[Lizardman] blog of a saurus ball carrier

[nufflehatesme]

hey all, this is my 1st foray into coaching lizards, playing them in FOL. 1st skill up was +ag on a saurus, so i took it may not be the wisest move, but hey, hopefully the blog will help people make their minds up on whether it is madness or genius, or somewhere in between.

the team is currently 4-0-1 in fol, with an all time record of 5-0-1. heres a quick recap of my 5 games in fol this season:

game 1 v nurgle (coached by verbal)
nurgle turn over t2 and 3 on their 1st action. 1-0 to me by t4. nearly make it 2-0 by half time but close it out 2-0 in the second half.

post match: saurus gets +ag after scoring the second td, krox gets guard.

game 2 v dwarf.
kick, st4 wall stops him in his tracks and i get the ball t7, he conceded t8.

post match: 2 saurus take block, 1 gets break tackle.

game 3 v lizards (coached by cookie6866)
i kick n blitz, and after a few turns, i have a skink who can score with 2 gfi's. que snake eyes. a couple more turns fighting over the ball sees an enemy skink 10 squares from the ez t7 with the ball, but ends his turn prematurely andi push the skink into the crowd.
i have the no. advantage second half and my star saurus rush's from one end of the field to the other to take the win 1-0.

game 4 v undead (coached by geiger)
i kick, and my krox is fouled out t1, though the apo patchs him up. i get 3 2d blocks on the ball carrier but cant get the blodgin ghoul over, and he runs it in t8.

my drive my star saurus makes a clean pickup (after a reroll), and t10 sitting on halfway lookin pretty.

t11 i blitz , rerolled to . uh oh. he then cas's a skink and ko's my krox on a 1d block with a ghoul . i sprint into td range, but use my last reroll on a gfi trying to stop tz's reaching my ball carrier. my whole team is tied up, and i am left with a 4+ dodge to tie the game t13. this fails, and i lose 2-0.

post match: skink gets ss

game 5 v darkelves
i kick, and blitz! my star saurus gets under the ball and catch's it lol. a brawl ensues, with 2 skinks being badly hurt, while my krox manages 3 cas in 6 5 turns! unfortunately his last one was a , which sees my ball carrier sacked, though he cant regather. t7 i push an elf onto the ball, which scatters the ball into the arms of the krox! he is 4 squares into the half, so t8 with a bit of chainpushin my krox has t gfi's for a well deserved td and skill up. he trips and bh himself, though the apo patchs him up
2nd half its 9v6 to me, which quickly becomes 9v5. my star saurus fails the pickup 5! times, so t12 i have to pick it up with a skink, who survives a blitz after another reroll on my behalf puts him in danger, and runs it in t16.

theres the games. heres the team

krox - guard, 13spps
saurus - +ag, 14spps
saurus - block, 10spps
saurus - block, 9spps
saurus - break tackle, 12 spps
saurus - 2spps
saurus - 2spps
skink - ss 13spps
skink - ss 8spps
skink -
skink -
skink -

[Narly Bird]

Would you consider giving sure hands to your +AG Saurus or are you going to go for block for his next skill?

[Mico Selva]

I would also consider rolling another 11 if I were You.

[nufflehatesme]

Originally Posted by Narly Bird

Would you consider giving sure hands to your +AG Saurus or are you going to go for block for his next skill?

thats exactly what i did. primarily to save rerolls. i think the next lvl will be quite a conundrum. block is needed as he is pretty useless on defence, but break tackle will make an unstoppable force on offence. currently my opponents best play on d is to put 2 tz's on him. unless i can engineer a chain push he aint going anywhere. still a few games away so lets hope he makes it there.

played 3 more games for 3 wins. dont regret taking sure hands at all.

team
krox - guard, 13spps
saurus - +ag, sure hands 20spps
saurus - block, dodge 18spps
saurus - block, 13spps
saurus - break tackle, block 12 spps
saurus - block 8spps
saurus - 2spps
skink - ss, DT 16spps
skink - ss 8spps
skink - ss 6 spps
skink -
skink -
3 rerolls
tv 1510

an ag 3 saurus would be nice, only way to get one is take the 1st ag
will play a few more games then write a bit more detailed report on the pros and cons of the saurus ball carrier, as there is definitely big pros and cons.

[nufflehatesme]

another game down for another win. 2 td's for my running back saurus sees him move to 26spps
so, thoughts on the lizard team. they are good. exceptionally good. in 10 games i have kept my opponent scoreless in 9 of em. crazy. all that st4, + stunty players to make plays when u need it, make these guys awesome.

pros and cons of the saurus ball carrier (my views at least)

PRO
easy access to sure hands. lizards need rerolls early in the team life due to lack of block. not having to burn rerolls on the pickup is nice. protection against leaping strip balling elves is also brilliant.

st4 ball carrier! hard to get more than a 1d block if u do get a shot at him, unlike a skink.

skinks are utterly expendable. no need to keep 1-2 alive for offence

with loose balls in tz's i can throw him onto the ball and hope for the 6, without having to worry (too much) about retalitory hits.

skinks focus on getting ss, dt (block) for annoying man markers.

spp retention. on top of sure hands and +ag, he will most likely get block, BT, tackle. 3 skills that u desperately want on at least 1 saurus. getting saurus to 3 skills is an effort in itself. so at higher tv i dont think u are losin any skill selection.

aint tempted to dodge away with the ball, as i would be with ag3 skinks.

rule of cool. saurus ball carrier is much cooler than some generic skink, so hopefully nuffle rewards this

CONS
cant dodge away from tz's. at least until he gets break tackle (this is also in the pro section lol).

1 saurus less for hittin stuff and controlling the field. a full squad of big lizards its not too much of an issue, but lose 1-2 saurus field control becomes much harder, and he will be running in a skink cage....

failing the pickup when rolling 3's is frustrating.

speed - have to get well up field to get into scoring range, unlike skinks. ma6 is definitely not slow though.

so, i definitely feel there is more benefits than downsides. field control is hampered a little on offense, but taking ss on all skinks as 1st skill and being able to use them more aggresively compensates for this in my eyes.
i am wondering if this opinion will change as the tv increases.
will keep u posted!

[Lebe666]

You should get a skink that might seem like a scoring menace nearby. Saurus can hand off with ease. That might take off pressure from the cage.

Your other Saurus will lag way behind ?

[Ice]

I'm for getting a skink with catch, the skink can make a 2 turn TD more viable, can get the ball if the saurus gets stuck or picks the ball up in a tz, can get the TD if the saurus is too slow to do so and takes some of the heat off the saurus at the same time.