Chaos Team - first nine games

[whitetiger]

I started my newest human team with an ogre. Multiple block is the first skill I gave him. When I'm on offense, I try to set him up against 2 of his 3 ST linemen. Usually, I push one and knock one down. Makes a hole and I have an extra player do go downfield.

[Andromidius]

Alright, I'm toying with some new setups. Tell me what you think of them.

Offensive

Heavy weighting on left (or right, depending) flank with 'ranks' of Chaos Warriors. Top left Warrior can block someone in his way if they deploy on the line, but the front right Warrior deploys off the line so he can't be tackled as easily. The Warriors storm forwards and make an instant cage, and the red marked Beastman (with +1MA) receives the ball from the blue marked Beastman (Big Hand). The two right Beastmen then close up behind the cage to place down defensive tackle zones (green marked Beastman has Tackle to improve this). Then the cage crunches its way up the field, and hopefully the three Beastmen on the scrim line can hold firm.


--C------|----BBB----|--------
--C------|C----------B|--------
----------|C----------B|--------
----------|--------------|--------
----------|------B------|--------
----------|--------------|--------
----------|--------------|--------
----------|--------------|--------
----------|------B------|--------
----------|--------------|--------
----------|--------------|--------
----------|--------------|--------


Defensive

Two Warriors and a Beastman on the scrim line, with a Warrior and Beastman on each flank to discourage outside runs. Remaining four Beastmen are deployed to cover the middle. Hopefully this will stop an Elf team slipping through, and is solid enough to take a charge from a bashy Orc team. Needs another Tackle Beastman to fully defend against skilled Dodgers, and is vulnerable to One Turn Touchdowns or Thrown Teammates.

--------|----CBC----|--------
--------|-------------|--------
--C----|BB-------BB|---C---
--B-----|-------------|---B--
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------

~Andromidius

[whitetiger]

andromidius,

That offense might work against a slower team, but you might not want to use it against a fast team. If I knew you were going to set up that way, I'll coffin kick the ball to the back right of the Blue Beastman and race you to the ball down that open wide zone. If I can't get to the ball first, I'll form a static line of players between your guy and the red beastman and make it as difficult as possible for you to get the ball downfield.

I'd send at least 3 down that sideline and leap a couple over the middle of the LOS. Get at least 4 or 5 deep in your backfield and then mark every other player I can.

God help you if I get a blitz.

You're going to want to plug up that wide zone with the Green Beastman and another one. Don't let a fast team have a wide open running lane like that. They'll be in your face so fast it's incredible.


Defense isn't bad. It'll make it difficult to get through on the first turn. If your opponant has a lot of leapers, you'll want to spread out your players more and create more tackle zones. Do you have stand firm on any of your players?

[Andromidius]

Not yet. I'm trying to focus on getting Block or Wrestle/Tackle onto a fair number of them first, just so I can stop the Blodgers from smacking my guys onto the ground.

And good point about the open wide zone in the Offensive setup. Maybe I should just set it up the same as the Defensive one, only shuffling the Warriors around a bit like this:

--C----|----BBB----|----C--
--------|CB-------BC|--------
--------|--------------|---------
---------|-------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|B----------B|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------
--------|--------------|--------

~Andromidius

[whitetiger]

Code: Select all

-- -- -- -- | -- B B B -- | -- -- -- --
-- C  -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- B B  --
-- C  -- -- | C  -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | C  -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | B  -- -- B |-- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- --

I was just thinking along these lines. Not a total overall, just cover that wide zone. Don't let the speed demons easy access into your backfield before you even get a chance to get the ball.

[PubBowler]

Code: Select all

-- -- -- -- | -- B B B -- | -- -- -- --
-- C  -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- B B  --
-- C  -- -- | C  -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | C  -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | B  -- -- B |-- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- --
-- -- -- -- | -- -- -- -- | -- -- -- --

I was just thinking along these lines. Not a total overall, just cover that wide zone. Don't let the speed demons easy access into your backfield before you even get a chance to get the ball.

You're players are vulnerable to getting frenzied off in the first turn.
You need Side Step or Fend to keep your two outside players out of the crowd.

[fen]

Even without frenzy there would be a player right next to the sidelines on the start of your turn. Not to mention the horror of what happens if your opponent rolls a quick snap. With a quick snap I could surf that beastman for sure and have a good shot at surfing one of those chaos warriors plus set the other one up for a surf next turn.

[Andromidius]

No-one in the league uses Frenzy, thankfully. And if I don't deploy nearish to the sidelines then those Elf teams will just sneak down the outside (I learned that the hard way during my first game).

What really annoys me, though, is my opponants nearly always roll 'Perfect Defense' against me, whereas I usually seem to get 'Riot' and lose most of a half.

~Andromidius

[fen]

Then stagger your guys in a

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|--X-|-
|-X--|A

Formation on the wings, it provides coverage of all 4 squares while also avoiding chain crowd pushing. (Leap + Frenzy players can still crowd push the back guy, but you've already said no-one is playing like that yet.) The A represents the final space you cover, which protects the back guy and makes it hard to dodge through the middle.

Lining up with

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-X--|
-X--|

or

-XX-|

Is just asking for trouble, just because no-one has worked out how weak those formations are on the defense yet doesn't mean they won't work it out sometime soon.

If you do really want to use a |-XX-| formation on the wing, you must stagger it back at least 2 lines away from the LoS inorder to avoid the Quick Snap kill and get used to the fact that you'll sometimes have to recover a player from the sidelines on your first turn.

[Andromidius]

That makes perfect sense. Thanks for that.

~Andromidius

[whitetiger]

Just put stand firm on those outside players until somebody in your league figures out juggernaut, then stagger them one square.

[mattgslater]

@ Fen: Vs. Frenzy, and as a general rule I really agree about the diagonal being the best WZ defense for most teams. However, both the column and the row defense have their place.

Two next to each other in the middle of the WZ is good when the guy on the flank has Stand Firm or Side Step (plus ideally Block and/or Dodge) and the guy inside of him has Guard, especially against an opponent that can't bring a big wall of pain down on the QS (nobody NOBODY sets their offense up for QS, so it's not what it looks like).

Two stacked in a column in the WZ is vulnerable to any team's QS, but otherwise, it can force a speedy opponent to go inside, which helps when you have an MA deficit. It really requires that either a) the opponent has no Frenzy, or b) the forward player has a positioning skill like Stand Firm, Side Step or Fend (meaning Side Step if the Frenzy player has Juggernaut).

@ that whole offensive setup discussion:

Never game your offense as offense: offense is best considered negatively. Receiving strategy is so heavily keyed to the opponent's abilities and set-up that the only relevant concepts are general guidelines involving overall strategy, action timing, etc. plus the specific defense in question.

So when you game offense, you're really just gaming someone else's defense with respect to your team, or ensuring that you have the basic offensive principles down. Square-by-square positioning is important, but it's not controllable. Have you seen your next opponent play D with that team? Then you can strategize on your offense in concrete terms. Otherwise, stick to generalities like "have a couple guys to set up the ball," "put the warriors on the strong side," "knock down the LoS," "leave a BM or two in the wide zone on the weakside in case of a Blitz/Perfect D or a pick-up failure," stuff like that.

[Andromidius]

Alright, I should be playing some games later on today. Thanks for all the help, and we'll see if I can pull out my first win of the league. I'll keep you all informed.

~Andromidius

[Glowworm]

Quote"I rolled a Blizzard for the weather, so no throwing teammates!"

Am I missing something here, played with my 'flings in a blizzard against Skaven on sunday.
Treemen still threw them all over (and 1 scattered off the pitch,oops!!)
Blizzards says only quick/short passes and GFIs fail on1 & 2. as far as i know, can anyone correct me if wrong as it means I'll have to either forfiet the game (i won 2-0) or re-play it (opponents choice)

i am at work so don't have access to my LRB5.0 Rules (we are using them mostly in this league)

[tenwit]

You're spot on. No problem with TTM in a blizzard.