Pitch Invasion! August '23 & Lizardmen

Pitch Invasion is a monthly tournament run at Tabletop Rebubllic in High Wycombe. This was a single day tournament consisting of four games.

Due to time constraints, this one will be a a fairly brief report...

The ruleset has been tweaked a little to try and reduce the effect of Stars on proceedings... For a rundown of the rules, see here. 

I decided to take Lizardmen, as I felt they were suited to the rules set, particularly as I could take 6x Block Saurus, a Guard Krox, and a Sneaky Git Skink. Anything that ended up in the injury box counted as a Cas, so a Sneaky Git seemed useful. 

Also, I got to try out my birthday-present pitch! (Thanks Team Redshirt guys!)

Match One vs NoNumber's Lizardmen

So, it was a Lizard-off vs the tournament organiser! The game didn't get off to a great start... Sure, I lost the kickoff dice-off, but the first block resulted in one of my Saurus being knocked out. My first turn began with the Krox Boneheading, and then Quad Skulls from a Blitz (yes, reroll used). I sat back at this point not expecting much from this game.

By turn 2/3 another of my Str4 guys was KO'd, but managed to cause some upset of my own as I blitzed the ball carrier in turn 3/3 - Skull - reroll - Pow!. And then turn 4/4 saw me hurt his Kroxigor. Things were looking up. However, Tom quickly recovered the ball. I had a chance in turn 6/6 to blitz the ball carrier Skink again, Both Down - and the ball simply bounced into the hands of his other Skink!

Tom scored in turn 7/8 0-1 (1-0), and the Keg I had bought helped me bring 4x KOs back. An extra bonus was hurting one of Tom's Saurus (2-0) in turn 8.

I managed to collect the ball into the 2nd half, but turn 2/2 saw Tom hurt one of my Saurus this time, but retribution followed swiftly as I rolled quad-sixes to hurt his Saurus in exchange. (3-1).

I decided to score in turn 5/4 after a successful Sneaky Git foul on a Skink. 1-1 (4-1).  I had the numbers on my side to try and push for a late score via a counter attack. As it happens it was end to end stuff... which culminated in me getting the ball and needing a 2+ for a win... which of course I failed, and the game ended 1-1 (4-1).

Match Two vs Mr_Frodo's Nurgle

Typically, I was up against one of my Team Redshirts mates - as always seems to happen when we go to 'local' events. I won the kick off and decided to receive after rolling the same fans.

The kick off was Cheering Fans - resulting in 3x Nurgle players getting 2+ Loner.

After a fairly blocky-battle, surprisingly the first casualty came in turn 5/4 as I hurt a Tackle Pestigor. I also managed to get a foul in as well (2-0). I scored in turn 8/7 1-0 (2-0). It was only as I went to set up again in turn 8/8 that I looked bemused at my handful of players and we both realised an extra Skink had ended up on the board. Lots of apologies later, and a dollup of disgust (ironically from the Nurgle coach) made for an uneasy second half... which wasn't helped as I rolled Solid Defence on kick off. 

The rest of the half was just a block-fest that generated just one more casualty (3-0). and the game finished 2-0.

Match Three vs Wagz's Underworld

I lost the kick off on this one and the Underworld received. A Time Out! pushed the half forward by a turn and his Rat Ogre promptly double-skulled, and a reroll was burnt trying to overcome the 4+ loner roll. 

Turn 2/2 saw me blitz the Rat Thrower back on to the loose ball which then went into the crowd and was thrown straight back across the half way line, where my Chameleon picked up the ball. Then in successive turns my Chameleon and Rob's Thrower got hurt. (1-1).

We finally managed to hurt a Snotling in turn 4/4 (2-1, but a Skink died in turn 5/6 (2-2). The blood flowed further as another Snotling died in turn 6/6 (3-2) but Rob eased in for a TD in turn 7/8 0-1 (3-2).

The second half can be summed up as follows. The Underworld had the numbers advantage and simply knocked over my players, gang fouled and moved on. We simply traded casualties. I did get some hope as my Krox blitzed and killed the Block/Dodge/Two Heads Gutter Runner, but it was not enough. I managed to score in turn 5/4 1-1 (4-5), but the game ended with Rob scoring again with little defence offered. 1-2 (5-6).

Match Four vs BGMcClean's Wood Elves

Elven coaches live and die by trying to avoid rolling 1's. Unfortunately for Bruce, he rolled far more than he should have expected to have done. 

After receiving, I only managed to inflict a casualty in turn 4/3 (1-0), but the Apothecary was used on the Wood Elf Thrower with Leader (understandable!). I managed to score in turn 7/6 1-0 (1-0) after having to go deep into my half and protect the ball from all that agility pressing me. 

Turn 8/7 saw me inflict a second casualty (2-0), but a quick snap and a Sprint/SureFeet combo saw me concede an equaliser 1-1 (2-0).

The second half just saw Bruce's dice fall apart. Instead of looking good for an unchallenged score in the second half, he rolled a costly snake eyes... I regrouped and punched my way back up the field. Lots of KO's but no further casualties, scoring and winning the game 2-1 (2-0).

Results

Congratulations to Wagz! Those Underworld rosters are difficult to overcome, with all those +2 dodging Snotlings giving assists everywhere and blocking up channels, and a Rat Ogre and Kreel star player causing damage, a Dirty Player gang fouling anything left prone... along with a gutter runner doing all the ball handling and scoring. Pretty mean roster!