[Elf] Vanilla Elves or Wood Elves?

[Atomsk]

Our league is coming to the close of it's second season. I inherited someone's old Wood Elf team and have had a moderate amount of success with them in the second season. The two coaches that are consistently number 1 and 2 are switching from their bashier teams and going to Goblins and Skaven. Seeing a changing of the guard so to speak I figured I might as well try a different team as well.

I like the agility of the Woodies and I enjoy the passing game so I've decided to try Elves instead; then came some changing of the house rules for the season. The biggest change that has me concerned is they have a skill limit in place.

That means only 4 players can be assigned the same skill (disregarding those who start with it). This has me concerned as no one starts with dodge and therefore only 4 other players can be awarded dodge. As I plan on starting with 2 catchers and 2 blitzers those are the ones I would imagine who would benefit the most from dodge.

With that in mind, which team do you think would be better to play in this league?

With that skill limitation in place would Wood Elves be the better choice? Or am I overreacting at the lack of dodge? Any suggestions on the matter would be helpful.

[BeefyGoodness]

Hi,

I'd say that an elves best advantage is access to dodge as a means of protection and to facilitate the general play style of elves.

If you took wood elves you could essentially have 10 players with dodge on the roster at once, whilst you'd be stuck with only the 4 on the pro elves team.

The woodelves are further in front as they also have the block skill on both wardancers plus leap saving you those skills for the catchers too.

This house rule will generally favour teams with a lot of starting skills over others that need to build their players up.

[Snap Wilson]

Interesting house rules. I don't know that I've ever taken a skill more than four times outside of Block and maybe Guard, but I haven't played any of the Elf teams for that length of time. But Elves without Dodge are like Elves without pointy ears. Instinctively, I would save the Dodge for the Catchers and move the Blitzers in another direction, but the skill-heavy Woodies do sound like a better option.

[Marlow]

An interesting house rule to get coaches to take skills other than Block/Wrestle & Dodge. Sadly though I think it just makes over half the teams in the game (including Pro Elves) unplayable.

I think Norse, Dwarf, Chaos Dwarf and Amazon teams would do really well in your League.

[Atomsk]

Thanks for the responses so far. I guess something else to add is that the Wood Elf team I'm playing now is at 1640 tv, which is great because I've progressed them the way I wanted them too (with some exceptions; hindsight is 20/20 after all) and am happy with the team. That's a bonus but also means I'm giving up TONS of inducements, and with all the star players out there with stab... maybe starting fresh would help . Keep the responses coming and again thank you for all your help.

[Marlow]

Team Value 164 is nice. Do you want to list what upgrades your Players currently have. I always like to build a team up to at least 200 TV before retiring them.

Personally in your skill-restricted league I would be firing most of my players who got to a second skill so would only play Goblins.

[Coach]

Not a fan of these rules, it will heavily favour certain teams.

Amazon will benefit a lot, Norse could do really well too. Humans would be good.

Amazon's wouldn't be bothered by it much at all and would make an already strong roster even stronger. Of course in a short league where not many skills will be gained there isn't going to be much effect at all.

I'd push to scrap the rule personally.

[Marlow]

Maybe you could push for it to only apply to the first two skills players take.
I could wait until 31 SPP's to get Dodge on Pro-Elf Blitzers or Block on a Thrower.

[Atomsk]

Kalamazoo Blood Bowl League

That's my Wood Elf Team as it is now. I know there's some less than optimal skills there but so far it's working out for me.

I'm currently trying to advocate the rule getting removed as we speak. I've posted two fairly long winded posts trying to get it removed, so it might be gone for next season after all.

Again, thank you all for your help.

[Marlow]

With that team I would be looking to fire the two Line-elves with -AV and hire the other two catchers as soon as possible. You have enough cash to hire one now. I would also want a third re-roll. I like to have both Throwers but if you are trying to keep TV down I can understand not bothering with the second. I would get Wrestle on the +MV Catchers and Block and the Pass Block Catcher next.