blocking and dodging from the gutter runners and stormvermin, and selfless sacrifice of the linerats (one was killed during the half), the skaven were able to knock the ball lose, but didn’t get the nice scatter needed. However it was enough because the norse still hadn’t scored by turn 5, making the match in the bag, so any skaven left alive (most were off the pitch by now) ran away chased by angry norse. The norse scored turn 8, and a stormvermin failed to get a completion on the last turn of the match to get a skill.
A gutter runner that scored in the last game scored two more this game, so now has the block still. The rat ogre got the MVP (obviously for his 3 crowd surfs in 3 turns) and got Juggernaut.
Winnings were quite poor at 40,000, so not new purchases. The 2 skills and increase in fan factor offset the death of a linerat to keep my team rating at 1110, however with only 11 players next match will be nerve racking (as if it isn’t always with skaven).
I now have a (un)friendly game booked for next week against Orcs, and my essential purchases (if I can ever get good winnings) over the next few games are:
Apothecary
4th Gutter runner
1st Thrower
6th Linerat
I think I need to learn to play a bit more defensively against hitty teams, because if I don't score 2 early I never seem to have enough players to respond later.
Rathstar
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