Leveling a slann catcher star (+team on 2nd page)?

[Tripleskull]

Thick skull? Thats just funny

Is it? Be curious to see the math on what the odds would be on taking him off the field if he would take Block or Thick Skull. Throw in Mighty Blow as another variable (his being hit by it), and really make it interesting!

With a guy like this its not about keeping him on the field, its about keeping him alive. Thick skull does nothing in that sence, nothing positive anyway. This guy should only be blocked right after you took the ball away from the opponant, so KO isnt to bad. Put extra TV on top and compare to sure hands...

[Carnis]

A lot of players are giving conflicting advice, maybe it'd be easier with the entire roster at hand. I've been playing this team for almost a year now, when I started & was getting inducements I was winning close to 80% of my games, now that I've got it bloated it has got a lot harder as I'm facing a wizard + stuff every game.

Linefrog 6 4 3 8 Leap, Very Long Legs, +Wrestle/STR 130 000
Linefrog 6 3 3 8 Leap, Very Long Legs, +Block/Kick 100 000
Linefrog 6 3 3 8 Leap, Very Long Legs, +Block/Frenzy 100 000
Linefrog 6 3 3 8 Leap, Very Long Legs, +Guard 90 000
Linefrog 6 3 3 8 Leap, Very Long Legs, +Block/Tackle 100 000
Linefrog 6 3 3 9 Leap, Very Long Legs, +AV 90 000
Linefrog 6 3 3 8 Leap, Very Long Legs 3spp, 60 000
Linefrog 6 3 3 8 Leap, Very Long Legs 3spp, 60 000
Linefrog 6 3 3 8 Leap, Very Long Legs 0spp, 60 000
Linefrog 6 3 3 8 Leap, Very Long Legs 0spp, 60 000
Catcher 7 2 4 7 Diving Catch, Leap, Very Long Legs, +Wrestle/Dodge 120 000
Catcher 8 2 5 6 Diving Catch, Leap, Very Long Legs, +MA/Dodge/+AG/double-2 m, -AV51 (170 000+skill)
Catcher 7 2 4 7 Diving Catch, Leap, Very Long Legs, +Block 100 000
Catcher 7 2 4 7 Diving Catch, Leap, Very Long Legs 80 000
Blitzer 7 3 3 7 Diving Tackle, Jump up, Leap, Very Long Legs, +Wrestle -AV 130 000
Kroxigor 6 5 1 9 Loner, Bone-Head, Mighty Blow, Prehensive Tail, Thick Skull, +Block/Guard/Piling on 210 000

RE-ROLLS 5 X 50 000 250 000
FAN FACTOR 7 X 10 000 70 000
ASSISTANT COACHES X 10 000 0
CHEERLEADERS X 10 000 0
APOTHECARY 1 X 50 000 50 000
TEAM WIZARD 0 X 150 000 0
TOTAL COST OF TEAM: 2 050 000

I'm planning to play 3-4 more matches with this, then we have league playoffs & I won't be touching this team for another 4 months, so fire away. When the new season starts I can basicly redesign the whole team as we're running open league over a long timeperiod.

I think my mistake is playing these too much like a human team, but without the humans backbone, ie the fast guard blitzers. The other mistake is relying to much on the kroxigor, having won or lost games over bone head rolls. Then I haven't gotten any skills on the linoes in ages, so I havent been able to levelup a dirty player. The first 5 linemen on the team have been in from day1, but I feel some of them may need to go. Also, I had to sack 3 out of 4 of my original catchers, as I had been spamming them with rookie skills like catch, sneaky git, dirty player etc.

Finally, I've taken far too little dodge on the team, and all my blitzers have died before their first skill or soon afterwards. The crowdsurfing leaping lineman used to be great, but nowdays he's facing stand firm/ss teams, making crowding a redundancy. The linemen are also spectacularily bad against black orcs / cws etc, considering they are more expensive!

I think I'll try 3 fend-only linemen next season and probably sack the frenzy & the block/tackle & replace with one dirty player and a bunch of blodge or Wrodge (Wrestle/Dodge) blitzers (Dodge as skill 1).

I'm very reluctant to lose the block-kroxigor, but he's a HUGE load of inducements considering how useless he is vs stronger teams, maybe break tackle would help there though.

The only players I really want to hang on to are:

Guard-liner
+AV-liner
Wrestle+STR-liner
Block-kick-liner
and all the catchers.

My main opponent this season play-offs will be a rather rookie orc team, but the coach has an impeccable record with his critical dicerolls.

[tenwit]

If I had that team, my priorities for each player would be:
Lineman +ST: Frenzy, then Tackle.
Lineman Kick: Strip Ball
Lineman Block/Frenzy: Tackle if he skillls before the +ST guy, else fire him.
Lineman Guard: Block, Pass Block
Lineman Block/Tackle: Fend
Lineman +AV: Wrestle, Fend
Other linemen: fire as you buy blitzers
Catcher Wrodge: Strip Ball
Catcher +AG: Block, Pass Block
Catcher Block: Dodge, Pass Block
Catcher: Block, Sure Hands
Blitzer -AV: fire him
Krox: Stand Firm
Rerolls: Fire one (or two, if you're brave). Buy a coach and a cheerleader for each reroll you fire.

Buy more blitzers as a last priority, replace dying Catchers and Krox first. You have a good team, and only the lack of Strip Ball and Pass Block (two VITAL Slann skills) is holding you back.

[Carnis]

If I had that team, my priorities for each player would be:
Lineman +ST: Frenzy, then Tackle.
Lineman Kick: Strip Ball
Lineman Block/Frenzy: Tackle if he skillls before the +ST guy, else fire him.
Lineman Guard: Block, Pass Block
Lineman Block/Tackle: Fend
Lineman +AV: Wrestle, Fend
Other linemen: fire as you buy blitzers
Catcher Wrodge: Strip Ball
Catcher +AG: Block, Pass Block
Catcher Block: Dodge, Pass Block
Catcher: Block, Sure Hands
Blitzer -AV: fire him
Krox: Stand Firm
Rerolls: Fire one (or two, if you're brave). Buy a coach and a cheerleader for each reroll you fire.

Buy more blitzers as a last priority, replace dying Catchers and Krox first. You have a good team, and only the lack of Strip Ball and Pass Block (two VITAL Slann skills) is holding you back.

The plan currently:

Lineman +ST: Tackle (He's THE cagebreaker #1, hence frenzy is out at least before catchers roll doubles -> guard)
Lineman Kick: Dirty Player (Gives me more options against piling on types/8 turn stall defence rounds)
Lineman Block/Frenzy: Fend (Frees him off if he gets bullied + nearly immune to frenzy)
Lineman Guard: Block, Fend
Lineman Block/Tackle: Fend
Lineman +AV: Fend
Catcher Wrodge: Strip Ball
Catcher +AG+MA/-AV: Block, Sure hands OR Safe Throw Sure Hands
Catcher Block: Dodge, Side Step
Catcher: Dodge, Sidestep
Blitzer -AV: Dodge (3 spp from a levelup)
Krox: Either Stand Firm or firing him..
Rerolls: Keeping 'em.

Imo strip ball is a vital skill too, but not in an advanced league where sure hands is abundant. 1 strip per team will make passing play a pain, so I'm aiming for it, but keeping the screening catchers alive is concern #1. The real problem is the overall cost of my team. I used to have a passblock catcher with catch&dodge. Sacked him as he was mostly useless. If you defend him, then people can go around him & ignore his passblock, if you don't defend him then he'll take the blitz before the throw. Over the course of his career he got a total of 1 intercept & 1 intercept attempt.. He bloated the TR a lot, for being so useless. I think a blitzer with passblock might be a lot more useful, but then there's a lot of better skills like guard/sidestep/dodge/block/wrestle to consider for them

Sidestep is lacking too, as it'd enable for a lot better sideplays & screening.

Im keeping rerolls at 5, as I can always spend them anyway (easy with the 3+ leap access) + in play off games I'll be up against halfling chef so -2-3 rerolls per half anyway.

I like playing offence & defence, but the high cost of my team often dumbs down my opponents defence into pummeling the team with mb/piling to get rid of key players, then wizard the ball if given the chance -> This forces me to score earlier than I intend -> Which means the wiz will be there on offence as well, it's a wicked circle & all that is required is an opponent with a 150k cheaper team (& the Slann ain't cheap, let me tell you!).

So whenever I'm playing def or offence, I'm on pressure to get the ball & score. More often than not the odds of me taking the ball are less than 50%, even when I get 2db's on the ballcarrier with 3+ leaps. I think I'm setting up the steal wrong, but starting to work on it now. I've mostly been using too few catchers, so when I DO spring the ball free I don't have any1 in a position to receive & take the ball to safety. I didn't really think of slann as a "skinky" team before now.

I had too easy a time for a vast majority of matches, with coaches being less experienced or less developed, so my kroxigor or my passing play dominated for far longer than it should have in a more normal league.