Playing with less than 11--Not as bad as I thought

[maxlongstreet]

I recently started playing blood bowl on FUMBBL, which is a change for me, both in squinting at animated sprites on a screen instead of moving miniatures, and in that I've been playing Dark Elves instead of my beloved Norse.

Now, as everyone knows, the Norse are a bully team--They win by kicking a team and keeping it down. If they get down, however, they're toast. Specifically, if someone starts breaking the AV 7 early and they get down players, they are completely screwed--They tend to get pulverized when they are down players.

With this experience in mind, I probably would have retired my team and tried from scratch after playing my second game with Dark Elves and having three players die. It seemed like an ugly road back with 8 players. However, the coach that killed those players was so obnoxious about it ("MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: TEAM DESTROYED" was his last chat message) that I vowed to perservere.

To add to the masochism, I played Ogres in my first "recovery game". When my only good player, my blitzer with three skills was killed early in the game, I was pretty sure retirement was about to happen...however, the remaining 7 linemen played on and won the game.

In all, I've played four straight games with 9 players or less and won three of them, and I've really enjoyed the challenge. I think it's made me a better elven coach--Having fewer players has made me spread the field more. With fewer players it feels like there's more room on the pitch to make plays. With a full 11 on the pitch, it sometimes felt like my elves were getting in each others way. I now have the full 11 back, and I'm almost disappointed. I'm clear that this is a function of playing elves--An agility 4 team is the only team that really can still compete minus significant players--But I've been very surprised nonetheless at how competitive they are, particularly offensively.

[fen]

However, the coach that killed those players was so obnoxious about it ("MISSION ACCOMPLISHED: TEAM DESTROYED" was his last chat message) that I vowed to perservere.

Good for you, it's people like that which spoil this game for me. Glad he's being proved wrong.

[mattgslater]

It depends on what team you play and which players you're missing. 7 dwarf longbeards are in real trouble, but 7 elves can still win a game unless they have bad luck or get outplayed (and then having 11 guys probably won't save you either).

[Ryan]

I don't play FUMBBL but that guy sounds like a complete A** Hole glad your proving him wrong and you think being players down on a Elf team is bad try it with Halflings (admittly the players were all miss 1 game but thats 8 Halflings gone) and that left me 8 Players to play with and I then went on a winning streek against Dwarfs (Both out Scoring and out casualting him), a Rat team and a Orge Team

[Cramy]

Yep, that's part of the advantage of playing Elves. No matter how many players you have left on the field, you can win.

[el sid]

It is true you still have a chance at playing the ball when you're a few players down with an Elf team. I play(ed) Skaven and a few Gutter Runners left could work miracles!

However, in my opinion and experience you're in big trouble once you start losing numbers against a good opponent.

When your opponent gets a numerical advantage on you, he can start splitting up the pitch, isolating groups or indvidual players from your team. These will face 2 dice blocks his choice all the time resulting in more of your players leaving the pitch on a stretcher.

If all your Elfs carry Dodge, this could help you to escape these snake pits. But any good coach in a league with AG teams will have Tackle high on his priority list.

I would NEVER want to take the field with less than 11 players, even if I would be allowed to.

el sid

[stormmaster1]

pllayers on fumbbl retire teams if they suffer early casualties, as a new team often will be better, even though it often is not that difficult to play and come out good after a few games.