Monk's Munchkins 1 - 1 Adamant Axes
The Halflings use their Inducements to buy a Halfling Master Chef (good for 4 rerolls stolen, 2 each half) and the services of Bertha Bigfist, an MA 6 Ogress with Break Tackle and Dodge. The flings receive the kickoff, and get a bit of luck when a high kick sails directly into the hands of Red Mage. The lings swarm to midfield to nestle in the shelter of their big beefy buddies, but next turn is cut short when Bertha loners on a skull/both down, sending herself and the Black Orc opposite her to the turf.
The Axes sieze the opportunity, opening up a blitz on the ballcarrier and stunning him on the hit, bouncing the ball backwards while the Orcs swarm in. Pun-Pun the Treeman responds by taking root and throwing double skulls, but a reroll ends up knocking a Black Orc down. R2-D2's attempt to blitz an orc away from the ball then throws double skulls, and he knocks himself out. The orcs throw a great many blocks, but push dice and the dodge skill keeps the flings on their feet. The trees throw some ineffectual blocks (after the last reroll saves a turnover) while Bertha tries to get back toward the action, but a halfling fails to pickup the ball. The orcs once more swarm the halfling screen, and Old Man Henderson the treeman promptly throws a skull/both down, crashing to the pitch. The orcs do some pushing that gets them next to the ball with the flings on the wrong side of it, and a halfling fails a dodge- it's a pretty straightforward TD run after that.
The second half starts off well for the halflings, however- enough KOs come back to field a full 11 men, and though they lose one on the first Axe push they inflict two of their own on their counterpush, while also managing to keep every halfling out of base contact with the orcs. The orcs make a good push down the side zone, knocking over the tree on that side and dodging away from the tree on the other, but the halflings put up a good stall while the big guys get their butts in gear, bashing their way into the side of the orc cage. A creative chain push gets Pun-Pun next to the ballcarrier, and while he doesn't have much support the opposition does not have a reroll to get rid of the 2d push they line up. Pun-Pun takes root, but sends the ballcarrier to the turf, and Cass snatches the ball and makes for the endzone while the other flings sacrifice themselves to mark up the orcs. The orcs use THEIR last reroll to dodge a blitzer away from his tree and knocks Cass on her ass, but Minmax dodges past a Black Orc to throw a 1d Pow against the blitzer, opening up a path for Dexter to pick up the ball and make a GFI into the endzone.
The orcs get a riot to give them a full 4 turns for a score- they feint to the same side of the field, and when the halfling stall develops they flip the play, a blitzer running with light escort for the endzone. A pair of halflings manage to mark the ballcarrier and his escort, and Dexter heroically knocks the orc over on a 1d blitz. Pun-Pun hurls Cass the length of the field, and she promptly picks the ball up out of a tacklezone, dodges back out, and tries to hand it to God Mode Sue to threaten a TTM TD on the final turn- GMS, for her part, fumbles the handoff. The orcs and the halflings spend the last turn trying to setup a crazy scoring play, but the Orc receiver fails a GFI to make it to the endzone after blitzing the passing lane clear, and the halflings can't pick up the ball, let alone try another handoff and TTM.
Nobody died, which is good, and Dexter picked up a level! I was tempted to cut him as TV bloat this early in the season, but he rolled an AG plus, a dangerous thing for a halfling to be- dangerous for the other team because now he is better at dodging into cages and landing after being thrown by a tree, and dangerous for him because both those activities tend to wind up with the halfling's face in the turf, probably with an opponent's boot on his back. Just as well, since now he's worth 2.3 halflings TV-wise. Smakemupagus didn't get much other than 14 SPP spread out across 5 players (though it was 5 positionals,) so he'll field much the same team next week.
Side note, I love the FUMBBL replay system SO MUCH MORE than Cyanide's. Never had occasion to use it before.
So hooray, a game got played! How's scheduling working out for you guys, Kanil/USEC_OFFICER?