Discuss Fantasy football-style board games - GW's Blood Bowl, Impact!'s Elfball, Privateer Press' Grind, Heresy's Deathball, etc. THIS IS NOT AN NFL FANTASY FOOTBALL SITE!
I played several BB games over the weekend, in which I was trying to use some of the suggested "textbook" defensive and offensive setups against various teams.
However, I soon came up against a nasty problem. Most of the "textbook" plays advise that you only put your minimum 3 players on the LoS, even for a strength team. But what if your opponent puts many more: 5 or even 7 players seems not uncommon.
In the first turn your then blocking (or even worse, being blocked) against players who can all get defensive assists. This hurts, as I can now say from experience
So why do textbook plays suggest putting only 3 players on the LoS, and if you've done it, how do you counter your opponent putting on a lot more?
Against weaker teams that lack block & guard it can be an effective way of getting a turnover.
It is particularly effective against low AG teams because they can't easily just dodge away from the line so have to take you on.
Its a risky play - if your opponent gets lucky he might get a casualty or two, but on average you ought to at least force the burn of the reroll - and if they go for the ball after doing the blocks you might get very lucky indeed.
A lot of players I have known who couldn't be bothered to work out how to play properly dropped their entire team on the LoS. They tended to lose by 5 or 6.
All strats have to be adapted to meet the opposition. I have my fave defensive formation which includes 3 on the line but if the opposition can strike from further out to score, I'll squeeze the front line more.
Even with high ST teams, I rarely put more than 3 on the line. (Unless I get a perfect defence.)
Since the offence gets to put their players down after you, they get the advantage of setting up the blocks anyway. The more people you put on the line, the more likely it is that they will get knocked down and have to face an injury roll.
Besides, with only 3 on the line, you can cover most of the field with 2 deep tackle zones and keep the dodgy teams from getting downfield, unless they knock down the 3 guys up front.
Faced this yesterday in a Chaos - Norse match. Playing Chaos, I had kicked off in the first half and managed to keep them out of the end zone (but hadn't scored myself either).
His set up in the second half was everyone on the LOS. I should have set up to attack one of the sidelines and score quickly, but I really didn't want to give him 5 or 6 turns to respond to my score. So I set up my strong guys in the middle and was looking at 5 2die blocks including my blitz. I should have been able to cage up with my strong guys leading the way (two CW and a ST5 BM), hopefully get 3 or four armor rolls (so one or two breaks) and start the slow walk downfield.
Not this time. Unfortunately, the kick ended up close to the LOS and I proceeded to roll double pushback on the first three blocks, and then a double skull (re-rolled to a double pow-skull). It's a young chaos team, so only one guy with Block as yet -- and unfortunately not that guy.
He was able to get to the ball but not pick it up. It was an effective set up for Norse (and I imagine for Dwarfs as well) in young leagues because of all that block -- it was hard to attack even with the strength advantage.
The game ended as a 0-0 tie. The norse armor held up a little too well for most of the game.
Amusingly, I had the same situation yesterday with Chaos, except I was playing Dwarves. He tried the 5 up front set up, and I kept knocking him down until I started breaking armor.
Hmm...last time I saw a Norse team play, at the end of the game they were left with only 6 fit players to start the next game. Lotsa failed AV against an Orc side. The Norse team folded immediately thereafter. Oh well. $#!+ happens.
Reason:''
---troy
[img]http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p41/DesTroy1968/nba3-1.gif[/img] [b]NBA Novice Heretic[/b]
As renowned bard Bruce Slannstein said, "Blind faith - in anyone or anything - will get your ogre killed."
Whole-team-on-LOS can also be an intimidating set up. A non-bash team who is short a few players while you still have 11 bashers on the field may be scared into backing off. They may also put too many players on the LOS and not have enough ball securety. (note to self, must try this).
Chaos could be the perfect team to pull this with, put a CW on each end of the line, and a couple part way along to stop the domino effect.
Reason:''
I don't have to be faster than the Ogre, just faster than you!
I've seen this done with Amazons - I was playing them with Wood-Elves. I couldn't break through, and had to wait for them to move the next turn before squeezing players through. At each end of 'Da Wall' was a Sidestep Blodger (Catchers), and Guards standing next to them preventing any possible 2 dice Block.
I love it when teams (Dwarf and Orc, normally) on offense load the LOS - it usually means gaps down both flanks for the inevitable Blitz, and you can trap most of the team there with a Perfect Defence while 2 guys go after the ball, while he has a max of 2 players to defend it.
Against dodgy teams it might be good to put four or five heavy str (if you have any) guys on the los. If the oppo goes for them then they'll tie many players up and it's easier to tie the catchers. If the oppo decides not to make any blocks you'll have pretty nice route to throwers.
Against bashy teams it's probably no use as they'd anyway make a cage and thus pick the blocks, but surely it will tie some players.
I think that it is a mistake to put more than three players on the line on defense. It allows your opposition to tie up too many of your players and takes away the ability of your players to react to the offenses scoring drive. I like the 3 4 4 set up. It gives me a deep enough backfield to deal with fast teams and allows me to react to slower moving teams after I have seen which direction they are pushing towards.
