Starting Wood Elves

[PubBowler]

Defense on Wood Elves is normally backing off from a cage in the front while putting tackle zones on the rear to spread out the cage.
Then Wardancer with Strip Ball in and knock the ball free.
Try to gather the ball faster than your opponent can.
Repeat.

As for your roster. I wouldn't take a thrower unless you're going to take Leader. And you have there rerolls so I wouldn't take Leader.
Swap him for a Catcher (models permitting).

With your FF & CL you'd be better with 1FF & 2AC & 2CL. But I'd be tempted to swap a lino for a 4th catcher and lose a CL & AC.

I'm not sure I'd take Leap on a Catcher. You already have two leapers. I'd take Frenzy (or Tackle if you are not confident on your positional play) on the Wardancer and then something else as a 4th skill.

Options:

Block, Side Step, Surehands on a Catcher.
Dauntless, Block, Diving Tackle on a Lino.

[Cramy]

I'd go with:
WarDancers * 2 = 240
Catchers * 4 = 360
Linemen * 6 = 420
RR * 3 = 150
1 FF
1 CL
1 AC

Skills. PubBowler described how most games will go. You will not have problems scoring. Defense is the key, so you need skills to help with getting the ball and scoring when on defense.

Lineman: Kick
Wardancer: Strip Ball

For the other two skills, then it depends on what you want to do. And you mention that there will be a skills draft. As you can't take everything that you would like, rely on the draft to get the other skills. So the most common and sought after skills you take now, the less popular skills you take during the draft. And I'm guessing that during the draft you can pick doubles skills as well. How many skills do you get to pick during the draft?

Options:
Wardancer: Side Step
Wardancer: Nerves Of Steel
Catchers: Block
Linemen: Dodge

Explanations:
Side Step on a WarDancer. You are likely to encounter teams with ball carrier that have Sure Hands and Block. Your Strip Ball Wardancer won't be that useful against him. The Side Step Wardancer allows you to put TZs on the corner of a cage or on the ball carrier late in the game to force as many dice rolls for your opponent to move the ball. But beware of Tackle and Grab. And beware of Guard. You want to force 1 die blocks on the WD to move him away from the ball carrier. If things go well, the WD will bounce around, and keep or put a TZ on the ball carrier.

Wardancer with Nerves of Steel. Draft pick. Once the strip balling war dancer has made the ball fall on the ground, you can use the NoS Wardancer to leap in the cage, pick-up the ball (make sure you have a reroll for that), and throw it to a waiting catcher. I have never tried this, but want to eventually. This would not be such a good pick on a league team, but IMO it is good on a tournament team.

Catchers with Block. Obvious, to keep them on their feet. The Catchers are ST2, and are very good at scoring on defense one the WarDancers steal the ball. If they get hurt, you will get outnumbered, which is tough on defense. Block allows them to go in more dangerous places than normal, keeps them on the pitch and on their feet. In a pinch, you can also use them to do 1/2 dice blocks (with a RR).

Linemen with Dodge. I really like to have a few of these to slow-down the cage. These are the ones that stand in front of the cage and dodge back one square every turn. Dodge keeps them on their feet, hence they are very effective at dodging back. Once you have moved all your guys in the right position, move back your dodgers by dodging one square. Then dodge back the non-dodgers. Never use your rerolls for failed dodges such as this (with the non-dodgers). You should have enough players in position to prevent the cage from moving more than one square. Ideally you need 3 of these to be really effective, but one or two help in any case if you plan to follow this strategy. I have shut-out many bashy teams using this tactic. You won't win the most TD award, but you will win games. Oh, and don't always dodge back. It is sometimes more advantageous to hit your opponent to force them back one instead of you moving back one. Eventually the bashy team will get anxious and take some risks to score. That's when your WDs and Catchers come into play.

Long winded post. Hopefully I didn't ramble too much. I just love playing any type of Elves against bashy teams.

Glad to see that you are no longer considering the Treeman (Sorry Matt ).

[one_second_of_insanity]

Cheers Cramy, it wasnt long winded. As for the draft my understanding is that it is all dependant on how we have faired from the first days play (lowest ranked player at the end of the day gets most choice) and unfortunately we cant put additional skills on players we have already allocated skills to.

As for skills and team composition, I will still try out a tree just to see how they perform in lead up games and I have ordered another 2 catchers from shadowforge so they will hopefully arrive soon. Kick on the line elf and Strip ball on a wardancer have been a given for me; a blodging catcher is very appealing and I can see a sidestepping wardancer being quite frustrating (not sure on this one, lots of options). The draft should see me getting dodge on as many line elves as possible

Thanks again for all the help so far guys, the community here helps BB being a fantastically enjoying game that I am now completely sucked into (planning teams 2 thru to 5 now)

[mattgslater]

Side Step is best in pairs. If you want to force an opponent to pick a sideline, you'll put one or both Side Steppers in at inside linebacker in an 8-man screen, with Catcher or Kicker just behind and outside. If you want to force them up the middle, you'll put them in at corner back, one in from the sidelines (that is, not on the edge), and you can put a Catcher (not a Kicker) just inside and behind.

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To push them inside (say, against a bashy team):
- - - -|- - X X X - -|- - - -
- - - -|- - - - - - -|- - - -
- S - -|X X - - - X -|- - S -
- - X -|- - - - - - X|- X - -

Use the lineup on the left if you think the blitz will come with ST3, and the one on the right if you think it'll be ST4+. If you WANT it to be the strong guy (say, the rookie BOB vs. the Blitzer w/Mighty Blow), use the one on the left.

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To push them outside (say, against an agility team):
- - - -|- - X X X - -|- - - -
- X X -|X S - - - S -|- X - -
- - - -|- - - - - - X|- - X -

Don't fear the Quick Snap vs. an all/almost-all ST3 team! It's 5/36 if they're in position, and it's still a brawl, so not worth losing sleep over if it comes at the expense of hedging 'em out. The defense on the left gives you a little insurance vs. Quick Snap on ST3, but there's a lot to be said for the right side, which uses positioning to help hedge: if the opponent gets an assist on the cornerback, he's forced himself to dodge with the next guy, meaning even an AG4 team can only really send one more guy that way, and an AG3 team has only been advantaged there if they're desperate. Note also on the right hand side how to protect a vulnerable/valuable guy (Kicker, Dirty Player, whatever) next to the wide zone, inside from the Side Stepper and protected by two guys' TZs.

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Of course, with four SS guys, it's just unfair.
- - - -|- - X X X - -|- - - -
- S - -|X S - - - S X|- - S -
- - X -|- - - - - - -|- X - -
This is easy for Pro Elves, but Woodies can't do it reasonably in this tournament format.

If your Side Stepper gets blitzed (he won't, because your opponent knows better), then on any push, even a knockdown, he falls to the square just inside of him if placed in the inside LB spot, or back one and outside (that is, along the sidelines) if placed on the corner.

If you're a Strip Ball person, then take it on a WD and get SS on a WD and a Lino. League experience has left me sour on Strip Ball (if you have 10 games to play Tackle is way better), but I can see how it would be good in this format.

[DoubleSkulls]

Trees fill a completely different function on the team to War Dancers.

War Dancers win games. Often single handedly. They turnover the ball and make your opponent live in fear of your amazing cage bursting potential.

Trees stop elves dying. Trees just sit there and hopefully suck up punishment that would otherwise be directed at your much more vulnerable targets. The odd opponent will direct lots of energy at getting rid of the tree. This should be encouraged as it diverts hitting power away from the elves

So in a league a team with a war dancer will start out much better at winning than the same team with a tree instead. However in the long run the team with the tree will grow faster (due to fewer deaths) and have better long term potential.

[one_second_of_insanity]

Well I have a few games under my belt now, and I really like how the team plays, I have decided against fielding a tree and feel it gives the team a little more cohesion (I have to treat every player as extremely fragile)

The games so far have been against Orcs, Humans, Dark Elves and Elves.

I have felt comfortable about the non AG teams, but have learnt playing against elves is a completely different game.

The 1.2 roster I have settled on for now is:

2 WD - both with Strip Ball
1 Thrower - Safe Throw
3 Catchers
1 Line Elf - Kick
5 Line Elves
3 RR
1 CL
2 FF

I feel I need the 3rd RR at the moment while I am still getting used to the game but will probably swap it out for an Apo as I become more confident with my plays and strategy (I really hate it when I am down to just 1 WD)

[PubBowler]

1 Thrower - Safe Throw

This is a really unusual choice.

Do you have something fancy in mind?

[whitetiger]

How to win against other elves? Beat them up. It's harder against the Dark Elves, they're designed to be the bashiest elf team, but you will have to fight with them some. And saying that, you're still faster. You have to be more aggressive against elf teams and more willing to fight with them, but your game should stay essentially the same. Use your War Dancers to attack the ball and use your catchers to grap it and run like h*ll.

Any elf team, if they're spread out, can score on any play no matter where the ball is. So, you can't leave any elf to just wander down the field while you're fighting in the other guy's half of the field. That's a formula for losing the game. But, you do want to nail him into his backfield as often as possible. If you can get your Wardancers to pop the ball loose a couple of times a game when you kick off and get your catchers to nab the ball and score, you win.

[one_second_of_insanity]

1 Thrower - Safe Throw

This is a really unusual choice.

Do you have something fancy in mind?

This is something I had in mind specifically against the higher than normal percentage of elf teams appearing and how my game plan has been developing. I can usually break through with my catchers plus support but havent been able to sure up the breach to get a good throw or I find that I am switching flanks a lot with my offense, it is working but I was looking at this being just another way to make sure I dont get intercepted, I would have preffered strong arm but that is a strength skill and didnt find that accurate helped much with the type of passing game I have been playing (the longest I have thrown is a long pass and even then it was only just).

[whitetiger]

You're gonna want accurate on him next. I can see where you'd want safe throw on him in a high agility league, that actually isn't a bad idea where half the players on the other side have both 4 agility and pass block and/or catch. But accurate really should be your next skill for him.

You don't ever want to miss a throw against another elf team. More often than not, you'll be throwing downfield with only a couple of your elves down there to protect the ball. If you miss that pass, it can put you in a world of hurt. I try to space my players out so that often, if the other team drops the ball in my end of the field, I can score right then and there. Pick up the ball, chuck it down field to a blitzer, run 7 or 8 squares and hand it off to another blitzer or witch, bang, TD.

[Andromidius]

Just watch out against Mutants with Very Long Legs. It might catch you off guard when you think your throw is safe (and thus don't try to 'avoid' interception attempts) and then have the ball stolen from you.

~Andromidius

[whitetiger]

True. Always have to be aware of the other team's abilities. But, in most leagues there's only 1 or 2, if any, guys with Very Long Legs. It's a great skill in high agility leagues.

[stashman]

If you want a third wardancer get a catcher with wrestle and dauntless

[PubBowler]

1 Thrower - Safe Throw

This is a really unusual choice.

Do you have something fancy in mind?

This is something I had in mind specifically against the higher than normal percentage of elf teams appearing and how my game plan has been developing. I can usually break through with my catchers plus support but havent been able to sure up the breach to get a good throw or I find that I am switching flanks a lot with my offense, it is working but I was looking at this being just another way to make sure I dont get intercepted, I would have preffered strong arm but that is a strength skill and didnt find that accurate helped much with the type of passing game I have been playing (the longest I have thrown is a long pass and even then it was only just).

Doesn't sound worth it IMO.
I'd take a skill on a Catcher (Block or Diving Tackle) or a lino (Dauntless, Block or Dodge).

[one_second_of_insanity]

So drop the thrower all together and replace with either a lino or another catcher?