Love it or hate it, there is no neutral ground here. Pretending not to care about it actually means you do in fact care, but wish to not let anyone know about it - a useful tactic in its own right!

What makes "crowding" so useful is that it immediately gets rid of a player until the next drive. The REALLY fun bit is that the apothecary can't be used on any potential injuries! No armour roll either, straight to the juicy stuff. Most of the time the result is just stunned, but once in a while you can get nasty injuries and deaths! But at the least you're guaranteed to get rid of a player for a little while. This is my favorite way to do away with Wardancers, actually. Plus, it looks more innocent then fouling.

So what methods of crowding are available to us? Well, I'll tell ya! We're basically looking at four different methods of crowd surfing. I'm not going to list the odds and what not of success though, as it varies from situation to situation and player to player.

1.) Fool's Bane -- This is the classic error many new players make, leaving a player next to the sidelines without any protection. Simple blitz and off he or she goes.

2.) Friendly Shove -- When a player is one square away from the sidelines and is blocked and pushed to a friend who will then either block or blitz the player now near the sidelines into the crowd. Works wonders against Blodging elves. Who needs Tackle? Dodge that!

3.) But I was nowhere near the sidelines -- This is a lot harder then the rest, but can be worth it if you're trying to take out their best player. Let's say an annoying Blodge/MB/Guard Elf is 4 or 5 squares away from the sidelines. Most of your players don't have tackle. You can basically block (pass) this Elf all the way to the sidelines where someone can blitz or block him into the crowd. Some would say this won't happen, but the odds really aren't that bad and I've done it several times. It's a gamble to be sure (using up that many blocks for one Elf). But the rewards of having it off and potential death with no apothecary can be tempting and worth considering. The tough part is when you roll a POW/PUSH and you need to decide whether it's worth knocking him down or keep pushing him closer to the crowd. Regarding the images, I decided to use just three to show the technique.

4.) Multiple Squish -- I did this the other day and giggled uncontrollably, it's what makes Norse so much fun. Using Frenzy you blitz a player one square away from the sidelines into one of their teammates already by the sidelines, knocking the teammate into the crowd. If you failed to knock the first player down, you can then Frenzy them into the crowd and give his hurt teammate some company. I badly hurt 2 Gutter Runners in this fashion.

Those are the main methods, and there are variations in between. Many times you can set yourself up for crowding a player two or three turns in advance. Remember, when you control the ball you can lure Elves in for a chance to obtain the ball. Just remember, you're not trying to control the ball, you're trying to sucker the Elf into thinking you are! Frenzy is your best friend, so take it when you can on doubles.