It’s been a while since one has participated in a Table Top League (mostly thanks to an, at the time 1-year-old demanding most if not all of my attention and refusing to be put to sleep by anyone other than yours truly) but at last, in the latter part of 2023, I’ve managed to successfully negotiate time to put both models and dice to the field. My previous TT adventure was with Elven Union and they did….ok, coming firmly mid-table and learning a few hard lessons along the way.

This time, I’ve taken the updated Amazon Team, with the ruleset allowing for 1100k to start, thus a full roster of all 6 positionals, 6 Linewomen, 3 ReRolls and an Apothecary is being fielded into what is going to be a pretty interesting competition. This week I’ll be going through the first two games, and then hopefully (time allowing) each game will get a further report of it’s own!

All of these games are taking place at Tabletop Republic Wycombe, which quite frankly, is the best FLGS I’ve been too and has an amazing group of players and event organisers.

Date: 31st October 2023
Opponent: Stratford

This was a … game.

The first couple of turns honestly started fairly normally, the D-Elves won the kick-off and decided to do what Elves do best… defend. Nothing particularly extraordinary happened on the kick-off itself, Cheering Fans granted neither player any re-rolls thanks to tie and the ball fell fairly centrally for a simple collection and defense of the ball carrier. The line of scrimmage was fairly uneventful as well, pretty much all of the block resulted in a Push, so sadly no Elves hit the deck, even with the new Strength 4 Blockers doing their best. The simple collection went a little awry as well, with the 3+ failing, which I chose not to re-roll as at the time, I thought it was safe enough to try again next tur and not burn an early ReRoll… a mistake perhaps in retrospect.

Then, it started. The Elves hit back and hit back HARD. Immediately a Linewomen was injuired, gaining a Smashed Knee in the process. I think my brain assumed Elves wouldn’t be as bashy as they were…. but at the start, Dark Elves really are better at the bash game than Zons, thanks to their 4 lots of Block and higher AV. The Elves then sent a single Blitzer to pressure the ball, although he was dealt with fairly quickly, even if the coinciding boot to the fact didn’t do much to keep him on the ground (no sending off). The Amazons pushed up to their left, keeping an eye out for any Frenzy shenangians from the Witch Elf. However another removal (Niggling Injury) put the Zons down to 9 players, which their own Block failing to do much other than move the Elves around. A move back centrally didn’t do much to sure up the ball either, especially with a Blocker deciding to fail a simple Dodge and remove herself from the game (MNG) as well. 8 players.

The rest to be honest, is history. So many players down so early, out-agility’d, out manouvred and out-Blocked, the Zons couldn’t do an awful lot to progress the ball and the feeble cage was eventually broken down, the half ending 0-1 to the Elves. The 2nd half was much the same, more Zon’s being sent to the KO or Injury box, where some pretty poor KO rolls meant only 7 Amazons were left to defend. There was a very brave effort by the remaining Blocker to try a 2-1 but again too many Elves stood in the the way and not enough Zons were left to make the space for the consolation touchdown. In the End, the Elves won 0-3 and also managed 0-5 in casualties as well!

Date: 8th November 2023
Opponent: Potatomancer

A recovery game if there ever was one!

The previous slaughter left the Amazons with only 6 players on their roster eligible for the game, 2 of which were positionals (1 Thrower, 1 Blocker), so 5 very brave Journeywomen took to the field. The beginning was much the same as the previous, Necromantic won the coin toss and elected to receive. However, this time it wasn’t the Amazons who struggled to pick up, instead the Ghoul fumbled the attempt even with the ReRoll, leaving the speedy Piranha Blizters to pressure the ball after some gaps were nicely made by the remaining non-loner Linewomen. The Amazons bolstered the right flank with the Journeywomen doing a spectacular job of tying up both Wraiths and the lone Flesh Golem, forcing dodges from the former and thus burning some team ReRolls. Not only that, the Amazons routinely stunned various Necromantic players, so had a much easier time manouvring around and thus were able to force 1 dies and even more dodges by the Wraiths and Wolves.

Thanks to the Werewolves managing to move the pressuring Zons off the ball, the Ghoul did manage to pick up the ball and move down their lefthand side, however with Werewolf being removed from the game (MNG), the pressing Zons managed to follow the Ghoul and force the ball to the ground. Hit & Run really came into its own here, with a very generous scatter the attacking Blitzer moved onto the ball, picked it up and with most of the Necromantic on the ground or stunned (crucially the remaining Werewolf) the Blitzer managed to score unimpeded. The following Kick-Off saw a Pitch Invasion, dropping two Amazons to the ground, but with only 2 turns, a Wolf down and no ReRolls, the ball got stuck in the middle and the final turns stagnated into who could break armour. This did result in 2 KOs, only 1 of whom came back even with 2 Kegs, so the beginning of the 2nd half saw the teams on even turns, 10 players each.

The Amazons drive was very similar to the Necromantic, with the caveat of a Pitch Invasion meaning the Zons, in reality, only to hold on for 7 more turns. Another failed pickup (no-reroll) saw the Zons pinned to the right hand side, so which meant a series of dodges into the centre and then further left in an attempt to escape the incoming Werewolf and Wraith. Despite being 1 player up for the first half, the Zons found themselves 2 players down a few turns into the second and with the Werefolf having brilliantly taken a Linewomen mostly out of the game by pinning them to the Sideline (where they tried to dodge away, failed and stunned themselves), it was essentially 10 vs 7 again. A desperate scramble occured down the Amazon’s left flank, with a Ghoul picking up a loose ball, more Hit & Run attempts to pick up the ball by Blitzers and the Flesh Golem and Blocker stuck in never ending ST4 stalemate in the centre of the pitch, eventually the Necromantic got into a decent scoring position with 2 turns left to go.

The Amazons piled into the ball carrying Ghoul, hoping to generate as many tacklezones as possible.. and it worked. The Ghoul fell down, the ball falling in a decently defendable position, only for the subsequent 2 die block to make it even safer, result in a double skulls meaning the Necromantic hand another opportunity to pick up and equalise. It was not meant to be, the Werewolf, designated to create space and push the ball into a safter pick up area, sadly rolled a single skull on his Frenzied second block, meaning the game ended 0-1 to the Amazons, who thankfully didn’t take any further casualites (thank you Apothecary!)

One important note: In both games I completely forgot On-The-Ball for the Thrower, which would have made suring up the ball much easier when receiving!