The Welsh Open is over for another year so while the memories are still fresh, while the pain is still etched on my face, before the scars have a chance to heal, it's time for a quick look at what happened.
Game 1 - First game was against a fellow Orca Cola (OCC) League member, Zulu, and his Norse. It was a strong roster with a Mighty Blow/Block Yhetee at the middle of it. I thought it would be ok if I could get a few armour breaks, whittle the numbers down and gain momentum as I built up a player advantage. Turned out that the Norse AV7 was far, far better than my rubbish Orc AV9 and I was the one on the end of a beating. Orcs were being removed from the pitch at an unhealthy rate and Zulu being a very good coach took advantage. I lost this game 2-1
Game 2 - Hoping for an easier game but I was soon disappointed as I found out I was facing Chaos. I've struggled with the orcs for a while and facing a team that matched me for strength, had a clawed up Minotaur and could ST4 Blitz from anywhere on the pitch was real challenge. The coach, jaskirl, was fairly inexperienced at NAF tournament play, I think he'd played 9 games in total, but he played the Chaos well and I really struggled. Again, I lost the CAS war and found myself down on numbers but managed to get the game to 1-1. It came down to the final turn of the game, a Beastman was 1 square away from the endzone and flanked by Orcs. He needed a 4+ dodge into the endzone to win the match 2-1. He failed and it ended a draw. I was very lucky to get the draw here.
Game 3 - The tournament wasn't going well and all I wanted to do was get an easy game out of the way and get home. I found I had drawn SillySod and his Lizardmen for game 3 and had a little cry. Once again I struggled to gain an advantage. I was outdone in Strength and Speed as well as facing a rather nasty Stand Firm/Diving Tackle Kroxigor. I think I held it to 0-0 at the half but conceded in the 2nd half with a few turns to go. I gathered the ball from the kick-off, got it to a Blitzer and made a break down the wing. I thought I had got far enough away but had miscounted and was soon marked by the f***king Kroxigor and a skink. In my last turn I cleared the skink away and then said a little prayer to Nuffle. In total I needed a perfect 6 to get away - I needed a 3+ to dodge and with Prehensile Tail and Diving Tackle modifying the dice roll by a total of -3, I had to roll the 6. Nothing else would do. I shook the dice cup, slammed it down and......rolled a 5. Damn you Nuffle! Damn you to Hell! I swear that somewhere in the room I heard a high pitched giggle. I used my last reroll, reloaded the dice cup and shook it again, slammed it down and.......a 6! A glorious, beautiful, 6! Nuffle! You Beauty. I let out a loud Boom! and fired off the finger pistols before blowing the smoke away and holstering them on my hip. That's how we roll dice in the big league and I got away with my second draw of the weekend.
Game 4 - Nuffles beneficence knows no bounds and after the glory of game 3 I faced Goblins in Game 4. Dreamscreator was a lovely bloke, a pleasure to play against and his Goblin roster looked very good. Having played Goblins myself a few times I know how destructive they can be. I also know how quickly they can fall apart and for once the Orcs were on song. They tore their way through the stunty ranks, dispatching Secret Weapons with aplomb and filling the injury room with fallen Goblins. I finished the game by winning 3-0 and causing 4 casualties. I was on the winning track.
Game 5 - Feeling elated I was brought back to earth with a bump by a very good Wood Elf team. I played like an idiot and my opponent played very well indeed. I caused a fair few caualties but it wasn't enough and with 1 turn to go I scored to grab a consolation TD in what I hoped was a 3-1 loss. One turn and some Elf magic later I was 4-1 down. Sums the game up really.
Game 6 - In my final game I faced another OCC coach, Doomy. I've played him several times and never won. Lost both times in fact. So I wasn't feeling great and then he got his Skaven out and suddenly I felt a lot worse. He had 5 Gutter Runners! 4 normal ones and Skitter Stab-Stab the Star Player. Clearly the Gouged Eye felt they'd had enough of pussy-footing round and decided that this game would be the one to show what they had. The game kicked off and they went to work. The CAS box filled p quickly, Skitter was killed along with a Guard Blitzer and Osgar got his throwing arm going to spray the ball around. The half ended 2-1. Doomy equalised quickly in the 2nd Half and I then worked the ball down the field to the Skaven endznone but his Gutter Runners hit successful 1 dice blocks and the ball was on the ground. 3 turns on the trot I was unable to pick the ball up but before Doomy could snatch an improbable victory by grabbing the ball himself, the organisers called time and the game ended 2-2 with me causing 6 casualties. A most unsatisfactory end to the tournament but there was nothing we could do (well, we could play quicker next time but I don't think ours was the only game called)
So, I finished on 1W - 3D - 2L. Not great and for the second year running my only win was against Goblins. I think it might have been a better record than last year but I'm not happy with it. I need to go back to the drawing board and work on my game because clearly it isn't good enough. There's a 1 day tournament at the end of February. I'll have to think about taking the Orcs there and seeing how they go.
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