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Blood, Beards and Brass Knuckles: A Tale of Xtreme Violence!

Last week we left you on the edge of your seats with the cliff hanger that was part 1 of our DreadBall Xtreme match report! This week we pick back up where we left off and see who will be the victor in this, so far, very bloody game!

We ended the match report just as Alex was about to get his hands on the ball! Let’s get straight back into the action now….

Rush 7 continued

Alex rolled the dice hoping to pick up the ball and get it into his possession. He threw his dice hoping to secure the ball and get onto the score board. They dice gods were not in the favour of The Warden today and with a horrendous roll he failed miserably. The rush was over and it was time for Blaine to see if he could further his lead.

Rush 8

Sponsor action: Intimidate

Blaine was ready to exploit the fact that The Wardens Cons just didn’t have what it took to get the job done and had his eyes set firmly on the prize.

First off Luke thought about the best way to secure the win, he had already tasted the glory of scoring and after realizing that the Convicts were a lot tougher than him, decided the best option was to outscore Alex.

With this in mind, Blaine commanded his Jack to show her worth and retrieve the ball. She was blocked in by 2 Convicts, but that doesn’t stop a Kalyshi, it was time to use the new jump special rule to its full effect. With a wondrous display of skill the Jack leapt over the convicts with ease, finishing her move in the hex with the ball. It was all down to the dice now. The Jack proved her worth to Blaine, securing the ball for his team!

Next Luke threw the ball to the ball to the Jack that was previously left in Alex’s strike zone. He doubled the catch so immediately got a free action with the Jack. Blaine threw an approving glance to the Kalyshi, with a glorious dice roll the Jack scored again, putting Blaine another 2 points in front of The Warden.

Rush 9

Sponsor action: Intimidate

The Warden was beginning to lose patience with his team of Cons, his finger hovering above the button that trigger any one of their explosive collars.

Alex realised that needed to get something with a bit of speed onto the pitch, something that could actually pick up the stop Luke from winning with a landslide victory.

Firstly Alex brought on his Spinepede, this was his answer to the lack of speed and kill his team had. The ball has been fire onto the pitch close enough for the Spinepede to attempt to pick up as he entered play. Being a striker he did this with ease!

The Warden bellowed at this strange alien to head for the opponents strike zone. Alex moved his Spinepede again, hoping to position himself to score next turn and bring things back into the favour of The Warden.

Next Alex used his Thug to slam the Kalyshi Jack who has scored early. The Thug slammed but managed to draw with the Jack, who had somehow managed fend off the huge Thug.

The Thug was unimpressed and ready for blood, if he wanted to keep his head needed to show The Warden his worth. He slammed again, this time the colossal strength of the Thug managed to leave the Kalyshi dazed on thefloor, sustaining a wound.

Rush 10

Sponsor action: Intimidate

Blaine looked over at The Warden with piercing eyes, “should have left this pathetic team rotting on whichever worthless prison world you got it from. Seems like you are only capable of catching and incarcerating incompetent fools.”

Luke had seen any opening in the positioning of Alex’s models. If he could get the ball from the Spinepede this turn, he could score a 3 point strike and win by landslide!

First Luke slammed the Spinepede he doubled the slam and knocked it over causing the ball to scatter directly into the path of his Striker.

Now comes the tricky part. Luke Used the jack he had further up the field to slam the Con in that was in his opponent’s strike zone. The Con was blocking line of sight for a 3 point strike and needed to be moved to allow a clear shot so that Blaine could take the win from The Warden.

The Kalyshi Jack slammed into the Con. It was a success AND a double!!! Exactly what was needed to push the Con back a hex and knock him over. It was time to see if the dice were in Luke’s favour as he attempted to bring the win home for Blaine.

The Striker at the other end of the pitch picked up the ball with ease throwing it down the pitch to the Striker just next to The Wardens strike zone. This catch needed to be a double to get a free action and set up the Striker to get into position for the win. A glorious catch doubled, the dice gods favouring the bearded wonder. Surely this was the end for the Alex?

Finally, the Kalyshi Striker moved into 3 point strike hex and prepared to launch the ball in the strike posts direction. The thunderous sound of the back street arena fell silent as the crowd were dazzled by the impressive skill they had just witnessed. The dice were thrown, the ball leaving the strikers hand with the kind of speed and precision to be expected of a Kalyshi Striker.

Success! Blaine had taken the victory by landslide! The crowd burst into cries of joy or misfortune as those who collected their winnings cheered with glee, while those who lost their bets hung their heads in disbelief or threw as much abuse, in multiple alien tongue, as possible in The Wardens direction.

Conclusion

The first thing to say about DreadBall Xtreme is that it is exciting and brutal. We saw exploding traps, Thugs being reduced to piles of ash by exploding collars, Aliens getting stomped to death and the use of some great new rules to put the Kalyshi onto the score board.

The Wardens team was a very balanced all round list. The Thug hits like a truck and really put the hurt on the Kalyshi. Any attempts to slam back were futile as the Thug was just too strong for the Kalyshi to deal with. Alex realised this pretty early on and spent most of the games trying to find way kill as many of Luke’s players as possible, leaving him out numbered and on the back foot. Unfortunately the dice had other ideas in mind. The Spinepede was a great free agent, giving the Wardens team a bit of speed to fight back with, almost putting The Warden on the score board!

Blaine on the other hand had a very fragile yet fast team. Luke discovered (a little later than expected) that he was no match for Alex in the physical game and so had to use the Kalyshi’s speed and tricks to his advantage. He out manoeuvred Alex and abused the jump ability and the Kalyshi’s speed to get him into the positions he needed to be in. The Pusk Rampager is usually a battering ram from hell, but in the hands of Luke was not utilized to his full extent. Don’t be fooled, the Pusk Rampager will usually dish out a lot more hurt than we saw in this game.

The game was very balanced and the outcome was completely down to play style and whomever the dice gods favoured that day. The mechanics of DreadBall Xtreme will be very familiar to those of you who have played DreadBall before, but one of the things you really need to get to grips with is learning how to play against the pitch!

DreadBall Xtreme delivers all the fun and violence to be expected of this underground version of the universes most brutal sport! Alex and The Warden will be itching for a rematch as soon as possible, but for the moment Luke can revel in the fact that he is Mantics current DreadBall Xtreme champion. But who would you like to see try and dethrone him? Let us know in the comments below!

Pre-order your copy of DreadBall Xtreme now and see if you can help The Warden regain the respect of his piers!

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