Wood Elf Linemen

Blood Bowl Wood Elf Lineman
Wood Elf Lineman 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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9 thoughts on “Wood Elf Linemen”

  1. Good run down on the line elves i’ve gone with starting out with a kicker and first oppertunity then a few with wrestle/fend combo’s for the LoS elves.
     
     

    Reply
    • On the one hand I can see your thinking and how it could be useful. However they already move 4 after standing up which is fairly reasonable already.

      The way I think of it is, if I take this skill what am I passing over to take it and would it be more useful to take something else. This is why the common skills are common, things like Dodge, Block, Wrestle, Tackle, Side Step etc.

      Jump Up is only useful if your player is on the ground. I’d rather they were left standing if at all possible. Half the results on the Block die are going to always leave you standing when someone blocks your player. If you take Dodge and they don’t have Tackle that’s another result where it won’t come in. When you use Wrestle that’s one situation it is useful, though if your player gets knocked over, with low armour there’s a fair chance of them getting injured which again will negate Jump Up.

      The other side to Jump Up is being able to do a Block action from the ground. What you need to consider here is how often your Lineman is going to be in position to do an advantageous Block. A lot of other teams are stronger and will also likely have quite a few players with Guard. You will also need an assist which may mean moving a team mate in next to the opponent. If you then fail the Jump Up roll then you’ve moved another player in to get hit the next turn.

      So perhaps a lot of the time you aren’t going to use half of the ability of the skill. The extra movement component may not get many chances to use during a game and even if you do then how many times is that extra movement really any use? There will be times both parts of Jump Up will be useful though for me personally I think there are quite a few skills that you will get more use from and that your opponent will wish you didn’t have. It is amazing how disrupting Side Step can be for example, even if your player does get knocked over.

      With all that said I can see some benefits of Jump Up but I’d likely only take it as a late skill if at all, though by all means try it and see what you think and perhaps report back with how useful it was.

      Reply
  2. The lineelf I have in mind for this is like such: First advance, ST. Second advance, Dodge (help that ST4 get where I need it!). Plan is to take Wrestle next, then Jump Up. Granted, JU is a ways off, but I like to think long-term!. May take Block instead of Wrestle though, in that case I can see passing on JU, cuz I won’t be going to the ground as often.

    So, yeah, would definitely be a late skill!

    Reply
    • I would rather have block on ST 4 piece as it will be a better road block and being able to block back.

      I’m thinking that for a heavy ST environment a Wrestel, Dauntless LineElf might be a useful addition to the skill set. As you don’t get to have guard as easily, let alone keep them alive.

      Reply
  3. I’m quite surprised that you don’t include +AV for stat upgrades. It reduces change on breaking armour from 41,66% to 27,77%, or 1/3 of the time your armour doesn’t get broken, so 33% less injuries to be made.
    If you compare this to a blocking skill, they only improve your odds not going down in a 1db by 17% or half. Taking into account that receiving 2db is quite common the effectiveness if even further lowered.

    So to me AV 7->8 is more worth than double a normal skill.

    Of course the player would need to have useful skills first, so it is rather a late pick unless on Line Elves I can see it as second or third skill.

    Reply
    • The reason you would still take block and dodge first is not going down at all is better than less armour breaks when you go down.

      Plus block and dodge have other uses such as blocks offensive uses and dodge giving you a free reroll for dodging if there is no tackle.

      And finally armour is always put against movement increases as well. And pretty much everyone on a wood elf team can make good use of even more movement.

      Reply
  4. Is Sidestep on line Elves really that good? I know sidestep is great and I pretty much always grab it on my Wardancers, but if you’re already getting Fend it doesn’t seem to synergize well, since the squares you can sidestep to will still be in contact with the piece that blocked your lineman, thus defeating the point of Fend. Wrestle/Fend/Dodge would seem to be more generally useful.

    Reply
    • Sidestep is one of the most disruptive skills in the game, I rate it higher than Fend but you are correct that they don’t really work that well together. Play a game against a team with lots of Sidestep and you’ll soon find out what a pain it is, even if you knock the opponent over they can still place their prone player in the way.

      Reply

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