I hadn't considered Humans like this before. I think you've made some very valid points but I'd still be hesitant to add a new position to the roster. While Lino Ag and Blitzer speed can very well be "wasted" I think that is a facet of the flexibility of the team. In some games the blitzers will go toe to toe to make the most of their block and ST skills to out block the oppos in others they will use their speed. Equally an open lineman as as good a ball handler as anyone else so they draw attention or the oppo risks the HUmans moving to a Team Reroll play rather than a skill reroll play. With Undead the roles are all pre-defined so you can predict more easily what they are going to do. The Human flexibility is hard to cost and value though since depending on development and the opposition it has greater or lesser benefits. Currently they are clearly performing below par.lucifer wrote:Discussed this with another very well established and versatile coach via PMs. Apart from Al the Trowel on about p.4 and Joemanji, no one else has tried to point out the weaknesses or why they are trying to address them. And Humans definitely have weaknesses!
Looking at the Undead roster, apart from a +/- 10% valuation on Mummies, it's hard to dispute the costs of any of their players. Even the 70k rerolls are the highest in the game. And yet they're considered to be one of the top, if not THE top, teams. Compare this to the Humans where again, apart from the Blitzers (a maximum of +/- 4 Team Value), all the players are costed OK and the rerolls are 50k. So what's the difference? The answer is the synergy of the teams.
Mummies block the way with Str 5. Wights act as mobile (AG 3 can dodge when need be) Blitzers. Ghouls provide the speed (and can be turned into fast Blitzers). And the glue that holds them all together is the cheap Zombie who gets hit, then gets up again. All the components a running team needs to get the job done and no wasted effort. Because of this, although the prices are right for the stat line, there is no "wasted" expense in any of them. No AG 3 Mummies. No MV 5 Zombies. No AV 9 Ghouls, etc.
Compare to the Humans. They have excellent and speedy Blitzers...... who then get Guard and have to "waste" their speed by hanging round the LoS providing assists. Fast catchers who then "waste" their mobility by lying in the dead box/KO. Even AG 3 linemen who never end up dodging!
So what to do? Well, assuming for one minute that the Human team is almost right then the plan should be to mitigate some of these losses. A good start has been made with AV 8 Catchers. They're still vulnerable, but they're not going to go off straight away. Another similar would be Thick Skull ("they get hit a lot - they're used to this sort of thing!"). One that would really help though is to free the Blitzers up to do some actual blitzing by allowing another player to help out on the LoS. Already suggested has been a "Blocker" of some sort and that's what's needed. But they shouldn't be too slow (MV 5), should take over the job the Blitzers are almost forced to do (Guard), shouldn't be unagile, but at the same time shouldn't be able to reposition this Guard too easily (AG 2), shouldn't be caked in armour (keep AV
and for all of this should not be too common (0-2). This would increase the synergy of the Humans, keep their current roster more or less intact, and give a use for Dick & Dom (2nd player on 1st line & 4th player on 2nd line)
As I've said I think that's because all the rosters have had a 90k cash infusion on creation which means Coaches are not making the hard choices between maxing out Ghouls or maxing out Mummies - they can afford both straight off. Once Humans were quick out the blocks and relatively resilient now most teams can build a bench and optimise positionals just as easily. My ideal solution is to rebuild/strengthen the link between FF and income so that Coaches have to make that difficult choice between immediate on pitch strength and longer term team building. That isn't going to happen though. So my preferred fall back is to buff the Human Catcher and reduce the cost of the Blitzer to hand back some of the early game strength they've lost.
I've thrown around ideas for what to do with Amazons but I don't think making them a faster team should actually have any direct bearing on Humans. Fix Humans and then work out better what role Zons are supposed to play in the roster mix. Making humans slower just to make space for a new style Amazons seems the wrong approach to game design to me - i.e. making radical changes to two team and risking unbalancing them both, rather than being radical with just one.
