Wood Elf 1100TV Wood Elf roster

[donkeyjon]

I'm prepping for a resurrection tourney with a 1100TV, and I'm keen to try out my Woodies. This is based on a couple of things:

- The tournament is giving points for casualties, spurring a lot of coaches to bring bashy teams.
- The normal makeup of coaches in this area is bashy in general. Lot of Dwarf, Chaos, Undead, and Orc teams.

I figure I'd like to run Wood Elf as a change of pace, and I think they compete well in this sort of environment (the preponderance of Orc and Dwarf teams notwithstanding). Also, the tournament rules are to make an 1100TV team, and then you can get 6 normal skills to use on the team before the first game, with no skill limits for any given player.

I'm considering the following list:

2 Wardancers, both w/ Strip Ball
1 Thrower w/ Leader
3 Catchers
1 Treeman
4 Lineman
2 Rerolls

I didn't go with Tackle because I expect to play a lot of teams that aren't agile. I would like to put Kick out there, and I'm trying to decide whether to put it on a catcher or on a lineman. After that, I have 2 skills to go.

Any ideas on the current lineup? Anything I'm overlooking if I anticipate having to deal with a group of bashy teams (i.e. should I drop one re-roll for an apoth)? What should I do with my last 2 skills?

 

[John McGuirk]

Hmm.

Rather than 2x Strip Ball, Sure Hands on one Wardancer, to grab the ball after the other has stripped it?

Sidestep on a Catcher to give you a better one turn scoring threat, plus, well, it's great for all sorts of things.

Block on a Catcher to make him (more) annoying.

Kick on the last Catcher so you can have your kicker setting up in the back row.

If you want the apothecary, dropping the Treeman for a Lineman is another option.

Alternative skill pick: spam Dodge.

 

[Nikolai II]

If you can play conservative wood elves, then it is hard to beat the:

2 WD, both w/Sidestep
1 Tree w/Grab
4 Catchers, one with kick
4 Linemen, one with wrestle
One spare skill - maybe block on a catcher for the ballcarrying or something.

1 RR
Apo

-

Full agreement on the "keep the kick away from the los by having it on a catcher"

-

Team build plays by just continually spoiling the opponents offence by blitzing off a corner and marking the ballcarrier. Don't leap, start dodges with the skilled ones. (So can even use catchers in front when doing column defence. They'd get two dice on most anything anyway, and if they shoot for 3D that keeps those players away from marking some of your other players.

It's worked well most games for me. Lost one (due to me forgetting the bright sunshine and trying a pass instead of a GFI+handoff), drew one (Amazons with eight blodged players) and won four with that build.

(Although my results were in a fairly bash-light tournament..)

 

[Netsmurf]

I would go with your roster, but lose a reroll for an Apoth and take these skills:

1 x strip ball WD - obvious
1 x Frenzy WD - gives you a huge advantage on setups, you can kick the ball very deep and they cant screen the widezones off, so if you get the blitz you can swarm in no time. Also surfing is your best bet at getting someone of the pitch.
1 x kick on a catcher - for the off LOS reasons
1 x block on catcher - blodge for the win baby
1 x grab on the tree - gives you free blocks and helps making 1 turn TD
1 x leader on thrower - to get that vital second reroll

 

[donkeyjon]

The conservative wood elves idea is intriguing, but in an environment with a lot of nasty hitters, I think I'll stick with a more traditional approach. I'm planning to avoid contact as much as possible.

I'm sold on Kick on one of the catchers. I'm sold on Grab for the tree. I'm sold on dropping to 1 RR and 1 Apoth. I'm still considering the Frenzy on the Wardancer. My main concern there is that it will not be unlikely that I'll be down to only 1 Wardancer and have to break a cage. If that happens, I'm not sure I'd want to leap into a cage and hit a ball carrier with Frenzy...

I'll still think about it a bit.

 

[coachman]

I'd take your roster but with tackle on 1 wardancer. Undead, necro, lizards, amazons, norse all get dodge and most teams will have sure hands too.

Don't think of breaking a cage, hit him in the backfield before he can cage. If you cannot do that then line up columns in front and wait. You don't often need the ball back, just stop him scoring.

Frenzy is also a real option. Set up your los with the tree to the left of field. Make a credible threat down the "wide" right flank forcing hs drive up your "narrow" left field, penning him in with the tree. This can grind drives down to a halt. With frenzy the field is even narrower and has more surf potential.

Take kick on a catcher, side step let's you play the sidelines and 1 turn easier (even more so if you grab the tree). Sure hands is also a very good pick on a catcher.

If you take leader I'd trad a rr for an apo. You have pass, dodge and catch so most of your rrs are built in. You shouldn't have to take too many chances unless you get heavily outnumbered.

 

[Coach]

FWIW after facing a lot of Wood Elves, Strip Ball and Frenzy are the two choices I would take on Wardancers.

I would also take Leader, Sure Hands on a Catcher, Block on another and Grab on the Treeman.

Though when you say no skill limits on a player, does that mean you can stack skills, which would change things...

 

[donkeyjon]

Yes, you can stack skills.

 

[Coach]

That makes it far more likely that you will face some Block + Dodge + Sure Hands players.

I'd look then to putting Tackle on either Wardancer and getting a Block + Sure Hands Catcher yourself.

I think you need to take Leader regardless so that's the 6 skills.

I'm 50 50 as to which Wardancer I would give Tackle, it combines really well for getting out the ball off non Sure Hand players and a Frenzy one on his own can make do in a pinch if the other goes down.

However Tackle + Frenzy is also pretty good against ball carriers, even more so if they have Sure Hands negating Strip Ball. Also with one blitz action per turn, Frenzy and Tackle is going to take down more players generally regardless of where the ball is. Strip Ball on it's own is easily negated but it is such a useful skill to have if you can force the ball on a non Sure Hands player.

 

[Netsmurf]

I think that I would do one WD with strip ball, one WD with tackle and frenzy.
Thrower with leader
catcher with kick
catcher with block

This leaves you with out sure hands, but how many strip ballers do you expect

 

[donkeyjon]

I would be pretty unwilling to give up Kick, but I do like the idea of Frenzy + Tackle on a Wardancer. I'm going to need Leader, so the question becomes "Is having Kick better than having Sure Hands on a catcher?"

 

[Coach]

Kick is a luxury skill with only 6, it is nice to have but not worth taking imo.

Some games you won't have needed it, against some races it is useless and you can only use it a couple of times per game. There is a chance the ball goes where you would want it on a normal kick off anyway.

Using a Catcher to go in and get a free skill reroll to pick the ball up in a tackle zone (common after using Strip Ball) is going to be more of a threat.

Even though you can stack skills it may be worth putting Sure Hands and Block on separate catchers, to spread those skills about a bit. If you can go in and grab the loose ball, being an all AG4 team you can just pass or hand off the ball to someone else.

 

[Limdood]

with 6 free skills, strip ball is ALMOST a waste of a skill....ALMOST.

there is still the case when you knock the ball free from the sure hands guy, and then a normal-hands person picks it up...

but i'd bet most teams HAVE sure hands (orcs, dwarves), or will take sure hands immediately on one or two of their players (Chaos)

I would suggest wrestle.....maybe 3 wrestles, a tackle, a frenzy, and a kick spread around....

again, don't think of your 6 free skills against rookie teams, instead keep in mind that those 6 free skills just gave lizardmen SIX Str4 players with block....or gave orcs 8 block players. I'd bet that most lizardmen are grabbing block, most orcs and chaos are grabbing block, and most dwarves are grabbing guard (to compete in the Str4 environment). With that being the case, wrestle will be the skill that keeps you from losing 3 linemen each game, or allows you to take down that ballcarrier (other than stunty, what ballcarrier would skip block with 6 free skills....ever?)

 

[Grumbledook]

I hate playing against woodies in tournaments and the single biggest reason for that is a strip ball wardancer

there are plenty of teams that may not have sure hands, lizzies, chaos dwarfs, vampires, chaos etc. and even those that do, you can pressure them to force the ball into a non sure hands player

wrestle sure would be nice to have but you can't fit everything in, playing woodies you expect to lose players

against the teams that do have sure hands you can put in your frenzy guy, or change the game plan to a prevent defence, push them towards a sideline and shove those opposing players into the crowd

lizardmen are a very popular tournament team and strip ball wardancers are why woodies have a massive advantage over them, even if they do have 6 block saurus

 

[Voltorocks]

Lansing, huh? I tbet I'm going to the same one, and running almost the same exact team! My main question: I have 50k left in my treasury, and one re-roll and leader already. do I buy:
-Apoth (good for elves, but less so in a rez tourney),
-bloodweiser babe (unconventional I know, but KOs are much more common than casualties, and on a soft, quick-scoring team I would get plenty of chances to come back from KOs)
-another re-roll

 

[donkeyjon]

I'd love to see another Wodd Elf player at the tourney. I'm currently trying to decide between apoth or Bloodweiser Babe myself. However, I'm leaning toward apoth because a KO at least gives you the option of a roll, while an injury is forever.

Plus the rules this tourney is going to have for apoth are pretty awesome (3+ roll, if you make it, the player is left on the pitch stunned).

 

[Nikolai II]

Good question whether the apo will become better or not.

I'd take one either way, though.

Normal rules: First half you use it on any BH (100% success), second half you use it on any KO (100% success)

"Special rules" - use it on the first injury, I suppose? Hope for the best.

 

[Coach]

I would take the Apothecary as they can save a very expensive player and if you don't end up using them in the first half then you can turn a KO into a stun in the second half keeping a player on the pitch. Otherwise a KO in the second half you may not see them for the rest of the game...

Vampire teams are the only one I would take a Babe over an Apothecary and only then cause you have the chance of saving a Vampire with Regeneration.

 

[Voltorocks]

Hmm, the more I think about, the more possible alternatives for this team come to mind. while catchers are good, and so it the tree, if I drop them i can get 4 or 5 rerolls. 2 WD with 1 skill each, 1 thrower with leader, 8 lineman. I'm thinking the last 3 skills to soup up a lineman as a "wardancer, jr."

definitely higher risk in many ways, but I love the Idea of having (essentially) 3 wardancers and a fat stack of re-rolls to work with.

 

[donkeyjon]

One of the joys of playing wood elves is that your linemen, given that they start at MV7 and AG4, are very versatile on offense.

I'm not sure I'd go the route you're considering, but it would be fun to play.