Talk Fantasy Football

Since my tabletop league's been in stasis for a couple years now, I've yet to actually play a game under LRB5 rules -- meaning I'm familiar with the concepts involved in the changing of the team-building rules, but I have no experience putting them into practice.

Also, it should be noted, I tend to be a Dark (and occasionally Pro) Elf coach -- I do fairly well with those two, but my playing experience with other rosters is limited.

So now the question: what Human roster should I use for the LRB5 tourney (Underworld Cup) in which I'll be playing later this year?

The fact that I'll be playing Humans -- with an Ogre -- is written in stone, based on the miniatures I'm determined to use. But beyond that, I need to start figuring out which positions, and how many of each, I need to concentrate on assembling/painting before tourney time rolls around. The tourney rules state:

Starting team will be 1,000,000 and may only be chosen from the lists in LRB5.0. Before the tournament, you will choose skills to be given to 6 players on your team. 1 of these skills may be treated as a doubles roll, while 5 will be standard skill picks available to that player. Skills can be chosen multiple times, so you can spend all 6 of your picks on the Block skill for 6 different players if you choose.

I was looking at Fen's league roster thread, looking for a starting point, and saw this sample roster:

1 Ogre
3 Blitzer
1 Thrower
2 Catcher
4 Lineman
3 RR
30K banked or spent on FF, AC or CL

Would that be alright for this sort of tourney? If so, where should I put those extra funds? What about the 6 starting skills, what should I be thinking about for those? For instance, I've always taken Kick on my first Linemen to get a skill in my prior leagues; would you consider using one of the six skill slots on Kick for a 5-game tourney?

Any thoughts on the matter are greatly appreciated!

Is this a league or a RL tournament? I'm assuming its a league.

Doubles should be block on the ogre.

The other 5 skills... there is a lot you could do - I'd be tempted to get some of the linemen skilled up (1 kick, 2 block) then give a couple of blitzers guard or tackle too.

I'd do block on the ogre, guard on the 3 blitzers, leader on the thrower, and then probably block on one of the catchers too.

ianwilliams wrote:Is this a league or a RL tournament? I'm assuming its a league.

It's for the Underworld Cup, a two-day, five-game RL tournament taking place in November -- sorry if I was unclear about that (or, being verbose as I am, I buried that info). So no worries about earning SPP, no between-game progression, all injuries/deaths heal between games, etc.

Well in that case I would strongly recommend reconsidering the roster. You've only got 11 players and I think 12 will be necessary. The options are realistically to downgrade either the thrower or one of the catchers to a lineman and use the 20k saved plus bank to get another lino.

With your current team I'd take

Ogre - Block
Blitzer - Guard
Blitzer - Guard
Blitzer - Tackle or frenzy
Catcher - block
catcher - block OR thrower - leader

Tourney, rather than league? No development, no extra $? Drop a re-roll and pick up an extra Thower or an Apoth. People talk about how the Apothecary is a worse deal now, and in leauges I agree, but in tournaments, the automatic-on-BH bit makes them better than a benchwarmer for any AV8- team with more than 6 players at 60k or more. Of course, with 30k in the bank, you could go for a Thrower instead of a lino for the 12th man, which might be worth it. If you think you need 4 RRs (no idea why), you might just drop 20k of that banked cash and upgrade a lino to a second Thrower.

I would never have considered starting with only 3 Blitzers if I could afford 4, but if you go with the extra Thrower for 20k out of the bank, I'd say it's a good idea. If you're set on one thrower and it's a "4th Blitzer or 2nd Catcher" selection, I'd go for the 4th Blitzer any time. I wouldn't drop the Thrower in any case; Human Throwers are among the better bargains in Blood Bowl.

* Thrower with Leader -- lets you get away with 2 TRRs for an extra guy or Apoth
* Blitzer with Guard x2
* Ogre with Block
* Blitzer with Tackle or Strip Ball. Take Tackle if you're expecting to face a lot of Dodge and Strip Ball if you're not.
* Lineman or 2nd Thrower with Kick. Put Kick on the 2nd Thrower if you take one, so you don't have to take two guys out of line-sacrifice rotation.

As you are set on the Ogre, I think there is only one alternative for getting the fourth Blitzer:

Ogre
4 Blitzers
Thrower
6 Linos
3 RR
30 k left

You loose the catchers, but gain a Blitzer. With Leader you have the rr to make up for a bit of the ball handling. With TV 100 it is difficult to get a 12 man roster.

Whatever you choose, I definately recommend taking Kick on a Lino. With either 4 Blitzers or 3 Blitzers and 1-2 Catchers yuo can always put pressure on the ball, especially with failed pick ups.

For the rest I would go Block on the Ogre, and 3 times Guard on the Blitzers. In this way you have a reasonable chance against hitting teams.
If more agile teams are present you could give Tackle to a Blitzer instead.

Good luck!
Maurits