Talk Fantasy Football

Yesterday I passed by some store thats trying to get rid of GW boxes (both old and new stuff), and failed to resist the temptation of buying a couple of them (Ogre and Goblin to be more exact).
And why am I telling this in the T&TD section?
Easy, because Im about to build an Ogre team and some tactical advice or tips for them would be usefull for my pre-season.

I know that Ogre teams are not very reliable (...), and that they should leave the picking up/passing/whatever to the goblins, but other than that I have never played nor seen this team being used...


Thanks
Axt

(PS:Is there such a thing as "Ogre tactics?"...)

One thing you need to keep in mind that you game will cahnge all the time because you are bound to fail a bonehead roll or two.

Thats a good point Musta.
I guess I should keep some kind of "Goblin Safety net" at least to keep defensive tackle zones ...

playing a fumbbl game as we speak with new ogres. Doing ok, but you need rerolls early on, they're key.

Read this link as well

http://www.specialist-games.com/assets/Ogreplaybook.pdf

@Younglord Denisar:
thanks for the link !

I like this playbook, it gives you the right feeling for this team .

In an earlier thread (viewtopic.php?t=15563&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0)
I have posted the following tips for playing an Ogre team:

If possible, give the ball to an Ogre! Play a very conservative style, take your time scoring. Concetrate on your offense, don't waste your precious rerolls on defense - your opponent will most likely score anyhow as boneheaded Ogres open large gaps in your defense and Goblins will get blitzed away. So get the ball, keep it and punish everyone foolish enough to get close to your cage. Only move Ogres, if you really have to! It is often better to leave an Ogre standing than trying to move him and let him go bonehead! Get Break Tackle a.s.a.p., it's fantastic ! Don't TTM too often (I have only done it once or twice in 10 games). Only use it as a last resort. Keep your players together, form a wall with the Ogres and put the Goblins around the ballcarrier. An all Ogre cage doesn't work properly, as the chances are very high that at least one of the Ogres will go bonheaded and leave your ballcarrier open to be blitzed. Use your mobile Goblins to fill the gaps caused by stupid Ogres.

In addition to the above: Always try to go for three-dice-blocks! Not only that it will give you better chances to bring your opponent down, even more importantly it greatly reduces the risk of your Ogre going down too!

For advances, I have found Diving Tackle for Goblins to be the way to go! Once you have a bunch of them it's really getting hard for your opponent. For Doubles my advice would be Dirty Player .
And if you are lucky enough to roll several Doubles for your Ogres, also consider taking Sure Hands on one of them: combined with Break Tackle you'll have quite an impressive ballcarrier.

Good luck !

Cheers Tante Käthe

P.S. I hope that you are aware that in a few months the Ogre team will change drastically with the introduction of LRB 5.0 (max. 6 Ogres and Snotlings instead of Goblins)- so don't make the same mistake that I did (buying and painting more than 6 Ogres ...)

Thks for the tips & link!

Theres just one doubt that I have related to the "Big Guy" characteristic:

Acording to its description no re-rolls may ever be used on this player (Team, Leader, or even Trophy), and thats how I've been playing it but, some weeks ago I remember having seen some Q&A for the LRB that stated otherwise.
Is there any time/situation where a re-roll may be used on a big guy, or are re-rolls Goblin exclusives?

Cheers
Axt

Ogres on an Ogre team aren't Big Guys.

Geoff.

Thats good news for me!
Is that in the LRB? Where can I find it?


Thanks
Axt

nor seen this team being used..

... could it be a reason for this ?!
I played a ogre team for a league last year. (see here, if you like
viewtopic.php?t=15563&highlight=ogre+traveller )

I spend a lot of money for this team as i wanted to convert and paint this team quite extensive for Paint competions, too, but after playing them i lost a lot of fun. Maybe you are more lucky than me. This Bonehead thingmade me mad...

Traveller

traveller wrote:

nor seen this team being used..

... could it be a reason for this ?!
I played a ogre team for a league last year. (see here, if you like
viewtopic.php?t=15563&highlight=ogre+traveller )

I spend a lot of money for this team as i wanted to convert and paint this team quite extensive for Paint competions, too, but after playing them i lost a lot of fun. Maybe you are more lucky than me. This Bonehead thingmade me mad...

Traveller

You should have made and converted the team first . Painted teams have more luck.(And they're more fun to play with too)

Well, I kinda knew the team was not a "natural born winner" if I may say so...

I've already had my first "training" game with them (a tie vs advanced ork team 0-0), and so far they're what I've expected:
I had several "both down" results, causing me a bunch of turn overs, and a hand full of "1's" for the bonehead (there was one turn when 4 Ogres out of 5 when bonehead...).
But then again my objective for this team was not to get a winner, but to have a lot of fun both converting (still in the process), painting and playing.
Or so I keep reminding me.



Cheers
Axt

PS:@ traveller: thanks for the link to your post (I havent read it yet but I will asap.) By the way do you have pics of your ogres?

traveller wrote: This Bonehead thingmade me mad...

Try Vampires then!

I'm currently playing Ogres in a league. You'll need a long season (we have 26 games +playoffs) and lot's of patience to play them. But i still hope in the end they will be a decent if not awesome team.

http://bblh.chleja.de/team_view.php?team_id=94

After 7 games i have won 2 and lost 5. Wins were in the first game against Necros (he had an odd start lineup and very bad luck) and a bit later vs. Vampires (CAS, CAS, CAS). Due to bad luck with 2 dead gobbos and poor winnings rolls i played most of the the first 6 games outnumbered and got wiped off the pitch completely (!) once against Chaos Dwarfs.

My strategy is to spend cash (after the inevitable Apo) on Ogres ONLY until i have 8. This is the number is feel comfortable with and a number that can reduce the danger for the gobbos. After that i'll replace dead gobbos and then spend cash on RRs only until i have reached 6
(then the league will be over most likely). Also in the beginning i do not care about winning that much as all teams will get a chance to play in the playoffs. My priortity is to get skills to the Ogres and keep TR reasonable. Thus my Gobbos have a strict ball handling permit unless it's a situation where an Ogre could not possibly score, so the Gobbos have to be tossed (1-turn, 2-turn mostly). Most Ogres are getting Break Tackle (over Guard) first to gain some mobility. Currently i've rolled 6 skill rolls with 2 doubles (Surehands and Block) and an AG+ (blessing!) for the Ogres.

I feel the team is slowy getting competitive. In my last game against Chaos i had 8 Ogres due to "that boy's got talent" and it was a pretty close game that i lost due to failing 2 bonehead rolls in one turn, followed by a double skull at the wrong time. The AG3 Ogre is truely awesome, he made 10 SPP without MVP in one game against the Vampires (2 TD, 1 CAS, 1 INT). I also have a grand-slam Ogre (1 in each stat category) and the team is leading the league in Interceptions

Key to playing Ogres is a couple of simple things in my opinion:
- low risk plays (save your precious RRs)
- positioning: 1 Ogre tied up by a Zombie is bad, 1 Ogre tieing up 2 Longbeards good.
- 3 dice blocks (gets more pows and less skulls, obviously)
- take your time, always prepare for failure. keep the gobbos around to replace actions missed due to BH. Try important moves as early as possible in your turn, so you can react to players losing their TZs.
- Doing nothing with an Ogre is a good option because it's guaranteed he keeps his TZ.
- Always try to move prone and BH Ogres up first to regain TZs.
- Although several MB players looks dangerous, in the beginning your team (at least mine) is not a grinding team. The reason is that the gobbos drop out a lot easier than most other players in the game and your Ogres lose a lot of actions due to BH. So try to find a way to score against 11 players and do not wait for the advantage in numbers.
- If all fails, do crazy stuff with the gobbos

Thanks for your tips Tim!

I have done two games so far, and while the first one was quite a bad game (as in "not that funny", with lots of bone head, and attackers down, and ended up with a tie 0-0) the second went realy well with lots of injurys and I've enven menaged to win by 1-0.
Lets see how it goes from now on...


Cheers
Axt