First skill, second thrower?

Blackmore · Post by **Blackmore** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 7:09 am

Well, I'm just looking for a bit of the usual advice. I just got my first Star Player roll on my second thrower on a Pro Elf team. My first thrower already has Accurate, which of course is always a good choice and a good standby. But, do I really want to go that route for my second one as well? I was thinking maybe of going with Sure Hands? All the other teams in the league are Strength based teams, Orcs, Necro, Khemri, Chaos.

Thoughts would be appreciated:)

kithor2002 · Post by **kithor2002** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 7:30 am

Sure hands would be a good skill.
But as you have plenty of strengh teams in your league I would also consider block.That would be a little life insurance.

Dropdeadfred · Post by **Dropdeadfred** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 6:43 pm

dodge?

grotuk · Post by **grotuk** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 7:06 pm

Take Block and become him in a defensive thrower...works well

Gus · Post by **Gus** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 7:49 pm

sure hands, dodge, leap, +AG, block, so he can become a very good ball retriever you use on defence.

JJB · Post by **JJB** » Sat Dec 18, 2004 10:35 pm

Gus wrote:sure hands, dodge, leap, +AG, block, so he can become a very good ball retriever you use on defence.

Personally, I like to choose +1ag as the first skill roll.

It all depends on the amount of rerolls that your team has. If you have three or less, I'd strongly recommend sure hands.
4+ rerolls and block or dodge might be good options. If there are many tacklers, take block and your thrower can be a useful defensive player when it's his turn to go into the frying pan when you're starting to run out of players after a good pounding.
If you don't have too many tacklers to face, then dodge could be useful to play the offensive game, i.e. your dodger can be part of all the players who go into the opponent's half to prevent him from taking control of the ball...
Knowing pro elves, I'd rather take block than dodge, but that's really down to my own style of play. But sure hands definitely if I have 3 rerolls or less.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Sun Dec 19, 2004 10:11 pm

I never take Sure Hands on an Elven thrower.

On kick offs you ought to be picking the ball up with another player and making the quick pass to the thrower for the completion SPP. This is how you manage your SPP to maximise usage of MVPs etc and get to skills more easily.

Otherwise you'll rarely find the thrower in an ideal position to pick up the ball and so I'd either ignore Sure Hands altogether (you've got TRR right?) or wait until you've got an AG5 or Leap player to exploit it properly.

Also you generally aren't worried about Strip ball as the thrower shouldn't be exposed too often.

So I'd go for accurate (having 2 offensive throwers is handy when they are Av7 - and I normally don't field them on defence anyway as I'll get 2 line elves to play in their place).

Other than that dodge is handy for getting into tight places or away from cover. Sure Feet can also help to reduce the distance on the throw as well.

Remember if the ball is in TZ you can often push opponents onto the ball to make it come loose.

juck101 · Post by **juck101** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 4:46 pm

ian's got it perfect for me. Never bother with sure hands on a thrower. So many of my old elf teams picked it and never advanced with it. Take accurate and of of a sudden they will make skill 2 pretty quick. Rare if ever is an elf side players up on the pitch, and thus hanging the thrower back of out range is a forced tactic. Just keep them centralised and will be usefull even deep in own half.

- dont forget power of threat of a long bomb, and just throwing short to scrim player and then handing off.

--------
quick edit - what would you rather fail a long throw or a pick up? I know which one costs me more.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 5:18 pm

i know the pick-up with the opponent swarming your half is very bad.

JJB · Post by **JJB** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:33 pm

Gus wrote:i know the pick-up with the opponent swarming your half is very bad.

= You've picked up the ball but not thrown it yet? (hence advocating accurate to be able to pass the ball safely earlier)
or
= You've failed your pick up? (hence advocating sure hands not to fail the pick up).

absent1 · Post by **absent1** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:40 pm

I was honestly thinking about taking catch on my high elf thrower next because the ball gets handed off to him so often, but seeing as you have an offensive thrower, the defensive thrower should probably be good at staying alive and getting the ball, so I would say either block, or surehands, would be appropriate.

Gus · Post by **Gus** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 8:59 pm

@JJB
suffering a TO on a pick-up early in your turn can be disastrous. waiting to pick-up until late turn means you cannot try to dodge etc. thus sure hands is very good, even on elf throwers.

absent1 · Post by **absent1** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:00 pm

it depends on if you will feild the thrower on offense or not, I agree that it's wastful to put a thrower back to field the ball on an elf team on offense, he needs to be near the line of scrimage to throw the TD, so don't take sure hands if you will use him on offense.

On defense you want the thrower to pick up the loose ball, if you knock it loose, and toss it over to the guy in scoring position, so you want surehands with him, you don't really get as many chances to hand off to him on D because you have to set up to get the ball free, and that takes out the people that might have handed of.

So, will you be feilding 2 throwers on O, or just one? accurate is the best choice anyway though, but for a second skill it matters.

falconeyed · Post by **falconeyed** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:48 am

grotuk wrote:Take Block and become him in a defensive thrower...works well

I agree. Turn your second thrower into a free safety ... give him skills to cause fumbles, then have him pitch the newly-won ball downfield.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 2:52 am

Generally I don't bother with the offensive/defensive split on throwers.

If I want defensive specialists I'll built them from other players and then swap them in when on defence.

Also one of anything is a target. If you want to skill a certain player type up then always try to do it with 2 players (well apart from the kicker).