Sadly, I forgot to take pics (despite setting the camera next to the pitch) but I finally got in a game with the Koopa's Troopas after close to 3 years in hiatus.
They took to the field to line up against my friend's Orcs. He hadn't played in even longer (still uses the 2nd ed roster pad. The little one!) so it was much like a learning game for both of us since it had been ages. I will start by saying I am so glad I had my playbook. My offensive set up didn't work out as well as I had anticipated but my defensive wall prooved to be almost impossible to break through (more on this in a moment).
So I won the coin toss and elected to receive. I lined up to appear to blitz my right sideline but set up my skinks to rush up then shoot left to streak down the hopefully vacated sideline. Sadly, this was not to be. My skinks seemed to have used too much lotion on their skin and had some difficulties picking up the ball. As the Orcs began the push into my half of the field, I was able to get the ball into my skink's hands and, in a fit of insanity, I tried to rush him through an orcish black hole. Apparently 4 dodge rolls is just 1 dodge roll too many and as he was about to break free, Dodge #4 got him and he tripped on a sprinkler (damned Buffalo Wild Wings bartenders!).
This is where some hilarious hijinks ensued. So the ball is right near the sidelines and an orc picks it up. I blitz the orc with a saurus and drop him. The ball bounces out of bounds. The crowd throws it back right to another orc, who tosses it up in the air, which then bounces off a saurus's helmet righ tback to the orc, who tosses it up again, right into the hands of a skink. Luckily, I was able to get that skink out of trouble and, fast forward a turn or two, he streaks into the endzone on turn 8 to end the half.
Half time - Lizardmen 1-0 Orcs
Second half prooves to be my half with the exception of one insane play. I set up my defense in a solid wall with good tackle zones and a strong support. I am playing that he will attempt to run the ball (despite him having a thrower). He has absolutely no luck in breaking my wall and ends up turning over the first few turns due to poor block rolls which most were in my favor. I get a skink into his backfield to pressure the ball which forces his thrower to pick it up and streak down his left sideline. This is where things get really hairy. There is a mass that is literally a checkerboard of orcs, saurus, and skinks on the sideline. Clear on the other side of the field is a Black Orc jumping up and down for the ball. Yes.... He decides to throw the ball. I couldn't find in the rules anything about if you need a roll better than a 6 so we just kept it at a 6 (overall, he needed like an 8-9 to make the pass due to it being a long bomb and being in so many tackle zones). My Skink failed to intercept and *Drum Roll* he rolls a 6 to pass. He had 2 shots with his throw ability but he only needed the one. So the accurate pass streaked right towards his agility 2 Black Orc.... Who catches the damned thing!!!! Luckily, he is slow as molasses.
Seeing his Black Orc within 2 turns of my end zone, I pulled 2 skinks back and streaked them towards the orc. 1 had to Go For It to create a series of tackle zones so the orc would either have to make 1 dodge roll and stall for a turn or take a couple to get closer to the end zone. Either way, it didn't matter because he didn't make the first, tripped over the skink, and fell on his face 3 squares from my end zone.... Man, that was close.
This is where I was tempted yet again to go balls deep and take risks. Initially, I wanted to pick up the ball, hand it off to another skink, who would then run up to hand off to another skink who would then streak towards the end zone. This would put me within like 5-6 squares of scoring (not bad when the ball is almost in my end zone). Instead, I played it safe. I picked up the ball and handed it off once. That skink raced down the now vacated sideline. Fast forward 2 turns and he races in to score since my friend couldn't free up any orcs to get close enough to challenge him.
End result - Lizardmen 2-0 Orcs
We both had a blast and he agreed that it took a lot more thinking than he had originally thought. We also need to work on getting our turns down faster as it took like 3 hours to play (we played with no time limit as it was our first game in awhile on the board). The new pitch worked out really well. The slightly smaller squares didn't really make a factor as my Kroxigor didn't have much issues moving around. It was even suggested that I just re-base him on a smaller base since they take up only 1 square anyways.
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