Talk Fantasy Football

I'm reflecting on if I should get a thrower or an ulfwerener to my rather low developed norse team. The team is maxed out on positionals except for one ulfwerener and two throwers.

Mostly I want to know if a thrower is worth getting, will it only be a glorified lineman? On the other hand wolfmen are slow to develop, but at least they're strong.

Any good idea or experiences one way or the other?

If your one Ulf has Block, run-don't-walk to the Ulf store to get yourself another!

Throwers... meh, except at high levels. If you don't have a Sure Hands guy yet, the Thrower can be good once he gets there. Leader is another reason to take a Thrower: for the equivalent of being forced to take Pass as a regular skill, you save yourself 100k off the cost of a TRR.

mattgslater wrote:If your one Ulf has Block, run-don't-walk to the Ulf store to get yourself another!

That's why I have misgivings, he doesn't have block, and the troll doesn't have it either. With three blockless guys and three rerolls I don't know if they'll be more of a terror to my opponent or to myself

mattgslater wrote: Throwers... meh, except at high levels. If you don't have a Sure Hands guy yet, the Thrower can be good once he gets there. Leader is another reason to take a Thrower: for the equivalent of being forced to take Pass as a regular skill, you save yourself 100k off the cost of a TRR.

I am mainly considering him for Leader, since I already have a lineman with Sure Hands.

Maybe I'll just bank the sum and wait for something awful to happen..

The thing about Ulfs and Throwers is that they're both way better at the peak of their development than they are as rookies. But they won't hit their peak if you don't put them on the field. This is actually what makes the new Norse fun: in the old days, they were "in like a lion, out like a lamb," but with Ulfs and their risk/potential baggage, it's a little more nuanced now.

If you've got 13 or fewer players, you should hire one of the two so you can put them in the mix and get them some SPP. Either is fine; in a perpetual format, I'd start with the Ulf because he needs time to get Cas and hang out in the MVP mix, and the first skill on the Ulf is such a doozy (besides, he's not as unreliable as you'd think; ST4/Frenzy is great for placing assists to keep the Snow Troll at 3 dice, making life easier on your Loner). In a fixed format, I'd consider taking the Thrower first to get Leader; Pass and Leader will make it easier to skill the fast-but-clumsy Ulfs.

If you can get a game under your control in the first half, try to score with the Ulf in the second half. It's not what he's there for, but ST4/MA6 is always fun for handling the ball (easy to protect, for one thing... not unlike a BC), and a Re-Roll now will save a Re-Roll (and some decision-making) later. I wouldn't make a habit of it, but this guy really wants Block!

When you do get your Thrower, make an effort to score with him at least once, and get him making safe-ish Pass actions until he gets Leader.

I am leaning on the wolfman, even though in the short term he might be more detrimental than hiring nothing. Also, I'll have five frenziers and three without block, fun times ahead I'm used to reliability with lrb4 norse, dammit!

go with the Ulf. You are going to bash whereas you might not pass....

ST4 Frenzy is not that bad at all.

What does the rest of your team look like? How about your opposition? Got a Stand Firm Berserk to protect an Ulf as the ball-carrier? Like almost everybody else, the Ulfs are MA6 and can run if they have to; AG2 is a liability, but if you score with them to give them Block, you'll be breathing easier.

Not much synergy with skills yet: a runner with dodge, a berserker with guard and a couple linemen with sure hands and kick.

Opposition is more or less at the same development level and predominantly bashy (e.g. dwarves and lizardmen).

Haven't seriously considered giving hand-offs to ulfwereners yet, as they're not any faster than other players on the team. Might be worth a shot though, at least when they're a bit closer to getting a skill. After, all, I have played an ogre team and those hulking boneheads can play ball too, sort of

Get your ulfwereners asap. They are easily the best players in the team for their +ST & +AV.

Thrower for leader&later surehands (A ballcarrier with pass/block is better than a carrier with block). Then you can fire your lineman with SH, or use it as a backup in games where you face multiple strip ballers.

I'm personally wondering if I should get a kick-offreturn/Surehands/accurate thrower for oneturning with my MA8 runner. Seems like a longshot without kick-off-return, but is not very likely even WITH the skill.

I start with Ulfs and a Thrower for league Norse teams.

Thrower for Leader.

Ulfs as they are slow to skill.

PubBowler wrote:I start with Ulfs and a Thrower for league Norse teams.

Thrower for Leader.

Ulfs as they are slow to skill.

I've been toying with doing a similar team.

2 Ulfs: 220k
1 Thrower: 70k
8 Linos: 400k
3 TRRs: 180k
Sub: 870k

Remaining funds: 130k
Upgrade to Runner or Berserker: 40k
Upgrade to ST: 90k
Reserve: 50k

So... which is optimal, given that start?
2 Runners and reserve?
2 Berserkers and reserve?
1 each and reserve?
2 Runners, Berserker, 10k?
2 Berserkers, Runner, 10k?
ST, Runner?
ST, Berserker?

First a disclaimer: I have played only a handful of games with norse in LRB5, but plenty more on LRB4 before that.

I would probably go with either two runners and apo or a runner and snow troll.

Runners have proven themselves invaluable in a league where there is no shortage of strength 4 players (plenty of lizardmen and orcs). With dauntless it's quite easy to tip them over or push them away and when they get dodge, it's even better. As ball carriers they are difficult to knock over and can usually blitz themselves out of hairy situations. Having two players with move 7 does not hurt either.

Berserkers are nice too, jump up can deter follow-ups. But more often their frenzy means that they end their turn in a place where they will get pummeled, not an appealing prospect with AV7. Especially bad since my league has an abundance of dwarfs as well Ulfwereners have the same problem, but strength 4 and AV8 seems to help somewhat, even though they're the most unreliable players since they're blockless.

Frenzy is useful for clearing the wide zones, but if you opt for the snow troll and two berserkers, you'll have five frenzy players. So five players whose follow-ups can't be chosen which can mean placement problems.

I haven't had too much success with the snow troll yet, but everybody keeps telling how good it is, so that why I'm mentioning it as well. Seems a bit fragile with AV8 to put on the LOS and too unreliable with wild animal and no block to blitz with.

That's my experiences, so without knowing the opposition I'd go with the two runners, since you're taking the two ulfs.

I'm not an experienced Norse coach (or BB player in general), but the thing I've noticed with passing game is if you want to do it, you have to start early. I started my current league team with a Thrower and two Runners and have been developing them accordingly, and it's worked out quite well so far. Throwers may be glorified linemen, but they're way more reliable with just the Pass skill, and Sure Hands is an obvious 2nd pick in my book. Leader gets you a cheap midseason reroll, and you can experiment with things like Strip Ball and Tackle and such, although I usually save those for a 2nd Thrower if I ever get one.

(The reason I chose to go with a passing game instead of focusing on bash/running is that, at least with my league and my skill level, I seem to have a much better chance of actually scoring with a passing setup. I still prefer winning the actual game over injuring the hell out of everything, though on a good day Norse seem to be pretty capable of doing both at once.)

The Runners both have Dodge now, and are considering their next pick. Probably going to be something to either help the throwing even more (Catch, maybe Diving Catch) or a speed skill (probably Side Step, but maybe Sprint/Sure Feet). With Block and Dodge already, they're adequately defended against most threats (both Wrestle and Tackle seem fairly rare thus far into the league, though I'll have to see later).

My Snow Troll does well enough for herself on the LoS (usually near a wide zone), but the armor issue has been a bit of a problem. On the other hand, Claw and Disturbing Presence mess with cages trying to go through the middle (aka. the Orc and Dwarf coaches in my league) and midfield passes/handoffs (pretty much everyone else). Wild Animal is the least problematic of the negative traits, in my experience. Maybe it's the relative inexperience of most of the people in my league, but I rarely have a shortage of people to hit, and the 2+ roll isn't a bad thing for a simple block - I rarely have the blitz to spare, anyway. Mighty Blow upgrades Claw into a pretty dangerous can-opener, too; breaks anything on a seven. Having Claw and MB makes the lack of Block less problematic; even if we both go down, odds are the enemy's going to come out of it looking worse than the Snow Troll will.

I've started using the snowtroll as a one blitz/half kind of player. Never putting him on the los, as his armor is a problem and his lack of block makes him easier to knock down than a lineman.

Normally on offence I take the freeblocks, secure the ball, then blitz the troll between 2-3 (preference to ag2-3, st3-4, no block) players on the side of the pitch (saves an action, as he does not need an assist). Later on the round he blocks & takes blocks as the last action in any turn, attempting to move players towards the sidelines for surfs, or get those AV7 injury checks. Plan now is to get mighty blow with standfirm/guard as the obvious followup skills (he has caused an impressive 1 casualty, in 8 games now).

I'm starting to think mighty blow is worth most when combined with piling on or claw on the same player (with guard/stand firm being more useful, if no po/claw). That's why I have dedicated about half of my berserkers & ulfs going mb/PiOn/block with tackle/jump up kind of support skills.

The other half doing specialist stuff such as SF/Guard berserker and Wrestle/BT/Tackle ulf.

Have not really had many problems with abundant frenzy, but maybe this could become an issue vs all out guard or sidestep. In one game it did severely impair my options though, playing against a suicidal mass-committing of wood elven linemen&wardancers.

A runner with dodge + strip ball has been spectacular, in the few games he has attended uninjured.

Matt's team: I'd add an apoth & a spare lineman(100k). Or apoth + upgrade to runner x2 (130k).

On a sidenote. If you have a norse liner with guard, would you take dodge or stand firm or mighty blow if you got a 2nd double ?

McTavish wrote: (The reason I chose to go with a passing game instead of focusing on bash/running is that, at least with my league and my skill level, I seem to have a much better chance of actually scoring with a passing setup.

This surprises me.

The general consensus (that I'm aware of anyway) is that passing the ball is a much less successful option for all teams.

Better is the running play (possible with a quick pass alongside a hand off) where less agility dice rolled the better.

In fact the passing template seems almost universally referred to as the loser/losing template (if you have to use it, your already losing).