First play against a human (Dwa vs Und)

[pupkinus]

Hi all,

I am fairly new to BB, never played TT and never played a human opponet. Read all the strategy articles I could lay my hands on but that's not enough, obviously.

I joined an online league and I chose dwarfs because it is a team that is relatively good out of the box and is very resilient (I hate playing outnumbered).

My first game is against an Undead team that has a higher TV (1060) than mine (1000) and has a ghoul that has +1 Str and a Wight with +1Ag.

Could you offer any kind of advice on tactics? Any kind of defence/offence formations that you could recommend? Shall I target his ghoul(s) and try to foul? Any general kind of advice?

ps: my team is standard Dwa team with 2 runners, 2 blitzers, 2 trollslayers and 5 linemen and 3 rerolls.

Will be extremely gratefull for any kind of suggestions!

[Murkglow]

I wouldn't worry overmuch with fouling. Your men are all valuable and you don't have any spares so you really don't want any to be sent off by the ref.

Anyway, for the most part you win 1vs1 confrontations between players. Your men have the same strength as his but better skills so the only big worries are his mummies and his ghouls.

His mummies will out muscle you so you're going to either want to focus on them (get a number of men/a troll slayer+support to take them down) or avoid them/tie them up (sit one blocker on each one and let the mummy waste his time hitting that one blocker all game) entirely.

The ghouls are a little harder as they are a fair bit faster then the dwarves meaning you have little control over what they do. Your best bet if you have the ball is to form a cage on it and make them come to you (where you have the advantage). If he has the ball you need to spread your men a bit and make sure he gets no free runs past your line with the ball. If a ghoul gets by without the ball though don't worry too much about him. He'll be hard to catch and undead are not good passers anyway. Feel free to focus your hits on ghouls when you can though as they are the most valuable and easiest to kill men on his team for you.

Now for some basic formations:


Pretty standard formation. Your LOS should be 3 blockers. I then put my Blitzers and Troll Slayers on the edges (Blitzers in front) and my last two Blockers and runners in the middle back field (Blockers in front).


Just a small variation on the previous formation. Puts a bit more strength to the sides rather then the center.


A receiving formation. Obviously your runners are in the center and far back ready to collect the ball. Your two blockers could be moved a square toward the center if you want more strength closer to the center or left where they are to help the edges.

[pupkinus]

Thanks for your advice.

I am worried that if he manages to score first then I have to advance the cage becuase he will not be willing to come to me. I suck at advancing cages

[Murkglow]

You're going to really want the game to be a 1-0 game (that's the goal anyway since you're a new player). Stop him from advancing/scoring in his drive and then use your half to score in yours. If he manages to score it'll be tough for you to pull a win (especially if he takes most of his half to do it). Dwarves can score in 2-3 turns but it'll be tough for you, especially if he has all his ghouls still on the field.

As for advancing cages, you have the combat advantage for the most part. If you can keep his mummies away and tied up he has very little that can stop you. If you take it to the edges you have two frenzy players to push his men out of play and he can't directly stand up to you well as only has wights have block. Take advantage of openings in his lines or lucky hits (stuns or KOs/Casulaties can open holes) and keep moving forward. It'll be hard sure but there isn't much you can do about it as a dwarf.

[pupkinus]

Well, the match was played and I am proud to report a scoreless draw. your positioning advice was really helpful! I managed to injure 4 of his players in the first half but 3 of them came back in the 2nd. Sadly in the second half he manged to injure two of my players and also managed to free one mummy that was tied up on the LoS and use it to break my cage. Ended up running with from with the ball in order to kill the clock

the following matches should be easier ... until I have to play a khemri team I wasn't able to handle 2 mummies, but 4 can be way too much for me.