High Elf Lineman Overview:
High Elf Linemen have to do a lot of the unglamorous jobs on the pitch in order to let their more talented team mates do what they do best. They are good players in their own right though, average speed, strength, armour, with high agility and great skill access. This does mean though for such a basic position they do tend to cost quite a lot compared to other teams Linemen.
As usual the Linemen roles include duty of standing on the Line of Scrimmage to get hit, marking players, creating screens and generally protecting their more expensive team mates. Their usefulness on the pitch and their high cost may lean you towards avoiding doing fouls with them though like you would with a cheaper Lineman.
Development of High Elf Lineman takes the usual route for Linemen skills, though with access to agility skills as well as general skills they can quickly become far more useful than just being a tackle zone. If you get an early stat increase on a High Elf Lineman then you can really tailor them into a more specific role.
High Elf Lineman Kicker:
The first one of your High Elf Linemen to gain their first skill should take Kick unless you happen to roll a double or stat increase. Having a team with high agility and movement you can really make great advantage of a good kick off and Kick enables you to get that more often than not. After that you will find that your kicker will tend to get targeted by the other team so you want skills to help protect him in the form of Block or Dodge. Which ever you don’t get first you should take on the next increase but regardless of this you want to try and avoid them being hit at all. In a Tackle light league I would look to take Dodge first as it will make it easier for you to dodge them away to safety if they get marked. You will probably find players with Kick don’t really skill up a great deal but if you do get more than Fend and Side Step are your best options.
Being honest there probably aren’t really any great doubles or stat increases to take, as it will just increase his value and probably put them in more danger. Doubles for any Elves are usually going to be Guard but that encourages being in tackle zones. A strength 4 Elf is something that is always going to be useful but you would much rather have it on anyone else on the team. Same really applies to an agility increase as well. If you roll a ten then you have more options with perhaps an armour increase being tempting. If you were to forgo all of these though and just take a normal skill, I would have a hard time arguing with that idea.
Standard High Elf Lineman:
- Normal: Wrestle / Dodge, Fend, Side Step / Tackle, Dauntless
- Doubles: Guard
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV / +AV
As I already mentioned a High Elf Lineman can become really flexible and this build really isn’t a bad option for any of the rest of the ones who develop. As they are going to be on the Line of Scrimmage you want to try and protect them. Wrestle is my personal favourite to take in this circumstance, though taking Block is a fine alternative. Dodge is the other starting option and I would probably take it first unless you are facing lots of teams with plenty of Tackle. It offers the same protection against everyone else but also increases your ability to move around and also save on rerolls. I would take Fend next as it negates Piling On and also Frenzy and can also eliminate the need to dodge. Side Step is very annoying to play against in my opinion the next best option. After that skills become a bit less useful, Tackle is good if in a Dodge heavy environment and / or if you are Tackle light. You could also consider taking it before Side Step if you are facing a lot of Dodge. Having one or two players with Dauntless may also help out a lot if facing stronger players quite a lot.
If you roll doubles then Guard is pretty much your only option. No one on the team can get it without rolling doubles and it is one of the best skills in the game. A strength increase would be great and I would still follow the same skill path, they are too valuable to put on the Line of Scrimmage though. An agility increase will make them much better at handling the ball and may perhaps make taking Sure Hands a good option. A movement increase can be helpful though I personally think the team has enough speed anyway that I would ignore it in favour of a skill. Some armour nine Linemen might be nice for the Line of Scrimmage or if they already have Guard.
High Elf Linemen Summary:
You can probably tell that I don’t really think you need to specialise High Elf Linemen much at all. Their team mates cover all the other options that the team needs and once the team starts developing your Linemen probably aren’t going to collect SPP at much speed at all. Don’t be surprised if most of them only end up with one or two skills anyway. There is an option to build a fouler with Dirty Player and Sneaky Git but I don’t think you really need to be fouling with High Elves. Even the basic Lineman is more useful than quite a lot of Blood Bowl players and is usually worth more in team value, getting them sent off isn’t going to be a great trade a lot of the time.
I rather like the idea of block on linemen, not so much because it helps them on the LOS but because they make such good “back up” catchers with 4 agi and wrestle isn’t exactly what you’re looking for on a person who might hold the ball at some point. Then again you could always just make sure to have your tosses not go to wrestle linemen but I kinda like the flexibility.
I personally on the whole only pass the ball forward to someone who then goes on to score. The Linemen having Wrestle still lets them do this, if you get enough players through to receive they can only blitz one, so them having Wrestle doesn’t really matter. Having Wrestle against slower players with Block and Guard though lets you take them prone those 1 in 9 times that they took Block to avoid.
I still take Block on a couple of Linemen though, but I think having at least three with Wrestle for the Line of Scrimmage is very helpful. Also having multiple Wrestle players means it is much harder for them to protect their ball carrier against it.
I would strongly advise to take Block/Wrestle prior to Dodge. I chose to take Dodge first on a couple of Linemen and had not enough punch in my which hurt my play a lot in the first season. Especially if you are up against a lot of bashy or skilled teams (or both) you will need all the Block or Wrestle that you can get as soon as you can get it.
Personally, I prefer Block on my Lineman and reserve Wrestle for the Catchers.
What progression do you suggest I go for with a lineman who gets +1 AG on his first skill up?
I’m conflicted with regards to getting an AG increase on an Elf Lineman, it can be really useful but it opens up a lot of options that it makes things a bit harder to know how to develop them. It also means you are less inclined to use them to mark opposing players.
It really would come mostly down to what the rest of the team looks like and what other races you usually face. That’s a bit more involved than this article so you are best off creating a thread with that extra information on the forum. I would mostly likely at least go with Dodge and then Block though, by the time you get to skills beyond that the rest of your team will have developed a long way from how they look now when it would be prudent to ask again. You can better judge then what your team needs him to do to help you win. Usually though Leap is a common choice for an AG5 player because they can do it on a 2+ roll, combined with Dodge that makes them very mobile…
Thanks, he is only my second player to level up so the team isn’t that developed. I think dodge will be the next skill I’ll go for though as I don’t have many team rerolls and I think I need the ability to reroll those 1’s
Thank you for all the guides, helped enormously! I have a level 2 HElf lineman that has dodge and guard(yaay!) however he lost a point of agility! He is only one of 2 guards i have. He will probably be marked often(might be good or bad). Rest of the team is pretty muvh in line with your suggestions for HEs.(i got lucky with +st and i have 3 of them,if it matters for your answer, no other stat ups or doubles) He costs 120k. He is basically a human lineman who rolled two doubles to get dodge and guard.(which would cost 110k, so only 10k differenece) Oh and btw this is in a perpetual league that is bash heavy. Would you sack him or keep him?
I would probably keep him. Guard players can assist nearby team mates to free them up. Good positioning will prevent them getting marked in the first place. If the opponent targets them then they aren’t going after someone else. Also in a pinch doing a Dodge with AG3(3+) isn’t terrible. Especially if you still have a team reroll, you can also easily get Dodge if they get another skill, unlike a Human Lineman.
Thank you for response. Will keep him.