Wood Elf or Dark Elf

[TuernRedvenom]

Teaching less experienced coaches an easier, but possibly incorrect path simply results in more losses for them. Winning and keeping your team intact are not mutually exclusive if you're agressive in the correct manner. The very concept that a good coach can make you hurt more if you're stalling on offense is simply ludicrous, they can hurt you equally, if not better when they have the ball and you're on defense. It's not like they have magically better players when you're recieving, they have exactly the same potential for damage on both drives, except you're in control of the ball when receiving.

I agree with most you said but most certainly not with this. It's really simple, best way to play vs wood elves is caging up. Even if you move your cage correctly you will have (at least) 3 players that are not hunting down elves: ball carrier and 2 backsides of the cage. 3 out of 11 is more then 25%, HUGE difference. Besides there is a limit as to how much you can hunt as the wood elf coach knows (he can even direct it) where most of your team is going anyway, a cage doesn't have a lot of movement options.
The other guy reacting to you? First few turns (I would kick if given the option) I wouldn't give a damn about your potential to score in 2 turns anyway and would throw everything at destroying your team. If you do this wrong vs woodies you're facing a lot of blocks against you as they move their assists and knock you back on your ass but if you do it right (deny him 2-die blocks by correctly placing of high strength and guard players) the wood elf coach is forced to adapt/react to you.
The reason why this works for you is because you are a very good coach. You need to be good to chainpush opposing players with frenzy so you can foul them with lots of assists. Most coaches cannot pull this off and will fail miserably if they try this.
Just because one starts the traditional way with wood elves doesn't mean you can't adapt later once you know how to move assists effectively.

edit: not saying that you should always go for the easy 2-turn score, I am saying that a beginner trying to play bashy with wood elves is asking for trouble. As soon as things get hairy you should score.

[Duke Jan]

I agree with Fen also, I'm one of those players that struggles when the Wood Elves don't score in 2 or 3 turns but take a lot longer (I usually play dwarves). Last match against Duke Jan I made the mistake of not going after his ball carrier immediately to make him score fast so I was having a problem with having enough turns to score.

You mean the one where I took the ball after succesfully hunting your ST4 runner off the pitch and then took 4 turns to pick up the ball to score?

[Pregal]

Uhuh, that one yeah. I never knew armour 7 was so hard to beat with 5 MB dwarves. My dwarves excel at not breaking armour anyway

[fen]

I agree with most you said but most certainly not with this. It's really simple, best way to play vs wood elves is caging up. Even if you move your cage correctly you will have (at least) 3 players that are not hunting down elves: ball carrier and 2 backsides of the cage. 3 out of 11 is more then 25%, HUGE difference.

If the coach is really good, those 3 players are at least partially involved in assisting fouls/Blitzes. I've even seen the Ball Carrier used offensively on attacking drives, so while I'll conceed you have a strong point here, it's not always the case.

And second, unless the opposing coach is willing to conceed the TD on your drives (which makes stalling even easier as when you do move to score, the player is unopposed) then they need to keep a couple of players back field. And your players don't have to move that deep into their half to threaten TDs, 3 Squares is enough if you esablish a strong beachhead. Also as part of this, they need to peel off at least one player to put some form of pressure on your scoring.

Still, if the opposing coach is really dedicated to destroying your team, there's not a lot you can do except roll +AVs or try to destroy them first.

[Cramy]

I agree with both fen and Tuern

What fen is suggesting will work very well, but only if the coach knows what he is doing and doesn't screw-it up. Do this wrong, and the poor elves end-up face to face with a bunch of very angry Dwarves or Orcs.

For somebody who has never played agility teams, I would propose to concentrate on what Tuern is suggesting first. Score fast, use your mobility to stay out of harms way. Once you get the hang of that, then you can figure-out how to time and execute the attack style that fen is suggesting.

Note that this attack style is also very achievable with Dark Elves. I tend to give them more dodge than block. This increases their mobility, and not that many teams will get lots of tackle early on (Dwarves excluded obviously). Then the attack style that fen is suggesting becomes much easier. Move your dodge linos into assist positions, then chain-push and foul. Once you have done that, move your other dodge players out of harms way. It's working great for me.

[dwarfrunner]

With everything thats been said, I feel Fen is the most accurate to my way of thinking. Just because you CAN score in one or two turns, doesnt mean you have too. The threat of it is just as annoying to opposing coaches. If the drive is turning away from your favor or control, you score and start again.

With Woodies, you will always have the fear of every block resulting in an injury, because of the low AV. But as mentioned before, you use what you have to your advantage (which is speed), and spread out the team. If they follow, you can work around them and hit the ball carrier or pick them off one at a time. If they stay in their cage and dont chase, just stall them as long as possible, but always stay one square away so they can really only blitz once a turn.

Then games I am really looking forward too are against Dark Elves, simply because I know the other coach, and he is good too. That game with be a high scoring slug fest, knowing how we play each other.

I think I will go with the Woodies, simply because of what was said before about they are totally opposite of how I have been playing lately. And practicing new tactics will always help you play better, both for and against. The Darkies would be fun too, but there are now two, possibly three, other teams of them now, and I hate it when there are too many of one team, it just feels like you playing the same game over and over again.