Celebrating my first Rotter to reach 2nd skill advance!!!

Smeborg · Post by **Smeborg** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:24 pm

Well, it finally happened.

Playing Nurgle for the 3rd time in a league, I finally got a 2nd skill advance on a Rotter (12th game, 3 MVPs and a CAS). So now we have Chuck, Rotter, 5339 Block, under the contented eye of Poetry in Motion's player-manager (and Beast of Nurgle) Gervaise Johansen.

The other Rotters all died or got forcibly retired before they could get that far. The closest before was Anabel, Marketing, formerly of Amazon team Girls' Night Out, who got to the dizzy heights of 15 SPPs. Desperate for glory, with the team's very last action of their very last game (a 24 game season) she went for it twice, picked up the ball and passed to a nearby Rotter. But it was not to be, as the said Rotter, despite Re-roll, dropped the ball.

Rarely have I felt so happy to get a second skill advance on a player! Probably means he'll die soon...

All the best

SillySod · Post by **SillySod** » Sun Apr 05, 2009 11:29 pm

Sack him before he bloats out your TV

tenwit · Post by **tenwit** » Mon Apr 06, 2009 1:48 am

Keep him. Nurgle is all about (pus-filled) bloat.

tafta · Post by **tafta** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 6:20 pm

Congrats, my rotters like to accumulate stat decreases and die before reaching the 2nd skill. I have one at 15SPP so maybe I'll experience the joy of a 2nd skill soon as well...

But isn't the consensus that Block + Foul App is the way to go with Rotters? Giving him +AV will only increase your TV with 20k extra and he'll still go down. Better to give him a 1/6 chance to avoid being blocked at all (my rotters are linefodder).

Joemanji · Post by **Joemanji** » Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:17 pm

tafta wrote:But isn't the consensus that Block + Foul App is the way to go with Rotters? Giving him +AV will only increase your TV with 20k extra and he'll still go down. Better to give him a 1/6 chance to avoid being blocked at all (my rotters are linefodder).

Chance of getting CAS with FA is 3.9%, with AV9 is 2.8%.

PubBowler · Post by **PubBowler** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:43 am

Joemanji wrote:
tafta wrote:But isn't the consensus that Block + Foul App is the way to go with Rotters? Giving him +AV will only increase your TV with 20k extra and he'll still go down. Better to give him a 1/6 chance to avoid being blocked at all (my rotters are linefodder).
Chance of getting CAS with FA is 3.9%, with AV9 is 2.8%.

Not disputing the sums Joe but AV9 doesn't protect against Mighty Blow or Claw in the same way as FA does.

And, on the flip side, FA doesn't protect against fouls.

But I wouldn't be fouling the rotters very often...

Smeborg · Post by **Smeborg** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 11:39 am

My "system" for Rotter development (well, hardly a system, as this guy is the first rotter to make it to 16 SPPs) is as follows:

- Block
- Fend
- Foul Appearance
- Disturbing Presence

On doubles: Sidestep, Jump Up.

On 10s: take the +1AV.

On 11s and 12s: decline the stat increase.

This "system" is based on 3 straightforward ideas:

(1) To maximise the survivability of the Rotter (and his acquired skills).
(2) To fit his role, which for me is: lineman, assistant, marker, escort.
(3) To increase his mobility in this role (especially with Fend).

Hope this helps.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Tue Apr 14, 2009 9:06 pm

I'm a bit surprised you'd turn down the AG or ST. On a short lived piece like this I can't see why you'd not see the value in them.

Also aren't you using rotters for specialisation too? e.g. a kicker?

Given the desire to protect them (e.g. +Av on a 6,4) I'm a bit surprised you wouldn't take dodge on a double either. I know its not necessarily optimal on a dodge-less team but it can help.

Smeborg · Post by **Smeborg** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 5:28 am

I don't consider the +1AG/+1MA/+1ST as good value on a player with such a poor stat line and no skills to begin with (not to mention a tendency to spend much of the game in the dugout!).

Because of Decay/no Apoth/no Regen I also expect to accumulate -AG and (especially) -MA on Rotters (I will normally retire them on other permanent injuries), so skill selection is made with this in mind.

I don't take Dodge on the team (although I consider taking lots of Dodge on a Chaos team an excellent strategy). So giving Dodge to a Rotter would just make him a Tackle target.

Half the time I dream of giving Guard to Rotters on doubles. But it is wasted on the line.

I don't plan to use Kick on a Nurgle team, as there is no place for it in what I consider the optimal defensive set-up (which in any case has the only 2 or 3 Rotters on the pitch on the line of scrimmage). Don't get me wrong, I think Kick is a great skill, I just find this odd team has other priorities. They skill up very slowly (at half the rate of other teams) and are expensive, so every skill needs to count pretty much all the time.

Keeping all 4 Warriors plus the Beast in the second line creates a harder to penetrate "Wall of Nurgle" defense, and keeps all the Disturbing Presence mobile for at least one more turn.

But I'm still learning (3rd league with Nurgle).

Carnis · Post by **Carnis** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:17 am

Why not dirty player? Short lived players = perfect 1 skillers, heavy access to mb/piling/claw on the pesties & warriors = good grounds for a little foul play. Finally, you get 40k rotters so you can have a long bench and not pay for it (the expensive pieces are the pesties & NWs, not the rotters). Finally, if you foul & kill some1 you get more rotters..

I havent played a game with new nurgle yet, but have faced a few of the old Nurg in FUMBBL. So maybe I've got it all wrong.

I'm intending to play nurgle next in table top with the game plan of having 3 rotters on the LOS, NWs & beast behind like you & develop one pestigor at a time until I get up to 3 or 4.

Straight forward, tie up with your NW & beast. Play the running game with pesties & rotters. Blitz with your developed MB/Piling (3rd Claw/tackle depends on league), foul heavy especially on defense.

Finally, I would never decline ST, though I agree with MA & AG. The reason is, 90k player with 5438 is awesome. Remember decay does not affect his ingame performance (as you can't get an apoth), only his league survivability. Imagine facing a team of 11 5438 rotters

at 990k value (+RR's & ff), that's a bargain.

PubBowler · Post by **PubBowler** » Wed Apr 15, 2009 9:28 am

Carnis wrote: Imagine facing a team of 11 5438 rotters at 990k value (+RR's & ff), that's a bargain.

Not to mention his dice that can roll that.
Sale of the century!

Smeborg · Post by **Smeborg** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:14 am

My Dirty Player Rotter is always out of position for the foul - so I don't bother to take the skill now.

And you have the same problem as with Kick - the DP Rotter doesn't really fit anywhere, whether on defense or offense.

tenwit · Post by **tenwit** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 12:16 am

Don't you have an offense-only pestigor that you can leave off the pitch on defense? Give a rotter Kick, followed by sacker skills (Wrestle, Strip Ball, Tackle, whatever takes your fancy), and replace your built-for-offense pestigor with that guy.

mattgslater · Post by **mattgslater** » Thu Apr 16, 2009 2:21 am

Kick is better on speed teams, but on a slow team it's still excellent, as it lets you turn an early numerical/TRR advantage into the Running of the Score, even with slow players. I've never tried Kick/Disturbing Presence as a combo, but a speedy offense which is weak on numbers will sacrifice a ball-handler on the weakside before they'll draw resources away from their main plan of attack, trusting their primary QB to handle the job of grabbing the ball wherever it may be from the center of the board. If you kick shallow to the weakside, my experience is that about half the time a team of fewer than 10 players will be forced to burn a rather regrettable action getting the ball and lobbing it to safety (my exp. here is with Orcs, but so far I think the principle holds). What I'm wondering is if you stick a Nurgle Warrior one square back and next to the WZ line, what are the odds that a kick into the same column, 3 squares into the offensive side, will bounce such that Disturbing presence could be a factor?