Help with a Norse roster for Spike!

[brettness37]

Hey guys

I just got walloped in a tune up mini-tournament (probably mostly due to my own ineptitude), but some help with a roster would be appreciated.

My list:

2 Ulfs
2 Runners
2 Blitzers
1 Thrower
4 Linemen
2 re-rolls
1 AC
1 CL
10 000 unspent

Tourney list rules:

ROSTERS
Coaches have 1,000,000 gold crowns with which to build their teams. There is no skill or skill advancement rolls given out prior to the first game played.


Star Players, Wizards, Necromancers & Chefs
All Star Players are available (for their relevant teams) at their FULL costs; ie, Griff Oberwald is worth 320,000 GC. The LONER rule will apply.

No Wizards will be allowed.

Undead coaches (Necromancers) CANNOT raise the dead in any match.
Halfling coaches (the brave & few) may purchase a Halfling Chef as part of the coaching staff for 100,000 GC.

Skill Advancement
After EVERY game, each coach will be given 20,000 GC to advance a player on his/her team. These "Bonus Gold Crowns" can be used to promote any one player's VALUE amount at one time, or the coach will have the option of saving this money for a future pricier advance. Each coach's "Team Value" will be the same regardless and NO inducements will be allowed. Whether or not you choose to save up or spend the "Bonus Gold Crowns" each player may only receive one upgrade throughout the entire tournament. "STAR PLAYERS" cannot be improved in this manner. This money corresponds to the Value Modifiers Table in the LRB 5.0, p27, and depends on the skills available to the player scheduled for improvement.


So for example, an Amazon Blitzer could purchase the following enhancements at the following costs:

Any GENERAL or STRENGTH skill:
Any AGILITY or PASSING skill:
+1 MA or +1 AV:
+1 AG:
+1 ST: 20,000 GC
30,000 GC
30,000 GC
40,000 GC
50,000 GC
You can see why some coaches may want to save the enhancement money for later games. This is the ONLY way to advance players on your team, as we will not officially track SPPs during the SPIKE! If you have questions please feel free to ask.

CASUALTIES
All casualties that have been inflicted on your team, including deaths, are wiped away at the end of game. In other words, the team resets after each game. Skills & upgrades accrued throughout the tournament will NOT be lost, even if the player dies.

In terms of stats, please record all casualties that remain in play at the end of the game as having been inflicted by your team. That is, injuries caused by crowd pushing and rocks thrown from the crowd may still earn you the "Rambo" award for most casualties (and possibly act as a last-resort tiebreaker for the coaching award), while injuries Regenerated or prevented by an Apothecary will not.

[robsoma]

your roster looks fine to me, just one question why the 10k unspent?? wouldnt that be better used as 1 FF or can you use that 10k towards your skill ups??

[Joemanji]

You only have 11 players. With an AV 7 team you are going to get butchered IMO in about half your games. Plus with only two re-rolls you don't have much room for error.

I'd think about dropping the thrower, runners and at least one Ulf. Use the money to think about a roster like this:

10 Linemen
2 Blitzers
1 Ulf
3 Re-rolls
30K to play with (maybe upgrade for a runner or thrower).

I've seen some successful Norse teams run without any Blitzers too. The real strength of a Norse team lies in their cheap and effective linemen. In tournaments all the other positionals are woefully overpriced.

[PubBowler]

You only have 11 players. With an AV 7 team you are going to get butchered IMO in about half your games. Plus with only two re-rolls you don't have much room for error.

Agree.

I've seen some successful Norse teams run without any Blitzers too. The real strength of a Norse team lies in their cheap and effective linemen. In tournaments all the other positionals are woefully overpriced.

Disagree.

Frenzy & the Snow Troll is where it's at for Norse in tournies.

I'd go:

140 Snow Troll
180 2 Blitzers
90 Runner (your main ball carrier)
70 Thrower
400 8 linos
120 2 rerolls

Skills:

1st game: Leader on the Thrower
2nd game: Mighty Blow on the Snow Troll
3rd game: Sure Hands on the Runner
4th game: Guard on a Blitzer
5th game: Guard on a Blitzer

[voyagers_uk]

You only have 11 players. With an AV 7 team you are going to get butchered IMO in about half your games. Plus with only two re-rolls you don't have much room for error.

Agree.

I've seen some successful Norse teams run without any Blitzers too. The real strength of a Norse team lies in their cheap and effective linemen. In tournaments all the other positionals are woefully overpriced.

Disagree.

Frenzy & the Snow Troll is where it's at for Norse in tournies.

I'd go:

140 Snow Troll
180 2 Blitzers
90 Runner (your main ball carrier)
70 Thrower
400 8 linos
120 2 rerolls

Skills:

1st game: Leader on the Thrower
2nd game: Mighty Blow on the Snow Troll
3rd game: Sure Hands on the Runner
4th game: Guard on a Blitzer
5th game: Guard on a Blitzer

This would be the route I would take as well

[brettness37]

Thanks guys!

[mattgslater]

Ah. I'd do something different:
2 Ulfs: 22
2 Runners: 18
8 Linemen: 40
3 Re-Rolls: 18
2 FF: 2

ST4/Frenzy with no anti-skills... that's major. Claws is much better in leagues than resurrection tournaments without SPP, and ST5 isn't nearly as good as WA is bad, so the extra 30k for that Snow Troll is too much. Blitzers aren't as important as Runners if you have Ulfs, as MA7 is a game-changer, and Side Step is a better cornerback skill than Stand Firm. Still, I could see swapping the Runners for Blitzers and using linos on the corners (use the Blitzers as outside LBs to cover for them, providing good crowd-push opportunities). Not what I'd do, but I see it.

How many games?

[brettness37]

6 games with 20,000 to spend on skills after the first 6.

[PubBowler]

ST4/Frenzy with no anti-skills... that's major.

Agreed but without Block/Wrestle, they're turnover magnets.
Now you can give them Block (or Wrestle) in this ruleset.
But it's two skills down on a skill you can have on everyone else from the get go. I prefer to put the skills to a different use.

Claws is much better in leagues than resurrection tournaments without SPP, and ST5 isn't nearly as good as WA is bad, so the extra 30k for that Snow Troll is too much.

Disagree here.
It's not about SPP or damaging an opponents team for future games.
It's about being a threat to everyone of your oponents.

So much Block is a threat to the agile teams and the ones with low AV.
But Dwarves, Orcs and the like don't care.
They have the AV to play.
But they rarely have the bench to cope with losses.
With Claw & MB it's very easy to take out a couple of them.
And that's how you get the advantage.

Blitzers aren't as important as Runners if you have Ulfs, as MA7 is a game-changer, and Side Step is a better cornerback skill than Stand Firm. Still, I could see swapping the Runners for Blitzers and using linos on the corners (use the Blitzers as outside LBs to cover for them, providing good crowd-push opportunities). Not what I'd do, but I see it.

Blitzers are for crowd pushing and Guard carriers.
And noone else can do both.

[mattgslater]

Thinking of it that way, then...

2x Runner: 18
2x Blitzer: 18
8x Lino: 40
4x RR: 24

I wouldn't do that in a league (the Ulfs need to develop from the beginning), but in a tournament it'd be very versatile. Blitzers are Outside LBs (great place for Frenzy/Guard), Runners are Safeties.

[Da_Great_MC]

Runners are too expensive in this format, I'd go:

2x Ulf
2x Berserker
1x Thrower
7x Lineman
3x RR

Twelve players, three re-rolls. You don't like the Frenzy guys? Choose another team.

Skills: Block on the Ulfs, Sure Hands on the Thrower, order gets determined by personal preference and number of Wood Elf, Skaven, other Strip Ball teams present. My fourth and fifth skill would be Mighty Blow on the Berserkers. I've tried Guard on them but it doesn't seem to work for me. Mighty Blow on the other hand...

Good Luck

[Stout Youngblood]

If there are a lot of high AV teams, you may want to drop an Ulf and a reroll for a Snow Troll. Claw does A LOT towards getting rid of high AV players.