Dwarf Dwarf formations

[Snap Wilson]

I'll be playing a Dwarf team in the THN league. Having never really spent any time with them, I'm not sure of the most efficient method of setting up on defense. Anyone have any good formations against agility and bash teams?

 

[Lebe666]

They still allow dorfs in tournaments ?

 

[Snap Wilson]

They still allow Dwarfs in tournaments ?

League, not tournament, and since I'll be skilling them up according to player personality (including one player I'll be rolling for Bone-Head before every action), they won't be a threat anyone should take seriously. At the same time, I'd rather not start with any obvious position goofs, either.

 

[Lebe666]

Lol ... just saw your Team posted at THN ! Good luck remembering who is who !!

 

[Snap Wilson]

Lol ... just saw your Team posted at THN ! Good luck remembering who is who !!

Us Disney-philes need no help remembering anything Dwarf-related.

 

[mrpier]

I've been playing a dwarf-team over at the rockpapershotgun-forums, and for defense I've almost always used the "normal" ziggurat formation. With the runners protected in the second line and to act as safeties.

For offense I've used to put both my runners back to cover most of the field for picking up the ball, and put the majority of my players quite far back (three or four squares from the LOS) so I can put up a cage early. However I use to tweak it a little based on of how fast the opponent is and if he has kick.

 

[Barninho]

One thing that's worth doing against dodgy teams is remembering to spread your blockers around the pitch so you have tackle players available when you need them. With Dwarfs you want your formation tight and you need to make sure you don't rush forwards and leave space behind the defence. Positioning is everything with these guys. The ziggurat is pretty nice. Against stronger teams dauntless on the Troll Slayers can make a huge difference.

Be interesting to see a non-conventional Dwarf team for a change. Good luck with it, nice theme sir, and stay away from my bloody skinks.

 

[Snap Wilson]

I've been playing a dwarf-team over at the rockpapershotgun-forums, and for defense I've almost always used the "normal" ziggurat formation. With the runners protected in the second line and to act as safeties.

For offense I've used to put both my runners back to cover most of the field for picking up the ball, and put the majority of my players quite far back (three or four squares from the LOS) so I can put up a cage early. However I use to tweak it a little based on of how fast the opponent is and if he has kick.

Thanks, Mrpier. Just out of curiosity, have you ever had trouble with the blitz/short kick playing them back so much? That's the thing that would worry me most about that formation.

I'm also worried of losing pace with faster teams playing in the zig. Do you put it right behind the LOS or a square back?

 

[Snap Wilson]

One thing that's worth doing against dodgy teams is remembering to spread your blockers around the pitch so you have tackle players available when you need them. With Dwarfs you want your formation tight and you need to make sure you don't rush forwards and leave space behind the defence. Positioning is everything with these guys. The ziggurat is pretty nice. Against stronger teams dauntless on the Troll Slayers can make a huge difference.

Be interesting to see a non-conventional Dwarf team for a change. Good luck with it, nice theme sir, and stay away from my bloody skinks.

Ahahaha, thanks, kind sir. I'm sure your Lizards could give me more than I could ever handle. And yeah, I haven't played Dwarfs up until now because I thought it wouldn't be much fun, so I had to do something a little different. Although I enjoyed my games in MM last night, which were played straight.

This is what I went with last night in two games against Chaos:

[PLAY-CREATOR]10303[/PLAY-CREATOR]

I figure I would move it up a square against agility teams. I just don't want to leave too much space behind me.

 

[Barninho]

I think most teams will aim to kick deep against dwarfs so it's good to have support for the runners in case you need to form up a cage in your own half. It is one of those situations where you are damned if you do and if you don't.

However in scenario 1 he kicks deep, he gets a blitz and you have only your runners deep Against a fast team this can lose you the game.

Scenario 2 he kicks short and he gets a blitz. At least you have players in reserve to crowd whoever picked up the ball on your turn and maybe win it back.

Having said that with three LOS dwarfs and players placed close to the LOS in the wide zones you can set up in a way that it's much harder to capitalise on the blitz.

x x x x x b x b x b x x x x x
x x b x x x x x x x x x b x x
x t x x x x x x x x x x x x t x
x x x x x B x x x B x x x x x
x x x x R x x x x x R x x x x

I'd set up something like this using a blocker and troll slayer. The key thing is that your Blitzers are both protected in the event of a blitz and in a position where they can move to where you need them.

 

[Barninho]

Yeah I tend to go with something similar. You can also use columns though rather than staggering it against a high strength team or one with killer skills, and this means you can stop them getting a free hit on both Troll Slayers and both Runners. With them being the lower armoured pieces and dwarfs really needing the numbers advantage this makes a lot of sense.

For more agile teams having your runners a little deeper for receivers and such makes a lot of sense. Moving a widezone player can be gold if you get a quick snap result and your opponent sets up close to the LOS in the wide zones.

 

[mrpier]

Thanks, Mrpier. Just out of curiosity, have you ever had trouble with the blitz/short kick playing them back so much? That's the thing that would worry me most about that formation.

Yes, against faster teams a blitz can be a nightmare, although that's true for all teams. I haven't encountered the short kick/blitz since most teams kick deep against dwarfs if they have kick rather than hope for the blitz. Of course you can get a short kick/blitz by chance, but I haven't encountered that with my dwarves either, although I have with other teams. A quick setup would be something like this:

<iframe src="http://www.play-creator.com/miniplay.asp?viewplay=10309" width="268" height="158" frameborder="0"></iframe>

I have a good chance to get at least 4 players around the ball, and if it goes deep I have a screen. if you are worried about the blitz then put the players so they would cover more tacklezones, I think it's more important that the players are close together to be able to give mutual support. Two dice blocks are where the dwarfs excel afterall.

 

[Snap Wilson]

Interesting, thanks much. I had a good game last night against Orcs with a decent coach. Bungled receiving the kickoff because I was on the phone and distracted, so I lined up for defense instead of offense. He kicked deep and it was just a mess after that, with him scoring thanks to a really bad throw-in. If I line up properly, that doesn't happen. But the second half, I practiced playing defense, clogging the middle while keeping a column on each side. He was smart and tried to push down the middle, taking a square at a time and looking for an opening. Despite knocking two of my guys out of the game, he never found it and wound up making a mistake and leaving a corner of his cage open. I didn't have position enough for a blitz on the ball carrier, but it was enough to put a tackle zone on him that he couldn't remove without a blitz. He tried a hand-off and failed, we surrounded the ball and mucked it up, holding him out for the eight turns. Really fun defensive battle, I enjoyed it.