Tackle (General)
Opposing players who are standing in any of this player’s tackle zones are not allowed to use their Dodge skill if they attempt to dodge out of any of the player’s tackle zones, nor may they use their Dodge skill if the player throws a block at them and uses the Tackle skill.
Overview:
Tackle is one of the staple skills in the game and it will be rare to find a developed team that doesn’t have at least one player with this skill. The main reason to this is because of the usefulness of Dodge and it is the best way to counter it. The make up of your league can increase or decrease the importance that you take it. If your league has lots of teams likely to have Dodge, such as Amazons, Elven teams, Skaven, Humans any teams with Stunty players etc. Then you will want to perhaps get Tackle as soon as you can and also get more than one player with it as well. If your league is mostly made up of bashing teams, then they are less likely to have much Dodge, so you can hold off on getting it and not take it on so many players.
Tackle is great for when you are hitting players who have Dodge as well as placing them in an area a player with Dodge may want to be moving through. Because of this duel aspect players who perform one or both of those roles are going to look towards getting Tackle at some point in their development.
Benefits:
- Increases Knock downs on Dodge players.
- Makes Dodges higher risk
- Can force opponent to make more rolls
Useful to:
Typically Dodge is a skill that players will try and get on their ball carriers, to both make them harder to knock over and to help should they need to dodge away at some point. So any player on your team that you are looking to hit the opposing ball carrier with is a good candidate for Tackle. It combines well with Wrestle, for the best chance of a knockdown against any player, so any player you have given Wrestle to with this role in mind could make great use of Tackle. Even if you don’t knock them over and just push them back for example, if they do have Dodge, then Tackle will negate that if they Dodge away, or the opposing team will look to blitz you off. That can either mean them possibly having to use a reroll or them not blitzing you somewhere else. If you don’t have a player with Wrestle for this role then a player with Block doing the same role should take Tackle. Even though Block won’t knock down an opponent who has Block, it will also keep you on your feet more if you have to hit using one die.
The other player type are those you use to block paths off or mark receivers. This may typically be Linemen, though your players who usually hit the ball carrier can do this as well. Especially if you have more than one, or you can’t get a hit on the ball carrier. The third type are the specialists built into this role who may have skills like Side Step, Diving Tackle and perhaps Shadowing as well.
Even if you aren’t marking a receiver directly you put these players in the squares they are probably going to be looking to dodge through. If you have a few players with Tackle you also need to take care not to overlap them all onto the same tackle zones. The more tackle zones you can cover the more of a hindrance it will be to the opposing team. By the same token when you set your team up for the kick off, try and make sure if possible that you have one that can cover either side of the pitch. If you only have one then this is more tricky, you can either put them in the middle of the pitch, or on one side in the aim to force the opposition into the other side of the pitch which you may have set up slightly stronger. This doesn’t mean you should weaken a set up in other ways though just to accommodate this, set up best which works for your team overall.
Had a question for you all:
How much tackle is enough?
On an elf team, is two dancers with tackle sufficient? Or would you be pushing for a couple of linesmen (or a sacker-catcher) with it also?
On an orc team, is it worth having it on all the blitzers for interchangeability, or just on a couple?
any thoughts?
I would say this more dependant on the league you are in, in a bash heavy league then I wouldn’t worry about having more than a couple as there won’t be many players with Dodge. In a leauge with Amazons and plenty of Elf/Skaven/Stunty/Human/Lizardmen teams then Tackle would be more useful as there are more players with Dodge.
Tackle isn’t only useful for when you are hitting Dodge players but also in preventing them from getting the free reroll for when they try to dodge away as well. So there isn’t really a definitive answer to this, if you are aiming at building a rounded team in an open league, then it would depend on your TV. At low levels you can get by with 1 or 2, higher values then I would be happier with 4. Having said that having more or less isn’t a bad thing on a team that takes on all sorts of races. Any team will have skills which are more effective for certain games over other ones.
I don’t like having 2 dancers with tackle on my WE team.
I usually have 3 players with this skill including one wardancer on really long leagues. Most of the time, I have only one (the dancer).
On short leagues, I always play with one dancer with tackle and one dancer with frenzy.
I’d also say it depends on your own team. The slower you are, the more tackle you’ll want vs dodging teams for two reasons: a) you really don’t want them getting away from you if you’re too slow to catch up and b) you’ll need more players with tackle to make sure one’s in range to reach the targets with dodge.
that means though that if they take that one dancer out, you’re running around the rest of the game with no tackle at all, I’m not comfortable with that.
It also means against any teams that are very dodge heavy, lizardmen, elves, goblins etc etc, I find it really frustrating only having one or two tackles.
Skinks dont squish if you’ve got not tackle 🙁
And if the skinks dont squish, you lose against lizards with elves.
Frenzy is a good substitute to tackle.
Line-elves are way to expensive to go without block/dodge. So in low to middle TV, tackle is not my fav. skill.
On high TV, I do have like 3-4 tackles max. But with LRB5, I may have less, and try something fancy on lineelves, like fend.
Responding to Bobliness’ post about tackle (also wrestle, it’s a comment under the Wrestle article) I tend to agree that the mechanics of tackle bother me at an ideological level. I’m not a fan of very specific “anti” skills (e.g. tackle cancels dodge and nothing else) in games because I feel like it’s either too powerful or completely useless. And I don’t like the ideal of nullifying someone else’s skill – it takes control out of their side of the contest. I’d prefer it if dodge made it easier to dodge, in all cases, and if tackle made it harder to dodge, in all cases.
That off my chest, none of that affects the tactical use of the tackle skill. Make sure to take it, you will need it, and be smart about how you position your players that have it.
I agree that when it comes up, it’s great. Tackle, however is (for me) not a starting skill unless you start against a dodgy team. Or runners with dodge.
Basically, it’s difficult, but I prefer to start with skills which have broader use. But it won’t hurt to have one lineman take tackle, especially seeing how useful it can be. Of coure if you know who you’ll face the choice will become so much easier.
But yeah, what Wanderer said.
Got to say great work coach as a new player to table top games does the tackle skill help when I block a dodge player and I roll a defender down unless they have dodge is it still a knock down or just a push back
Hey Angry, the Tackle skill will negate the Dodge skill and it will be a knock down.