Bretonnia wishes to announce that the match was sabotaged by the referee who sent Dirty Player and another stinking Peasant into the penalty box when all they tried to do was enact the noblest bretonnian tradition of respectfully greeting their opponent's faces with their grity spiked boots. The Bretonnian embassy has already started the
hunt search for the referee in question in order to see that the justice is done.
From the other news: I bought Dolfar Longstride. He was supposed to be my secret weapon. With AG4 he should be able to pick up the ball and pass it on to the Blitzers (as well as another body on the pitch, giving me more room to foul with Peasants). Dolfar did manage to mess up two passes for Dark Elves (who said Pass Block is useless?), meaning I didn't lose first half 1:0, but that's a small consolation, considering I was attacking. He also managed to kill himself on the first move of the first turn, because I decided to be more move-efficient with my blocking the cage. Then he rolled another one, when I attempted to meet the Loner check (so I would've failed it anyway). So much for AG4, I guess (did I mention he also failed his first pick up attempt in the first half?). This resulted in Dark Elves going easily through my lines and onto my half, so death is a fitting end for Dolfar, I say.
Back to the fouling strategy... Sadly, first gang-foul on the Witch ended with an ejection (I got 3 supports, I think?). Another - after losing the ball in the first half - involving the whole team (8? 9?) was just a stun. The third (roughly the same number of players participating) was yet another ejection. So I got big fat nada from it all. But at least it forced Jaedar to score, because I was bent on killing that Witch, even if it was all I achieved that half.
The downside was that two of his players came back, bringing his team back to 11 against my 9 and I had 4 or 5 turns left. This forced me to man the right sideline massively in an attempt to make last desperate push for the tie, but it was not to be. Some men got pushed into the crowds by the Dark Elves. Others were valiantly pushed in by their own comrades trying to push out the Dark Elves to inflict as much damage as possible - King Edward "We Have Reserves" I style - when it was clear the touchdown was not happening. I got 3 KOs. Jaedar ended with 1 badly hurt. Overall it could've ended much worse for me than it did.
I think my main problem was not positioning my Blitzers well enough for the potential hand offs and run offs. I also don't construct my cages tighly enough to make sure they are as safe as possible. And I am severly missing Guard. Despite the teams being equal or roughly equal (which is good, considering I am playing Bretonnians) I always end up missing a player or two for these 2D blocks.
As a general note to players both old and new: It's important to have a gameplan, and your gameplan should include you scoring on the half where you receive. Going into the 2nd half at 0-0 with your opponent receiving is at least halfway to a loss and unlikely to wind up more favorably than a draw. Therefore, if you see this is about to happen, considering taking more risks.
The general plan was to punch and foul my way to victory(which is why I gave Dirty Player to my Peasant). With Dolfar being a sneaky option of passing the ball if needed. With Blitzers having Catch it ought to make the whole action safer than usual.
But my cage was too loose (because Dolfar fucked up his pickup on the first turn) and you managed to split it even more, meaning I barely managed to cross your half of the pitch when it all devolved into one giant scrum for the ball. I planned to hand off to my cage's Blitzer and run off with it through Blitz-made gap, but you put an end to it by knocking Dolfar down and the ball then landed on one of your players - after bouncing off the knocked down Blocker - who catched it, so he wasn't even able to attempt and recover it.
