Humans vs. Chaos Dwarves

[Tackledummy]

I just started in a small league with about 5 other teams. I've played fast teams up the ying yang and havn't had much trouble in just hanging onto the ball for about 6 turns while slowly filling up the opposition's KO bin. The thing I'm worried about are the slow grinding teams.

The 2 that I'm aware of are a Chaos Dwarf team and a Undead team with a Khemrian theme (2 mummies and something like 14 skeletons. Yes we told him to use the Khemrian list but he didn't want to) The Khemrian one doesn't bother me too much, with only mummies and skeletons I can out pace him, but last time I played Chaos Dwarves with my hummies I got slapped around and put in a gimp suit.

For such teams I usually try to break a hole in the line, usually where the hobgoblins are, then run about 3 or 4 players through, usually catchers and blitzers. Problem is, last time he just mopped up my blitzing team with his bull centaurs and then slowly ground over the rest of the team toward the end zone.

I don't know whether its just my poor luck or poor tactics (this one seems to work with other teams, admittedly without fast moving Bull Centaurs though) but I'd really like to try something different. Can anyone please suggest some basic tactic outlines?

Thanks very much, and if this is posted somewhere else I do apologise, I'm slowly sifting through the old posts, but there are so many of them.

[sean newboy]

Its simple score in 2-4 turns, absolutely no more. 2 is better than 4. With block and tackle they are just too much of a pain, and those bc's only need 1 assist for 3 dice on your catchers. Score quickly, steal the ball and repeat. If u were using Orcs it would be different but with humans u just cant equal the cd's for bashing in the early part of a league.

[Tim]

Depends on the skills his BCs have. If they don't have break tackle, you can easily tie them up with linemen. Try to lure both BC to one side of the pitch then tie them up, bring the ball across and go down the other side.

Tie up the CDs as well. a Block Lineman is perfect for this. Yes, you will lose the lineman once in a while, but that buys you time for the most important thing:

Hunt the Hobgoblins. They are the backbone of the team, the only guys who can do anything on a 3+, do most of the ballhandling, are low armoured and usually not too skilled in the blocking part. Try to take them out with your blitzers and you will see gaps opening in the defence.

[Kamikaze Rudy]

As a long time CD coach, I pray that you engage my Chaos Dwarfs. I'll knock your ass over and I'll maintain my cage so you won't get a shot at my ball carrier. If I only move 1 or 2 squares in a turn, I'm extremely happy. I'll widdle your players down, can you do the same?

First Drive, concentrate on taking out his fringe players. If he leaves a Bull Centaur running loose. Gang Up on him, block him and foul him. They are hard to get off the pitch, but your job is much easier if you only have to deal with one of them. Always leave a Bull Centaur in a tackle zone. If you let them run loose, they will tear you a new ass with that movement.

Only problem is, if you take too long to attack the cage the Centaurs are long gone by the time get to the core of it. Your best defense is making sure they score quickly. Don't try to stand toe to toe with the Chaos Dwarfs. Force him to move where you want him to move....down the sideline with no help from those guarding Dwarfs.

[Tackledummy]

Cheers Rudy, much help mate.

[Mortalman]

The other tactic against any cage player is to slow it down so much they never score! When they form the cage dodge your guys 1 square back from it, and only have guys in contact with the back or sides if that! This way he can only throw the one block - ie his blitz and then the cage either has to start dodging or he's limited to one square's movement at time. He may try to run it with a bull centaur but that's ok for you as it means he has to start making AG rolls with his AG 2 centaur so there's a fair chance of turning the ball over. Keep a catcher within range of the endzone and you may be able to exploit such a failed AG roll for a quick defensive TD. If he does run it successfully and you can't bring down the centaur at least that should mean he's scoring quickly giving you a chance to equalised with a speedy throwing play.

You'll note I've ignored your difficulty getting behind him when he's caging. Secret is you're moving too early. If you run in on your first turn before the cage is really built he'll go to work on your hit squadd and they'll all be lying down in his half as the ball moves into yours. Sure if there's already a big hole (like an unoccupied wide zone - often happens) start moving a player in to threaten to ball carrier and be in position to exploit a mistake, but by and large keep your players in your half until he's caged it. Then about 9 of his players will be in a little clump allowing your relative freedom of movement to get around him.

Remember, humans are versatile so beat up soft teams but against bashers use your flair and skill to out-maneauver him! Hope that helps.

[Arkan]

... and just hope that your coach does not have Tims dice.

But in general I agree. Tie or kill the BCs (still waiting for the satisfaction of some beef for the aftergame party), take out some hops and try to breakthrough with catchers or blitzers.

In any case, cds are a fairly good starting team and will have a slight advantage in the early games. Should your folks live long enough, they'll level out and should be competitive after a couple of games.

[Brokje]

I am up to the same problem against a much more experienced coach withj a much better developed team. He has 4 CD's with guard and a troll with guard. I only posses 1 lineman with guard and have only 3 blitzers who can really kick ass. Fortunately one of his BC's is down this match.

So I pin down his CD's with my linemen, stay clear of the troll, block and blitz his hobgoblins and hopefully kill his other BC.

Further on I will try to score quickly and then slow em down.
And kick some ass!

[Mortalman]

A word of warning; I really don't rate the tactic of "beat up the AG players" to deny a hard team ballhandling ability, especially for humans. Hobgoblins are numerous on most chaos dwarf team as they have the highest maximum allowance, they're also cheap and necessary for ballhandling, so you can expect a reasonable team to have 5-6 of them I would expect. That's too many players for humans to really think about getting off the field - how many times do you play other human teams and KO or injure 6 of their linemen? And they're not backed up by 4-6 Chaos Dwarves and 2 BCs!

If I were a human coach playing a reasonable CD team, I'd be thinking of delaying their running plays, scoring quickly and forcing mistakes. Once your're up 2 TDs you've basically won.

[Skummy]

The difference makers on a CD team are the Bull Centaurs. If you can get them off the field, you tend to win the game.

[squig87]

...last time I played Chaos Dwarves with my hummies I got slapped around and put in a gimp suit.

lol. I'm so glad I dont play in New Zealand.

CD are generally quite effective against humans when they are at full strength. Expect a few casualties against you, as a good coach can easily give you this slapping you talk about. Chaos Dwarfs and Undead are my bogey teams when I use my humans and so I run away from fights and concentrate on hurting the hobbos mainly.

Squig

[duff]

A shadowing blitzer could be good to put on a BC if you have one.

[Brokje]

As only 1 of my blitzers has only a little bit of starplayer points, shadowing was no option. Luckily I got a st 4 blitzer from my handicap rolls, apart from 140,000 gold in the end.

I won, after a TD in my third turn, my opponent made a mistake which left his ball carrier out in the open. After some errors oon both sides I managed to score 2-0 in my last turn. The second half I delayed his scoring until hid fourth turn, after which I scored 3-1 in my seventh.

Even the casualties did not work out for my opponent, as he hurt my Ogre badly, but I decided to save my apothecary for later use, which in the end never came!

I took the advice not to stand in front of the Dwarfs, apart from some lineman who where made for sacrificing. Further on slow the cage down by posting some further expendable lineman enxt to the cage to make them dodge when advancing with the cage.