Accurate (Passing)
The player may add 1 to the D6 roll when he passes.
Overview:
Accurate is the staple skill taken by passing players, usually as the first skill they take as well. The benefits are obvious and straight forward, increasing your chances of success when passing the ball for any distance. Passing is generally a risky thing to do, so anyone on your team who can do it well opens up avenues that you perhaps wouldn’t try otherwise. As passing skills go assuming you have a team reroll as a back up, then Accurate is the single best skill you can get to help on all your passing rolls.
The advantages of being able to pass well are that they will get more SPP from completions, which you can then use to improve their passing ability even more, or perhaps give them defensive/offensive abilities. This will let you build up either a really potent passer, or perhaps a more defensive Thrower who can stand being hit, hit well himself but still pick up and pass the ball (usually shorter distances) than the dedicated long passer.
Being able to do long passes as well will also let you stretch the defence as your team will be able to move the ball a lot further than just running it would achieve. This has many benefits though I won’t get into that here as it deserves its own article. The other benefit is that it reduces the chance of a fumble when you pass the ball further, it is passing skills like Accurate that will make a thrower better at passing the ball longer distances compared to any high agility player. They both may have the same target for success, but the dedicated Thrower will fumble the ball less and end up with an inaccurate pass on those occasions.
Benefits:
- Greater success in Passing
- Can Realistically Pass it Further
- Reduces Fumble Possibility for Longer Passes
- Aids in SPP Generation
Useful to:
Fairly obvious who it is useful to and that is your teams Thrower if you have one. Note though that this would be for ones you are building into a deep passer. If you want them to sit in a cage then Block and Sure Hands are better suited (like Orc Throwers). So Elven Throwers, Human, Skaven, Amazon, Norse etc. With teams that have two Throwers on, usually you will build one deep passer and one defensive passer, rather than both the same way. Chaos Pact Marauders can usually build one as they have passing access, though unlike dedicated Thrower positions they won’t have started with Pass, or Sure Hands either and I would perhaps take those first.
For players who would need doubles on it, I’m usually not a fan of building a passer on teams that don’t naturally have one. To be really good at it they will need a couple of passing skills to really perform well and getting two doubles on the same player isn’t something you can really plan for. Some can get away with it like the higher agility Vampires, but I prefer to not specialise them in something that won’t be your usual tactics for the team. Other players that may do this though are Hobgoblins, Beastmen, Pestigors. I’m not a fan of doing this though but plenty of coaches do it with success, so it is down to your individual style if you want to do that.
Summary:
So Accurate is a widely taken skill and with good reason due to its simple and effective benefits. Throwing the ball is usually fairly risky due to the number of rolls that are involved that can go wrong and also the fact the ball could end up a number of squares from where you actually targeted. Accurate will help you do this with greater success and it can be worth its weight in TV to your team, even if you just want to throw the ball away from the opposing team with the lowest risk of a fumble.
On my chaos team I have a beastman that I use as a “designated ball pick upper/kick off receiver” who off the top of my head has block, extra arms and +1agi. I find it really useful to do quick and short range passes. My question is assuming I get a double would accurate or pass be more effective and what if either one was combined with strong arm?
I would consider taking this skill on a necromantic wight that rolled a double for its first skill selection. You could then take sure hands followed by strong arm and have a really effective thrower on a team that normally cant build one.
Necromantic teams have Werewolves and Ghouls to fill the roles of blitzers and receivers. So having a passing/ball carrying wight won’t leave you short in those areas and will give you a new dimension to your side.
i think that’s alot of commitment for a small benefit. Note that you still have no answer for interceptions, and that’s far worse than fumbling the ball, in my opinion.
Accurate doesn’t compete with dodge when your blitzer has the choice between the two.
I’d rather wait for someone to get agility 4 on the necromantic team, and just give catch to everyone else. Much more effective IMO.
Boerk: Accurate will give you +1 on the dice. If you have AG4 then your quick succeeds on a 2+ already.
Strong arm reduces the calculated range band by one, so it would make your short passes quick, but would do nothing for your quick passes.
The reroll from pass is absolutely your best choice: 2 shots at a 2-3+ roll.
Interestingly, on my Necro team, last night I got an Ag upgrade and I was wondering what to do with it.
Weights are usually my guard might blow guys to help with my blitzes on the doggiies.
However, a passer is a reasonable option for one of them… Just not certain it’s long term usefulness.
And I would like to read the article about stretching the D…
I presume the agility upgrade was on a Wight though you didn’t say for certain. It’s very useful to have as as it makes dodging much easier and also ball handling. Accurate isn’t a skill I can really ever see me spending a doubles roll on for ball passing purposes. You just aren’t going to get that much use from it (unless you happen to throw it a lot which most teams don’t usually). You’ve got the problem of not really having any great targets to throw the ball at, which combined with the higher risk of a passing game anyway means Accurate isn’t really desirable on the whole. Having a blitzing player who can move around that much easier is going to be of a far greater benefit to the team overall.
By the benefit of a double roll, I took Accurate for… goblin bombardier. Never would’ve guessed that bombing enemy behind the scrimmage line with a 4+ throw cound be so handy and satisfying (and, obviously, more accurate than Hail Mary Pass option). To add to this, he also has aquired Catch and Diving Catch, so he can “safely” play hot potato with elves, even, all that considering the bomb won’t be redirected to someone else!
I tend to have accurate on all throwers including Orc, just makes that throw abit safer and gives you an out ball if you need a quick touchdown, dont think Ive ever taken it on a double roll though