Objective Complete...

A bit more Flames of War painting done. This time it's just a few bits and bobs to finish off my unpainted Flames of War stuff. Two objectives, a transport team and an observer team.

First up is one of the objectives. I got the makings of this in a pack with the motorbikes I turned into the Recce Platoon. It wasn't an official pack, it was one of those odd little collections you can sometimes find in independent games shops. So, I go a Recce Platoon and the bits for this objective; a German roadblock. It also adds a little spot of colour to the often earth-toned Flames of War battlefield.

Next, a destroyed allied tank. I think it's a Sherman, but don't quote me. I've had this painted for a while and just needed to do the base. I also holds position as the first resin model I ever painted.

And here's the second, a Horsch Kfz 15 Field Car. I've painted this because they're often a requirement to field Panzergrenadier HQ (along with one of my motorbikes). It also serves as encouragement to me to buy and paint some trucks so that I can eventually field my Germans as Wehrmacht Panzergrenadiers rather than SS Panzergrenadiers. There are two reasons for this, firstly, as you can see, my paint scheme isn't right for the SS, but more importantly, I just don't feel right about using the SS. I used them last night to meet the points requirement of the game (SS are pricey and I don't have a lot of stuff) but something sits a bit wrong about trying to make the SS win.

As to the game last night, I forgot to take any pictures, but the aforementioned SS Panzergrenadiers took on a British Tank company played by Andy, who's as unfamiliar with the rules as me. There was much flicking through the rulebook, especially as there were whole parts of the game, such as artillery, I'd never used before. We played the Encounter mission and I think I deployed the wrong platoons to begin with. My Mortars and HMG nests were completely useless against British armour and I was worried about being steamrollered before my reserves turned up. Meanwhile Andy, who had not played with the British before, was advised to sit back and soften me up first. Left to his own devices he probably would have been more proactive and pummelled me. As it was, his artillery and tanks pounded my dug in line, and tried to stay out of range sight of my PAK 40's.

It was slow going, but I was being whittled down and was struggling to do anything (I was also completely forgetting my Stormtrooper move). However, no reserves were forthcoming and on my turn 5 I decided to be a bit brave and get my Pioneers out of their foxholes to go after the Observer tank that was alone but allowing Andy to rain artillery fire down on all my units. I couldn't reach it that turn but if I could at least drive the thing off, I could dig in again. My PAK 40's had been duelling with two Cromwell tanks, but had only managed to bail them (which wasn't too bad as Andy's force was Reluctant Veteran.

Andy's turn 6, and still no reserves, but predictably, the vulnerable Pioneers were shelled and machine-gunned, however a series of infantry save meant that losses were minimal. Also the Observer Tank hadn't retreated, so I could try to nail it next turn. Andy remounted one of his two Cromwells and the rest of his tanks pushed through the trees to start a heavier bombardment of my Mortars and HMG nests, one of which was destroyed. I really needed reserves, Andy was sure to get his next turn and he would then easily overrun my line.

My turn 6 and...the reserves turned up! Two platoons of them.

First, a platoon of Panzergrenadiers arrived to support the Pioneers and free them up to attack the Observer Tank and possibly push on the capture an objective. Second, and more importantly, my three Fearless Veteran Panthers arrived (I should have had them on from the beginning instead of the Mortars). As well as getting reserves, my luck was in as my dice decided to be friendly on this key turn. The Panthers destroyed Andy's AA tank, demonstrating that there was nothing in the British Tank Company that could withstand their guns. The PAK 40's began to pull their weight and destroyed the two Cromwell's they'd been duelling with, and the Pioneers advanced on the Observer Tank and shoved a panzerfaust up its spout.

With my heavy tanks on the board and his tanks nowhere near their objectives, Andy knew that he would be forced to run and hide from the advancing Panthers. Also my Pioneers had a clear run at capturing an objective. Even if he got some reserves, Andy was sure that the tide had turned. It was also getting late, so Andy conceded and withdrew.

Hooray for the SS! (See what I mean about that being wrong?)

Overall this was a great learning game for both of us as usually I play people who know the rules much better than me and get told at different points through the game why I'm losing. Last night, however, we had to do more digging in the rules and learned more. I found out about artillery and that my Mortars are NOT a threat to tanks, I'm also coming to appreciate my Panthers much more. In support of infantry they are a devastating threat and a psychological weapon as the infantry take away many of the Panthers' weaknesses and allow them to do what they do best, pop tanks.

Andy's been working on a Mid-War DAK Panzer Company and I think he learned to trust his own instincts as a tank commander. I'd expect him to be a bit more freewheeling and aggressive, 'Rommelesque' you could say, when he finally rolls them out.

Schnell!Schnell!

I've finally got myself painting again. It's probably because it's the Easter holidays; not necessarily because I've got two weeks off (ha ha, suckers), but mainly because March is the busiest part of the year for most of us secondary teachers (coursework deadlines and so forth). However, now it's done, I'm able to relax a bit and get some painting done.

So without further ado, my first painting for a month, a Mortar Platoon and a Recon Platoon.

The Mortar Platoon (complete with observer team) will provide support to my slowly expanding Infantry Company and more importantly, provide me with the opportunity to learn how the artillery rules work, as I've never had any before. Finally, they allow me to annoy the hell out of enemy tanks with smoke!

The Recon Platoon were a little bonus that I put together for when I use the Pantherkompanie to prevent the big cats from being ambushed by sneaky side shots. They actually came in a little diorama pack and the command bike is a conversion using an infantry officer and an unridden bike. Also, the bikes with sidecars are useful for 2iC transports in Panzergrenadier companies.

Given how easy I'm finding Flames of War stuff to paint, I'm considering beginning a new army. If I do this, I suspect it will be Russian for a couple of reasons. Firstly, Panthers are suitable opponents for the Russians in both Mid-War and Late-War. Plastic Soldier Company and Zvezda plastics make collecting a Russian army significantly cheaper than smaller American or British forces. Finally, the Russian horde seems to play very differently to my small and tactical Germans - I'm particularly tempted by a wall of T-34 tanks, which look easy to paint too!

The Boys with the Black Stuff

It's been about six months since I last played Saga, largely because the run up to the 'Winter is Coming' tournament saw me play a lot of games in a very short period and gain a few fatigue points, but also because I've been running and failing to win the club's Blood Bowl tournament. However, with a club campaign just about to kick off and the 'Spring Tide' event a couple of weeks away, I thought that it might be a good idea to remind myself of the rules.

This 6 point game featured my Vikings against my Dad's Irish...I know there isn't an Irish faction (yet, hint hint Mr Tomahawk and Mr Beast) but when he considered what Dark Age force he wanted to build, my Dad was adamant about doing Irish/Hiberno Norse. Depending on force composition he can use the rules for either the Welsh or the Vikings. For this game he was being a bit Welsh.

The Vikings - 1 Warlord, 4 Berserkers, 2 units of 6 Hirdmen, 2 units of 8 Bondi

The 'Irish' - 1 Warlord, 3 units of 4 Teulu, 3 units of 8 Priodaur (all on foot)

We rolled up the 'Escort' scenario and I chose to be the attacker, trying to get the baggage (in this case a load of barrels, probably full of Guinness) off the opposite table edge, and the Irish would be trying to stop me. As you can see from above, I put the majority of my force on my right flank with two of the baggage markers, and I put the other one far over on the left (behind the house) guarded by a single unit of Bondi.

My goal was to draw enemy forces over to the left by sacrificing one of the baggage pieces and so make it easier for my main force to burst through with the rest of my force. The downside of this plan is that I had to get both of the other baggage pieces off the table to win, I couldn't afford to lose one, so I'd have to be careful.

To my delight, my dad placed a unit of Priodaur and a unit of Teulu over on my left, pretty much guaranteeing that I'd lose the Bondi and the baggage, but also assigning two points of his warband to deal with just one point of mine. I would not even try to activate the unit on the left with the aim of making them last longer and so tie up the enemy units for more of the game.

My 5 points of Viking filth were massed and ready to run. The strategy on this flank was to pile forwards, use the Bondi to screen the Warlord, baggage and Hirdmen from the enemy javelins and then launch the Berserkers to punch a hole in the enemy line for my elites hearthguard to surge through.

Opposing my main force were eight Priodaur and four Teulu. This was certainly beatable. However, the worrying part for me was the mass of Priodaur and Teulu, led by the Warlord, behind the woods in the centre. If I took too long trying to clear the screen in front, they'd be on me. Also, I was concerned with the Welsh abilities that slow you down, draw units out of position and allow Welsh units to back off; in short all the abilities that would slow down my surge and allow the Welsh Warlord to close.

The opening of the game went to plan. My main force advanced and the left stayed still. The Irish line threw Javelins and took down a Bondi, but didn't have the abilities ready to stop the Berserkers making contact (I should point out that I use models with Dane Axes as my Berserkers) and making a mess of the Priodaur. I was also surprised that one of the Berserkers survived the encounter.

With only four Teulu in front of me I advanced again and moved the Bondi and one unit of Hirdmen to intercept any rush by the Welsh Warlord, who'd been sneaking through the undergrowth using Children of the Land.

Meanwhile, over on the left, the bait was well and truly taken as the Irish advanced on my Bondi and threw Javelins at them.

The Irish seemed reluctant to close, the Bondi backed off to reduce the damage they were taking from the Javelins. They were eventually caught and killed but the baggage was still at liberty when the game ended.

Back over on the right, the Irish Warlord gave a cry of "With me! For the craic!" and charged with his Priodaur into my understrength Bondi. The fight was short and brutal, largely because the Irish were using Strength in Numbers to beef up their attack, and the Bondi were all killed for the loss of only a single Priodaur.

With four Teulu still blocking the road to freedom, a unit of Hirdmen went barrelling into them, using Valhalla to cut them down to a man. However, the Irish gave good account of themselves and when the dust cleared, nobody was left standing.

The route home was clear, but the Irish Warlord was bearing down on the remnants of my warband (where had they all gone) who were all fatigued. However, a fortunate set of Saga dice saw my Warlord use Njord to clear the fatigue and then simple activations to move the the baggage off the table. Not very glorious or heroic, but hey, who's got the beer?

This was a good game which ended up closer than it should have, but I'm troubled by the Escort scenario. It seems a bit predictable and 'gamey'. After all, in the situation above, the Irish still had over half their warband and I had only my Warlord and six Hirdmen. Unless my camp is immediately off table (in which case, it's an odd place for the Irish to attack) it seems that the Irish would simply harry the remaining Vikings to their death. Also, having three baggage pieces seems to scream for the dummy play and the game ends up feeling like Blood Bowl. Personally I wonder whether having a single, larger piece of baggage would make for a more 'historical' game.

Hear Me Roar!

A couple of weeks ago I played my first game of Flames of War since Christmas. I haven't posted about it until now as I've been having some trouble sending myself the pictures from my phone (hence the poor quality). However, I've now managed this and so here goes (it's brief because I can't remember much)...

It was a 1750 point Late War game between me and Trev. As I'm still missing a couple of units for my infantry company, I was once again rolling out Schwere Panzerkompanie Bake (free PDF list!) featuring the following:

HQ - 1 Panther Tank

Panzer Platoon 1 - 3 Panther Tanks

Panzer Platoon 2 - 3 Panther Tanks

Gebirgsjager Platoon

Gebirgsjager Platoon

Sporadic Air Support

Facing my somewhat sparse forces were Trev's Russians. I don't kn0w exactly what list he was using, but it was mechanised infantry and looked something like this:

HQ

Loads of Russians with SMGs

Even more Russians with SMGs

Some more Russians with HMGs

A Few more Russians with Mortars

2 Small Anti-Tank Guns

5 T-34 Tanks

5 T-34 Tanks

4 Katyusha Rocket Launchers

Limited Air Support

Basically, I was massively outnumbered. Although my Panthers had the advantage of range and penetration against the T-34s, they are weak against Air Support, Artillery and Infantry. If you throw in the fact that we were playing a scenario where half of or armies would only begin to turn up on turn three, it would be entirely possible for focused artillery and air support could end the game extremely quickly by destroying one of my Panther Platoons.

I forgot to take a picture of the whole board but the objectives were evenly spread. The one on my left was behind a hill and opposite was Trev's objective also behind a hill. There was a line of hills along the edge of the table and between the two objectives was a large wood. On my right, my objective was buried in a wood, whilst the objective opposite was in a corn field. I deployed a Panther platoon and my 1iC on my left objective and a platoon of Gebirgsjaeger in the woods on my right. Trev placed one of his infantry hordes and the rocket launchers near the objective behind the hill and the HMGs and Mortars in the cornfield. Trev got the first turn and I braced myself for impact.

As expected, Trev's Sturmoviks began to target my Panthers. However a combination of spreading out the tanks and spectacularly poor dice rolling for arriving and armour penetration, the Russian Air Force were only able to bail two tanks during the course of the entire game.

In reply, my own sporadic air cover was much more effective, accounting for almost all of the Katyusha Rocket Launchers after a series of sorties. The Luftwaffe were helped in their mission by the Russians' complete inability to dig in. This also had the added effect of seriously reducing the impact of the Russian artillery.

Meanwhile the Russian Infantry scurried towards the woods between the lines on my left flank and loitered there, pinning my tanks in place. I couldn't get too close as I was concerned about being assaulted and so couldn't make use of my machine guns. I figure that Trev was equally concerned about leaving cover in the face of my MG's and seemed to be waiting for support.

The nature of the random reserves meant that I was the one to receive support and my second unit of Gebirgsjager moved to back up the Panthers and so the Russian advance ground to a halt. This flank bogged down into a wary stalemate for much of the game.

Meanwhile, on the right, the arrival of my second unit of Panthers made the Russian HMG's and Mortars in the corn fields look distinctly vulnerable. I was considering making a death or glory assault to capture the objective...

...that was until the Russian armour turned up. Close up, the T-34s are more than capable of flanking and hurting my Panthers and so I was forced to rethink.

And so, using a small rise to give the big cats a bit of cover I began to fire away at the Russian tanks. As I said, close up, the T-34's can give the Panthers some trouble. However, at range...

...less so.
Despite the pounding the Panthers were giving Trev's armour, more and more Russians were arriving from reserve and although I'd so far inflicted more damage, I was unable to stop the second unit of T-34s from charging across the battlefield.

One of the reasons that I was unable to halt the T-34s was the fact that having secured the objective with infantry, I'd despatched the Panther platoon on my left on a daring mission (more on that later). This gave Trev the encouragement he needed to finally launch his infantry out of the woods towards my Gebirgsjager, who were supported by only my commander's Panther.

The advancing Russian tanks were able to surround my Panthers and began to make their numbers tell, one of the big cats was destroyed and the others were forced to withdraw. With my left objective under pressure from an infantry assault and the path open towards the objective on my right, things were looking ropey for the Wehrmacht.

That was until, the commander's machine guns provided more than adequate support my dug in infantry in fighting off the Russians and the T-34s were suddenly called back to deal with an emergency behind their lines.

Remember that unit of Panthers I sent off on a daring mission? I'd sent them on an end run behind the hill line on the left of the table. With the infantry caught in the woods in the centre, all that Trev had to defend against them was a small unit of anti-tank guns who were dealt with in short order. It was this move that forced Trev to be more aggressive with his infantry and then later to pull back his T-34s.

I captured the objective and Trev desperately threw everything he could at them. The Panthers heroically weathered the storm and then blew away the T-34's contesting the objective to win the game.

I was really pleased with how this game played out. I was helped by Trev's dismal artillery and air support, but I'm happy that I recognised the opportunity to send the Panthers rushing to capture an objective. I'm often too cautious with my tanks, however this is because I tend to get punished badly when I'm more aggressive. I do feel that had Trev been more aggressive early on (his infantry was far more scared of my Panthers than it should be) then the game would have gone his way. As it was, I was able to do what Panthers do best, whittle away his armoured support at range and so reduce his ability to move quickly to respond to my attack.

A good game.

It's not easy being green...

Last Thursday saw my quarter final match in the club Blood Bowl match. I'd finished fourth in the league and so was drawn against the fifth place team, JP's Nurgle team, the Rottenham Tight 'Uns. To say that I was wary of this match would be an understatement. The Nurgle team seem to have everything that is required to really make a mess of the Slann. Not only can they pummel to frogs into the ground (like most teams) but the disturbing presence of the Nurgle Warriors prevents the Slann from moving the ball effectively, and as annoying as Leap is, it doesn't help put distance between squishy Slann Catchers and slow-moving crumpers. Being unable to move the ball, as I found out in our league game, means that the Slann have to get up close and personal much more than I'd like to.

Despite this, I was determined to try to play fast with the ball and aim to score quickly and avoid the worst of the pummelling. We'll see how that went...

The 49ers recieved the ball and began to head down the left flank. The Nurgle team moved to block and so the 49ers switched to the right and caged up only to be fireballed. A beastman came pummelling through to grab the ball, but his following cage trip on a go for it leaving him exposed. The subsequent block sent him flying and the Slann had the ball again and switched over to the left flank once more. The putrescent tide swept across the pitch again and the Slann were forced to go for a pass into the end zone. The pass was successful (despite the disturbing presence of two Nurgle Warriors) but the catch was dropped. The Nurgle players again surged towards the ball and managed to get two tackle zones on the ball, the the third player tripped, fell and injured himself. With the ball still sitting in the endzone, the Slann Can't-Catcher leapt over the intervening Nurgle players and scooped up the ball from beneath their noses. 1-0 to the 49ers, two turns left in the half and ominously, three Slann were already in the injured box...

The teams set up again and the Nurgle team realised that they'd have to go for something ostentatious to equalise. Beastmean rushed through the line, Rotters scurried back for the ball and Warriors smashed faces. The Slann were able to hop their blitzers through the lines to strip the ball away and spoil any chance of the Tight 'Uns equalising this half.

Once again the teams set up and the Slann were bracing themselves for a beating. However, their fans stormed the pitch, stunning all three Nurgle Warriors on the line. The 49ers had a window of opportunity. Realising that they were vulnerable, for the only time in the match, the Tight 'Uns elected not to hit frogs and moved to protect the ball.

This was the chance. Slann hopped in to removed assists an the Blitzer leapt into the cage to flatten the ball carrying Beastman. The ball went flying...straight into the arms of a rotter. The half then became predictable. The Nurgle Team moved slowly down the pitch, breaking things as they went, whilst the Slann threw increasingly desperate leaps into cages to go for one dice blocks and began to run out of players. By the time the Tight 'Uns ambled into the endzone there were only five Slann on the pitch, and another two in the injured box. 1-1 with two turns remaining.

It would be tricky, but it was possible. The Slann recieved deep in their own half and rushed two players into positions where they could score (the Tight 'Uns could only hit one). The Catcher was flattened which meant that victory required a Blitzer to run to the end zone and then a long bomb to be thrown. The Blitzer tripped on his first square of movement, was injured and the game was going to over time.

The ball was once again kicked to the Nurgle team. Vainly throwing leaping blocks at cages, the Slann were powerless to stop their opponents taking the lead. When they set up with four turns of over time to go, there were only five Slann remaining. There just weren't enough of them, and even though one lone lineman made a death or glory rush towards the end zone, he was flattened and injured and the Tight 'Uns trotted in another touchdown.

With most of their team injured, the 49ers go out of the tournament and into retirement. The Tight 'Uns go on to the semi-finals and potential glory.

Rottenham Tight 'Uns 3 - 1 Slann Frogcisco 49ers (Casualties: 7-1)

OUCH!

I took a beating and there's no denying it. I could complain about dice, but that would ignore the fact that JP took exactly the right approach to cause me as much trouble as he could. I also had a (slim) chance to win but couldn't bring it home. In the end, the mounting casualties meant that I just couldn't compete in overtime.

This is the second time I've used the Slann in a league and I have to admit that they are hard work. To get the most out of them, you have to take risks and risk-taking is always punished in Blood Bowl. Unless someone drops out of the inter-club Chumpions' League then the Slann Frogcisco 49ers will be put away for a long time. However, they will keep the honour of having the best team name I've ever thought of...

Next year, I'm going for a team that can hit folks. There's some payback to be had!!!

Wot no painting?

I've just not been in the mood...

I go through these phases every so often, where I really can't find the motivation to paint. The reasons are many and varied, but often have something to do with fading fads. At the moment, I'm nearing the end of the lead pile for several projects, and with nothing new to start I'm struggling to finish things off.

As it stands I've got the following to do:

Bretonnians - 4 Knights Errant, 5 Questing Knights, Lord on Hippogriff

FoW Germans - Mortar Platoon, 4 extra bases of Panzergrenadiers

VBCW - 8 Gentlemen with Shotguns

However, I've no great reason to get motivated with any of them.

Nevertheless...I have a plan.

When I get into these ruts, I start to organise thing to give me a reason to get motivated. Hence the fact that this week I'll be playing Trev at Flames of War. This will be my first game with the new rules (not that I'll notice the difference) and I'm hoping that either I'll enjoy the game so much that I'll suddenly get the urge to paint the mortars or the lack of any artillery will hurt enough that I'll feel that I have to get them done before I play another game.

What's more, I've also been planning a Flames of War campaign for the club for after the summer. To enable everybody to use the armies that they have I've plumped for a 'what if' invasion of Scandinavia campaign in 1943, with the Russians attacking Finland and the Allies landing in Norway.

Here's the map I've been working on:

There will be some special rules to account for Scandinavian winters and Sweden's neutrality and I'm hoping that for campaign flavour somebody has a Finnish army tucked away somewhere and I might see if we can organise some kind of D-Day beach assault to kick things off.

The WFB stuff will get a boost as I begin to organise a tournament for the summer; expect some angst on the blog as I've never done something like that before. As for the VBCW stuff, I suspect that I need to arrange another game.

I've also been searching for inspiration by burying my nose in different periods such as the French-Indian War and the War of 1812. However, I've no burning desire to begin another large project yet, but my birthday (and another opportunity to spend money on my hobby) is round the corner, so there may be a sudden change of direction.

As it stands, there is every likelihood that March will see very little progress on the painting front unless I gat get myself moving. How do you motivate yourself to get painting?

They call it 'winning ugly'

The final game of the regular season. I was already guaranteed a place in the play offs, but I was playing for league position and (theoretically) an easier game in the quarter finals. Kelly, my opponent, was still struggling to secure qualification. After a rough start to the season, his Wood Elves had slowly shown improving form and he'd won his first game the previous week.

Slann Frogcisco 49ers 2 - 1 Barrowman's Ball Benders (Casualties 1-2)

In front of a packed house of their own fans (all Slann, no Elves) the game was delayed by a riot which began at the snack bar (they'd run out of flies). The 49ers, who'd elected to kick because they expected to have time to respond to the Benders' inevitable score, were suddenly very worried. Their worry deepened when a Treeman came crashing through their lines shortly followed by half the Wood Elf team and the ball.

A desperate defence began and ball was stripped from the Elf Catcher's hands, however it bounced to a Slann in the middle of the scrum and so the 49ers were forced to leap in to the ruck to even the odds. The Elves then uncharacteristically began to put the boot in. Three Slann were stretchered off but the ball stayed safe in the 49ers' grasp. However, up field a lone Slann Lineman was mobbed by a pack of Elves (I think the collective noun is a 'pretention of Elves') who proceeded to jump up an down on his head.

Realising that scoring was out of the question, the 49ers set about keeping the ball from the Benders. A series of extremely flimsy cages were formed, with the Blitzers forming the major impediment to agile elves. Wardancers twice leapt into cages but were unable to claw the ball from Slann flippers and the half ended as it began at 0-0.

The Elves found themselves a two player's short at the beginningof the second half and so were naturally concerned at their ability to hold back the 49ers. Ever conscious of the leaping Wardancers, the frogs took up a formation known as the 'safe' (it's a bit stronger than the cage) and began to barge their way slowly down field.

With the Treeman stranded away from the action the Benders were unable to offer any real threat to the safe as it scraped along and so busied themselves with ambushing lone catchers and fouling them. One of the elves was sent off for a particularly nasty foul and the normally cold-blooded Slann lost their cool and began to respond in kind. Stupidly, this enabled a plucky Wardancer to launch a desperate block to shove a Slann into the ball carrier and knock him off the pitch.

The ball was thrown into the centre and a mad scramble began infront of the Elf touchline. Elves and Slann scrabbled for the ball and twice the ball was knocked from Wood Elf hands. Eventually pass was fumbled and a Slann Catcher was able to grab the ball from under the nose of a Wardancer and jump into the end zone.

The Elves, even further depleted, set up to recieve the ball. Three went back for the ball, the Treeman and two others stayed in the centre and the Catcher and a Wardancer went long. The Slann Blitzers went for man marking on the Wood Elf recievers and the Kroxigor and Linemen traded blows with the Benders' centre. A Lineman and a Catcher went deep for the ball (which was still on the floor) but were unable to reach it and had to settle for putting tackle zones on it.

The Benders looks set to go for a big play, but the Treeman made a mess of a block and suddenly the Slann had an opportunity. The Catcher grabbed the ball (again under Elven noses) and hopped away to score and take the 49ers into a completely undeserved 2-0 lead.

One turn remaining and Barrowman's Ball Benders were feeling justifiably robbed. However an in depth coaching discussion came up with a strategy to restore some pride. The ball was recieved and passed to the catcher. A single Slann lineman was then pushed and shoved from pillar to post until hi bundeld the Catcher forwards. The lithe Elf then broke into a run, skipped through the Slann defensive line and danced into the end zone for a consolation touchdown.

The game ended a 2-1, but the Wood Elves were showing signs of developing into a bigger threat than everyone had previously had them marked as. The Slann we just happy they'd got away with daylight robbery.

Kelly was right to feel a touch robbed in this game. He'd taken advantage of mistake I made well and was unfortunate that bouncing balls and key blocks didn't work out for him. I was also aware that I wasn't burning my rerolls at my usual rate (partly because I was trying to avoid taking risks as dropping the ball against fast teams can hurt). The game felt like a draw, and it certainly wasn't a 2-0 win so the last turn touchdown was well deserved.

I've now done for the regular season and I'm guaranteed to finish at least fourth. However, as this will 'win' me another game against the Rottenham Tight 'Uns and their annoying disturbing presence, I'm hoping that my rivals (Matt's Chaos team and Tom's Dwarves) slip up in their last games so that I can avoid such a tricky game.