Elf Linemen Overview:
As the cheapest AG4 players in Blood Bowl Elf Linemen are very good value compared to their abilities. With average movement and strength, they also come with high agility, the reason they are cheap is down to their low armour. Considering the usual roles that are given to Linemen in teams, being cheaper than the other Elven Linemen is a nice advantage for Elf teams.
Despite being cheaper than other Elven Linemen, they still are more expensive compared to nearly every other Lineman on other Blood Bowl teams. Elf teams also don’t have access to a Big Guy who can help soak up some damage. So while cheapish, they aren’t as disposable compared to most Linemen. Also being Elves and having high agility they are more than capable at ball handling, so are much more flexible compared to those cheaper opponents.
That being said you can’t avoid some getting injured and you are going to have a cycle of rookie players coming into replace ones that meet their demise on the pitch. While it makes the most sense to usually put the rookies in the situations where they are likely to get hurt to help protect their team mates, it can still help to prolong their lives if you can get them skills. Try not to turn the team into a few star players and a lot of rookies, a lopsided team can work for a while but eventually you will struggle when the highly developed players are missing.
Utility / Scrimmage Elf Lineman:
Assuming you have no rookies on the team to put on the Line of Scrimmage then the skills you want for the role are as follows. If you are facing lots of other new teams then I would start with Dodge, it offers protection and also makes dodging away easier. Follow that up with Wrestle, again for protection, it will make blocking less risky and it can also take down stronger opponents with Block during the opponents turn. Then take Fend after that to protect them against Piling On and Frenzy. They probably won’t even get to three skills most of the time, so it may take quite a while to get any further. I would get Side Step after that more than likely, though if your team could do with certain other skills then consider those instead. Likely options would be Tackle or Dauntless, though certain environments may require other skills.
For doubles I would get Guard, Elven teams need it to cope with the strength teams. If you do get doubles and get Guard then the player is too valuable to put on the Line of Scrimmage and should be used more to support their team mates. Of course if your whole team is well developed and there is no room on them in your kick off formation other than the LOS then by all means use them there. A stat increase would also mean the same, strength is great and makes them more useful for other roles, there are a few options so consider what one the team needs that they could be fulfil. Agility increase will make them better at retrieving loose balls and dodging through traffic. Movement is probably altogether more useful than an armour increase, the latter may not make a big difference to their life expectancy as well.
Kicker Elf Lineman:
The first one that skills up on the team and rolls a normal skill should take Kick. An Elf team can take very good advantage of a decent kick off and it helps a lot for defence against bashier opposition. Follow that up with Block and Dodge in any order mostly for protection, though usually a kicker won’t get many SPP. Then I would get Fend should a further skill come their way. Doubles and stat increases aren’t particularly useful as you tend to usually want to keep your Kick player safe and out the way. That said I wouldn’t pass them up as they don’t come up all that often (though if your team has been blessed with nice skill rolls then by all means ignore them). Just be more careful with your placement of the player as losing your kicker, especially early in a game, can be a disaster. Logic behind picking them is the same as the previous build.
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I have a build I tend to go for with one lineman on my delf team and I think it would be useful on an elf team too. I tend to select one lineman for dauntless, wrestle, dodge, pro rather than the usual dodge, wrestle, fend I consider this my “offensive lineelf” and his job is to open a hole for my other elves to pour through, with orcs, lizards, goblins, chaos and khemri to name but a few teams that are capable of covering all the LoS positions with ST4 or better dauntless really helps open a gap. I also find it great to go up against the tree in a WE team as knocking the tree down once can last several turns and controlling the Krox in a Lizard team can really help against that prehensile tail.
You talk about team value getting sent off a few times here. To be honest I don’t get the point in that. Team value is only important before the match to compare the strength of the teams. How does it matter if you have high TV sent off compared to low TV? I mean it just doesn’t influence the performance of the players left on the pitch, if the sent-off player was worth a lot or not. Of course I understand that you shouldn’t have a player with a lot of useful skills sent off, because then you can’t use them any more. But you talk about not giving them Sneaky Git, so there is less TV sent off. Sneaky Git doesn’t help your play in any way, it just keeps your player from being sent off, so it’s not like the team would miss the one player with Tackle or Strip Ball or Strength 5.
So I would say it only matters what the player was worth in an abstract way for the team. But how much he is worth in TV – what does it matter?
I would take the +AV over the +MV for my scrimmage lineelves. AV8 makes a lot of difference.
A player with more skills has more TV, so if a player gets sent off you would rather it was your lowest TV one as you then lose less skills for the rest of the match.
I just had a Lineman first skill up being +AG. I have built my team pretty much following your advice, i.e. Blitzers as markers with dodge and diving tackle, 2 catchers going the blodge way and the other 2 going the wrackle – strip ball way.
Now having a lineman with +AG, not sure how to go next if he survives XD… Shall i develop it as a safety retriever able to get lose balls in the think of the fight with dodge-surehands kind of thing? or rather as an additional leaping blitzer with leap, wrestle, strip ball?
At any rate, building this kind of players requires living up to level 4 or 5 so, unsure how to proceed next.
The forum is a better place to ask about specific players, please start a thread on there and post the whole team as that has a bearing on any decision.
I have read of a ‘Leader Lineelf’ who, in much the same way as the kicker lineelf, takes leader as their first skill for an extra, cheap reroll before going on to the defensive skills. What’s your opinion having one of these lineelves on a team?
I’ve never been that big a fan of Leader generally and as the Elf team has access to cheaper Linemen than the other Elven sides. I’d rather get a team re-roll and use the double skill roll for Guard which you need much more. If you are going to take Leader then give it to a Thrower who you are more likely to try and keep out of trouble already and can take it as a normal skill roll.
oh of course, Leader is a passing skill. I must have been reading something from one of the older versions of the rules. Thrower naturally makes more sense then.
Just like to add that a Fouling player is really helpful in defense against certain high Str teams. Taking out an Ogre or Saurus really makes a world of difference.
Hi fellas,
I must confess I think Pro Elves are my favourite. Simply because of their cheap n cheerful linemen.
My favourite tactic of developing Linelves with wrestle means that by and large a couple of the opposition will be lying on the floor.
There is a niche for a professional fouler position on your team 🙂
slow em down and try and take them out of the game when their on the floor. Your professional fouler will be cheap and will have one or two skills so wont make that much of a difference if hes sent packing by the ref.
My only question is for this tactic is thus
Does dirty player work in tandem with sneaky git?
Thanks Coach
Yes they do work in tandem and you get to choose whether or not you use one, both or none of them. For example if you are fouling an opposing player with AV8 and you roll double 4, if you use Sneaky Git you won’t get sent off, however if you use Dirty Player you will break armour which means Sneaky Git will no longer prevent the sending off.
where did you find that player pic?
fumbbl uses another…
They must have updated it since I got permission to use them.
Defensive linemen – Dodge,Wrestle,Fend,Dauntless,Diving Tackle,Side Step
Doubles – Guard
STATS: STR + MA + AV +
Pretty simple stuff but effective. I love pro elves.
How about Tackle followed by Diving Tackle? I agree that the blitzers are better suited for this path, but sometimes they require a bit of help.
linemen aren’t fast enough to make good use of tackle, keeping them upright is much more important. I’d take block and dodge if they’re not the kicker, the rest is gravy.
In the REBBL I had an excellent lineman… blodge sidestep fend… he was great!
The exception rather than the rule though!