Chaos against Wood Elves

[Andy]

My next Match is coming up. I have a rather undeveloped Chaos team going.
My next opponent will be a Wood Elf coach. He is not really doing well in our league at the moment, since he lacks experience (just like myself), but he seems to catch up really quick. His last aquisition was a Treeman (at the date I posted this, that is).
His current roster can be found here
My curent roster is here
Any, and I mean ANY advice will be appreciated...
I'll tell you how it went if you care...

[BadMrMojo]

Looks like a tough match. The only advice I can give is that which is probably obvious. Hit him a lot and, particularly with your 10FF to his 1, expect and hope for some lucky kick off results.

I'm never really one to advocate trying to destroy another person's team, but you need to try to play tough and clear some of those elves off the pitch. Just remember to secure the ball and get your risk-free movements before hitting. As always with chaos, try to make sure you get your blitz with horns in to capitalize on your team's strength and get those Chaos warriors in the way.

Especially with relatively new coaches on both sides of the field, try to remember to make him roll a lot of dice. Get tacklezones on his players. If he dodges away on a 2+, that's ok. That's still failing 1 in 6 times, you know? You both only have 2 rerolls and you can expect to win a few more from kickoff results. He, however, will in all likelyhood run dry. Quickly.

As for the treeman, you should be able to keep out of his way and DO NOT fall into the usual trick of concentrating on him. He's big, but he's just a distraction. Just keep away or throw him a single beastman at best to keep him occupied. Really, you don't need to worry about him other than to keep away. Don't monkeypile him to take him down, just feed him a BM occasionally to keep him effectively out of the match.

Some people would say to stall and try a 2-1 grind. It's probably a smart, if boring way to go. I personally think that you're main advantage is that FF and that Wardancer will probably have Strip Ball. That makes the stalling tactic tougher. Remember to get your TZs on him, get your hits in, block his lanes to make him dodge through and I'd actually say go for as aggressive of an offense as you can manage. More scores/side mean more SPPs for you and more kickoffs to get that Pitch Invasion. Just remember that he will score, if he has any wits about him.

Let us know how it goes and feel free to ignore any and all advice. It's most likely crap.

[Nagash]

Kick to him no matter what in the first half... make him score quickly- if you´re lucky he´ll turn himself over by making all those dodge rolls. When/if he scores - preferably in turn 2-3... use the rest of the half for a 5-6 turn grind down the field... block, blitz and especially foul whatever you can!

Don´t worry if you don´t score in the first half... You´ll have the ball for 8 turns in the second half - if you play you cards right (difficult when facing a leaping WD). Use that half for an even long grind down the pitch. That make it 1-1 and in overtime, you should outnumber him. Though nothing is for certain. I´ve been outnumbered 9-3 (had 2 WD´s and a line-elf), when I coached a WE team and still managed to score!

Your strength are:

1) Always having a blitzer available - Horns!!!
2) CW´s - 2D blocks always come in handy... hehe
3) High Armor - If the dice don´t go too much his way, you should be the one causing most casulties.

His strengths:

1) Wardancers - best player in the game... period...
2) Speed and agility - if he is lucky you will only be able to blitz one line-elf per turn.
3) Treeman - strongest player... if he shows up...

You´ll lose if you try to out-score him... he is faster and better at ball handling than you. WE are also very dangerous in defense - ie - those wardancers will wait until the exact right moment to get that 1d block against your ball-handler. That forces you to go for the TD asap.

It a gamble. Do you rely on you beating his players and outnumbering? or do you rely on him turning him-self over by failing dodges and perhaps even ball-handling?

Conservative Chaos play is definetely the grind option. But I´m personally not that much of a conservative person, so I would go against all odds and try to actually make some plays on the ball. Blocking is fine but the challenge with a Chaos team is not beating an opponent to death. I prefer to move the ball. That´s just me and my "up-hill" approach...

[Rufio of Montrose]

Of my six matches against woodies I won five.
Recomendations. Build the box, hit every time you can, foul any war dancer- catcher on the ground. And if you have none with tackle & sure hands make a sacrifice to your god (it works for me ) I must add I have a Minotaur with PO, Block, Tackle & Pro (we haven´t adjusted to the new rules yet) who takes in charge CHAKA

[swilhelm73]

Well, here is a replay of a recent win with my Chaos versus WE if you are interested;

http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=match ... &id=206261

[gken1]

those are pretty developed teams...different tactics then i'd say.

i'd engage him and make him make a mistake. keep hitting him!!!

[Alesdair]

OK.
1. Avoid the treeman... make him use his blitz with him, with a gfi or two, if he wants to use him at all.

2. Keep two rookies near the center of your backfield. Those catchers and war dancer can almost make it to your back line, and the catchers can score if they start their turn even 3 squares on your side of the field. Remember, you can blitz a catcher with a defencive assist and still get two dice.

3. Try and isolate his Wardancer... a couple turns of just leaving one guy standing beside him so that he slowly blocks them away and be quick to get around between him and his teammates. He will probably try and do more to save the wardancer then the ball, and if he doesn't, hurt him.

4. Don't get too drawn upfield into the fight, even if you have a beastman with the ball only 6 squares from his endzone. Woodelves are designed to move the ball from one end of the field to the other in one turn with minimum risk.

[Andy]

Let us know how it goes...

It didn't go very well, but could have been much worse for my first time playing Wood Elves.
Well, since you asked for it... Here is The Newbs’ Comedy Theatre:

It was a beautiful day when 33.000 Chaos Fans travelled to the Wood Elf Stadium. 6.000 Elven fans also showed up, I guess that's their own personal gate record since the beginning of our league.
His Tree showed up and all nigglers felt fine.
Anyway, I started receiving. I smacked him a bit, but had no luck, then picked up the ball and it was his turn.
First thing he did was blocking one of my warriors with his new tree. Double Skulls. The Chaos Gods smiled. So did I.
I just couldn't resist to put some boot into him with lots of assists, but I failed miserably and my Beastman was sent off the pitch.
Of course I also tried to block some holes into his defense to be able to grind down the field, but that took more time than expected. All my blocks didn't do anything better than a single Stunned result.
Meanwhile, one of his Linos killed my new Beastman. The Chaos gods didn't smile this time. At least my Apothecary succeeded for the first time since I bought him 3 games ago, so the Beastman survived.
I managed to keep his Wardancer at bay, but he and some other elves were slowly coming too close for comfort, Knocking Out one of my Beasts. So I made the tough decision of rolling for a Go For It to be able to score, even though I already burned my Team Re-Roll for the turn earlier.
What happened next is what always seems to happen on such occasions. I fell.
And with his "Too-Close-For-Comfort-Squad" nearby, the classic Wood Elf show immediately started.
Pickup - Dodge - Pass – Handoff, I guess you know the drill. He didn't even need a Re-Roll.
He was at the edge of my Endzone now, well protected even.
Though I knew he would score, and there would be almost nothing I could do against it, I positioned some players for catching and my sweeper tried one last kamikaze Blitz against the ball carrier. Dodge-4: success, Dodge-4: success, Dodge-3: success, Block the ball carrier: POW (double ones on armor though), pick up the ball-3: failure, oh well it was fun while it lasted.
Next turn the elves scored.
The Treeman was up again but hadn't moved an inch by now, and the Wood Elf coach was scratching his head over that investment by that time.
It was the 8th turn, I had the ball, but there was only a last round of minor blocking and blitzing on both sides, since we both knew we wouldn't be able to score.
Against his “stay-away” lineup, I did two Pushbacks and a POW with a double one on armor.
In return he did a KO. Oh, well.
I forgot to try a Pass during that last round, just for the SPPs (must get that into my head), but it wouldn't have changed much considering the score.
The half ended and the weather suddenly changed into a Blizzard. Must have been the Chaos Gods seeing me suffer. I started the second half with 9 (one still KO and the one that was sent off the pitch) and he started with 11 plus one reserve Lineman. At least the Blizzard would hopefully slow his passing game down a bit.
I was kicking this time and after a small riot lasting two turns (comprehensible regarding the Chaos game so far) the ball landed right next to his thrower. So he blocked one of my Beastmen to get through my defense. One Badly Hurt Beastman. It just seemed there was no end to it.
I managed to cover the hole a bit and due to a secondary pushback on my part his ball-carrying Wardancer was now 10 instead of 9 squares away from my Endzone. Not enough, but better than nothing. He was leaping (of course) and had to try Go For It twice. His second roll was a 2 with no Re-Roll left. Thanks to the Blizzard he fell. Let’s talk about poetic justice.
The ball went out of bounds and finally landed in the middle of my half.
I made a mistake and forgot to announce a Hand-Off with my Beastman that was picking up the ball, so I had to protect him for another round and endure some pounding. Another one in my KO-Box.
The only good opportunity to break through his line was really close to his Treeman, that I had avoided the whole match, but I had to take the risk, because I slowly started to run out of time. So I designated some poor single Warrior to keep the Tree busy, while the rest of the decimated pack managed to break through with some Pushbacks.
During his turn I lost the ball due to a Blitz into my “cagelet”. His majority in numbers and high speed allowed him assists wherever he wanted by now. But a lucky Warrior stood where the ball scattered to so I was still good to go. Some more squares down the pitch for me.
The Warrior left with the Treeman was Badly Hurt next.
I just couldn’t believe it, the Elf coach already had 3 CAS and I had none. It just seemed like that armor of 7 had some weird magical protection. One guy who was watching the game was already shaking his head over all my double-one-armor-rolls...
Along came his damn Wardancer again. He Blitzed me even though he had less effective Strength than me. Two Pushbacks. That was all he needed for stripping the ball.
The ball then fell into a square surrounded by 3 of my players. He then tried to dodge into that square. Encouraged by their good rolls, those arrogant Elves apparently thought they can do anything they want. But even with burning his last Re-Roll, that was just too much. He fell.
Strangely enough, that was when it all changed.
The elf that fell was seriously injured and will miss his next game.
The ball scattered to my Warrior again.
I did some blocking. Another Elf that misses his next game, and a CAS for me.
His Wardancer tried to a Leap to intercept my ball-carrier. He fell and was Badly Hurt.
I did some more blocking. Another Elf that misses his next game. Another CAS for me.
In turn 8 all I had to do was one blitz and one dodge to get the ball home. I had to burn my last Re-Roll, but I managed to tie the game.
Even though he scored one more CAS than me, he now has 3 misses, while I have none.

Final Result: 1:1

Sooooo... after all it wasn’t as bad as I thought.
Hm, this post turned out to be longer than intended. Sorry about that.

[Alesdair]

*laughs*

Well done.

It sounds as you played to the limit of your dice, with only one tactial error that probably didn't matter in the long run.


Excellent, I've never seen anyone keep an equal TR woodelves down to just one TD.