Starting Dark Elf Team

[burglarboycie]

Hi all,
I am looking into using a Dark Elf team in a small league with a few friends (using lrb6) but i'm struggling to come up with a roster i'm happy with!
Could anyone offer any advice please?
Thanks
James

[Oxynot]

There's a sticky post just for situations like this. At least as a starting point

viewtopic.php?f=25&t=21038

[burglarboycie]

Thanks for the link.
I've noticed from reading through those teams, and most others i've come across that no-one bothers with loads of fan factor. I have always opted for quite a lot. How come no-one else bothers?
James

[Oxynot]

The concise explanation:

In previous version of the rules, fan factor had a big impact in your income. With the current rules, not that much. Other fringe benefits from high FF are not worth it.

[burglarboycie]

I might try a low fan factor with this team then and see how i get on.
I guess that not spending on f/f will free up funds to spend on the damn expensive elves!!
James

[mattgslater]

I've noticed ... that no-one bothers with loads of fan factor. I have always opted for quite a lot. How come no-one else bothers?

1) One of the major reasons in old rules for starting with a high FF was that FF translated to per-match winnings at a semi-consistent rate of about 2.3k per match (1d6/15 x 10k, on a steep bell curve). Now you can only "buy" your way into +1 Winnings with FF; shooting for FAME 2 is a bad bargain, and there's nothing beyond that.

2) Using FF to boost your Winnings was important because Treasury added to TR, so you always wanted to stay broke. But with TV, it doesn't matter, so you can stockpile to get all your positionals or TRRs or to replace key losses.

3) Back then, you had to replace dead linemen with whatever you could afford; if you had 9 guys and 70k in the bank, well, that meant you had 10 guys and were broke. But now, you get Journeymen, so you can just hoard cash to buy positionals, even if guys are dropping left and right. This makes it even easier to hoard cash, and takes pressure off of things that generate Winnings.

4) In the new rules, low FF makes FF easy to gain and hard to lose, while high FF makes FF hard to gain and easy to lose.

5) Big FF differences usually translate to small kickoff table differences, by comparison to the old days. There more permutations that use FF (13 vs. 9), but a) most of them are now about a re-roll, and b) FF is at best a little over half-power by comparison (that is, FF4 buys about an average +1 net FAME, which is kind of like +2 on twice the die roll).

6) Back in the day when your opponent's FF added to winnings, FF was particularly valuable in open formats, because it would attract opposition. But now, a low FF adds to your opponent's winnings instead, so a high FF will actually get you less action.

FF was overrated even when it was de rigeur (the extra 80k or whatever in player and TRR value was better than winning the kickoff table, and over time would save you money). Now it's a "meh" bargain at 1-2 points, and a bad buy beyond that. Since you don't need any at all, you can probably do better just by banking cash in Treasury to make your early purchases, especially if you don't start with an Apothecary (also not a critical starting piece like it once was, for very similar reasons).

[Smurf]

We play we free ff.

Normally a new team starts with 0 and gains a FF win or lose up to 5, then we start rolling. It's to get newbies into the habit of the various bits of the game.

[burglarboycie]

Thanks very much guys.

[Joemanji]

Standard roster IMO is 3 Blitzers, 1 Witch Elf, 7 Linemen & 2 RRs. But you could swap the WE for another Blitzer and upgrade a lineman to Runner. WEs are awesome though, benefit from being skilled early.

[DiddleySquat]

I prefer 4 Blitzers, 1 Runner, 6 Linemen, 2 RR a lot over 3 Blitzers, 1 Witch Elf, 7 Linemen, 2RR.

Reasons:
1) If you want a Runner on your team, you want him from the start. They really can use 2 or 3 skills before they start to shine. If you start with the 3 BLZ and 1 WE line-up, your first purchases will be the Apothecary, then 4th Blitzer and 2nd WE, probably a 3rd reroll and only then maybe a Runner. That's only after 50K+100K+110K+50K+80K= 390K winnings you'll have your first rookie Runner!
2) 7 Linemen is just too much. There will be times you even find 6 to be one in excess.
3) Witch Elves are indeed great, so it may be tempting to start with one, but I find team progression much more harmonious when you just make them your 1st and 2nd purchase. With Dodge, 7MA (and even Jump Up) from the start, they are great scorers. Block or Wrestle as you prefer, and they can do their thing.

You could play without Runners on your team, but I find them very useful. Key skill is obviously Dump-off.
In offense you have great security to keep possession. With that increased security, you have great clock control. Maybe even the best of all teams.
In defense, when you steal the ball, it's rare for any team to get into a solid position. If you can't score in the same turn or don't have the speed/position to get out of reach of the other team, Dump-Off will help you to keep that stolen ball out of the opponent's reach, increasing your odds of a defensive TD.

[The Painted Goblin]

I've recently reset my DE team to include all 4 blitzers and a WE - I managed to squeeze a runner in there too, but at the expense of a RR

Gutsy? Yes
Stupid? Probably - but I'm not a huge fan of the "anything but a 1" side of BB, so I intend to play the elves in the same way as I do my job:- i.e. it's very highly skilled but make a mistake and you're stuffed

It makes elves interesting to me