Passing revisited

[MattiasF]

First of all: I am not an expert of the passing play. Running and cages is usally my melody...

That said, I am not sure that trading a fumble for a inaccurate pass always is a Good Thing (tm). It is easy to think it is, and sometimes it can be (Flings and in a desperate situation). After all it requires more from Nuffle! But I do not see this as an advantage in the normal passing game.

The basic pass play tactic I have seen...

Turn 1)
Two catchers (with a few bodyguards, if possible) going long.
Secure the ball.
Hold thumbs when opponent try to nail your catchers.

Turn 2)
Make a good position for the passer to make the throw, with protection if fumble.
Protect the chosen catcher if the catch fail to present itself.
Pass the ball.
Do the moonwalk.

If this senario holds, the result of the throw can go three ways.
1) Accurate
2) Inaccurate
3) Fumble

Lets ignore accurate. His task was successful. If the catcher screws up, it had nothing to do with the throw!

Inaccurate... BIG chance of a TO. Luck and/of Diving Catch can of course save the situation, or at least give the oppertunity to save it. Also there is a big chance of the ball being in a position where the opponent can grab it. (3+1 scatter can cover alot of area, then add possible throw-ins...) Basicly, the ball can end up anywhere, and your opponent have a whole turn to exploit the situation.

Fumble. TO, but you should have thought about this suituation, and taken appropriate steps to make the ball go down in a secured area.

Now, what is the worse senario? A group of catchers, attacked by blitzers, blockers and [insert favorite race position] or a group of prefferbly blockers and a thrower attacked by blitzers and [insert favorite race position with a high MV]. Either way, if the opposing team gets the ball, your screwed... (You are not in a defensive position. Maybe not even have the best defenders on pitch!)

Do anyone agree that a fumble can be easier protected than an inaccurate pass? I do not have statistics to back this up. The situation is way to versatile and complex to calculate. Maybe someone studied the chance of catching an inaccurate pass? I kind of base my assumption on that the vast majority of those results in a TO.

[Kri]

I agree with you. Generally the thrower stands in backfield at start of the second turn. He then runs forward to the Line of Scrimmage(LoS) to throw the ball. At the LoS you have several players that blocked to opposing team turn one standing around doing nothing. So it´s not unrealistic to have 3-4 players available for protecting a fumbled throw that only scatters one square. A failed throw could end up anywhere...

[Xynok]

We also rule that Range does NOT modify the Dice, just the target Roll. We do this because it makes sense to us. TZs are the only thing that modify the Dice on a Pass.

As to the one turn TD via TTM, you are simply giving statistics for Picking Up, Throwing, and succesfully landing...this does NOT indicate a TD if you defend it correctly, and this is the flaw in that entire argument. Consider:

_________________
____|_______|____
_x_x|_x_x_x_|x_x_

You put 3 men on the Line, and put the other 8 one or two square(s) away from the endzone, staggered across the field as shown. Thus, after the succesful land, the little bugger still has to make a potential THREE 3+ Dodges to score depending on where he scatters to, and the odds of hitting one of those players is high. Good Luck. I won't even pretend to know the odds of the Git scattering directly into the Endzone, but if they ARE good (which I highly doubt), simply move each player one space back; that still leaves a potential TWO 3+ Dodges, and -1 to land guranteed with a -2 very likely if he goes directly to the endzone. If you can string a series of rolls like that, you DESERVE to score. If you decide to RUN it vs. this defense, it takes 6 full turns for your Treeman to even GET there...

Making the chances of Fumbling the Git worse does nothing to affect this. None of the target NUMBERS change, only the chances for Fumble. As far as risking a Long Bomb just to get rid of the ball...please use that tactic against me. Please.

Only TZs should affect chance of Fumble in my strong opinion.

[DoubleSkulls]

That only works on the last turn. Otherwise you are giving up important field position. If you used that defence against me I'd just pound the 3 guys on the LoS and move downfield, so that I can score next turn when you start moving everyone forward. Or you can sit back there and watch me pound your 3 LoS guys and slowly get within running range.

You don't actually need 8 players to cover the line. As you can see below 5 players can leave a 3 dodge run for a stunty player - or a 1/2 dice blitz.

Code: Select all

_X__|X__X__X|__X_

Then you've still got 6 to contest the LoS - but this still isn't going to be enough to stop 9 stunties and a pair of big guys.

[Xynok]

The issue raised concerned 1 Turn TDs. This defense stops it, or certainly makes it very difficult. I'll give you the Three guys on the line...have fun; this is why I use 8 vs. 5...the additional 3 any closer is futile. As noted, it takes 6 turns for your Treemen to get to the other Players. I'll take the odds of Halflings trying to pound their way through this defense.

As to normal tactics, if you can keep up with my TD scoring with your TTM, more power to you. If you fall behind, there better be more than 6 turns left, and that is just for ONE TD.

I feel confident that making the odds of Fumbling TTM worse will only marginally affect the success of Stunty teams. It DOES increase the ability of other Throwing Races, but that is what they are GOOD at after all. Just my opinion.