Calgary Dreadball League - Undefeated After Five Rounds

"Boom Can't Halt the Horde"

The Etherian Horde took to the field against Cosmic Boom in a Sunday matinee game yesterday. Being the underdogs by 28mc, the home-team Horde brought in two Orx guards from the free agent pool to bolster their ranks against the speedy and lithe Judwan team.

Having extra players was a first for the Horde, and so their coach decided to deploy the two Orx guards in his starting six. The Boom lined up in an extremely offensive stance across the launch line, obviously looking to capitalize with an early goal. When the ball launched the Horde Orx laid out some hurt to start the game, knocking down several opposing players. Transforming into striker mode, the Horde's #06, Hexatron, picked up the ball and ran in a two-point strike to end the rush.

The Cosmic Boom were unable to reply immediately, having to dust themselves off a bit in their first rush. The third rush of the game saw more slamming (and a stomp) from the free agent guards, the ref called the foul and ejected one of them for two rounds in the sin bin. Unperturbed and unopposed, Hexatron ran cross-pitch and scored another two-point strike.

This time the Boom players weren't going to stand idly around, and replied by picking up the launched ball with their second action of the rush. The carrying striker made his way towards the three-point Horde strike zone. Horde player #01, Mobil-1, ran interference, causing a minor hiccup in the Judwan plans, but ultimately failed to stop a three-point strike to put the Cosmic Boom within 1!

Rush five saw another Horde player jump off the subs bench to protect their three-point zone and help tie up the two strikers in their zone while Hexatron crossed the pitched again, scoring his third two-point strike, putting the Horde back up by three points!

In rush six the Cosmic Boom tried to regroup and cover some more of the open space, but failed to adequately cover Hexatron. In rush seven, with an extra action granted by doubling on the ball pick up, Hexatron made a beeline for the Boom's three-point strike zone. Stopping in the bonus hex and pausing to survey the empty zone, Hexatron lined up a beautiful 4-point strike, causing the crowd to go berserk with a dazzling display of scoring prowess to win the game in a landslide for the Horde!"

Post-Game Thoughts:

It was a really fun match to play. I think that without those Orx free-agents I would have been in some serious trouble trying to out-score the Judwan. I've also never played against the Judwan before, only played a few games with them before the season 3 book came out. They were too powerful then before the speed reduction. I think the Judwan made a few costly mistakes:

1) Lining up along the centre line was a huge gamble; one that ultimately failed to pay off. I had already put my two Orx guards up front, so the starting line-up should have taken that into account. It proved far too easy for me to clear a path through them on my first rush.
2) My striker was left unmolested the entire game. Locking him down with a few players should have become top priority after my first strike.
3) Defending the strike zones (especially the 1-point zones) would have slowed me down a lot.

I do have to say that I've never played a game where a single player scored that many points. I've come close with a season 1 human striker, but 10-points for a single player, in such a short period of time was a lot of fun (very lucky, but fun nonetheless).

The largest mistake I think I made was forgetting that the Judwan couldn't score bonus points on their strikes. I deployed Mobil-1 at the top of the three-point zone, which allowed the Cosmic Boom space to get in around behind, and eventually score a three-point strike.

Rolling 5 dice for income at the end of the game was really what I needed, as I *finally* have the cash in my coffers to buy a seventh regular player. While my team still isn't the one with the highest value, I'm a prime target now. I'm the only team with a perfect record, so I'm pretty sure my opponents will be gunning for me. It's good to be the king, but people do envy the crown...

I'm off to paint more robots now. That seventh player is going to come in mighty handy for the next game!