I think you are seeing this too dogmatic. Having a skill that is good doesn't necessarily mean it's good in 100% of all situations. If it's good in 95%, then take in in 95% of the situations, but don't be so stubborn to say, that it will always be perfect, no matter what.
That being said, I'd like to adress your points:
No, he's dead weight because he's a skilled up dude who doesn't have anything to show for it that can't be easily gotten elsewhere.
He has something that can be gotten elsewhere, but not easily and not for the same value. I think that is undisputed. For the teams with expensive re-rolls it is important to get more earlier. That doesn't include all teams, sure. But you can't just assume that you will never need it on any team.
Kick is however not replaceable. You can't get kick anywhere else. A reroll though? That is totally replaceable later on.
Yes, later on. But the teams with expensive re-rolls are those, who need them early. And I don't think that there is a team with expensive re-rolls that can get all the players they want from the beginning.
Apart from that, both skills don't serve the player who has them at all. There is absolutely no difference. What they do is help the team and that's something that is more important than getting a few more SPP on one player.
It's one of the best skills in the game and if your player doesn't have Block that's only because he has Wrestle instead. Absolutely needed? Maybe not but if any skill was absolutely needed Block would be pretty close to being that skill (along with Dodge and Guard maybe).
Yes, I think I said before that those are very good skills. All of them. Still: Not every player can put them to the same use and some players have access to skills that allow interesting and useful plays. Taking these skills is usually more important than having Block (or Wrestle) on every player. For example I don't think I would ever take Block on the first three or four skills an any elven Thrower. They should be kept out of range anyway. Yes, you can't always make sure it plays that way, but that's a risk worth taking for the only player who can get passing skills.
Sure but by the time you've got Block and Leader they have Block and X (Dodge/Guard/whatever). Of course that's assuming you get him the second skill quickly and considering he's a "valuable piece" with no protection skills and nothing to help him gain SPP faster he's either going to be a nice easy target for the enemy or he's not going to skill up quickly. I would hardly like to bet on getting two skills before my guy has even covered the basics of Block.
But now tell me where the difference to a kicker is. How does this player get SPPs faster? How is he protected from getting blocked? Yes, what you say is true but on the global scale of the benefit for the whole team it is worth taking these drawbacks because they don't always even manifest themself in the game.
Why wouldn't it be Guard or Dodge? I mean if you're getting a double you might as well get the best skills you can. So that's what Leader is taking the place of.
Because the most useful for the team would be another re-roll. And even if not it is short-sighted to say these two are always the best choices. They are usually very good, but some players can use other skills better.
One, that's why you buy rerolls at creation. Two, six or seven games? What? You only get 20k a game? Come on. That's more like three or four games and that's your most extreme example too. There are plenty of teams who get rerolls for alot less.
Okay, the six or seven games was probably too much. Still, a lot can happen in four games and maybe you want to buy something else by the time. Yes, you buy re-rolls at creation, but especially the teams with expensive re-rolls usually need more than they can reasonably get at the beginning.
Yes, not every team pays 70.000. But I also didn't say that Leader is ALWAYS the best choice (see a pattern here)? It is good where you need the re-rolls and have problems with the money. And where you would increase your TV a lot with team re-rolls.
Also if you don't have rerolls then why would you need to buy positionals?
Come on now! This is below you. You know full well that there's no team in the game that gets everything they need from the beginning. I also never said "no re-rolls". But even if you have three, which is common for most starting teams, that's less than you would normally want. I at least wouldn't want to play with less than four.
Just talking Chaos Pact here (since that's what this thread is about) a starter team can have all their big guys, their goblin, skaven, six marauders and still afford 3 rerolls (they are only missing their Elf). If you drop one reroll (which is the only way they can be low on rerolls anyway and the only reason Leader would be tempting at all) you can have all of your positionals. How exactly are they hurting for positionals at all here?
That's true but you still have three re-rolls. One more wouldn't be bad. With a team like Chaos Pact it's maybe arguable to take it, but as they don't have cheap re-rolls I would still absolutely consider taking Leader for the other stated reasons. Your point was that Leader is never useful. And that's what I disagreed on.
Oh yes they can. That's why those are two of the best skills in the game. There are very, and I mean very, few instances where those two skills are not great. Every team can use Guard and every team can use Dodge.
Every team, but this was talking about players. And not every player can put this skill to the same use. I wouldn't want to put my Wardancer or Witch Elf in the middle of some Dwarves because they have Guard. With a Chaos Warrior that's not a problem. But surely you wouldn't want one of those players in the midlle of the action all the time?
Just like my other example:
Not getting knocked down on a Defender Stumbles is excellent for a saurus (and would be more then enough reason to get dodge all by itself) and if he gets break tackle (which he should regardless of if he had dodge or not) he can use the other part of dodge as well.
Not getting knocked down is good of course. But that's only one thing that Dodge does. And wouldn't you say it's also very useful to keep that player's tackle zone on the opponent by taking Side Step?
Yes, IF you give him Break Tackle as well he can use the other part of Dodge. But the question is how many Sauri you want to give Break Tackle (after all, that would be his third Skill, as Block is really quite good as a first one). And how long it takes to achieve that next skill. And I think you were the one who was talking about blocking a skill slot
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All I want to say is: If you always do everything by the book, you will probably not go below average levels of success. But you also lose the ability to see beyond pure dogma. You can't be innovative anymore. And (not only in Blood Bowl) the people who were the most successful were not the ones who did it like everyone else
.
And just to make it clear again: That doesn't mean that all these "standard" skills are wrong or bad. I never said that! I just think it's short sighted to hold them in a kind of religious status and never allow yourself to even consider something else. And it is my belief that the really good Blood Bowl players take all these skills for a reason. But that they also think about the possibility of something else. As is said: In maybe 90% such standard skills are the best choice and that's why you see them so often. But it doesn't mean they are always and in every situation the way to go.