High Elves - containment of 'Big Guys'

bradw71 · Post by **bradw71** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 2:06 am

I was wondering if anyone could assist me with some tactical advice here...

I am playing High Elves in a tournament. I am thoroughly enjoying it, but I guess my BloodBowl games could be counted on 2 hands, and hence I am not exactly a guru

One thing I am struggling with is the containment of opposition 'Big Guys'. I must at this point say I don't understand why High Elves and Dark Elves don't have access to any, but that is not the point.

What is the point, is how can you contain them? Obviously you can stay away from them by dodging away etc. but is there anything else? For example, the teams I play are:

Khemri (damn, 4 mummies!)
Skaven (not a hitting team, except for that damned Rat Ogre!)
Necromantic (Flesh Golems)
Chaos (Ogres etc.)
Amazons (in the same boat as me!)
Orcs (Ogres etc.)
Chaos Dwarves (Bull Centaurs, Minotaurs etc.)

I know Bull Centaurs and Mummies are not strictly 'Big Guys', but you get the idea.

Any suggestions as to minimisation of their impact would be greatly appreciated. Has anyone had any success trying to outnumber and down them early (in particular the wild animals), or should I simply accept the fact that they will probably blitz or block a player every turn and I will lose players hand over fist?

Thanks,
Brad.

DaFoola · Post by **DaFoola** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 3:35 am

Part of the trick to reducing the effectiveness of opponents' big guys is the tried and true elf tactic of dodging away from them. Prehensile Tail can be a real pain in the arse, but if you keep away from some of the big guys (ogres and trolls in particular), you can limit your opponent to having to decide whether or not he really needs to make that blitz with his big man.

Another thing: if you can line up enough players on a Wild Animal, you can often force him to make ill-advised blocks and cause his team a turnover. Then, when your turn comes around, you already have a crowd of players around the Wild Animal you're about to foul.

At least, those are a couple of suggestions. In summary, stay away, and try to use the fact that Wild Animals have to go first, and have to block.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 8:12 am

Team development is also important - on doubles make sure you get Guards plus one or two Dauntless. This allows you to attack big guys more effectively.

Defensively Block & Dodge help protect you from the worst excesses (Piling On mummies for instance)

In game play either stay away from them or mark them with an expendable line elf to drag them away from the action (preferably one who is a bit harder to take down i.e. dodge/block.

Ian

bradw71 · Post by **bradw71** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 9:28 am

Now there's something I found worked OK, 'tagging' them with an expendable (and I guess later on, hard to take down...) line elf. Only problem is of course, that expendable elf only takes 1 or 2 turns to be stunned or taken out, and can no longer 'tag' after that...

And the good old "dodge and stay away tactic" has proven the basis of my defensive techniques

And I did try the 'surround the rat ogre' in the last game. It worked quite well, and I got him down, but when I fouled I didn't get through the armour (despite having 4 elves around). Guess you can't account for bad luck eh?

Anyway, thanks for your comments guys, much appreciated.

Korhil · Post by **Korhil** » Mon Oct 21, 2002 10:42 am

Big Guys arent 'game breakers'

High Elves and Dark Elves dont need them... and Woodies dont get one for many many games anyway.

If you arent standing next to hit it cant hurt you. The will have to use their BlitZ on the ball carrier and since more Big Guys are LOS players they wont be in position to BlitZ with them.

The Rat Ogre and Minotaur are both totally crap, and just read up on how to exploit a Wild Animal if you really want to... Id be supprised if anyone actually uses either of them.

If you were really that worried about Big Guys... why did you choose to play Elves?!?