Blood Bowl match report: Vongalazthag Violators versus The Villains

 My penultimate game to try and qualify for the play-offs, I'm facing the Lizardmen team that has been placing around my position in the League table.

 

So this is a downright, hardcore finale... and as I know how he likes to foul even more then me, I opted to spend my treasury on getting a Biased Referee to come along for the game!

 

Facing a heap of S4 Saurus blockers and a Kroxigor, both with high AV, this wouldn't be a match I'd probably score the 2 casualties bonus point.  But I did have a plan, and that is to assassinate his skinks as soon as possible, to lay low his point scoring chances, then try to score. The Flamesmiths will have to do their best to fireball down any Saurus blockers in front of them.

 

The teams deployed, with the Violators having to make the kick-off for the game, deploying deep to try and intercept any slippery skinks.

 

 The ball ended behind the lizardmen line, in reach of the Chameleon skink.

 

The Lizardmen, with all their high strength, managed to knock over my full front line, as well as reach Fixit.  The killed the Stabba, but luckily the apothecary managed to change this to a badly hurt and pump him full of painkillers to continue the game, but definitly not the start we where looking for!

 

The skinks started to swarm over my right side, bringing the Chameleon with the ball forward.

 

The Violators moved in to try and close the gap however and stop the advance.

 

Seeing the imminent danger, the Chameleon moved with the ball towards the center of the pitch instead, as the wall of Saurus warriors held any attempts to get to the ball at bay.

 

 Slowly and surely, they pushed the Chaos Dwarf line back and open a bit though.

 

 And when the right flank collapsed, they streamed back into the hole that had formed there, using their superior speed compared to the Dawi'Zharr.

 

Trying to stem the gap, Cochones Grande slipped over however, preventing some additional muscle to get to the flank.

 

 The Kroxigor blitzed Dievanons, to make due with the last resistance on the side as the blockers kept being smashed over to the two block advantage Saurus warriors, unable to hold the line.

 

A skink took over the ball, and ran towards the end zone.

 

However, Cochones Grande managed to push him away with a last moment blitz, the ball scattering into my end zone as the Bull Centaur failed to pick up the ball that scattered onto him (here we go again!)

 

And the little Skink got up again, dodged around the lumbering Bull Centaur and scored the 1-0 for the Lizardmen, sigh.

 

As a result, we lined up again for a fresh drive, with three turns remaining on the clock for the first half.

 

The initial push went good, opening up one side of the firld and pushing some of his high strength beasts over, but not out of the fight unfortunatly. 

 

Numbers had collected the ball and managed a pass to get the ball to The Raging Trainwreck.

 

The Bull Centaur broke through the Lizardmen line, running into the outfield towards his endzone.

 

 And while some skinks tried to stop him, he actually dodged away from them with a blitz and put the 1-1 equalizer on the board right before the first half ended!

 

 For the start of the second half, we would be the receiving side again, and the goal was to get two or three of his players at least stunned to force an early hole in his line.

 

This worked on the flank, Numbers once more passing the ball to The Raging Trainwreck, but I didn't have enough players around to try and protect him decently.

 

A line of Saurus moved in front of him, as the Lizardmen team nearly all came over to the flank to stop the beast.

 

He decided to switch flanks, as Cochones Grande had an open lane in front of him.  However, to be clear of an opposing blitz and to be able to go hand over the ball next turn, he needed to make three going-for-it's, falling over, with re-roll from Sure Feet, on the last one, and injuring himself in the process.  And this would turn out to be the pivotal moment in the game.

 

 From then on, the lizardmen constantly started to roll 10s and 11s on both armour rolls and injury rolls, and casualty after casualty of the Violators was carried of the pitch, while the skinks ran through to collect the ball now alone behind my line.

 

A lone stabba tried his best to stop them, even injuring one with a block (ironically, the daggers hadn't penetrated a single AV8 during the whole game), but there where to many of the little pests.

 

A blocker and a flamesmith joined The Raging Trainwreck in the injury box as well.

 

And when the stabba was smashed over, the Chameleon skink took off with the ball.

 

Scoring the 2-1 lead for the Lizardmen, and again I only had 3 turns to try and equalize, but was starting to get down on players! 

 

The eight brave survivors took to the field for the drive...

 

 But luckily my two KO'd Hobgoblins at least returned to the field.

 

Setting up, the ball scattered to of course right between my players instead of onto them in an attempt to be able to get it immediatly.

 

Cochones Grande broke away, hoping Numbers could do the sheer impossible in the final turn, as that was my only chance for the 2-2.

 

 But it was not to be, as dodging in, picking up and passing was to much with all the surrounding tackle zones, and failing to pick the ball up it scattered away and my last chance melted as snow for the sun.

 

 To add insult to injury, his last turn went like his very first, killing my stabba Dievanons and with no apothecary present I suffered my first death of the league.  With no less then 7 injuries this game, this was something I didn't have before in any game, and that was a slight disaster.

 

And so the game ended with a 2-1 defeat, a full injury box (it really was "Wet Paper Skin" in the second half) and a dead stabba.  This one has been replaced with a fresh one, and Fixit obtained Block, which is handy for the dagger wielders.  But I will be missing two of my blockers in the final game against the Halflings.

 

Add to this that I've dropped back to 8th, on equal points with the Lizardmen but only 4 points clear of the human team that still has 3 games to go, this might be the game I lost qualification unless I can reel in a maximum 5 point result against those said Halflings.  

 

It's going to be far to close for comfort, that's for sure!