Advice for team choice in new league

[Catt]

Our league is now being reset for a new season and everyone is going to enter a fresh rookie team and play 6 matches in a round robin format.

I've previously coached Skaven, Dark Elves, Chaos Pact, Khemri and Slann - these are all still going in our perpetual league.

I'm not so concerned about winning but I want to have fun. I really love playing with my Dark Elves and am tempted by another Elf team but to be honest rookie Elf teams are quite stressful to begin with because the consequences of loosing someone is that much worse!

I was thinking about either Necromantic, Chaos Dwarves, Norse or possibly Lizardmen.

However I am currently leaning towards Necromantic because they have some interesting positionals plus expendable lineman and have various tactical options. They also look like they will be OK in a short league like ours? The others I've singled out are largely because no one else has playd them yet. Lizardmen look interesting but potentially quite hard to coach?

Any advice would be good.

[dines]

Necro is a good team, especially after a few skills.

Lizards are good fun, but can be tough depending on the opposition, they are very different from most other teams. I would probably only pick lizards for a bit longer league. Opponents can have difficulty adjusting to so many st4 guys but good coaches tie them up and hunt your skinks.

Norse are great out of the box and can get really nasty with mb+po on a blitzer or ulf. With so few games, attrition and av7 shouldn't hurt too bad.

I don't really have that much experience with c dwarves, considering trying them myself at some point. They seem strong, but ended up being last in our league last time.

[Catt]

Necro is a good team, especially after a few skills.

Lizards are good fun, but can be tough depending on the opposition, they are very different from most other teams. I would probably only pick lizards for a bit longer league. Opponents can have difficulty adjusting to so many st4 guys but good coaches tie them up and hunt your skinks.

Norse are great out of the box and can get really nasty with mb+po on a blitzer or ulf. With so few games, attrition and av7 shouldn't hurt too bad.

I don't really have that much experience with c dwarves, considering trying them myself at some point. They seem strong, but ended up being last in our league last time.

Thanks for the advice.

Yes the league is fairly brief. We were going to go for 6 or 7 games because that's the number of coaches involved and so organising fixtures is easier. We ran two previous leagues and all the teams in those are now in one perpetual league - after this league these teams will then move into the perpetual league. So they will continue to develop in that.

I'm not too concerned about having a slow skilling team but I imagine that Lizardmen, especially Sauruses, skill very slowly. A similar thing I guess applies to Chaos Dwarves - one positional hogging all the SPPs. Norse are appealing for their glass-jaw characteristics.

I think I will probably go with Necromantic because they're quite different to my previous teams and look OK out of the box (bar a lack of re-roll skills and AG) but they seem to develop quite nicely, and Ghouls and Wights give you plenty of ball handler options.

[voyagers_uk]

why not go Goblins for a 6 game season? or Halflings 6 games will not see enough tackle to hurt you greatly..

plus they are great fun to play

[Digger Goreman]

It does depend on your overall objective in a short league....

If you want a challenge, do the Necros.... They really don't get going till around games 6-8 and you'll see what they could be.... 'Course, with luck and coaching acumen, you might do better/best....

If you're just up for winning: skills and stat increases (above the generic 6337 "none") rule in the early going.... Look to your gAg4 and spaminator teams.... Though I don't have enough turf time to analyze them, a past coach insisted that Chaos Dwarves have the best starting skill lineup.... No clue where he's coming from, but the selection looks good....

If it's a throw-away league and you just want fun: stunties or Underworld....

A few thoughts on Necros can be found at my website....

[Spasmbot]

Pro Elves would be great for a short league if you've got your eye on winning. Since you don't need to worry about developing the linesmen you can really spam skills onto your catchers and blitzers. It wouldn't be hard to end up with 4 blodging sidesteppers after a few games, combine this with a naturally good passing game and NOS most teams won't have the skills needed to shut down that kind of offense.

Something similarily boring to aim for if you want to win is Amazons. Norse are also a strong starting team, and won't see the double edge of their AV 7 until many games past that which you'll be playing.

But! Since you said you hadn't played them yet I think you might have a lot of fun with an Orc team. They can start with all their best positionals, are very tough and have a respectable ball carrying game. Not to mention you get an excuse to scream at the top of your lungs whenever you roll the dice! Not to mention they're a pretty good team to boot.

[Catt]

why not go Goblins for a 6 game season? or Halflings 6 games will not see enough tackle to hurt you greatly..

plus they are great fun to play

I had thought about Goblins - they might actually do OK!

[Catt]

It does depend on your overall objective in a short league....

If you want a challenge, do the Necros.... They really don't get going till around games 6-8 and you'll see what they could be.... 'Course, with luck and coaching acumen, you might do better/best....

If you're just up for winning: skills and stat increases (above the generic 6337 "none") rule in the early going.... Look to your gAg4 and spaminator teams.... Though I don't have enough turf time to analyze them, a past coach insisted that Chaos Dwarves have the best starting skill lineup.... No clue where he's coming from, but the selection looks good....

If it's a throw-away league and you just want fun: stunties or Underworld....

A few thoughts on Necros can be found at my website....

Thanks very much - will take a look at your site.

Having run with Dark Elves for a while I know the kind of advantage the AG4 teams will have so they're tempting but I'm not sure.

[Catt]

Pro Elves would be great for a short league if you've got your eye on winning. Since you don't need to worry about developing the linesmen you can really spam skills onto your catchers and blitzers. It wouldn't be hard to end up with 4 blodging sidesteppers after a few games, combine this with a naturally good passing game and NOS most teams won't have the skills needed to shut down that kind of offense.

Something similarily boring to aim for if you want to win is Amazons. Norse are also a strong starting team, and won't see the double edge of their AV 7 until many games past that which you'll be playing.

But! Since you said you hadn't played them yet I think you might have a lot of fun with an Orc team. They can start with all their best positionals, are very tough and have a respectable ball carrying game. Not to mention you get an excuse to scream at the top of your lungs whenever you roll the dice! Not to mention they're a pretty good team to boot.

I know the evil that are the Pro Elves first hand. My Skaven lost to them in the first league final - although it was hard fought. NoS is a hard skill to negate. They would probably be the best team to be for a short league.

Personally I think Amazons are tremendously boring although very effective. I would be tempted if they weren't so uninspired in terms of team design.

The Norse however were at the top of my list for a new team last season. I am very tempted by them...

Orcs are a great team really and the only reason that I've not really considered them is because I just don't like Orcs. I know this sounds really stupid!

[Spasmbot]

The Norse however were at the top of my list for a new team last season. I am very tempted by them...

If Norse were a team you were wanting to play I think you'll get a lot out of them in a short season, as they tend to fall behind in longer leagues. Your catchers start 1 skill away from blodge, and the blitzers are just 2 skills away from being killers your enemies will fear with Jump Up, MBPO, Block and Frenzy to top it all off. I'm not terribly experienced with Norse but I'd imagine in such a short league you might want to skip over the werewolves in favor of more re-rolls, and reserves, an apoth at team conception might not even be a bad idea considering it may take you several matches to buy back a positional that dies.

[boxjuggler]

Well Catt, I’m going with Lizard men so don’t choose them. Kieran’s going with Norse. No idea what everyone else is choosing, but as we know it probably doesn’t matter! Why don’t you go for underworld? You already have the minis for most of the team.

[Catt]

Well Catt, I’m going with Lizard men so don’t choose them. Kieran’s going with Norse. No idea what everyone else is choosing, but as we know it probably doesn’t matter! Why don’t you go for underworld? You already have the minis for most of the team.

Yes, I've gone with Underworld: The Evil Meanies.

Starting line up:

1 Troll
2 Skaven lineman
2 Skaven blitzers
2 Skaven throwers
5 Goblins
Apoth
3 RRs

Should be fun in a short league.