Developing a team built around intercepting

[Scipio_Publius]

At some point in our league we discussed the idea of making interception points easier to get. I ended up thinking this was a good idea but would not work in the end because it is a deviation from the base rules and not everyone in the league is an expert in the rules as they are. Then a light bulb went off.

Maybe we don't have a lot of interception because no team is really set up to exploit this. This of course gave me the excuse to buy a shadowforge elf team (very good models) and play them as woodelves. The elf team is exceptional and the best model on the team are the catchers IMHO so I decided the strategy would be surrounding them instead of the War Dancers.

Instead of 10, 1, 2, 8 setup I started as follows...1 Thrower, 2 Catcher, 8 Line Elfs, 2 re-rolls, and 7 FF. The reasonong for this set up was simple. With only 2 re-rolls I wanted skills to allow me to re-rolls ones and I wanted my catchers to have a head start on the WD.

Skill paths for my players are as follows...
Catchers - block, side step, pass block (Hopefully one with one turn score)
War Dancers - side step, shadow, pass block
1st Thrower - Sure Hands, Accurate, Block
2nd Thrower - Accurate, Safe Throw, Block
2 Line elf - block, side step
1 Line elf - block, kick, diving tackle
1 Line elf - block, leader, diving tackle
3 Line elf - blodge
Treeman - multi-block, block

I use a 4-3-4 line up on defence so each Lineman has skills tailored to a specific position in this line. The plan is to kick deep and make the thrower run way back to get the ball. Now he has a choice. Make a long pass which most players will not do or keep it for next turn. If they keep it I will swarm him with 3 to 4 pass blockers. If not hopefully he will drop the ball.

Well, that was the plan anyway. Of course reality hit and the plan has been nearly thrown from the moving truck.

To date I have a TR of 190 after 10 games lossing 2 players along the way and a third I am keeping till she dies that has 6 armor (She got 2 MVP's and only needs a few TD's for the next advance, I knew I should have retired her). I just got a rookie treeman probably should not have because he offers little but I am thinking if he shows up I get that 10 armor on the line so what the heck.

I have only intercepted the ball once. I don't think I was wrong on skill choice but perhaps the order. Pass Block on 3rd advance is too long, maybe it should be the first. The original thought was to get the Pass Block on third advance so that my strategy would not need to be revealed right away but there is a 15 game cap and I am 5 games from that.

I have to make adjustments for the enviroment too. 20% of the teams in the league are dwarf so I am thinking blodger are useless. Maybe instead of blodgers I give them sidestep instead. This way when they get knocked down I can pick the square and perhaps stall the advance by making them dodge to go further which, in the dwarf playbook means halt!

Anyone else try to build a team around intercepting the ball and if so how did you do it?

[Joemanji]

Intercepts are so rare that it really isn't worth building a team around them. It is nice when you get them, but there are more useful skills to be had.

Also, remember that a WE team can outscore any other with ease. Why do you need to worry about passing teams? You can kind of assume that you are going to beat those teams anyway. Concentrate on building a team that can cope with the bashers- i.e. the ones that don't pass the ball. They are the main threat.

[Xtreme]

My dark elf team has two blitzers with AG 5 pass block, blodge, catch. My opponets don't throw the ball very often unless these guys are on their backs.

[Yavatol]

I have built a wood elf team around interceptions. Currently the team has played 30 odd games and so far made 10 interceptions. I do not know how many TDs I stopped because my opponent was forced to take extra risks to avoid pass blocking. You can find the team here: http://bloodbowl.denes.nl/team/teamlist.pl?id=38. It took some time to get all the skills in the right place and I was very lucky to get two AG 5 catchers, but it works.
My priorities were a little different from yours. Pass block was the second skill on the catchers and third skill on wardancers. Leap helps with pass blocking as it becomes really difficult to screen the pass blocker. Kick is also very important for a passblocking team. But you need a lot of pass blockers, my team currently has only 3 which is not really enough.
My most effective technique is to kick deep and run a pass blocking screen between the ball carrier and the LoS. A treeman is quite useful as a lot of opponent leave a convientent gap in the middle of the LoS.
Pass blocking works best against teams that rely on passing themselves. As long as they don't have a safe thrower. That is the downside of the tactic. Your opponent needs only one skill to counter your strategy.
However, that is not a really big problem. I found out that I make the most interceptions when my opponent forgets about the pass blocking. This rarely happens during regular play, as a result I made the most intercepts when I dropped a ball close to my catchers.
But, all in all, the pass blocking is pretty rewarding but not easy to pull off. And an experienced opponent can set up TDs without a chance for pass blocking.

[Mestari]

I suppose that's where the problem lies. Emphasis on pass blocking leaves your team outpowered in other aspects of the game. All those pass blocking skills go to waste if the opponent doesn't pass.

[gken1]

yeah if the team doesn't pass then you've got alot of useless skills on the roster

[Joemanji]

If I came up against such a team, I'd just run the ball. Almost every team has this option, especially against WEs, who can be fragile.

[Sixpack595]

Pass Block is great even without intercepting, if only for the added TZ you can put on people. Suddenly that guy 2 GFIs and 2 more squares away has a defender on him if they try to pass. With only 3 skills dedicated to it, and the high number of Ints it looks good. I guess the bottom line is are you winning?

[MadLordAnarchy]

Passing is a relatively rare event in my experience compared to running or handing-off. In my league last season, only two teams developed a passing game and one of those was Dump-Off based. The rest only pass in extreme circumstances.

[Yavatol]

I suppose that's where the problem lies. Emphasis on pass blocking leaves your team outpowered in other aspects of the game. All those pass blocking skills go to waste if the opponent doesn't pass.

Well you do not have a lot of skills that are used to pass block only. The other important skills side step, leap, kick, etc. are otherwise also really useful.

I play in league where people are passing quite a lot. Apparently I should consider myself lucky. But the thing with a WE pass blocking team is that I also field 2 ball stripping wardancers. After turn 1 there is no place the ball is going to be really safe. This usually forces my opponent to cage (which some teams are not really good at, the others were gonna cage anyway so no loss there) or they have to find a way to move the ball and score fast (which forces them to take a risk and I can probably outscore them).

[Xtreme]

If I came up against such a team, I'd just run the ball. Almost every team has this option, especially against WEs, who can be fragile.

This is why I stopped after buildeing two great intercepting machines. Then concentrated on the rest of the team stopping the run. With those two in my back filed most opponets get pretty predictable.

[Dave]

my Helfs made 5 interceptions in 13 or so games.

3 int players are a nightmare for anyone who even thinks about passing

[Scipio_Publius]

Well, I agree this is not the best strategy but it is interesting none the less. It gives a new challenge to team building.

I think a lot of the success coming from this play relies on the success of the kick. If it is deep enough it limits the opponents options.

@yavatol - Do you find that opponents really have to change their play style and spread their teams out to deal with the Pass Blocking and Leaping threat? (ie...go man to man)

[Mestari]

I play in league where people are passing quite a lot.

Then, coupled with those wardancers, it's a good idea to dedicate effort to intercepting.
Well, it's not like I haven't done anything like that... my all-time best interceptor had 9 interceptions on his account alone, and the rest of the team had a few too (the team played around 20 games). He was a Wood elf lineman, AG5, Pass Block, Catch. And the situation was fairly similar: my quite forceful and aggressive defensive play forced the opponent to pass, which in turn was caught by me 75% of the time.
Lost only one match ever with that team. And it was against the horribly unbalanced Forest Folk team.

But on topic: have a at most a few intercepting-centered players, concentrate the rest on forcing the other team to pass the ball.

[Dave]

good point.

4 pass blockers are enough to cover most pass-lines.
force your opponent to throw (:P pass) and he'll probabely be in trouble.

More pass blockers is not bad / unnessecary at all, as tey can allways be used for putting TZ's where they are most annoying. Remember that failing a dodge / any other roll during the pass blockers move does not result in you not being allowed to go on pass blocking with the other PB-ers. (hmmm confusing??)

It can even be a way of player protection. By moving the players out of harms way you might even be able to prevent them from being blocked somewhere later during the turn.