Talk Fantasy Football

A fellow poster (Steel-Eagle) and myself have come up with a Norse Barbarian to add into the mix on the norse team. We felt that the Norse team was a bit lacking over the long haul as they tend to get stomped by Amazon teams over a long season. Amazons have access to block and dodge for every player and in the latter parts of the season, the Norse can't knock an Amazon over regardless of what they try to do. Sooo Steeleagle and I came up with what we felt would allow a little more hitting power to the team... A berserking Norse Barbarian. It still stays within the flavor of the team but it also gives the Norse a little more punch in the latter parts of the season where they need it. We welcome all comments while we playtest and refine the position. The cost of the player was made using the standard BB cost determination sheet.

Here are the specifics of the position.

0 – 2 Norse Barbarian

Cost: 100,000 gcs

MV ST AG AV
6 4 1 7

Special Skill: Barbarian Rage

Skills: None.

Traits: Dauntless, Frenzy

Skill Access: General, Strength

Barbarian Rage
At the start of your barbarian’s declared action roll a d6. On a 2 – 6 the barbarian may complete the declared action as normal. On the roll of a 1 he flies into a barbarian rage. His team will lose the declared action for the turn. The barbarian however gains a free blitz action where he must throw a block at the nearest player. However, unlike a normal blitz action his turn ends as soon as the block is completed regardless of the results of the block (the rules for frenzy still apply however.) A barbarian in a rage cannot differentiate between friend or foe. Any model close to him is fair game. If 2 or more targets are equidistant from the barbarian you must randomize which player will be the victim of the barbarian’s wrath. The rage lasts until the barbarian is knocked down, a touchdown is scored, or at the end of the half.

Hi leblanc,
welcome on board

If you want to read a long discussion on norse power, check this out:
viewtopic.php?t=10321

Other than that, I would have to say that a lot of people don't like rules that require homemade skills (such as Barbarian Rage). You could use Wild Animal if you wanted something already covered by the rulebook.

Secondly, if you want to create your own skill, I believe that "gift" blitzes is a definate no-no. I believe that gift blitzes was the main reason that the old wild animal was changed.

Good luck with the norse
Martin

<announcer's voice>

Do you you coach Norse?

Do you have problems with those pesky Amazons, dodging all over the place?

Do you wish the Norse had something that could level the playing field against them?

LOOK NO FURTHER!

Here we have a lovely skills and traits table. Looking for a skill? Take a look at the General skills. Why not try TACKLE (TM). It has the wonderful effect of both converting the dreaded exclamation mark to a POW, AND when those darn dodgers run away, then WHAM! They fall to the ground!

With the entire Norse team already having Block, what other skill would YOU choose?

----------End commercial----------

I already thought of using wild animal, however in it's current form it is almost useless.

As far as the Barbarian Rage special skill, I thought that it would help defeat putting the player in the backfield as a safety. You would obviously want to send the player onto your opponents side of the pitch before the Rage set in to avoid having your players pummeled by one of your own. Also with the AV 7 on his profile he would tend to draw alot of attention from the opposing side until he was kicked or knocked out of action.

I thought it would be fun to include an unpredictable player or two on the team.

If there are future changes to Wild Animal that would make it into a more viable skill I would absolutely consider using it instead of the current special skill that my friend and I came up with.

Thanks for the thoughts. Look forward to hearing from more of you out there.

Thanks for the suggestion Baron, however I find that if you have too many tackling norse, you start to have problems dealing with other teams that don't have as many dodgers.

My friend and I were just comparing the Norse and Amazon teams side by side and the Amazons are just better than the Norse all around. The Amazons all have access to block and dodge. The Norse do not (only the catchers have access without rolling doubles.) The Amazons have the same profile as the Norse so no advantage/disadvantage there. However the Amazons have access to 40,000gc rerolls while the Norse rerolls cost 60,000gcs.

It's true that the Norse have access to big guys and the amazons do not, but I find that ogres usually bonehead at the worst possible time and in my opinion the Minotaur is all but useless with the current incarnation of the Wild Animal skill.

The both have access to decent star players in Thrud and Zara, so that is not really a problem.

I just find that overall a team that starts with dodge is usually better off than a team that starts with block (unless of course you're talking about the dwarves which come with block and tackle on the longbeards.)

Thanks for the response Baron!

In my experiance playing against norse their main strength is in their blitzers. A Norse blitzer should be able to eat an amazon one any day! Sure the dodge reduces the chance of a knock down but you still get a second go.

Adding the barbarioan takes away the symetry of the two teams. Would giving all the Human teams 50K rerolls be out of balance?

Not sure if Norse need cheaper re-rolls but it is a consideration.

Amazon teams should definately go up to 50k IMO and could bear being up to 60k if you want to level the playing field without dropping the Norse RR cost.

I know how you feel about tackle but there are plenty of teams out there that have a few players with Dodge, usually enough to make a few tacklers a good investment for a bashy team, especially combined with Mighty Blow.

Duff is right about the Norse Blitzers, they are the teams best asset. Look out for Amazons near the sidelines, if you can't knock them over then just use Frenzy to shove them off the pitch and see how they like that

I agree that the Norse Blitzers are by far the best skilled blitzers in the game to begin with, but their AV 7 makes it very hard to keep them in the game. Usually they spend the majority of the game in the knocked out or KO'd box. I guess the same could be said about the Norse Barbarian I've listed here though.

I also agree that having a few tacklers can be advantageous, however a few tacklers tend to become the first targets of the all players on the teams that rely on Dodge. With an AV 7 that means they will not have a long term impact on the game unless you take a lot of them. To me, creating too many tacklers destroys the diversity of a team. You basically become a specialist at taking out Blodgers (Block/Dodge combination), however you make yourself a less diverse team that is unable to cope with the other teams that you will face.

I think honestly that in order to make the Norse more viable they need to have AV 8 perhaps and cost 10,000gcs more per model. This would account more for their natural toughness while allowing them more survivability over the long haul of league play.

I guess that I have gotten a bit off topic here.

Anyway I appreciate the feedback that I have gotten so far.

leblanc13 wrote:If there are future changes to Wild Animal that would make it into a more viable skill I would absolutely consider using it.

Pop quiz ... do you know what the WA rule is going to be in the LRB 3.0?

Galak

I am aware of the proposed rule, however I will wait to see it in print before making a decision about using it. The new rule seems much better than the old rule.

Does anyone know the release date of LRB 3.0?

leblanc13 wrote:To me, creating too many tacklers destroys the diversity of a team. You basically become a specialist at taking out Blodgers (Block/Dodge combination), however you make yourself a less diverse team that is unable to cope with the other teams that you will face.

Guess you're not over the moon about playing in a league with Amazons then

I hate Amazons with their current incarnation. I feel that they are too good.

They ARE good, but not too good. Has anyone ever been scared to play against an amazon team? But facing a team with all that block (norse) to start is a daunting prospect. As an amazon player - if a norse blitzer went down anywhere near my girls I would kick the hell out of him! Repeatedlly and as often as necessary to remove him.

After 11 games it is true that now I have 9 block/dodgers and the norse don't seem so scary...but I do agree that 40k re-rolls IS too cheap. As a human-based team the amazons start with a nice skill set (pass/catch/block on the throwers/catchers/and blitzers respectively) and of course, dodge, on the whole team. Once the amazon team develops and aquires block, the things that any team spends re-rolls on (failed blocks, dropped passes, and picking up the ball) are taken care of and the re-rolls are gravy.

First thought after reading title of topic: Toby? Again?

R

I know what you mean Redfang but this one seems to have had much more thought put into it than Toby's version and it's not weighed down by the usual Toby baggage of an additional 100 pages of rules changes to make it work.

I think it's a bit harsh to compare the two TBH.