Playing Norse in an orc-heavy league

maxlongstreet · Post by **maxlongstreet** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 4:56 am

After an extended preseason of one-off games, our regular season is starting soon. All teams are new, TR 100, and most players (including myself) have little experience outside the preseason. What worries me is that it looks we'll have 8 teams in the league, and three of them will be orcs. This matchup seems rough--I don't seem to have enough speed to take advantage of their slowness, I'm not sure how to avoid the inevitable attrition from the repeated matches. I'm interested not just in strategies to play against orcs, but in also having my team survive and thrive versus all these orc teams in the long run. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

OverDose · Post by **OverDose** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 7:11 pm

The basics of playing with norse are simple: hit hard and ensure that you don't get hit hard. Exploit noob coaches and wreck havoc with your blitzers, and do not follow up if you don't knock down oppos except if you really need to glue them.

Hmm. Hard to say myself what to do with norse team since I've never played with them, but somewhat similar team (amazon) attacking tactics have been really fruitful: put your thrower (carrying the ball and caged of course) early on to the mid-field, concentrating quite heavily on one of the sides. Leave an option for the other side, and see what happens. The basic idea is (naturally) to run away from opposition by passing to the closest available player to the end zone and run away with him. Against orcs this can be relatively easy.

Try to defend with TZs and play very conservatively and exploit both bad luck or bad plays on an opponent.

on your advancing I must say that you have to pick guard on any player (except for your thrower), ALWAYS (when nuffle blesses you with doubles, naturally)! it's your only chance of competing with orcs later on. And try to score with your blitzers on your few first matches since they have strength access (right?). So you can get guard on them too.

Joemanji · Post by **Joemanji** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 8:04 pm

Your only advantage is Block. Tempt your opponent into one dice blocks if you can ... he will fail as many as result in knockdowns. Don't be afraid of a few one dice blocks yourself. Start your team with at least 12 players and 3 rerolls. But once those Orc teams develop and get Block on most of their players you are stuffed, I am afraid.

The Florist · Post by **The Florist** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 9:08 pm

Well, four frenzy players are kind of an advantage too. You own the sidelines, hurt them plenty with that.

OverDose · Post by **OverDose** » Sun Aug 21, 2005 9:13 pm

Nazgit wrote:Don't be afraid of a few one dice blocks yourself.

I wouldn't dare to do much hitting with one die since you really need those rerolls on passing play (and you really need to do that when you are facing 4 BOBs and 4 orc blitzers and troll possibly).

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 3:58 am

You will get squished, I'm afraid. If your league hasn't changed Dirty Player, take it first on multiple lineman and try to foul your way to a man advantage.

juck101 · Post by **juck101** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 10:09 am

yeah a dirty player may be essentail as you will be able to fight hard at times- just not dotn get bogged down.

To begin norse are good - stick to basic blocks- maybe even a 2d against a black orc aint a bad idea. I have never played as them but always win if i take out the 4blitzers. So i guess the key to you winning is using the blitzer to maximum effect.

They can also rule the sidelines and can even bung orcs and chaos out of the pitch. Get used to blocking players off into other blocks and frenzy them off the pitch. In a basic league most players wont be ready to deal with it so great advanatge to you.

Like any team i guess give it a go and see what happens.

Bizzy · Post by **Bizzy** » Mon Aug 22, 2005 4:44 pm

You might not need tackle so much, so pull a Khemri and get almost all linemen with dirty player. This way if you knock down a black orc, foul him out of the game and get ejected, thats a fair trade in my book, a black orc for a line pig. This is a good fair trade from where I come from. Also my problem is if I ever have a dirty player my opponent targets him for assassination first, now my DP can't foul people out of the game. If you have a team of dirty players, and such people won't be able to pick one. Then if you are able to catch a Troll, Black Orc, Blitzer, alone you beat him down until he falls then foul him till his head pops off.

Other then that I can't really say much other then abuse the brokenness of your blitzers, and try to survive, but after other teams get block your AV7 will destroy you.

maxlongstreet · Post by **maxlongstreet** » Tue Aug 23, 2005 3:15 am

Thanks for all the advice...I definitely will have some dirty players, particularly because there don't seem to be a lot of great skill options (a kicker, a tackler or two and the rest DPs, it seems like). I'm also going to get a big guy ASAP to take some of the line punishment. A deep bench seems cruicial as soon as I can get it. It will be hard resisting getting into the scrum too deep, but I'll try...

carmachu · Post by **carmachu** » Fri Aug 26, 2005 6:13 pm

What he's left out is: there really are no newbie coaches. Out of the 8+ teams, he's probably the newer of the bunch. And he's been not losing vs orcs, but getting demolished: game ends with not much left before the first half.

Deep bench is always a good thing. But surviving without getting the team wiped out would he helpful.

Besides 3 orc teams, there should be:

3 orcs
1 dwarf
1 goblin
1 skaven
1 lizardmen
1 halfling
1 undead

maxlongstreet · Post by **maxlongstreet** » Mon Aug 29, 2005 2:34 am

Hi Carmen! What you isn't entirely accurate--Most of the coaches besides you and J. are newbs, some having not even played a full game yet. And I've rarely played vs. orcs in the preseason. I've done fairly well in terms of wins and losses; the problem is that when I lose, I typically have five dead players. In one preseason game I did play against orcs, it was down to about 4 vs. 4 late in the first half...

carmachu · Post by **carmachu** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 10:16 pm

Actually myself, eric, Jerret have all played for a while, perhaps not in recent history.

JP and raul have played before.

Dan is probably the "newest", jay is actually going to play with skaven so he'll be an easy mark.

ANyone I left out?

Always stay out of tackle zones if you can. Your armor 7 cant hold up.

absent1 · Post by **absent1** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 12:48 pm

i've only ever lost with orcs to norse when i played a very very veteran player, but you just have to outposition the orcs enough to make up for them being a better bashing team in the matchup, roll your cage around their weakest end, try and pull the black orcs to one side and flow around the other, it's hard, but it can be done.

Big Ahn · Post by **Big Ahn** » Mon Sep 12, 2005 11:36 pm

I've played Norse quite a bit. I would consider myself an average coach - at best, however I will share my experiences on the chance you can glean a modicum of useful information. I found that Norse are a far from easy team to manage. They are quite forgiving against certain teams like Human, because of your lineman's Block advantage however against the stronger teams it takes a real tactical know-how to get a result. Lizardmen were the absolute nemesis of my Norse. So much ST4 and a ST5 Kroxigor. Even the skinks are hard to nail, it can be surprising how many times their Dodge skill can save them, allowing them to squirm away even from 2-dice blocks.

Depending on how the Orc teams develop I wouldn't necessarily put them in the same category as Chaos, Dwarves or Lizardmen. I would say you are facing a very tough challenge. The longer the league goes on the harder it will get too.

Becareful with your Blitzers. I've seen a lot of people rate them as being great players, and indeed they are good. But having Frenzy on a ST3 player can lead you into trouble more often than it helps. Always assume your first block will result in a pushback so work out where you can go with your follow up block. Try to push opponents toward the sidelines. Again beware when trying to push opponents into the crowd. Unless you have blitzed and can move after the block, you will be stuck on the sideline and will probably be thrown into the crowd yourself on your opponents turn. Use this strategy with caution.

Having said that, your best hope with Norse is probably to play dirty. They aren't really a match for some teams and if you try to play fair you will come off second best. Play dirty but play smart. I never used Big Guy's just because I don't like the idea, but they are a great addition to the Norse roster, a bit of steel in the backbone of your team. Anything with an AV above 7 is a bonus. As others have said, don't stand toe to toe with your opponent, hit and run with your blocks. Don't follow up unless you have to. As a Norse coach you have to do a lot of 1-dice blocks. Even 2-dice against is worth considering if the opponent doesnt have Block, say against those BOB's or Big Guy's. Just leave it to your last action.

With all this in mind, I Bid thee Good Luck!

maxlongstreet · Post by **maxlongstreet** » Thu Sep 15, 2005 5:22 am

Ok, I played the first two games in our league tonight, and things went pretty well, except for the injuries. The league has shaken out much less bashy than i feared, with an orc team or two dropping. We've ended up with a human team, a necro team, a dwarf team, a chaos dwarf team, two skaven team, a halfling team, one or two orc teams and a goblin team.

Still, I went for a very conservative, survive for the long haul approach to my team, taking 2 blitzers, 10 linemen, an apothecary, 3 rerolls and 9FF.

I did very well in the first game, getting good rolls (a second half pitch invasion) and controlling the line of scrimmage against a skaven team, winning 4-1. Unfortunately, he got very good injury rolls, killing a lineman and blitzer outright (my apothecary botched his roll). I managed to make 80k and bought another lineman. No one skilled up (my MVP went to my dead lineman).

My second game was against a Necro team. In contrast to the first game, which had large numbers of casualties, there was only one in the second game. Fortunately for me, it was against my opponent's werewolf. It was a ridiculously sloppy game that featured about seven different turns where one of us failed to pick up the ball in the open, used a reroll and failed to pick it up again. I managed to hold on for a 2-1 win.

My surviving blitzer and one of my linemen skilled up, and I made 90k more, giving me 120k now. My FF is up to 10. I rolled normal skills, and I chose Guard and Dirty Player for the blitzer and lineman respectively. With the two deaths and the one lineman I bought I currrently have 11 players (10 linemen!) plus the apothecary.

What would folks spend the 120k on? I'm thinking either:

A) buy an ogre

B) buy a blitzer and save 30k

C) buy a catcher and save 50k or

D) buy a thrower and save 50k

I'm leaning towards A or B.