[Dark Elf] Sacking injured players?

[Metalsvinet]

Just finished the first two games in a pretty bashy league. I have after the second game: 3 blitzers, 8 linemen*, 1 apo, 2 rerolls and 90 000. In the first game i got a niggle and a -AV on two linemen, i then took two journeymen in the second game, where one of them made a cas. So now I have to choose between the following:

- Sack one of the injured linemen, but which one?

- Keep both linemen and use them for los duty.

Then I can either buy the journeyman with 3 spp or save up to get the final blitzer.

One lineman got a normal skill and think ill go with kick, but a bit more block would also be nice, as there are several chaos/nurgle/chaos pact teams without block.

What do you say?

[VoidSeer]

You have more lineelves than you need in your final setup. So buying new lines is not an option. Too bad your journeyman got some XP, I'd still would not hire him.

I'd say, sack one (the -AV one) and play one game with a journeyman. The journeyman goes on the LOS, no question about that.

Buy the 4th blitzer, then fire the other injured guy and save up for a runner.

For skills, I'm a huge fan of kick. It's my n°1 choice on any elf team. Block/wrestle is nice but kick can be a game winner.

Finally, after fooling around with LRB5, I go for wrestle over block for any elf. Wrestle/Fend is a really good combo ensuring that your guys won't be hit so much.

Besides, it is a huge asset against slow bashy teams. Their offense can really get bogged down by a couple of "both down" results.


I guess you started with 3 blitzers, 8 lines and an APO? I really don't like that lineup.

[Coach]

I echo what Voidseer suggested. Especially about the starting line-up, Skaven is probably the only team I start with an Apothecary.

[Metalsvinet]

I was pretty much in a hurry with the team creation, so made a bad judgement there: Started with the players and saved 40k, so i was sure to buy the apo after first match. Now I think back, i definately would have taken 4 blitzers.

Ill go with kick for the lineman and save up for a blitzer. Just crossing fingers for a nice next game with no spare players on the bench.

Void> So wrestle, fend for linemen and dodge for blitzers. It just seems a bit of a waste not to take some dodge as this league is so heavy hitting, so tackle probably comes late.

[VoidSeer]

Wrestle/dodge or Wrestle/Fend. Your call.

I favor the fisrt with Wood elves, but I choose the second with Dark Elves, because they do have AV8.

Fend protects your players. Sure it does not affect the block dices, but

1. It prevents the blocker to become an assist on another block on a push
2. It cancels frenzy, avoiding your opponent to create breaches in your defense
3. It cancels piling-on as well

It also makes up for the lack of dodge, as most of the time, your player will not stand in a tackle zone on your next turn. So you won't have to make that many 2+ dodges, which eventually fail.

It lessens the use of prehensive tail, if you're hit and you're not stunned or worse, you are away.

For all these reasons, I love having 3 wrestle/fend players on the LOS. They can get dodge later (if they make it that far).
Since Dark Elves have 8 potential position players, and rarely have 16 players on the roster, I tend to build at least 4 lineelves has good LOS players. The others are used as Kicker and mobile guards on doubles (guard/dodge/side-step).

[Metalsvinet]

Thx a lot for the quick answers! Think im going to try the wrestle for my los guys.

[Metalsvinet]

I have been thinking a bit more about the lineelf development and can't really see the big advantage with fend over sidestep.

On the LOS sidestep can limit the blocks to one pr player, where they can push you sideways and keep blocking you when you have fend.

Ill definately go wrestle with 4 lineelves, but might mix in some dodge as it can really improve the offence as well. And early dodge in a bash-heavy league with relatively sparse amounts of block and tackle is also almost too good to avoid.

[Coach]

The advantage Fend has is that it will prevent Piling On and Frenzy while Side Step doesn't.

It will also mean that the player who blocked you first can't follow up to assist someone else down the line to hit you again. (this they can negate with planning though, but is still a pain for other situations after the first turn).

Fend will also free you up on occasions so you don't have to dodge, great when you are using them to mark a player out of the game as well, as you can reposition to avoid getting slowly pushed towards the crowd.

[Metalsvinet]

An update:

Played a couple of more games, bought the last blitzer, but also got another niggling lineman:

4 blitzers, 1 with guard, 1 with dodge, strip ball
1 kick lineman
1 wrestle lineman
2 niggling linemen (3 and 5 spps)
3 linemen without skills

2 rerolls

140k in the bank.

Next game is probably against dwarves, 11 players. Played fewer games than me, so he will get some inducements.

As I see it there are the following options:

- Fire the 3spp niggler and buy either a reroll, the runner, a fresh lineman or a witch.

- Keep the nigglers for now and do as above.

The witch could be fun, but not against dwarves, so leaning towards reroll or runner first.

It is pretty tough to only field 11 players, but then again a niggler means easier cas for the opponent.

After some thought, I might fire the 3 spp niggler, buy a 3rd reroll and use a journeyman in the next game. Any comments on that?

The next couple of opponents are the mentioned dwarves, a badly beaten up orc team, chaos and chaos pact.

[Coach]

I'd keep the nigglers and get a reroll. The chances you will want the player to use a reroll are higher than the times the niggle will make a difference.

Your players cost too much to go around firing them all the time, especially for a niggle.

Good Luck!