Talk Fantasy Football

So I managed to roll double 6s for a thrall last night. After the cursing that it wasn't on a vamp stopped, the puzzlement began.

This is my first stat upgrade on a blood-bowl player, and I've no idea what to do really with this thrall.

First inclination is give her block, if she lives to 16spps, and make her a ST4, non-bloodlusting blitzer.

Or a ST4 safety with block, and then possibly tackle or strip ball?

Maybe frenzy would be good on her next, but without block that's kind of asking for her to die/turn-over the ball. Chances of her making it to 31 SPPs for block and then frenzy seems poor.

I think safety might be the way to go in order to keep her alive! Though then I'm not getting maximum usage out of the st4.

I'm also not very confident of her life-span, with ST4, and AV7 making her a big target

And she adds an extra 50K to my team value! She costs more than two thralls and I'm not even sure she's worth more than two normal thralls to a vamp team!

I'd be thanking my lucky stars! She is basically an AG3, AV7 vampire now without bloodlust-use her as your prime blitzer (as long as you don't have to dodge).

I'd go block then frenzy, I've got a ST4 woody lino with frenzy and he's survived well enough (ok he has blodge too, but still).

Frenzy with ST4 is golden, gives you options, affects your opo's positioning, is well worth it imo.

Praise Nuffle!

You can use her as a primary blitzer. Have vamps open a hole with hypnogaze and then blitz the ball carrier with this thrall. A boring development with work for him - Block, Tackle, Strip Ball.

Joemanji wrote:Praise Nuffle!

You can use her as a primary blitzer. Have vamps open a hole with hypnogaze and then blitz the ball carrier with this thrall. A boring development with work for him - Block, Tackle, Strip Ball.

I agree with the first two skills but I always find it a waste when people put Strip Ball on STR 4+ players. He's very likely to have 2 dice so should aim to smack his opponent down. Frenzy as a third pick for me. If you want strip ball take it as a second skill on a wrestle thrall, he'll have a good chance of success knocking the ball loose even on a half die block.

Interesting choice there, I tried to analysise the probabilities but it's not clear cut either way.

Assuming 2 dice block, with block and tackle.

With strip-ball against a non sure-hands, has block carrier.
1/3 dice results don't pop ball free, so 8/9 pop ball free on a 2dice block.
With a re-roll, 80/81 chance of popping the ball free. If you're going up a non-sure hands, has block carrier, strip ball is a massive winner.

Frenzy vs block carrier (dodge negated by tackle) Surehands doesn't affect this.

2 dice, 1/3 pops ball free, so 5/9ths chance of popping it free.
If it fails, then if there's a push, can try again, block stops frenzy.
So 5/9ths + (4/9 * 3/4 (chance there's 1 or more push results considering that there are no pow or defender stumbles results.) * 5/9 chance of second block popping ball free) = 5/9 + .19 = 75%
A re-roll increases this, but not as much as it does for the first case as that is a re-roll of a much higher percentage roll, and also this approach involves multiple dice rolls, and you can only re-roll one of them.

So you're still pretty good against a block carrier, sure hands or not, with frenzy. You'll have many times more failures than you would with strip-ball against a non sure-hands carrier though. Many times more, but still a pretty low percentage will be failures.

Against sure hands SB becomes useless, so it's just a 5/9ths chance for the SB player. Or 80% with a re-roll. Which still isn't bad.

TBH, i dunno. S4, Strip ball, block, tackle is fantastic against non sure hands S3 carriers. But S4, Frenzy, block, tackle is very good too.

Frenzy lets me crowd surf people more easily, but I'd have to be very careful as I don't want my s4 thrall on the sideline!

Frenzy also works against Dwarf Runners, and Dwarfs are horrible. So that's a plus for that.

Decisions, decisions. Thanks for all the input guys

After playing a couple of games with my new Norse team, and cursing several times my only ST4 (with frenzy but without BLOCK) Ulfwerner, I wouldnt hesitate a second choosing Block as the next skill.
After that you can go "wild" with watever you'd like (Tackle or Frenzy are both good choices IMO).

And by the way, try to keep the fangs of your Vamps away from him because thralls seem to die a lot (at least in my league)!
Cheers
Axt

thankfully our ladder is running the 2008 Rules Review, so my vamps can't actually kill her!

They can knock her down, stun her, and set her right up for a nice gang-fouling of course )

I had a st 4 thrall early in my team development too.

I would say Block next for sure. This player you want knocking people down and standing up.

Then probably tackle and strip ball as joe says.

I took strip ball before tackle myself because the league was newer and so there was little sure hands running about. With the prevalence of both dodge and sure hands out now I think tackle is the way to go first at this moment.

Though Fend would be a good choice to make her harder to mark/tie down and thus make it more likely she will be free to blitz without having to gaze or dodge her free.. It would also protect her from frenzy and piling on.

Doubles (if you roll them) is dodge for me. Extra mobility and protection from being knocked down...

I have to agree with Tuern. Strip Ball on an ST4 player is somewhat of a waste.

Next skill has to be block, then either Frenzy or Tackle, depending on the league. I prefer Tackle if there is lots of dodge opponents, otherwise Frenzy. Both are good though.

If you are lucky enough to roll doubles, then Mighty Blow would be my next pick.

ST4, Block, MB, Frenzy/Tackle is an amazing combo.

As for strip ball, I'd use another Thrall and give him/her wrestle first, then strip ball. All normal skills. I love this combination. If you roll doubles, go for dodge. A bit of protection, and will help free him/her up to blitz the ball carrier.

Block, Sure Hands will do. Having the thrall as a safe ballcarrier.

Use Vampires to blitz and block, the are more resiliant!

I'd consider wrackle on him. Vamps open the cage and he can dependably remove the ball from any carrier. If not wrackle, then block/frenzy is best.

I would cut him. Don't need the TV inflation.

Lies! All lies!

Leader may be an option worth considering.

I have experience of playing for some time with a ST4 Hobgoblin. It underperformed and never got to 16SPPs. On the plus side, it was a distracting target for opponents.

So IMHO the main benefit of taking the +1ST would be to create a deliberate distraction, rather than as a genuine playmaker.

Hope this helps.

quozl wrote: If you're going up a non-sure hands, has block carrier, strip ball is a massive winner.

That's why you also need a (at least 1) normal Wrestle/Strip Ball thrall. With a reroll this guy gets the job done 35/36. That should do it.
+1 STR doesn't come along too often, don't waste "utility skills" (skills that work well on any player) on him. Make him a specialist bruiser!

So fully agreeing with Cramy here, on doubles I'd doubt between Mighty Blow and Dodge, depending on your vamp's skills.

Well, to be honest I think you're right that its not worth the 50k pricetag it comes with so I'd have taken leader or guard instead. However the +St is fun so I'm assuming you'll keep it (keep/fire also depends on how longterm the league is and if you have TV caps etc). I'd go down the frenzy route with this player... they look perfect for frenzy, your vamps will be better suited to actually reaching the ballcarrier and wrestle/stripball thralls are better suited to springing it free so dont worry about those skills here. If you are feeling brave and are good at saving RR then take frenzy first, if not then take block or wrestle first (if in doubt then frenzy comes after block/wrestle).

Oh and more doubles = leader or guard.