Hi all,

time to get the discussion on Khemri attack phase.
In my experience I found rather useful focussing about 3 distinct section of the attack phase that are usually linked with clock management.
3 sections are as follows:
a) Picking up the ball and forming the cage
b) Advancing the cage
c) Scoring

Let's see some details

a) Picking up the ball and forming the cage (turns 1-2)

From what I've heard around, seen and experienced myself, there's too much focus about this phase. Khemri coach is wrongly convinced that the pick up is the crucial thing in the attacking drive.
Let me rebut this common thought. With the sh reroll, chances to pick up the ball are better than using an ag3 player without rr. Math says that a Thro - Rah pick up fails 1/4 of the time and 1/16 in 2 turns in a row.
So, overfocusing about picking up the ball is simply wrong.
There are many other things to worry about, while trying the pick up. First of all building the cage.
Building the cage doesn't mean that the goal is getting four players around the ball. That's wrong!
Building the cage means building a "Khemri" cage, a cage that is ready to advance throught the field, without interruptions.
This cage is formed by the "usual" cage (that could be adjusted depending on the opponent - e.g. if facing a fast/agility team it would be good gettig a complete cage (4 corners) while if facing a bash and clumsy team a simple screen made by 2 players in front of the bc could be enough) and then a screen covering the cage and preventing the opponent to surround it, blocking its corners and making hard the advance
Note: when picking up the ball, committing too many players next to the bc could simply force you to build a cage deep in your half, making the advance very slow.
It could even be easier for your opponent flood your half and be extraaggressive on your defence line, cause even if he's risking something, he's doing it far away from his TD zone.
The need in this phase is to be able to put the Khemri ballcarrier inside a strong cage that is in a good spot to advance. It is totally useless getting 8 players around the ball covering it and then finding the team too much far away from opponent TD or, even worse, getting the team split up into 2 parts.
When moving the players, don't be afraid of cutting the opponent way to get a break through your front line, try to force the blitz and do not leave any open point / let the opponent move throught the lines after a simple block. If the opponent open a gap, be sure that this gap is not too wide to let his entire team pass and break in 2 halves yours.
To conclude, the most crucial thing to worry about is where will your ball carrier be at the end of the 2nd turn and where is the path to advance the cage.

b) Advancing the cage (turns 3-5)

This phase could seem the usual moment where the bash team goes ahead and try to kill the opponent.
With Khemri, expecially in the beginning, this is a wrong tactic. Khemri cannot rely on casualty early on, cause they risk not to advance the cage and so, running out of time.
First of all a little description of the cage. It really depends on what team is on the other side, cause khemri team need not to overcommit players when not needed.
Khemri has got the special high strenght, but this hasn't to be used only to maim the opponent, but to create virtual numerical superiority. This is the reasonment: 1 TG can cover up to 3 S3 players, being able to block one per turn. This mean that if used correctly, the 4 TG can keep up the whole opponent team.
So what are the other players there for?
Of course the other players help in advancing the cage, covering and bearing the ball. Against an agility team (think about elves) the TG should be able to challenge the whole opponent team, so the other players need to cover the pitch and the ball.
Against a stronger opponent, the cage can only be made by a couple of skellies, screening the bc, so that the other players can enforce the TG.
While advancing, try to use some of the tactics of the defence phase (especially the "pharaos curse"- see my Khemri defence blog) to impair opponent movement.
Use the flanks to cover your TG from multiple opponent assist, trying to splat the players on the lines.
While advancing, differently from what other teams do, Khemri can stay in contact with the opponent, forcing him to dodge away or make risky blocks. While using this tactic, be sure to have a screen to the bc made by skellies, so that if the opponent forces his blocks he could even only reach the cage, not the bc.
The cage should be made by 2 levels of protection:
- outer edge with TG and maybe some skelly / blitzer
- core cage made by skellies and maybe 1 blitzer (if you feel unsafe, keep one blitz rah inside the cage)
The cohesion of the player should be maintained and every player shouldn't find himself far away more than 2 squares from a team mate.

c) Scoring

Scoring is not only the simple 6 squares movement of your thro rah going into TD, but it is a real complex phase where Khemri needs to prepare the field to a simple 8th turn TD. If the other phases have been passed with good results, the cage should be in a good position, the opponent should be weakened in it's chance of moving around and there's no way to tag the bc.
The last thing is the most important (avoiding a bc tagging). That phase should be used to move near the TD zone the bc and try to make 2 things:
1) handing off the ball to a worth player: yes, there's no need to keep the ball with the Thro Rah if the game is in a good mood (e.g. Khemri are 1-0). Try to pass the ball to a player who struggles for SPP (TG and Blitz Rah). That's crucial in the team development. To do this, it's important having turns and rr to try the action.
2) Keep the path to the TD zone clear: there's the need to avoid every possible dodge for your Bc. Any Dodge could be deadly and be easily failed. Khemri movement doesn't even shine, so that it could be needed a rr for that last damned go for it.
Getting 2-3 turns to prepare the field for the TD is an essential part of the attack phase. If done correctly, it spares RR, keep the ball safe and sometimes forces the opponent in extrarisky moves that can even enforce your grinding tactic.

I'd like to talk now, on the other side, of different tactics used to defend against Khemri. This (even if a bit spoilering Khemri weaknessess to its many enemies :-P) could provide an interesting view of what the opponent could do and get more lights on the previously described phases.

1) Full out attack (rating 6)
This is something often used by extra aggressive elven coach, expecially when having multiple dodgy players.
The tactic is about tagging every Khemri player, mainly the core cage, trying to stop from advancing the whole team.
Actually this tactic "could" work. It could, because it's really up to the outcome of the many blocks that Khemri team will get. If Khemri players stays cold, rationale and gets a good order in it's movement, there are little chances that the defence will reach its goal.
The opponent will play on Khemri errors that could occur when dice are heavy / Khemri player does errors in positioning.
To avoid errors or bad luck as much as possible, let's consider what could happen:
a) Not being able to get cas and ko: that's simply something the coach can't control. Keep in mind when developing the team that having MB on several players make this kind of defence riskier for the opponent
b) failed blocks: again, something that coach has a limited control on: this time, 3D block are the key to avoid failing
c) wrong actions: this could happen when Khemri player keeps his player in a wrong way contacting the opponent. This could cause some counterblocking (even -2d) that could open a blitz directly on the bc. To avoid this keep more players on cage corners and as golden rules keep in mind these:
- If a cage is tagged at the beginning of opponent turn, bc is unsafe
- if a cage is tagged, doubling the players on the tagged corner can avoid the blitz on bc but only if the corner is tagged by only 1 opponent player
Another way to fail the action is blocking a side stepper: grab is excellent in avoiding ss threat, but until then watch out for those nasty jumpers

2) Weak wall (rating 2)
The opponent may use part of his team slowing down Khemri front line and keeping other players in his half to avoid breakthrough. This is an excellent defence... for Khemri player. Khemri can quite safely outbash the opponent wall, advancing freely. When deep in the opponent half, Khemri can simply turn to one side, cover with TG and just sit down in a corner waiting for 8th turn.

3) Double defence stall (rating 8)
That's the worst defence for Khemri team. The opponent keep covering his half with the typical elven defence, couple of players 2 square away from other 2 and so on, covering all the field.
Khemri usually gets only 1 blitz per turn and cannot use at full potential his S5 TG. That's nasty. The only hope is trying to kick from the field some opponent players. Foul can be useful, but there are not many great tactics for Khemri if opponent's players don't leave the pitch as soon as possible.

False myth and something usually (wrongly) feared

WE Wardancer: that's a false threat. Khemri Thro-Rah comes with the most appreciated sure hand skill. Depending on how far the team has gone there are several ways not to fear the wardancer, here are some:
1) Keep one player in the cage. If the wardancer leap inside from the wrong side he'll take a -2d block
2) Keep 2 guards at the opposite corner of the cage. Again the wardancer is -2d
3) Get block on the thro-rah. That means only 6 spp to get block. Coupled with a -2d block, it's really pointless fearing the wardancer
4) Keep the double cage. With a "core" cage and the front line, even if the wardancer is able to pull down the bc, it should be hard for the elf retrieve the ball

Keeping skellies in contact: many times it's feared keeping skellies tagging players. Even if it is correct not getting blocked, sometimes it could be worth. Think about when I was saying that 1 TG can keep up with 3 opponent players... If the opponent uses a couple of player to block a skelly, then it means that TG become even stronger and unstoppable.
This said, think twice about dodging with skellies. Most of the times they are just right where they are and there are no grest benefit in trying a dodge.

Thro Rah is a fundamental player: do not be upset if the Thro Rah leaves the pitch too fast. Khemri have got at least other 2 optimal substitute named Blitz Rah. They even can use the rr on their first pick up if there are still rr. Many times the opponent does not even consider other players to be able to carry the ball if there aren't Thro Rah around.
Blitz Rah are even better bc in the beginning cause when they've got the ball block > sure hands

Tomb Guards have no agility: no dude, they've got 1. When ready to score with a few turns left, trying the hand off or the pick up with a TG fails 66% of the times, but only 44% with a rr... that means a chance of more than 50% of getting a TD with the TG... a TD is 3 hypermeganeeded spp on the TG. Khemri have to consider this.

Thanks for reading.