Elf Throwers Overview:
An Elf team has one of the best offences in the game, though that is mainly down to their superb Catchers. They still need someone to throw the ball to them and an Elf Thrower can do that rather well, even if they aren’t exceptionally good. They have average speed and strength, though are great at handling the ball on virtue of being an Elf and having high agility. Their armour is weak but they shouldn’t usually get caught holding the ball much and should hopefully not get hit a great deal. While not the cheapest of players, they aren’t overly expensive for an Elf, costing the same price as the Linemen on the other Elven teams.
Offensive Elf Thrower:
- Normal: Sure Hands / Accurate, Safe Throw, Block / Nerves of Steel / Dodge / Sure Feet
- Doubles: Strong Arm
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV
This build is the typical offensive Thrower build aimed at being able to pass the ball a long way in as reliable a manner as possible. With AG4 and Pass already they can throw fairly well already, though try not to pass further than short passes if you can avoid it. You may want to start with Sure Hands if you pick up with your Throwers a lot (I prefer to pick up with someone who needs a completion and then throw it to the Thrower though). Sure Hands will save on the team rerolls, though hopefully most of the time a failed pick up if you covered it well enough shouldn’t be a massive problem (depending on the opposition). If you are staying deep with the ball out of hitting range, then Strip Ball shouldn’t be an issue though it obviously protects from that as well.
Alternatively you can start with Accurate meaning you can then do short passes on a 2+ (with Pass reroll) and Long Passes on a 3+. This extra reliable range is great and also decreases the chance of fumbles for the longer ranges. After that I would take Safe Throw which gives you more scope to pass over opposing players (which I would avoid if at all possible most the time) and also makes fumbles from long bombs less troublesome (not that you should need to throw it that far).
You have some options from this point depending on your priorities, either adding to the passing ability or looking for protection. Block and Dodge are the skills to take if protection is your higher concern. If you want to aid the passing game even more, then Sure Feet will help in making passes shorter. Nerves of Steel can mean you can even when things go a bit pear shaped and you end up getting marked up and can’t escape and it also lets you mark an opponent before passing.
For doubles Strong Arm with the other passing skills will let you do long passes on a 2+ and long bombs on a 3+ and then you really have a massive range threat. A strength increase late on will let you be a bit more flexible with them rather than going all out for long passing ability. If you get it early then switch to a defensive Thrower build instead. An agility increase is handy, though again probably more useful to a defensive build, so again look to adapt. Movement is great for decreasing throwing range and for outrunning the opposition.
Defensive Elf Thrower:
- Normal: Block, Sure Hands, Nerves of Steel / Accurate, Safe Throw, Dodge
- Doubles: Strong Arm
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV
This build is for having on the field when playing on defence, I would probably go somewhat along this lines with the first Thrower I start with, though the key to either it to be flexible depending on your skill rolls. You can usually get the job done on offensive without having to throw the ball further than a short pass anyway. I’d start with Block for protection and so you can hit with them when on defence, this guy is far more likely to be in the thick of things than an offensive Thrower. Sure Hands is handy for going to pick up loose balls if you knock it loose, or the other team drops it.
Few choices next and there isn’t much between which you would take in preference. Nerves of Steel will let you throw the ball away if you picked it up in tackle zones. Accurate will make passing it further easier, or negate one tackle zone. Safe Throw will let you throw it out in a crowd with less of a chance of it being intercepted, it is usually much harder to avoid an interception attempt when you recover the ball on defence. You will also fumble the ball far less often due to the negative modifiers of being in tackle zones as well. Another great choice would be Dodge, so you can try and run the ball away from opposing tackle zones as well. Dodge will also offer the Thrower more protection, though in developed leagues there will be a lot more Tackle about.
For doubles again Strong Arm is the main option, though I think it is more useful to an offensive Thrower, so perhaps an early double would mean switching builds. A strength increase is very helpful on defence for all sorts of reasons. An agility increase will make picking the ball up in tackle zones easier and help with either dodging away with it or passing the ball on to a team mate. Movement isn’t as nice as the other two increases but the extra range is always nice, though again perhaps better for an offensive build, you never know though.
Elf Thrower Summary:
One of the more straight forward players to develop for the Elf team. They are the only ones with passing skill access and Elves make great passers, both on offence and defence. Having one of each, or two more flexible choices can be very good to have. I personally prefer to build both with a bit of a mix up of the two builds, with one slightly more defensive and one leaning more towards the offence. Being an Elf, just having Accurate can be enough for giving you all the passing range that you need. With fast Catchers who are pretty easy to get the ball to I think being a bit more flexible in order to keep them useful on the pitch all the time might be the way to go.
Catchers are the kingpins. But in my experience, these guys are the most important player on the pitch (offensively) for elves. Having a good thrower in conjunction with at least catchers makes it’s remarkably simple.
Unlike woodies or Dark elves, who I’d happily start without the thrower equivalent, I find them vital for Pro elves. (High elves, of course, take it, as they’re the best player).
What about skills like kick off return for an offensive thrower? Or even Hail Mary for a defensive thrower (particularly useful with a diving catch Elf Catcher)?
I’m not a big fan personally of Kick Off Return generally (I’ll take it on a couple of players after a few skills though) as you can cover the pitch enough with players to not need it. Also an Elf team can pick up easily with any player and the Thrower isn’t exactly slow. As they are fast enough to cover the whole backfield from the middle with one go for it, they can usually reach the ball. Or you can pick it up with a team mate and then pass it to the Thrower (which is what I tend to do). The Thrower usually is able to pass the ball quite a distance anyway which should be more than enough to make up for not having Kick Off Return.
I’m also not a fan of Hail Mary, even less so on a team that can pass the ball a long way with accuracy already.There aren’t going to be many times when you wished you had Hail Mary to get the ball down the other end, when you can’t just do the same with a normal pass.
I also see Diving Catch as more use for AG3 teams, with the added +1 to catch accurate passes now. It has some use for getting bouncing balls, but that is going to be such an infrequent opportunity I don’t think it it worth a skill. Elf teams have the hardest to stop offence in Blood Bowl already, I don’t see why you would pick skills to make it worse!
What about “dump-off”? In my opinion elf team can play “dump-off game” much better then dark elves.
You can certainly consider it, though if you read my Dump Off article you can see that I’m not a supporter of the “Dump Off Game”. It was also suggested on the Elf Catchers article.
What’re your thoughts on Leader for an Elf team? I’m considering Elves for an upcoming league the PC game, Legendary edition. With the passing game being such a huge part of their game it seems like it makes a lot of sense.
It depends on the make up of your team, the advantage they have over the other Elven sides is the cheaper Linemen which lets them start with more rerolls easier. If you prefer to get more positional players to start with then getting Leader on your Thrower can help compensate for the fact you probably went short on rerolls. By taking Leader though you give up an offensive passing skill. So it is down to your preference which side of the fence you fall on. Neither way is the right one and either can work really well, personally I prefer to get the passing skills from skill one and starting with more rerolls.
I like running with two of these guys. I have one primary “QB” style thrower with accurate, strong arm, etc. and then the second is my utility skill guy. I give my second thrower kick and leader and use him like a kick lineman. He’s only 10k more and you get pass.
Why no utility thrower? Kick, Leader etc.
Kick is a skill I would put on a Lineman as I prefer to have passing skills on my Throwers. I’ve never personally been a big fan of Leader, though with the changes to the rules and the introduction of Team Value I can see a case for taking it. Perhaps not so much on an Elf team where the rerolls aren’t that expensive to start with. Leader can be replicated with a team reroll, while there are other skills you can take which can’t be.
I like to rotate line elves on the LOS and if my thrower doesn’t get a double or +AGI early then I make him a team player. And Coach I don’t think I’ve seen a Pro Elf starting roster article on this site.
I have a little bit of dillema myself, since I’ve got an ST statup for thrower developed to be offensive one, after getting Accurate and Safe Throw. Recently he gained 51SPP’s, meaning another roll, which was 5 and 5. I wonder if it’s actually useful to get Strong Arm on him, because I’d rather want to give my thrower at least a little more survivability, since he’s the only one with 4ST, at least for now. So, Strong Arm, or Dodge/Block? Or maybe go the crazy way and give him Guard(I already have four guys with this skill, so I don’t think it’s necessary), or another statup?
For such a specific player you would be better off posting on the forum and put your whole roster up there. At this point in team development skill choices need to take in the team as a whole rather than the individual player. The more information you provide (such as the other teams in your league, races you have trouble against etc) the better.
Something that often surprise me, (on this team more than any other), is that people only take one thrower to keep the TV down.
20K to get a backup ballhandler with Sure Hands, Pass and passing access is cheap, but 10k to get Pass and passing access. That’s amazing!
Sure, you may skip it on the starting roster if it means that you can get an extra reroll or something, and yes, sometimes you are fortunate enough to develop great lineman that steals the spot. In general though, 10k extra? I’d be willing to pay that even if I had to use him on the LoS.
You may opt to develop him into a utility player with Leader (on a normal) to earn back the 10k and let the linemen pick strength skills (mainly Guard) on their precious doubles.
I always start off 2 rr + apoth then save for 3rd rr and second thrower is my next then followed by another catcher.
Throwers really need safe throw, you’d be surprised how often an opponent rolls a damn 6 and can cost you the game. Other times you have pressure put on you and have to throw. The last thing you want is turn over from interception.
Safe Throw – Accurate – Block – Dodge – Fend – Side Step and definitely take MA + or Agi + if you can get it. Surprisingly sure hands is not a bad skill to have either.
I am totally digging the defensive thrower in fact I think all players should be defensively focused since they have a natural offensive ability. I think you’ll find this is where they will shine at high tv.
Exactly my opinion.
In my first PE game ever (yesterday) a MV 3 Chaos Dwarf managed an intercept (obviously needing a 6). Hell of a chase to get it free again.
But i love the Option make accurate passes into high traffic. A lot of player tend to mark your catcher with 1 or 2 lineman ignoring your ability to pass to him while in the middle of it.
Safe Throw – Accurate just opens a huge field of optional plays
Catch on a thrower? Pick up the ball with a lino on a 2+, quick pass to thrower, 2+, catch on a 2+ with a reroll? Easy SPP for linos who would otherwise never get any?
I can see your thinking, however I think there are more worthwhile choices. If you move your Thrower back to safety before going to pick up and pass to him, then it’s not usually a big deal if you fail the catch against most teams. If it was vital that they don’t leave it on the floor, then you can either just pick up with the Thrower, or use a team reroll. You have pretty good odds of catching the pass from the Lineman anyway. It’s pretty common for Elf teams to do this with Lineman already, making sure you are covered positionally against failing any of the rolls is probably better than using a skill slot to take Catch on the Thrower.
If you do take Catch you are potentially passing up other skills that are probably more beneficial more often. Accurate, Sure Hands, Dodge, Block and Side Step for instance. I could see Catch being more worthwhile if you are fielding them on defence and going for some intercepting build with Pass Block, though given how little passing is in the game this is perhaps a bit frivolous.
I would never take +STR on a thrower, it’s utter bloat. If you are getting murked in the backfield you are playing prelves wrong, and they’re too slow to use it effectively, plus you will never ever block offensively with your thrower given his value. 50k to keep him alive vs sackers is not worthwhile.