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Coach_Yriel wrote:Does this mean that Slann are one of the more difficult teams for short season play?
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I know the easy answer is "Don't play Slann in short seasons", but what would you do if you were dead set on them?
I think slann are a great team right away, even for a short league. It's just that they get a lot better with any skills at all. Catchers get a lot better with just one skill, Dodge. The key is getting Wrestle on a few linemen as quickly as possible so that the aerial cage assault gets easier to pull off. But those few skills form are enough for the basics. Wrestle also makes your blocking game a lot more reliable.
For a short league I would skip the blitzers completely because they need too much love and nurturing in the beginning and you don't want to concentrate on skilling both the blitzers and linos right away.
Here's my slann team on Fumbbl for reference. I'm really happy with the team on which you'll notice the following components:
- Even spread of spp's apart from the blitzer and but I've really worked on that (and MVP's falling on linos helped a lot...),
- Lots of skills on the linos. Everyone's gotten Wrestle as fisrt skill so far apart from one doubles. Redundancy with the cage leapers is great. The next one who skills up probably gets Kick,
- One of my catchers has Guard. It makes the cage leap so much easier. Having a super mobile Guard is just awesome,
- The only blitzer is a killer with Block, MB and PO. Next I'll probably buy a second blitzer. I'll make him into a killer too if my Guarders don't all die. Killers are great because outnumbering any opponent with slann is just silly. Plus removing opponents from the pitch is fun!
In my experience with Slann- 65 games on Fumbbl's Blackbox division- they seem to peak rather early. 1400 to 1600 seems to be their zone, which is right about the point at which all of your players have a skill. (I've had about 30 games above that TV, and most of my losses came in those games.)
Any of those starting rosters will work. The blitzers are pretty weak with no skills, but once they get block or wrestle they're surprisingly useful. Starting with one or two will be sufficient, and keeping more than 2 on the roster will not help as much as you might think. I like 2 catchers and the 4 rerolls, since rerolls are expensive later on, and unskilled catchers can usually get their first skill after one game.
I like to have one blitzer go the killer route, and one blitzer as a tackler. Block MB Piling On / Wrestle Tackle (Sidestep, Strip Ball, or Dodge 3rd). The catchers can basically all just take dodge, although having one (or even two) with KoR will save you some rerolls.
Wrestle on Linefrogs is nice, but I really wish I would have given one of them kick early on.
I was thinking about Slann roster management and who to put on the los.
The issue concerns the blitzers. A slann team can have 4 blitzers, 4 catchers and the kroxigor. That's 9 players already. But only one of those players, the Kroxigor, is fit for los duty. The catchers are too fragile and the blitzers are too expensive. But linemen are very important for defensive purposes too and I'd rather not have my main cage jumpers, who are linos, on the los either. That would equate to a roster of 14 players minimum (4 blitzers, 4 catchers, 1 kroxigor, 2-3 specialist linos, 3+ chump linos) which is a whole lot of players and TV.
Not that I've ever thought about getting all 4 blitzers, simply due to cost and the fact that the blitzers are awful without skills, but this really speaks against it as well. Or if you have 4 blitzers, then you should probably limit the amount of catchers you have.
I might be playing it wrong but I tried out the Krox this weekend and even with block I found him to be barely worth it...he is okay if you leave him alone on the line but once I actually started to need him he was BH half the time...
And Blitzers to start with are really unimpressive but they jump to very good at the first skill up. Used in pairs or more (I'm even thinking about picking up a third blitzer instead of a Krox for my league), Blitzers can really put the clamps down on agility teams, and they can keep you alive in playing on-the-ball defense against bashy cagers. With how fragile catchers are- linemen are having to carry so many duties- LoS, marking, etc that they get knockdown quite a bit. So even if you are surviving all the KD's and KO's...best case scenario, your team has now given up a mobility/speed advantage by having to stand up. I hate their base cost but I see a lot of potential in blitzers both on and off the ball.
4x Catcher. One retriever, three weapons.
3x Blitzer. One POMB hunter, two markers.
5x Lineman. Start as LOSses, evolve into 2x hunter, 3x marker/hunter.
1x Krox. Marker.
Reason:''
What is Nuffle's view? Through a window, two-by-three. He peers through snake eyes.
What is Nuffle's lawn? Inches, squares, and tackle zones: Reddened blades of grass.
What is Nuffle's tree? Risk its trunk, space the branches. Touchdowns are its fruit.
Had my first game (against necros) 3 catchers, 1 krox, 7 linemen, 4 rerolls. The krox was a terrific speedbump and provided a really good space to hide a catcher. I would have 4 catchers if I could. They are pretty fragile. There were no situations that a blitzer would have made a big difference IMHO that a linefrog didn't. We lost 3-1 but nuffle and inexperience are more to blame than line-up.Defensively A linefrog and one catcher back seemed to work really well. 2 dice and someone to pick the ball up.
