Apoth use in leagues: What do you do?

[mattgslater]

On whom do you use the Apothecary in league play? Only your better players, or anyone? On what occasion do you use your Apothecary? Only on a death? On a characteristic loss? On a Niggling Injury? On a miss result? Only on a BH? A question, also, if you care to post an answer: do you adopt a different strategy if you have more than one Apothecary? If so, what do you do differently?

[Meradanis]

That question is very hard to answer, because it depends on the progress of the game. I'll give you an example: In our latest league match, my Dark Elf Lineman with Guard (11 SPP's) died on turn 7 of the second half. Of course I didn't hesitate to use my Apo, and luckily he has been healed. But what if this would have happened in turn 1 or 2 of the first half ? My team consists of several positionals with more than 40 SPP's, I wouldn't have healed my Lineman early in the game because it would have been far to risky for my valuable stars.

I think it's something like this for me:
1. half, early game: Only dead positionals.
1. half: Stat decreased positionals, too.
2. half, first turns: Dead Lineman with some SPP's, too.
2. half, late game: Everything worse than NI.

My dark elves have been pretty effective with this apo tactic, after 25 games (many of them against bashy teams) I had to rebuy 1 lineman, another one has a NI, and one of my Blitzer died 2 times. Those 2 deaths were due to a failed apo roll (healed from Death to Death and from Death to ST2), nothing I could have changed.

But this is only a basic guideline, it depends on some more factors than the progress of the game. For example, is my opponent a bashy team ? Many Mighty Blow & Co. players on the opposing team make me worry about my positionals even more. And the average AV of my team is another factor, with AV7 positionals it's unlikely that I'll use the apo for lineman very often. My Skaven team, for example, only used the apo for their Gutter Runners. I've played more than 30 games with them, and none of my GR's died. One of them got MA -1, but thanks to ST+1 und AG+1, he's still pretty usefull. On the downside, my other players in the team died pretty often, but what to expect of AV7 lineman.

If I have more than 1 apo at my disposal, I tend to use those spare ones for everything worse than MNG (with the exception of SI on unskilled lineman). After I've run out of my extra apos, I'll use the normal one as described above.

[fen]

It varies depending on the team, position, injury, opposition, number of apoths available and turn of the match.

As a quick example, early on a Black Orc with -1AG wouldn't get apothed. But in the last 2-3 turns of a match it probably would. -ST on the other hand almost always gets apothed if it's a positional because -ST is the same as Dead 9 times out of 10.

But players without advances tend not to be apothed at all. It's easier to retire them and purchase a replacement.

[Rituro]

Since I play a human team, I'll traditionally save the apothecary for my non-lineman. Lineman are easy enough to replace and, considering only one of them right now has a SPP roll, they don't have loads of time and points invested. It's far more efficient to fire/re-hire than limp along with gibbled linemen.

For my important players, anything greater than "Miss Next Game" (niggling, stat loss, death) will make me use the apothecary. The last thing I need is my all-important positionals down a point of armor or worse.

[Digger Goreman]

Upon reconsideration, change my "A" to "D"....

Pretty much ditto on what the others have said... I'm looking at cost vs rewards at all times....

The less TV a player is worth (and the less skilled) the more likely he/she/it will "heal on their own"....

On the other hand, "worth" is protected.... On my Orc team I had 180,000 invested in my troll (nice skill package)... you think I left his deadly injury up to Regen?! Hell, no, Apothed and happily, thank you....

Damned pity my Werewolf didn't have that option....

[Xeterog]

D) mostly.

For my dwarves it is like this:
MNG or Niggle: Not apothed unless it is late in a game where the other team hasn't been beating me up all game or has the potential to (lots of MB/Claw guys).

-MV: apothed if not on a Blocker
-ST: always, without hesitation
-AG: Only if on a Blitzer or Runner..Slayers and Blockers don't mind having AG 1
-AV: apothed if not on a blocker.

Dead: Apothed unless player has less than 6 SPP's. If the player has no new skills, I let them die most of the time.

[wesleytj]

C or D depending on how late it is in the game, and what kind of team I'm playing, and playing against.

[Cramy]

My use of the apothecary is pretty much as stated by the others. It depends on the injured player, my opponent, where we are in the game, type of injury, etc...

So I would have to vote "none of the above" ...

[datalorex]

I agree with the others except when I play with high armored teams. Since casualties don't happen often against them, I apoth my early NI+ casualties especially if I'm out numbered.

[mattgslater]

I usually save my Apoth for killed/stat loss positionals. On my Orc team, in the early season, I might use my Apoth if a Blitzer or BOB goes BH in the first drive; unless they have skills, dead positionals don't mean much on that team, and I'd just fire anyone who suffered a stat loss unless he was otherwise really cool. IMO, going man-down early is bad news, and lost games stunt teams; you need those TDs and Cas to improve. I'd never Apoth a BH or MNG on my Pro Elves, though, unless I had an extra Apothecary from inducements.

[Buggrit]

D/A for me but in a similar way to Meradanis

[Digger Goreman]

Whether I use an Apoth on a niggling injury depends in large part on the player's armor.... Always apoth an important position on AV7; depends on AV8; and I don't worry about AV9... (I've still got a Black Orc Blocker with a Niggling from 10+ games ago)....