Tactics Orcs and Dark Elves / OCC and Big Crunch

Hello gentleman and lady (we know there's at least one closet BB'er out there),

Some of you have probably followed one of my inane blogs at some time or another, and more than likely said a prayer for my children at the weird ramblings that come from my brain, which seem to pour out at a moments notice. Fear not! This is exactly like that... It's also my second favorite thing: a poll.

A little background:
I have a nagging feeling that I did it wrong. Dark Elves with a runner, an assassin, tackle instead of sidestep, lots of bashing not a lot of columns.... 2000 TV and a less than 50% win record. It seems... off. Some of this I fully attribute to being a sucky coach (hey I need to take some responsibility somewhere right?). But I also didn't help myself. I mean, really... I chose 2 more AV7 than I really needed and 40-50k more TV than I really wanted putting skills on what are now very valuable players who will die shortly with no replacement down the pike. For what? I don't run the ball I throw the ball and stab hasn't really been that great for me and shadowing hasn't gotten me a single turnover. However, between the two of them they have 23KO/CAS taken... Tezca has 32 games, Tartarus has 20. That's a lot of injury (though the team has taken its fair share... see sucky coach above). Tezcatlipoca's have been at CRITICAL times. i.e. if I have the ball near the end zone and get hit, he's going down with a break... the game just seems to love to do that to ball carriers. pick it up and score after the knockdown? not on your life... I can't recall that ever happening in the entire career of this team... but I digress.

Second, and somewhat less importantly, I'm playing a metric cr*p tonne of elfy teams. Not against... I'm playing wood elves in OCC, dark elves in BC, and just had a stint of Skaven (wood elf lite) in CC XIII. Where's the BASH? I feel like my blocking has gone to h*ll in hand basket and Satan's swinging the handle...

Which brings me to part 2: the plan

I'm going to reroll in Big Crunch, and likely OCC as well (though out come of this season might change my mind I suspect I'm going to be crippled by the end of it).

To what you might ask? well, that's the title, and the question.
I have a plan to roster AV8 plus witches for Dark Elves, and Guard Orcs (first skill up for all players with strength access) with goblins for fouling and ball carriers. Yes, it's unlikely to work but I think it'll be fun to try the orcs and better to play the darkies. I know that AV8 will break and that my goblins will be huge targets...

part 3:

which league for which team? That's the question and ultimately the reason for the poll. I can't figure it. Do I reroll Darkies in BC and Orcs in OCC, or vice versa?

Team names:

Dark Elves -> (the) Black Dahlias
Orcs -> Slugworth Candy Co.

Cheers

edit*

I'm posting this is team and league development because it seems appropriate. I'll ask this be closed and locked and make appropriate arrangements for a blog (or not!) that follows the teams later.

 

BC is pretty light on elves so I'm voting for new darkies there.

 

I've seen people play "Guard Chaos" (every first skill is Guard), and it did not end well. Guard is great, but imo it's nearly useless without Block first. Once the first domino falls, especially if a coach who has block is willing to throw 1d blocks (on the premise that he has a 50% chance to knock you down, and only a 17% chance to turnover), it goes downhill from there. Orcs won't break as much as chaos, but having MA2-3 after standing up is really gonna limit your defensive/offensive options.

That having been said, I think Orcs can thrive in OCC due to their durability. I also concur with TS (I tend to do that a lot ) about elves and BC being a good match.

My favorite 1000TV dark elf roster is the 3 blitzers + witch one, and I cross my fingers the witch doesn't die in the first couple of games. Eventually, i end up with 4 blitzers, 2 witches and a runner, which I feel is about right. Until of course a string of bad games leaves me with 9 players and out of money, and then it's a team of 7 linos GOGOGOGO!

 

Strange how things change, there were so many at the start! So yes to more elves.

 

I don't know. I'm confused. Lady?

 

guard chaos doesn't benefit from 4 blitzers with block already, but I hear you. second/first skill is really the same, though i'll skill up one 'killer' MB/PO as needed.
really I'm looking for doubles on goblins for dirty player and block/sure hands. then I have a real nice running threat.

 

you just want to see if this'll draw her out...

Then again Bigfoot probably isn't real either.

 

i made an orc team with guard very early on most of my players.

It worked really well....BUT....

you need a killer orc blitzer...at least one, and he should probably be the first blitzer who levels. I often found myself getting into situations against other bash teams where i was getting twice the beneficial hits against them as they were against me, and the pitch removals were similar to each other since i had no MB.

grab a blitzer with MB or tackle (depending on future opponents) first, and then start loading guard.

I will disagree with TS and aki here and say that i fully endorse the guard-only Blorc strategy. a black orc with guard becomes a giant target because he 1) doesn't have block, and 2) protects all the players around him.

I might also suggest getting DT over dodge on some/most doubles in order to force teams that you can lure into scrums to STAY in those scrums.

 

Playing your orc team was the seed for this one.

I am going to field one killer (first skill up).

I also really want to use goblins, at least two. a fouling and a ball carrier. I'll cycle them until I get a doubles for blodge or surehands and they will be foulers until then. cheap as heck and protected with the guard. probably no thrower.

non doubles gobbos will be DT. the agility access really puts a spin on orcs.

 

hmmm, 3 goblins, 4 BOBs, 4 blitzers, 1 troll.

Lizardman Lite?

 

Yeah, but with general access on 8 players and the ability to handle the ball halfway decently, plus skinks are almost twice the cost of a goblin. (albeit +2MA)

I may throw a lineman in there to start just for a warm fouling dirty player.

 

Idk - not a huge fan of starting with 3 goblins. It is Lizardman light... except without the speed advantage or the extra strength, unless you decide to chuck a goblin. Could be fun, I suppose - you will have 5 strong players to control the pitch, albeit one of them will require constant babysitting. All 5 of them are MA4, making you equivalent to Nurgle in that regard (but without the tentacles and foul appearance to annoy the opposition). I'll be curious to see how things turn out .

 

the downside of the thrower is MA5, the upside of using a blitzer is MA6 but no dodge...

goblin solves both those. yes, it is a double for sure hands and block, but it means another blitzer for utility/hitting, plus they are cheap as dirt. foul with a skink and lose 70k on getting sent... 40k for a gobo, 70k for a doubles dirty player gobbo (or lineorc).

I'll likely try to get 1 goblin with a double for dodge and make him the BC, then lineorc up a bit for a solid dirty player while I try to skill another goblin double. Lizards agility 1 isn't viable for ball-handling, where blitzers can do it in a pinch.

 

I'm thinking it'll be fun, and that's what I want right now.

 

Hey it worked! You got me .

As for the teams, I would recommend orcs in the BC (show those dwarfs who thought THEY were the tough high armour guys!) and maybe the Darkies in the OCC, altough are you sure playing darkies so soon after CoN (you are retiring, or drastically changing them I hear?) Is such a good idea? Maybe you should take a break perhaps? Also, are you thinking of retiring W&W? They seemed to be doing pretty ok in the SSC last I saw.... Nice names, what themes are you thinking of for both teams?

 

Can't be... well i'll be d*rned.

CoN's drastic changes or retirement will be at the end of this current season, though there is some lead-in to that. I love dark elves and want to continue playing them. unfortunately the fluff for them is very very serious and depresses the sh*t out of me. it needs a change.

there are already a bunch of orcs in BC and very few elves (I'm one of two darkies) and even fewer original teams. that's kind of weighing on my decision. OCC has orcs but there are so many teams in OCC that it doesn't make as big an impact.

W&W are pretty crippled. I have 6 players. It's possible i'll be able to pull out of the pit and build them back up, but right now fielding 350k worth of loner slag is not helping me build anything. I'll have to evaluate that at the end too.

There's lots of time left for this, which is why I posted the poll. it's even possible I take a break from BB altogether (might be warranted).

 

I know, right? The joys of being a tabletop coach haha .

Ok, I enjoyed the Crush fluff but I could see how it might be depressing to write. Maybe comedy or light heartedness is better perhaps? The Greater Ulthuan Heros are great examples of a fun fluff blog. Sorry to hear about W&W, they seem to have fallen into the elf spiral of losing players each game, alas. Maybe taking a break would be good, if not from BB as a whole then from competitive leagues? Whenever I've lost faith I've found a month or so of playing matchmaking or exhibition games has helped a lot, just makes it less intense and you can enjoy it a little more without really worrying too much about the result. I hope you find your happiness , Fallow!

 

Cheers 2Dimensional.

I am thinking about a happy medium between the soul-wrenching oblivion and the three-stooges take blood bowl. idk, gotta do what you like.

more exhibitions would be ideal. maybe i'll see you CTA sometime.

 

No probs Fallow, we all have our rough spots with the game. Yeah, the three stooges take blood bowl would be great (briefly ) but you have to write whatever you like! I try a somewhat serious plot with lots of little jokes and references which make it more fun to write. But whatever works for you I suppose. As for exhibitions, I'm lucky to be a tabletop coach as it's much easier to sort out friendly games, than it is in cyanide MMing. Pardon me for asking, but I'm new around these parts, what is CTA? And what does it have to do with CTALE? Thanks, 2D

 

CTA is the general Cyanide league for BBTactics. It's where coaches can just put in a team and play someone. no end, no beginning, just for fun.

it also serves as a feeder league for The Crunch Cup, and in some ways Crunch Them All League Exhibition(CTALE). You get up to 6 games in Crunch Them All (CTA) and can still use the team in the Crunch Cup (CC).

Big Crunch does not allow any games played to enter; and you can also choose to play less than 6 games and do CC or CTALE. No more than 6 though.

Between CC seasons players can get up to 2 games in CTA before having to stop for next season. I hope that explains some, the General tab has the thread for it, it's a great place to start if you pick up the cyanide client.