vs Wood Elves: Sure Hands or Tackle?

Jeremiah Kool · Post by **Jeremiah Kool** » Mon Jan 29, 2007 11:57 pm

If youÂ´d play at a tournament and you knew that your next opponent is playing Wood Elves, which skill would you take? Sure Hands or Tackle (assuming that you donÂ´t have one or both of the skills)?

Warpstone · Post by **Warpstone** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 12:00 am

Tackle. I figure that I'd rather have shot at defending with it and will be a little more cautious with protecting the ball on offence.

Father911 · Post by **Father911** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 1:01 am

Tackle.

Sure hands will defend against one player using one skill. which he most likely has to make a risky leap and then blitx to use.

Tackle will help shut down those blasted MV9 dodge on a 2 with a reroll catchers. These are the guys that win the games for the woodies.

wesleytj · Post by **wesleytj** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:08 pm

Well, Father, I disagree with that... you'd be right if Sure Hands ONLY acted as a counter to Strip Ball. Since it give a reroll for picking up the ball, it is extremely valuable, especially if you're just an AG3 team.

I think the final answer of which to take depends on how much you know about the wood elves you're facing. How many Wardancers and/or catchers do they have? Remember tackle does no good against line elves or throwers. Tackle also doesn't help on a single player if that player can't GET to the guy you want to use it on, so player placement is key.

If your wood elf opponent has a 2 wardancers and 2 catchers, and you feel like you can catch them at least some of the time with your player(aka you're an elven team or similar yourself) then go with tackle.

Fronko · Post by **Fronko** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 4:12 pm

Yeah, have to agree with wesley here.

If you fail to pick up/secure the ball quickly on offense, your game plan wll go down the drain faster than a doomdiver in full descent.

Add to that the added benefit of stripball denial, and you have one mighty skill with surehands.

So, I believe, this is no question easily answered. Depends a lot on your and your opponentÂ´s team.

Joemanji · Post by **Joemanji** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:25 pm

Sure Hands every time.

You are not just defending against one player (or maybe two), you are defending against the entire WE defensive strategy. Otherwise the WE needs only a 3+ dodge and 2+ or 3+ block to free up the ball. If this happens, half the time the WEs will score on the same turn, and so it doesn't matter that they have commited players to TZs in order to cancel assists.

Plus, as Fronko mentioned, a failed pickup is as good as a TD conceded against WEs.

Andrew from Cheadle · Post by **Andrew from Cheadle** » Tue Jan 30, 2007 5:41 pm

Depends on lots of things... but assuming his wardancer(s) have strip ball (and the only reason not to have a WD with strip ball is if they have not skilled yet or got a stat increase) then sure hands every time.

Failing a pick up against wood elves is not a good idea and negating strip ball will help lots!

Jeremiah Kool · Post by **Jeremiah Kool** » Wed Jan 31, 2007 10:17 am

IÂ´m now convinced that Sure Hands is better. Not only for the very obvious benefits against Woodies but also because after that game it still helps your team (unlike Tackle which may do nothing against certain teams in tournaments).

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 2:00 am

If you have a S4 Block ball carrier (or block + guard) then you might go for tackle. Also if you've got good fouling capabilities then tackle might be better since you can remove the war dancer early on...

Mad Jackal · Post by **Mad Jackal** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 3:44 am

Joemanji wrote:Sure Hands every time.

You are not just defending against one player (or maybe two), you are defending against the entire WE defensive strategy. Otherwise the WE needs only a 3+ dodge and 2+ or 3+ block to free up the ball. If this happens, half the time the WEs will score on the same turn, and so it doesn't matter that they have commited players to TZs in order to cancel assists.

Plus, as Fronko mentioned, a failed pickup is as good as a TD conceded against WEs.

Don't listen to Joe. He plays orcs and knows nothing about Wood Elves.

-
On a serious note, does no-one really care what race this guy is?

Does that not matter in at all ?

I don't know if it does, I'm just asking.

And my other contribution to the thread is that as a Wood Elf coach it doesn't really matter to me. One lone tackler is going to get buried in line elves, and a lone sure hands fellow will get what's coming to him as soon as he's within range.

Looking at it in that perspective, sure hands might serve you better as I'm going to give you lots of opportunities to pick the ball up from kick offs. And the re-roll skill will help you against all the non dodgy teams left in the field. (Assuming the loser of this match gets to continue playing.)

wesleytj · Post by **wesleytj** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 2:15 pm

Mad Jackal wrote: On a serious note, does no-one really care what race this guy is?

Does that not matter in at all ?

I don't know if it does, I'm just asking.

I touched on it some...for tackle to be a good choice, you have to be playing a race that can be mobile enough to get where you need to go with it.

Also, based on other posts, I'd bet he's playing Dark Elves...so I sortof factored that in.

Mad Jackal wrote: And my other contribution to the thread is that as a Wood Elf coach it doesn't really matter to me. One lone tackler is going to get buried in line elves, and a lone sure hands fellow will get what's coming to him as soon as he's within range.

Awfully confident... That's only true if you're a significantly better (or luckier) coach than your opponent. They of course have the responsibility to make sure those skilled players ARE used to full extent.

Jeremiah Kool · Post by **Jeremiah Kool** » Thu Feb 01, 2007 6:36 pm

Many teams have at least something like a MA 6/7 STR 3 AG 3 (Block) player, that would be my Tackle guy. That should be mobile enough. In my case itÂ´s Undead and Dark Elves.