Monk's Marauders vs Bay12 Breakers
The dwarves buy three bribes (which kept the Deathroller in until the final drive) as well as an AG potion to boost their passer to a 4/4 beast. Yes, I had not realized this team had players built as passers and catchers, and it certainly made the game interesting!
The Humans elect to receive, hoping to minimize the Deathroller's time on the field, and as the kick went out of bounds they put the ball in the hands of Eomund Tonkai, AG5 Thrower. The Humans make a strong push down the left side of the pitch, getting a receiver deep and a pair of blitzers past the LoS while leaving a safety receiver back on the right side. The dwarves scramble, marking humans and making a mess of the LoS. The humans try to spring their deep receiver, but wind up getting both the Catcher and a Blitzer both pinned against the sideline. The dwarves bashed their way toward the ballcarrier, but the dwarf on the right-side safety receiver threw skull and both down. That receiver Wrestled him down, got right back up, and ran as far as he could down the naked right side of the field, and Eomund Tonkai dodged away from the pressure and delivered a beautiful pass. 2 GFIs later and the Humans score.
The Deathroller stays on the field thanks to a bribe, but bugs out during setup, reappearing a bit behind the LoS. Manfred the Friendly, the Human kicker had a rough day that started by sending the first kick out of bounds, letting the 4/4 Dwarf Runner bring it right up to the line, where the dorfs proceeded to do what they do best. Humans go down KOd, and the experienced lineman was SI, losing a point of Strength and ending his career. The Dwarf Runner with Catch got deep, and shortly thereafter a hole was opened for the ballcarrier, who smugly decided to demonstrate a dwarven passing game with a quick pass, where a handoff would have done. The pass was good, but what the dwarf coach had failed to notice was that Eomund Tonkai had picked up Pass Block after last game- it's very difficult to keep an AG5 player away from the ball! Tonkai failed the interception, but his sudden presence so startled the Runner he failed the catch. Tonkai picked up the ball and lobbed it to a waiting Catcher, without enough time to score but with enough distance to deny any possibility of evening the score by halftime.
It took the last two bribes, but the Deathroller stayed on the field to start the second half, and didn't even bug out this time! Manfred the Friendly did a much better job with this kick, forcing the 4/4 Runner to recover deep in his own half. Gleefully, the dwarves once again set to smashing apart the human line, doing quite a bit of damage at the expense of leaving no support in their backfield. Knowing they stand no chance of slowing the dwarves with such a sudden man disadvantage, the Marauders go for broke, opening a seam on the weak side of the Dwarf line and pouring Humans through the breach, not quite having the MA to get a screen between the ballcarrier and his bashers. Not wanting to bring his slow dwarves all the way back (not that they could properly protect the ballcarrier anyway) ank banks on his AG4 Passer to deliver the ball to his waiting Catch Runner. Eomund Tonkai gets a chance to Pass Block again, but trips. No doubt the movement distracted the passer, as he fumbled the pass. Human Guards close in, Tonkai gets hold of the ball and dodges away, and the Humans go up 2-0
The Bay12 Breakers only field 9 players as the Deathroller is sent off, and if the Humans didn't quite give as good as they got, they had a much deeper bench (though 2 of their 11 players were Catchers.) Manfred sends the ball out of bounds once again, and the dwarves cage up, remembering that even without the DR they have 2 ST4 players and a metric ton of AV, block, and tackle. The dorfs force their way down the right side in much the same way the closed the first half, sending Marauders flying and capitalizing on poorly-conceived dodge attempts. In the closing moments of the game, a blitz and a block spring the ballcarrier, who rumbles into the endzone for a TD.
Final Score: Monk's Marauders 2 - 1 Bay12 Breakers
This would almost certainly have ended in a tie if that AG4 dorf hadn't failed his pass- it wasn't a terribly long pass, I think he needed 3+ with a reroll. Even if the receiver muffed the catch, the ball would have been in the middle of a big blob of muscle with most of the Marauders on the wrong side. By the same token, if ank had realized I had a Pass Blocker he definitely would have scored in the first half. If both of those things went ank's way, we're looking at a classic 2-1 victory for the dwarves.
In addition to the -ST lineman, a rookie lineman caught -AV, so I'll use the winnings to replace both of those players. Who needs level 3 linemen anyway? The CAS difference wasn't bad: 4 for the dwarves, 3 for the humans. The dwarves had way more KOs though, and that would have been bad if the humans hadn't consistently found a way to end the drive and get them back on the field. The Ogre levels- no doubles, but I loves me some Stand Firm, and standing still is one thing I can count on him to do! Seneschal Sigric, AG4 Blitzer caught his seventh career MVP after a reasonably quiet day where most of what he did was provide Guard assists anywhere on the pitch- only 94 SPP to go!
Marauder winstreak extends to 5 games after their 0-0-2 start; The Other Kittens will need a good showing against the Norse to keep their place in the rankings! Looks like ndkid's Chaos team next week, no gimme there. Hopefully Pass Block will help against his hybrid offense as much as it did against the dorfs!