Norse Blitzers Overview:
Norse teams used to be able to take four Blitzers but the rules changed in LRB5 to drop them down to only being able to select two. While losing two of their best players may appear to be detrimental, they gained elsewhere on the roster to compensate, so you don’t really lose out a great deal. The Blitzers though are key components to a winning Norse team. The team as a whole has rather low armour so really doesn’t like to get hit. They also have rather average agility so doing lots of flair plays with the ball isn’t really desirable. Their usual best play is to try and hit the other team without being hit themselves. If you can get a numerical advantage over the other team then this really helps the Norse play style and mitigates their low armour a bit.
The two Blitzers on the team are very good at hurting the opposing players. With only two allowed on a team, there isn’t really much in the way of development to look towards and I would suggest building both with causing damage in mind. Their starting skills all help with this role in mind as well, so they are the best tools for the job on your team. Frenzy gives them two chances to knock the opposing player over and can also remove players by pushing them into the crowd. Block is great for both lowering the risk when hitting and also knocking more players over. Jump Up means you can get more hits in and also increases your range from a prone position so you can get to juicy targets more often.
Given how key they are to your team and the damage they can cause I would also look to protect them more than most of your other players. Watch out for where you are hitting to not leave the opposing team a great chance at hitting back, or leaving them open to getting gang fouled. With low armour it doesn’t take much for the opponent to break it. Give them priority with your Apothecary, especially when the basic Norse Lineman is useful as soon as you buy one. These guys also have average agility so are capable of ball handling as well, scoring touchdowns with them can get you those damage causing skills quicker.
Killer Norse Blitzers:
- Normal: Mighty Blow, Piling On, Guard, Stand Firm / Juggernaut / Tackle
- Doubles: Dodge / Side Step
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG
With the role in mind of causing damage the first skill to take would be Mighty Blow, not only will it hurt the opposing players more but that in turn helps speed up the development. After that Piling On is a great choice, it combines well with Jump Up and again will increase the damage potential of your player. Piling On also has the extra benefit that the opposing team won’t be able to block or blitz him during their turn. It does leave them open to getting fouled so use your other players to minimise the assists they can get doing that. You can’t stop every hit or foul on them, but if they are fouling instead of hitting, then at least there is a chance their player gets sent off as well.
After that you would probably be best looking at getting Guard. You have a lot of Frenzy on the team and it can get you into trouble, Guard helps against that and also helps stop you getting over powered by other teams taking it. You have a few options where to go after that, Stand Firm keeps you next to opposing players to get more hits in and also protects you from getting crowd pushed yourself. Juggernaut helps with crowd pushes and also negates Wrestle meaning you can have a few more targets who you can knock over easier. It also cancels out Fend so you can get in both your Frenzy hits and also still be able to use Piling On, both of which Fend would otherwise prevent. Tackle can also be considered (though I think Juggernaut is probably more useful) as it helps take down anyone with Dodge and makes dodging players away harder (not that they have to do that if you are prone from Piling On). Tackle is more useful if the league is Dodge heavy and light on Wrestle and Fend, otherwise take Juggernaut.
If you roll doubles then Dodge will help them against getting hit and let you get to targets easier. It loses value in leagues with lots of tackle (or in a well developed environment) and even early on in the first couple of skills you may decide against taking it over a normal advancement. Side Step is another one you could consider after getting your damage skills, though Stand Firm is comparable and you won’t miss out if you don’t take a double.
The main stat increase you are looking at wanted to get is +ST for obvious reasons. I wouldn’t turn down +AG as I find it useful to have on an AG3 team, though it doesn’t really help the build a great deal and you would prefer it else where. An argument can be made for not taking an agility increase and on a more developed team there is probably less need for it. The other two stats would be nice to have though I feel that there are more useful skills to help with this role of causing damage, so based on that I would quite happily skip them.
Summary:
Norse Blitzers as you can probably now see are vital to keeping the team ticking over and making matches easier for you to handle. Prioritise getting them advanced up quickly so they can start dishing out hurt to opposing players as soon as possible. Keep them protected as losing them, especially in short leagues, can really hamper your changes. Most of your other players aren’t going to be as vital towards your game plan and are cheaper to replace and still fairly useful with no extra skills. A rookie Blitzer isn’t as effective as their skilled up versions, utilise them well and your team will likely be feared.
BTW thanks for the Norse guide so far my Norse are currently 10-1-2 right now 🙂
My yhetee got lucky and rolled 12 first level up and is stunning with st6 now easily pushed him up, levels added Mighty Blow and pilling on after that he is currently waiting for spps to level up again. Werewolves I didn’t know to take mighty blow. I took block first on both. Gaurd on one, for second skill dodge on other for second skill. I have been lucky enough to have two maybe three lineman get gaurd as first skill. Others have tackle gave one wrestle. 1st thrower +1 ag 🙂 1st skill, Than dump-off now he seems to be the target of every single game. He plays a game and misses the next game ever single game which is im ok with he has lost 1 movement. I am noobish to where I want to field a full team so I have 16, 7 linemen, 2 blitzers, 2 runners which by far skilling up the fastest, two throwers thank god for second since 1st is total target and my beast Yhetee. I hope I’m building them right. look forward to you adding the runners, throwers and yhetee Coach always a great read!
One thing I would say about spamming piling-on on a Norse team, you need to be very controlled in your use of it. With only AV 7 I would, and have, foul/fouled these guys off the pitch every chance I get/got. 🙂 That is out of respect for the damage they can do.
I played a Norse coach (and not a newbie, but one who has written playbooks for them) who was obsessed with blitzing and piling-on every turn. All this did was pull him away from his support and get swiftly drop-kicked into the dugout.
I happen to notice that, while you added a “crowdsurfer” progression to the Dwarf Slayer, you didn’t add such to the Norse Berserker. I also noticed that the main difference between crowdsurfer and killer builds is the point in time to pick up stand firm (second skill vs fourth). I’m curious, is there a reason you don’t recommend crowdsurfing Norse Berserkers? I found them rather useful. Then again, it was back when I had four of them.
Good question, it basically boils down to the differences between Dwarf teams and Norse teams. Nearly every player on the Dwarf team has strength skill access and high armour. They can get lots of Guard very easily, whereas a Norse team has a lot less players with access to it normally.
Norse teams are also lightly armoured so you need to maximise your blocking opportunities as much as possible to avoid getting hit in return. Dwarf teams don’t really have that worry. Obviously having players who possess a crowd surfing threat is a great thing to have on any team though. Just by having Block and Frenzy to start with means that a Norse Berserker is capable of doing that better than most players ever will from the get go. Focusing them to excel at crowd pushing requires skills that aren’t as much use to the team when they aren’t doing that though.
By going down the killer route you can remove players wherever you are on the pitch, it is hard to push someone standing in the middle of the pitch into the crowd! Also blocking casualties aid development to get more skills while crowd generated ones don’t give your player any SPP. Lastly like you mentioned you only get two of them now while you used to get four, if that were still the case then there is feasibly more room on the roster to take Stand Firm and Juggernaut over Mighty Blow and Piling On.
Coach,
Any viability in giving one or both Blitzers dauntless? Seems like putting the fear of God in your opponents’ big guys might be worth the skill choice.
It can be useful, however there are lots of useful skills to take on your Blitzers as they have strength skill access. Compared to the Linemen on the team who only have general access and they already start with the best one, Dauntless is probably something you would take a couple of those players instead. As usual with taking Dauntless though, it is also going to depend on how many other teams you are going to face that have a strength advantage. Generally in most environments that will usually be the case for a Norse team though!
I prefer guard as first skill on my blitzers since I usually use the icetroll or the ulfwereners for blitzing. Since guard is very precious for a team with lots of frenzy I find the blitzers give most to the team if guard is taken as soon as possible
I prefer to take guard early on every single player of every team. Lol, its prolly one of the most overpowered skills when you think about it; its very difficult to win when your opponent has significantly more guard players that you do, IMO.
I’ve got a 2000 TV Norse team, with 2 well-developed zerkers. Both have MB/PO/guard/tackle, and one has juggernaut. The other just rolled a 6/4 for his skill-up. He also has a niggling injury. I’m torn as to what to do. The + MA would make him better at chasing players down, while the + AV would help him stay on the pitch longer. If I were to take a skill, juggs again, or maybe stand firm or strip ball would be my only real choices, but none of those really stand out to me. What do you guys have to say?
It really depends a lot on what the rest of your team is like and also your common opposition. The niggle makes things tricky too, I’d probably go for the movement but I wouldn’t expect him to last too long anyway with a niggle.
In the future you are better off posting a thread on the forum giving your roster and any other extra information about the situation for a more accurate and useful response. For example if you were in a knock out phase of your league and knew you only had two games left and the likely opposition you were facing in those games. That situation would perhaps lead to a different decision than if you are playing in a perpetual online league.
I was “blessed” with a rediculous number of doubles on one of my zerkers and honestly, i think it wasted him. I got +str, dodge, diving tackle, sidestep and moghty blow. You’d think he’d be hell on opponent ball carriers but they still seem to be able to dodge away at will because of the dodge skill and this guy not having tackle – the +2 to the roll very seldom turns it in my favor. I’d be much more inclined in the future to just skip diving tackle and possibly sidestep, and instead get piling on and tackle. There’s no problem with having more than 1 guy with piling on, i prefer it that way – that way the opponent can’t foul them all lol.
My other zerker is actually more reliable and scary, he just has dodge, tackle, piling on, guard and mighty blow. Much more reliable in just hitting and squishing the opponent.
I can see the value of mighty blow as well as guard (I think I’d be more inclined to take guard), so is it weird that I went with tackle?
Probably. In hindsight I should have maybe gone guard. But the thing is, I do tend to get a little gung-ho Rambo kamikaze with these guys, since they feel pretty indestructible and can get away from you very quickly due to the frenzy. Seems like a safer bet to get guard on the linemen or something.
Also, I play against a lot of elves and not having tackle with anybody on my team quickly becomes very annoying.
I call this the ‘Bulldozer’
Dauntless, Mighty Blow, Tackle and Juggernaut? Put that on both berserkers (except juggernaut, which should be exchanged for Guard). that should be able to clear a path real quick.
It is worth considering skipping guard altogether on at least one berserker. Higher strength players are harder to knock over and having Guard makes your OTHER players harder to knock over. An Ulfwerener or Yhetee with guard is both hard to hit and makes it hard to hit the norse players around him. A berserker with guard is a target, since there will generally be few enough guard players to make him that daunting of a target and once he’s down or moved, the players near him are even easier to hit.
Additionally, with Jump Up, berserkers lose less from going prone than many other players – unless they have guard, at which point they’re removing not only their strength and tacklezones, but also that unremovable assist.
For those reasons, it certainly seems like it would pay to make at LEAST one of your berserkers a dedicated killer – only! He’ll quickly become the star of the team and the go-to blitzer once he gets MB/PO/juggernaut and maybe tackle. Leave the strong players and the lucky linos who roll doubles to take the guard. Use that guard (that never willingly goes prone) to set up the best blitzes possible with the killer berserker and then to protect that berserker from reprisals. He will dominate huge swathes of the field, since he will always have full movement, whether he piled on the previous turn or not.
The “pure” killer build allows you to also experiment freely with the other berserker. Like having options all over the field? build 2 killer zerkers! Need the extra guard? give him that as a first skill to help out! Worried your main killer will die? Slowly skill up the other zerker into the same skills, using him for blitzes against non-dodger, non-wrestle, non-fend targets since the tackle/juggernaut won’t come into play. Or heck, just stand him over prone players and use him as a funnel to push players towards the Yhetee or Ulfwereners!
So is MB always a good idea first, even on a double? I could see how good another blodge (in addition to your runners) would be.
You can’t really go wrong with Mighty Blow but Dodge would also be useful (unless you face lots of Tackle). Side Step could also be a good choice on a double, but if you are going for a dedicated killer then I’d have no qualms about ignoring the double and taking a normal choice.
I’d skip the double. I detailed above i made a very special blitzer with 3 double rolls and honestly, it was wasted. Even dodge is questionalbe – i’d probably take it as a 2nd or 3rd skill, but not first. Just take MB and get to doing what you are supposed to do, squishing people 🙂
Oh, and Pile on actually has a better kill rate than MB. It may be worth doing that skill first since you come out of the gate with Jump up.
I’m a bit surprised that Pro hasn’t been mentioned. It marries quite well with all three starting skills adding extra block dices for free. It is also useful for other things when the team rerolls are spent.
The “normal” use (if you have team rerolls to spare) would be to try to reroll pushes on the first block. If you don’t have those rerolls, then it is usually wiser to save Pro for the second block.