Tinkywinky
Joined: Aug 25, 2003
|
 Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 13:53 |
 
|
I'm very much against picking dodge first on the linos. No matter what team you are, blocking with 2d and block is the only "safe" action you can do and the best way to remove tacklezones. If you rely to much on dodging you are prone to roll a few snakeeyes per match then it comes down to luck if the happen in the start of the turn or on an unimportant "protection-dodge" at the end of the turn. Playing with the 2+ rolls to much is putting the match in Nuffles hands. Learn to master the running game. This way you can score slower and not allow those dwarfs seven turns to beat you up and score anyway.
For me, the biggest advantage of WE over their tougher breathren is that all their players are fast and agile scoring threats. |
_________________
Do you play ranked and wonder where all the good coaches are? Are you also from Sweden? Then join the Swedish league! |
|
pac
Joined: Oct 03, 2005
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 14:08 |
|
As others have said: dodge away. You pay a premium for that MA 7 so be sure to use it. Expect to have disastrous turns where the first rolls are 1s and the opponent gets to block every one of your fragile line-elves. But also expect to have the occasional turn where everything goes your way. You have the most mobile and agile team in the game, so you can get away with taking risks with the ball which would be crazy for any other team - just so long as you keep it well away from the largest pack of opponents!
I think that any early Wood Elf team (assuming it doesn't avoid every remotely dangerous opponent) will go through a nasty phase when you have to start a succession of games with fewer than 11 players.
Now, in Ranked this isn't actually a problem, as you can play equally weak teams, or full strength teams who will have far fewer skills than you. Wood Elves do not need a full squad either to win or to stay viable in the long term.
A more important thing than number of players early on is to get the number of team re-rolls up a little. Two is never enough for an unskilled rookie team. I would prioritise buying a third re-roll above buying more players as more re-rolls will help hugely in keeping your elves alive by helping them to successfully dodge away.
(Eg: You have 6 unskilled elves in TZs and no TRRs left. The first dodge is a 1. That's one elf down and five more waiting to be hit. If you had a spare re-roll for that first dodge, you get a second chance to save not just one elf, but possibly all those others in TZs.)
The easy way to avoid skilling up the Catchers is not to buy any until you have skilled Linemen. 
Once a few Blodge Linemen have skilled up, you should find that these prove to be very, very durable players. You should almost always have more Dodge than your opponent has Tackle, and his Tacklers will usually focus on your Wardancers and Catchers. If your elves are dodging away regularly, this should make a block on a Blodge Line-elf a rare event, and a knock down an even rarer one. These guys then become the mainstay of your team, and can screen new players while they are being skilled up.
To reply to some of the specific questions:
Using MA: Remember that every time you throw a block you aren't using that expensive MA you paid for. Concentrate your players on one flank, drawing your opponents in, and then burst out into the rest of the pitch. Get the Kick skill, almost always kick deep, and always position your players aggressively so that you can chase the ball down in the opponent's half. Spread out so that a single opponent can't mark more than one elf.
Using Tree and WD: A Tree should just stand on the line and soak hits. The Wardancer does practically everything: just try to give the ball to a line-elf for the score. Don't leap with him except in emergencies (or if he gets AG 5). A good indicator of how good an opponent is at combatting Wood Elves is how often he forces you to leap. If you're in full control of a game you will never make a leap.
What to buy and when:
1. Apoth
2. 3rd Team Re-roll
3. 2nd Wardancer
4. Stock up on Linemen
5. Treeman (only if you feel you're losing elves too fast on the LoS)
6. If that squad is still intact, you can start thinking about positionals ...
NB: All of this is based on playing Wood Elves against a mix of opposition leaning towards the bashy and rarely (never with my [R] team in fact) against other elves. If you're going to elf-ball, different rules apply, and I expect a Thrower would be a much higher priority. |
_________________
Join us in building Blood Bowl Sixth Edition.
In other news, the Hittites are back. Join us in #fumbbl.hi  |
|
Optihut
Joined: Dec 16, 2004
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 14:14 |
|
Just a sidenote: Line-elf development for me would be block, sidestep, dodge for scrimage duty. |
|
|
Sysiphos
Joined: Feb 03, 2006
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 14:20 |
|
I would start thinking about a dirty player lineman... if you hit you should hit hard!
All other advices here in the thread are really helpfully. |
|
|
Tinkywinky
Joined: Aug 25, 2003
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 15:32 |
|
| Quote: | | As others have said: dodge away. You pay a premium for that MA 7 so be sure to use it. Expect to have disastrous turns where the first rolls are 1s and the opponent gets to block every one of your fragile line-elves. |
I strongly disagree with this, why would you rely on luck when you can play safer and remove opponents at the same time instead.
EDIT: I don't mean you should move a lot of players for assists if they would be better used elsewhere but if you make a practise of choosing 1295/1296 rolls over 35/36 you will get far fewer catastrophic failures. |
_________________
Do you play ranked and wonder where all the good coaches are? Are you also from Sweden? Then join the Swedish league! |
|
Mr_Launcher
Joined: Dec 27, 2003
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 15:59 |
|
| Tinkywinky wrote: | | EDIT: I don't mean you should move a lot of players for assists if they would be better used elsewhere but if you make a practise of choosing 1295/1296 rolls over 35/36 you will get far fewer catastrophic failures. |
One has to consider the risk/reward ratio. Dodging away has the advantage that it allows your player to move to somewhere within 7 squares. If the player already is at the best position, or if his position isn't important, then yes, he should block instead of dodge. But if you constantly find yourself thinking that the position of the player isn't important, you're probably doing something wrong. |
|
|
xcver
Joined: Mar 10, 2005
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 16:08 |
|
this is something that has intrigued me for a while. Quite often I see an AG3 player making the dodge instead of the 1d block (or AG4 players with block doing the same). whereas the risk to drop prone is the same but with the added bonus that the opposing player might even be knocked down or better positioned for one's purpose.
| Mr_Launcher wrote: | | Tinkywinky wrote: | | EDIT: I don't mean you should move a lot of players for assists if they would be better used elsewhere but if you make a practise of choosing 1295/1296 rolls over 35/36 you will get far fewer catastrophic failures. |
One has to consider the risk/reward ratio. Dodging away has the advantage that it allows your player to move to somewhere within 7 squares. If the player already is at the best position, or if his position isn't important, then yes, he should block instead of dodge. But if you constantly find yourself thinking that the position of the player isn't important, you're probably doing something wrong. |
|
_________________
"Power without perception is virtually useless and therefore of no true value!" - Ryouken - Master of the Hokuto no Ken Martial Arts |
|
Panda_
Joined: Jul 14, 2004
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 16:24 |
|
The greatest advice is to spread your players, and lure your opponent to do the same. Every thing is in the GLN (Groggy little Newbpaper) and userguide. |
_________________
"Rien ne sert de partir a point, il vaut mieux courir." |
|
angelface
Joined: Mar 23, 2004
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 16:47 |
|
Get a dirty player soon, you have av7 and no possible protection vs pure pows. |
|
|
pac
Joined: Oct 03, 2005
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 17:01 |
|
| Tinkywinky wrote: | | I strongly disagree with this, why would you rely on luck when you can play safer and remove opponents at the same time instead. |
Sure, if you can free a player with a two dice block instead of a dodge, that's fine. But nonetheless: every time you take a block action, you're not taking advantage of the two things (MA and AG) you paid such a lot for. You might as well be an Orc. This doesn't mean never block; but don't do it by default either.
If you are careful (where possible) to keep the ball away from the opponent's largest mass of players, a double-1 isn't a 'catastrophic' failure - it's just another turnover. *shrug* They will happen a lot. The team has more than enough speed and flexibility to cope with a few of them. |
_________________
Join us in building Blood Bowl Sixth Edition.
In other news, the Hittites are back. Join us in #fumbbl.hi |
|
Lorion
Joined: Feb 04, 2004
|
| Posted:
May 17, 2006 - 19:07 |
|
| Tinkywinky wrote: | | EDIT: I don't mean you should move a lot of players for assists if they would be better used elsewhere but if you make a practise of choosing 1295/1296 rolls over 35/36 you will get far fewer catastrophic failures. |
I know very few players who move one player up against two - so odds are you will be needing an assist, and including the blocker, your opponent has then decided where two of you welfs go.... I can't really imagine giving a bashy team a bigger advantage than as a rule preferring blocks over dodges - you are then allowing him to decide the vital player placement, so beware. But don't exclude blocks if they give you a an advantage and a one-dice or two-dice block to get to the ball carrier might be a descent price to pay. Maybe the chances of success are only 33% - but you will often get 3+ chances. |
_________________
For in the end either all or nothing is eternal. |
|
Tinkywinky
Joined: Aug 25, 2003
|
| Posted:
May 18, 2006 - 19:17 |
|
1. Moving the full MA with all players each turn just because you can isn't a good idea, I think this is obvious. The value you high MA throughout the team is that all players can run for the TD, switch flanks etc when needed.
2. | Quote: | | I know very few players who move one player up against two |
I know a lot of players who stand their players up without dodging... all non ag4 teams do that. Also if you prefer the dodge instead of the block you let your opponent control the field as your opponents players are always standing throughout the match.
3. As I said I'm not saying you should always go for block optimisation with WE, absolutely not. But if you are moving your players out of the opponents tacklezones at the end of your turn it is often better to move one player next to another so he gets a 2d block (and possibly another one the turn after that). |
_________________
Do you play ranked and wonder where all the good coaches are? Are you also from Sweden? Then join the Swedish league! |
|
pac
Joined: Oct 03, 2005
|
| Posted:
May 18, 2006 - 19:32 |
|
Tinkywinky, I think we all essentially agree here, the only difference is one of emphasis. You're emphasising that a lot of the time many normal rules apply when running Wood Elves: this is true. Others are emphasising that differences exist: this is also true, and is what the initial poster <i>asked</i> us to do.  I think it's important to emphasise that it is not wise to play a block-maximising game with Wood Elves - that way leads to the belief that they can only play elf-ball.  |
_________________
Join us in building Blood Bowl Sixth Edition.
In other news, the Hittites are back. Join us in #fumbbl.hi |
|
|
|
| |
Jump up on a tree?
Search
