Newbie on the rock (from chess)

[azerty]

Hi everyone,

I am new on playing "fantasy football ". I have discovered the game with the digital one (Cyanide) and I must admit I love the concept. I am a chess player and I got a lot of questions for you, experienced successfull players.

I hope I can get some help to stop feeding my online partners teams.

Here are my questions :

1- Where can I find some rosters strategies for league ? I mean when you begin with a new fresh team of 1000TV, I sure would love to see some "race guides" about how to manage the team (and how to develop the players skills to match the strategy). It seems there is a lot of informations about tournament rosters here, what about league ?

2- Where can I find precious informations about units placement at the beginning of a game ? Like in US football, I am sure there is a lot of tactic (and counter) I am missing. Each tactic must get a purpose and it must suit to your team and the opponent's team. I can't find any topic on this, I should have searched with the wrong words or by the wrong way.

3- As my goal is to become a very good "Fantasy Football coach", which advices can you give to a rookie like me to help to improve his skills ? Which recommandations would you have loved to get when you began ?

4- Which are the "must-see" websites about BB strategy to bookmark ?

Thanks to everyone for making talkfantasyfootball.org a living forum. The discussions you get about the game make me want to know more about it.

Best Regards,
Az.

[Darkson]

1. viewforum.php?f=25

4. http://bbtactics.com/

Have fun, and expect to lose a lot of your precious free time.

[Joemanji]

3- As my goal is to become a very good "Fantasy Football coach", which advices can you give to a rookie like me to help to improve his skills ? Which recommandations would you have loved to get when you began ?

The main difference for a coach coming from chess might be that in BB there is no "best" option. The random element of dice means that even a stupid strategy can work sometimes. However, usually it won't, and so the most important skill in BB is risk management. Know when to do lots of safe things, but also know when to go for broke. The time pressure of a BB turn (even if only passive) means that the second most important skill is pattern recognition. Through experience you need to discover the best way to place your models in any given situation, and be able to replicate it quickly.

But mainly, play lots of games and have fun! The best way to improve though is to play people who are better than you and watch what they do. Losing has its benefits.

[TuernRedvenom]

Two points from me:
1. If you're coming from chess you need to realise that sometimes the dice will decide the game. The closer your skill level is to the opponent the more this will happen. I know some chess players that have a hard time coping with this.
2. In chess there is no excuse when you lose. In BB there's always an easy excuse: the dice. This may seem to contradict with point 1, but if you use this excuse every time you lose you won't improve your game. Often good coaches seem like lucky bastards to lesser ones, but if you analyze their games the good ones simply know when it's the right moment to take risks and when to play it safe and can position themselves to take advantage optimally when the statistical outlier inevitably comes around in a game.

[Smurf]

Close games can be decided by wrong choices more than bad chance. But chance does play role unlick chess.

Play the actual board game. It is more fun, just like chess. The Cyanide game is a bit of fun but often the CPU lacks urgency and that does shape the game.

[azerty]

Hi,

Thanks for your answers.

I am ok with the luck factor. Like in Poker, sh.. happens !

And in the long-term run, playing favorites move (and secure ones) must be rewarded.

I am looking for my perfect roster. Which team do you think that dictate the flow of the game ? Which one can pressure a lot the other one ? I am more a white chess player (which got initiative) than the defenser's one (like dwarves for example).

I will play exclusively in leagues so Long-Term teams are very good for me.

Chaos seems fun and polyvalent at high level of xp. Orcs seems classic and are well-rounded. Elves are so great (I love the Wardancer) but are so weak... I would feel too bad to lose many players each games. Undead seems well rounded, and may be one of my choice despite the fact I would love to get more strengh player.

I am not sure to get the board game now, I will look for it later.

[burgun824]

The general rule of thumb is that Orcs and Undead are the two most forgiving newbie teams. Humans are really forgiving in early development but can be hard to manage in the long run. I always suggest people that are new to the game to start with one of these two teams.

Plasmoid has posted some good team playbooks here:

http://www.plasmoids.dk/bbowl/LRB6Playbooks.htm

[azerty]

Thanks for your insight burgun824.

I played orcs since my little BB beginning. I think I will try Undead, stick with orcs for the next season league and play other rosters for fun with my friends.

Gotta read some strategy articles about units placement and cage/breaking cage.

[inkpwn]

Welcome to the forum enjoy your stay



I agree with with burgun undead or orc.

[burgun824]

Gotta read some strategy articles about units placement and cage/breaking cage.

I don't know what that strategy guide is going to say for Undead but what I've seen used effectively is to get a ghoul with block ASAP. Then give him the ball and tuck him up behing your mummies and wights. After you've punished the opposition with your heavy hitters for a few turns and thouroughly annoyed him with a swarm of idiot zombies then walk it into the end zone. The idea being the blodging ghoul will give you good protection on the ball and you're forcing your opponent to attack him inside where all of your muscle is....which is something your opponent will undoubtedly be trying to avoid.

As for cage breaking you'll just have to be patient and not give up your positioning on the field. Always remember that your field postion is more important then prematurely attacking the ball carrier (something that I sadly forget ALL THE TIME ). It's much more fun to beat up on the dangling Chads while your opponent watches his team get decimated anyway.

Oh...and here's a personal tactic I employ. Know when your going to be scored on and judge whether it's really that important to press the ball carrier on a stall (if you don't know what this means, you will soon enough). If the other guy thinks he's going to hang out in front of the end zone for a few turns to chew up the clock and you're still going to have time to score to take the lead back, let him sit there. He'll probably pull a few goons back to help protect the ball carrier to ensure the TD at which point you'll most likely have the advantage back up field where you can start working his players over and adminstering some key fouls. You'll find that most times this will force him to go ahead and score sooner then he wants to and you'll likely have removed a few more of his players from the field...hopefully permanently.

[azerty]

Reading UD and ORCs articles.

Always remember that your field postion is more important then prematurely attacking the ball carrier

I will.

Reading cage/cage breaking articles on bbtactics.com.

I have just got BB LE, I can't wait to find a lovely European league and play in it.