Scaly and Lazy 3-1 THE_SLAYA
Whoo, it's been a long time since I won one. This game was certainly a example of the speed that lizardmen can bring to the table. And the comedy (or tragedy) that the dice can bring to the table. My inducements purchased a wizard (won the game) and 4 cheering fans (were not that useful)
It started with me receiving, skinks picked up the ball and made their way to the left, The saurus punched out a bit and tried to array themselves to receive the chaos counter attack. The chaos swept in, the right side was forfeited and the middle was collapsing. However, the skinks ran up though the left and the saurus readied their bodies to stop the chaos from following. Several beastmen and warriors lined up in front of the skinks as more pressed on the side of the lizards. However, the wizard shot a fireball out from the stands, knocking down most of the chaos men standing in the way. The skinks ran up the side, the ball carrier sprinting towards the goal as the rest surrounded the only beastman in reach. The beastman got tripped when he tried to exit the pile (although a blitz almost freed him) and the skink ran to victory.
With over half the first half to go, the chaos team readied to receive the ball. Their star ball carrier getting the touchoff, and their line of skirmish destroying the lizards. The carrier moved forward behind the line, but one of the lizards who was left alone on a flank blitzed him, sending him to the dirt. A speedy skink ran up and got the ball before running off with his skinky brothers deep into chaos half. After dodging away from the only beastman near enough to get to them, the skinks ran into the endzone, getting the second score for the lizardmen.
Still with quite a few turns left, chaos received once again, this time not allowing any lizards into their back field they moved forward, moving the ball up to the left. Dominating the lizardmen, the ball carrier passed the ball off to a beastman who was part of the initial push, he ran forward across the field, but failed on his go for it that would have gotten him the touchdown. He dropped to the dirt. A skink ran acrost the whole field and picked up the ball, but being vulnerable (probably) to a beast man blitz, he passed the ball. As a stunty. The max distance. To a skink who was being marked. The hail Mary throw miraculously succeeded (My actual hope was that it would just get the ball a few squares further away, or if I was lucky off the field), and the skink took his stolen goods up and around, trying to pass it off to a third skink to get the single-turn-all-the-way-across-the-whole-field score. Unfortunately, the pass failed, but the ball was still way to far for chaos to retrieve it in time.
The second half saw the chaos get the ball, and they moved forward, protecting their carrier and spreading out some beastmen to get hopefully get a quick score. A lizardman and a few skinks got into the back field as the skirmish saw the brutalization of the lizardmen. The wizard had recovered with the ministrations of the fans, and so he threw out a lighting bolt onto the carrier, knocking him to the ground. (although no one of lizardly persuasion picked up the ball). Still, the chaos was undaunted by this. Instead of wasting precious turns trying to pick up and run down the ball as normal, they instead sent a beastman as far down the pitch as possible as they cleared the area around the ball and recovered it. The next turn they passed the ball from the line of skirmish into the endzone, getting the first goal for chaos.
Then the lizardmen received again. Despite starting to actually run out of bodies on the field the faithful skinks picked up the ball once again as the remaining Sauri blocked the chaos (who were, because of a few lucky strikes in the last round, also low on bodies.). To be honest, I don't recall this round well. Presumably it was slightly less touch and go as the others. It was a bit like the first round I believe, with the skinks getting the ball and running past the chaos as the lizardmen threw their bodies in the way to give them long enough to run free. However, lower numbers on the pitch certainly favor the skinks more then those that try to block the skinks I believe, and so another goal for the lizardmen was achived. However, this is when the mighty blow on a few chaos really started to shine, and half my team went into the injury box, certainly if this was the halfway point of the game I would have lost miserably, how it was though there was simply no time left for the chaos, and the game ended with the first lizardman victory in a while.
This game was certainly the first time I've felt the raw power of the skinks against a slower team. Even though it's also the first time they had to deal with dedicated players trying to stop them, they were simply too fast to deal with. Also in a way, I feel like it's the first time I played them... Correctly, although there was quite a bit of luck on my side as well. At least this game shows that I might have been totally stupid not to get sidestep instead of surefeet and catch (which was the thought I took away from the ogre match). Still thinking that sidestep would have been better of course, but at least this match highlighted what their skills were for, and that they are not just for nothing.