Style of Play

[Smurf]

After discussions with many of you, there seems a big difference in the styles of play.

Lincombe Barn's league has many mixed abilities.

What is noticable is the lack of fouling, although it is creeping in.

The cage is seldom successful and is often broken within 2 or 3 turns.

The half cage on the wing is also no longer successful either with the use of deeper defences.

Ball control is paramount, moving the ball about and keeping the defence wrong footed.

After we over 200 games the league witnessed it's first draw between skaven and pro elves. The pro elves should have won but did not perform and on the overtime the skaven refused to throw the ball (don't know why) and lost the initiative and result was 4 all.

From what I have heard so far, other people tend to play a more 'grinding' game. Whereas it is hard to get that in our league unless you are playing 'grindy' teams.

[voyagers_uk]

Can you give us a break-down of

the teams in use in your league?
the TV's ?
the style of play of their particular coach?
how many games in your season?
any special house rules?

thanks

[Grumbledook]

I cage/grind/stall with pretty much every race

Don't foul very often though

[mattgslater]

Yeah, down here we find the team mix we play with makes backfield caging highly ineffective. In fact, the last time I had an opponent cage up and drive for a slow score without the play busting up (regardless of outcome) was two years ago.

The secret to running the ball effectively seems to be similar to the secret to effective running in football: get all the action going one way, then have the guy with the ball (and a couple blockers) go against the grain.

[Grumbledook]

The secret to running the ball effectively seems to be similar to the secret to effective running in football: get all the action going one way, then have the guy with the ball (and a couple blockers) go against the grain.

That is just standard effective good cage play surely.

[voyagers_uk]

"Colonials"

[Carnis]

League 2nd year ongoing, generally there seems to be only 2 style of effective plays.

70% of players: The slow grind is usually 2-1 (2 slow grind goals, 1 quick "agility" score) or 1-0 (defensive score on turn 16, or turn8 score and draw 2nd round). This averages about 4+ CAS for the winner, if he gets less its more likely a loss or a draw. Foul every turn. Defence purely based on manpower.

30% of players: The quick pass game (defensive score every time there's an opportunity, score TDs in 2-4 turns, try OTTs). Game usually ends 3-1, 3-2, against a rookie. Against a grinder this can turn into a 1-2 or a 0-1. Against another quickpasser its anybodys game with average around 4-3 or 3-4 even. Defence is based on blodge/strip, leap etc. Def very hard vs guarded up surehands (i.e. dwarves), but when you make it he has absolutely no way to recover.

The slowgrind has been way better win% wise. Also easier to implement. Grinding is tough vs high blodge, or high AV and no claw, but usually you never see high AV and high MA in the same package (except high elves maybe).

League winners have split in the opposite ratio though:
Spike: Grinding Dwarves (Highly succesful wood elves dropped out before play offs)
Dungeon: Passing High Elves
Chaos cup: Passing High Elves (same team!)

Seems an agi team can usually control single games vs similar value bashers in our league (by taking long-term damage for TDs).

[mattgslater]

My experience says that the grind game is easier than the finesse game, and is based primarily on more fundamental skills like blocking and risk management. The finesse game is spectacular and fun, and if the finesse coach has all the skills, his finesse team will do stuff that others can only look at and shrug. But it's a whole lot less forgiving. I got good on Orcs, and then switched to a whole lot of teams, and now I'm definitely more dangerous with elves than anything else. Had I tried to do it the other way, I probably would have migrated to a different hobby.

[sunnyside]

From what I have heard so far, other people tend to play a more 'grinding' game. Whereas it is hard to get that in our league unless you are playing 'grindy' teams.

Um. I would say that it's hard to get a grinding game unless you're playing a grindy team in any league.

I would say that grinding cage play is one of those things that's easy to learn, and incredibly difficult to master. I wonder if the issue is that in your league you lack any grinding masters and so nobody sees the skills in use and so doesn't develop in that direction.

Specifically the issue is your comment about the cage failing in 2-3 turns. I think everyone agrees that a finesse team with a pile of offense based skills is incredible and can be extremely difficult to keep out of the endzone. The counter to that has to be the ability of the other team to stall and score or to cause so much carnage that even the skaven have difficulty getting in a fast touchdown.

My league is a perpetual league using the current rules where you have team values ranging from under 100TR to over 200TR. With teams usually playing teams with similar TVs. All races have some degree of representation, and finess certainly can do well, but I'd say most lean towards a more cagey style.

Note that heavier armor and regen do well in this setting as you don't lose so many players. I'm thinking my Norse teams might wind up perpetually at the lower end of the TR scale.

[mattgslater]

There are all kinds of grinds and cages, and they're not all for bashy teams. If my High Elves can draw a slow team into my backfield and then get the ball downfield in the first half, I may well stall out for a turn or two, wait for his speedier guys to get in, then knock one down and foul him. It's caging, but it's also passing. I did this to a Necromantic team last week to the tune of 5-2. I also knocked out a 2-1 grindy game against an Undead team with a massive gob of ST increases, by forcing the Mummies and Zombies to commit their way out of the action and keeping it between almost my whole team and his five Ghouls/Wights.

[Smurf]

Can you give us a break-down of

the teams in use in your league?
the TV's ?
the style of play of their particular coach?
how many games in your season?
any special house rules?

thanks

I've almost finished the 20 teams and their stats, I'll try and post it soon.

[Smurf]

Code: Select all

#	Rating	Won 	Played	Team V	Cas	TDs	HoF	Race	Name
1	178	10	10	1780000	15	36		Wood Elf	Cyder City
2	205	8	9	1640000	13	26	1	Skaven	Warped Lightning
3	205	8	10	1640000	22	22		Orc	The Runny Noses
4	209	8	11	1670000	13	24	1	Dark Elf	Nagging Nightmares
5	243	6	10	1460000	12	29	2	Skaven	Rattsburg Stealers
6	244	7	9	1710000	9	22		High Elf	Pensée
7	294	5	9	1470000	4	10		Vampire	Red Cross
8	302	6	10	1810000	8	33		Pro Elf	Pan's Pixies
9	326	5	10	1630000	10	13		Human	Nuns on the Run!
10	330	5	10	1650000	17	11		Orc	Downend Orcboyz
11	380	4	9	1520000	17	9	1	Necromantic	Dead On Arrival
12	408	4	10	1630000	9	18	1	Norse	Odin's Oddballs
13	560	3	11	1680000	12	14		Human	Neptune's Sharks
14	613	3	11	1840000	23	13		Chaos Dwarf	Brimestone Bulls
15	710	2	8	1420000	7	11		Human	The Cathay Kickers
16	745	2	8	1490000	10	9		Skaven	The Darkclaw Doppelhamstufels
17	1500	1	10	1500000	34	11	1	Chaos	Young Mutants Chaos Association
									
									
	487	3	10	1460000	12	15		Lizard Men	Spawned Specials
	365	4	10	1460000	13	6		Dwarf	Friz Free Beardz
	1430	1	10	1430000	4	8		Elf	 Moss Valley Morning-Stars

Note that
Cyder City and YMCA is the same coach
Warp Lighting and The Runny Noses is the same coach
Ratsberg Stealers and Nuns on the Run is the same coach
Pan's Pixies and Odin's Oddballs is the same coach
Downend Orc boyz and Dead on Arrival is the same coach
Brimestone Balls and Moss Valley Morning stars is the same coach

These are 2 leagues amaglamated. We are adding a third with a leader board ladder climb.

[grampyseer]

It's funny you bring up the "different styles" observation.

I noticed the same thing when i started playing with a different league. Everyone played....strangely.

The 3,4,4 defense was pure magic, as none of them had seen it.....and strong cage play just wasn't there.


Do many of your league members play in the tourney circuits? Maybe the idea of a maxed out risk management system is a bit foreign......I mean, that's all caging is.....right?

[Smurf]

No we haven't hit the tournee scene yet, we are looking to do it this year.

[Pug]

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