Lineorc skills in a league with deathroller

[tomros]

I have an orc lineman getting his first skill, after two MVPs.
My opponent in our league, there are only two of us running two teams each, uses dwarves as one of his teams and has a deathroller. We have only played two or three games with each of our teams so far, so no team has too many skills yet.

I was wondering if it was smart to take dauntless on the lineorc as his first skill, hopefully using him to attack the deathroller, or if it would be better to go with the standard block or tackle skill.

The deathroller has not made a huge impact on our games and I realize it is mostly a really good psychological weapon, but I think knocking it down would reverse that advantage and give me the upper hand.

Any thoughts on this?

By the way the other team he plays is amazons, so I need to be conscious of them as well.

[TennBoy]

Wait in a two person league your friend is playing Drawfs and Zons, And your playing Orcs and Humans. Man is he a cheesy bastard.

I'd stick to the basics for the simple reason of the lineorc would have a skill only useful against one model in the entire league. I'd go with block or Tackle.

[voyagers_uk]

wrestle, take his ass down

[bouncergriim]

wrestle, it will work against all of the silly dwarfs, then you need a DP to kick the machine (or any dwarf) while they are down.

[Meradanis]

Lineorcs are way to slow for wrestle, even if their enemies are dwarfs. I'd go down the normal route and take Block.

If you want to try something more experimental, take Fend for your lineorcs first. Thanks to AV9, there is a high chance that you will survive beeing knocked down on a regular basis. Fend on lineorcs will really do the job of stopping the opponents cage. You can place your lineorc in front of the cage, even if the block you down, you can stand up and go back to where you came next round.

As for the Deathroller: Take a Black Orc and 3 assists, and it's a 1 die block. Especially when the BOB has Block, there's a high chance of getting the Death Roller down.

[falconeyed]

The thought of someone wrestling a deathroller to the ground is high comedy. High comedy.

[mattgslater]

I don't do Wrestle, so I won't advise on that one way or another. Block or Kick, I say. With Block you can use him against Dwarfs to hold a position (sort of), or against Amazons to go after players without Dodge. Block is useful against Zons, but Tackle is not useful against Dwarfs. Kick can wreak havoc on Dwarfs; if they build a strong side, you can put the ball shallowly on the weak side, and if not, you can put it deep so they have to run for it. If you're more afraid of his Amazons, take Block; if his Dwarfs bug you more, take Kick.

Don't bother with Dauntless. The better way to deal with a Deathroller is to score quickly and inflict casualties on the Runners and Blitzers. Build a scoring system that lets you go in and get the ball. Develop a Dirty Player; those are really effective against Dwarfs. On doubles, go for Sidestep over Dodge. Because of the Zons, you have to get a couple of Block/Tackle players early, but don't let that interfere with your MB progression. Because of the Dwarfs, you have to focus on Block over Guard with your Black Orcs. Take MB as your first increase; it's all about getting in more pops than the next guy. Alternately, get Stand Firm as your first or second increase on up to two Black Orcs (the other being Block); ST4 and Stand Firm stops cages.

The best weapon your humans have against the Deathroller is the ability of Blitzers and Catchers to score in two turns from one square off the line without a GFI. If you can do that, the Deathroller will get one or two pops at your guys and hey, that's what AV8 is for? That said, get some Guard, just in case.