Talk Fantasy Football

I posted this on NAF, but I find that TBB tends to get a lot more people willing to put their ideas forward, so thought I would also post here:

Just played a game with my new Chaos Dwarf teamand managed to skill up one of the dwaves. And let it be said that this is probably the only time in my life I was happy to roll double 1's!

My initial thought for the team was to mass up on guard - a pretty standard tactic for the CD's

But with doubles, it opens up new possibilities...

Do I go with a mutation? (Claw seems an obvious choice, but the league is just forming up and I do not know all the teams that are playing - there are halflings, humans and khemri for sure...)

I might also go the route of getting somehting like Dodge to make him a blodger, but this seems a bit of waste to only use defensively, as he will never likely attempt to dodge.

But then Diving Tackle has merit - make him one helluva safety!

Or I could just go with plain ol' guard. Stick to the original plan.

The rest of the team looks like this:

6 x Chaos Dwarves
2 x Bull Centaur
4 x Hobgoblin (just bought one after the game)
1 x Apothecary
1 x FF
2 X RR

All the players are vanilla, but my BC captain started with Leader.

Advice?

Well....for style, and likely for effectiveness...take a mutation. That, in my mind, leaves two options.

1.) Claw: You'll want at least 1-2 of these longterm, and he'll help immensely against any AV9 you face. Take it now when you have the chance.

2.) Prehensile tail: DT is about as good, but this helps with positioning and has no drawback. If you have an overall dodge heavy league, this will be a strong choice.

Claw! As an early skill, Claw rocks! Later on, I'd say try Prehensile Tail gimmicks, but for now, you're well on your way to developing one of your key toolbox players: the big-game hunter.

I am unsure of the value of Claw on a player unless he has M-Blow already.

I recently gave Claw to a CD as his first skill (mainly because I have a nice big mechanical claw for him to wear - straight out of the CD engineering workshops - it even fits really nicely on his helmet spike).

But alas, the Claw has proved virtually useless so far. I felt I would have been better with plain vanilla Guard.

If you fancy a mutation, there are others of interest, notably:

- Disturbing Presence
- Foul Appearance
- Prehensile Tail

Some of the Agility skills are very nice, including:

- Dodge
- Diving Tackle
- Sidestep

It's a tough choice. If the league you are playing in is a long one, then taking a doubles roll could be a lot of fun, because of the possible combinations if you get a second doubles roll:

- Dodge/Foul Appearance/Stand Firm.
- Diving Tackle/Prehensile Tail/Stand Firm.

Just examples. But in reality, your CD will most probably never get there without the ability to cause CAS and generate SPPs. So my general advice would be:

- Take a doubles skill if it suits your playing style and works well on its own (Disturbing Presence might be one such skill). Otherwise take plain vanilla Guard (or M-Blow).

- Consider Claw (because of the killer combo Claw/M-Blow/Piling On). But in my view, Claw is ten times better if you have M-Blow first.

Hope this helps.

Smeborg wrote:Just examples. But in reality, your CD will most probably never get there without the ability to cause CAS and generate SPPs.

Actually the way we are doing MVP's in our league is a bit different. It is randomized between the three players who got the most SPPs. If there are less than three who got SPPs, then the coach can nominate which player(s) he wants. In this way it is going to allow players who can be slow to skill up to get a chance (provided that there are not 3 SPP hogs on the team every game!)

That increases the value of Claw significantly, as you will have a good chance of improving him if he gets a Cas.

Claw is better than MB vs AV9 and slightly worse against AV8. It's not as good as MB, but you can take MB anytime. Wanna make the most effective roster right now? Ignore the double and take guard. Claw is a long-term investment that lets you build a team as bashy as any.

Prehensile tail gets much better when you have more guard as well.

Diving tackle really slows down SPP gain, but is a solid skill that wins games.

Decker_cky wrote:Claw is better than MB vs AV9 and slightly worse against AV8. It's not as good as MB, but you can take MB anytime. Wanna make the most effective roster right now? Ignore the double and take guard. Claw is a long-term investment that lets you build a team as bashy as any.

Prehensile tail gets much better when you have more guard as well.

Diving tackle really slows down SPP gain, but is a solid skill that wins games.

And just when I thought I was ready to make a choice you go and get me all confused again!

I like the sidestep suggestion. My Pact team has a guard lineman who rolled doubles, so I gave him sidestep to REALLY annoy the opposition.

landrover wrote:I like the sidestep suggestion. My Pact team has a guard lineman who rolled doubles, so I gave him sidestep to REALLY annoy the opposition.

Yeahm, but he can get Stand Firm which is about as good for his purposes.

I would say depending on how you want to use him, maybe consider Jump up. With the +2 AG roll to block, it allows the player to block someone without having to blitz them, and it really messes with people strategy. Especially if he is in the midst of a scrum near the ball carrier, it gives you one more block to open a hole to blitz someone more vital.

If not then Claw would be my next choice. Once he gets another skill he can become a big guy hunter with MB or even dauntless.

If you take claw, I'd give him MB next, but then I'd still take guard on him, since the team really needs a solid line of guards.

You are going to want one or two claw/MB players eventually.

Normally I would suggest taking Guard/MB in equal measure across your dwarves and getting claws later, but you got the double now and it is on a player who is likely to live long enough to get the Mb, so I would say go for it.

The Guard is only really needed at higher team values and the tricks like prehensile tail take a clear back seat to the bread and butter skills.

Diving Tackle gets my vote. But then I have a special hatred reserved for agility teams, and I love it when they fall on their faces after trying to prance around me.

Problem is getting the 'correct' skill combos. You want Mighty Blow and Claw to go together, and you want Stand Firm and Diving Tackle to go together. So if you want the Mighty Blow/Claw combo at some point, you need to take Claw early on the doubles (since you can't rely on a Mighty Blow player getting a double later on) - since all player benefit from Stand Firm.

So the choice is long term or short term. Short term, Diving Tackle 100%. Long term, Claw is a serious option.

Man, I confuse myself. I think the best way to put it is that if the first still rolls a double, get Claw, then get Mighty Blow next. If the double is later on (after you have Guard/Stand Firm), then get Diving Tackle.

*confuzzled*

~Andromidius

Go for the Tail, Claws ok but look past it for the long term gain once a few more blockers have gained skills you will have one helluva defence and be able to keep the ball safe and hinder "danger" players from getting onto positions they want.