Wood Elf TV1000 Starting Roster Overview:
Wood Elf teams are one of the more expensive ones in the game making it hard to fit all the positional players in a starting roster like other races are perhaps able to do. Your main decisions are how many Wardancers you are going to start with. As probably the best players in the game you are likely to start with at least one, though do you really put it to the opposition and start with both? Another option is if you want to take a Treeman or not to help soak up some of the pressure of all your low armoured players? As you no longer have to spend money on Fan Factor, you can now feasibly start a team with three rerolls and not have to take eleven Linemen to be able to afford it. Your last main choice would be if you want to start with a Thrower, a Catcher or neither.
Two Wardancers Wood Elf Starting Roster:
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Linemen | 630k |
| 2 | Wardancers | 240k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 100k |
| Total | 970k |
In my opinion if you are going to play a Wood Elf Team then you might as well start with both of your best available players in the guise of Wardancers. Along with the Treeman they are your most expensive players but they are worth every penny. That does pretty much force the rest of the team lineup that you will need a lot of Linemen. As you have to have eleven players to start the team 9 Linemen round off the player selection, leaving enough money to afford two Rerolls.
There is some flexibility though as you will have 30k left over which you need to decide what to do with. I personally would look to save that and almost guarantee getting an Apothecary after the first game. It is bad enough having two Wardancers without any injury cover for one game, let alone having to go through another. Alternatively you can use 20k of that to upgrade one Lineman to either a Thrower or a Catcher.
Having a Thrower to start with gives you another reroll with the Pass skill and can also perhaps speed you along to getting another Reroll by taking the Leader skill, as you will be likely spending your winnings on more players. Taking a Catcher may lead to him hogging the SPP but they are very fast players and another Dodge on the pitch is great when you only have two rerolls and Catch could also come in useful. If you do pick one of these upgrades you will still have 10k left over towards the Apothecary and you never know they may make all the difference in the first few games. Linemen are more than capable though most of the time with their good speed and high agility.
Treeman Wood Elf Starting Roster:
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Linemen | 630k |
| 1 | Wardancer | 120k |
| 1 | Treeman | 120k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 100k |
| Total | 970k |
This roster is very similar to the previous one though you just swap one Wardancer for the Treeman. They both cost the same so all the rest that I said above applies as far as options go. The advantage of starting with a Treeman is that you get some strength and high armour to put on the Line of Scrimmage. This can help with lowering the rate that your players get injured and they can also tie up a couple or more opposing players. The obvious downside is that you start with only one Wardancer, so that may lead you perhaps to take a Catcher as well to get that extra Dodge skill. I think this roster may be more desirable if you know you are going to be facing a lot of hard hitting teams early on such as Dwarfs and Norse etc.
More on Page 2…
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August 1st, 2010 at 7:04 am
Thanks, Coach, a very useful article! There is also a very risky roster with all positionals and zero rerolls. Haven’t tried it myself, but some ppl say it can be effectife as positional players have all rerolls you’ll need.
August 1st, 2010 at 7:48 am
I can’t say I agree with that. You always need rerolls even if you have skills as there is always the chance of Double Skills on a block or rolling a one on a going for it or a failed leap… And basicly no elves have block/wrestle to start with (other then the wardancers). Not to say you can’t play without rerolls, but the arguement that the positionals provide all the rerolls you need just doesn’t work for me at all. I would not recommend such a build.
August 1st, 2010 at 11:44 am
I know, that roster is talked about on page 2…
August 2nd, 2010 at 8:57 pm
Another all out rooster is 1 tree, 2 WD, 1 Catcher, 7 line, 1 RR and 10k. Never considered this startup before this article – Thank you Coach. I think I will try this just to see how it works.
August 2nd, 2010 at 10:56 pm
I know of people who have started with the 0 RR build and had success with it, although you are leaving yourself open to the whim of the dice more than with other builds potentially. Surely for this build you would want a thrower instead of one of the linemen though? Having that Pass re-roll for 20K more can make all the difference when you have no team re-rolls!
I have had some success with a 6 linemen, 1 WD, 3 catchers, 1 thrower and 2 RR build (LRB5). Having the 3 catchers at the start gives you a lot of movement advantage (think 3 gutter runners with Catch!).
August 3rd, 2010 at 9:42 pm
i had a lot of success in a lrb 5.0 league with the 2 wardancers, 1 treeman, 1 rr, 1 thrower, and 7 lineman lineup.
The treeman was critical in soaking up the damage that would otherwise be going to my poor lineman. Then, my wardancers could go off and be nearly unstoppable supermen. Oh, how fun wood elves are.
August 13th, 2010 at 9:30 am
Even on a team with this many starting skills, I feel like starting out with no re-rolls is a poor idea. A build that I’ve had reoccurring success with is 1 Wardancer, 2 Catchers, 8 Linemen, and 2 Re-rolls. This leaves 40k in the bank, meaning after one game I will be able to buy an apothecary immediately. The reason I don’t feel the need to include one in my starting roster is because it doesn’t double in price like re-rolls do, and if I lose a line elf in my first game, it won’t really matter as much since I can only have 7 in a maxed out roster anyways, and journeymen wood elves are awesome right out of the box. After the apothecary I would start saving up for another re-roll before I buy the final wardancer. Like I said, I just can’t imagine playing the game with no re-rolls. Even with such a skilled team, I like having 4 or 5 by the time i’m done buying them. And the higher speed on the catchers is just a must for me. So I’d pick the re-rolls and 2 catchers over 2 wardancers any day.
August 21st, 2010 at 2:25 pm
Since LRB 5.0, I have always started with 4 Linemen, 2 Catchers, 2 Throwers, 2 Wardancers, and naturally the Treeman. 0 Re-rolls, no apothecary. Since if I lose a player, it’s okay, I will get free Journeymen.
Having Catch on two players, Dodge on four players and Pass on two players make it playable without any re-rolls, and in my humble opinion it is way better than starting with 2 Team Re-rolls, since I can re-roll a failed catch, dodge, pass in every turn.
So for me, Team Re-rolls are not the most important thing when playing a Wood Elf team, I would argue the opposite, you will benefit if you learn how to play without Team Re-rolls and with Player Re-rolls. And score often, win those extra Team Re-rolls on kick-off events. I usually cap my Team Re-rolls for my Wood Elf team at 2, and I still end up having Team Re-rolls available at the end of a drive, and it’s a good way to keep the Team Value down, getting those Wandering Apothecaries or Bloodweiser Babes can be crucial.
August 21st, 2010 at 2:33 pm
P.S.
Also surprised to see that every single build mentioned in the above article, disregard the Thrower. The Wood Elf Thrower is the 2nd best thrower in the game after the High Elf Thrower. Having two from the start gives you the freedom to control the passing game, as well as get a Leader Re-roll for 20k. Sure Hands + Dodge on a thrower, makes it even easier to win games, since it’s 3+ to pick up in a Tackle Zone.
Nonetheless, getting Leader and the Apothecary is my first priority, with the build; 4 Linemen, 2 Catchers, 2 Throwers, 2 Wardancers, 1 Treeman.
August 21st, 2010 at 3:09 pm
Thanks for your comments there is certainly some logic behind them. I don’t personally like the Wood Elf team so am happy to admit there may be some things I miss out.
November 24th, 2010 at 10:52 am
I usually start WE-teams without wardancers but take 2 catchers instead. I haven’t played the LRB 5.0 rules yet though. actually, I haven’t played for a while, but am happy that I found people to play with/against again.
9 linemen @ 630
2 catchers @ 180
2 rerolls @ 100
9 Fan Factor @ 90
total: 1,000
Upsides: Lots of Fan Factor and with the catchers it is easy to score against other starting teams as they probably won’t have nasty things as tackle and such yet. Just hope nobody gets seriously injured during the first match
Downsides: defense gets a bit risky, but you should be able to outscore most other teams anyway.
If you play without FF, you could probably take an extra reroll and after the first match an apo.
November 24th, 2010 at 12:24 pm
Thanks Mortlach, I think you may change your mind about that after some games under the latest rules. I don’t think anyone plays LRB5 any more either. It is now the Competition Rules Pack (CRP) aka LRB6 and Wood Elf Catchers have movement eight and sprint instead of movement nine now. Your high Fan Factor also shows your experience coming from the older rules.
January 7th, 2011 at 3:17 am
I’ve recently started playing a Wood Elf team that I started out as: 7 linemen, 3 catchers, 1 thrower, 2 re-rolls and an apothecary.
As mentioned above, I find having at least someone with a Pass re-roll really useful in the early going. With two rolls involved in any pass (a pass roll and a catch roll) you can only use your team re-roll to cover one of them. I find that often my opponents are quite meticulous at beating up my catchers, but I can often sneak a lineman a few squares up field where he can catch and score. So I like having the Pass re-roll for the pass, and a team re-roll to back up the catch. Or, if my thrower gets cleaned out, the team re-roll for a pass by a lineman and a Catch re-roll from a Catcher. Lineman to Lineman you’ve just got to hope for some luck (which, given their high agility, is not inconceivable).
I don’t like taking more than 7 linemen because, as someone else pointed out, in a full roster (2 throwers, 4 catchers, 2 wardancers, 1 treeman) you’ll only have 7 linemen. No point in paying for someone you’ll only end up releasing later (assuming the team keeps playing).
Although I do miss those Wardancers…
I guess I could have dropped a re-roll or the apothecary to upgrade a lineman to a wardancer (or Treeman). But obviously the re-rolls double in price, and I hate not having the security blanket of an apothecary.
January 7th, 2011 at 11:34 am
Losing players on a Wood Elf team isn’t something to worry about, it is a surprise if you don’t get some injured players. Assuming a new league where all teams start fresh, having some Block is very helpful. Even against other developed teams with a new Wood Elf team, having Block to make the hits less risky is probably more useful than needing Pass and Catch. You can replicate those with a team reroll, not having Block you can’t. With the high speed and agility of the team as well, you don’t even need to be passing, just performing a Hand Off can be enough. Defence is a bigger concern than offence and defensive stops or touchdowns are what win games.
January 11th, 2011 at 11:56 pm
Good points. I don’t disagree.
February 16th, 2011 at 8:53 pm
I’ve just started my own team in the story mode of Blood bowl Legendary edition and have found that a team of 1 Tree, 2 WD, 1 thrower, 7 line and 1 re-roll works quite well.
You can use your WD as receivers and the Tree is great for soaking up damage on the line and also dishing some back out. Plus the fact that your TV is so much lower than the teams you are playing you get enough money to buy a couple of extra re-rolls and even Morg ‘n’ Thorg to soak up even more damage. First purchase is obviously an apothacary but playing with this I’ve managed to win my 1st 3 games without too much problem.
February 27th, 2011 at 2:07 am
I have another roster:
1 Wardancer
2 Catcher
1 Thrower
7 Linemen
2 Reroll
The way I played this was to dodge away with the catchers first for assists. I found the extra dodge caused less turnovers and allowed for linemen to get 2d blocks. The catchers are also useful for offense to screen for linemen or allow less trr being necessary for a pass/handoff->handoff/pss score on a linemen.
March 17th, 2011 at 7:45 pm
I tried the 0 re-roll strategy as I thought it might be fun to start with my positionals and skill them up and having skills to cover all the important rolls, it wouldn’t be so bad.
And let me tell you, that first game I lost 4-1 versus Skaven because three consecutive times I rolled a ’1′ at the very moment that all I needed to roll was a 2+ to score a touchdown.
I won’t be doing that again.
April 9th, 2011 at 2:20 pm
You have left out Wood Elfs best roster, I was really really suprised because you usually nail everything else -
2 Wardancers
1 Catcher
7 Linemen
2 Re-rolls
This is far and away their best roster. The single catcher opens up so many more possibilites. It makes jumping on loose balls and handing off for a quick break away alot more reliable because of the Catch skill, or just using teh catcher to try and pick up the bal in a tackle zone or two then dodge away with safety because of the dodge skill. The extra player with Dodge is very usefull for obvious reasons, same goes for movement. It also makes it far easier to farm SPP early in your teams development. It also makes scoring one turn touch downs easier.
April 9th, 2011 at 2:31 pm
I hate Wood Elves and their overpowered Wardancers! Thanks for the input I’m sure it will come in handy for those horrible coaches that play them! My advice is pick one of the other three Elven teams. There aren’t even any good minis for Wood Elves either.
April 9th, 2011 at 4:58 pm
Hehe, me too Coach. They are totally broken at a low TV. It’s so easy. leap into a cage 1 dice block on the ball carrier and the ball is free, then score. Dance with joy and repeat. End result 5-0
Super OP Wardancers FTW death to all other teams
October 16th, 2011 at 4:24 pm
Another idea is:
4 Catchers
7 Linemen
2 Rerolls.
50k spare, buy an apo, another RR, upgrade a lineman to a tree or WD.
1 WD and 4 catchers on a TV1000 team with 2 RR is crazy to face.
October 16th, 2011 at 4:31 pm
Or, with above arguments for leader and all that:
1 Thrower
1 WD
2nd WD or a Tree
5 Linemen
3 Catchers
1 RR