Carnis wrote:I would rate the guard-team always higher, simply because they bring in so much more effective str (with extra assists) into the match. Same with the troll, bringing him is +2 effective str on the field.
If you can win the ST war consistently, you're happy. You start with 39 ST points, 98 AV points and a reserve, more AV than anybody-bar-none and more ST than any team that doesn't have massive limitations (like no Block, or no AG3 and a bunch of AV7). If you don't out-ST any opponent you're facing all the time, it's either your fault or a freak coincidence. So all or almost all of your blocks should be 2d whether you take one guy with Guard or six. Not to say you shouldn't take any, but in this format skills are precious and on this team ST is not so precious.
Why I would put the guards on the blitzers? 3 Reasons : 1 mobility 2 block 3 S3. A S4 player can tie down a player solo, no need for guard.
If you put a BOB and a Blitzer next to each other in a formation (pretty common), and the Blitzer has Guard, the BOB is unhittable until the Blitzer gets pushed, but it's comparatively easy to get a single assist on the Blitzer and send him down or back, and then get 2d on the BOB. If the BOB has Guard, then they're both effectively ST4. The first block is 1d. The opponent will go for the BOB first, but you need Block or it's really dicey. Stand Firm also works here, but in reverse.
On your turn, it's the Blitzer who needs the assist, not the BOB. The BOB will get 2 dice either way (he needs 3 assists to get 3d most of the time, and that's not worth gaming for, and you should never have to give up assists on your own blocks with an Orc team), so Guard on the Blitzer is no benefit to the BOB. If neither has a skill, then you save yourself the need to engineer an assist by blocking with the BOB first, but if you don't have a TRR or Block, it's a little spooky until the end of your turn, 'cause the Blitzer's 35/36 action is hanging on the BOB's 8/9. If the BOB has Guard, however, the Blitzer gets to hit with 2d, taking his comparatively safe action before the BOB's riskier one. Block is even better in that case, of course, as the BOB can go first without any extra risk. You'll also get more knockdowns.
BOBs are also better than Blitzers for protecting your Troll. A Troll needs only 2 assists to block with 3d. Blitzers with Guard will tend to get knocked away, unless you gave your Troll Guard (that is, not Block).
Frenzy is very situational, stand firm over guard blitzers just doesn't make any sense to me at all.
Frenzy is not all that situational. Or rather it requires any of several situations, one or more of which you can engineer over and over. Stand Firm deals with high MA or Frenzy, shutting out the WZ to narrow the field or prevent OOB pushes. It's also good against bash, as it lets you immobilize cages, fronting on them with Blitzers and digesting them with Frenzy-Boy, the BOBs and the Troll. It's also good on offense, as it lets you seal out the outside front of your cage with rugged, immovable potential scorers. A Stand Firm Blitzer and a Guard BOB is a wall of doom, especially if the Blitzer is manning the outer edge.
The reason troll with block is golden is he cannot reroll his blocks, so effectively without block he cannot block. Getting that turnover chance from 1/9 to 1/36 makes taking a troll worthwhile, and more.
Agree. But it costs
two skills. That's scary. If it were 40k per match cumulative and the double cost 30k, then that would be different as you'd be able to take another double later. But it's two skills or one double. And a Troll is such a great noseguard, and Guard is better than Block on the nose. It makes it very hard to knock BOBs off of him, minimizing the impact of Really Stupid (Block or Stand Firm on at least one BOB is great here, as is SS on a Goblin to a lesser extent).
Why not take Block on BOBs? That also reduces your chance of turnover. In fact, it does it better: there's a 1/6 chance the Troll will fail without turnover every time he does everything, and on top of it, this same chance will eliminate his TZ, which usually prompts people to take block actions late with the Troll so as to use his assist while he's got it. So you're tempted to block with the BOBs first. So they're more likely to cost you actions on a skull-out, meaning you get better dividends from reducing their chance to skull. Not only that, but it only costs one skill.
But if you take a Block Troll, put him at end and take a Guard BOB (nose) and a SF BOB (end) next, and everyone will hate you forever. With Orcs, it all starts on the line.
