Extra Arms

Extra Arms (Mutation)

A player with one or more extra arms may add 1 to any attempt to pick up, catch or intercept.

Overview:

Extra Arms has had a boost in LRB5 having previously been a very rarely taken skill. With some players able to now take it on a normal roll as well, you should see a lot more use of it now. Previously it just let you get +1 on catch rolls and there wasn’t really any players who would choose it as there were a lot of better choices. With the extra bonuses for interceptions and more importantly picking the ball up, it acts as a sort of cut down +AG for ball handling rolls.

So the use of Extra Arms is somewhat obvious, you use players with it to either pick the ball up, pass to and perhaps on the odd occasion select for intercepts. The help with picking the ball up is invaluable for the average agility or lower players. High agility players will only get a use out of it if the ball is sat in a tackle zone or if it is raining, so they will probably not choose it. For AG3 players though it will make picking the ball up a lot less troublesome, especially if combined with Sure Hands. The higher chance of picking the ball up may let you be slightly more aggressive with the rest of your team, perhaps not looking to cover for a failed pick up quite as much as before. The pick up bonus may also open up the option to perhaps try and pick the ball up in a tackle zone where before you would have looked to pushing the opponent off the ball. This is especially useful if the opposition marked a loose ball with two players and you can only push one away.

If you have multiple players with the skill on the team then the catching bonus can also really become helpful. Depending on where the ball lands when it gets kicked off, one of your Extra Arms players can go and pick the ball up, and you can use the others to move further down the pitch as a receiving threat. Before you would usually try and run the ball in with the guy who picked it up if there was a big risk of losing the ball should you fail a hand off. Extra arms will make handing the ball off easier to spread the SPP around a bit more evenly. Should things really start looking bad, or you need to score quicker than the player who picked it up can actually move to the opposition end zone, then you now have a target who you can try and make a pass to with a greater chance of success.

The other good benefit of having the catch bonus is that it gives a higher chance of getting a SPP from completions for other players on the team. Often teams look to do a quick pass to get the extra SPP on players who are 1SPP away from a skill. Having a player who is more likely to catch the pass makes this more likely to work and get you that skill after the match. This is one area that Elves are at an advantage but Extra Arms can give the less agile mutation equipped teams a boost, as it can sometimes be hard to get that extra SPP on certain players.

The interception bonus is nice to have but it doesn’t really give much benefit. You can now intercept on a 5 roll instead of only a 6, though usually the opposition will avoid passing it over this player. Of if they do then they will likely be in a tackle zone making the interception roll a 6 again. Maybe later on in the player development you can take Pass Block, but there are usually higher priority skills to take and that is a two skill combination that has very situational use.

Useful to:

As I mentioned earlier AG4 players won’t get much of a bonus for most pick ups, so that rules them out. AG2 players you probably don’t want carrying the ball so I would only really take it on AG3 players who you plan on picking the ball up with and usually then carrying it. Obviously there aren’t that many players who can take Mutations so this should be a short list.

Beastmen and Pestigors are the obvious candidates for it. They are often the ones handling the ball in their teams, they have AG3 and they can also select it on a normal skill roll. You may consider Chaos Warriors but I would prefer to compliment their high strength by taking skills that help in the blocking game. Underworld are the other team with normal skill access for Mutations, here I would look to giving it to their Throwers. They will probably be picking the ball up as they start with Sure hands, and you can use them as targets for the dead turn SPP completions to aid team mates skilling up. It can also make a useful combination on Underworld Goblins, though not as their first skill. If they already have Big Hand to ignore tackle zones for picking up, then Extra Arms can make picking up a loose ball in many tackle zones very easy. I would prefer Two Heads first though as it will make the dodges to get to the loose ball and getting away again easier, but it can make a great third skill on a player who likely won’t live long afterwards!

The remaining eligible players require double rolls to take Extra Arms, again I would look at the Skaven Thrower on Skaven teams this time. They usually pick the ball up and it is useful for both offence and defensively built Throwers. Starting with Sure Hands also means that they can pick the ball up more reliably than their more agile team mates.

Summary:

I think Extra Arms is a very useful skill to take now and opens up options that aren’t there before. Having more players who can handle the ball on the less agile teams can be a god send and remember to position them well to take advantage of being able to spread out SPP. Don’t make the mistake of thinking it is a replacement for +AG though, even if you go in to pick the ball up in a tackle zone, you will still probably have to dodge back out again as well. Should you roll +AG on a player who already has Extra Arms then you should still take the agility increase, now you can really look at picking up ball that have been knocked loose and perhaps dodge away with it as well.

9 thoughts on “Extra Arms”

  1. I really like the idea of two Skaven throwers with Extra Arms (Extra AG will do in a pinch of course :). Where your opponent kicks short, the ‘defensive’ thrower moves to pick up the ball, and passes to the ‘offensive’ thrower, who retreats backfield out of blitz range. The defensive thrower can then move forward to be another potential receiver.

    For deep kicks you just skip the first step..

    Reply
    • Still taking two secondary skills on Skaven for that hurts.

      By the way: The

      Chaos Renegates Thrower

      is missing in the list of Players who want to pick extra arms. He gets it on a normal.

      Reply
  2. actualy Extra Arms is the most prefered skill on my first leveled beastman as the ball handler, the skill is useful on intercepting, catching, throwing, picking up ball etc. yes sure hands are better on some actions but this skill allows me variety of actions so this is my golden standard, because I dont want only pick ball, the second ballhandling beastman will start with sure hands, but I need this universal ballhandler with extra arm first

    Reply
  3. What do you think about choosing Extra Arms on a Skaven Gutter Runner with Dodge, Block, +1AG ?
    With Ag5 he picks up a ball at 2+ in 2TZ, catch an accurate/hand off at 2+ also in 2TZ and intercept at 3+ if free from TZ. Also with ag5 he can dodge away easily and with next skill leap (success at 2+) he become an unbeliavable ball retriever and an awesome offensive player.

    Reply
    • Personally I think that an AG5 Gutter Runner can already handle the ball as well I would need and I’d rather get extra skills that help in other ways. AG5 would be a great choice for Leap and if I got doubles I’d probably prefer to have Guard. He is likely to get blitzed a lot and marked up, so having Guard can help you blitz him free with a team mate or with AG5, Dodge, Leap and Guard you can get an assist you need pretty much anywhere. You shouldn’t really need to be catching passes or a hand off in 2 Tackle Zones very often, Big Hand would be better for picking it up in multiple Tackle Zones and works better with Leap (Leap in Dodge out usually). Extra Arms doesn’t really make him that much better for ball handling and you would in my opinion be passing up skills that would be more useful to the team overall.

      Also you wouldn’t intercept on a 3+. AG5 has a target roll of 2. Intercepting is -2 and 2 tackle zones makes it -4. Extra Arms gives you +1, so rolling a 3 -3 would = 0 which is a fail. Rolling a 4 – 3 = 1 which is also a fail. So you would still intercept on a 5+, the same as an unmarked AG4 player. The others are correct as picking up and catching an accurate pass or hand off have a +1 modifier unlike intercepting. Nerves of Steel would make intercepting a 3+ but wouldn’t work when picking the ball up, which is where you would want Big Hand. Catching a Hand off in 2 tackle zones would be a 3+ with AG5 anyway, I don’t think there is much benefit in Extra Arms to make that a 2+. You could usually blitz one marker away, dodge out first, pass to an alternative player, or even just attempt the 3+ like all AG3 teams usually have to do… So based on all that I’d prefer Guard.

      Reply
  4. Thanks for your reply.
    I see your point.
    At the moment I’ve a roster with a Thrower +1Mv and Extra Arms so my offensive drive is often organized with the Thrower (getting or receiving the ball picked up from a GR) one square adjacent to my end zone and the AG5 GR positioned 3/4 square before the middle line a bit protected and ready to act as a playmaker when I decide or forced to try a score with a coast to coast drive with also 2 GR moved in TD range the turn before.
    In defensive drive I’ve a GR with Wrestle, Strip Ball, Leap with the aim to force the ball carrier to lose the ball and my AG5 GR is instructed to lie in second line ready to try a pick up if the sacker GR is succesful.
    I’Ve thinked to choose Extra Arms based to my style of play but now I’ll think about your suggestion.
    By the way for the inteceptions rolls we agreed because in my example I say 3+ if free from TZ, obviously with 2TZ is a 5+.

    Reply
  5. Coach, I have what might be a silly question.

    Will Extra Arms aid an Underworld Goblin in trying to stick a TTM landing?

    If so, it might make a good combination with Catch, as it would help such a goblin actually catch the ball as well as make stick those landings when UW really needs a OTT.

    I’m not sure how having an extra arm would help one land on their feet (maybe flailing it about the right way aids in balance?), but AFAIK the roll to stick a landing is just a Catch roll, so it should work.

    Reply
    • The only thing that will aid the landing roll is an agility increase and a team reroll. It does make getting the ball to them easier as they get +1 on the catch roll when trying a one turn Throw Team Mate attempt.

      Reply
  6. Having this on the simyin gorillas on fumbbl really makes feeding them touchdowns easy and gives them a good source of spp. However, it does nothing to compensate for the AV7 on the linos

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Vita Cancel reply

css.php
Represent BBTactics in the BB3 (PC) Blood Bowl World Championship by signing up to play in the Big Crunch League