Dark Elf Match Reports

Race #17 was the dark elves, being proxied by a team of Daemons, which fitted quite nicely. Bloodletter Blitzers, Daemonette Witches, a Plaguebearer Assassin and Blue Horror Runner giving the world the finger. Three regular witches made up the team as line elves. Took a wrestle leap witch, a wrestle witch, a tackle blitzer and leader runner, one reroll, apo.

Game 1 was v Jimjimany Pro Elves, which was a bit of a harsh start, but could have gone either way. The scatter die was ridiculously important, with the ball going loose quite a few times, before importantly landing on his Catcher in a couple of zones after I fail a pickup. Not a problem, I think, before he mentions NoS. Bugger. 2-1 loss.

Game 2 v Firebreather Norse. FB achieved 32 casualties in 6 games, and I contributed a few, but manage to squeak the win. Received and took my time scoring, which almost went wrong when I mistook one of his ulfs for a snow troll, carefully counted out movement squares, then swore quietly to myself when he blitzed me. Wrestle witch leaped in to cause the turnover, then the norsemen couldn't pick the ball up, which allowed a bit of elf junk to make it 2-0. Final score, 2-1 win.

Game 3 v Beardysomething's Necro. Happily for me, the opposition failed to strap their armour on for this one, so I was players up for almost the whole game. 3-0 win.

Game 4, needing a win to make the semifinals. Sillysod's Vampires. I elected to kick, as with only 3 line-elves I'd been having to put positionals on the line in the second half when I received in the first half. Slight miscount from Peter (possibly) allowed a 1 die wrestle blitz on the ball carrier, which took him down. Not the end of the world until his next turn, when he rerolled a blood lust then promptly double both downed with a thrall, leaving a large gap in his defences. Stalled until turn 8, removing a few thralls in the meantime, but no serious injuries. Started the second half by crowd pushing a vampire who started the turn 3 squares away from the sideline. Loving the frenzy. Made it 2-0, then he had to push for the quick score, which meant that when the turnover came I could make it a 3-0 win.

At this point Lycos was on 3 wins and a tie and 4 of us were on 3 and a loss, but luckily the points meant I made the semis.

Game 5 - semifinal v Pippy's wood elves. Always slightly disconcerted by the Strip and Tackle wardancer pair, but was thinking positive, especially once I started with a Blitz. Didn't manage to super-capitalise, but my witches did numerous leaps and dodges into the cage and had friendly dice, so the ball popped few a few times, including one pow which hospitalised the stripper, beyond even the apo's capabilities. So scary was the leaper that the Tree resorted to fouling him in the first half, getting a stun and avoiding being sent off (I think the ref was scared). Came down to an 8th turn bit of elfy fun, and went in 1-0 down. Had managed to KO the 2nd wardancer, but with 2 attempts he came back for the second half. With a tie being no use to anyone, I scored reasonably quickly, leaving quite a long time for the decider, and the wrestle leaper came up trumps again. Was in a reasonably comfortable position until I started running out of turns and not noticing, leaving my blitzer needing GFIs and also able to be blitzed. Oops. Nuffle came up trumps though, gifting me a nice double skulls when he blitzed my guy. Needed a reroll for the GFI over the line, but made it.

Game 6 - final v Jim again. The diving tackle blodge blitzer was back to haunt me. Kicked the ball, and they scored in 5, having got into a fairly sticky situation near the sidelines with me having the ball. Again the scatter was favourable, when instead of bouncing off the pitch it scattered to the perfect scoring position. This left me 4 turns. A good amount of time, until a riot gave us an extra turn, which was to prove my undoing. Managed to get in a decent scoring position quickly, before a glance at the clock meant that would give him 2 turns with pro elves to score. Non ideal. Attempted a stall, but with no rerolls the first non-Dodge dodge I attempted failed, and my ball carrier was open. Had a few more chances to score, but went in 1-0 down. Scored in 3 turns or so, figuring that more turns is better when going for the defensive TD, and wanting to avoid a dice-off (and now hating stalling!). Didn't get the breaks I needed, and the Pros got a fairly straightforward winner, and a massive knife as the prize.

Absolutely love the wrestling witches, having used Jump Up pretty much every other turn of the tournament. May return to them after the 24 is up, but I have a decent ranking with them now so that may be an error...