Blood Bowl: Life in the Leagues

[Dog Pants]

Season 20 is over bar the shouting, with not a great result for either 5punky team;

Div A
With the new league structure I found myself very much outclassed. The Dead Comic Society and Beasts of Bembridge were well ahead in team value, and the inducements couldn't make up the deficit. I got off lightly with the Khemri, possibly because JayTee was playing for a draw, but I think that's maybe unfair to myself, I just had a good game and he had poor rolls. AgP was of a similar standard to me but just played better on the day. Janek's Nurgle was a horror of a team which kicked me all around the pitch and left me bruised and recovering for the rest of the season. Would I have done better if I'd retained the two experienced Tomb Guardians from the first game? Very possibly, but such is life. Objective for next season is promotion, and with the novice teams thrown in due to the new league structure I may well hand out some beatings of my own.

JayTee - The Dead Comic Society (Khe): 7
Janek - Beasts of Bembridge (Nur): 6
AgP - Agathis Avengers (WElf): 3
Dog Pants - Anupshi Rises (Khe): 1

Div L
Joose's new Dwarf team were also up against more experienced teams if memory serves correctly, and he had a pretty similar season. With fresh Dwarves, as with all fighty teams, ball movement can be a problem. He also had pretty mobile teams against him. This should turn around once the skills start coming in, as those Dwarves are difficult to put down so attrition is rarely an issue. Hopefully Joose can post his own account of the season..

chadsexington - Norwegian Fancy Nancies (Nor): 7
Zenohero - Crunchy Skaven (Ska): 6
squirrelfanatic - Rock, Paper, Sneaky Git (Orc): 3
MrJoose - Boatmurdered Athletics FC (Dwa): 1

If anyone else fancies adding their games to the next report, the new season is probably over a week away so there's plenty of time to register.

[Joose]

Yep, my fresh new dorfs held their own pretty well in a fight, but just couldn't move the ball fast enough to take advantage of that. I've got a reasonable amount of SPP out of it though, so hopefully the increased bashy will give me earlier opportunities in future matches.

It was a bit of a weird season, all told. I was expecting to do more against the Skaven, be a pretty even match up against the Norse and then just try to not die against the Orcs (the orcs being a much higher TV than me).

The Skaven match was all very strange: his puny rats managed to beat the shit out of my dwarves, even managing a couple of injuries, and my dwarves managed to consistently make rather risky dodges and even an interception! Ultimately though, it was the ratty ability to fuck off at high speeds that did for me, I jut couldn't hold the damn things down.

The Norse game was predictably bashy. I've decided that Norse are actually just Long Dwarves. Unfortunately for them, the lengthening process has turned them into glass cannons. I took a few ouches early on, but quickly got the numbers advantage. Again, my tiny dwarf legs couldn't make use of it, with me being one turn away from a definite score at the end of both the first and second halves. Totally my fault though, I'm sure I could have pulled ahead with slightly better positioning. This game was made an especially galling loss by the fact that I absolutely couldn't blame it on the dice: I pulled off an absurd number of 1d blocks, a couple of 2d against blocks and more than a few lucky dodges.

The Orc game wasn't half as bad as I thought it would be. Considering his team value is more than half as much again as mine, and knowing that he had specialised in making his guys as bashy as possible, I was fully expecting to not even make it to the end of the second half due to lack of doods. Turns out that he has made a bit of an error, and let nearly all the SPP go to just two or three players. The vast majority of them were on one Blodging, Mighty Blow Black Orc, with a lot of the rest going on a guy with frenzy. I pushed the frenzy guy off the pitch by following up on him doing the same and concentrated on giving the horrific SPP bloated monster a good shoeing. This worked well, and I *almost* pulled it off, but he was just a little too quick for me. Took a hell of a lot of his doods down with me though.

[Dog Pants]

The new season's fixtures have been drawn. I've plummeted from the heady heights of Div A to the wallowing bilges of Div H. Actually only one division difference, but going from the 'highest' named T2 to the 'lowest' named T3 still feels like a slap. Interesting lineup of opponents though;

Xenny - Xenny's Berserkers (Nor)
Dog Pants - Anupshi Rises (Khe)
DeekyFun - Dandy-Lions (HElf)
Heliocentric - Int'He Night Guardians (Nec)

Norse will be an interesting game. We're both fighty but somewhat fragile. However I get the beastly Tomb Guardians and with a few of them carrying Block that pretty much cancels out any inherent advantage Norse. I don't know what other skills they have, but I seem to remember Xenny is a few seasons behind me. DeekyFun I've played a few times before, a draw in my second season, an abandoned draw and a win in my third. Not a brilliant track record against his High Elves, but no losses and hopefully he's had more attrition than I have since we last played. Helio's Necromantics are notorious for fouling, but otherwise I've not fared too badly against Nec teams. They can't outbash me and their ball handling is too inconsistent for heavy elfballing. However, Helio is a league veteran so this will likely be a tough match.

Joose is facing a hard season I think in Div K. They're all a fairly similar level of experience if I remember correctly, and none of those teams are weaklings. Joose's Dwarves are certainly the toughest of the lineup there but all of the others have strong players and better ball handling.

DWZippy - The Waaaghrriors (Orc)
wink5000 - Death Vengeance of Doom (Liz)
MrJoose - Boatmurdered Athletics FC (Dwa)
Everblue - Doomdark's Revenge (Cha)

Last season Joose put in a good showing against an Orc team, and with a few skills now for his Dwarves he might be able to reduce the speed disadvantage a little (or at least put more of them down). They're not the least bashy team, but they don't have the agility to do too much outmanoeuvring. The Lizzies are quite a new team I think, and Wink only has a season or two experience in the league. That said Lizard teams are a real bastard. I think that one will come down to how many Skinks Joose can take out, as the Dwarves are too tough for the Saurii to dominate. Everblue's Chaos team has a few seasons under its belt so should have started to reduce the skill deficit starting Chaos teams have. This might be in Joose's favour as Dwarves can do what Dwarves do pretty much from the off.

EDIT: And Div M are a team short if anyone wants to fill the gap before next season starts.

[Joose]

Aww, man. My tier has a large number of squishy teams what with all the elves, halflings and gobbos. Why did I have to end up against three bashy bastards?

Ah well, I was up against bashy bastards last season and didn't do as badly as I might have. Hopefully the skill ups I managed to squeeze out of it will pay off.

[Dog Pants]

A bloody awful match, from a technical point of view, started off this season for me. Crashes and bugs killed the first game off, which I was winning, and some silly moves on my part in conjunction with some poor luck (Rolling four 1s in a row to prevent me scoring) led to a draw in the end. Kudos to Xenny, she was punching above her weight and gave me one hell of a run for my money.

Div H: Anupshi Rises (KHE, Dog Pants) 1 - 1 Xenny's Berserkers (NOR, Xenny)

This game was plagued by Nuffle and Cyanide. After a premature fireball out of Xenny's control (you can get treatment for it I believe) courtesy of Cyanide the first game ended in a disconnect. Much to the relief of Xenny I imagine, who lost her Yheti on the first turn from a double skull/double skull reroll and knockout, amongst other things.

The game proper begins in fine weather with Anupshi Rises kicking. The ball lands close and in a disturbing mirror of the former game the Yheti manages to put himself down on the first blitz. In an attempt to capitalise on an early turnover, the Khemri surge forward and for their trouble receive a knocked out Tomb Guardian courtesy of the Amazon star player moonlighting for the Berserkers. The Norse horse their way forward until an opportunity presents itself for the ball carrier to break the cage and dash forward with a pair of bodyguards. The cluster is caught by a blitzing Tomb Guardian who sacks the ball carrier, who hands off to a thrower. A short melee ensues, but the Thrower breaks free and is barely intercepted by the skeleton backstops. The thrower succumbs to the skeleton harassment on the touchline and the ball is knocked out of bounds, landing in no man's land in the middle of the Khemri half. After over committing at the beginning of the drive the slower Khemri are still struggling to fall back in time, and despite a failed pickup Xenny's Berserkers recover the ball and plough a path for the carrier to run in a touchdown shortly before the end of the half. With little time left on the clock the rest of the half is quiet, only remarkable by an ambitious Norse charge which reached the ball but was unlikely to lead anywhere.

The Berserkers kicked deep for the start of the second half, and Anupshi Rises cage a zig-zag path up the field to the centre line in an attempt to throw off the (admittedly more agile) Berserkers. As they cross the half way line the carrier is caught in a Norse charge, but the Thro-Ra recovers and breaks right into empty space on the Berserker side, accompanied by a Tomb Guardian. An unfortunate Norse runner tries to intercept, only to inflict more damage on himself, and the last marking man is flattened by the Tomb Guardian escort as the Thro-Ra equalises around the mid point of the half.
The Berserkers, by now several men down, form up for a strong attack on their left flank. However, failing to pick up the ball gives the forward deployed Khemri the opportunity to storm down the right flank and retrieve the ball. Relatively unsupported, the carrier is quickly sacked, but a quick recovery leads to a likely surprise touchdown before the end of the match. Fortunately for Xenny's Berserkers the amount of beer on the Norse side of the pitch led to the skuttling Thro-Ra losing his footing twice in a row and falling short of the line. The whistle blows for a hard fought draw.

[Joose]

Just had my first ever game against someone with a wizard. I have decided I do not like wizards. Would have probably won if it wasnt for that fireball throwing git. Here is a short (no pun intended) match report:

The Bulging Vixens (Amazon, Dissident) - Boatmurdered Athletics FC (Dwarf, MrJoose)

BAFC gave the ladies a warm dwarfy welcome to the league, by straight up murdering one of them as the first action of the first turn. Urist lived up to his family name of McSlayer by continuing this theme throughout the match, leaving a bloody trail across the pitch. The dwarves kept the momentum, pushing deep up the side of the Amazon half, ball safe in the hands of their runner, Urist. Urist and Urist watched his flank, just about holding their own against the waves of scantily clad ladies, and for a moment it looked like an early lead to the dwarves was possible, if not yet likely. Unfortunately for the little guys, the Vixens wizard got a little overexcited at this point, and dropped his flaming ball right on top of Urist, like a teabag from hell. Although it singed a couple ladies, it also knocked the ball clean out of Urists hands. The Vixens seized the opportunity, and cheesed it. Poor little dwarfy legs were unable to keep them up with the ball carrier, so they opted for Plan B: Punches for everybody!

The second half started well for the ladies, with them receiving the ball, punching a neat little hole in the dwarf defences and running through. They slightly overextended themselves however, leaving nothing between the ball-carrier and the murderous Urist. The trollslayer pushed the Vixen off the pitch, and the ball pinged back into dwarf hands. With a slight numbers advantage, and the Vixens mostly committed to the now empty cage, the dwarves cleared a path through the centre, with Urist carrying the ball over the line for a late game draw. With only a couple of turns left each, the handful of remaining vixens received the ball, but fumbled their first attempt to pick it up! Seeing a potential for a last minute save, the dwarves surged down the field, but despite the best efforts of Urist, Urist, and even Urist, the ladies managed to protect the ball long enough for the turn counters to run out, leaving the final result 1-1.

[Dog Pants]

That's a real shame, wizards aren't normally that effective with a fireball. They do get used to trash the ball carrier on winning runs though. Still, a draw against a fast team this early in your team's career isn't a bad result, and you should have bagged a few SPPs from deaths and injuries by the sound of it.

[Joose]

Oh yes, the murderous troll slayer is now only a couple points from lvl 3, and a bunch of other players are an SPP or two from lvl 2. With a bit of planning, my next successful game should result in a loooot of levelling.

[Dog Pants]

A really hard game tonight against a league veteran. On paper it looks very close, but in reality I felt besieged for most of the game.

Div H: Anupshi Rises (KHE, Dog Pants) 1 - 2 Int'He Night Guardians (NEC, Heliocentric)

The game starts in blazing sun, making the Khemri feel right at home as they kick off. Meanwhile the Guardians' hired chef makes them feel at home by brewing up a stew good enough to steal all but one of the opposition's rerolls. The ball is snatched up by the Necro's Ghoul and caged on the centre line, which drifts around a little before a blitzing Tomb Guardian breaks in. In what would normally be remarkable, but is turning out to be somewhat commonplace, the ball lands in the hands of the surprised Tomb Guardian. His ambition is short lived though as a wizard from the crowd zaps him with a lightning bolt. The Ghoul recovers the ball and after a lateral dash makes a gutsy pass to a wandering zombie. With many of the Khemri team committing to the perceived Tomb Guardian drive there are few defenders to rush the ambling ball carrier, but the last two Anupshi players manage to bring him down short of the line. Now scrabbling to get the ball to safety with only a Thro-Ra and a Skeleton, the Khemri are outnumbered and unable to stop rapidly blitzing IHNG Werewolf from taking the ball and scoring.
A riot as the game recommences puts a second touchdown for the half within reach of both teams, but the remaining time is only really remarkable for a double down and an injury on a pair of Zombies by an Anupshi Rises Skeleton courtesy of a push into the crowd.

The second half gets off to a dynamic start as the Night Guardians storm the opposing half, marking the ball carrying Thro-Ra with a Werewolf before he can even move away with the ball. The Thro-Ra dodges away and counters the charge by dashing up the left field with minimal defence and a trailing Tomb Guardian. The Necro commitment to their charge left them struggling to remove themselves from the ensuing brawl though, and the Thro-Ra sails across the touchline for an equaliser.
Play resumes with a near kick being recovered by the Night Guardians' Ghoul, who makes a short pass into the cluttered group on the line of scrimmage. The catch fails, but the ball is grabbed by a Wight before it goes loose. With the ball suddenly at risk the Necros push hard, and the Wight makes a full out dash down the centre field. It isn't to be, and he overextends and falls. Anupshi Rises, with little time left, also try a little finesse as their +AG Skeleton recovers the ball and hands it off to a breaking Thro-Ra. With no support he can't outrun his opponents this time and is brought down by the Werewolf, the ball landing out of bounds. When it returns, the ball lands in the middle of the Night Guardians' half just behind the front line. The busy Werewolf dashes in to grab it and makes a long pass to the penetrating Ghoul who has been left almost unmarked in the chaos. Only a Blitz-Ra has any real chance of stopping him, but fails terribly and ends up bouncing off. The Ghoul steps over the Blitz-Ra to score a second Necro goal, winning the game in the last seconds.

[FatherJack]

It seems given the last few reports that wizards in the crowd are a bit more useful than at least I had given them credit for. Having mostly played dwarves who are pretty much fucked if someone gets past them, it looks like a handy get-out clause, but I wonder how well spending the points on them stacks up against cheerleaders or rerolls.

Edit: ah, re-reading the wizards seem to be Inducements rather than initial purchases like rerolls, so it's not really a comparison.

[Dog Pants]

Wizards are handy 'oh shit' buttons. You only get one shot, and they're no guarantee, but they can be effective at knocking down a loose runner or blasting a cage. Such is the handicap system.

I got two skill-ups, my +AG/+AV Thro-Ra and my kicker Skeleton. Both received Block, although I was sorely tempted to give the skele an interceptor skill like Shadowing or Tackle for taking down speeding runners.

[Dog Pants]

Wow. A hugely dramatic end to this season. I needed a draw to avoid another relegation, against Deekyfun's unbeaten High Elves. I've played Deeky before and performed reasonably well, but he's having far better results on the pitch than me, and as a slow team I struggle to prevent breaches against Elves. I thought I was in with a chance at the end of the first half, but things went bad hard with a stupid mistake leaving his +STR super-blitzer unmanned (I dodged my blitzer away from him to mark a downed catcher), then several fumbles on my drive. Fortunately Deeky had some bad luck too and the turnovers prevented him really getting a response together to my drive. I'm still feeling hot and tense from the game now and it finished nearly an hour ago, but a draw is enough to keep me afloat so it felt like a sweet victory in the end.

Div H: Anupshi Rises (KHE, Dog Pants) 1 - 1 Dandy-Lions (HElf, Deekyfun)

The final game of Div H begins in bright sunshine, making the Khemri feel at home and the High Elves wish they wore sunglasses. Anupshi Rises win the toss and choose to receive, collecting the ball and forming a wedge up the centre of the field. The defence holds against the Tomb Guardian boarsnout charge, and the offence starts to slip into the right field. Before long the attack is pushing up the right flank and the High Elves are squeezing the formation against the line. Both sides lose a player off the edge and the number of Elves behind the ball slows the play down to a grind. A last minute split dash runs out of time before anything can come of it, and the half ends with a blank scoresheet.

In stark contrast to the slow grind of the first half, the receiving Dandy-Lions burst through the defence with a Blitzer and a Catcher, while the line of scrimmage is pushed towards the nearby ball by the Anupshi Rises Tomb Guardians. The running pair are intercepted by the deep defence, but more runners make it through the line to put further pressure on the overstretched Khemri. The penetrating catchers are marked and blitzed, but a terrible mistake leaves the Dandy-Lions star Blitzer standing alone in the middle of the Khemri half. Capitalising on the error, the High Elves make a long pass to the free player and he races across the line unopposed.
Now kicking, the Dandy-Lions drop the ball right on the Anupshi Rises touchline where the team's second Thro-Ra fails to pick it up. With only a short amount of time for a Khemri touchdown the offence go all in on a concentrated drive up the left flank. Spearheaded by the team's four Tomb Guardians they drive a path down the flank, but the earlier fumble has left the ball carrying Thro-Ra with a lot of catching up to do. A surprise extreme-range blitz by the High Elf super-Blitzer nearly puts an end to the drive early, but he stumbles just as he reaches his target. The ball carrier skips out of the way and charges after his team-mates to hand off to the team's first Thro-Ra, but true to form the ball is dropped again. Enough Khemri players remain around the ball to prevent dashing Dandy-Lions from picking it up, and the interceptors are pushed back enough for the passing Thro-Ra to take the ball up once more and race into the widening straits along the left flank. With seconds left on the clock and the ball carrier at full pelt there are still a number of High Elf defenders harrying the Tomb Guardians which form the wall of the safety corridor. At the end of the wall is a Blitz-Ra, and it looks like the cluster of Dandy-Lions nearby might be able to push him back and seal the end of the passage, when out from the crowd comes a fireball which takes out all but one of the potential saviours. In a last ditch attempt to stop the touchdown a Lineman almost makes it between a pair of Tomb Guardians to get hands on the ball carrier, but is brought down just as he reaches out. The Thro-Ra sprints on to score an equaliser with scant seconds remaining, and the game ends as a dramatic draw.

Coach Dog Pants knows that the patience of the Pharaowners is running thin after narrowly missing a second relegation in as many seasons. Attendance is down after a long run of poor games, and that means the cash isn't coming in. Opting for discretion he makes his excuses when called to the board-tomb, but a messenger finds him in the bar and wordlessly hands him an embalming hook bearing the team logo. The Pharaowners have made their point - start performing as a coach, or become a player.

[Dog Pants]

Season is over and has been validated. Another bad one for me, but I'm recovering from the simultaneous loss of two Tomb Guardians last season, and I avoided another relegation. My last game got me two skill-ups on TGs - another double gets me block on one of the new guys, making that 3/4 of my TGs with it, and one of my TG wingers gets Break Tackle, letting him use his 5 ST rather than AG to dodge. This now makes him a slow but powerful Blitzer, which was a payoff against getting Mighty Blow (which could have meant more SPPs for him and less opponents on the pitch). He could have taken the +AG he rolled I suppose, arf. Thanks Dice.

DeekyFun - Dandy-Lions (HElf): 7
Heliocentric - Int'He Night Guardians (Nec): 6
Dog Pants - Anupshi Rises (Khe): 2
Xenny - Xenny's Berserkers (Nor): 1

Things look to be starting to pick up for Joose. As with my own first few seasons, a single draw might prove to be the turning point which signifies his players starting to become useful. As fighty teams we can be outstripped in early life by finesse teams like Elves and Skaven, or by well-skilled all rounders like Norse and Amazon. Point in case, the two fast teams (don't kid yourself that Goblins are hopeless, almost their entire team has dodge/stunty) scored decreasingly one-sided victories, while the more middle-ground Amazons could only hold their own. I'm hoping for a victory from Joose next season, but if he gets put in a league with the other relegated teams he'll find himself against two Goblin and one High Elf.

wink5000 - Death Vengeance of Doom (Liz): 7
Everblue - Doomdark's Revenge (Gob): 5
Dissident - The Bulging Vixens (Ama): 2
MrJoose - Boatmurdered Athletics FC (Dwa): 1

[Joose]

if he gets put in a league with the other relegated teams he'll find himself against two Goblin and one High Elf.

I would be entirely OK with that. Gobbos can be surprisingly good at scoring, but they are good for at least a couple of injuries. High Elf would be more of a challenge, but again would probably give me some punching opportunities. My team is beginning to show signs of improvement, but my main source of SPP is punching, and I have been against some extremely punch resistant bastards.

[Dog Pants]

Next season has been drawn:

Div G
Zenohero - Crunchy Skaven (SKA) TV1220
Dog Pants - Anupshi Rises (KHE) TV1720
Everblue - Doomdark's Revenge (CHA) TV1530
Nullkigan - Supernumeries (DELF) TV1960

So a pretty divisive mixture of bashy and quick in my division. The Dark Elves are a veteran team with a very high team value, just demoted from a pretty tough division. There are some vicious level 4 and 5 players in there too, so that's going to be one hell of a hard match. Crunchy Skaven are a lot lighter on experience, with around half of their players level 2. They have a couple of conspicuous gaps in their roster, including a lack of Rat Ogre, so they could have suffered some heavy casualties last season. If I can stop them getting past me I might be able to cause some more damage there. The Chaos team were playing Joose last season, and had mixed results across their matches. A reasonable team value, and some nasty fighting combos, I hope they can inflict some casualties on the Dark Elves before I play them.

Div K
Joeyjojojrshabadoo - The London Silly Nannies (CHA) TV1100
MrJoose - Boatmurdered Athletic FC (DWA) TV1200
Xenny - Xenny's Berserkers (NOR) TV1460
Cyberpunkdreams - Black Bombers (GOB) TV1270
McCavity - Khorne's Killers (CHA) TV?

Some pretty fighty teams for Joose, including an interesting fixture between Xenny and CPD who are a couple. Someone might be sleeping on the sofa that night. The Nannies got beaten every game last season and have an odd mixture of skills. Could display something of a lack of direction for coach Joey or a cunning master plan yet to come to fruition. The Bombers have a couple of well skilled players, mostly their two Trolls and specials. The Pogoer will be a thorn in Joose's side all game, while the fanatic might do some damage before being sent off. The Trolls will be tough when they act, but being stupid are still pretty flaky. Not a bad Gobbo team, but still a Gobbo team. Lastly, Xenny's Berserkers faced me last season and were tricky, despite an abandoned probable win for me being replayed for a draw. A decent scattering of experience (and the highest team value in the division) will make them even trickier for Joose.

[Joose]

Hmm, interesting. Not as squishy a line up as I had hoped for, but its not too bad either. I've played the Bombers before, and as long as I remember to stay out of the way of that fanatic I shouldn't have to bad a time of it. The pogo will definitely be a focus for some early punches. Norse I'm actually not too worried about, I've played them before (not this Norse team admittedly) and they are glass cannons, hitting hard and falling over easy. Dwarves make a good counter, as hitting people and not falling over is what they do best. Chaos would normally worry me, but...well, they are marginally less developed than me and have a similarly terrible match history to me, which I'm hoping is the mark of an inexperienced coach.

[Dog Pants]

Ah. Well because of the Xenny/CPD situation (that being that they share a PC), the gobbo Bombers have been swapped at random with Khorne's Killers, another Chaos team. Incidentally I kind of inspired that name. Coach McCavity wanted Khornes Killers but it was taken. I helpfully suggested the more original and grammatically correct 'Khorne's Kittens', and he compromised by adding my apostrophe to his original name. Unfortunately the servers are down at the moment so I can't check him out, but I seem to remember he only has a season or two behind him. More later.

[Joose]

heh, I was just typing out much the same thing myself. Needless to say, I would have preferred the gobbos. Ah well.

[Dog Pants]

A fresh Chaos team is very light on skills, and if they've skimped on rerolls to pay for Chaos Warriors then they can come a cropper. In fact my Chaos starting lines consist entirely of Beastmen. So with a little luck the two Chaos teams could turn out to be something of a good thing against the stability of your Dwarves. When the servers are back we can have a look.

[Dog Pants]

Another bloody hard match, another beating. I've not won a game in two seasons now and the third isn't off to a good start. I could have had a draw were it not for an unlucky (or ill conceived) gamble on an early drive, but Everblue was clearly an experienced coach with a handful of very nasty players, not least of which was his Claw/Mighty Blow killer Beastman. Losing the Tomb Guardian wasn't a huge problem as he had no skills and I don't need the money to replace him, but it is a slight setback I don't need when I'm still on a poor run. The hardest game is still to come too.

Div G: Anupshi Rises (KHE, Dog Pants) 1 - 2 Doomdark's Revenge (CHA, Everblue)

The fightiest game in Div G starts off in fine weather with the home team defending. The crowd, wanting a bit of the action, riot before the game even starts and set a violent precedent both teams try to retain for the duration of the match. The lines crunch together as Doomdark's Revenge immediately go on the attack, demolishing the Anupshi Rises line of scrimmage with a heavily centre focused formation. As they push forwards they form a cage around the quad-limbed ball carrying Beastman. As the Chaos players assault the defensive line and push forwards a mobile Tomb Guardian manages to mark the ball carrier, but is brought down and fouled. The only effect of the action, however, is one less Beastman in the game. More Anupshi players start to hustle the ball carrier, but the strong cage prevents any attempts at a blitz. The crown roar as the Minotaur grinds an unfortunate skeleton into the turf, saved from death only by the fact that he was already dead, and the ball carrier escapes his assailants to the safety of left field. Both teams follow and start to bunch up around the ball but the Beastman again escapes the knot of fighting players. With most of the defending players now tied up in the brawl it is down to a lingering Khemri back-marker to finally blitz the ball away from the running Beastman, only for it to land in the hands of a nearby Chaos Warrior. Elsewhere another Chaos Warrior sends another Khemri off the pitch, this time a rookie Tomb Guardian, and this time his Regeneration is of no help leaving the player a corpse of a distinctly less animated type. The ball carrying Chaos Warrior charges for the line, hammering a defender out of his way. A couple more try to slow his run in vain, and the ball is run in for a touchdown shortly before the end of the half.

Doomdark's Revenge begin the second half with ten men, and as they kick lose another as a Beastman is injured by the first block. Nontheless, two failed pick-ups in a row by the Anupshi Thro-Ra leave the attackers vulnerable after a premature push, and the multi-limbed Beastman who carried the ball for most of the last half breaks through the lines to injure the cack-handed Khemri and collect the ball. The few Anupshi players close enough to respond can't hold the slippery runner back, and the Chaos team score an early second touchdown.
More determined this time, Anupshi Rises make a feint right manoeuvre to try to tie up some of the dwindling number of Chaos players on the wrong side of the pitch. The drive left works, but is cut short by a fireball which takes another Tomb Guardian back to the dugout. The omnipresent four-armed Doomdark ball handler makes good on the loose ball, but doesn't have the support to keep it. He is overrun by Khemri players and knocked out. Now there are a lot of Anupshi players around the ball with no immediate threats, and the Anupshi veteran Thro-Ra recovers it to start driving up the left flank. The charge almost falters when a Chaos Warrior manages to get behind the ball, but surprisingly the running Thro-Ra manages to smash his way through and injure the defender in the process. As the half comes to a close and the Khemri take the ball close to the line an effective last attempt at keeping the score 2-0 comes in the form of a pair of Chaos Warriors, but a Blitz Ra manages to nudge clear a route and Anushi Rises manage to run in a token touchdown. The game ends with a token beating of the Skeleton subs to please the crowds on both sides.