Norse guide: On Rampage

[Arklite]

don't forget the normal roll access to leader.

[mattgslater]

Yeah, it's almost worth taking a #2 Thrower for that. I might do it in a tournament format, but I probably would otherwise shy away from Throwers in a tournament....

[sunnyside]

I have one team with a Skaven like "support" thrower who has leader and kick.

The advantage of doing that is that once you get the other positionals and one thrower, if you field them all on defence you only have three linemen for LOS duty. Having Kick on a lineman makes setting up trickier.

Of course you could have a thrower that sits out, but if they're taking advantage of leader, you've got your re-roll sitting on the bench when you might need it.

[mattgslater]

I don't like that for two reasons. I suppose I don't have to mention that Leader/Kick is not exactly beautiful synergy: you have to field your Leader on offense if you plan on stalling, or if you're afraid you might get stalled on. Also, I don't like a Kick Thrower on any team but Skaven. For Skaven, it's a different story, because you can have 6 guys who can chuck the ball and can't afford to put linemen in the backfield on defense unless they're dedicated blitz targets. Plus, an MA7 Kick/Leader/Sure Hands/Pass player is an excellent free safety. Norse, and most other teams, aren't quite like that. For one thing, Norse don't really need a great free safety, and for another, they don't start with Sure Hands. If I were going to develop a Norse "utility" Thrower, I'd go Leader, then look at SH, Fend or NOS, so I could use him as a receiver, retriever or ballhawk. Or if I got doubles on a Thrower and took Dodge, I might get him Leader next.

[Akka]

So would you play without Kick, or give it to a Lineman?

[purdindas]

I'd take kick as my first lino skill.

[mattgslater]

I'd take kick as my first lino skill.

+1. Kick-Tackle-Pro. He plays free, which really limits the value of Fend. Also, he does a lot of receiver-marking (and blitzing if you do a good job sticking in), for which Tackle is great. Pro is better than nothing on blocks and is also good for GFIs late in the half. Guard on doubles, take all stat bumps on your Kicker.

[Carnis]

So would you play without Kick, or give it to a Lineman?

Personally, I think either works. 20k is not a huge investment for the benefits that kick gives you. I would not skip my first two dirty players over kick, though.

All my linemen with fend have died on their first post-fend game (no apo rights, and the one with guard naturally took a double-6 injury..), so I don't really know how "effective" it is. I have to say I'm not convinced so far.

[mattgslater]

Fend is a poor-man's Side Step. No, Stand Firm is a poor-man's Side Step, and Fend is the bargain basement version. I'd say it's a decent B skill on a G-only access player, a good combo piece on a ball-carrier, and a nice #5 on a Side-Stepping winger/corner type. I could even see it as a #3 on a Norse Runner, after Dodge and Side Step, for its application on a Dauntless big-guy hunter, reducing the odds of dying after failing to take down a Mino, RO, ST or Ulf. I could really see this if I had a bunch of Fend on my Norse Linemen and/or Stand Firm on the bash positions. But the more I play with Fend the less I think it's a substitute for the good positioning skills.

[Arklite]

i find fend ideal against VERY bashy teams such as dwarves or orcs, where they make progress simply by bowling you over. any movement you cheat from such an opponent is always a good thing, i'd say its definently a lineman skill though and then only if you can't get access to the strength chart, stand firm definently trumps it.

[mattgslater]

My only issue there is that it doesn't stop pushes into extra blocks. If you line up a Fender so that two ST4 guys can give him the pinball effect, Fend doesn't help.

[sunnyside]

My only issue there is that it doesn't stop pushes into extra blocks. If you line up a Fender so that two ST4 guys can give him the pinball effect, Fend doesn't help.

First of all even then it can, because it's possible after the two blocks your guys is clear of them.

However with the more likely two st 3 gusy, it makes a fast difference as the second block is a skull tempting 1d block.

I find fend is quite the help, especially against bash teams. Not only do you get the cage stall mentioned ealier, but often they lack high movement. So there can be significant advantage garnered by getting your guys lose. Often you can move on and just leave a mummy or whatever out of the action.

That and some bash teams spam piling on, and those sort of teams are probably the hardest for Norse to beat, and the riskiest for them to play, so specializing against them is not a bad idea.

[narg]

Nice post. My two cents:
- Strip Ball is really good on a Runner, and a killer combo with MV7 / Block / Dauntless, just can't believe it wasn't mentioned so far. Great synergy with Dauntless, I really have to highlight that. I'd give it to one runner, as a second skill after dodge. Granted it's not as efficient as on a war dancer but if you defend well you might force your opponent into making suboptimal moves such as sending a lone ogre or blodger with the ball to score and in this situation a strip ball runner is your friend.
- The Norse Thrower is maybe not the best around but I do think he is necessary; not taking any is counterproductive. A player in the team needs sure hands so it might as well be him, as his access to passing skills gives you more play options. Sure the best thing to do is running the ball but if the cage is stuck he's better at passing it than runners or linemen.
- The Snow Troll is really, #really# bad. With loner, frenzy, wild animal and no block he's a turnover machine and once he gets down (as he's bound to) he's quickly outpositioned and it takes forever to get him up and back into the game again as it involves a lot of 4+ rolls, unless you use a blitz on him which he might lose or botch with another turnover. I don't know about other people's experiences with him but my personal experience is that he can spend entire games - literally - on the ground and not throwing a single decent block. In my last game he rolled a 1 on Wild Animal first turn, went down and caused a turnover on turn 2, and basically spent the rest of the game on the ground because he couldn't get up. I guess that a lucky double and access to Block changes everything though.

[GuppyShark]

Couldn't agree more on the Snow Troll. If mine doesn't roll doubles on his first skill he's cut, I am sick of how unreliable he is. Loner and blockless and Wild Animal... Too much.

[purdindas]

I'm a fan of the snow troll actually. Claws can give you a nice edge against teams which norse would otherwise struggle against (Dwarves and Orcs). I use him late in the turn and blitz with him alot.

OLast season he got 9 cas from 10 games