1881

Even at significantly different TV levels (sub 1000 vs 1450+ or so iirc), mainly because being able to run rapid ball returns some of the time really messes with dwarven math. Mainly, my severely under-TVd lizards seemed capable of tying up some difficult games, but rarely winning. Part of that was simply an absence of useful MVPs, and part of it was simply not having the Kroxigor to spread the muscle around. However, my Black Orcs on my Orc team have proved similarly slow to blossom, so maybe it’s just the Str 4 no skills thing that is still difficult for me.

1882

Bodymore Bruisers 1 - 0 Rammustein

Or somewhat more accurately:

Nuffle 1 - 0 Rammustein

My Orcs, the Bruisers, against Wingrow’s own Orc team. I played well, but Rammustein’s absolutely abysmal luck kept him from doing much of anything. He knocked out one of my players, but I injured one of his (no lasting damage) and knocked out I think two more, and a horrifying number of his rolls – most, probably – went badly. Red skulls rerolled into red skulls, failed dodges, the whole nine yards. Once the Bruisers managed to get enough defensemen away from their ball-carrying Blitzer, he was able to break away and Rammustein couldn’t catch up, ensuring the first and only touchdown shortly before the end of the second half.

Rammustein was further hampered by two rerolls to the Bruisers’ four; I didn’t even use most of mine, and he burned his quickly to little effect.

1883

I’m still kind of noobish but I would happily trade the Kroxigor for a single player with block at team creation.

1884

I just got pushed out during an admittedly risky breakaway.

The ball rolled eleven spaces.

I was halfway down the enemy sideline. The ball ended up halfway down my half of the field, on the opposite sideline.

That’s some bullshit. Balls don’t do that.

EDIT: Therlun informs me that when a ball carrier is pushed out the crowd throws it. Never mind I guess. Still obnoxious.

1885

Indeed, a ball out of bounds is thrown back onto the pitch seemingly randomly, and then it scatters like normal. I’ve had a ball carrier barged off the pitch near the touchline to see the ball thrown back on into the waiting hands of an elf near my own touch line. It’s frustrating but also amusing.

1886

It’s a d3 roll to choose the direction, and 2d6 for the distance, plus one d8 for the final bounce.

1887

Dudes,

Can anyone point to a good article on positioning for the line of scrimmage? Specifically, what do you do when you’ve got a bunch of higher strength meanies on the opposing line? How do you deal with Tomb Guardians, Trolls, and Trees? I feel that setting up the LoS is a weak point for me, especiallly if I’m setting up first.

1888

I wrote a bit on the subject.

1889

This discussion was my bible. It requires a free and painless registration. The really good diagrams start from page five.

It’s useful because the terminology for the more popular setups is actually surprisingly widespread. Starting formations often vary by team, and the juicier, team-specific discussions you might dig up through google tend to be a bit arcane without a quick visual reference as to what, say, an inverted ziggurat actually is.

1890

I don’t know any article about the matter, but generally you’ll have to deal with it on a case per case basis. For instance, you mention Tomb Guardians. Let’s think about it: Tomb Guardians are very simple to understand: MA4, ST5, AG1. They’ll stay on their opponent, unless they blitz or, through some complicated block plays, someone else frees them. Also, they don’t have block or mighty blow, therefore their 2d blocks aren’t very safe, nor their flashes are that damaging. With two assists, tho, they can go to a 3d block, which is pretty much a sure knockdown, against unskilled pieces. How does this sum up? Well, it depends on what’s on your hands. Do you have AV9 speedbumps? Place one in front of each TG, and protect their backsides to avoid 3d blocks. Do you have unskilled linemen? Place one of them in front of each TG. Has the opponent screwed up their placing an isolated TG on the LOS? It might be worth placing 3 linemen next to him.
I’m trying to simplify it too much, as I’m not explaining one of the reasons behind this strategy: Khemri, for instance, have to avoid getting spread around the field (they lack mobility and speed!), therefore singling out two TGs out of four means crippling their play.

How to handle a Treeman is a different matter altogether: check out his negatrait, his Stand Firm, and his ST6 - how are you going to move him? You aren’t! And he needs only one assist to block 3d. But if your opponents has to move him, he has to roll Take Roots. Once again, if you can single him out and trade one lineman for one treeman, that’s fine. But if you can avoid him rolling for blocks, and moving him to reposition it, he’s gonna risk failing his Take Root roll, and that will make the tree useless.

Every big guy has to be disabled somehow, tangling up the opponent’s strategy in the meanwhile, but generally you’ll find out that most teams that can field a big guy aren’t mobile or quick - therefore, trying to lure the piece away from his team is the right thing to do.

…did I make any sense? :)

edit: too slow

1891

The very straightforward and abbreviated answer is do not attempt to contest the line itself. Put three junk players (linemen for most teams) on the line packed together in the middle, realize that probably 2 out of the 3 (at least) are going to be blown off the line, and just defend in depth with your other players.

1892

What do you do if your opponent has stronger players than yours on the line of Scrimmage? It depends…

  • If a strong opponent sets the rest of his defence back to avoid Quick Snap, I’ll often move in assists on the sides and try to take advantage of Guard to roll them all up. You have a strong advantage going first, and opponents need a substantial strength edge to be safe. ST 4 and even ST 5 is often not safe against ST 3, especially if you have a bit of Guard.

  • If I find that I can’t deal with them reasonably then they’re typically clumped. I’ll (unavoidably) leave only one fodder player in contact, and dodge him away at the end of the turn. This is a last resort though, as you really want those free blocks!

  • I may do something in between if an opponent sets the rest of his defense only one space back, leaving himself vulnerable to Quick Snap in order to deny assists. You can often move a Guard player beside their line and in contact with their support, blitz off the support, then work across. With only only one blitz you might have trouble getting all three of them, but you can likely get two and have all your players free of contact.

  • Attacking with Wrestle is often a good idea if they have Block, so there’s less chance of them being left standing in contact. Similarly, if they have Stand Firm be careful, as you can no longer rely upon mere Pushes to keep your guys safe and keep working 2d blocks across the line.

This is all very contextual though… A more specific example might be easier to make suggestions for, if you have one in mind. What team are you thinking of playing as? Your Norse team in the New World Cup, say against a Goblin team?

Oh, and on defense? Yeah, you’re gonna pay. Just stick 3 fodder guys there; they’re going to get pasted and marked while they’re down. When you get to move form up in columns to stall, try to use your blitz to work downed guys free without having to dodge, and then dodge the remaining ones free. My first goal on defense is to get all my guys on their feet, free of contact.

Even if you’re playing a team with a Big Guy or a bunch of ST 4 guys this is likely to happen. As a result I almost never set Big Guys on scrimmage during defense, and often try to protect them from being blitzed in the opening ruck, so that I can counter Blitz with them more freely on my turn or use them to anchor a defensive column.

1893

Say, what’s the idea of posting precious wisdom on some other strange forum? ;P

1894

At the time I couldn’t post it on this forum.

1895

Oh; bummer.

1896

I would like an opinion on a placement decision.

I play Skaven and have a rat ogre. I like to place him 2 squares behind the line of scrimmage so he is not in a tackle zone. My reasoning is that I don’t really gain much by “winning” the midline block war and the free rat ogre is much more useful as a mobile offensive weapon to create an opening/roadblock at a point of my choosing.

Does that make sense to the pros here?

1897

I can say with a degree of certainty that it was the cornerstone of the Pirats’ strategy, the reigning champs of the Old World Cup. You can build an ogre as a roadblock as I attempted to with my notoriously shitty Open League skaven team, but without some seriously leveled linemen to back him up he’s not as effective in the skaven gameplan as a designated blitzer. Just don’t forget that wild animal makes movement without blitzing to tackle a bit of a crapshoot, and that managing frenzy without block has to be done carefully and intelligently using tactical assists.

1898

It does. Though you could also put him one square behind the LOS to discourage the opposition from following up blocks on your sacrificial linerats as that would put them right next to him on your turn.

1899

The one-square linebacker idea sounds better to me than reserving him for blitzing — Wild Animal has thrown away plenty of key blitzes for me, and I wasn’t even reserving my past ogres for blitzes.

1900

I find that the rat ogre can surprise people if you keep him at the side of the center section of the field and slightly back, because people often forget about his frenzy. I get a lot of early game crowd push blitzes that way. Wild animal, is a problem of course.