Shades of Green: Let's talk 1M Orc rosters

[mattgslater]

Orcs are so much fun. I've got a couple coaches with Orc teams, and a couple more who are considering going greenskin. The great thing about Orcs is that we could have three different Orc teams in a six-team league, and have no two that built or developed the same!

So what makes a good Orc roster? What makes good development?

The way I see it, the only non-negotiables are 4x Blitzer and 2x TRR; that's 440k, leaving 560k to hire 7 players. You could play speedy Orcs with fewer BOBs, or heavy Orcs with all four. Throwers, Trolls and Goblins are all worthwhile in any legal multiple, but all have their downsides. Linemen are good values too, but with so many positionals, some teams forgo them anyway. A third or fourth TRR is nice, but two is enough in a pinch, if you have a Thrower and four Blitzers. 11 men is fine, but a reserve or an Apoth makes for a pretty tough team. Do you agree with this?

How do you build your Orcs? I debate a whole bunch of builds in my head, but these are the ones I run:
* Troll, 4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, Thrower, Lineman, 2x TRR, 10k bank
* Troll, 4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, Thrower, Goblin, 2x TRR, 20k bank
* 4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, Thrower, Lineman, Goblin 3x TRR, 20k bank
* 4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, 2x Thrower, Lineman, Apoth, 2x TRR
I always ultimately aim to get all 10 Orc positionals, a Troll, a Lineman, an Apothecary and 3x TRR.

I've considered quite a few other builds:
Killy: Troll, 3x BOB, 4x Blitzer, 3x Lineman, 3x TRR
Skilly: 4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, 2x Thrower, Goblin, 3x TRR
Frilly: 4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, Thrower, Lineman, 3x Goblin, 2x TRR
Silly: Troll, 2x BOB, 4x Blitzer, Thrower, 4x Goblin, 3x TRR

What do you do?

Do you agree that Blitzers are de rigeur, or will you forgo a Blitzer if the money is right?
Do you start with a Troll, or do you build into him? Ever run a whole season without one? I did way back in the day, and it went pretty well. Do you cut your Troll if he doesn't double?
Throwers: is Sure Hands a necessity, or is AV8 a liability? Or rather, How do you see the balance?
Goblins: Love 'em or hate 'em?
How do you use your BOBs? Do you field them all the time? I find that at peak development I often have to bench one on offense, particularly against speed teams. Do you engineer TDs with them? Where do they go on defense? Are they your line? Your midfielders? Your wings? I often think of the Troll and the BOBs (and Ripper if I'm a big underdog) as a holistic unit on D, but as support pieces for ST3 on O.

[Grumbledook]

no true orc would play on a team with a goblin on!

[juck101]

I think Munkey and me both agree that orc throwers are made of fail.

However saying that until the team is rocking its wise to have a thrower to begin the teams development. It would appear the synergy that makes orc blitzers full of win is apparently not realised on game 1. All recent attempts to ignore the chuckers to start has made for a lower success rate and brought more short term problems.

So I would in fact suggest a thrower to start and wait for natural selection to take him away

[mattgslater]

Interesting. I like to build into two Throwers: one dedicated passer (Acc/KOR/Block; SA on doubles), so I can get back onto defense, and one free safety (Block/Leader/Acc; Dodge on doubles) to hawk the ball. Both are invariably star players by the end of season, but neither is an SPP hog: most of their scores and Comps are ones you wouldn't have attempted without a Thrower. But yeah, until you get a bunch of Mighty Blow and Stand Firm, and either Guard or Block on most of the BOBs, they're hard to protect.

I don't think they're that much softer than linos. For one thing, they're easy to get Block on. They suffer some damage, but it's nice to have that extra gear, to be sure you can cage at midfield, or to know you can use your TRR engineering a scrum and still go in to pick up without hurting your chances. Throwers also help you improve players, by letting you engineer more TDs for your Blitzers. They do get targeted, especially if you're not the Goblin type (or if you keep them in reserves, fielding a Thrower and Lino on defense).

@juck101: Do you take Sure Hands on Blitzers? How many? I used to do that, too. What skills do you take along with SH?

[mubo]

You missed:
4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, Thrower, 2 Lineman, 3x TRR, 10k bank.
Which I think is the most conventional. The 8 80k players are fantastic value.
Apo then troll probably first purchases. Goblins can be worthwhile, but would save until #13.

[mamapepe]

You missed:
4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, Thrower, 2 Lineman, 3x TRR, 10k bank.

The one I'd go with

[Grumbledook]

+1 not starting with 3 rerolls is madness

sure not starting with the troll means he is less likely to get an mvp but considering most players just stick them on the LOS and that's it, no big deal

also means you don't start with such an unreliable player while most of your team has no skills yet

[mattgslater]

Straight-up oversight on my part. That template basically works as follows:
4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, 1x Thrower, 2x TRR, plus
a) (1x Troll or [1x Lineman and 1x TRR]) and
b) ([1x Goblin and 20k Treas] or (1x Lineman and 10k Treas).

I've run all four variants, with success in all cases. The Lineman+RR and Gobbo+20k combo is the weakest, IMO: if I'm running a Gobbo, I want a Troll to balance out the ST gap.

To Troll or not to Troll depends on your relationship to the D-line. I like to make sure I can dominate in the one thing I can, as early as possible. Also, if my Troll is takin' suckaz out early, he's improving fast and taking pressure off my BOBs and Blitzers. Orcs don't need a ton of TRRs. They have so much Block and SH, and such an easy time getting 3d later in a drive. But yeah, that third TRR is very nice.

Another, related question. How many linos do you run at full Orc development? I know one coach who likes to roster four of them, but usually I'll peak out with just one.

[Digger Goreman]

I haven't played Orcs in a long time, but like this lineup:

4 Blitzers
4 BlOrcs
1 Thrower
2 Gobbos
3 rerolls

Put either Blitzers or BlOrcs on the line and cage with the others.... Use the Thrower to gather the ball and the Gobbos as fail-safes to break out and score! Imho, Goblins put the Orcs into the "much better than average" category....

Buy the Troll as a fun option, later in the season....

[Smeborg]

Last season I had a lot of fun with the following starting roster:

4 Blitzers
2 Throwers
4 Linos
4 Gobbos
3 Re-rolls

Just buy an Apoth after your first or second game, and the roster is complete.

[stashman]

Here is the Ultimate Green Cheeze

4 Black Orcs (ST4)
4 Blitzers (Block)
3 Goblins (Dodge)
4 Rerolls (always good to have and cheap at the start)

Here you have Block skilled players, Dodge skilled players and ST4 players with 4 rerolls to use on pick-ups, blocks etc.

After first game, just sack the goblins!!! (maybe not if you got MVP or spps) Then depending on your opponents team, just use 3 Lone Lineman for LOS fodder or stick to a chainsaw, or maybe a skilled Lineorc.

It's cheeze as hell

[juck101]

related to above point...

Sure hands is great on a blitzer once the team gets rolling. Probably more important is a couple of other blitzer skills to get the side performing imho. ie guard and maybe some block BOBs.

Once the side is able to click as a unit the SH is just icing on a decent cake. The chucker just ties you over till the side becomes a unit

[stashman]

Save cash for a Thrower and don't get sure hands on a blitzer. In 2-3 games there will be cash for a thrower!!!

[Marlow]

You missed:
4x BOB, 4x Blitzer, Thrower, 2 Lineman, 3x TRR, 10k bank.

I go with this or one lineo, one Goblin. First think I buy is the medic and then save up for Troll and second thrower.

[mattgslater]

4 Blitzers
4 BlOrcs
1 Thrower
2 Gobbos
3 rerolls

30k Treasury? Me likey. Alternately, two Throwers, one Goblin and no Treasury.