High Elves, preseason conundrum

[mattgslater]

Well, played game two against a different opponent after the Amazons flaked out on me. My opponent was the other serious veteran with Humans, and I must say it went well: I won 5-0, suffered no casualties, and got six ( ) new rolls, for a total of eight improvements. All players under 10 SPP.

Blitzer +ST
Blitzer Side Step
Thrower Leader
Lineman Block
Lineman Side Step
Lineman Kick
Lineman Wrestle or Dodge (?)
Lineman SS, Dodge or Wrestle (?)

I'm going to play another game, and then these guys are done until after the preseason. Who should I try to get SPP mobbed up on?

[Fassbinder75]

Well, played game two against a different opponent after the Amazons flaked out on me. My opponent was the other serious veteran with Humans, and I must say it went well: I won 5-0, suffered no casualties, and got six ( ) new rolls, for a total of eight improvements. All players under 10 SPP.

Blitzer +ST
Blitzer Side Step
Thrower Leader
Lineman Block
Lineman Side Step
Lineman Kick
Lineman Wrestle or Dodge (?)
Lineman SS, Dodge or Wrestle (?)

I'm going to play another game, and then these guys are done until after the preseason. Who should I try to get SPP mobbed up on?

5-0 with no casualties using an unskilled HE team against a "veteran"? I want to play some games against veterans like that If I was him I would have insisted on using the same dice you were!

[mattgslater]

I always insist on using the same dice as my opponent: that was the case this time. He had simply horrid luck blocking and rolling armor (he only skulled out a couple times, but he'd push and push...), and played down men most of the time. It was only 1-0 after Turn 6, but he had 9 guys and no Catchers, and it's hard to fend off 11 elves that way. It probably didn't help that I was 8-for-8 passing.

Man, I'm bummed that this is all happening in the preseason. It makes me worry that all the good luck will be gone in the regular season. So much rests on the margins of performance, and the margins rest on luck. This game wasn't "a couple plays" away from a Human win, but it was a couple plays away from a 3-1 score.

[Aliboon]

God, I hate this. Must every discussion of Side Step and Wide Zones get derailed by some idiotic cross-reference to a lame band named after a football position?

If you stopped using American football terminology all the time it might help.

If I started talking about hookers, props and flankers, I wouldn't expect many people to understand what I'm talking about although they'd have about as much relevance as nicklebacks and corners and probably more opportunity for others to fire back a sarky reply......

If you want replies, draw diagrams. I can't be bothered (and I'm sure most others can't either) to learn a whole new terminology just so I can reply to your posts, sorry...

[mattgslater]

There's just no good way to talk about defense without positional terms; space management is one of the two most important skills in the game (right up there with risk management). Blocking, dodging, modifiers on ball rolls, chain-pushes for movement, blitzes, fouls... all this stuff is keyed off of position, and all position is keyed off of defensive setup (especially in the first two turns, which usually define the drive...). Diagrams are sets of terms that need to be redefined in every post. Uck.

I will make a commitment (and have over the past few days) to avoid American FB terminology unless it's obvious or clearly defined in context. Kosher? I'll stop pushing it. But something's gotta evolve. It could be a hybrid, so whatever your sport you'll know some of it. It could be a unique terminology. But whatever it is, it's gotta be better than "a player set behind the line, between the marks, positioned to absorb inside blitzes on the left-hand side." My posts are too long as-is.

So I get to keep a ST4 Blitzer and basically my choice of two of the following. If I take two and don't take the guy with 4 SPP, the second one either comes instead of a Catcher or is bought with Winnings. Whoever I decide to keep I'll try to score with should I get in a third preseason game against some masochistic opponent.
* Lineman with G or A skill (Kick? Block? Side Step? Dodge? Wrestle?)
* Lineman with G or A skill
* Thrower with Leader
* Blitzer with Side Step
* Lineman with 4 SPP
* Tag the Blitzer to take him off the market, let someone else have their pick of the rest, and play a rookie Chaos team this year.

[Andromidius]

I'd quite like to see you play a rookie Chaos Team, if only to see how well you do. Would be nice to see a blog on them, actually.

But High Elves will probably serve you very well. And the Kick Lineman seems like a solid choice, as Elves make great use of Kickers and Linemen usually skill up very slowly. Being able to land the ball in an ideal position for a steal from game one would be extremely useful.

And a S4 Blitzer? You lucky devil.

~Andromidius

[mattgslater]

And a S4 Blitzer? You lucky devil.

viewtopic.php?t=27287

God, I wish this was the regular season. No matter. Unfortunately, I don't perceive myself to have enough of a handicap in this crowd to do justice to the feeling of a rookie Chaos team. That is, I think I can win with them anyway. Got Dwarfs coming along too (two games, Blitzer with Guard, Blitzer with SF, Slayer with MB, Blocker with Guard, only 1 Runner left ), but I have no intentions of running them.

Way it works, I get 7 "franchise points." I can spend 2 points to protect a player so I can take him at TV add from the outset and nobody else can take him, 2 points to take somebody else's unprotected player, 1 point to "transition" a player so nobody can take him, or 3 points to "franchise" a player at base cost +50k TV. We'll be rebuilding at 1.1M. So if I was going to do Chaos, I'd probably try at least to start with a Block guy and either another one or an XA guy, just to get things started. Then I could transition all my stat increases and let the newbies pick over the rest.

I'd have to get myself a Chaos team, though. Yeah, yeah, WFB conversions are cheap... I know about the BMs, but are the plastic Warriors as good/applicable? The photos on the websites all show big shields and cloaks obscuring their bodies, and I'm hoping those are add-ons (they look like it).

If I do High Elves, they'll be the New Ulthuan Expatriates, with names like Jose Cañusí, Rocky Redglare, Lando DeFreeh, Red Wydenblut, Grant Stume and Lon Maythwaiv. I'm thinking I'll name the ST4 guy "Uncle Slam."