Prehensile Tail

Prehensile Tail (Mutation)

The player has a long, thick tail which he can use to trip up opposing players. To represent this, opposing players must subtract 1 from the D6 roll if they attempt to dodge out of any of the player’s tackle zones.

Prehensile Tail Overview:

A player with Prehensile Tail can make life trickier for the opposing team if you can get them placed in the first place. If you can tie up an opposing player from getting to where they are needed then this can make your own plans easier. It’s most effective against AG3 players as coaches don’t really like to dodge with them but are sometimes forced to take that decision. AG4+ players are still a lot of the time going to attempt the dodge, while AG2 and 1 players aren’t usually going to dodge very often in the first place.

Due to that a lot of the time you may find that it doesn’t have much bearing during a match. It isn’t as effective as Diving Tackle though you don’t have to go prone in order to use it. If you have multiple players with Prehensile Tails though you can stack them up to tie up an opponent (though Leap players can get away with that instead) which increases its effectiveness.

With the player being harder to get away from you may find that the opposition coach may elect to not dodge away a player that he may normally do otherwise. This can leave more opposing players in your tackle zones which means you get more chances to block. Also the fact that you do remain standing for the effect to take place, if you get next to multiple opponents, it will still be in play for all the dodges away from them in that turn. With that in mind it will combine well with skills that will make it hard to push them away from whoever they are marking.

While Prehensile Tail can be a game changer is can be hard to get it where you want it during a game. This coupled with the fact that against a quite a few players its use is limited means that I wouldn’t often select it. There is usually an alternative skill that you could take which you would get much better use from. For a double skill I would suggest Diving Tackle would be better, though for those with normal mutation access it could make a nice late skill selection.

Benefits of Prehensile Tail:

• Creates harder dodges for opponents
• Can tie up opposing players
• Give your player more blocking opportunities

Who Prehensile Tail is Useful to:

As a double choice I wouldn’t give it to any player due to the other options you will have available to you. That really narrows it down to the players who can take mutations on normal skill rolls. I wouldn’t take it as one of their first skills but perhaps the fifth or sixth skill if they develop that far. This pretty much would be Beastmen and Marauders who have been developed into marking specialists, normally I would like Shadowing on such a player though as they only have MV6 Prehensile Tail is a better choice for them. You might consider the Skaven player on a Pact team, though they can’t get Side Step or Stand Firm without doubles, the Pact Dark Elf could however get Side Step. It depends what role you have in mind for them on your team though as to if that is useful.

It could also be worth considering on Big Guys from Chaos and Underworld late on. They have easy access to Stand Firm and combined with their high strength means it is hard for some teams to push them away. It can also give them more blocking opportunities if players aren’t dodging away. You may prefer Tentacles over a Prehensile Tail, though there is nothing stopping you getting both!