Fouling Elf Lineman:
- Normal: Dirty Player, Sneaky Git
- Doubles:
- Stat Increase:
One last role that is perhaps more viable for the Elf team compared to all the other Elven sides is that of a fouler. You have the cheapest Lineman of the four Elf races so getting one sent off is less of a disaster than it is for the other teams. It can also be a good counter to killer builds on opposing teams, especially if they have Piling On. Dirty Player should be the first skill and look to get enough assists together to be fairly certain of breaking armour. After that get Sneaky Git, you can then foul with abandon (though obviously only against the opposing teams better players, getting sent off for fouling an unskilled Zombie would be criminal). You no longer need to get the assists together if you can find better use for those players instead. Sneaky Git means you will only get sent off if you break armour, so you will be at least getting a stun in return. If you don’t break the armour then you have no chance of being sent of, so that lets you foul more liberally.
A fouling player isn’t likely to get a lot of skills due to being sent off a lot. This is a good thing though as it means you are losing less team value off the pitch when it does happen. It isn’t totally unreasonable for them to never get beyond having just Dirty Player. If you make tactically good gang fouls though where you are always breaking armour, then having Sneaky Git would be useless to you and just extra team value getting sent off.
Elf Lineman Summary:
The life of an Elf Lineman isn’t a glamorous one, taking all the hits to try and save their more impressive team mates. They usually won’t get many skills and when you have a full compliment of positional players on your roster, they won’t often be on the pitch other than the Line of Scrimmage.
Unless you do get doubles or a stat increase on them, just taking skills to help keep them alive is the order of the day. You want them on the pitch as long as possible to tie up opposing players and to avoid getting outnumbered. The positionals on the team will be doing more specialised roles, so just take those usual core skills and use them for all the typical marking and assisting jobs. Only if they get a non standard increase should you consider perhaps specialising them for something else. If they do get that good increase early, then make sure to get them SPP so they can get some skills to protect that ability.
They probably will end up getting hurt, but they are cheaper to replace than anyone else on the team. Just don’t neglect to get them those protection skills otherwise they will leave the pitch earlier and earlier every game as you face more developed opponents. The sooner in a match you get outnumbered, the worse it will be for the rest of your players as well. It may seem like they aren’t doing much so why bother giving them skills, but they do a very important job that allows the rest of the team to perform. Without them you may find the team starts to come apart.
I have a build I tend to go for with one lineman on my delf team and I think it would be useful on an elf team too. I tend to select one lineman for dauntless, wrestle, dodge, pro rather than the usual dodge, wrestle, fend I consider this my “offensive lineelf” and his job is to open a hole for my other elves to pour through, with orcs, lizards, goblins, chaos and khemri to name but a few teams that are capable of covering all the LoS positions with ST4 or better dauntless really helps open a gap. I also find it great to go up against the tree in a WE team as knocking the tree down once can last several turns and controlling the Krox in a Lizard team can really help against that prehensile tail.
You talk about team value getting sent off a few times here. To be honest I don’t get the point in that. Team value is only important before the match to compare the strength of the teams. How does it matter if you have high TV sent off compared to low TV? I mean it just doesn’t influence the performance of the players left on the pitch, if the sent-off player was worth a lot or not. Of course I understand that you shouldn’t have a player with a lot of useful skills sent off, because then you can’t use them any more. But you talk about not giving them Sneaky Git, so there is less TV sent off. Sneaky Git doesn’t help your play in any way, it just keeps your player from being sent off, so it’s not like the team would miss the one player with Tackle or Strip Ball or Strength 5.
So I would say it only matters what the player was worth in an abstract way for the team. But how much he is worth in TV – what does it matter?
I would take the +AV over the +MV for my scrimmage lineelves. AV8 makes a lot of difference.
A player with more skills has more TV, so if a player gets sent off you would rather it was your lowest TV one as you then lose less skills for the rest of the match.
I just had a Lineman first skill up being +AG. I have built my team pretty much following your advice, i.e. Blitzers as markers with dodge and diving tackle, 2 catchers going the blodge way and the other 2 going the wrackle – strip ball way.
Now having a lineman with +AG, not sure how to go next if he survives XD… Shall i develop it as a safety retriever able to get lose balls in the think of the fight with dodge-surehands kind of thing? or rather as an additional leaping blitzer with leap, wrestle, strip ball?
At any rate, building this kind of players requires living up to level 4 or 5 so, unsure how to proceed next.
The forum is a better place to ask about specific players, please start a thread on there and post the whole team as that has a bearing on any decision.
I have read of a ‘Leader Lineelf’ who, in much the same way as the kicker lineelf, takes leader as their first skill for an extra, cheap reroll before going on to the defensive skills. What’s your opinion having one of these lineelves on a team?
I’ve never been that big a fan of Leader generally and as the Elf team has access to cheaper Linemen than the other Elven sides. I’d rather get a team re-roll and use the double skill roll for Guard which you need much more. If you are going to take Leader then give it to a Thrower who you are more likely to try and keep out of trouble already and can take it as a normal skill roll.
oh of course, Leader is a passing skill. I must have been reading something from one of the older versions of the rules. Thrower naturally makes more sense then.
Just like to add that a Fouling player is really helpful in defense against certain high Str teams. Taking out an Ogre or Saurus really makes a world of difference.
Hi fellas,
I must confess I think Pro Elves are my favourite. Simply because of their cheap n cheerful linemen.
My favourite tactic of developing Linelves with wrestle means that by and large a couple of the opposition will be lying on the floor.
There is a niche for a professional fouler position on your team 🙂
slow em down and try and take them out of the game when their on the floor. Your professional fouler will be cheap and will have one or two skills so wont make that much of a difference if hes sent packing by the ref.
My only question is for this tactic is thus
Does dirty player work in tandem with sneaky git?
Thanks Coach
Yes they do work in tandem and you get to choose whether or not you use one, both or none of them. For example if you are fouling an opposing player with AV8 and you roll double 4, if you use Sneaky Git you won’t get sent off, however if you use Dirty Player you will break armour which means Sneaky Git will no longer prevent the sending off.
where did you find that player pic?
fumbbl uses another…
They must have updated it since I got permission to use them.
Defensive linemen – Dodge,Wrestle,Fend,Dauntless,Diving Tackle,Side Step
Doubles – Guard
STATS: STR + MA + AV +
Pretty simple stuff but effective. I love pro elves.
How about Tackle followed by Diving Tackle? I agree that the blitzers are better suited for this path, but sometimes they require a bit of help.
linemen aren’t fast enough to make good use of tackle, keeping them upright is much more important. I’d take block and dodge if they’re not the kicker, the rest is gravy.
In the REBBL I had an excellent lineman… blodge sidestep fend… he was great!
The exception rather than the rule though!