Agility teams and their defense against other agility team

[Ewok81]

I am sorry if there already are threads on this subject, but I was unable to find any, so I thought I'd just go ahead and ask.

When defending against a hitting team many agility teams will deploy in a formation that reduces the number of positionals that can be hit and marked by heavy hitting players in turn one.

But what are your thoughts on deploying against another agility team? Say pro elf versus skavens?

If you don't spread out your tackle zones, your opponent will get people in position for a two turn TD without having to risk block and dodge, but your own players are still pretty frail.

I know there are a lot of variables to the question, but generally speaking, do you deploy to force your opponent to hit and dodge to cross the LOS? Or do you let him penetrate and then hit him/rush ball carrier?

appreciate it

[Digger Goreman]

I am not an unbiased opinion... so do not take this as canon... but two elf teams played each other and "The Professor" asked why they were not throwing blocks and blitzes? Answer: "because we might get hurt!" "Agility teams" imo are all about avoidance....

But, to answer your question in as unbiased a manner as I can: you probably want to spread your defenders to interlock as many tackle zones (and thus rolls for dodges) as possible, remembering that leapers are a problem....

My 2 cents, but I have too much respect for myself to play avoidance teams....

[neverworking]

I think there are a couple of side questions you need to ask yourself when setting up.

1) Does your opponent have any players that are especially good at delivering pain and do you have anyone that's really important to protect? I have seen plenty of agility teams, particularly skaven that have one or two players that could easily target a key player of yours for injury if you leave them exposed. The ziggurat/inverted zig defense are probably the more effective ones if you are only worrying about protecting 1-2 of your players and don't want them to get into your backfield in large numbers.

2) How do you intend to win this game/half? Typically most games boil down to a 2-1 affair, but when two agility teams line up there are often scoring races and one turn td possibilities. Scoring race games tend to hinge as much on saving/damaging your/their one turn scorer and capitalizing/defending against the inevitable blitz kickoff rather than worrying about the stopping the offense from moving the few squares into your half that they need to set up a score.

[Ewok81]

Thanks for your input!

[JaM]

It's not that 'bad' if only 2 -3 players penetrate your defence. You can blitz one and hopefully 'box in' the other 2 (make them roll a dice a lot of times to get free).
Pressure the thrower if possible, set up some players for a possible intercept, foul anyone who is down if it's an expensive/good player (wardancers, gutter runners,..) and if you have a decent chance to get him off the pitch and have players in reserve.

After that, hope for the best. Make sure you can dictate the pace of the game (pressure him to score quickly, dont let him stall) and get as many players of the pitch as you can. You both have speed and agility so numerical advantage is a real plus now.

The one who throws the least amount of ones wins in these sort of games. The more dice you roll, the more chance you have to burn rerolls because you roll 'too low' ( EEK! a '3' !!! OMG I am SO screwed..!! ).

Good luck..!

[Digger Goreman]

The one who throws the least amount of ones wins in these sort of games. The more dice you roll, the more chance you have to burn rerolls because you roll 'too low' ( EEK! a '2' !!! OMG I am SO screwed..!! ).

Oh, wait, you ARE playing fairies...

This is why, when I get roped in to playing against elves or their froggy cousins, I feel like I'm in a Jet Li movie, waiting on The One....

[JaM]

Ha! Indeed. Or 'Neo', if you prefer that.

Thanks for clarifying that 3-2 thing, got them switched. I've got yet to 'play them all' in tournaments though, so dont call me a fairy..!

[Digger Goreman]

An old hat told me elves used to be ag 3.... He also opined that if elves were properly costed you couldn't field a team of 11...

Nothing against you JaM, I consider us friends.... And I do get bored spitless waiting for a fairy team to roll a 1/9 or 1/36 while I am often long out of rerolls failing 1/3....

Were I redoing BB, elves would go back to ag3 and have a near monopoly on ag skills.... Or something like that....

[JaM]

NP, I hear you. Although I am kinda glad you wouldnt be redoing BB.

Apart from lowering the cost for a FG to 100K, and for fluff reasons I still think WWs should get catch, for free. Like they had.


BTT now I guess...?

[Fassbinder75]

I find that when two AG teams play each other, one will be better at bashing than the other. If that team is me, I'll switch to Dwarf mode. Caging, stalling, fouling (against high value targets only) and generally marking up and trying to get as many blocks as you can. If you're not the best basher, just play normally and hope your opponent is drawn into a score-fest.

When I played High Elves, Skaven are the ideal foil for this sort of strategy. My speed advantage is matched, but I have superior AV and AG. I can mark Linos against Skaven where it is harder for them to dodge away, but not for me should the need arise.

Most AG teams are poor at breaking cages and they don't have enough Guard. Hunt players that Leap or have +AG, and grind the rest.