Wood Elf Linemen

Overview:

Wood Elf Linemen are one of the most expensive Linemen of any race in Blood Bowl. For your money though you get very agile players who are also fast. These traits mean that every single one of them is a potential scoring threat that the other team has to deal with. It also makes the team the most mobile in the game, there are others that match the speed but are less agile and others with the same agility but without the speed. It may come as no surprise then that Wood Elves tend to be one of the top scoring teams in the game. They are also probably the easiest Linemen in the game to skill up and you can do this quickly if you want too.

There are downsides to them though, despite their high cost they do have low armour and with only average strength as well they do have a habit of breaking easily if the other team can get their hands on them. This can be a problem when you combine it with their high cost and the usual jobs given to Linemen. This calls for Wood Elf Linemen to play a slightly different game, in that they try and stay out of contact of opposing players and use positioning to screen off or contain instead. You don’t usually see much fouling from a Wood Elf team either as getting sent off isn’t that helpful to such an expensive and fragile team.

Wood Elf Lineman Kicker:

• Normal: Kick, Block, Dodge/Fend, Side Step
• Doubles: Guard
• Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV +AV

As the second fastest team in the game, Wood Elves can take great advantage of a well placed kick. Their high agility enables them to get to the ball or the ball carrier as well. This is usually their best tactic as their low armour doesn’t stand up well to a brawl for the ball. So the first Linemen to skill up should take Kick unless you roll a double and then go for a different build. After that Block keeps him on his feet as he will be a target for other teams, then after that Dodge unless you have a lot of tackle heavy teams in your league, in which case take Fend first. Doubles I would probably take Guard, if the team was light in it, though if not there is no harm in skipping it for a normal roll to keep his value down. The same applies for stat increases, you don’t really want them on your Kick player as you usually put them in the dug out if you can when receiving the kick off. I still wouldn’t pass up on +ST though as you don’t roll it often and it is really useful. I can’t see +AG being overly useful compared to the rest of the team but as he is on defence if you take it then you can look at Pass Block and Catch being useful skills. I may be tempted to take +AV over +MV as losing your kicker really sucks and he is already a fast player.

Standard Wood Elf Lineman:

• Normal: Wrestle/Dodge, Fend, Side Step, Tackle / Dauntless
• Doubles: Guard
• Stat Increase: +ST +AG +AV

This should be your normal way to advance any after a kicker and you want probably 4 before looking to specialise any more. They are for the Line Of Scrimmage and generally useful anywhere on the pitch as well, if you have a tree then three can suffice before other builds. You want Wrestle rather than Block, as dragging down opposing players will slow them down and open up more space for your team. This makes best use of your speed advantage over other teams. If the league is new and Tackle light opt for Dodge first, it gives the same protection odds wise as Wrestle or Block but also improves your dodging which you do a lot of. After that take Fend to avoid having to dodge and also stops Frenzy and Piling On. It also slows the advance of the opposition as well. Side Step after that will let you control positioning to greater effect as well.

Doubles you really should take Guard to help counter it on stronger teams, it also helps when you are trying to blitz a hole in the opposition’s defence to run players through. +ST is great as it makes them harder to hit and easier to hit back if you wanted. +AG can also be a useful for running through tacklezones or even catching the ball when marked. I’d rather have a skill over +MV though and probably even over +AV as they take a lot of hits and won’t be that much extra protection. If the player had Guard there is more merit in +AV or if you already have 3 or 4 skills then there aren’t many skills to consider in place of it.

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