A fist full of upgrade opinions wanted....

[voyagers_uk]

I've seen this setup often in my home league. I did use it for myself on quite a number of games.

I think there are 2 ways you can handle such a solid defence:
1. Just ignore it. Yeah, right, throw 3 Blocks at the line of scrimmage, make a Blitz Action, but don't advance any further into the opponents half. Most people don't know how react on such a strange behaviour, and start to move their people around. Et voilà, after another Blitz there's a high possibility of a gap in the defence.
2. If you don't have enough turns left, try to breack through the mid. You need to get rid of 2 players of the line of scrimmage and at least push the other one. Use your Blitz Action if you don't achieve this with your initial blocks. After doing so, flood your (hopefully) fast players into the opponents half and try to set up something like a cage.

This is tactics I know and love, break their carefully planned trap by ignoring it.... hurt the LOS 3 and wait for the gaps to open before you exploit them. don't be panic'd into trying to score in 2 turns. Games are won on Defense so make his defense work.

[mattgslater]

The Troll is your nose tackle. The other DE is a Black Orc, maybe the Block/Guard guy. The guys in the wide zones can be Blitzers, Throwers or Goblins; it's best to put your lesser Blitzers in front, really functioning more like outside LBs than cornerbacks (I'm not sure what to do with Guard in this position; usually I only take Guard on one Blitzer, and get two or 3 with MB/Tackle or MB/Pro). The guys behind are true cornerbacks, and should be focused ballhawks, like the ST3 Goblin, the Thrower, or the Pro Blitzer (hey, Guard could be OK on this guy; he'll be free, so he can go stick in anywhere). I usually put ST4 guys at inside linebacker, but hell, man, you can put ST4 guys behind them too: how demoralizing is that? Of course, if you had a Kick guy, you could put him there, but you don't. The ST4 Blitzer should go in at inside lb (in front, next to the wide zone) on the side opposite the Side Step BOB, and maybe if you want, you can field an ST3 Blitzer opposite him backing up Side Step boy; since the Side-Step guy will penalize your opponent for blitzing that side anyway, his backer is going to be mostly a pass-rusher.

How you break this: gosh, I shouldn't be telling anyone this. Meranidis's advice is pretty bang-on. Your opponent will either try to outwait you or try to hack at your line.

If he outwaits you, great; just don't overextend yourself to take advantage of this. Step in, make sure you're covered everywhere and he can't break out, and put the pressure on. If you can get the ball, by all means do so. If he builds a strong side (he may have to), you can close off one of the WZs or leave anyone he leaves on the weakside in ST4 coverage.

If he goes at your line, he HAS to take it out, then he HAS to go at the inside LB opposite your Side Step BOB (because your Side Step BOB will always fall into a place where he can deny a route without exerting a zone). If he goes down, they can open a one-step lane. I can't tell you how many opponents I've seen clog their own lanes trying to take out my Blitzer-linebackers, though you certainly can't rely on that. Since you've got MA6 nasties one-back on his weakside, he also has to protect the ball right away. Really fast teams can sometimes get the ball deep and limit your "blitz" (in the football sense) to a pressure/coverage effort to force him to throw next turn from farther back than he'd like. Otherwise, they're more likely to cage up in their own backfield, where you can focus on entangling the cage with your gnarly-bad threats, trying to get a zone on their ball carrier and (esp. if said ball carrier has NoS) covering potential receivers.