Blood Bowl match report: Vongalazthag Violators versus Elfheim Union

 Time for my fifth fixture in the League, and this time it is the Elfheim Union, an Elven Union team and as such dodges and passes galore.

Now, after the previous game, against those lightning fast Skaven, and the "bricked out dice" defeat against the Amazons, it is really time I start gathering some good points in order to keep touch with the qualifying spots.

 

 

But I would need to do it without one of my Stabbers and without my Minotaur after the events of the previous game... so better try to focus on scoring goals today instead of putting opponents in the hospital... meaning somehow I need to be able to catch a ball for once... so far my bane of the league which has costed my at least 5 TD's already.  Inducing a Biased Referee and a Team Mascot, the Violators got ready to kick the game into action.

 

 

Which immediatly resulted in one of my Hobgoblins being knocked so hard on the head he ended in the KO box...

 

 

My line was pushed back from the scrimmage, as one of the Elves collected the ball and made for the right flank of the pitch.

 

 

The Violators advanced back forward, trying to close any possible holes the nimble Elves might try and run through.

 

 

But using their speed they started shifting their momentum now to the left flank instead, creating a pocket near the sideline.

 

 

Again reacting to my hole stopping efforts, the whole team now pulled back again to the rightside of the pitch, and even with a few of them prone and stunned, a hole was opening.

 

 

The Elves started to flood through on that side, the ball carrier evading the charge of the Bull Centaur to try and stop him.

 

 

And the Blitzer dodged through, putting the 1-0 on the scoreboard after knocking The Raging Trainwreck over with the aid of a teammate for a 1 dice block (which, during the whole game, always fell his way).

 

 

Now ready to receive,  and a Quikc Snap later, one of my hobgoblins had the ball falling in his lap.

 

 

A cage was immediatly formed to protect him, as the Violators pushed forward,  putting a couple of Elves in the injury box while doing so.  One even had to be revived by their Apothecary after being pummeled along by the Blockers.

 

In a desperate attempt to score at the beat of halftime, Luey threw a pass while Elves naggered him, and scoring his second completion of the League as Fixit grabbed the ball.  Seems we have a Thrower in the making here.  The Stabber ran off, but slipped right before the goal, squandering the chance for the equalizer and ending the half...

 

Setting up for the second half, the ball landed far in our outfield as 8 Elves faced our line of armoured violence.

 

 But not before Thothrit Lavafor was smacked over by the referee...

 

 As the line pushed, and Elves rushed into my backfield, Duey failed to pick up the ball, even with a re-roll.

 

Soon the Elves where upon him, and knocking him over collected the ball, while the poor Hobgoblin ended in the KO box.

 

 And the speedy Elves duly scored the 2-0 with this razorsharp counter, instead of picking up the ball to deliver it to my forming cage, I was against an unsurmountable deficit now, crap.

 

 Both teams set up again, only 7 Elves remaining now, but the cow was drowned so we aimed to just salvage as many SPP's as we could.  

We actually managed to pick up the ball and handed it over to The Raging Trainwreck, who thundered away for 9 squares using his Sprint (and Sure Feet, because ofc I kept rolling 1's) to get out of reach of any Elven speedsters.

 

And went on to score the 2-1.  This meant I would have 2 turns remaining to try and equalise, meaning I would need to blitz the ball, grab it, pass it and score... sheer impossible as such.

 

The Elves received and quickly formed a protective wall around the ball carrier, as a Catcher sneaked behind my lines.

 

The Violators advanced up the field, but couldn't just reach the Blitzer with the ball hiding at the back of the few remaining Elves.

 

 And when he snuck away to the far flank and out of reach, the game came to an end, the Violators going under fighting, but in the end losing due to a single failed Rush roll...

 

 

Well, this was a sour one.  The Elven Union really went tbrough the eye of the needle here, because if Fixit wouldn't have fallen on his face at the end of turn 8, the half would have ended with 1-1 on the board, and he would have had only 6-7 players, of which 3 couldn't escape on the line of scrimmage, for the second turn.

 

But it is what it is, and while I lost a Fan Factor and didn't gain any skills, I did get a second re-roll and I am sporting a hefty team rating.  Next week it's Nurgle, and after that it'll depend a little on the fluctuating calendar of social life, but come summertime I'll be accepting challenges for return games as well.

 

I dropped to a measly 10th place now in the ranking, as the other games played yesterday didn't have favourable results for my position, but we are still hanging on, we just will need to make sure to finally win some games again...