Talk Fantasy Football

I just started a dwarf team on FUMBBL (http://fumbbl.com/teams/Dwarf+Tossing.html) , and i have a serious problem scoring. My cages just get shattered in like 4 turns, and once it is broken, my opponent scores, because all my dwarves are on the ground, leaving them only 1 square of movement, which gets easily beaten.

Whenever i build up a cage, usually with a runner surrounded by blitzers/longbeards/my troll slayer. My opponents just knock down my whole cage. on my turn, i only get one blitz, so i can only hit one person, while there are about 9 surrounding my cage. Because of this, i can never get my cage to advance. If i move my runner ahead, he just gets slaughtered (one of them died in the first game).

So does anyone have any tips for scoring with dwarves, and not getting my cage bashed apart and my runner killed?

First things first, they shouldn't be able to knock down your whole cage in one go. You should just be leaving them the one blitz, just as they are doing to you. That way they'll either have to stand them back where you can take them 1 by 1 (knocked down or, preferably, frenzied off the pitch) or move all his players into contact looking for assists for blocks against your cage.

Guard is really, really useful in both these situations. You do have lots of guard don't you?

It is a really new team. I remember approving it just yesterday or the day before (which on FUMBBL means only 30 or 40 games by now ).

Another thing to try is to make an additional "partial cage" a short distance away. Keep a few longbeards around the cage itself. They serve as both a screen (keeping people away from your cage corners and negating any assists) and if your cage crumbles, then you can simply run the ballcarrier over a few spaces (and hopefully a few forward!) into a new one.

Check through some replays to find well-executed cages. Dwarf and Orc matches will probably be your best bets - Undead/Necro/Chaos are significantly faster than your dwarves and Khemri have 4 mummies... both alter the strategies a bit.

If you get the whole cage blown up repeatedly, you probably just need some more games to get a bit more experience with blocking.

Dwarves are really among the more difficult teams to play properly. Try playing humans and undead for a while, and return to the dwarves later on!

sorry if i sound rude or anything (but it actually happened to me in some games): are you sure you always rise your prone players on their feet after they've been knocked over ?

Zyad - How many games experience overall do you have?

I watched the replay of your Orc game game and you made a couple of mistakes that make me believe that you may be new to the game. The reason your runner was killed is because you left him on the sideline. That is a big NO NO. Instead of committing all of your players to the line of scrimmage to outblock your opponent, you need to leave some guys back to protect the ball carrier. I wouldn't even send a blitzer out for a potential pass, keep him back where he'll be abe to assist the runner or maybe a Troll Slayer. Speaking of the Slayer, blocking with him first against a Troll with no assists probabaly isn't the best idea. My advice to you would be to make sure you complete all the easy moves first. Stand up players, and move players up for assists before you start blocking, or picking up the ball. Low risk maneuvers need to be done first.

And on defense, don't stack the wall with players. Give him 3 players to block and that's it.(unless you're playing an elf team) It's easier to set a nice defensive start when all of your slow players aren't tied up in tackle zones. You'll get your blocks, don't rush it.

Try watching this game. Not the greatest Dwarf coach, but he's not bad.
http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=match ... &id=361888

remember one thing too - your cage players should block back anyone standing next to them at the next turn. Use as assists your players not directly involved in forming the cage.

In this way, you will rip apart your opponent.

And remember to replace / stand-up all cage members knocked off / down!

All good advice...

Remember to "roll" the cage forward. The ones assisting blocking and blitzing form the new cage etc. Move players from behind each time to create the new cage.

A word of warning on "impacted" cages. These are cages which are in the tackle zone of the opponent. This is not good. Ideally at the end of each turn you want your cage to be free of opposing Tackle zones - and free from potential tackle zones (prone players)

Otherwise the cage is blocked and the ball carrier sacked...

A final note - don't over-do the cage. too many in the cage is bad! Your ball carrier can get shunted into a vulnerable position (as happened to my chaos last week! Ball carrying beastmen shunted 4 squares!!!



You need patience to play dwarfs I'm afraid!

At the end of the day, remember that your goal isn't to form the cage and move it forward - that's just a means to an end.

All the cage is is a common way of preventing a blitz on your ball carrier. Don't get locked in to trying to form a cage, try to set up a drive where they are unable to blitz your ball carrier.

Kamikaze Rudy wrote:
Try watching this game. Not the greatest Dwarf coach, but he's not bad.
http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=match ... &id=361888

when i click replay, it says "Java Loading" then comes up woth an error box saying "failed to launch the specified application" it does this with all replays... anyone know whats wrong?

Zyad wrote:when i click replay, it says "Java Loading" then comes up woth an error box saying "failed to launch the specified application" it does this with all replays... anyone know whats wrong?

That's an issue with Java Web Start. Do a search on the FUMBBL forums if you want more issues. I think there's even a sticky somewhere with easy steps to follow.

Well, i just finished a game against another dwarf team. the first half went well. he recieved the kickoff, and i kept him from scoring the whole half, but when i recieved the kickoff, my cage was broken and he scored, winning 1-0 (i have yet to score a touchdown in 5 games). MY next game against a necro team was a total massacre. He got rsc for one of his werewolves on the handicap roll and ended up slaughtering my team. He got 6 casualties to my 0, killing one of my troll slayers, and giving a blitzer a niggling injury. Only one of my guys has gotten a new skill the whole time, because he got the mvp, so i have only one guy with guard. MY opponents keep getting 2 dice blocks on me, and i can barely get even, one dice, blocks.... i have managed a meager two casualties in 5 games, and have barely even gotten the ball into my opponenent half of th field before getting destroyed.

My biggest problem is, no matter where i position my guys, someone can always get to my ball carrier, and always knocks him down. I have guys all around him, but they all get knocked down by blitzes/blocks, leaving no one around my ball carrier, making him a sitting duck.

I try to only let them get one blitz and no blocks, but they just move their guys right next to my cage, so i can not get rid of them, and can not advance the ball at all. 2 turns from its formation, my cage is in shambles, a bunce of my guys are KO'ed and Hurt, and im already losing...


EDIT: I just played a game vs a skaven team, and, despite losing 5-1, i mamaged to sucessfully advance a cage down the field, and score in the second half, from one lucky dodge roll and 2 GFI's, but i still have trouble moving the cage. the last turn before my TD, the only protection my runner had was one blitzer. When my runner moves forward, i cannot move the blockers anywhere, as they have all just made blocks, and cannot move anymore, so then my runner is out in the open when my turn ends, just asking to be killed. How do i make it so i can move the cage without giving up ground to the defenders?Should i follow up the blocks, or should i just have the blockers stay put, so they cannot be hit next turn?

Ok, I tried watching a replay of your matches, and started with the necromantic game. After the first couple of turns there were a few things i noticed.

1) You got some very bad luck on injury rolls, and the claw/rsc combo is not a nice combo. 2 BH longbeards after turn 1 is not normal.

2) Dwarves do not have the agility or skills to play a passing game, you passed the ball twice in what i watched. I would try to minimise all ball handling dice rolls with dwarves, probably trying to score with the runner who picks up the ball.

3) You cannot afford to weight your kickoff setup to one side of the field, if you get a bad kick, like you did in the first turn you will get caught out.

4) The ball is the most important thing on the pitch, and dwarves do not have the agility or speed to get to it if they are marked. A few times i felt you could have moved unmarked men towards the ball to help secure it, instead of moving next to the closest opponent.

5) Do not put the ball carrier next to an opponent unless you absolutely have to. In this case you could have even blocked the man next to the ball carrier, but chose to block another player instead.

6) The Slayer died from a failed dodge, not from anything the opponent did. Dwarves do not dodge unless it is the only option, and never early in the turn. They will fail, and will only help the opponent by putting one of your tough dwarves on the deck.

This is from somebody who has never played dwarves, but has played some very exciting matches against them, so take the advice with a grain of salt.

that's pretty sound advice I think

I've played about 15 matches with dwarves now, and still do not manage to move the cage effectively.

The most important thing I allways do when setting up for recieving is keeping about 4 guys back, so I can form a defence around the runner that picks up the ball..

the rest will pound the LOS into the turf and next turn I'll try to make a cage.

after that .. take your time, but not too much of it ..

Well, i played one more game with them and i won, although it was against a badly beaten up halfling team, and there was almost no way for me to lose. I never have luck with injury rolls though... i didnt get a single casualty the entire match, and it was against av6 stunty halflings...

regardless of that, i now have a ma7 runner, a blitzer with stand firm, and a longbeard with guard and mighty blow (he has gotten 4 of the 7 mvp's so far...) and i had the chance to purchase 2 more longbeards, bringing my roster up to 14 players. disregarding any deaths, i plan to buy a re roll next.

i have one blitzer with a niggling injury, and no SPP's, should i just retire him for a coach, or keep him on the bench, as i dont want him taking SPP's away from the other players who will be able to attend every game