How to beat orcs...

clouds · Post by **clouds** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 3:49 pm

Hey guy's,

I'll be playing against a orc coach tonight with my Dark Elf start up team.
It'll be my second game after one hell of a good first game!

But to be honest, I'm scared shitless that I'll finish the game with only a handfull of player, victim of this orc machine...

He's got 4 black orcs (one of them with block), 4 Blitzers (one with a +str), a troll, a passer, and 3 linemen. More Rerolls, more FF.

It looks like a game where I'll dodge my way out of tackle zones and blitz only once a turn + kick him if hes down, but any other advice?

Here's my team (wanted to try the new assassins so I didnt go for the blitzer's + linemen team)

5 Linemen (One has got DP)
2 Runners
3 Blitzers (one has got +1 Str)
1 Assassin (3 succesfull stab against Skaven in first game

)

Anything to had?
Thanks!

stormmaster1 · Post by **stormmaster1** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 4:33 pm

The threat of your assassin will be more useful than his stab, except versus the orc thrower. keep your players out of trouble and retreat slowly infront of his cage or try to blitz his thrower in the backfield. don't get into a blocking war, but don't be afraid to smack him when you get chance. Use your AG4 to keep out of trouble and also get the assists you need. If you get lucky on armour roll orcs will really struggle. And don't worry about the troll. Trying to take it down is hard for very little reward. Hope that helps.

dwarfrunner · Post by **dwarfrunner** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:58 pm

Yeah, just stall their drive and try and flank their cage, blitzing from different areas will force him to spread out his players more, or move around to try and avoid you. Either way, just use your ag4 to harass him until he leaves an opening for you to hit him.

As for the troll, just avoid them for the most part. Its not worth using a bunch of guys to knock over one player. Leaves less players to defend the rest of the team. Unless he is all alone, and alread has two or three guys around him. Then smack the B@#% and run away.

skatingtortoise · Post by **skatingtortoise** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:47 pm

keep the +St blitzer alive. he will win you matches.

Cramy · Post by **Cramy** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 6:51 pm

I agree. Stay away from the Troll. Force him to move the Troll. He'll have to try to keep a guy next to the Troll to get the 2+ RS roll, which is to your advantage. And any time that the Troll goes stupid, it can create huge gaps for you to run though.

If you have a disposable lineelf (i.e. stats decrease or niggler), you can have him stick around the Troll. This avoids having the Troll end-up in the thick of things as the only action that he'll take is try to hit that elf. A Troll is a pretty good turnover machine, so let the Troll hack-away at that disposable elf and watch the skulls and the failed RS rolls turn-up.

It's too bad you don't have the kick skill yet. It is quite good when you have a fast team playing against a slow team. Kick deep, and then rush the ball carrier before he gets into the cage. Kick is still one of the most undervalued skill IMO.

But even without kick, try to get to the ball carrier before he cages-up. This will give you a chance to steal the ball from him.

Once he has caged-up, slow the cage up and attack the sides or back of the cage. Find the weak spot and attack it, but don't commit too much as you don't want this to turn into a melee, which you will likely lose. And the guys you have in the back of the cage are the ones, if you get the ball, which are ready for the counter attack. So just keeping them there is useful.

You can put TZs on the guys on the back of the cage. This forces him to block you, and the follow-up would cause them to go in the wrong direction. Very annoying for a cage.

Generally, try to force him to roll some dice, as risky as possible, while putting your players at minimal risk. A bad dice roll or a mistake is what you need to get to the ball carrier.

Or slow him down so that he never gets to the EZ can work as well, but I have not had much success doing this.

Be careful with fouling with your elves. If you get a good target with lots of assists, go for it. But don't just foul anybody anytime. AV9 is hard to get through, and you don't want your elves to get thrown out for a missed foul.

The Assassin won't be very useful unfortunately. If you can get a shot at the Thrower, great. But other than that, you don't want him to miss against a BOB or Blitzer and then get wacked by him in the next turn.

Warpstone · Post by **Warpstone** » Thu Nov 30, 2006 9:02 pm

All of the above is solid advice. Aside from sneaking your quickest players into his backfield, try not to attack him too hard when you're on defense and he's already picked up the ball. I struggle with this as I'd like to hit him hard early and launch a counterattack immediately, but I've always had the best results when playing a soft defence that forces the orc offence to make lots of rolls.

Position your linemen one square away in front of the cage and force him to make as many rolls as possible to move the cage each turn. Make him use a blitz on your fodder, while you hold your skilled players ready for counterattacks on the flanks and behind your linemen.

Try to keep up a threat of pressure (i.e. ganging up and and fouling orcs that are spread out and not in the cage, putting TZ's on the back of the cage), without committing your whole team to a concerted attack until something in his cage breaks down. You will probably lose linemen while you pester his cage with only one or two players, but the continuous threat of your counterattacking is basically the only way you can prevent him from stalling and pounding your team into the pitch.

clouds · Post by **clouds** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 2:37 pm

Thanks guy's, it was actually pretty usefull.

As usual, everything didn't go as plan. I think 9 of my 16 turns ended on a missed dodge... I call that the curse of the elves

The troll was no threat, he did nothing to bother me and I even stabbed him and gave him a casualty (stupid regen...)

Still managed to win the game on a long bomb on my 8th turn and I got a +1 AG on the DE Runner so no reason to complain.

Thanks for the help!

Snew · Post by **Snew** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:30 pm

clouds wrote: I think 9 of my 16 turns ended on a missed dodge... I call that the curse of the elves

No. that just happens when you roll dice. The actual curse of the Elves is the fabled 1-reroll-1.

clouds · Post by **clouds** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 3:44 pm

Actually, 3 of my 4 rerolls went for missed dodges that placed me in bad positions and twice I've rerolled 1...you got to love these rolls

besters · Post by **besters** » Fri Dec 01, 2006 9:34 pm

It's why I didn't give any advice, my Orc's dodge better than my Elves, statistically not possible, I know, but it sure seems that way. I lose as Orc's when they get beaten up, Elve's, Amazon's, Skaven, they all seem to be able to do it.

Hope the rest of the league goes well.

Besters