Experienced Wood Elf adviced needed

[brassman]

Hey all,

I'm looking for some opinions and maybe some set plays how to improve my Wood Elven team.

It's a team which has already won me the Spike! tournament last year, so I'm actually fairly happy about them. However, you can never be too complacent and I would like to come up with some new strategies and ploys for this team, especially from people who have had success with high-level (+200 TR) Wood Elve teams. Future skill suggestions would be good too.

The team can be found on http://www25.brinkster.com/brassman/lad ... .asp?ID=25

thanks

Sam

Brassman Bloodbowl League
http://www.goutsmit.com/bb2002/index.htm

[Dangerous Dave]

Brassman,

Not sure I should pass any comments since (I think that) you play in my on-line League!

However.... since none of the teams in RABBL are likely to get up to 240 TR - here goes!


I wouldn't develop a lino as a passer.... that's what throwers are for. A 5AG lino rolling a double... normally without the double, I would take Leap.... but Guard is very useful... But until he gets Block he would be vulnerable. In the old days.... it would definitely have been Stand Firm!

The team is crying out for at least one Dirty Player - but if you are playing IGMEOY, be careful when and who you foul.

For your Catchers, Sure feet is fine.... however, I wouldn't normally get Sprint until or unless I rolled +1 Move (ie a 1 turn scorer)... if you cannot get far enough moving 11 squares then there is something wrong. I would develop 2 catchers as scorers and 2 as defence. Your development is a bit half and half with Aileen having Leap and Pass Block. So I guess she plays both offence and defence. If you roll doubles on the Catchers then NoS is a must. Also Side Step is a very good skill to take.

I suspect that the team may struggle to get the ball back - especially if your Strip Ball War Dancer is out of the game. So I think you need a bit more Tackle and Strip Ball. If you roll doubles on any more Linos - take Guard - you need a mobile assist. If you can get 2 or 3 linos with Block, Dodge, Side Step and Guard - the oppo will hate you!

Treemen.... I wouldn't bother! If you are playing a hard hitting team, he's not going to do that much damage - and he'll miss 25% of each match on average. Playing against an agile team - he'll never get a block in! I find that any Trees I play against spend most of the game in the Woods or trying to stand up! - a defenders choice block against him has 25% chance of getting him over (assuming the attacker has block).

Finally.... I don't think you are playing aging rules..... no stat downgrades no niggles - don't other teams hit you? Or have you played so many games that you can replace them? I wish my Wood Elf team was as fortunate!



Dave

[brassman]

Hey Dave,

I also suspect I play in your online league

Concerning your remarks:
1) I didn't set out to develop my lineelf to be a passer. This team struggled quite a bit in the beginning, and had its main thrower (pass, accurate, sure hands) killed on a really bad time (ie just before a tournament and without any money to replace him). Fortunately, in that same game I also rolled a double on my AG5 lineelf, so I gave her Pass to make a thrower. I do plan on developing my rookie Thrower into the main thrower and use the other one for ball retrieval out of sticky situations (so Block is high on the list indeed).

2) Agree on the dirty player thing. I didn't take one last seaon, because of the team fluff (goody two shoes). However, now they have new management and less ethical considerations

3) Catchers: good point on the Sprint. I do happen to roll quite a lot of Quick Snaps though Aileen does indeed play defense and offense. As my 3rd Catcher (Bonnie) is quite near to her first skill, would you take Block before Sidestep (assuming no doubles)?

4) Yep, if Foxtrot gets knocked out, I'm in a bit of trouble. Next upgrade for the other Wardancer is Strip Ball or Tackle, already decided that.

5) The tree is indeed a mixed blessing. Sometimes he's useful in tying up the opposition, sometimes he's utterly useful. Still, I've paid for him now, might as well use em One thing that he does come in useful is in creating a hole for my receivers to run through. Without him, I find that my Wardancers have to make a lot of 1-dice blocks to get through. Although with your earlier guard-on-lino suggestions, this might improve.

6) Aging: yep, it's a conversion from 4th edition rules, so aging was not yet in effect. Note that this team did suffer 6 deaths last season, so by no means are they unscathed...

thanks for the reaction

Sam

[brassman]

The attentive reader will of course have understood that I wanted to say;

(The Tree) sometimes he's useful, sometimes he's utterly useLESS....

Sam

[Deathwing]

Hi Brassman. We converted our teams over from 4th, and we simply made all the aging rolls necessary for the amounts of SPPs they had. It resulted in a few niggles and a few retirements, but our teams are now all fully 2k1 compliant. (We also changed any unobtainable skills, the only fudge we allowed was grandfathering in Magic Helmets!)

[Dangerous Dave]

We did convert all our players over too.... and some of the better players... are not so good now

Oh and we got rid of Magic Helmets too - The museum paid 40k for their historic significance! If they come back we will allow the teams to buy them back - assuming the player is still on the team!


Dave

[Larry The Zombie]

We have also used the new ageing rules in our league to convert the old '4th edition gold' boys to the new rulings. Though it wasn't the most enjoyable experience in the world i would rather be doing this now than paying silly appearance fees for your best players. Though i really don't like the term 'Ageing'. Could'nt they of called it something else?

[Marcus]

Team looks to be developing the way you need it to to survive higher TR games.

I would suggest Sidestep as a next skill for 3 of your blodge linemen, stick them on the line on defence. This, of course, means that the opposition only gets one shot to roll a pow or they step back out of the way. It can make your line extremely hard to break.

You do seem to lack a little in the way of turnover skills, your team seems to be a little more opportunistic in this regard rather than aggressively defensive. I would suspect your defence is a fairly passive one, getting your boys in the way, tying the opposition up and forcing errors.

2 more players with passblock would shut down passing lanes on almost every play. More strip ball or tackle would aid in ensuring you can get key blocks in wherever you can. Diving tackle or shadowing (or both) would further restrict your opponents options.

Woodelves are at their most dangerous when the ball is on the ground. You should start developing the above skills to remove your opponents options during their drives. Should give you more turnovers.

Marcus

[wesleytj]

I did a wood elf strategy guide a long time ago. It was written under 3rd Ed. Rules, so some of it will make no sense. On the other hand, a lot of it still will.

I know I really need to get back in there and fix it up, but add that to the list. Maybe I'll get to it this summer....

Anyway, here it is:

http://mama.indstate.edu/users/python/bbowl/welves/


Hope you still find it useful

[Marcus]

I can recommend python's guide (posted above) for anyone wanting to brush up their woodelf tactics.

I've gone head to head with Python's woodelves on a number of occassions and he is a great coach.

Marcus

[wesleytj]

Much appreciated!

I do really need to get that guide updated though...this new edition has obsoleted a lot of it.

I do like the new ed. of rules overall though. I think next week I'm going to post a "wish list" on here of stuff I'd like to see changed, but overall it's pretty minor.