Tactics New Chaos team v.s. Pro elf

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Hello everybody, I'm back again after a long time away due to various RL issues. I still have my Hats of Doom Chaos Dwarf team (which I seem to be incapable of winning with :(), but here I would like some advice to help out my new (TV 1000) Chaos team (called Viva La Revolucion! :p) versus an equally new Pro-Elf team.

I went with the standard 4 Chaos Warriors, 7 Beastmen, 3 Rerolls; my opponent has also gone pretty standard; 2 blitzers, 2 catchers, 1 thrower, 6 linemen, 2 rerolls and then 4 fan factor & 1 cheerleader (which I find weird but won't argue).

So, what to do? Obviously he's got the drop on me in ball handling, he can dodge away from my would-be blockers and even in the blocking dept. he's good due to having 2 guys with block.

I figure his weakness (if any) is his low nr. of rerolls and his low armour, so the idea will be to try and contain him (most of his team is not that fast), forcing him to either dodge a lot (and hopefully fail) or stay put and be the target of lots of blocks, but with my utter lack of skills, does this work? And if not, what would you do?

B.t.w.: I am aware of the fact that Chaos will always be difficult to play in the first few matches, due to lack of skills. But the question is how to make the most of what I've got.
 

18Rabbit

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I just faced off against this situation in the crunch cup as Chaos vs a Pro Elf team. The main thing I had trouble with was containing his catchers since they can catch even when heavily marked. I tried to play fairly deep on defense and use the mobility of the beastmen to help put pressure on the thrower as he rushed down field. I didn't have much problem scoring, but more with stopping him from returning the favor. :)

If I were to rematch, I would try and get my warriors more up on his blitzer's grills and try to keep his catchers flat on the pitch but with them having AG4 and chaos having no block/tackle/wrestle, it's a pain. Make him roll as many dice as you can and grind him down.
 

Netsmurf

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I would use the warriors as front line markers and try to mark up his players with them and block with them as much as possible just to get him on his arse. Use your beasts as clever TZ and try to avoid basecontact with them unless its needed. They can do wonders as screens, while the big boys whack the opponents.

Try to score TD´s with the warriors, they have AG3 and can even dodge:D
 

Barninho

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It's a tough match-up definitely, and I think the strategy you outline is the best approach to be honest. What you want is a situation every turn where you can maximize the number of rolls your opponent has to make.

What the Pro Elves want is to get you spread out, so you will need to pay attention to your positioning, otherwise you will end up getting pulled all over the place for little gain. When possible try to tie up his players and force turnovers (or make him use his re-rolls).

Especially on offence, make sure you set up in a way where you have plenty of support in case the pickup fails or you get a bad kickoff result. Bad positioning here can lose you the game on its own.

It's not an easy game, and if you have a bad dice day it can be really tough. Even if you make your opponent roll a lot of dice, sometimes 2 re-rolls with those two blockers can be better than 3 with no re-rolls. If they can save one for their offence they have a very good chance of scoring.

Don't be a hero. If at all possible stall. If you give them two turns to score there is a chance that they will. Always keep a beast or two deep in case the elves manage to get clear of the defence. Then at least you have that 2d blitz.

Also take as many 2d blocks as possible, especially on the elves who don't have protection skills.

Very tough match-up for an early chaos team though if your opponent knows what he's doing. Those blitzers can be a nightmare for a Chaos team if they get close to the ball.
 

maxcarrion

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I’ve actually played both sides of this match up this year and what I’ve learned is.

This Elf team has no dodge and hardly any rerolls, make him dodge, every turn, as much as you can. Every turn aim to have at least 6 players marked, 4 for the CW as they are much harder to push away and will eat into his available assists and then beastmen on a couple more (in packs or against prones or individuals who won’t get assists). The last few beastmen can plug your gaps whether on offence or defence. If you can make him roll 6 dodges or 1 die blocks (even with block) a turn he’ll be out of rerolls by turn 4 and killing his own players for the rest of the half. If he stays in contact, beat him down. Importantly, whenever one of his goes down try and mark the prone player, a single beastman will do here as he can’t just take an assist and block you away he has to blitz you or dodge or stay down or give you a free hit next turn, all 4 of these are great for you.

Try not to engage the blitzers, quite simply the blitzers are harder to take down, hit harder in return, can position themselves better when they get hit and have better armour than anyone else on their team, given the choice always hit someone else (unless you need him down or he gives you a free shot), your aim is to break armour and get them off the pitch and that’s more likely with any of the other 9.

On offence – pile into them with the CW, make them dodge and 1 die block till they run out of rerolls then make them do it some more, use beasts to prevent the 2 die blocks, blitz, mark the prone ones and protect/move the ball. Your first target should be their rerolls, then go after their squishies, then finally score at the last possible moment when he has a numerical disadvantage and no rerolls to make hero plays with..

On defence – Again your CW should be brawling and marking, forcing their rerolls out so they don’t have them when it counts and causing whatever casualties you can. If he tries to push his catchers deep then that’s where your blitzes and a pack of beasts go, your aim, at the end of each turn, is to have all his catchers either prone and marked or double marked (opposite sides) to force dodges and anyone else in scoring range marked once. It won’t stop all his TDs but it will make them all risky and the longer he stalls the more rolls he’ll have to make, just keep offering him the choice of dodge or bad block or take a hit next turn, make him choose enough times and his guys will end up in the injury box.

Don’t forget if you favour marking anyone but the blitzers, even if he calls in assists for a 2D block it’s still a 1 in 9 chance to eat a reroll or fall down – block makes that 1 in 32 so if they aren’t causing too much trouble just let the blitzers be and focus on the easier targets.
 

Gallows Bait

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I'm with maxcarrion on this one - as a fresh team he doesn't have dodge and only the blitzers have block. Your strength is your advantage.

Okay you risk eating re-rolls, but keep marking him up and he will eat them up dodging too.

Also, since your beastmen have Horns, they make excellent blitzers in the rear on defence to try and knock those catchers down and trying to injure them to reduce the threat.

Other than that cage play and stalling are your ways to manage the clock, otherwise they'll score given only a couple of turns to retaliate.
 

Viajero

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Yeah, what the others above have said.

That new pro elf team with just 2 RR is a liability... 3 is the bare minimum with an AV7 team that has no Dodge at all and just 2 Block players :rolleyes:

Mark, mark and mark some more, preferably with your CW. If he does not disengage then hit. But hit only where critical if you have a RR left, and where not critical be ready to allow a turnover.

Having said that your team also has no skills, although 3 RR, so you suffer from the same weakness. As mentioned above, be prepared not to use a RR and let a Turnover if not critical to the play at that moment.

In attack you ll need a cage so make sure you do not mark so much so your cage gets too weak. If his kick is deep make a point to move back with enough players to protect the ball, i.e. 4 or 5 at least. Do not leave it to just the one beast to pick up and make it to safety at the middle all on its own.

Also his blitzers are going to be targeting your cage corners so be mindfull of that and add an addiitonal screen layer between the blitzers and the cage if at all possible.
 
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Ok , thanx everybody!

So marking, marking marking all the way, playing it safe.

And on offence, caging like usual.

We'll see how it goes, I've at least started to paint my mini's, so hopefully Nuffle will reward my efforts! ;)
 
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We want pics:pow:

LOL! Well, perhaps if they're finished. I'm not exactly a star painter, but they're quite nice so far. :)

Anyway, the game ended up in a 1-1 draw result, in which he scored in my receiving half and vice versa.

My blocks sucked (only 1 casualty the entire match) while he rolled some very good blocks (his first action took one of my CW's out for the rest of the match! :eek: ), and quickly outnumbered me, breaking my cage, and running the ball in in the 8th turn. He didn't even have to use any of his team rerolls! :(

2nd half, he received, kept his thrower deep and sent most of his team into my half to receive the ball. But I was able to mark all of his would be receivers and put at least some pressure on the thrower so he had to pass next turn. This he did successfully, but the catcher failed to dodge twice, ending his turn and eating up his last reroll by turn 2! :D

After that there was a scramble for the ball just inside my half (I had picked it up and tried to throw to my beastman that was pressing his thrower, but fumbled), but eventually I managed to get the ball to that beastman anyway (completion with a CW, no less! :p) and he ran to safety, impossible to reach even with GFI's. The rest of the half was me stalling with the ball carrier and preventing his guys from reaching him, and scoring in turn 8. :cool:

So a draw, quite a decent result v.s. Elves with an unskilled team, I think. No skillups, no permanent injuries (just one MNG), sadly only 10k rolled for cash. We'll see what the next match brings (no idea when and v.s. whom, though).
 
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