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Introduction

Starting Roster

In a perfect world, I would start with 2 Treemen, 12 Halflings, and 3 rerolls. But unfortunately, you would never find games under 900-950 TV, so you'd better off start with something like:

• 2 Treemen: 240 TV
• 14 Halflings: 420 TV
• 4 rerolls: 240 TV

Total: 900 TV

And even at 900 TV, you may not find matches on Gamefinder, so you probably want to take an extra reroll or an apothecary.

You don't need 14 flings - 12 is generally enough - but you can use the extra flings to foul even more. 4 rerolls is ok, you can learn to play with only 3, even without a Chef. The Apothecary is pretty much useless in a starting roster, but you will have to buy one later. Just keep in mind you currently can't fire him if you decide to hire one from the beginning, so that may not be a good idea if you want to go "ultra-minmaxed" at 1000 TV.

Once your players start getting skills, you should aim for a roster looking like this:

• 2 Treemen: 240 TV
• 12 Halflings: 360 TV
• 3 rerolls: 180 TV (or eventually 4)
• 1 Apothecary: 50 TV

Plus the cost of the skills of course. Cheerleaders and Assistant Coaches ain't worth it, like for any CRP team. But remember: don't go under 950 TV if you want to find matches on Gamefinder.

Skills

1. Halflings

A fling who doesn't roll a double or +stat is worthless. You may want to have a couple of Diving Tacklers, but that's it. The choice of the skills will depend on what he rolls first.

Normal skills (as a first skill):

You have 3 options: Side Step, Diving Tackle, or you retire him. 2 Diving Tacklers is generally a good choice. Sometimes, you may want to have 3 of them. What to chose first? It's up to you. Diving Tackle is more useful than Side Step as a first skill, but on the other hand Side Step can go with pretty much any skill combo, which leaves you more options if he rolls a double for his second skill. Should a Diving Tackler roll a double, Block would be the only viable option. Flings with Block, Side Step, and Diving Tackle can be a nightmare. Do not hesitate to rush into cages and mark the ball carrier with such a fling.

Don't take Wrestle. Sure it has a good synergy with Jump Up, so does Diving Tackle, but Wrestle and Diving Tackle have absolutely zero synergy. You want your Diving Tackler to stand up, not to be placed prone on a both down, freeing the ball carrier from your tackle zone, so Block is a much better choice.

Double skills (as a first skill):

The obvious choice is Block, simply because it's great with pretty much any skill combo. I can already see the controversy coming, but I would pretty much say it's the only option. Strip Ball could also be ok, or Tackle I guess if you often face doge teams.

Leader and Kick are good utility skills (especially Kick: against low AG teams: kick deep, and TTM to steal a touchdown if they fail the pick up), but the main issue I have with them is there's not many skills you can take after that. You probably would have to go Sidestep and Diving Tackle, which is not optimal: it will force you to mark players, and you could very well be without a kicker or a leader after a few turns. And should you roll another double, you would have missed a great combo like Block and Mighty Blow for instance.

I don't like Dirty Player much for the same reason. What do you take next on a player who's gonna only play a few turns? Will you fire him when he skills up? That'd be a waste of a double. On top of that, Dirty Player costs as much as an extra fling... Which is better? That's an opened question. Don't get me wrong: Dirty Player is a great skill and I can understand you take it, but it has zero synergy with the other sills available (except eventually Sneaky Git, but do you really want to take Sneaky Git? You should almost automatically break the armor when you foul anyway...), and the fling could become a huge TV bloat after a few skills.

Wrestle is a very nice skill, but it can be a waste of a double if your fling rolls +AG, or anything that would make him a ball carrier. Strip Ball would be the obvious choice if he rolls another double after that. If he doesn't, Sidestep and Jump Up will work great with Wrestle, but you're pretty much screwed after that.

Various Builds:

As said before, everything will depend on what skill or stat you picked first.

• +MA: Your fling will become a rusher, and a ball carrier. Block therefore seems to be the obvious choice, should he roll a double. Sure Hands could be another option, especially if you have an AG4 fling. He will become great at retrieving the ball for one turn touchdowns (OTTD). +MA also significantly increases your chance of throwing the fling far enough to let him score in one turn (see the TTM section). +AG would be gold on him. As for the normal skills, I would pick Sure Feet first, then Sprint, and finally Sidestep. +MA means he won't need as many GFI as a regular fling, so I'd take the safer option and go with Sure Feet first.

• +AG: Landing on a 3+ after a TTM and dodging everywhere on a 2+ makes a huge difference. +AG is probably the best stat upgrade for flings, and you definitely want to have one in the team. I would also go for Sprint and Sure Feet on normal rolls, but without a +MA bonus, I'd probably pick Sprint first. A MA5 fling thrown from the line of scrimmage only has about 60% chance to land far enough to score in one turn. With Sprint, it goes up to 85%. Catch could also be ok as a third regular skill, but he already catches the ball on a 2+. Sidestep is probably better. Jump Up could also help after failed landings. As for double skills, Block will help you stay alive, Sure Hands will help you pick the ball, especially in multiple tackle zones (good for stealing touchdowns when your opponent fails the pick up), and render Strip Ball useless, and Strip Ball could be crazy on a player who dodges everywhere on a 2+.

• +ST: +ST flings are great... if they roll a double. With Right Stuff and a bit of luck, they can blitz the ball carrier anywhere on the pitch and 1d block him if he's not in a cage. As a ball carrier himself, it's the assurance your opponent won't get 2d on him when he's in a cage. He's also a great enforcer. As for the future skills, you probably want to build him as a blocker (see below).

• Block: That's a tough one, because Block goes with everything. If the second roll is +MA or +AG, he's likely to become a ball carrier, so Sidestep, Sprint, Sure Feet, or Sure Hands (if he rolls another double) are good options. If his second skill is a double, Tackle or Mighty Blow sound great. You probably would want to take Sidestep and Jump Up next. But if he rolls a normal skill, the best choice would probably be Sidestep, because it also goes with pretty much anything, so you can wait until his third skill to decide how you want to build him. If it's normal roll, I would probably go for Diving Tackle, but Jump Up may be another option (again: wait and see if he rolls another double).

And remember: if you don't know what to take because you don't have a clear vision of how your fling will evolve, Block and Sidestep go with everything!

2. Treemen

It's pretty simple: you need Block. Period. If you have enough cash, fire any tree who doesn't roll a double for his first skill. Obviously, you won't be able to do that with a rookie fling team, but you should have enough cash to fire him at 16 or 31 SPP is he hadn't rolled doubles nevertheless. Besides that, the skills choice is pretty straightforward:

+ Stat:

• +MA: That's probably the best roll for a tree. MA3 means no stand up roll. It also means you can actually use him as a blitzer, or even as a ball carrier if you're lucky and/or very confident. Take it nomatter what. If you ever roll another +MA, you may want to reconsider. If it's a double 5, taking dodge could be a great option as well (if you already have Block).

• +AV: Useless, obviously, since you can't go over 10.

• +AG: Do not take +AG, unless you want to build a dedicated ball carrier, which is fun, but also completely unreliable. That would just be for the show. +AG doesn't help with TTMs since TTMs are never accurate. Even an AG3 tree would fumble the fling on a 2- if he's in a tackle zone.

• +ST: I wouldn't take +ST unless the tree has already rolled 3 doubles (or 2 doubles and +MA). Sure, with ST7 you can Multiple Block 2 ST3 players without assists, but that's pretty much it. And you could take much better skills with a double 6.

Normal skills:

• Break Tackle: That's possibly the best normal skill for a tree. Fling teams lack fire power. Treemen are the strongest players in any roster, but it just takes one tackle zone to stuck them where they are. Break Tackle fixes that, and allows them to blitz into cages, especially with MA3. The downside is the skill becomes useless once the tree has taken root.

• Guard: Another great skill. It's good for assisting flings (you can mark several players and still assist for a block), but it's also great to save your other tree. Sometimes, especially against bash teams with ST4/5 players, your trees will just become punching balls. And you want that to happen: to get 2d on tree, your opponent will have to commit half of his team. It leaves the rest of the pitch free for your halflings. And good luck taking down both trees if they have Guard and Block (and eventually Dodge).

• Grab: Do not overlook this skill. Of course, Break Tackle and Guard are better, but Grab shines when your tree has taken root. It allows you to keep the players in your tackle after a block, and that's something you definitely want. Without Grab, you'd be better off not blocking when you have taken root sometimes to make sure you don't set the players free from your tackle zones.

• Multiple Block: You only need one assist to multiple block 2 ST3 players. More blocks with Mighty Blow = more casualties. However, if your opponent is good at positioning, it's not something you will use very often. And actually, you will mainly use it at the beginning of a drive when you receive. So it's ok as a fourth regular skill, but you shouldn't miss it if you roll several doubles instead.

• Piling On: Just don't take it, even on a MA3 tree. Trees are blitzers or roadblocks. They can't blitz or keep anything in their tackle zone if they're down. If your tree's MA2, he will need to roll a 4+ to stand up. And even if he succeeds (or if he's MA3), he won't be able to do anything else. So piling on means your tree will be rendered useless the next turn, when he could have blocked another player, or assisted your flings. And not only he will be useless for one turn after that, but he also has a chance to take root for doing nothing (well... standing up). Probably the worst skill for a tree.

• Juggernaut: Your tree should have Block, so it's not the best skill around. I guess it's ok with Break Tackle to blitz into cages and eventually push the ball carrier out, but that's it. Unless of course you wanna go for some crazy build like +MA, +MA, Grab, Frenzy.

Doubles:

• Block: You need Block. Without this skill, your tree will very easily go down on a 2d up block, and you don't want that to happen to a MA2 player (4+ to stand up).

• Dodge: The second double I would pick. Blodge trees are a nightmare. They can take on half the opposing team alone and not go down, making them the ultimate roadblock. It also has a great synergy with Break Tackle, making blitzes and cage breaking much easier.

• Jump Up: Very nice skill on a MA2 tree to skip the stand up roll. I would take Dodge over it, but it's also a great alternative. However, don't try to block from the ground: you would have to roll a 4+ to succeed (AG roll +2). You can blitz instead.

• Tackle: A great skill against dodgy teams, and one of the trees could use it, but I fail to see how it could be better than the 3 aforementioned skills on both of them.

• Pass / Pro: Both are decent skills, but I'm not sure I would take them. Block, Dodge, Jump up or +MA, Tackle and Break Tackle are definitely better. That's 5 skills already. Would Pass or Pro be better than Guard? I'm not sure. Pass lets you reroll failed TTM, but TTM are a good way to lose the game anyway, so you shouldn't do it too often. Pro lets you reroll anything on a 4+, which is good, but it can also make you do some mistakes, and half of the time you won't be using it over a team reroll anyway because you do need the reroll. It helps, but it's not as great as on a big guy with loner.

• Crazy skills: Frenzy can be funny, but it will make you roll a bunch of Go For It. Diving Tackle on a MA3 Blodge tree could be a nightmare for the ball carriers. That's pretty much it I think. Just remember that you cannnot use skills that would deliberately place you prone if you have taken root, so don't even think about taking Wrestle or Piling On for that purpose.

Strategy

Playing with flings is actually quite easy. It's 90% of very conservative play, and 10% of pure madness. Don't overthink it. You see a 2d block, take it. Rinse and repeat. Then, when your opponent makes a mistake or when you see an opening, it's time for the crazy stuff.

Inducements:

Halflings live for inducements. It doesn't mean you can't live without them, but once your team is at mid TV, it's often easier to play against a team 100-300TV up than a team with the same TV.

• Halfling Chef: This is the coolest inducement you can get, and the first one you pick 99% of the time. You will get free rerolls, which is great, but you also remove rerolls from your opponent, and that is your trump card. It's often worth spending 100k to buy one for tough matches if you don't have free inducements. Just don't do it too often however, or your treasury will quickly disappear.

• Babes: My favourite 50k inducement. Stunties are easily KO, so they can come very handy.

• Extra Team Training: Not worth it. You can have a Chef for the same price. And if you have 100k left to spend after that, go for a Bribe (or Babes, or eventually an Apothecary): you have enough rerolls already.

• Apothecary: Sometimes, you will have to chose between 2 Babes and an extra apothecary. The latter could be a good choice against killer teams if you have several stars you want to protect, or simply to reroll a KO or a BH on your key players, but again, Babes often work better with stunties.

• Bribes: Bribes are great for flings who partially rely on fouling. 100k is a bit expensive, but against soft teams, it could work better than 2 Babes or an Apo.

• Wizard: Everybody knows how good a wizard can be, however I generally don't take it over a Chef and a Babe. Now with 250k inducements, I'd definitely hire one. Just make sure you use him at the right time and you can retrieve the ball after the blast, or at the very least that your opponent can't (to prevent a late touchdown for instance).

• Cards: Not many cards are implanted yet, and a Babe would probably be more useful for the same price.

• Star Players: Puggy and Willow are not that good. Puggy is only ST3, and Nerves of Steel is useless. On top of that, he's an AV6 Stunty and probably won't last the game. Willow could be interesting with ST4, but she doesn't have Block, which is quite unpredictable on a loner. Zara and Bertha look good on the paper, but for a little more you can have the one true Halfling star: Deeproot Strongbranch. A third tree with Block, ST7, and no Take Root is a pretty good deal for this price. Morg is great as well, but way too expensive. You could have a Chef or Wizard and Deeproot for the same price... Go for Deeproot.

Strategy on offense:

Strategy on defense:

Throw a Team Mate:

Do not throw your teammates! Just don't do it. Sure, TTM are cool. Sure, the sound when the fling is flying is awesome. But just don't do it. It's the best way to lose your game. You've promised you won't do it? Good. Now we can talk about it.

TTMs can be used in three different ways:

• For scoring (you throw the ball carrier and score) - don't do it unless it's your only option: it's way too unpredictable, and most of the time you're simply giving the ball to your opponent.

• For repositioning a fling, so he can blitz or assist a blitz on an important target: that's often a good move, provided your tree doesn't have a better action to take.

• For "bombing" cages: throw a fling, and hope he lands on someone. That's generally a bad move. You have about 1/4 chance to hit someone in a standard X cage if you aim for the player in the center. If the tree doesn't fumble the throw. Your fling on the other hand is pretty sure to land in (sometimes multiple) tackle zones, and is very unlikely to pass the landing roll. With AV6 and low chances of success, who will be injured you reckon?

Some TTM facts now:

• TTM are always inaccurate. Your fling will scatter 3 times, so don't throw him anywhere. If you throw him less than 4 squares away from the sideline, he may land in the crowd. If there's any player of yours 3 squares around, your fling may land on him and cause a turnover (and trust me, you won't forget after you've lost a game because of this one fling on the way).

• Failed TTM do not cause a turnover, even if the fling is injured, unless 1) he has the ball or 2) he lands on another player of yours. Performing a TTM is therefore generally a safe move (again, if the fling doesn't have the ball), and should be performed at the beginning of the turn.

• When you try to score in one turn, not only you have to pass the TTM and the landing roll, but you also have to throw the fling far enough. If the tree is on the line of scrimmage, he only has 60% chances to throw a MA5 fling far enough. If the fling is MA6 or if the tree moves one square forwards, the odds jump to 83-84%. If he advances 3 squares, you're certain your fling will make it to the end one (with eventually 2 GFI). Therefore, statistically, moving a tree with Break Tackle one yard backward to make a 2+ throw when he's marked by one player isn't a good idea. Not only you would, nomatter what, trade this +1 to the throw for a GFI, but you'd be also down to 38% chance to throw the midget far enough (about 31% chance to both succeed the throw and to throw far enough, versus 40%). That's also why Sprint is very important on MA5 AG4 flings.

As you can see, you will mostly use TTM to either try and steal a touchdown when your opponent fails the pick up (if the ball ins't covered), reposition a fling a he can blitz or assist a blitz, or for t8/t16 one turn touchdown attempts.

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(OTTD positioning here)

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One-turn touchdowns (no TTM):

No, flings don't need to TTM to score in one turn, but it's way harder. So why would you do that? For the fun, because it will get you a badge, and because sometimes, the ball lands too far for a handover so you simply can't TTM. The downside is if you set up for an old school OTTD, it leaves you with only 2 flings to retrieve the ball. You will need a MA6 fling with Sprint to do it (or a MA7 fling), and both your trees need Guard to have a 2d blitz.

Standard set up:

Move a fling next to the future ball carrier...

Blitz and chainpush the future ball carrier (remember not to use Stand Firm)...

Now it's time to pass the ball...

Chainpush the ball carrier again (don't use Grab!)...

Now chainpush the tree for a future block...

Move one more fling next to the ball carrier (you'll need 2 GFI if he's MA5 and the picture doesn't show the last move)...

Push again...

And finally, chainpush one last time the ball carrier with the tree left.

Opponents:

I will not try to rank the other races from the easiest to play against to the hardest, because there are too many variables. Chaos teams for instance are very easy to beat at low TV, much harder at high TV with a bunch of Tacklers and POMBers. You can contain elves if you have 5 Diving Tacklers, but otherwise, you're pretty much screwed. Etc.

However, you can take the following list as a hint.

• Ogres: Quite en easy team to beat. Just try to mark as many ogres as you can with your trees (NB: you need Block and / or Dodge to do that) and flings if they don't have Block or Tackle, then cage with your flings, and advance. Try to injure as many snots as you can, but try to go for 3d blocks (with one assist) - they can be quite slippery otherwise.

• Khemris: Generally an easy win, but you may be left without a team at the end of the game. Khemris just can't pick the ball. At some point, they're gonna fail the pick up, and that's when TTM will shine: throw a fling, grab the ball, and steal a touchdown. Many Khemri coaches are also more focused on injuring your players than picking up the ball, which makes things even easier. Use your trees as punching balls, and you should be fine (the trees, not so much, but you want to win, don't you?).

• Underworld: They have only one big guy, goblins but no secret weapons, skavens but no gutter runners, M access but flings are immune to Claws... The team is pretty weak to start with. Get rid of their key players like their POMBers with your trees, and then you can actually play the standard "cage and advance" game with your flings as you would do with a normal team since most of his players are ST2 goblins. You want your Blockers and / or Tacklers to go after the goblins while the standard flings go after the rats, or they're very likely to dodge your blocks.

• Chaos Pact: 3 big guys and flavourless linemen... Every 2 turns in average, one big guy will fail his negative trait roll, which makes them quite unreliable. Most of coaches will blitz your trees with the minotaur: remember that not using Stand Firm can make a nice Frenzy trap...

• Chaos: Another weak team to start with. Claw doesn't affect your flings. St4 and Horns don't affect them either (too much). It's probably one of the best opponents to start learning howto play with flings.

• Flings: Well, after a few games, you should know what works against flings better than anyone else...

• Vampires: ST4 doesn't affect your flings, but AG4 can sometimes be a problem. Vampires also generally get Block and Dodge as their first 2 skills, which makes them quite resilient. Just try to send all the thralls off the pitch, and you should be fine. Keep also in mind even though Hypnotic Gaze fails quite often, it's also an easy way to open a whole in your cage, offering a 2d blitz on the ball carrier to a vamp.

• Slann: Not sure - I haven't played many games against them. Just don't forget the blitzers come with Diving Tackle out of the box. Keep also in mind a standard X-cage without Guard won't safe you: they can just leap next to the ball carrier.

• Goblins: An easy match up. Your big guys are way better (+ST, +AV, and no loner), but they have secret weapons. They will cause havoc in your ranks if you let them play their game. You have a tree with Block and Break Tackle? Great, blitz them on turn 1, especially the saw. And foul if they're not sent out of the pitch. Mark the bomber with one fling to make him fumble his throws. Block the fanatic with a tree ad 2 assists, or simply ignore him and move your players out of his way: he will never catch up. Once there are no secret weapon left, focus on his key players. AG4 goblins are your priority. Then, well... just hit whatever you can, and score, eventually.

• Undead: The team is fairly slow, so you want to play the running game. Let the Mummy toy with your trees, mark the Ghouls with Diving Tacklers, screen the Wights, and you should outrun them, especially if you have a couple of +MA flings. The side-line is your friend if you do so. It's easier to defend.

• Necros: The wolves can be hard to deal with once they have a few skills or +stats, so you want to take them out (blitz them with a tree if you can and have rerolls left). Otherwise, they're just like the Undead.

• Norses: Norse Teams look impressive, but they're actually fairly easy to beat: foul everything that's prone. They have AV7, so you should do lot of Cas - you could even clear the pitch with a bit of help from Nuffle. Try to set up as man frenzy traps as you can as well, so your opponent wastes his rerolls or suffers turnovers.

• Humans: There's not much to say about humans. Just play as you would against Chaos, but remember they may try to pass as well.

• Orcs: Orcs are slower than humans, but they have a better armor and more fire power. The high AV makes them quite resilient, so you many not succeed in outnumbering them. You're gonna need your trees on this one, either to trap as many orcs around them as possible, or to clear the way to let your flings advance.

• Skavens: A very fast team. You must get rid of their runners or you're doomed. Fortunately, the team has a low AV, making them quite squishy. Do not overcommit to one side when defending. Always leave a few flings in the middle of the pitch in case he decides to switch sides.

• Lizards: Lizards can cage with ST4 players, they have MA8 Diving Tacklers to screen with... They can be a tough match up for flings. But if you can take out all the Skinks, you have the game pretty much won. Your trees will also have to shine. If the Saurii don't have Break Tackle, you can try to mark as many as you can with your Treemen (especially in offense), otherwise, use them to blitz the cages. Screen as much as you can not to let them outrun your trees.

• Elves: Elves are fragile, but they dodge on a 2+ and won't stay for a good old brawl. You won't throw many blocks, so you're gonna have to rely on fouling to get rid of them. They're also very fast, and they will outrun you. Always leave a few flings in the center (and eventually a MA+ tree) in case they decide to switch side. And remember: they only need one turn to run the ball on the other side of the pitch, so be prepared.

• High Elves: Just like Pro Elves, but with a better armor.

• Dark Elves: Just like High Elves, but with 2 players with Frenzy (watch the side-line!), and eventually assassins with Stab and Shadowing. Assassins can be incredibly effective against flings when play right, so if you can take them out early, do not hesitate!

• Nurgle: One of the worst teams against flings: Disturbing Presence and Foul Appearance can completely shut you down. You probably won't be able to do many TTM against them. Watch out for Tentacles as well.

• Zons: Blodge everywhere. They can bash, but they can also dodge if they start losing the blocks war. They however have a very low armor, so foul them as much as you can.

• Chaos Dwarves: Another very tough match up. Let the trees take care of the dwarves, and focus on the hobgoblins with your flings. If you can take them out, you may be able to outrun the dwarves. May Nuffle help you.

• Woodies: Just like the other elves, with leaping Wardancers. Your cages will rarely be safe against them, so beware. A ball carrier with Sure Hands will be greatly appreciated.

• Dwarves: AV9, Block everywhere, Tackle everywhere, Guard everywhere... They will outbash you. You're gonna have to rely on luck to beat them. Try to keep your AG4 flings safe if you have some, and maybe Nuffle will let you use some TTM magic...