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The weather was rainy, which seemed like a good sign. His skinks would have a harder time dealing with the weather than vampires, and I won the coin toss.
My first block of the game caused -AV on Asparagus Lantern. This was encouraging, despite the apothecary's successful medical treatment. However, the two blocks later, the odds were balanced when The Trop failed blood lust. I re-rolled the blood lust only to roll double skulls. The ball was within skink range, and Hunter Lantern had no trouble snatching up the rain-soaked ball. I was playing defense in my own half.
My re-rolled vampire blitz revealed 5 arrows and a both down. The pesky blodge skink would hang on to the ball. After a failed foul on Mint Lantern, I passed the turn, hoping I would have another defensive play while Hito stalled. Unfortunately, he wasted no time putting the score on the board. Time to receive my 2nd kickoff.
The weather changed to nice, and my ball handling advantage evaporated along with the rain on the pitch. No matter. I caged up the ball near midfield and sent a star-crossed thrall and vamp receiver pair down the pitch. Hito stunned the vamp receiver and double covered the thrall, so I knew a running game would be my best chance to score.
I didn't quite form my screen properly, and Hito was able to get a saurus and DT skink on the ball. All I could do was attempt a 4+ dodge out from the DT skink, blitz another, and 2+ dodge from the saurus.... which worked! Two GFI's, a successful gaze, and it looked like an easy TD. Before I could walk it in, though, Hito knocked David Price out of the game with an SI on the following turn - amazingly, the first casualty so far, despite all the bashies blocking my fragile thralls. A bad player to have out, but I had still gotten lucky on cas to this point, and the game was tied.
With two turns to score, Hito set up a deep cage, and made a skink to skink handoff (where are you NOW, rain?). I gazed my way into the cage, and threw skull, skull, arrow, pow/push on the ball. I may have whined about 10 dice not finding a pow v. ballcarriers at this point. Who can remember such things? ;)
Hito's clever chainpushing led to an easy skink dodge, which led to me kicking off the 2nd half down by a score. On his way there, he managed to SI The Trop. My deep bench allowed me to field 11, but I was going to be down a vamp for the rest of the match.
-2nd Half-
Hito's opening salvo of blocks yielded 3 stuns and an SI on a thrall... not excessively bloody, but a warning sign that my magic armor from the first half may have finally worn off. My defense was fairly conservative, knowing that a 3rd score would probably mean the end of my chances. I just wanted one shot at the ball before he put it away.
My turn 4 of the second half was my shining moment. The ball was against the sideline, with a mess of lizards in the way. Two saurus cage corners above the ball, with two skinks and a saurus above that... an inverted pyramid of lizzies, if you will.
I innocuously sent a thrall way down field (he had been stunned a turn ago trying to pressure the ball, and was free of any opposition.) More on this later ;)
Then, I rolled a 1 for blood lust. Eep. I re-roll too many BL's in general, but this one was a must-have. The RR worked, but made everything else a lot riskier. I rolled 6 straight dice without seeing another 1 on BL, or 2 on Hypno. The resounding hypnotic symphony (ok, a bit dramatic... it was 3 gazes) gave a thrall a free shot at surfing the ball! The both down was a bit anticlimactic, but it did the trick. Ball's free for the taking (and nestled between two vamps, I should say)! Hito blocked the ball free, but snakes on the pickup gave me a chance to tie things up!
I re-rolled a 4+ pickup of my own, dodged out, and chucked it to true rookie Quinton McCracken, who charged up to the goal line before waiting for his scaly pursuers to catch up. Catch up they did, and the newly-minted folk hero walked his first touchdown into the end zone to thunderous applause! (Too much? Hush. Let me have it)
Now, the following two turns is where I believe excitement got the better of me. I rolled a blitz on the kickoff, and immediately went to my mental ecstasy place. Thinking I had a real shot to score a winning TD before overtime, I managed to blow my final two re-rolls on silly things, rather than take a 2-0 re-roll advantage into OT. After some futzing about on both sides, the regulation period ended with the score tied 2-2.
-Overtime-
The accumulated damage prevented either team from fielding a full 11, so 10v10 overtime it was! Hito won the coin flip this time, and the kick result was pitch invasion. His Krox got stunned, but so did 3 of my thralls. 2 more thralls stunned from blocks, and my defensive options were seriously limited. I failed 2 BL's on the following turn (did I mention I threw my re-rolls away?), and didn't manage any pressure on the ball. Hito cages. I stand my mens up, and fail a dodge (DID I MENTION I THREW MY RE-ROLLS AWAY?). Hito moves the cage into scoring range. I fail a GFI (DID I MENTION I... oh, sorry. I did mention that). Hito rolls no dice on the deciding turn, and wins the match!
Perhaps an unspectacular ending, but the game was close, enjoyable, and well-played (at least by Hito, though I felt I did my part to make it competetive). I always appreciate a sociable opponent, and a close match, so I honestly couldn't be much happier with the result (as far as losses go, that is) :)
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