[Undead] Defeating the Dwarfs

[Stareater]

Hi all,

I just recently dusted off and purchased a few new pieces to my undead army and started a short TV1000 league with some colleagues (LRB5 since many of the players preferred that for some reason). Not having played Blood Bowl in almost 20 years I quickly read the new(er) rules and felt a bit confident with my team.

But to be honest I got a bit scared when the draw paired me against a dwarf team in the first round. The dwarf team is really a monster team and I can't imagine how to beat those skill-boosted midgets.

Sure they are a slow team, but so are the undead. The undead is a pretty sturdy team, but the dwarfen armor seems impenetrable. My re-rolls are expensive, theirs are cheap. My mummies are power houses, but their tank is unmatched in strength. In all honesty I can't really see a good tactic on how to defeat the dwarfs with an undead team. Sure I can probably stall their cage for quite a few turns, but just doing that won't win me the game.

How does one stop seemingly unstoppable dwarf?

Since I like to have some spead my undead team looks like this:
2 Mummies, 2 Wights, 3 Ghouls, 3 Zombies, 2 Skeletons and 3 Re-Rolls.

[maxcarrion]

hmm,

Well first, if he takes a deathroller in TV1000 you're laughing It costs too much and will only see 1 drive, if he knows what he's doing he'll likely go 2 blitzers, 2 runners, 2 slayers, 5 beards and 3 rerolls.

I think the trick to beating Dwarves is to tie up so many he can't consistently defend and move the ball. Obviously your Mummies are key here and need to work closely with the zombies so that 2 mummies and 3 zombies (5 players) can tie up at least 7 dwarves, if not more. The low agility of dwarves and their lack of anything over S3 leaves them very prone to getting marked by high strength players and having no way out that won't probably cause a turn over. Try and keep the slayers off the mummies if you can but if they can't get an assist then it's a big risk for them to throw a 1D dauntless block so just keep a lid on them where you can and if you get half a chance a hit from a mummy on a slayer or runner can break armour pretty consistently.

This should leave the Ghouls and Wights pretty free reign to wail on the ball carrier with the Dwarves not having enough players to form a full cage away from the mummies or mark all your positionals. Similarly on Offence once he's embroiled with the mummies and zombies your positionals can use their superior numbers and speed to get it past the few remaining loose dwarves. Don't miss an opportunity to shove the Dwarves back in among the Mummies and extra bodies and use it to gain a number advantage.

edit: oh and watch out, those longbeards will turn your Ghouls into greasy smears, try not to let them hit your Ghouls too much.

[Stareater]

Thanks for the tip. Didn't concider the dwarfs weakness in not getting away while being marked. Dodgin away is just stupid an trying to break away with a block will force him to make a lot of one dice blocks (or worse) and running out of rerolls.

I would have guessed that the dwarfs would have afforded more rerolls with their low reroll cost, but I can't think of a setup with more rerolls that makes sense.

[Dr Bork]

As a relatively experienced Dwarf coach, I can tell you the secret to to beating the midgets is trying to isolate them from one another.

Dwarf offensive and defensive play revolves around keeping them close together; the moment the line is split with 3 or 4 of them consistently marked and away from the main group, from his teammates' tackle zones (and, due to their low MA, far away from rescue) they're screwed.

Combine that with maxcarrion's 'tie 'em up' and they're yours

Then again, most of us Dwarf coaches know the drill and will try not to let you, but that means extra turns wasted in keeping line cohesion and less to move the cage upfield towards the endzone.

Hope it helps

[Strobinator]

One thing about tying up dwarves that is not relevant at TV1000 but becomes so later. They get a lot of guard. 9 out of 11 players can get guard on a normal skill, and it is a likely choice for all of them.

If you tag dwarves, try and do it in a way such that each player is in only one tackle zone of one guard player. If each guard player is tied up this way, guard is essentially wasted.

The general way to score on dwarves is:

1) Avoid tagging
2) Let them come to you
3) Knock down the guys on you
4) Tag the free guys.
5) Run the ball carrier down field out of range of as many dwarves as possible. They will either have to dodge (not a viable option for most players)

It is relatively easy to knock down a few dwarves and outpace them. This is also why I always advocate leaving a few dwarves in the backfield as sweepers. Not everyone will do that - some players will be more aggressive.

[mooowi]

These coaches are ignoring a big point. This is a 1000 tv dwarfs team with no guard. Don't spread them out at all at this tv. Place your mummies in the middle of as many dwarfs as you can and tie them down with the mummies. Dwarfs are crap vs str at this tv. If you can get some good tieups with the mummies your going to win the drives. When you blitz blitz guys into mummies and such. DO not let the dwarfs mark your mummy if they do blitz with them and run into another group. Mummys own dwarfs till they get guard.

Also make sure at the end of every turn no slayer is standing in base with a mummy so if they use the slayer they have to blitz.

The isolate thing is good at higher tv but the whole point of isolating dwarfs is to spread out their guard. At this tv your the one who needs to be spread out!

[maxcarrion]

Originally Posted by maxcarrion

I think the trick to beating Dwarves is to tie up so many he can't consistently defend and move the ball. Obviously your Mummies are key here and need to work closely with the zombies so that 2 mummies and 3 zombies (5 players) can tie up at least 7 dwarves, if not more. The low agility of dwarves and their lack of anything over S3 leaves them very prone to getting marked by high strength players and having no way out that won't probably cause a turn over. Try and keep the slayers off the mummies if you can but if they can't get an assist then it's a big risk for them to throw a 1D dauntless block so just keep a lid on them where you can and if you get half a chance a hit from a mummy on a slayer or runner can break armour pretty consistently.

I'm not sure I'd agree that the other coaches are ignoring that point

[Stareater]

This was actually a easier game than I expected (or rather I was just lucky, but I'll never admit that). On the first drive, in which I was receiving, I managed to make sure that his both runners and a slayer missed the rest of the game. With no ball handlers I ended up winning 3-0.

Tying up his pieces in the middle with my Zombies and Mummies and having my fast players running around and stretching his dwarven defense out, was a winning tactic. I thought it would be a really hard game since he is a more experience coach, but then again luck is a factor and in retrospect not having an apothecary was perhaps a bad move.

[mooowi]

I am a dwarf coach and dwarfs are very good at low tv just not at 1000 tv. With no guard yet they are bad vs teams that have higher str players like undead. At 1200- 1700 tv dwarfs are dominant with lots of guard the mummies mean less.

But getting both runners and slayers missing the game is also very lucky. I never have had all 4 go off the field.

[Dr Bork]

Yup. With all those 4 off the pitch, any dwarf coach is a gonner...