We finally got the Sudden Death expansion and played our first game. I played Dark Elves and my son played Undead. Yes, he won.
We didn't add in enchanted balls yet, but the other rules seemed pretty seamless. After our first turn we were moving smoothly along just like we did with the basic set. I'm not sure if the rules/teams have added more balance to the game but it sure seemed like the competition was much closer. I started strong, winning all of the matchups in the first round. We thought I might end up winning the whole game. Round 2 my draft was pretty poor though and I lost that round. I think I made a comeback in 3, but in the end I did lose by about 10 fans. He had way won way more contracts than I, and that pushed him way over the top.
On reflection, I'm trying to figure out if I played the Dark Elves wrong. From hand to hand, it seemed like my deck shifted from tackling to passing (although they are poor at passing in general). Whenever possible, I would try to use the sprint option (sprint vs tackle or pass), to get rid of a lineman but I think only once did I actually get a good draw. It could be that I didn't get enough Star Player draws to really buff up my deck too.
I would be interested to hear any strategies people use with this team. One trick I found useful is blocking stronger opponents with the Dark Elf Blitzer. At first glance one might say "Why would you do that?! A 2 die block against yourself is insane!". Especially true if you have ever played the tabletop version. However, the Blitzer has a downed power to steal the ball. So at worst, he falls down and takes 2 Star Power away from the other team or adds 2 Star Power to my side if the ball is at midfield. Also, thankfully I rolled 'attacker down' on both dice most every time. Much to the consternation of my son!
