LRB5 Chaos Team - Tactics?

[ClayInfinity]

Hi all,

Am getting a new Chaos team painted and am thinking of using them in a league (12 games plus finals).

The league is in its 2nd season and I have been playing Elves, but I might try something different!

So, there is scope to develop this team for 2-3 seasons (before I get bored again!).

So with that in mind... starting rosters are one thing, but are there any good LRB5 tactic articles out there?

I know Chaos struggle early, and I will be prepared for that, but any advice in general play / tactics / set ups.

Also, the access to Mutations is new to me... I presume Claws and the such are still the way to go?

C

[datalorex]

Don't take a minotaur until the team is well established. RRs are very important will virutually no skills. Block is imperative with this team, much more than with Nurgle. Do an equal amount of MB and Claw. I rotate MB and Claw as the 2nd skill on my CW. Block first on each CW. Then one gets MB, the next gets Claw, the next MB, and the fourth get Claw. BM rotate between Block and Guard as a first skill, then followed by Tackle and more guard and block. Groom 2 or 3 BM to be ball carriers by giving them Block, SH, and xtra arms.

[Marlow]

Mighty Blow and Claws makes for a good killing machine. Do people use any other mutations later on?

I was thinking a Minotour with Tentacles could be interesting.

[bouf]

One trick is to remember that your CWarriors are AG3. They may be slow but they make awesome Ball carriers. Dodge, NoS, Jump Up, even Leap are all good CW skills when you get doubles.

Making every one into a Meat Grinder is a bit of a One Dimentional Trap that can keep this team from winning. Sure you want Block on everyone, but You don't NEED more than one killer... It may work occasionally but it's a bad tactic to relly on Casualty Rolls coming up good. A clever coach will run away and leave you with one blitz only ( A tactic I used with my Amazons to Gruesome effect) so you only need one or two Killers for that Blitz.

Get one Guy (and at least One Beastman) with
Block, Mighty Blow, Pile On, Claw, Tackle (In a dodge heave league take tackle early)

Get two CWs with
Block, Guard, Mighty Blow, Grab, Tentacles

And Get one CW with
Block, Frenzy, Two Heads, Juggernaught, Break Tackle,

This guy last can drive his way through most lines with ease... Then he is a hand off/catching threat. At worst he can cause heaps of mayhem by disrupting your opponents defence plans. When defending, he is great for cage breaking and threatening throwers as you penatrate the line.

With beasts you want at least one
Block, Mighty Blow, Pile On, Claw, Tackle

I'd get two
Wrestle, Frenzy, Strip Ball, Juggernaught, Tackle
(Great for disrupting plays on the Blitz - In a high AG leage, take Tackle earlier)

Make a bunch of Guard/Pre-Tail guys to act as "linemen"

When you get a doubles beast give him Hail Marry... after that take Sure hands, Strong Arm etc... and he will be your thrower.
here is the theory:

Pick up the ball and stand in the back feild, close to your EZ.
Now get a Player or Three into a his side of the pitch (better if one or two of these are CWs)

Now... Your opponent has FOUR things to worry about.
1) Your lone thrower needs to be taken out if he wants the drive to end. (Or he could let you score) so he sends a player or two into your half with the idea of a Blitz
2) You have a couple of players you could pass to (Or chain hand off) so he'll need to commit a player each to stopping each of them. (If one was a CW... He may have to comit two or three guys to covering him!)
3) You could Hail Mary to the other end of the pitch... So he has to keep a player or two ready for the ball to end up lose near his endzone...
and best of all
4) You have Bug guys on the line that are causing Havoc! With his defence split all over the shop, covring everyman and his dog, your CWs on teh line can get some easy 2 dice hits. He cant commit enough players to holding teh line AND cover all the other guys...

Hail Mary pass isn't about catching the ball. If you do, well great! Its about forcing your opponent out of position, or its about capitalising on those times when you get him out of position... I always try to build a screen in his end and throw the ball behind it. Like building a good cage and then throwing the ball into it!

The best piece of advice i can hand off is to ignore your Minotaur. It's VVEERRYY temping to Blitz with him but DON'T EVER! You should have lots of High ST and Guard so You don't need to do it with an AV8 Loner who doesn't have block! Give him Guard, Stand Firm and Tentacles (all passive skills) and only 'Frenzy Block' or 'move' him into Painfull tentacle places. (If he fails his WA roll... No biggie, he still has a TZ and with Tents he corks up 9 squares) I'd play him wide on the LoS. It makes your opponent want to go for the other Wide zone for fear of getting caught in the tents and its a good place if you fail a WA roll... well better than in the middle with all the BoBs and Trolls...

The Minotaur is no better than a Troll on the pitch and both their rolls on an already High Strength team is as the token But Plug!

[sangraal]

Given my record with them at Mountain Bowl, I dont think I am the best person to give advice

Score with the CWs in the early games is all I can say - its what I should have done.

sangraal

[TuernRedvenom]

My "strategy" for building a chaos team is making the chaos warriors support players, this means block and guard first. With their str 4 and decent movement once they get guard they are the ones making your blocking game work. Destructive skills on the CW early on is sub-optimal IMO as you don't want these guys to go prone with piling on. Beastmen are way better for this once they have chaos warrior support.
Also tentacles is not worthwhile on CW, unless they have a +STR. Remember in LRB 5 the dodger gets a +1 modifier for the tentacles roll. Go for Prehensile Tail instead.

Build 2 Beastmen as high AV killers: Block, Mighty Blow, Claw, Pile On.

1-2 beastmen become catcher-killers: Block, Tackle, Mighty Blow, Piling On

The rest gets a spread of Block, Guard and Tackle.

The mino, only buy it once your chaos warrior have some skills to protect it. I usually go: Claw, Tentacles, Stand Firm. Once he has claw he'll be raking in the spp's and tentacles ensures you don't have to blitz with it (the rest of your team is better and more reliable at blitzing). Just make sure you keep himnear those Guarders as AV 8 is pretty crappy.

[cyagen]

I'm still a fan of giving sure hands to the first Beastman that skills up. It allows you to pick up the ball with a free reroll. Just be carefull not to let him hog all SPP and as said earlier, remember that CW have 3 AG!

After that, Block, block and block again, then guard.

I'm playing in a LRB 4 league with Chaos and my main TD scorers are CW.

Minos are an option only when you have your 4 CW and are mainly there to distract your opponents from the real threats, CWs.

[stormmaster1]

guard is a must (before block smetimes if you have spare rerolls for 1/9 blocks) My Chaos suffered early on v bashers with too much block and not enough guard. A few players with killing skills/combos mentioned above really helps thin out your opponents team, making it easier for the rest of your side.

My own advice is don't get too attached to beastmen, they tend to die. Secondly don't cage all the time. caging is slow. If you want a slow caging side you've picked the wrong team. Chaos are mostly MA6, AG3. with some MA5. so get 1 or 2 players into your opponents half (even just unskilled beastmen) to threaten the score while you bash away.

[fen]

I do the same thing with Chaos as I do with Nurgle.

Block, Guard as much as possible on all the team, then diversify into Tackle, MB and Stand Firm

Chaos Warriors all go Block + Guard first

Build 2 MB+PO killer Beastmen
Block, MB, Claw, PO, Juggernaut on one
Block, Tackle, MB, PO, Claw on the other
These two guys will skill up fast, but will also draw a lot of incoming fire, so it's often worth having a third one you're "grooming" to fill a dead player's hooves.

Build 2 Ball carriers - with a mixed order of development to provide divesity.
1. Extra Arms, Block, Sure Hands
2. Sure Hands, Block, Extra Arms
Beyond that I like fend and two heads. But it's much better to roll +AG.

The line all go Block + Guard and then mix it up with tackle, stand firm and prehensile tail.

The only difference is in the Minotaur.
I take Claw, Juggernaut and then whatever (I've never had a minotaur survive longer than 2 skills - but it would probably be PO)

I never bother planning past 3 skills, Chaos has too high a turnover of players to worry about it. Plus once you're past 3 skills you have a pretty accurate idea as to what each players role is.

Don't get hung up on scoring too much with the Chaos Warriors, once they reach 16 SPPs you can stop doing it with them and let them get on with the job of supporting your beastmen and keeping them alive.

[Meradanis]

Since the same old "kill'em all" Chaos style is somehow boring, I tried something new last time:

Wait for a double on the first skill roll of one of your Beastmen, and take Accurate. Your normal skills rolls should be Strong Arm and Sure Hands, with Pass on another double.

Develop 2 Catcher Beastmen, with Extra Arms, Block and Two Heads, Dodge on a double.

Now you can still play the bashing game with your Chaos Warriors, and suprise your opponent with some stunning Passes.

[DoubleSkulls]

I would have thought that Chaos would probably prefer Pass over accurate. Rerolls are expensive, and leader equally inaccessible. No catch skill either - so rerolls might be needed for that.

An unskilled a short pass & catch has a 33% chance of success.

Pass puts that up to 50% success, but accurate 44%. With the thrower (obviously) taking strong arm next pushing up to 59% - whilst accurate & strong arm is still trailing at 55%.

Sure with the TRR accurate is better, but I would have thought Chaos wouldn't be contenders to have too many.

[Duke Jan]

I wouldn't take leap on a CW but on a BM. I would definately take i though. I prefer a mixed chaos team, but beware that somewhere in the 120-150 TV range they do need block/guard, more than I gave them at least. So my advise is to go traditional up until TV130-140 and then start dealing out the fun stuff like Claw/MB/PO and the weaker, but o so useful skills Leap/VeryLongLegs, pass block/disturbing presence, PrehensileTail/Tackle/Shadowing etc