How to develop players that are soon to be fired?

tenwit · Post by **tenwit** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 2:46 am

I've just suffered a -1AV on a saurus with 1 MVP and nothing else, and I've been thinking and rethinking what to do with him until I've developed my team enough to tolerate replacing him (it's a new team, two games down, no skills yet, so I'm not dumping him). For skinks, it's not a problem: Diving Tackle. Side Step if it survives that long. But for a saurus?

Originally I was thinking Break Tackle, then maybe Frenzy for annoyance value, though 16 SPP is unlikely: sauruses take so long to earn SPPs with, I'm bound to have a krox, a sixth skink, and enough skilled sauruses long before then. For just sticking a tackle zone on someone and begging to be hit, Tackle is good; so is Guard. But then I though.. this is a team that never gets Kick, but could really benefit from it, maybe I should try that? Then.. Pass Block on a MA6 ST4 player would be a right pain.

Arg! What do I do?

Feel free to use this thread for other players in a similar situation.

Storch · Post by **Storch** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 3:49 am

I had that exact situation and did in fact give him kick.
He became the Saurus that did not line up and served the sort of strong safety role. It worked pretty well. I'm not saying kick is spectacular, nor is it a waste either. I never considered pass block because until the recent influx of elves in our league we were very bashy and not very pass-y at all.

Andromidius · Post by **Andromidius** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 4:40 am

Guard would help other Saurus with skilling up, and would mean he'd not be hogging SPP's himself.

~Andromidius

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 9:21 am

He's still S4 and Av8 - hardly a weakling. Go break tackle and use him for backfield safety

s031720 · Post by **s031720** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:04 pm

If you plan to retire him anyway, you have a volunteer for all of the dirty job. A "slaughter lamb" if you wish. Id just have him tying down big guys or anywhere else where you need a player that risk beeing hurt. Dont know what skills you would need for that, but Block come to mind.

Other skills that would annoy me if I played you would be stand firm (tying my keyplayers down), shadowing (ST 4, move 6, pretty good chances of getting a 2d block when its your turn. And thats if the op. manages to keep standing).

Cramy · Post by **Cramy** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 1:58 pm

ianwilliams wrote:He's still S4 and Av8 - hardly a weakling. Go break tackle and use him for backfield safety

Agreed. Sauruses ususally play one of two roles. Line guys or mobile blitzers. He's a blitzer now.

So keep him. Give him Break Tackle first, then Block. You want to avoid keeping him in tackle zones if you can. The above is one of the most common developments for blitzer type Sauruses. After that, he gets either Mighty Blow, Frenzy or Tackle, depending on the teams that you are facing in your league.

Going from AV9 to AV8 is not good, but he is likely to live for a very long time. He has 5 SPPs already, so almost has a skill (after two games). I have found that I can usually handle Lizardmen when they don't have any Break Tackle. But once a few Sauruses get Break Tackle, then I'm in trouble.

tenwit · Post by **tenwit** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 7:19 pm

But for 80k I can have the same guy with AV9; why develop the AV8 version for long-term playing? In 10 games' time, 80k will be a drop in the ocean; they're not Slann, I can afford a full team pretty quickly.

Of course BT and Block are great skills for the player, but they're skills that I'm going to get on the other five anyway. And once those other five have skills, I'll be dropping this guy, unless through some amazing piece of luck, he gets to 16+ SPPs.

I don't have to make up my mind yet.. next game is Monday, he's MNG for that, and who knows how long after that before he gets his next SPPs? But for now I'm thinking Kick then Guard, DT on doubles.

So does noone else have a soon-to-be-fired player approaching a skill?

bjorn9486 · Post by **bjorn9486** » Thu Nov 13, 2008 7:47 pm

ianwilliams wrote:He's still S4 and Av8 - hardly a weakling. Go break tackle and use him for backfield safety

I would agree with ian, losing an AV and bring him to 8 is not the worse thing in the world. I would make him a "if they get by my line, then this guy gets them"... guy. I would not personally retire him over this; a ST decrease then yes, but not an AV when its only being dropped to 8.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 2:51 am

tenwit wrote:But for 80k I can have the same guy with AV9; why develop the AV8 version for long-term playing? In 10 games' time, 80k will be a drop in the ocean; they're not Slann, I can afford a full team pretty quickly.

Because a rookie Saurus comes with no skills or SPPs... if you reach your ideal team and don't want him retire him then, but I wouldn't bother voluntarily getting rid of him.

mattgslater · Post by **mattgslater** » Fri Nov 14, 2008 6:14 am

-AV is not relevant to a player's usage, unless either the loss brings AV below 7, or it brings AV to 7 and the player has no application off the line. So for this guy, don't sweat it. Really, the only loss on a Saurus with SPP that you need to worry about is -ST. In this guy's case, I'd be tempted to go for Break Tackle.