RPS Blood Bowl League - The many, many Divisions of Death!

[Alistair Hutton]

I'd probably nab Dodge. It keeps him on his feet more and thus able to use Guard, and allows you to use him a bit more offensively to harass carriers with Wrestle/Tackle. But if you face a lot of teams with Tackle then it becomes relatively wasted, in which case you're probably better off with Stand Firm/Side Step to emphasise his Guard.

A slightly out-there option could be Grab if you use him to Blitz carriers as it removes the frustration of Side Step on a Carrier, and gives you some options for forming 1TTDs if you stuff him on the LoS.

Already have Grab dude to setup crazy 1TTD attempts with only 6 guys left on the pitch and deal with piss boilingly annoying side step elf wankers.

That's my thinking of Dodge - given that I'll be in division 1/2 next season I'm surely going to be facing a bunch of well developed teams who'll have enough tackle on them to deal with players having dodge for survivability.

If you're throwing this guy at catchers, Diving Tackle could be very annoying on top of Tackle and Wrestle - potentially force them to engage you (and suffer a wrestle result) instead of just dodging away.

I was thinking Diving Tackle for the pure dead elf annoyance but that does tend to mean that his Guard is going wasted (and I think Guard is his best feature as a player). On the other hand Diving Tackle would be the missing piece that makes him very multi-modal. He can either stick himself in the scrum, using his Guard to help the blocking battle or track back to cover and harass any catchers who think they can prance around like twats on my side of the pitch without any repercussions.

EDIT: I'm agonising over this because I can't help but feel there is a "right" skill to pick in this situation and it would be a shame to waste a second double on a sub standard pick. And also there are so many good picks for him. I don't think anything I do pick will be wrong - so it's interesting to see what people favour.

[ChainsawHands]

That's my thinking of Dodge - given that I'll be in division 1/2 next season I'm surely going to be facing a bunch of well developed teams who'll have enough tackle on them to deal with players having dodge for survivability.

Most people have some tackle, yes, but while they might be able to blitz with a tackler that's one less tackle player to mark your catchers, and having the extra mobility on a guard player is quite nice. Diving tackle is good, but it's a poor combination with guard, so I'd probably go with dodge.

[Alistair Hutton]

Most people have some tackle, yes, but while they might be able to blitz with a tackler that's one less tackle player to mark your catchers, and having the extra mobility on a guard player is quite nice. Diving tackle is good, but it's a poor combination with guard, so I'd probably go with dodge.

Pfft, what evidence do we have that you know what you are doing?

[Wolfenswan]

Voting time!

After 3 games with my WElfs I've lost one Lineman to death, one to -ST and have one with -AV, a catcher with -AV and one Wardancer with -MV. My winnings so far are just about 100k and I have only one RR (the Apo has reliably decided to make injuries worse).

Time to kick the bucket?

[NieA7]

For some reason I have a vision of that lineman weeping into his pillow at night, cursing Nuffle for giving him such poorly coordinated skills...

For me it'd be between dodge and diving tackle, depending on what the rest of the team would benefit most from. Give him dodge and he becomes a mobile support, able to get away and do some guarding where you need to block markers away from other players. It'll also help him keep up with a cage, and guard on a cage corner is just lovely. On the other hand give him diving tackle and he becomes your defensive catchers BFF, helping them mark up receivers while ensuring they don't simply get punched away. It'll also turn him into a handy ball-sacker, even if you don't get a knockdown it'll be hard for the carrier to get away the next turn and guard will come in if you can get another player back to support.

I'd probably go dodge, but that's just because I'm terribly conservative.

Wolfenswan - I've not played them myself but I always figured that was the deal with WElf's. They're superb players out of the box but there's every chance your team will get crippled after a few games: the challenge of them is keeping it together through that difficult start and middle to give yourself enough time to develop a few real stars. If you like the idea of that (which is more on the "flavour" side of BB than the "game" side) stick with them, otherwise reboot to something with a better life expectancy. Halflings maybe.

[Wolfenswan]

Might be that my several seasons of playing with Amazons who despite their AV7 never got hurt gave me the wrong ideas.

I don't mind an uphill struggle but having to replace over 200k in players and needing 200k for RRs with the winnings barely accounting for 100k isn't the best motivation. I like playing (W)Elfs, of the two games I won two and drew 1, and would probably reboot with an agile heavy team.

[NieA7]

That's the thing though, I don't think you have to replace them - lean on journeymen while developing the survivors, and hopefully the TV difference will net you the odd re-roll here and there in inducements. If you do choose to reboot though I'd give serious consideration to starting with at least 2 re-rolls (9 linemen and two dancers would let you do that), given they've got the advantage they can't be hurt.

[President Weasel]

You need to replace the wardancer pretty soon, but they're points hogs anyway so she'll catch up and pass the rest of your team soon enough. As for the rest, screw em. Go for the satisfaction of getting a broken team back to health, and until you can afford a full team and a sub there's no point desperately trying to keep your roster full. Journeymen for the line are gloriously liberating, they can get mangled and you just won't care.
Save your money, buy a reroll, save your money, buy a wardancer, save your money til you can afford to fill your entire roster plus a sub and then get the replacements in one fell swoop.

[20phoenix]

Early doors the only players on a wood elf team you need to replace are the wardancers. Catchers are a luxury item that come in when you have the available cash - they're not essential to a wood elf team. As PW said just pad the team out with loners until you can afford to get to 12 players.

[sketchseven]

I think, with Elves in general, you're usually ok with a couple of journeymen or more - that AG4 puts things in your favour more often than not, and with an assumed TV imbalance in your favour, you can always pick up Extra Training team rerolls if you think you're really going to need them.

It's only for teams that are AG3 and generally unskilled (Chaos springs to mind) where journeymen will probably be more hinderance than they're worth.

[potatoedoughnut]

I agree with the sentiment here. Just fire any crippled linos and rely on journeymen. Wardancers are worth replacing and if you have spare cash you can get catchers. But with pretty much any elf team you're always going to be down a couple players until you get fairly well developed unless you've been very lucky with the cas rolls.

[chadsexington]

There was a small issue with div 'M' on the spreadsheet. Formula linked col 'G' instead of col 'A' which skewed results for one of the teams that did not have COL A = COL G.

[Jolima]

There was a small issue with div 'M' on the spreadsheet. Formula linked col 'G' instead of col 'A' which skewed results for one of the teams that did not have COL A = COL G.

There's still something wrong with it. It's counting my loss as a draw for me, but correctly as a win for Eard.

[Alistair Hutton]

I think, with Elves in general, you're usually ok with a couple of journeymen or more - that AG4 puts things in your favour more often than not, and with an assumed TV imbalance in your favour, you can always pick up Extra Training team rerolls if you think you're really going to need them.

It's only for teams that are AG3 and generally unskilled (Chaos springs to mind) where journeymen will probably be more hinderance than they're worth.

Yeah, Journey Man Elf Line Mans are so good it makes me cry. Oh no - I only get a 50% chance of rerolling this 2+ roll if it fucks up, I've only go a 90% chance of success rather than a 97% chance of success. Woe. Woe is me.

As for the amount of casualties you're taking Mr Wolf and Mr Swan I think it is a case that Amazon's lulled you into a false sense of security. The blanket dodge they have keeps them upright and ticking way more than other AV 7 teams. As you'd noticed at the end of your time with Amazons, the greater amount of tackle you were seeing on more developed teams was starting to bite and playing without dodge on all your mans is like playing against a whole team with Tackle.

[sketchseven]

The other advantage of running with a couple of journeymen on your team is you can sacrifice them on the LoS without worrying about them eating the turf.

[Heliocentric]

Heliocentric's "Int'He Night Guardians" -Vs- Xenny's "Xenny's Bezerkers"[sic]

This was a grudge match, last time were played I suicided my mighty blow werewolf on Xenny's Yheetee Vral and lost the game grievously. It was a game of three halves. No really, on the start on the second half a riot confused the Ref enough to give me another go at kicking off. Not that I wanted it,I had a werewolf flying down the field with the ball, but to be fair to him he let me off for every single foul I committed(aided by a get the ref free bribe). But let me take it back to the start, I received the ball from a square in the middle high kick, the Werewolf magicked to collect it and the chef which is lately my favourite inducement hovered up 2 of Xenny's rerolls and fed them to my guys with pasta.

The early punching was assisted by my magical wrestle zombie who taught the norse to love and hugged them to the ground and a wave of effective knockdowns by my team put the Bezerkers on the back foot. The werewolf got in the thick of it and started breaking heads wit hthe spiked ball and was appropriately knocked flat, the ball spilling into a Norse throwers hands, who after some buffing handed the ball off to a runner who sped down my unprotected flank. A loose zombie and a wight who had his marker punched away by a ghoul rushed the runner and knocked him out, and my werewolf fell flat on his faci attempting a gfi to pick up the ball. The norse collected the ball again, but the generally favourable armour rolls had meant I could encapsulate the Norse thrower handling the ball and his 2 guards. One of his 2 players guarding the carrier was quickly knocked out but any norse attempts to resist were scuppered by early turn overs and my successful armour rolls. Eventually I decided the thrower was alone and surrounded enough to attack and with a Werewolf push+skull, push+Def down frenzy the all handler was pushed off the pitch along side with the balland he died (apo to BH *sulk*) which was thrown in alongside my surprised Flesh Golem and a few zombies who were mauling the yheetee. The flesh golem picked up the ball and walked it in while the exhausted Norse could only spare one lineman who with 2 Die against managed to get flattened by the Golem who casually walked the ball in.

Followed the false start and the third half, resultingly all the knocked out Norsemen woke up, but the momentum held, the norse managed to lose blitzs to wild animal, fail dodges and by turn twelve with lots of ineffective punching a werewol scored my second touchdown to end turn 11. I didn't realise I had to kick and the AI kick was really short, so short that a norse effeort to push down my left flank looked sure to sucseed. But the ball dropped to the floor in a norse cage, the nearest player pushed assisde by a werewolf. The norse failed a 1 die block against the wolf and again my momentum built. Zombies enveloped te cage backed by the golems the wol picked up the ball and ran into the distance.

Around turn 14 Xenny decided to cut her losses and just stop getting the norsemen up to get them punched down, i responded with a 8 man foul on the hated Yheetee which resulted in a stun and ate my earlier acquired bribe. and the werewolf reached the line on turn 15.

Turn 16 contained the only successful norse pass of the game, another yheetee gang foul(stun) and a few zombies getting knocked out.

Heliocentric's "Int'He Night Guardians" 3-Vs-0 Xenny's "Xenny's Bezerkers"[sic]

A ghoul and an my flesh golem (both scorers) both levelled up with reg rolls, I snapped up sure hands for the ghoul and the flesh golem leaves me undecided. Yes ST4 block is great, but maybe I'll get him guard so my wrestle zombies can work better. Any advice?

I can finally afford to replace my dead werewolf too... Or maybe just get a third reroll?

[Wolfenswan]

I hate you all, I'll be grinding on.

Next match: with all positionals MNGs it's 5 linos + jorneys against whoever's the lucky chap (dwarfs probably).

PS:
can someone validate Div I? I want to see how bad it really is.

[ChainsawHands]

Somebody's already validated it.

To be honest, with -AV on your catcher, -MV on one of the wardancers, and what looked like several dead players, I think you'd be better off restarting with a 2 reroll setup. I think you can get 2RR, 2 WD and 9 linemen and still have a bit of cash left over to put towards an apoth.

[Everblue]

Zoraster - Would you mind posting a couple of your Rock Paper Supper replays to BBM? I'm struggling a bit with flings in the open and I wouldn't mind some pointers.

Kapouille - I'll be watching your replays this evening, thanks for posting those!

[Zoraster]

There are a fair few in 'zors random matches' from a variety of different competitions. Also see Ogham season 7 - Big Moot. Probably the most relevant for you will be the games from the Open season which are Flinging Frenzy (BB) between May and September 2011 including meetings with Horny Goats, Elves of the Line etc who are on your dancecard this season.