Me and Cam decided to show up a bit early, allowing for an overtime turn if needed. Going into the final, the Headhammerer's and Cannibals had faced each other two times prior, with both games going to the Headhammerer's. On the most recent game, the Headhammerer's killed two of the Cannibals, so they knew that the Cannibals were going to be out for revenge.
The Headhammerer's had a staggering $220,000 in the bank and opted to spend as much as they could to gain any advantage. They picked up the help of another assistant coach, an extra cheerleader and a re-roll. As well, they dished out $100,000 to the ref in the hopes he'd look past a small foul call if if it came down to it. They were going to need all the help they could get with runner Grog "Foot of Stone" Stonefoot out for the game and watching from the sidelines. Unfortunately, all these advantages came with their disadvantages, and the Headhammerer's had to give up a $530,000 inducement bonus to the Cannibals. They opted to pick up a wizard, two bloodweiser babes, and the help of 2 wandering apothecaries. In the past couple of games, the Cannibals suffered as the result of alot of injuries and knock outs, so they were making sure they had alot of defense. The Headhammerer's brought home crew with them out into the frozen wasteland, bringing in a gate of 18,000 opposed to the 14,000 that crawled in to cheer their home team. The weather would not play a part in the game the whole day.
With the teams ready, the coin was flipped and the Headhammerer's won, opting to receive. Roli Grasscrusher and his faithful steed Splat, trundled out onto the pitch to the cheers of the dwarven fans.
The first few turns went without incident. The dwarves realized quickly it was going to be a rough match, with the two ulfwerener's in particar. They weren't quite as easy to push around as they had been in the past.. they must of put in some extra training leading up to the game. The action finally started to form when one of the Ulfwerener's attempted to remove the head of poor Frund Swordsmith. It looked bad, and the crowd went silent. Frund was able to crawl off the pitch and quickly underwent medical attention from Krill "The Stitch". He was patched in no time and ready to play on the next drive. In the mean time, the Cannibals started to take a beating back, with the knocked out bin filling up quick. One fatality was narrowly averted, as the wandering apothecary the Cannibals hired was able to get the Ulfwerener ready for action again. Finally, Oli "Crazy Legs" Grasscrusher was able to run in the Headhammerer's first touchdown. The crowd went crazy! The dwarves used the distraction of the crowd to give a quick signal to the ref. Feeling the weight of the $100,000 burning in his pocket, opted to not send Roli and Splat off the pitch, they were going to be around for the second half! That wasn't going to sit well with the Cannibals management.
Unfortunately, the crowds enthusiasm was short lived. With a well contructed drive and a mistake by the dwarf defense deep in their own end, the Cannibals rookie thrower was able to make a brilliant pass to the always dangerous runner, Steamer Entrail. The ball spiralled overtop of the short dwarves outstretched fingers and landed in Steamers hands with little effort. Steamer ran it in easily to tie the game. Thanks to the work of the Apothecaries and the the Bloodweiser babes, the Cannibals were keeping a strong roster on the field. The dwarves on the other hand were starting to feel the crunch. With a couple uneventful turns, the first half ended with the game tied at 1.
The teams lined up for the second half with the Cannibals receiving. The carnage from both sides continued, much to the enjoyment of the fans. The Cannibals continued to put the pressure on the dwarves, with the Ulfwerener's leading the bloodshed. Early in the second half, one such Ulfwerener ended the career and life of poor blitzer, Rocky "The Rock" Rockcrusher. With Krill's alotment of meds used up completely on Frund, there was nothing he could do for the experienced player. The Headhammerer's used the death to fuel their determination. They were able to wrestle control of the ball away from Steamer after hurling him into the crowd. The dwarves continued to exact revenge on the undead, smashing downed opponents, tackling from behind, and watching Splat roll around the pitch churning up snow, stone and bone all at once. The KO bin was filling up quickly. The Cannibals head coach sensed that time was running out so signalled to the vile lich sorceror Lorach, who was hiding amongst the fans watching the game. A lightening bolt came streaking out of the sky, hammering into Borg "Chunky" Dunderstein, knocking him off his feet. Luckily for the dwarves, they had anticipated the potential use of a wizard, and Chunky was able to shrug off the magic attack with ease. Crazy Legs, bolted into action, not fearing the use of another such attack. He zipped in, snatched up the ball and followed in behind the dwarven linemen and they pushed towards to ward the end zone. At the bottom of turn 6, the dwarves scored to take the lead 2-1.
The dwarves were looking weary, tired and beat up. The Cannibals on the other hand were looking as strong as ever. The dwarves just needed to stop the Cannibals for two turns, that was it. The Cannibals were out of re-rolls, the dwarves had two left. Despite being only able to field 9 guys, the dwarves were confident they could pull it off if they just concentrated on defense. The kick went deep and the Cannibals started their push. The Cannibals opened up a hole in the dwarf defense, and several Cannibals made a rush to the endzone. Chunky and Hammerhead broke through the Cannibal line and rushed the Cannibal thrower just as he was winding up. Despite both players having to go for it twice, Chunky was able to only cause a push, and they saw the chance to end the game quickly dimished. The thrower made a quick dodge out of harms way and moved into the clear. The dwarves, down numbers and speed could only watch as the Cannibals thrower launched the ball into the waiting berserkers hands and he scored a touchdown on the bottom of turn 8. The game was going to overtime.
Taking a sense at the situation, the dwarven coach tried to formulate a plan. With the Cannibals winning the coin toss and the dwarves down to 9 players, it was going to have to be a hell of a plan.
The Cannibals lined up heavy on the left side of the pitch, hoping to push the weight of their number onto the dwarves. The dwarves kicked the ball short on the right hand side. The Cannibals pushed all the dwarves on the left hand side back and formed a big hole. Steamer, along with a pair of berserkers went flying deep into the dwarf half of the field. Luckily for the dwarves, the rookie thrower on the Cannibals team couldn't get ahold of the bouncing ball. Hammerhead, Chunky and Sideline were all lined up on the left hand side and started their push quickly into the Cannibal zone, and straight towards the unclaimed ball. Hammerhead smashed a path through with Chunky barrelling through right behind him, throwing a blitz, stunning the unsuspecting Cannibal lineman, and deftly picking up the ball. The Cannibals were stunned! The dwarves were fairly well into the Cannibals half with the ball, with most of the Cannibal players far on the left hand side wrapped up in skirmishes with dwarven linemen or deep into the dwarf half of the pitch. The Cannibals started to make their way back and tried to surround Chunky, sealing off his chance for a score. Chunky was surrounded, but luckily for the dwarves he was the only player on the team skill in dodging, and the dwarves were sitting on three re-rolls thanks mainly to talented efforts of the dwarven cheerleaders. With everything hinging on Chunky's ability to score, the dice was rolled. He nimbly dodged out of the grasping undead hands and took off down the sideline. He pumped with all the might his little tough legs could muster. He made his first go for it roll. The second roll was made.. and it came up.. 5 ! He made his second Go for it and ran in the winning goal. The Headhammerer's win the playoffs, barely.
Like Cam said, the game was intense, stressful, and alot of fun. I was feeling pretty good going into the game. Despite giving up the inducements, the last time we played all the Guard guys made it really tough on the Norse but it was much of a factor this time around. The Norse consistently hammered the dwarves around and ran circles around them. I was nervous a few times, especially for Oli. I had left a giant hold in the middle of the pitch on one drive. Oli was deep on my wide of the pitch, but Cam lined up a Ulfwerener directly in front of him and threw a blitz on him right off. Luckily, he was only stunned.. but it was looking pretty ugly for a second. I think more than anything else the Bloodwieser babes were the most useful asset. I was able to put people in the KO bin, but they were not staying there at all. The apothecaries help out as well, saving a couple guys from being sent off for the game. This was the first game I had that thick skull played an important roll. Cam made alot of 8 rolls on injuries that luckily kept the dwarves on the field. As well, I know you had one Apothecary left at the end of the game, as well as having 70k you couldn't use in inducements. If it makes you feel any better, I compeltely forgot to take my runners value of my team value, which would of reduced it by 130K.
All in all though, I had a blast in all my games this league and am going to let the dwarves stew on a shelf for the next league here. Once we get another league champ or two out there, I'll probably bring them back and try for a repeat.
Oli finished the season with 16 TD's and 53 Star Player points after his two Td's and one casualty in the last game. Will he end up with the Spike magazine award for this league? I think from what I read, it just gives the player the Fan Favorite skill, and increases his value as a double skill.
Looking forward to the next league. I ordered in a Skaven team so I can try throwing the ball a bit now.. I think the movement 4 finally got to me.. need some speed.
Subject: Finals - Headhammerer's vs. Cannibals 
Fri 8 May 2009 - 17:20
