My first games suffer from a lot of turnovers

[sean newboy]

Half and Half, some should be on the line to enable(hopefully) the nonblockers to get 2die blocks, the rest should be in positions to move freely.

[Ghost of Pariah]

Galak wrote:

(the more BB I see played by the best coaches, the less and less I see a cage used).

Thanks!
My league hasn't seen a full on cage in a long time. It was kinda funny when we started searching the net for Blood Bowl stuff and found the cage all over the place. (We called it the box in those days) We were laughing our arrogant little socks off!
But if you are playing a rookie and you are a rookie yourself you can't go wrong with the cage but heed my advice! Don't get complacent because it won't take that long for your opponents to shut it down.

[Pedait]

So if you don't use a cage, how do you protect your bal carrier?

[sean newboy]

a Loose Cage or Net. Have the ball carriers tz empty and put the 4 guards just outside it. They can blitz a hole and only put a tz on the ball carrier or they can try to dodge in for the blitz either way its chancy.

[Thadrin]

Cages can only move as fast as the slowest player in them. ANy sensible team will try and sit in front of it and allow it one square of progress per turn with a single Block per turn, and that probably unfavourable.

The Cage provides a good formation to START a play, but as a play in itself it is fundamentally flawed.

On the same note though: remember that the sideline can really be your friend...if you're careful.

[Pedait]

But I thought the tactics of strenght teams like orcs, dwarf etc. consisted of just forming the cage and then rolling downfield to score a touchdown. But if you say this would be impossible when playing against a defence that's always one square ahead, how do you score with these strength teams? Do you try to just stun the whole defense, or make a pass out the cage...?

[sean newboy]

Start a play with the cage, then open it up once the enemy has concentrated itself

[Pedait]

I have also noticed that there are mainly two possibilities for your LoS:

1) . X . X . X .
2) . . X X X . .

(. empty squre
X player)

When should I use the first option, and when the second?

[Marcus]

Best habit you can get into early in your career is figuring out what the opponent will do in their turn. Have a look at what players the opponent has free, figure out how they'd get to your ball carrier and whether or not they'd get a blitz on him. Then position players so that you have enough players in the way forming a net of tackle zones such that your opponent would have to roll obscene dodges to get through.

Then, of course, you have to get into the habit of doing all of this in your head before moving your ball carrier.

Marcus

[sean newboy]

Whether to use 1 or 2 depends on your team. If u have guard use 2, if not use 1, because without guard your going to have 2 die blocks against u. Im assuming u meant in defense.

[Beeble]

If you wanna play, you can always come to the Lonely Mountain in Gent.
I also think you concentrate to much on the ball. If you're playing Orcs all you have to do is smash the opposition in the ground and then keep your ball-carrier inside a small cage. You just have to mop up the field.
Good tactics with orcs are, assuming you begin:
-Score in the last turn of the first half
-Force him to score in two turns in the second half
-Win By scoring in the last turn of the second half

If you can steal the ball from him in the second half, also try to score in the last turn.
Most important thing: Keep crushing his players and kick till he has no-one left on the field.

Later

[Anthony_TBBF]

2 can play that game. When a strong team tries to run out the clock on me I single out good players and beat on them, then foul them repeatedly with my cheap linemen. Usually it scares the opposing coach into scoring

[Pedait]

Thanks for te advice. I have played a couple of games now, and it seems like it's easier to win with the humans, then with the orcs. I played humans, and i tried to sneak one or two receivers through the defense, together with one or two guards, and I easily scored. But my opponent playing orcs had a lot of difficulties scoring, as he formed the cage, but i just stayed 1 square before him with about 6 players, and he had a lot of difficulty to break through, so he was forced to pass, and lost the ball. Even with 7 humans against 11 orcs I could keep him from scoring!

Whether to use 1 or 2 depends on your team. If u have guard use 2, if not use 1, because without guard your going to have 2 die blocks against u. Im assuming u meant in defense.

So how about offense?

Beeble: "If you wanna play, you can always come to the Lonely Mountain in Gent"

Hoe wist je dat ik van Gent kom? Ik ben al enkele malen in de Lonely Mountain geweest, maar heb daar nog niemand zien spelen. Wanneer spelen jullie, en is er ook een league of zo?

[sean newboy]

On offense it depends on what he does.

[Pantera]

One common tactic I try to use as Skaven (if the opponent don't have a lot of players with Frenzy) is to blitz through on the side, then run up with a Gutter Runner but not to far. If the blitz when well, fill up with Storm Vermin to protect him. Like this:

Code: Select all

   X
  G
   X
^- sideline

I also keep the ball deep on my side of the field. If the opponent goes for defending against the sideline, I could try to break open on the other side. But I never pass the ball early. As a Skaven, I often pick up the ball with one GR that I position deep near my EZ, then I have a Thrower protected behind the LoS, and if a pass opening is spotted, I run up the GR and handoff the ball to the Thrower, who then can make a pass move as far up as possible and the pass to the forward GR.

But a good defender will always find ways to make it hard. That what makes BB so damn good. Its open for many many different possibilites of play.

And tactics are of course different for different teams. Skaven are fast, so I try to use it for maximum effect.