Swindon Elfball League kicks off!

[Spiky]

I think I'm starting to get the hang with Valkyries a bit now, I've scored in my last 3 games so I have several players now one experience point away from levelling up.

I won 2-0 against Andy's Pharoahs last night - I managed to get my Ice Troll into a central position for both tests and used him to feed players through the centre of the pitch. In the below shot you can see my strikers centrally protected by the troll and a hunter on each wing, which seemed to work well for me. The Troll is the only Monster currently in the league, so it will be interesting when some of the other players swap to teams with Monsters... I guess he's going to get bullied a bit when that happens.



Conditional successes make things a bit harder, but kept my Troll in the game at least twice, as Charon had momentum on for the Grit challenge but the effect is lessened considerably

I think I'll be playing Martyn's Ratmen (or a new team) next, hopefully picking up some abilities before facing Mike's Desert Dogs

I'll keep using the Valks until they're fully painted at least, then I might swap to maybe Pharoahs as I need to finish them. The Pharoahs haven't done well in the hands of UK players yet (maybe they should be Mike's next tourney team? )

The league is great though, we have a good group of players and you can be as merciless with the team as you want without feeling bad about it

[sann0638]

Nice picture! I'm planning the Dogs for the next tournament, as a shovey team hasn't done well yet in one (I don't think). Might try the Pharoahs at some point, but they don't really has a USP for me.

[Spiky]

Had a game vs. Martyn's ratmen last night, and I managed to pull off a 2-0 win! This is great news as I think I'm improving with the Valkyries.

The game was suprisingly bloody, with a big scrum developing in the face-off circle at the start of each test. I think I had the attrition advantage though, but Martyn succeeded in killing my Ice Troll early in the 2nd test with an unsupported midfielder, who just blasted through the impact challenge and felled the best. This was bad news for me, as he'd just improved and was due to take an ability at the end of the game My thrower on 4 experience points also got severely injured (and cut from the team) but potions saved both a hunter and striker from the same fate.

Here you can see the ruck in the 2nd half - There's a sneak preview of my half finished Valkyries, and the rat on the floor is a thrower that Martyn sculpted from scratch He's using my unpainted 2nd Ed Skaven for the rest of his team at the minute



The scoring meant that several of my players still advanced and were able to take new abilities if I wanted. I've taken 4 abilities, just to start testing their effectiveness, which means I've dropped 2 cheerleaders, the Ref and a Keg to keep my roster to 180 points.

I was debating dropping a reserve instead, but after tonight's bloody game I think that is unwise. Next challenge is to be the first league team to defeat Sann0638 - my sights are set and the team is ready! To help with this, I've picked up several abilities that could help negate his Desert Dog's MIGHT advantage - Cutblock and Buff on Hunters, and Steal on a Striker

I'm now sitting on 3 wins, 1 tie and 3 losses with the team.

[mrinprophet]

I'm curious about the league's overall thoughts on the Ratmen team. I've yet to try them in a game and now that I have a painted team I want some pointers.

[bouncergriim]

I'm curious about the league's overall thoughts on the Ratmen team. I've yet to try them in a game and now that I have a painted team I want some pointers.

So you can finally beat my gnomes?

[mrinprophet]

That's exactly the reason.

[Spiky]

I'm curious about the league's overall thoughts on the Ratmen team

I think they're a good team, in the last game I won mainly through attrition. Martyn played with a Wrat in the faceoff which meant that while he won it more often, he was unable to easily get the ball and consolidate in his half. This meant that in the last game, play went into a ruck in the centre circle and I gained the advantage with more Tackle 4.

If i was playing them, I'd probably stick a Midfielder up front and work to get the ball back to a courier. Jog 7 is amazing and couriers and safeties can be a real pain to deal with. I've lost several tests where I won the face-off simply because my ball carrier could not go anywhere without being hit by a JOG 7 player. The couriers can get to a down ball and just throw it to an empty hex somewhere difficult for the opponent to reach.

I'd avoid getting the Wrats stuck in where possible as they're valuable. The High JOG means they can reach any Defender or Monster before they're threatened themselves.

Hopefully Martyn will read this an also comment on how he's found them

[Xenolith]

If I'm honest I haven't spent enough time analysing my games to come up with a decent strategy, this probably explains why I started the league well but have dropped off in recent games. Here are my thoughts though:

Wrats - these seem to be a major part of team, I always try and start the test with 2 of them on the field. I've found when I start to lose them my game falls apart. This is probably my failing and I need to come up with strategies that don't need them.

Safeties - these are my favourite players and again I always try and field 2 of them in a test. They are just as useful as midfielders at hitting and as fast as the couriers. Even with only 2 skill they accomplish most of the ball handling I try with them.

Midfielders - my opinion changed on these, initially I didn't have any on the team but now I have 2. I use them mainly as reserves although more recently I've been playing at least 1 at the start of the tests.

Couriers - when I initially built the team I took a full compliment of these but more recently I've dropped it down to 2. I'm not finding them that great but I think I'm just not using them to full effect. The problem I have with them is holding the ball from the back they are just as easy to take out as any other player.

Throwers - I have 1 of these on the team who sometimes achieves good things (especially when I forgot they are only 6 JOG not 7 ) In my opinion though unless they have the thrower specific skills their role is easily taken up by other player types in the team.

In my early games I was most successful in using Wrats to tie up opponents and then using safeties/couriers to score. In more recent games I've fallen into attrition which just doesn't work with this team.

In summary:
- Use the Wrats to tie opponents into a ruck but protect them as best you can
- Safeties are just as useful as couriers when using the run down the pitch and throw the ball to an empty space strategy (in fact they are more useful as you tend to give less momentum away with only 2 dice, though sometimes less predictable)
- Midfielders are growing on me and are probably the next most useful player type (useful for supporting the Wrats, and killing Ice Trolls )
- Couriers aren't as great as they seem if they are left holding the ball, if they get it throw it away
- Throwers aren't great on this team as the couriers handle the ball just as well and are faster.

So those are my thoughts, my current league record with this team is W3D0L4 though that was WWLWLLL so I'm currently in a losing streak.

[mrinprophet]

Thanks for the help. We'll see how I do in a couple of weeks, hopefully.

[Spiky]

Xenolith is coming over to playtest his new Gnome team tonight. I a bit of role reversal, I might play using Ratmen so we may be able to come up with some more advice

[mrinprophet]

That would be perfect.... gnomes are my gnemesis.

[bouncergriim]

Or you could just wait to tell MP after the 17th or so... , Which team was I playing against you when I scored on like turn 5?

[Spiky]

That would be perfect.... gnomes are my gnemesis.

I've PM'd you some pointers - hope it's helpful information

[sann0638]

Well, that was messy. Short version - I won 2-0 in about 75 minutes

Long version:
Dogs have Steady/Sprinter Dervish and Buff Dervish, plus a Buff Thrower for the face-off. Valks have Cutblock Hunter, Buff Hunter, Steal Striker. Dogs strategy is almost entirely focused on the Dervishes, getting them the ball and general causing trouble until they get within range, pushing anyone out of the way. Valk strategy based on stopping this happening!

The setup:

Buff thrower is there to either win the face-off or flop it, to avoid dying either way. He won the first, lost the second without flopping, and got walloped for his trouble, so the strategy is sound!

A few turns in:

A Dervish has retrieved the ball and fallen over trying to get out of range of the Ice Troll, who is dominating the centre circle. Just after this the cutblock hunter swooped on a defender, but only knocked him over. This left a slight gap, so the dervishes headed to the left, pushing a striker off the pitch before he had a chance to move!


The Valkyrie defence was sound, so the Dogs took a chance by leaving the Dervish in the open. The Ice Troll pounced!


Stiff-arm, nothing happens
But it's okay, the cutblocker is on hand! FLOP! 1-0

Second test, the most interesting play was the S/S Dervish pouncing on a hunter in the defender circle and pushing him into the goal circle, only to have the same move done on him in return. Was looking good for Spiky at this point, but there was a lot of pressure on the ball. The striker with it had to disengage, and chose a route that needed 2 rather than 1, hoping to build some momentum. Sadly, one of those was a flop...


And all that remained was the Dervish to pick up the ball with a cheerleader, which he managed. 2-0. The second dervish now has Agile, to avoid the need for any future cheerleader use. A striker has also skilled up, but will bide his time before taking anything to manage the team cost.

Spiky had shocking Tackle dice throughout, only managing 1 removal despite about six 4-dice tackles. Poor old him...

Still unbeaten in the league - woohoo!

[Skipper]

Over a year later........did the league die? I really enjoyed the read.

We are about to kick off a league in Oxford Alabama and the debate is whether to use Elfball or Blood Bowl.