[Human] Help vs Amazons

[Poa]

Hello,

I've been playing my newly started Human team against a slightly more experienced Amazon team a few times now, and have fallen short every time. Their Dodge is extremely annoying, as knocking them down can be hard and they always seem to be able to get out of trouble. How do I counter this, when I've yet to skill up much? Any strategic help would be much appreciated.

[sunnyside]

Since these are specific teams, you'd get better advice if you give us the roosters.

Amazons really gain a lot of benifit from those initial skill improvements. Pure gold on any player on the team. So it's possible you're just in one of those tough spots of BB where the inducements just aren't going to close the gap.

In principle, a human team should have an edge from its greater speed and strength. The humans have an Ogre, which amazons don't really have a great answer for, so they have to work around it. And they don't have rookie players with a movement over 6, whereas humans have a number of them.

On offence use the threat of using that MA8 to force them to their leave players in the backfield (and thus letting you pummel those midfield), or if they move them in, just blow past and get your TD.

On defense kick deep and put pressure on early with your speedy players. You'll be able to keep up if they do manage to get past.

And in either case, make 'em roll the dice. Sure they can dodge, but it's far from a sure thing, if they try to do it regularly you'll start seeing turnovers.

Also they probably lack mighty blow, piling on, tackle, and proably don't have teamwide block yet unless they're a team that's been around for a while. So you can afford to get "stuck in" if you see that their re-rolls are starting to run low or out and they still have some distance to go for their TD. Just mark a ton (ideally all) of their players with many (again ideally all) of yours. Optimal configurations would make it so that a block from one player can't free another.


Essentially you're fishing for ones, twos, and skulls here, but it can easily cause a turnover. Crafty Amazon players try to make this hard by setting up arrays of screens. Marking up half of their players with all of yours isn't the same thing at all. But when coming off of a deep kick from speedy humans, they may not be able to prevent you from doing it.

Actually if you can catch a cage in their half of the field before it connects up with their offensive linewomen and the players they blitz with I'd advise marking 'em up early even if they have a pile of re-rolls.

[Rav3n73]

Do you only play against Amazons?

If not, you should tailor your team towards all kinds off opposition.

I've played against Amazons twice now, with Dwarfs and Orcs. I find that even with Dodge they can still go down, so try to force them to dodge out of zones.

I also find that their AV7 is really bad and you should be able to whittle there number of eligible players done as the game progresses.

Lee

[Poa]

Thanks guys!

At the moment I'm only playing against a single team, yes, that being Amazons, as I've only recently started playing again and just play against one person. And unlike me, he isn't yet into having more than one team.

I know forcing them to use their dodge roll means more rolls of the dice, and thus a higher chance of turnovers and casualties, but somehow they just have a knack of ending up getting past my protection schemes. Hmm, maybe he's just lucky when it comes to dice. I guess I just need to close the gap a bit, and start earning some SSP for my players, so I can skill up a bit (block, guard and tackle for my linemen, so I can negate their dodge and get more two-dice blocks in). Having an Ogre beefs my team up a bit, yes, and should help wreak some havoc on his poorly armoured girlies.

I've only lost by one score every time, so it's not like I'm really getting my ass kicked, but a W in his collumn is a W not in mine, where I assume we all agree it should rightly be.

[sunnyside]

Well, losing by more than one in BB is kinda gettin' whupped.


For one thing, in case you don't know, there are play by e-mail leagues out there.

I'm in
midgardbb.com/MBBL

While I rather like. In addition to having a good league structure it uses the current rules essentially without any house rules. So the skills translate very well back to the tabletop.


In terms of development, getting a blitzer Mighty Blow, Tackle, and Piling on can make him a game changer vs amazons. For order I'd probably go tackle, MB, and then PO.

Even if you're having him score touchdowns it'll take a long time to get to PO. But the other two are a bit lower hanging, and should start paying off right away.

[Coach]

As they all have Dodge your best tactic is to hit their non Block players with your Blitzers. This gives you the best chance of getting them down and do it enough times you will break their AV7.

They also only have AG3 so will fail one in every nine dodge attempts that they make. So the more dodges you can force them into doing the better for you. Be careful about giving them too many blocks on your players though before you go around and mark every single one of their players.

[Poa]

Finally!

I got my first win in yesterday, after having lost two and tied one earlier on. It feels really good, and as three more of my players reached six SSP, I've now closed the gap a bit skill-wise (one of my Blitzers got +1 in AG, and I gave my two Catchers Block following the game. One of my Linemen already has Juggernaut (a wise choice? Looking back I feel like maybe I should've taken something else on that double), and my two Throwers have Accurate).

Thanks for your two cents, guys! I don't know if it helped much, as I seemed to be going about it the right way to begin with, but it's always nice to get a little help and exchanging experiences.

[Coach]

Juggernaut isn't very good on a Human Lineman, check out the Human Linemen | Blood Bowl Tactics page for skill choices.

Congrats on the win, +AG on a Blitzer is very handy.