Amazon Linewomen Overview:
The Linewomen on Amazon teams do all the usual jobs of Lineman on a Blood Bowl team. Their advantages are that they have a fairly average stat line, are fairly cheap and also start with Dodge. Their biggest weakness would be that they have low armour, early on in a league starting with Dodge and not many opponents having Block doesn’t make that such a big problem. When playing against more developed teams, or Dwarfish players, Block and Tackle are more prevalent and their low armour is more of an issue.
As I mentioned their team mates have more easily defined roles within the team, so when developing your Linewomen as well as the usual jobs of this player type, you should also look to fill in the roles that are missing within the team. There are quite a few jobs on the team that will need doing and they are best explained by just going through them.
Ball Carrier Blitzing Amazon Linewoman:
- Normal: Wrestle, Tackle, Strip Ball, Frenzy / Pro / Dauntless
- Doubles: Side Step / Guard / Mighty Blow
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV
With your Blitzers typically taking Guard and Stand Firm and not being developed to getting the opposing ball carrier, a Linewoman or two can do this job really well. With all the positional players on your team taking Block and you really need Wrestle to counteract Block on the opposition, these just leaves the Linewomen to take it. Follow that up with Tackle to deal with Dodge players, Strip Ball is great, especially if your opponents don’t have Sure Hands. After that Frenzy can be helpful to get more than one hit though it is very much an optional choice. Amazon teams are typically somewhat weaker than a lot of opponents and Frenzy could get you into trouble here. Pro can help to give you a free shot at rerolling double pushes and can be useful in other situations. Dauntless can be a great help if facing lots of stronger opposition in your league.
For doubles Side Step is always handy to have and lets you mark your target if you fail to get them down. You might want to take Guard though instead to help counteract your average strength on the team. Mighty Blow could also be useful for someone who blitzes a lot. I probably take Guard though cause that is how I roll. A strength increase is brilliant and may mean you don’t need to get an assist in to get the strength advantage. Agility is great as it makes getting to the target easier. Movement can be helpful, though I would probably skip it early on in a short term league, or perhaps change to a different role for the player.
Kicker Amazon Linewoman:
A Kick player is always handy to have, I’m not sure if I would go with one on the player who skills up first as I would want to get a Wrestle player in the side as soon as possible. Amazons are also not the fastest or most agile team to be able to take advantage. It still has its uses though so Kick first, followed up by Block to help keep her alive. Fend offers some more protection and beyond that you run out of useful normal choices so Tackle is what I would probably select. Chances are though you Kick player won’t get many more SPP and might not even get this far.
For doubles either Side Step or Guard, the latter more so they can help team mates block or blitz them free if marked up. Also as you tend to keep Kick players out of opposing contact, having someone you can move in for a crucial assist without having to dodge them away can be handy. A strength increase isn’t great but I still wouldn’t pass it up, if you get it first increase then make them into a blitzer build instead. Agility makes dodging away easier and you can also use them to collect a loose ball or whatever. Movement also probably edges out an armour increase in usefulness as well.
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Good stuff Coach. The Amazons look a bit mediocre at first glance, but you’ve really helped illuminate their better qualities with these articles.
Just what do you do when you come up against a team of Dwarves, though? Curl up in a corner and weep?
You don’t really need to fear Dwarfs as much as people do. If you see the Amazon vs Dwarf record in NAF games you will see the perform pretty well. Obviously the key is staying out of contact with their Tackle players. If they are using their turns to move into contact, you can block them away during your turns. Also Wrestle helps a lot, any time they take down a Dwarf, that usually just means that spend their next turn standing up.
The Amazon team is fairly cheap, so even though Dwarfs have Tackle you can use rerolls to dodge away if you need to do so. You are the same strength as Dwarfs and can also get a decent amount of Guard. Don’t be scared of them, staying out of contact, hitting them back and they are one of the teams you can look to out manoeuvre.
If you get guard first roll, would you take block instead of wrestle to keep them standing? Or would you still take wrestle?
I’d switch to Block.
Coach, what do You think of choosing Jump Up after a double roll for a ball hunter? I often find my wrestlers on the ground at the start of my turn and could use an increase in range, so they actually reach the opponent’s ball carrier. Or would Sure Feet be better for that?
Simply taking Guard sure sounds tempting, though.
I would rather take Guard and just have another player with Wrestle. No reason the team couldn’t make use of two or three Wrestle Linewomen. You would be more likely to have one in range and they aren’t so easily avoided. Also saves the doubles for Guard which is going to be more useful more often.
I recently got lucky with a linewoman catching a +1 Str for a first skill up, next i grabbed block. Here we are with her still alive and just picked up third skill, the question is: is there abetter general skill than frenzy for this particular player? (I haven’t been blessed with another doubles yet)
It’s certainly a good option, though I would also consider Tackle if your team is tackle light. Fend can also offer a bit more protection and avoid having to do some dodges. Pro may also be considered later so you can chance your arm at rerolling double push blocks and similar, where you don’t want to use a team reroll. With only general skill access the only other route would be to make them a dedicated ball carrier. I personally think I’d rather have ST4 outside the cage and you probably already have a Thrower built for carrying the ball…