Options and Elves

Jural · Post by **Jural** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:56 am

I would think as long as all your options are interesting, and there are no clear "best paths" then they will be well received.

mattgslater · Post by **mattgslater** » Wed Mar 18, 2009 6:33 pm

Great.

Last question on elf options. High and Pro Elves give up Catchers 3 and 4, and unlike Woodies, this would really hurt on its own. If you could trade out those last two Catchers on a PE or HE team for High Elf Blitzers, would you? Another way of asking this is if HEs had 0-4 Blitzers and 0-2 Catchers instead of vice-versa, would it be a dramatic improvement? I'm not worried about people jumping for the downgrades to lineman-types on those teams like I am with Woodies. I'm also not crazy enough to ever allow any team to start with more than two ST3 Side Steppers or to give one team NOS Catchers and Safe Throw Throwers to start, so PE positionals and HE Throwers as options aren't on the table (except of course, PE Catchers on PE teams).

Jural · Post by **Jural** » Fri Mar 20, 2009 8:31 am

On a High Elf team, I would consider it. Better starting side, better Armor. A 4 High Elf Blitzer starting side would actually be very interesting. But more powerful? Naah, they would just be more like Dark Elves.

The Pro Elves are better off, I think. They need lower cost positional access, and this does it for them. 2 HE Blitzers, 2 Pro Elf Blitzers, and 2 Pro Elf catchers is a pretty sweet roster... until one or more of your catchers is knocked out of the game!

mattgslater · Post by **mattgslater** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:11 pm

Cool. I don't want to buff Pro Elves much, so I'd like some additional advice about whether or not to add a positional-positional to the PE options list, rather than just somebody else's lineman. Maybe both other elf linos? So Pro Elves would trade 0-2 Catchers for 0-2 of their choice of Catchers, High/Dark Elf linos or Wood Elf Linos.

The thing is that I suspect that would be moot, as every PE team would go out and get 2 Catchers. I could see Wood Elves going for PE linos, as they have money problems and the MA reduction doesn't really matter for what the player will do. But while PEs would like some MA7 or AV8, the consequent missing Catcher really hurts, as the PE team is really at its best when it can always field two Catchers. I suppose that you might see one Catcher and one High Elf? I wouldn't do that, but somebody might. I guess that's a good result, huh? It's a fixed league, a format where PEs tend to prosper (enough time to get some good development and cover any early losses, but not enough time to see tons of Grab, and all the opponents will be at the same level, minimizing the impact of SW stars).

mattgslater · Post by **mattgslater** » Sun Mar 29, 2009 12:18 pm

Hmmm... I hadn't thought of the implications of our "veteran draft" format. When a player with an improvement gets cut or his team gets disbanded (new teams each season), that player goes into a pool of players who can be hired or induced, and we have a draft at the beginning of each season so some of these guys end up on starting teams With this in mind, if one team is allowed players from another roster, those players have an additional value. Maybe I should see if this solves my problem on its own.

I have a preseason High Elf team, and they've been raking in armloads of SPP: even if I take High Elves in the regular season, I'll be forced to leave some skilled linos undrafted. Maybe I should see if that tempts the PE coach to give up Catcher #4 in favor of a HE lino with Block. I might not get a chance, though: he's primarily a Rat coach, and his preseason PE experiment has gone just horribly ('tis the reason for preseason).