Whatever else follows this sentence, I view the outcome of Tuesday’s game as a victory.

There are various measures of success in Blood Bowl:

1. Did you enjoy the game?

2. Did you score more TDs than your opponent

3. Did you kill more of your opponents players than he did of yours

4. Did any positional / important players die.

Some people get all hung up about #2 on that list, but really it’s only 25% of the issue.

I played Dave’s Hellpit Ogres at the club on Tuesday and scored “Wins” in three out of four questions. I had a great time, I killed more players and my team survived with zero long term damage. That last one would have been enough for me. When you take AV7 guys up against a team with 6 MB guys, it’s damage limitation time, especially when it’s clear within 4 turns that your only real threat – The Yhetee – doesn’t want to play. And so to the report!

There were rumblings amongst the supporters club when it was revealed that the first visitors to the newly completed Exiles stadium weren’t going to be a team of sacrificial elves, who would do the decent thing and get pummeled. Instead, the league’s commissioner had something more challenging in store – the undefeated Hellpit Orges. Coach Fitz was not optimistic, he knew that his frenzied players were going to be more of a liability than a help in this match. Unless his opponent made serious positional errors (not something he was famous for) he was going to have to keep the more enthusiastic members of his attacking line on a tight leash.

The Exiles won the toss, and then coach spent a decent half our decided whether he really want to kick or not. Finally he chose to give the ball to the Ogres and hope for the best. Fortunately on the line of scrimmage the Orges were still only warming up, and despite the attentions of some fouling snotlings only a couple of players were KO’d.

The Exiles moved around the flanks of the Ogre advance, looking more to hit someone than really to halt proceedings. A couple of opportunities presented themselves, and by the time the Ogres finally deigned to cross the line towards the end of the half, one of the massive beats was in the hospital and one in the KO box. However, this came at a cost of 5 exiles players off the pitch. 2 nursed match ending injuries whilst three were being slapped around the face in an attempt to wake them up.

Exiles 0 – 1 Hellpit Ogres

In the final stages of the first half the exiles attempted to deal some further damage whilst in possession, completing a pass in the backfield and then hoping to push an ogre into a foul able position. But the Yhetee, having his worst match of the season, proved unable to bring down an opponent opting instead to fall on his butt.

HALF TIME

In the second half, things continued in the same vein. The Exiles received and attempted to push down one flank, but the return of the KO’d ogre left them badly understrength and outnumbered. the Crow managed to dodge his way past the snottlings but was brought down in the final quarter of the pitch by a rampaging ogre. The ball bounced in to the visiting fan’s enclosure who promptly hoofed it back up to mid pitch, into the waiting hands of a Snotling. At this point Coach Fitz conceded that retrieval of the ball was unlikely, and instead started looking for people to hurt. This was presented in the shape of a couple of lonely looking Snotlings – one of which got killed by a rampaging Berzerker, whilst the other fled into his own end zone.

The Ogres completed the score in turn 8, making the final result:

Exiles 0 – 2 Hellpit Ogres

So, I lost and didn’t really feel like that result was ever in doubt, but frankly I don’t care. No one got hurt, or broken. Next season, once the team is developed more I feel like I have a shout in that match up, but not now. You need to be sure that by committing to contact with the ogre line you ARE going to remove one from the pitch. I don’t yet have the tools in the box to do that. A few more MB PO pieces and MB on the Yhetee will make a massive difference. I shall bide my time and lick my wounds…. Next time Dave… Next time….