Question for Dwarf coaches.

monolith · Post by **monolith** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 3:50 pm

Started a new league on sunday with my mates. Using LRB5 rules, the league consists of me with dwarfs, orcs, skaven, necromantic, humans, and norse. Not exactly the most finesse heavy league ever, but that's the way the cookie (or catcher) crumbles. We're hoping to play each other team in the league twice, so a maximum of 10 games before our finals.

I took the standard lineup for dwarfs, full positionals, except for the deathroller, and blockers to round out the 11. First game, humans with a coach who'd never played before. Dwarfs did what dwarfs do best, thump things while not dying. Dwarfs won 2-1, 4-1 in casualties. Trollslayer got a skill, took mighty blow. Highlight was surrounding the human team's ogre with 4 dwarfs towards the end of the second half, then explaining to my opponent that I had 3 assists on every block he could throw in there.

I'm a significantly more experienced coach than the rest of my league, but I'm not exactly sure how to develop the team (It's my first league with dwarfs). I know I'll be getting guard, and as much of it as I can find on my players, while trying to develop my runners into more efficient scoring machines, but I don't know what to spend my winnings on. Do I just keep buying blockers untill I've got a rosterful, then buy a deathroller, or focus more on the team as a whole, splitting the winnings between new players, rerolls, and building a buffer in case my positionals pass on?

PubBowler · Post by **PubBowler** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:03 pm

You don't need a roster full. 12 plus Deathroller or 13 if you don't fancy it is probably the max you'll need.

You probably want a 4th (and maybe 5th if you're greedy) reroll as your Runners will have other skills to get instead of Leader (coupled with 4ok cost as well).

Otherwise, play the inducement game. Against that set of teams you might want a second apoth and there are some pretty useful stars (Boomer against Orc cages, Flint against Norse, Zara against Necromantic) if you do it right.

Snew · Post by **Snew** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:05 pm

Dwarves don't need money.

PubBowler · Post by **PubBowler** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:10 pm

Or more than 11 players.

Or Rerolls.

Or Staff.

Or... No I'm bored now.

sann0638 · Post by **sann0638** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:15 pm

So you spend treasury money on inducements, or just let your treasury stack up? I haven't been in a long-lasting league.

wesleytj · Post by **wesleytj** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:19 pm

I think he's exxagerating.

He is correct that you certainly don't need a full roster. I would think 13 would be plenty for dwarves. Beyond that, you do need some rerolls, some coaching staff, and so on. Most of that was a joke ( I think )

But yes, dwarven teams do often tend to build up a bit of a treasury. They don't have too many players die, they don't need a huge bench, and so on.

Digger Goreman · Post by **Digger Goreman** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:27 pm

I let my money pile up cause you never know when "double-pow, double six, double six, six + 8" is gonna require you to replace a player or two....

monolith · Post by **monolith** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 4:45 pm

Thanks for the advice, I was thinking along those lines. The survivability of dwarf players is pretty much peerless, so I wasn't too worried about having a deep bench. I'll try to let the cash stack up for a while, see how that goes for me.

Star players have always seemed a little cheesy to me, but I guess it's the right tool for the job. Apothecaries do seem like a good idea, I'll have to get myself one soon. Bloodweiser babes are worth mentioning as well, I watched the necromantic team versus the norse while I was playing out my match, and no necromantic players stayed ko'd.

I do find myself holding back a bit in the league though. I've played a lot of blood bowl, and a lot of it has been fairly intense. This is just a beer and skittles league with my mates, and I don't want to sour them on the game. My first opponent gave me filthy looks for knocking down or stunning his guys every single turn. It reached the point where I was planning what my opponent would do next turn for him, just by choosing where to start blocking. (of course, he doesn't know this. I'd probably be short some teeth if he did.)

PubBowler · Post by **PubBowler** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:05 pm

Babes not so good for Dwarfs of course: higher AV and Thick Skull.

Which is one of the reasons why those 60k stars are worth a look.

Cramy · Post by **Cramy** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:27 pm

Yes, keep the treasury for a rainy day. And if you never get to use it, great, that means that nobody died.

Echoing others: 13 players, Apoth, 4-5 RRs.

As for you being more experienced than others, you may frustrate your mates with Dwarves. They can be very tough to play against for new players, especially once you start to get guard everywhere. If you continue with Dwarves, you could try to develop a passing game, or something else that is more exciting and maybe more difficult to achieve with Dwarves.

If you can pick a different team, then you may want to consider that as well. A stunty team is lots of fun, and if you really are much more experienced than your mates, you may win quite a few games, but you will not clobber them.

Xtreme · Post by **Xtreme** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 5:52 pm

Snew wrote:Dwarves don't need money.

Sure they do, Bribes are expensive. Damn Refs are always after my money.

I would stick with 13 player, with the 13th bieng a roller. Then spend money on bribes when you have it.

Mad Jackal · Post by **Mad Jackal** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:25 pm

Xtreme wrote:
Snew wrote:Dwarves don't need money.
Sure they do, Bribes are expensive. Damn Refs are always after my money.

I would stick with 13 player, with the 13th bieng a roller. Then spend money on bribes when you have it.

I might play 14 men, the 14th as the Doomroller, but that is just me.

VVRRROOOOOOOOOOOOMMM VVVRRRROOOOOMMMMM VROOM!!!!

fen · Post by **fen** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 8:57 pm

The Deathroller makes me happy as did the Killdozer.

The cheating, Secret Weapon wielding Dwarf teams in the fluff rock hard.

Xeterog · Post by **Xeterog** » Tue Jul 31, 2007 9:22 pm

My MBBL dwarf team has 13 + a Death roller.

I got the DR very late in the game--I don't like that it only lasts for one drive and my TV is high enough now that I rarely get inducements (heck, If I only give away 300k in inducements I'm lucky now-adays). TV is 232--and that is with two blockers missing next game!!!

http://www.midgardbb.com/MBBL/teamView.php?teamid=8

datalorex · Post by **datalorex** » Wed Aug 01, 2007 3:37 am

Cramy wrote: If you can pick a different team, then you may want to consider that as well. A stunty team is lots of fun, and if you really are much more experienced than your mates, you may win quite a few games, but you will not clobber them.

Yeah, it's cruel picking Dwarves to play against newbies. You should have picked something live Chaos who are slow to start but get good after about 10 games. Chaos would have started getting good when your opponents would have started to catch on.

If you want to handicap yourself, buy a Death Roller early.