[Human] lrb6 thoughts and tactics- humans bash

[nufflehatesme]

Lrb 6 Humans – They are a bash team in disguise

Here is my thoughts on playing humans competitively throughout all tv brackets in both mm and in leagues. I believe humans are extremely strong at low tv levels, and can remain very competitive over 2000. The beauty of the human team is the variety of ways it can be built. The way that I have found to be most effective is to play them as a bash team. I realise other teams do this much better but I will give a quick rundown of how I like games to go, and then the skills needed on the players to capitalise on this.

Quick gameplan-
Have a deeper bench then the opponent.
Take dodge on most doubles.
A draw is an acceptable result
1st half
Kick first half and leave your offensive weapons on the bench (catchers, throwers).
Going into half time 1-0 down is perfectly fine. Removing players through blitz’s (mb/po) and fouls is the main priority. Players with tackle are priority no1. If they score before turn 8 that gives you 2 turns to score – plenty for humans. If they score on t8 then that gets your ko’s back while letting you smash their los.

To keep your players safe while doing this, make your decision t3-5 if you will try to stop the score or not. If not get your team to isolate a couple of players away from the ball and try to injure them. Keep one safety back to keep em honest.
You don’t have to stand players up if they are just going to get brutalised again. Maybe leave them to the end of the turn and see if you can dodge away without wasting a reroll, or just leave them on the deck.

Now your opponent has to decide whether to advance the cage at full strength, or bring over a couple of players to stop your team molesting a couple of his players on there lonesome. Most coach’s will weaken the cage/screen to try and protect their players. If they do this choose the right time to flood back to the ball (t5-7), hopefully giving him no option but to score before t8. This leaves you 2+ turns to score, plenty. If this doesn’t work, protect your damage dealers, and smile in the fact you are only 1-0 down while about to get 2 sets of los blocks + 2 fouls 

2nd half
If 1-0 down securing a draw is perfectly acceptable. Going for the win is a judgement call. If 1-1 at half time score as late as possible then play your best defenders to go for the shutout.

Why play like this?
This keeps your weapons for scoring safe.
If you have a bit of blodge on your positionals, removing their tackle players allows them to start shining.
Humans main strength is speed, so in a game where teams are down players humans cope better than most.

What if they kick first?
If elves you can go for the shootout or grind out the 8 turns. Either is good ( I normally grind), just decide straight after your first 3 blocks! scoring on t2-4 is fine, scoring t5-7 is not enough time for them to score and still leave you 2-3 turns to reply.
Against bash, delay the score, then play your best defenders to stop the score before half time. 2nd half just foul the crap out of them as they decide whether to go for the win or the draw.

Starting Roster
1x ogre 140k
4x blitzers 360k
6x linesmen 300k
3x reroll 150k
1x apo 50k

In mm I will drop a reroll (or the apo if you don’t mind rerolling teams after 1 game) and upgrade two linesmen to throwers. Purchases are thrower, thrower, catchers in leagues, and catcher, catcher in mm. no throwers to begin with so blitzers can run in the td’s. There are many other variant rosters, but this is by far my favourite. St3 all round, 4 block and an ogre roadblock. 3 rerolls is nothing to sneeze at either.
I am not a fan of catchers on the starting roster, due to st2, and the fact they can hog spp’s early.

Skill Progression
Blitzers
Blitzer 1. Mb, tackle, (guard, po, dauntless, fend) [dodge, jump up]
Blitzer 2 and 3. Guard, (mb, tackle, dauntless, strip ball, fend, stand firm, po) [dodge, ss, diving tackle]
Blitzer 4. Mb, po, tackle (guard, dauntless, pro, frenzy) [jump up]

This is how I do my blitzers. 1st one to lvl gets mb then tackle, next two get guard, last one gets mb. Doubles early go to dodge. Skills in the 1st brackets will be chosen depending on what the player has and what the team needs. I would take +ag and +st but wouldn’t bother with +ma. Ideally every blitzer besides your po one should have a defensive skill (fend or dodge) by lvl 4. These guys are the heart and souls of the human team and need to stay alive while doing all the dirty work.
Having 4 lvl 5 blitzers with guard, mb, tackle/dauntless/, dodge/fend/po, is the foundation of a great team.
Apo policy – after 1st skill every serious injury


Ogre
The big guy, I cant live without him. He doesn’t belong on the los on defense though. That is asking for him to be knocked down and gang fouled till out of the game. That’s a linesmen job. what he does best is provide a sturdy guard assist so your blitzers don’t have to get into tz’s. he can also mark up players while still maintain a st advantage i.e. mark 2st 3 players, or 1 st 4 player. The opponent then has to choose whether to bring 2 assists over to push him away or let them take a mb (and hopefully piling on) hit to the face
Apo policy – after 1st skill every serious injury
Skills
Guard, piling on, stand firm, grab/break tackle/jugs (block, dodge, pro, frenzy)

Throwers
Humans cant really afford the tv for a solid passing game. Throwers will need doubles to throw short pass’s on 2+ (and skip dodge!), while catchers need at least 2 skills to be a credible threat, while dying easy. Keep that in mind. Still, you are playing humans and there will be situations where pass is the best option. I normally try and run with 2 throwers, though this rarely works out. My suggested builds in mm is
Block, nos , fend, accurate, KOR (dodge) in no particular order after block. Block is by far the most important skill on these guys, followed by dodge (+ag is best!) Nos is nice for when you get swamped by ss elves and what not.
The other is more defensive
Block, leader, HMP, (kick, accurate, nos, dumpoff, tackle, dodge)
I don’t think the dumpoff path is the best way as it requires 3-4 skills to be effective, while also needing someone to catch it! Some +ag in the team may change your mind. however I must give special mention to HMP. It can save your bacon on defense, while giving slow teams something to think about when they are defending. you wont use it most games, but it is the games against bash teams where you are down players and really need to spread the field, that this skill shines and opens up the field for you.
All stats should be taken. And roles may change because of it.
Apo policy – I normally only manage to skill and keep one thrower alive out of the 2 I buy. If 1 can carry the slack the other is basically fodder.

p.s i am not really happy with my thrower analysis, as stat increases and doubles shape this guy more than most. he can play runner, thrower or safety with the right skills/stats.





Catcher
Much maligned. Necessary though. At least one. Preferably 2. 3 if you can skill them without letting em die. These guys are not really catchers though. There best use on offense is to lurk behind your cage or screen, ready to shoot out to build the down field cage for 1 turn. U do not want these guys getting exposed to mb/tackle blitz’s at all if you can help it. (that’s why you kicked 1st half and fouled out all there tacklers right?) sometimes it cant be helped though, and they make a satisfactory decoy. There main asset as a decoy is their speed, so if you do have to use em this way, do it in a way that spreads the field.
Defensive builds are probably the way to go for all but 1 catcher, however I don’t really like playing catchers on defense (at least not for a possible 8 turn drive anyway). As said before, if you can remove the tackle players, score t12 to make it 1-1 after kicking, then a couple of defensive catchers could tip the balance.
Skills
Ball Sacker
Wrestle, strip ball, fend. Then either dauntless, tackle, sidestep, diving tackle jump up
Marker
Block, sidestep, diving tackle, fend, tackle/jump up/passblock
Scorer
Block, sidestep, diving catch, surefeet, fend
Guard is probably the best double on all, though the scorer may take nos
Start with block and side step on the first 2, and hope 1 survives and build to flavour. All stats a good, +ag seriously consider turning him into the ball carrier with block, surefeet, surehands, ss, dauntless, leap.
The wrestle strip ball player is great in theory, however I have never seen him in action as he always gets wrestled to the ground and curb stomped before he has learnt strip ball. Still only 2 skills for a highly manouverable piece that has a good shot at taking the ball even on a neg 2d block.
Fend is seen in every build, as a catchers nightmare is getting knocked over by a st3 tackle player and still being in his tz when its time to stand up.

Apo policy – no stat inc or double for guard? No dice! You will probably cycle through a few because of this. This gives you more chance for the golden +ag, which makes him a great runner, +ma, which is gravy, +st which is like having another blitzer! Once you feel they play a role in the team that could not be done almost as well by a rookie catcher, then it may be time to call in the doc. Just remember the gulf in class between a rookie catcher and star catcher is miniscule compared to a rookie and star blitzer. A rookie catcher is also much easier to skill. Keep that in mind when you think about apo’ing your block ss catcher on turn.9 against dwarves.

[nufflehatesme]

Linesmen
Brilliant fodder. These guys can do a bit of everything, but nothing exceptional. I rarely apo linesmen so these guys hardly get past lvl 3. So planning past this is pretty pointless. These guys are here to die, but don’t go sending them carelessly into tackle zones. If you do place them in a tz, make sure its for a good reason. If they are moving next to someone for a blitz, think about placing them so if the opponent is not knocked over he doesn’t end up in his tz (best 2 have the option so if you knock him over you have the extra assist for the foul).
If you are going bash, then I recommend at least 2 dirty players. These are great levellers of the playing field.
Other than your dirty players, you need 3 linos for los duties. I normally run with 5-6 linos.
Skills –
LOS
Wrestle/fend, (dauntless, tackle, strip ball) (dodge, guard)
DIRTY PLAYERs
Dirty player, kick, wrestle, fend (sneaky git)
Dodge or guard on doubles?
Young team, I would go guard. On a more developed team, if it’s there first skill I would go dodge and hope to get em to 16spp for wrodge. This makes a pretty useful player with decent survivability. If they already have wrestle (or fend) I would probably go guard. If you have less than 3 guards in the team as a general rule it should be guard every time.
Wrestle or fend first on linos?
I have experimented with fend first on linos with pretty good results. Think about it, if you kick first, your 3 linos are getting hammered. Wrestle may not come in to it if they roll 4 dice to knock each one over. Fend effects 4 out of 6 block results. This could see your linos get themselves free from the los easier than what would it normally would be.
Personally I think I have settled on first 2 get wrestle (after the 2 dirty players) for the blocks on los when on offense, the rest get fend first.

Strategy vs each team
Amazon
Kick first, and try to pick off tackle players, guard players, and any players without block. Your foulers need to have a big game here as there wont be many knockdowns, so make em count. Don’t engage in a melee as amazons can outbash humans easily enough. Put the pain on, make em score before t8, then use your speed on offense to get the 2 for the win.

Chaos
I love this match up personally. Kick first, then beat the crap out of the beastman. Protect your ogre first turn from a mb/claw blitz, even if this means putting a blitzer in position to be blitzed. Stopping the td isn’t as crucial as putting beastman out of the game. Pick on the weak, the killers, and the tacklers. Removing a few beastman from the field leaves a very slow (ma5) team, with most likely very little tackle. Running offense just became a whole lot easier.
Fear a mino with tentacles more than one with claw (unless they have block as well)

Dwarves
Tough match up at all tv’s. target slayers and runners relentlessly, as dwarves do not cope being down players. Blitzers next. Don’t let em guard up, remember 2 squares between every player (solid advice against every basher, well every team actually). Fend is your friend here. The isolate opponents at half way then flood back works particularly well against dwarves, as they don’t have the speed to cover the ball on the endzone and the one sided bash going on at halfway.
Be patient in offense, as one mistake by your opponent in defensive placement can easily be exploited.
Oh, and target runners and slayers relentlessly, did I say that?

ALL ELVES
2-1 grind here. Take out av7 pieces first. only blitz blodge players if you have a tackler doing it. Watch out for sidestep and diving tackle stopping your ball carrier. Don’t go wandering into tz’s thinking coz their elves you can outbash em. They are st3 as well and more manouverable. Screen em out then foul em out. Ganging up on stragglers can encourage the score, but stopping the first one is never easy.

Necro and undead.
Tough match up. Basically a human team but slightly better in ways. Main tactic is to target the ghouls and wolves equally, with the wights a close 3rd. remove some of these players and the undead teams are pretty poor. A running screen should work well due to the low ag of the team (esp if you have taken out a few of the ag3 players). Tie up the golems with linesmen, esp if they have either no block or mb.
Mummies are a bit trickier, if you can knock one over you can run away reasonably well. Marking is not so wise as they get 3d blocks easy enough and start with mb. Your ogre is a good candidate to mark one out of the game, as otherwise there is a good chance he will be marking a zombie instead.

Lizards
Tough match up.
If it’s a small bench, target the skinks mercilessly. Easiest way to get em short on players, then all you have to do is tie up saurus with linos and run after remaining skinks and ball with blitzers. If it’s a deep bench, then you may think about trying to remove saurus, as lizards offense is hard to stop. Killing 3 skinks before halftime is no good if he has 3 sitting on the bench. Removing a saurii or 2 makes your game so much easier. Flood works well here as lizards struggle to constantly protect the ball carrier for 8 turns (unless plenty of saurus have break tackle). The other option is tying up all saurus with linos around t2-4 so he has no choice but to go for the score

Nurgle
Tough, Tough match up.
Take out the rotters, then pests. Avoid having to make key blocks against the warriors as FA will rear its head at the worst times. REMEMBER dist presence!!!! HMP works a treat against these guys, otherwise spread the field and be paitient, running away from the beast and the majority of defenders when the opportunity presents.

Orc
Tough, tough, match up.
Kick, and kill blitzers. These guys have the speed and the skills to shut down your positionals. Target the tackle players. Once a few blitzers are gone this team is very slow, and normally low on tackle. Take out throwers and gobbos when the opportunity presents itself, esp if they have a small bench.
Khemri
Tough match up.
If the cage is formed, make a token effort to stop it, and try and take out a guardian. Losing just one guardian handicaps the khemri team immensely. Some say target skellies, but with thick skull and a deep bench (normally) it starts to become a bit fruitless. Hitting blitzers and thro-ras goes without saying.
If the ball is on the ground, pressure it! Watch getting into too many tacklezones, but if the ball is on the ground mark the thro-ras and you have a good chance of coming away with it.

Skaven
Interesting match up.
Do not get sucked into a brawl against these guys, as you will quickly end up on the losing side. Be patient on defense, picking off weak players to lower his no.s while double screening him out. Eventually the runners will have to start exposing themselves to blitz’s or he will try to score before t8. Either option is good. Keep your killer tackler safe at all times as his target no.1 for the opposition.
Although the mb/claw stormvermin is scary, its his guard mates and runners that are setting up the 2d blocks for him, and the GR’s that are making the plays, so take them out first (mind you if he is on the ground don’t be afraid to put the boot in). the ogre can tie up a couple of linesmen by himself which is nice.

Norse
The old blitz and foul trick once again. Watch the sidelines. Look for setting up frenzy traps, while watching for frenzy yourself.

Humans
Kill the blitzers, and the game is yours. Catchers come a close second. Fun game though.

Vamps
Respect hypno gaze, maybe caging isn’t the best idea eh? Kill the thralls and the vamps will get thirsty.

Gobbos, flings, ogres
Avoid the big guys, kill the little guys. Tie up the big guys with linesmen when necessary.

Chaos Dwarves, Pact and underworld
Havn’t played against these guys enough

Final thoughts
Playing as humans in bb is challenging but also highly rewarding. They have the starting skills and players to do all parts of the game adequately, and the speed to score quickly. However its not great. Getting a player advantage as humans is a boon as it makes the style of game your playing (running, throwing, caging etc) so much easier, as your pace is more easily exploitable.
Humans can also afford a relatively deep bench to foul and last in a game of attrition. Even if he has cas’d 3 players in the first half and knocked out 4, a 3 man bench of 2 catchers and a thrower covers the injuries, while 3 ko’s should come back, leaving you with 10 men. And now its your turn to unleash the pain. Pile on the los t8, foul it, then do it all again at the start of the second half (just be careful with piling on exposing you to fouls or weaking your front line). You don’t want to get in to a blocking war so make each hit count. Blitzing with mb/po followed by a foul, give you three shots at breaking av.
Oh and don’t foul a stun player, it will only end in disappointment. Save him for next turn 


thoughts, opnions, comments and criticism are extremely welcome. i would like to get opinions by others if this is the way to go for humies. i see humans as a relatively strong team if played to their strengths (fouling, deep bench, st,ag, pass access, speed, and average ag across the board).
combining these elements rather than focusing on one makes the human team shine.

[FTJUK]

Very comprehensive insight on how to play humans and personally this is what I have been crying out for!! Particularly pleased for the tactics to adopt against other teams. I am taking this advise and locking it in a safe!

As a fairly new coach, I have been adopting the 2-1 grind against Elfs and trying to foul them into oblivion.

The difficulty I find is scoring against bash teams when recieving in the first half. Is it a case again of hitting him down and fouling to gain a numerical advantage and then playing the field?

[Morgred]

I second FTJUK.. Very comprehensive and a good read

A question tho.. With such a reliance on fouls do you face troubles when youre own players start getting sent off? And if youre fouling heavily, are you restricted to TD's and MVP's to develope players?

I am seeing a team that could be slow to develope and less flexible than Humans have the potential to be. Dont get me wrong i love to see a coach who takes a bit different approach, im just curious how you go wen the gameplan does work like you hope..

[Valokiloren]

I'd hardly view Humans as a bash team in disguise in LRB6, but I can see where you are coming from. Thing is though, they just can't rival the actual bash teams. So my POV is that Humans may be able to run the bash style easier, but you're best off trying to run something which suits you and your team roster, and then adapting to your opponent - rather than settling into one definitive offense/ defense.

On scoring against bash teams when receiving. As humans, it depends which team you are facing. Dwarves can be outsped - just make sure to punch a hole through one side of their line-up using appropriate force... which translates to putting as much force as you can against them.

But more often than not, your best bet is the safe one - namely staying away from any block that would happen on their turn. If they can only throw one set of block dice a turn due to their blitz, this stops a Bash-teams main advantage, which is grinding up the play. If you can keep 10 or 11 men for the 2nd half, with your speed you should be able to shut down most threats. That said, it is about positioning - you need to close off an opportunity for them to punch a player through and cage up around him. If you force a Dwarf team to take a dodge if they wish to get through a screen, then you've done your job for the turn. If you can delay the ball-carrier from getting through, then you win by stalling them out.

[bathoz]

Heh. As I'm playing you this evening, this article is perfectly timed, nhm.

But it's also the most comprehensive and, frankly, good human tactics article I've ever read - and as I'm starting up a bash human team in another league, let me just say - thanks. This is great food for thought.

You should clean it up and give to plasmoid.

[John McGuirk]

Really, really strong stuff, NHM. Plenty of insight, and a really enjoyable read!

I agree that bashing is probably one of the more effective ways to play Humans. People often forget that MV6 isn't really fast enough to outpace a well-positioned defence of MV5 or even MV4 players. The Blitzers and Catchers fare a little better, but you only have four Blizters and my Catchers have always had bones made of twiglet, which hardly makes them conducive to thrusting runs into the enemy half. Therefore, concentrating on amassing a numbers advantage first so you can really look to stretch out opposing defences is sound advice.

One pet build I love for Human Catchers is one to turn them into dedicated foulers, rather than the Linemen. It goes (in recommended order, but there's pros and cons for doing it in any way you please) Wrestle, Dirty Player, Sneaky Git. As a general rule though I'd always take Wrestle first to keep him versatile in case of rolling a stat or double at level 3.

For my money, they're the best player in the game for taking these three skills. They can acquire them all without using precious doubles, and are one of the cheapest players to be able to do so (Pro Elf Linemen are cheaper, but Humie Catchers are significantly faster, which really helps them get to the target).

They already have most of the skills they need to do their intended roles (receiving, mobile assists, pacey cage-cornering) adequately. The thing that makes them kind of shabby at these roles isn't a lack of skills, it's their woeful ST2/AG3, which thirty-three out of thirty-six times you can't do anything about when they first skill up. Building them as foulers therefore makes sense because it fleshes out the number of roles they can perform at any one time, giving you more reasons to put one on the pitch in the first place.

Sneaky Git gets talked down a lot, and it's not difficult to see why, as a Lineman who just gang-fouls with Dirty Player is certainly more cost-effective way of going about your evil business, both TV-wise and in terms of invested SPP. But there will be turns where you can't get off an effective gang-foul, which is where the more opportunistic Sneaky Git really shines, and to that end combos beautifully with Wrestle as your Dirty Catcher can drag down his assailant and stand up next turn to put the boot in.

Besides which, it hurts less when they get sent off, as, one way or another, you always expect your Catchers to make an early departure from the pitch anway

[nufflehatesme]

cheers guys for all the positive feedback.
a couple of responses to the questions poised

@mogred
the reliance on fouls stems from the get them before they get you policy! in developed leagues you will find with the cheap roster of humans that you either
a) outskill em
b) are a tv underdog
c) have a deeper bench
d) a combination of the above

all these besides a lend to fouling. i also give dp to any lino with a niggle or -av, they are not likely to stay on the pitch so make them targets. which they become after 1 boots a head in of a star player. this leads to blitz's prioritized against your 70k tv foulers over 150k tv blitzers! this is why i start 1st half with 2 dirty players

2ndly if it all goes wrong then limit damage and go into half time 1-0 down.
trust your offense to get the point back then you have 3-4 turns of tense football
if i receive and get a player sent off 1st turn then a bit more common sense comes into play.

@valokiloren
i am not saying humans can outbash the bashers. what i am trying to say is if they have removed 4 skillless linos and 1 blitzer from your starting 15, and you have removed a couple of blitzers (or black orcs) from the opposing orc team, you are doing pretty well. at half time you bring on your catchers and throwers to receive 1 player down, he fields a thrower and gobbo typically to make his 11. and you have the chance to make it 10v10 or better from your line of scrimmage blocks + foul if your feeling confident.
i guess in summary i try to make it essentially an 8 turn game where i receive with my best players and try to win 1-0 or 2-0. on the flipside the opponent is hopefully down some of his best players. what happens 1st half counts for nought really, i play that half how i want to if kicking.

@FTJUK
valokiloren was pretty spot on. as a general rule, i run my 1st turn offense pretty similar against bash. after the los scrimmage blocks and blitz (staying out of enemy tz's) i will place a guy on either wide zone 2 spaces away from the los players. 2 squares behind half way in between the wide zones will be 3 guys spaced 2 squares apart. behind that the thrower/ cathcer with the ball, ready to go either way. i may send a lino or blitzer into scoring range if their is a hole to run through. after that be patient, humans dont lend well to forcing the ball, and wait for the mistake to rush through.
against particularly stubborn coach's, you may have to take a turn of risky manouvere's to help get you back into scoring position. This is fine, just make sure the ball is protected first! keep that sceen in place, run back out of blitz and tz range with your thrower if you are trying to set up for a pass next turn etc. etc
humans superior speed means when the play comes off it is hard to stop, just dont try to rush it. this is why HMP is a cool skill. when it does keep failing and you are hemmed in, get it out of there!
on the plus side most bash coach's like to receive first, and you will want to kick first EVERY TIME against bash, so this shouldnt happen too often.

@ John McGuirk
that is actually a great suggested build and i cant believe i forgot to mention the catchers talents as a fouler. desirable traits in a fouler are speed and manouverability, with access to G/A being a nice bonus.
the ones i have tried started with dp, with a goal of wrestle next then strip ball or sneaky git. think you covered it pretty well though

@Bathoz
glad you liked the read. i have found a lot of the advice for humans assumes that your opponent will play nice and not grind your team into the dirt. humans are more susceptible to this then any other tier 1 team (except, perhaps skaven). tactics on preventing it are sorely needed other than send your frail catchers and expensive playmaker blitzers deep into enemy territory and break the cage before it forms. if you continually pull that off against opponents in the 1st half without a pile of dead catchers and blitzers to show for it, then you could probably afford to take gobbos against said opponents and pull off the same crap....
anyway hope i get to give you a first hand look of how well these tactics can work tonight .

[Valokiloren]

For stopping grinding on your team: Not sure if everyone finds this to be the case, but I tend to feel that they grind you down a lot or not at all.

If they ARE grinding your humans down, my advice would be to play a screen w/ deep defence on the kick. By placing my Blitzers out of Block range (with one kick-off result exception) but making sure they are on the wings and forcing a dodge to get past both of them (I play them in pairs), they are able to make their presence known on your turn.

Secondly, only put fodder Linemen/ Wrestle Linemen on the LOS, as there is little chance of your Ogre, if you have one, making an impact on the LOS. He's best used as a bulky support or a STR-Heavy Blitzer, IMO, as it makes him more mobile, able to put a threatening presence into a greater area of the pitch. If you make sure any and all positionals are not on the LOS, it means they have a greater chance of staying upright. While this may sound obvious, it can become an issue when you are down to just a couple of Lineman. If I am down to that few Lineman, I tend to put the least expensive positional on the LOS. Preferably a Thrower if I have to, as I have two, because the Blitzers are your main method of attack.

Finally, if they have grinded up your team, and you are finding it difficult to stop them scoring... let them score. While this goes against most peoples' principles, it's not worth suffering further losses to stop a score. If they are 1-0 down at the break, they can't afford to 8-turn score if they want the points, so they need to score quicker too. This allows you to focus on the players not helping the cage, and murder them quickly and brutally for grinding up your team. Plus, of the two of you, Humans are generally much better at picking up a 3 or 4 turn score when receiving than a bash team is at picking up a 3 or 4 turn score when kicking.

My Golden Rule: He who lives and runs away, lives to play another day.
And that applies to Humans and Skaven, who are the most in-danger tier 1 teams of being grinded up.

[nufflehatesme]

Originally Posted by Valokiloren

For stopping grinding on your team: Not sure if everyone finds this to be the case, but I tend to feel that they grind you down a lot or not at all.

If they ARE grinding your humans down, my advice would be to play a screen w/ deep defence on the kick. By placing my Blitzers out of Block range (with one kick-off result exception) but making sure they are on the wings and forcing a dodge to get past both of them (I play them in pairs), they are able to make their presence known on your turn.

Secondly, only put fodder Linemen/ Wrestle Linemen on the LOS, as there is little chance of your Ogre, if you have one, making an impact on the LOS. He's best used as a bulky support or a STR-Heavy Blitzer, IMO, as it makes him more mobile, able to put a threatening presence into a greater area of the pitch. If you make sure any and all positionals are not on the LOS, it means they have a greater chance of staying upright. While this may sound obvious, it can become an issue when you are down to just a couple of Lineman. If I am down to that few Lineman, I tend to put the least expensive positional on the LOS. Preferably a Thrower if I have to, as I have two, because the Blitzers are your main method of attack.

Finally, if they have grinded up your team, and you are finding it difficult to stop them scoring... let them score. While this goes against most peoples' principles, it's not worth suffering further losses to stop a score. If they are 1-0 down at the break, they can't afford to 8-turn score if they want the points, so they need to score quicker too. This allows you to focus on the players not helping the cage, and murder them quickly and brutally for grinding up your team. Plus, of the two of you, Humans are generally much better at picking up a 3 or 4 turn score when receiving than a bash team is at picking up a 3 or 4 turn score when kicking.

My Golden Rule: He who lives and runs away, lives to play another day.
And that applies to Humans and Skaven, who are the most in-danger tier 1 teams of being grinded up.

yeah if you dont lose players, you start pressuring the ball by default i guess. seems like we play a pretty similar style judging by the above.
Just to be sure, do you advocate kicking or receiving first, and against which opponent? what about fouling and and bench? this goes to everyone out there with a bit of humie experience.
i like to kick pretty much versus everyone, though shortmanned elves i am wondering the merits of receiving. also norse, the biggest glass cannon in the game. may be worth receiving against them depending on their killers.