Halflings

[NightDragon 2]

I want to start another team and am tempted by Halflings or CD's. I would like a go with the Halflings, but would really like to know if they are worth it? By that I mean do they make an interesting team to play and are games fun and enjoyable with them? Otherwise its CD's.
Cheers.

[Andromidius]

Fu? , Sure. Winnable? Sure. Easy? No.

With Halfings you need to play your strengths and don't let your opponant play theirs. Problem is, your only strengths are:

1/ Player cheapness,
2/ Stunty allowing you to dodge through enemy Tackle Zones more easily,
3/ Treemen.

Though as a counter to those advantages:

1/ Players are cheap because you'll be going through them like hotcakes at a Bun Festival,
2/ You're too slow to really make good use of dodging through enemy formations,
3/ Treemen are very expensive and very slow.

That being said, Halflings can work. A pair of Treemen sitting on the LOS will cause alot of pain (and chances are your opponant will move away from it as quickly as possible meaning you can slowly move your Treemen forwards into the enemy half ready for a Throw Team Mate touchdown), and the fact your Halfings are good at dodging means they can constantly move away from the opposition so they can only ever Blitz one of your players a turn.

Make sure you never throw more then a Quick Pass with your Halfings until they get some good throwing skills (which is unlikely to say the least), and try to keep the ball carrier sandwiched between the two Treemen with as many Tackle Zones placed around the mini-cage as possible to disuade anyone trying to get in and take the ball.

And give as many Halfings as you can Diving Tackle when they skill up. It'll really annoy agility teams.

~Andromidius

[zephard]

And don't play against Dwarves, and to a lesser extent Choas Dwarves.

[Andromidius]

If you play against Dwarves, away from them and deploy your Treemen near the middle. As the Dwarves come towards you, start lobbing your whole team over to the other side of the pitch, throwing the ball carrier as late as possible (so that if he doesn't land, at least you have plenty of players down field who might catch the scatter or can at least pick the ball up next turn). The Dwarves will then have to march back down the pitch again (or try to beat up your Trees) while you can score a touchdown.

When kicking, just dodge away a single space each time and force the Dwarves to try and dodge to score by laying down tons of Tackle Zones. And put your Trees on either side of the pitch and midway down so they can either stop any Runners who try to slip past or can move towards the center to smash open any cages.

Though it'll still be a tough fight.

~Andromidius

[Craigtw]

And put your Trees on either side of the pitch and midway down so they can either stop any Runners who try to slip past or can move towards the center to smash open any cages

That is assuming that he does not Take Root and then become a very expensive pylon in the middle of nowhere! Even a dwarf can outrun a tree, and if lucks fails you and the Tree Takes Root in the middle of nowhere you are screwed. Not to mention that with only halflings on the front line you are likely to have the dwarves just beat the snot out of them, and then walk up the middle, avoiding the trees altogether.

Nay I say. Put the trees on the LOS and make the dwarves work for it a bit. Give the trees a chance to hit someone before they get stuck in the ground!

Whenever possible, get a Master Chef - stealing rerolls is a big part of a Halfling's game plan - so when they do screw up, it is a turnover and then you capatalize.

One more thing - I have found my best success with playing Halflings is when I throw caution to the wind. They are not a team to play for the faint of heart - their Stunty and Dodge allows them to go places that few players would dare go - make the most of it! That is what can also make them so much fun to play!

[PubBowler]

I would add Inducements to the list of their strengths.

They are near unplayable without them.

[Warpstone]

I want to start another team and am tempted by Halflings or CD's. I would like a go with the Halflings, but would really like to know if they are worth it? By that I mean do they make an interesting team to play and are games fun and enjoyable with them? Otherwise its CD's.
Cheers.

How long is your league? I wouldn't commit to playing 5+ games with a 'fling team until you learn to enjoy/cope with the frustration of playing them in a league setting (especially if you're actually trying to win).

I found that I'm able to enjoy Gobbos in LRB5, but Flings are just too aggravating for me to do anything but play a one-off or short tourney with. Then again, I'm not too conservative and am always trying to scrape a win--so I don't exactly have a great style for long-term fling health and improvement.

[NightDragon 2]

They would not replace my DE's. I am just building up a number of teams that I enjoy playing and am thinking that Flings and CD's might be the last ones. So far I have found that my favourite teams are DE's, Humans, Norse, Undead + Lizards. I have tried a lot of the others and have suspicions that I would enjoy the challenge of Flings, but like the look of the variety in the CD's. Atm I am painting up a Fling team that I had painted years ago and will play it in a few friendlies just to see how I go with them. If not then I will be paying Impact! for a CD team.

[Cramy]

Keep some treasury. Gives you inducements, and money to replace dead and injured trees. As others have mentioned, you want to take advantage of the inducements available to you.

Inducements: Master Chef and Deeproot are musts in you have the inducements for them. Then Bribes so that you can foul every turn. A Wizard is good too.

I would start with a few Cheerleaders and Assistant coaches, two or three of each, and a decent FF (not too high, maybe 5 or so). Idea here is to deny rerolls to your opponent. Master Chef and CLs/ACs and a decent FF allow you to do that. Your TV will probably always be lower than your opponents, so having CL/AC/FF increasing your TV ain't such a big deal for Flings.

So that's where I start to have fun with Stunties. You have dodge all over the place, lots of rerolls and 2/3 high strength guys on the LoS. And the ability to foul every turn without being thrown out. You are still likely to lose, but your opponent will throw fits.

Playing against a fairly rookie Chaos team with no or almost no rerolls and almost no reroll skills is always entertaining, and you have very good chances of winning the game too.

[virre]

1 treemen on LOS

1 2 behind LOS

, it makes throwing the 'flings easier (no tackle zones...)

...

I also have had some luck throwing the 'flings in the general direction of where the ball is, bounce ,bounce, both of the pitch.

(alright I was desperate at that moment, they had died out to much)

[plasmoid]

To your original question: IMO, no.

If you want stunty fun, I recommend gobbos. Or underworld if your league allows it.
But halflings just aren't enjoyable. IMO.
Take a look at the MBBL. A ton of teams there.
10 gobbo teams there, at least.
1 halfling team. Played by a BBRC member for playtest purposes.

Cheers
Martin

[Storch]

Another consideration if this is for league play is the composition of the rest of your league. I do not mean to avoid such things as dwarves, but more to the fact that a Halfling team is a ripe source of SPPs for other teams in your league.

As such, the gap between Halflings and the other teams tends to widen, not close as time passes.

We had a Halfling player in our league and he could pull off a win, but it often meant a small horde of the little buggers running down together to get a decent block and then fouling once someone was down. The one turn Td was always there and served to spread the defense a bit, but in the end, most teams could take out enough Halflings that the second hhalf was just brutal. he ended up putting the team on hold just because it got frustrating to keep seeing his players getting injured and killed.

[NightDragon 2]

I don't know the composition of the league yet as I am going to join the Lakeside one. I have ruled out Flings based on your comments. I also played a few games with the team I repainted and found them very frustrating, like I was doing the opponents a great favour just by turning up. Don't like that feeling. Think I will stick with DE, Lizards, Undead and Norse. CD's I will give a go next.