What do you do when you run out of line fodder?

[sunnyside]

I suppose I should be more specific. This isn't about when you're down to seven players and need to set up for defense.

What I mean is that while most teams start out with plenty of mooks for the line, once you have an advanced team you'll have bought the positionals and a couple lineman should have gotten doubles or a good stat increase, making them act more like positionals except that they're harder to replace.

Some races don't have a problem with this. And obviously it's simple enough to bench a thrower type that's only really useful on offense despite being expensive. But for those teams that still have more than eight players they want to field but not on the line, what do people do about it? Start putting positionals on the line? Start benching otherwise potent players?

[Smeborg]

Start putting positionals on the line? Start benching otherwise potent players?

These are the only options you have. Which you choose will depend on the state of the match (how long left in the half and game, what the score is, whether you have used the apoth yet, etc.). There is no perfect answer!

[mattgslater]

I actively build my line-fodder. On an elf team, I'm happy to put Dodge/SS guys on the LOS. If they get hurt, I build more. A little less so for other ST3 races, but still the principle remains.

[Grumbledook]

depends on the skills of my players and also of the other team mostly

[Gumbo]

Not much you can do, but put down the players as per the situation. What skills do you have available, and what would your opponent least like to see in your back field.

[Ullis]

I think the main concern is the match at hand and the chances of winning it. If I'm looking at having to stop the defence for the win or looking at 0-3 loss, then that obviously matters too. If I'm looking to win, then putting my Side-stepping Diving Tackling GR out there might make sense as eating actions from the opposing team can be important and the GR is something the opponent can't easily ignore. A blodger ain't easy to bring down, so even against opponents getting three dice against him the GR can easily eat three actions on blocks. That's also why I like putting Big guys on the los as that forces the opponent to put his own heavy hitter out there too instead of somewhere else.

If I'm looking at salvaging what I can from a lost game, then it's obviously just the least expensive players or players least likely to die.

[Isiha]

Hire more fodder (sorry couldn't help self)

[Digger Goreman]

That's also why I like putting Big guys on the los as that forces the opponent to put his own heavy hitter out there too instead of somewhere else.

Against my Necros, that's a dangerous proposition.... Now, admittedly, I don't have true "Big Guys", and that's what's turned me on to "giving you some zombies to play with".... They're cheap and will just get back up (to tie you up) until you manage to clear the pitch of them (they're surprisingly resilient)... while my Flesh Golems reek/reak havoc....

Nothing like tying up a 100k+ piece with a 40k zed....

[Ullis]

Against my Necros, that's a dangerous proposition.... Now, admittedly, I don't have true "Big Guys", and that's what's turned me on to "giving you some zombies to play with".... They're cheap and will just get back up (to tie you up) until you manage to clear the pitch of them (they're surprisingly resilient)... while my Flesh Golems reek/reak havoc....

Well, pretty much wherever I put my big guy on defence, a zombie could get his dead hands on him. The center of the pitch is not a bad place for a big guy to be in, even if he's in one or more TZ's. Big guys do tend to get tied up a lot, but that's usually the trick with Big guys, tying opposing players up. Two zombies on an ogre TZ is admittedly less TV than the ogre, but then I'm up 9-10 elsewhere on the pitch.

[sann0638]

reek/reak

Wreak?

[mattgslater]

On defensive turn 1, I don't really mind if my centerfielder gets tied up, especially if he doesn't get blitzed. My opening objective with the big guy is to hold centerfield, and marking him with a Z just ensures that I get a block (or Bonehead failure) with minimal investment.