Game 3 vs Dittiton Oddrugs

"Rodger the Furious"- ready for action!

Fans of Odinn's Champions may remember that the last game saw some players skill up- the Yeti Angry Agnar took the skill Guard, rookie thrower Boris Surespear got Sure Hands and the team treasury was finally large enough to draft an Ulfenwerner and so Rodger the Furious donned the team's purple and yellow jersey.

The next scheduled game against the human team River Stir Slayers had to be deferred because of the Viking raiding season on Lustrian coastline, and so the next game played was against the Skaven Team Dittiton Oddrugs (roster here), netting Right Stuff 420k in inducements which he spent getting his favourite star player Icepelt Hammerblow and a blood wiser babe.  His aim was to hit and keep hitting to make the most of the Norse blocking skills and the lower Skaven armour.   The weather was very sunny, the Skaven took +1 FAME while the Norse won the toss and elected to kick (Right Stuff had a 2-1 grind strategy in mind).

The teams take the pitch on the lovely "Eucalyptus Bowl" field

The ball landed midfield with brilliant coaching automatically won by the Skaven with their two assistant coaches and FAME advantage. The ball drifted onto a linerat who caught it and the game began. The skaven swung right to crowd Icepelt but the rat ogre wild animated out to foil the plan. The Norse moved to contain nicely with a few hits but no injuries and the ball remained midfield in skaven possession. The rat ogre punched Icepelt to the ground, but the star blodging gutter runner tripped over and badly hurt himself! A scrum ensued midfield for a turn or so before a gutter runner dodged out and sprinted into the end zone ready to receive a pass, but the skaven ball carrier missed another dodge and KOed himself, while the Norse failed to pick it up the next turn as the scrum continued. Another gutter runner did some skaven magic, dodging through multiple zones to grab the ball but fumbled the pass! The scrum continued, the ball eventually popped out and another fumbled skaven pass in the hot weather put it in the Norse half, but they couldn't pick it up either. The skaven scooped it but spilled it sprinting - it's a pretty messy half!  The Norse ended up grabbing it, a short pass and a hand-off later and the ball was half way to the end zone with some buddies covering him - could this be the making of the first Norse TD for the season? The rat ogre charged back to flatten one of the Norse screening players and base the ball carrier.  Right stuff then skulled out on his turn with no rerolls left and whammo!  The Norse carrier went down stunned by the Rat Ogre and the half ended at nil all.

The ill-fated Norse drive - thwarted by the Rat Ogre on the ground at the right 

The Norse received to start the second half one player up on the field and getting a quick snap! The thrower grabbed the ball, handled off the blitzer and the ball was at the halfway point when Icepelt double skulled out, allowing the skaven to reset and contain the Norse offensive. The Norse injured a linerat and moved slowly down the pitch but the skaven were closing the nose tight.

Norse drive up the left side

The Norse blitzer then burst forth, some buddies moved up to support him but the skaven managed to burst in and base the ball carrier in sight of the end zone. Being only turn 4, Right Stuff decided to try and stall - would it pay off???  In came a gutter runner sporting a Horns mutation for a 1 die block, a push only. Reroll; push again! Right stuff decided not to risk it any more and wisely waved his Blitzer over the line to score in his turn 5!!!  1 nil to the Norse

Norse preparing to score for the first time this season!

The Norse kicked in as the weather changed to fine and a gust of wind took the ball out of play for a touchback. Could the Norse hold out for four turns against the Skaven offense? It was certainly helped when a gutter runner failed his dodge and reroll right at the start of the drive, allowing the Norse to break through and sack the ball carrier nicely. 3 skaven turns to go when the rat ogre KOed a Norse lineman, a gutter runner sprinted downfield and the sacking Norseman was cleared off the ball. 2 skaven turns to go with 2 Norse tackle zones now on the ball.  Just then a Skaven blitz went horribly wrong and the linerat went down in his turn for a turnover. The Norse thrower, with a TZ on the ball, dodged out, scooped up the ball and pushed over the line in the last Norse turn to go up 2 nil! 1 skaven turn to go...

The opposing team was  a delightful mix of Aussie animals rather than the usual Skaven figs

The Skaven setup for a chain push, and the Norse got a perfect defence!  However Right Stuff very opted to let his initial setup ride to see how the chain push mechanic works, saying if if they Skaven get a TD it would help their team development - wonderful sportsmanship indeed!  The chainpush worked, but all the required dodging didn't and the Norse won in a 2:0 shutout- their best performance ever on the pitch!

A very messy game with lots of armour breaking on both sides but not many players removed from the field, and Pete would have done well playing yahtzee with all those 1s he rolled trying to dodge.   Odinn's Champions have now grown to a Team Value of 144, gotten a few players back, is in 6th place on the league ladder having conceded only 3TDs for the season, and is almost halfway to another Ulfenwerfer - a good week indeed! But what Nuffle gives he can easily take away...