7 - 7 !!!! what to do against One Turn Scorers??

[Munkey]

We had a Wood Elf coach who had an OTS and although he found him useful on offense found that if he was not careful scoring in one gave the other team to much time to equalise and batter his team, as well as the problem that the OTS was hogging all his SPPs. With a bit of clock management they are only really useful in making those one turn equalisers and if you defend deep in those turns it's not a guaranteed score.

Slightly OT but our Wood Elf coach also used his OTS very aggressively on defense. Combined with a Strip Ball Wardancer any mistake or inadequate protection on the ball handler and the OTS could often be away with the ball. In the early games when opponents had no tackle he would often put Bloding sidestep Wardancers and OTS on the front line (but not directly in the centre of the LOS) and when they didn't go down on a Block they were even closer to the ball.

I would have to say this coach didn't have as high regard for player safety as many Wood Elf coaches but he did win a lot of games, and it prooves that OTS don't always have to skulk in the dugout.

[The Florist]

That's pretty cool. If the opponent doesn't cover the pickup you score straight off.

[darthvincor]

...
Aging helps a lot with that. Still, all gutter runners must DIE!

Hear, hear! I had the utter, utter pleasure last night of watching a promising gutter have his collar bone broken by a hobbit, reducing his ST to 1.
Which also reinforces what has already been said: to kill/maim OTTers while they're still young, as a good long term strategy against them.

[JaM]

Well, with my current skaven team I AM planning to get one, even if it is to let my opponent "fear" my runners !! Great for those "last turn in a half"-equalizers.
Then again, a dauntless horns blodging GR is nice also...

[plasmoid]

Hi all,
pass blockers on the LOS will hardly do anything.
If you block them with block it is minimal risk, and if they get downed they can't pass block back up.
Besides, the OTS may be positioned to one side, in which case the pass blocker may be "shielded" away with enough players.

Finally, and probably simpler: The thrower will then pass to someone with catch in the backfield, who can then hand-off to the OTS player. That'll stop any pass blocker cold.

Kick is better. But again, one mid/backfield reciever who then does a hand-off should seriously reduce the problems caused by kick.

Indeed, a big fat line near the EZ is a strong defense.
At least if the opponent has only 1 turn. (If he has 2, he'll just clobber your line and advance about 3 squares).

Then again, if the OTS has leap, all you can do is pray.

OTS is still extremely nasty.
For LRB 3.0 or 4.0 players, I recommend making sprint a trait.

Cheers
Martin

[absent1]

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R is rat ogre, L is linemen or storm vermin, G is gutter runner

erm, my first drawing had 3 guys in one wide zone!

sprint as a trait might as well delete it, it's worthless without sure feet, and is only taken very late in development, or by GR's

i'd prefer VLL to just be +1 to leap and intercept, like the vault, so you can make leap, pass block, catch gutter runners, that would be fun, then you don't have to scrap sprint, as you only have to worry about move ups (1-12 chance) on 9ma players, instead of the 2-9 chance to get it that GR's now have.

[DoubleSkulls]

Plasmoid the whole point is adding slightly increased risk to the whole process so making the one turn less reliable.

absent - who, apart from one turners & stunties, takes sprint?

Your defence is fine (there are lots of deep defences against one turners that are reasonably effective) but would you set up like this on turn 4? I never would and that's another problem.

[absent1]

no, i'd stall the skaven till turn eight and set up like this (if i really wanted to win, in a league i'd just try and get into a shootout to get some spps, and try and hurt their players if I thought the team was cheese),
and I just think you either leave sprint and fix ots, or delete sprint, since only stunties and OTS take it

[Marcus]

Personally I'd never waste doubles rolls on a Gutter Runner to make them a one turn scorer. Not when you can give them horns and dauntless. They have to kick to you in order for you to use a 1 turn scorer; if you're any good they should be kicking to you only once a game.

Besides which, if you score in 1 turn, then he scores in 1 turn, rinse, repeat, as you described, then neither of you are really paying much attention to stamping your authority on the game, are you? That's a tactical flaw on both your parts and not a problem with 1 turn scorers. You should always be playing the game at a pace and style that favours you more than it does them. If you can both score in 1 turn at will then neither of you are pressing any advantage.

Your question should not be "what can I do about 1 turn scorers?" it should be "how can I play to make it not matter whether he can score in 1 turn or not?"

[plasmoid]

Hi Absent,
I'd happily delete sprint.
But as long as the bull centaur has it, that probably ain't going to happen.
Making sprint a trait at least will make reliable OTS'ers rarer.

Ofcourse, another solution is to knock back gutter runners and wood elf catchers to MA8+sprint, but I hear the lynch mob in the distance....
[makes quick escape]

Cheers
Martin

[plasmoid]

Hi Marcus,
in theory - you are right.
However, a OTS'er will matter in games that are either draws or won by 1 goal.
Now, assuming that you are playing against a coach of equal skill, it is often quite hard to secure a 2 TD win.
Hence their huge impact.
Cheers
Martin

[absent1]

heh, i'm arguing about bull centaurs in a different thread, why not 2 birds with one stone

[Marcus]

My point was that if players are just standing there trading 1 turn TDs, then neither player is attempting to dictate the pace of the game to the detriment of their opponent, they're just waiting for the dice to pick a winner.

[skatingtortoise]

how about countering an annoying OTS with specialised tacklers, with skills like tackle and shadowing? gutter runners and welf catchers are usually S2, so it wouldnt matter too much if you traded in strength for MA

there is probably something here ive missed, please comment!

[absent1]

they just set up away from your tackle shadowers, or knock them over. best solution vs the might OTS is to break the VLL gutter runner before they get sprint, or to set up all your guys 3 squares from the endzone on their final OTS attempt. (see my lovley diagram)