Kick Off Return

[Powerhausen]

I see a lot of praise for this, and I honestly can't see why. For me, it lands squarely in the "nifty" category. So, uh, what's the deal? Sell it to me.

[GalakStarscraper]

At its core its an ability that allows you team to have a jump on its first drive especially if a kick is made deep. It is effectively adding +3 MA to the player for the first turn of each drive.

That's the basic ... now where it really provides value is when those 3 squares of MA allow you to get under the ball (or if you have Diving Catch besides the square with the ball). This means you get a catch roll at the end of the kick-off. The beauty of which is that its turnover free. If you fail the catch roll ... no harm is done. If you make the catch roll ... than you start the 1st drive with the ball in hand and have no concerns over the possible turnover that could occur from the pick-up roll.

Galak

[DoubleSkulls]

A lot of fast teams take kick and try to flood the backfield before their opponent can form a cage. As such KoR makes a big step towards negating the strategy- because you'll be very likely to get the primary ball retriever closer to where the ball lands.

On some teams the additional catch opportunity isn't to be sniffed at either - for a dwarf team you've a 1/9 chance of failing the pick up with a runner. Getting a 50/50 shot of catching the ball helps prevent those drives when you can't pick the thing up.

That said for some teams its a very early choice (dwarves, orcs) others probably rarely get it at all (elves).

[Jural]

I find 2 practical uses:

1) I can keep fewer players back deep to field the ball with my elf squads. This gives me more of an advantage at the LoS and in the wides. If the kick is shallow instead of deep, I can let another player field the ball and move my KoR 3 squares to a better position.

2) I can set up a strong side and keep one player on the weak side with KoR. Dangerous against a blitz (if you can't get to the ball) but otherwise allows you 3 squares of movement you wouldn't normally have.

I find it works great on dwarves (2 main ball handlers) orcs (I like throwers, but MA 5 blows) and chaos dwarves (it's nice to have a more mobile hobgoblin back there, especially if you are fielding all the positionals!)

I have considered it many times for Dark Elves also, but haven't found it useful.

[Digger Goreman]

If a ghoul ever lives long enough, Block/Sure Hands/KOR looks mighty good...!

[purdindas]

Sell it eh...

Hi I'm Purdindas with Kick-off-return.

Ever noticed how annoying kick is?

Now you can negate this awful skill with new kick-off-return. It allows you to move your ball handler 3 squares towards where the ball where its going to land and potentially even catch it. It's basically the anti-kick!

Watch your cheeky elf opponents face as you: Pick up the ball with more movement spare, Make the ball safe, cage up your ball carrier more easily and stop him from putting tackle zones on your ball handler.

Yes it's Kick-off-return. Every Orc, dwarf and Khemri team should have one.

Take it as a second skill after block and it only costs you 16 SPP's. Job done!

[Powerhausen]

Incidentally, I've been playing mostly Humans and Skaven in the past. However, I played my fairly fresh Chaos team against a friends High Elves, and boy oh boy do I see the charms of Kick Off Return now. With players that incompetent, I need every break I can get. So I'm probably looking at getting an Extra Arms/Kick Off Return guy ASAP.

Cheers guys!

[GalakStarscraper]

Slann Catchers with Kick-off Return. 2 of them and you get a free catch roll for any ball that lands in the back 9 columns of the field.

Galak

[lerchey]

For what it's worth, I've been playing Dwarves in a local league. I took KoR at the end of last week on one of my dwarf runners (both have block, the other one has Fend).

In two games today, KoR allowed me move the runner under the ball 5 times, and directly next to it twice.

Every time the runner was under the ball, he caught it. Gave me a nice, quick ball grab, and with both runners and both blitzers in the backfield, I was able to mop up part of the opposing line, and pick which side I want to direct my cage towards.

Excellent skill. Really glad that I took it. :)

Won both games 2-1, and 3-0 and 5-0 in CAS.

[Smeborg]

For slow, caging teams, KoR is like gold dust. It means you can form your cage up to 3 squares nearer the opponent's end zone. Against a good defense, this is often the difference between a win and a loss.

For fast teams, KoR means you can reliably pick how to attack (for example which side to attack), without having to worry much about where the ball is kicked to.

For passing teams, it means you can reliably move the ball out of range of your opponent on your first turn (if you want to).

And finally, for fast agility teams, KoR significantly increases the likelihood of a one turn score.

As a bonus, KoR provides a degree of protection against a Blitz result on the Kick-off Table.

Two Runners with KoR is a tempting option for slow sides such as Dwarfs, especially for those times when they have to score in 2 or 3 turns.

Hope this helps.

[dines]

Would any rate the skill good enough to consider for dark elves? If yes, when? There are so many nice skills to pick... I guess the runners are the best positions for it, maybe after sure hands, nerves of steel/pass if building it as a real runner rather than a thrower.

[Khail]

I haven't taken KoR with my Dark Elves. The thing about KoR is that if you play well defensively, you'll only get to use it once or twice a game, which is arguably not worth the TV.

KoR gets better the more you get scored on though, which makes it an interesting choice for a skill.

[dines]

Good point there. I usually don't have that big problems in defense, as most of my tds comes from that (in the last season of 12 games only 0.7 tds were scored against me on average). Therefore I rarely get to practise my offense and it definately could be improved, therefore I came to think about KoR. But you are right, its a waste of skill to use it that rarely.

[Khail]

I have the same quandary, heh. I score almost all of my TDs on defense, and the few times I do get to set up on offense I actually struggle a bit. KoR could definitely make things go smoother, but it's at least a few skills down the road for one of my Runners (who tend to die or get retired before getting past 2 skills).

[funnyfingers]

I always go Block then Kickoff return on my dwarf runners. The other 2 that have had it have died... Let's see how long I keep this one.