Orc Thrower? Is he really neccessary?

[Uber]

Even if you don't plan on throwing, just having the thrower on the field will most likely cause a diversion. Your opponent will always try to keep that guy in check, which you can use to your advantage.

[joker]

i start with two thrower, they develop very fine, and become key player
AV8 is not a problem

[NightDragon]

Never gone as far as that but I can see why you would do it, especially with dump off.

[Xtreme]

Dump off is the best skill for Orc throwers and really lets them shine. Once you thrower gets his first skill roll and takes it your whole teams charcter changes. It's hard enough to break an orc cahe and tehn you get there only to see the little green bastard toss the ball away.

[bampf]

Lots of compelling arguments against me, but I m still not convinced. The idea of using the Thrower to get the ball to the middle of the field does not sit well with me. That still requires a lot of rolls and throwing to a Blitzer without catch (Pick-up 1/9 chance of fail; short/quick pass 1/9 or 1/4 chance of fail; Catch 1/3 chance to fail forcing blowing a TRR)... to me that s far more dice than I want to roll (especially when they re not Block dice). I d still rather position Blitzers deep enough to field kicks along with enough extra bodies to obstruct fast sack-minded players. In that case I need to make only 1 ball handling roll.

All the examples people gave of instances when a Thrower can come in handy and included numerous agility rolls. All rolls I m loathe to make. The way I see it, minimizing those rolls means minimizing an glaring orc weakness. Less AG rolls means less ball movement and less scoring but also less early in the turn turn-overs and more bashing... and that s what I m looking for in this team... pure thugs.

I know you can develop an orc passing game, but again, you ll never be as good at it as a comparable TR elf or human team and you re only denying yourself valuable bashing skills while trying to fit a square peg into a round hole.

I m much more keen to stay one-dimensional. That may cost me against certain teams or in certain games (ie if I fall behind and need to play catc-up) but again, even in situations where circumstances make a win out of reach, I ll be content to just bash away and make my opponent pay for that win.

[swilhelm73]

You don't *have* to immediately throw the ball forward with an orc thrower.

Orc throwers make fine running backs...who can throw if they have to.

Since they have sure hands, that's going to save you a RR picking up the ball. Sure Hands also makes those cage jumping elf strip ball players less of a threat. Get them block as the first skill and they can play well enough on defense too.

Basically do you want to have to use two of your blitzers for offense? Or do you want to use the throwers for that and allow all 4 blitzers to mostly focusing on hitting and defense?

Further, you can also easily develop a gobbo or two as a catcher. Comes in very handy against other teams that are as strong as orcs, but tend not to have much tackle...like say Chaos...

[bampf]

Orc throwers can definitely make fine runners. And that s exactly why I don t want one. As I mentioned my tactic with this team will be to absolutely minimize ball handling rolls. The easiest way to do that is pick-up with your sure handed Thrower and run down the field with him safely inside a cage of nasty blitzers and black orcs...

Here s the problem with that scenario... the thrower will get the lion s share of SPPs. That s the last thing I want to happen. What I really want is my Blitzers to be the SPP hogs to develop those bashin Strength skills. So I figure I ll use my re-rolls a little more conservatively (so that I can make pick-ups with Blitzers) and let the bashin begin!!

[gken1]

orc throwers are necessary when you need to move the ball down the field in a pinch accurately.

if you always had 3+ turns to score you probably wouldn't need a thrower. but rr's are always valueable and wasting one to pick up the ball in crunch time just ain't worth it. spend the x-tra 20k and get a thrower.

[Rufio of Montrose]

I use TWO. They are a must, specially when you start the team and need to get hold of the ball, sure hands becomes very handy . And you can always gain a +1 AG