How to beat Elves

Hello sports fans, Skip Tasteless here!  As a perennial High Elf coach and player (I played alongside Jarranial Jones with the Galadrieth Gladiators), I have seen many miraculous plays and also much bloodshed.  Lately, though, I’ve been hearing smack talk about how overpowered Elves are.  Elves are  not overpowered, and coaching them takes more skill than boring “lay and pray” CPOMBers.  In the spirit of competition, however, I’m going to give you coaches a few pointers.  Give me a few minutes.  Getting bash advice from an elf is bad enough, but when he’s wearing a pink shirt with skinny jeans sipping on a chai tea and ordering tofu…. ha ha ha, I hope your testosterone disappears.

Jarranial Jhones (left) enjoying his team owner role.
Jarranial Jhones (left) enjoying his luxurious role as a team owner.

Alright, joking aside, here’s the scoop.  The key to beating elves is  not claw POMBing, fouling, and its not even time-management (though, all of those help and are important)…. the key is POSITIONING.  Whether its pro elves, wood elves, dark elves, or high elves, you’re up against a team with AGI 4 spammed everywhere!  Combined with the dodge skill, elves are extremely mobile and have the potential to strike at a moment’s notice.  For an elf coach, this mobility is great fun.  They can score in 1 turn.  They can leap / dodge into cages to cause havoc.  They can crowd surf.  Many possibilities are open to elves, and as a coach you must be wary of their nasty tricks.  If not, you will pay dearly.

As a bash coach your objective will be the typical 2-1 Grind.  An agility team versus an agility team opens up possibilities, but typically these match-ups are rare.  You can either have a shootout (with either team scoring at will) or you can perform a grind yourself.  Shootouts typically become games of time management, but they still use the same strategies addressed below.  As an elf coach, I typically bash other agility teams and attempt to capitalize big with a numbers advantage (scoring 2-3 times in the second half).  Just remember, the best way to decrease defensive power and mobility is by removing players.  For this article, I will make the assumption that you will grind.   Let’s begin!

Key Skills

Offense

Elf coaches LOVE playing defense.  Elves will usually avoid contact and spread out to slow your advancement.  To continue progress, you as a coach must then blitz and mark his players.  And this is where the fun starts.  This is where you see the crowd surfing, chain pushing, great leaps, crazy dodges, the epic plays!!! OR…  you will see the elves run away.  If the elves dodge away from you the entire first half, you will eventually be faced with a wall between your ball carrier and the end zone.  At this moment of truth, you must score.  If you have been successful at removing players from the pitch, this is much easier.  If not, you will be faced with a headache, especially if an elf catcher is waiting deep in your own territory waiting for a mistake to score.

This is typically what you can expect from 2-1 grinds.  It will either be a fist fight with the elves looking to capitalize on your poor ball handling skills or you will be close to the end zone and have to fight your way through the crowd to score.  In both cases, it’s important to remove players from the pitch!  In the first scenario, this is easier as elves are already in contact with you.  The second scenario might be more frustrating which leads us to our next topic.

How To Advance

Even though you most likely have AV9 you SHOULD NOT give elves free blocks on your players.  Your objective in the grind is to build a numerical advantage.  The best way to eliminate shots on your players is with the Key Skills listed…  STR (natural or extra), Guard, Tackle, and Mighty Blow.  When you’re attacking a typical 2 x 2 formation, isolate one of the players and overkill with your marking.  The more key skills your players have, the better!

Typical 2x2 defense
Typical 2×2 defense
After blitzing, attempt to punch through by marking his players.
After blitzing, attempt to punch through by marking his players.  Notice that the ball carrier is not near front line.
More aggressive positioning.  Now you're threatening the blitzer on left flank.
More aggressive positioning. Now you’re also threatening the blitzer on left flank.  Even if the blitzer takes a block on one of your men, your cage is still safe.  The elf coach has to decide between dodging away or committing two additional players for assists to get a 2D block.

Look at the examples of positioning.  When advancing you do not want to mark with only 1 player.  By doing so, the elf coach can easily counter by adding an assist to get a free block.  When you mark an elf with multiple players, however, you give the elf coach a problem.  The elf coach must either choose to dodge away or sacrifice formation and safety by committing players to add assists for a block.  As you can see STR and guard help tremendously in this positioning.  With these key skills, elves will be forced to dodge away.  If you have a few players with tackle, the burden on the elves increases.  Dodging away will eat away at rerolls, and if you are lucky enough to have an elf fail a dodge (1-1) you are already in position to deal some damage.

This brings us to Mighty Blow.  Yes Mighty Blow increases your chances of causing injury, but there is also an indirect affect you might not have been aware of.  Elves are extremely wary of Mighty Blow.  If your advancing players have it, then the elf is now more likely to dodge away rather than block and potentially stay marked.  Mighty Blow in this case acts as a deterrent for an elf to block.  If you also mark the elf with a Tackle player, you increase your own chances of having the elves lose a team reroll.  Tentacles works wonders as well.  By keeping elves stuck to their positions, you can easily build up free blocks.  Remember, the Elf strategy is to minimize hits unless he sees a high reward scenario.  Therefore, work at maximizing your own hits while safely protecting your ball carrier.  This brings us to our next topic.

 

The Dodge Skill

Dodge in combination with AGI4 (and more so with AGI5!) is AWESOME!  Playing as an elf coach is all about gauging risk and saving team rerolls for the “crazy stuff”.  Dodge is instrumental in this.  With dodge, players are free to move around saving the team reroll for an actual blitz.  This is important in shenanigans.  Let’s go back to the previous formation and change some player positions…

Not much of a different formation.
Not much of a different formation.

In the above example, the Humans still look relatively safe, but elves are already chomping at the bit.  Here is a possibility of what could happen.

4+ dodge with reroll + 2+ dodge = 1D hit on Ball Carrier.
4+ dodge and 2+ dodge = 1D hit on Ball Carrier.

With the Dodge skill, a 4+ dodge is successful 75% of the time.  Those are still great odds for some shenanigans.  According to Samba, a 4+ dodge and a 2+ dodge with the Dodge skill will succeed 69.444% of the time.  With a team reroll it will succeed 72% of the time.  Up the AGI of the catcher to 5, and now you are facing a 3+, 2+ dodge chain… which succeeds 83.33% (86.42% with team reroll) of the time!  Can you see why positioning is important?  If you leave those holes open, an elf will attempt to capitalize.  Now granted, in the above scenario, the elves will most likely dodge marked players away and then attempt the hit (if a team reroll was sustained), but the psychological advantage is huge.  The elf coach will be thinking, “This guy’s positioning is poor, I can be patient, and he will screw up again.” Imagine if that catcher has 4 STR or if he has wrestle / strip ball.  Just one lucky play, and your entire strategy is now out the window.  Once the game becomes a scramble for the ball, the elves hold a significant advantage.  Here is another classic (and favorite) example showcasing the nastiness of Dodge with AGI4.

Ha Ha!  Puny elves.  What are you going to do against five?
Ha Ha! Puny elves. What are you going to do against five?
The crowd goes wild!  This is why you elf ball!
Lineman marks to negate assist.  Blitzer DODGES in 4+ to get a 1D shot at ball carrier.  The crowd goes wild!

Elf coaches dream about these scenarios.  With the above cage formation you are giving an elf a 75% chance to get a 1d block (with team reroll).  Those are odds an elf can’t pass up!  Throw in a couple more elf players (to get the ball), and you’ll start cussing up a storm on how overpowered elves are. How do you negate this?  Positioning and of course, your key skills.  Move the bottom right cage corner up by 1 and now the elves have to worry about negating two assists plus they have to contend with a 5+ Dodge.  That lowers the probability substantially (down to 55%) and the elves have to commit 2 players for marking.  If the play fails, you now have free shots on 2 players.  With key skills, the chances of success go even lower.  With guard on a cage corner, the elf blitzer has to deal with less advantageous block dice (-2D).  If one of your corners has tackle, the elf blitzer now only has a 33% chance of success of dodging in without using the team reroll.  They most likely have to use a team reroll to even get a hit on the ball carrier.  Cage corners have mighty blow…. yikes..  The elf coach will ask, “Do I really want to mark the cage and put my guys at risk?”

Getting Flanked

As elves back up and run away to form a wall, you might be inclined to push down the sideline.  Do not commit your entire team to one side.  If you commit entirely to one side, elves will simply close a noose on your formation.  By squeezing you into the sideline, they are hoping you will make a mistake in your advancing.  Like in the first example, keep a wall screening the entire field.  If things blow up in your face, you can always have that player run up as a receiver.  The elves will then have to focus 1 or 2 players on him.  This takes away from the defensive strength facing your advancing cage.  Marking elf players on your advance will then become easier.

Defense

With elves, you should have the mentality that they’re going to score.  Regardless of what you do, they’re going to score.  The question is when and how difficult… these are things you have control over.  On defense, your main objective is to make scoring as difficult as possible, while at the same time, killing and maiming.  To do this, setup in a formation similar to what is illustrated.

Popular 2x2 defensive formation.  Don't give the elves a clear path to cage up.
Popular 2×2 defensive formation. Don’t give the elves a clear path to cage up.

You can also stack your defense in pillars.  The main thing to remember is to force the elves to score quickly through high stress plays.  This happens when an elf coach cannot effectively cage up his ball carrier on your side of the field.  As play progresses, send one or two players down to harass the thrower.  Keep the rest of your defenders back and mark as many elves as safely possible using your key skills to make blocking difficult for the elves.  If you have skill-less players, you don’ t necessarily have to mark, play a little elf D yourself and screen the back field up.  The main point is not to give away free shots.  Getting sloppy with your marking is what leads to dumb (“lucky” if you’re the elf coach) injuries to your team.

On the topic of that, Elf coaches do not like putting high value players isolated into harm’s way.  Any isolated high level player is just begging for a CPOMB blitz and 3-4 man fouling.  If you see an elf coach isolate a player, teach him this lesson.  The great thing about the above formation is that there is a higher probability that you can do this.  With the above formation, an elf cannot effectively cage away catchers running down the field.  So let’s say the elves send 3 catchers down the field.  Great!  Cover 2 and bash and foul the other one.  One down, two to worry about.  With luck you will cause injuries and force the elf coach to play riskier.

This is another popular defensive formation (you might do this out of habit):

Center Formation.  Pros: Your players are within reach of both sides of the fields.  Con: You expose your flanks!
Center Formation. Pros: Your players are within reach of both sides of the fields. Con: You expose your flanks!

Don’t run this formation.  By leaving your flanks exposed, the elves will simply cage up deep into your own territory with lineman cage corners.  These cage corners will protect high value players.  If you’ve put enough fear into the heart of the elf coach through excellent POSITIONAL PLAY as well as injuries, the elf coach might be inclined to stall the game out.  It is much easier to do this if a cage is already formed on your side of the field.  (If you have not impressed him, the elves will score quickly and attempt to win the game on defense. ) You do not want to give the elves an option for stalling.  Make them score quickly through risky play.  Occasionally the elves will fail, and you can capitalize.  To repeat, the center formation discussed does not really help you in this way, so don’t run it!  Well, if you’re playing against me, then please, please run it 🙂

Playing Against Stalls

There is nothing as agonizing as an elf stall.  If you find that a catcher has the ball deep within your own back field and is not in reach of any of your players or if the ball carrier is behind a screen, just remember to STAY CALM.  Stand up everybody and move them closer to the ball carrier.  If you have an easier blitz on a supporting piece rather than the ball carrier, take the safer blitz.  The objective is to position your players closer so you can further harass on the next turn.  By doing this you might be able to force a score on the subsequent turns.  Try not to do any action where failure will cause the ball carrier another free stay on your side.  Also, remember not to overload one side of the field (for example, left side of field), keep at least 1 or 2 players on the other side so that the fast elves can’t outrun you to the other sideline.  By doing this you might be able to give yourself the extra turn needed to score the winning TD.  Remember to advance on their cage similarly to how you advance on offense.  Gratuitous marking on certain players forcing them to dodge away.  Squeeze them into the corner, force them to score.

Preventing 1 turn TDs

If you are fortunate enough to have 3 Stand Firm / Sidestep players, put them on the line.  Barring an elf having juggernaut, the elves will simply not be able to chain push their way up the field.  Other than that, the best way to stop 1 turn TDs is by placing STR 4+ behemoths on the line.  I will leave it to you to come up with your own formations.  (Hey!  An elf can’t give away all of his secrets!)  There is high value in learning how to one turn TD, though.  It gives you an eye for chain-pushing, which you can use to your advantage when facing teams.  Basically, if you know how to one turn TD with elves, you will know how to stop it.

Inducements

Anything to remove players from the pitch will help.  Depending on your team, you would either like to get chainsaw players, bribes, as well as any star players who packs a wallop (Mighty Blow).  As you advance, trample fallen elves with gang-fouls.

Summary

Elves are not OP (overpowered) if you know how to play against them.  With solid positional play you can steadily march towards the end-zone in a wake of elf blood.  Through this positional play (and skill selection) you can dictate whether or not the elves attack or run away.  As turns progress and blitzes build up, you will eventually start clearing the pitch in typical 2-1 grind fashion.  With your positional play you will also dictate if / when the elves score.  With this time management, you will have ample time to score on the subsequent drive.  This is just a tip of the iceberg.  If you have any extra tips or advice for beating Elf teams then please comment below.

29 thoughts on “How to beat Elves”

  1. I think it could be worth to extend the topic to countermeasures against leap in the context of elf teams (since elves have easy acces to that skill and have the AG to use it). In the leap article itself nothing goes into preventing a leap blitz.

    I hope this is not too much off topic since I really think this is a problem against many developed elf teams (not only Woodies).

    Really like your scematics and style Skip!

    Reply
    • Not at all, fine place to ask! The best way to deal with Leap is really to have Guard players and try and get the ball as safely into a Guard cage as you can.

      The other thing you want to do is try and make the other team burn through their rerolls. Leap doesn’t have a companion skill that lets you reroll it, so if they are out of rerolls or have already used one that turn then a Leap becomes a riskier strategy.

      Also if a Leap player is your main concern look for opportunities to get them off the pitch with blitzes and fouling. If they fail a leap into your cage then that is a prime opportunity to stick the boot in.

      Lastly to make a Leap even less appealing, you’d like to ideally be carrying the ball with someone who has Block + Dodge + Sure Hands. This forces the Leap player to ideally want to have Wrestle + Tackle and also negates Strip Ball. Fend could also be useful if they have Frenzy.

      I guess what this all really boils down to is that you should protect the ball as best you can. As this is something you should be doing anyway I don’t think that much adjustment is needed against Leap players. You just have be more careful about getting your Guard players on at least the opposite corners from each other so there isn’t a side of a cage that can have the assists easily cancelled out.

      Reply
      • I am brand new to the game and play in league against the AI because I don’t know where else to practice. I play Orcs and the Elves and agility teams like Slaven I have the hardest time against.

        Since Orcs start with 0 skills except Block on Blitzers how do you develop the Guard and Mighty Blow, etc… on a fresh team to beat these agility teams?

        Reply
        • Good question, it’s a little tricky cause I’ve got no idea how the AI plays and I’ve only heard that it’s pretty awful. Generally though you want to mark their receivers putting tackle zones on them so its hard for them to pass the ball. Then using your Block players try and hit as many of theirs as possible each turn. As they will need to protect the ball you should have enough players to mark up most of their team. This will usually force them to do a lot of dodges or leave you with more available blocks on your next turn.

          When you have the ball, protect the ball carrier in a cage and stall out the rest of the half trying to score in the last possible turn so they don’t get a chance to score that half. Beating new Elf teams isn’t really that much different as when you skill up to get Guard etc, they are also getting Dodge on most if not more of their players making it harder to knock them over and also to mark.

          Reply
        • The Orc race is one of the BEST teams to begin with because they have 4 players with Block (Blitzers). To beat the AI, you just have to force the AI to make all of the rolls. You do this by marking as many players as possible.

          Remember, you have a Black Orc with 4 STR. This means you can safely mark a skaven / elf player. For them to roll a low-risk block on you, they’ll need to mark your black orc with 2 additional players. But guess what? You have 4 black orcs. Fully distributed, an elf team will require 12 men to hit all of the black orcs with 2D dice. But they only have 11 players on a team!

          So let’s go back to our hypothetical scenario, let’s say you’ve marked 4 elves with 4 black orcs. The elf coach must now decide 1.) Who do I focus my players to hit? 2.) Who do I dodge out with? 3.) Who am I willing to throw a bad-block with?

          This is a game of attrition. Keep playing like this over and over and try to overwhelm the Elves. Eventually they will fail a roll and your orcs can bash.

          On a final note, as soon as you knock down some elves, surround them so that dodges out are 3+ instead of 2+. For example:
          O = Orc, e = Prone Elf, E = standing Elf

          OeO
          or
          Oe.O

          The elf must either blitz out or dodge out. Since he’s dodging out into a tackle zone the dodge is 3+. The elf must then dodge out again so that he isn’t hit the following turn. This is now a 2+ dodge. Let’s look at the difference.

          Oe -> Elf dodges out with 2+ which is: 83% chance of success
          Oe. O -> Elf dodges out with 3+, 2+ which is: 54% chance of success (no rerolls / no Dodge skill)

          You can use a Black Orc to your advantage also. Mark an Elf with STR4… then move a Blitzer behind him as below:

          OE.B

          The Elf must now either hit the Block orc (by brining two more supporters) OR he must blitz the Blitzer away so his Elf can dodge out OR the Elf must dodge out 3+, 2+. As we saw before this reduces chances of success dramatically.

          To make it so that the Elf CANNOT hit the Black Orc you can add another Orc to the mix.

          O
          OE. B

          In the above scenario, the Elf cannot bring in two other supporters (unless he has guard). He then has to blitz the Blitzer away to dodge out, or he has to risk 2 dodge outs.

          Whatever the case, YOU are dictating movement. The trick is to set 2 or 3 of these traps as you advance with the ball, and the elves will be faced with bad rolls over and over. Eventually there will be a failure, and your orcs will be in position to hit and do damage.

          Once the elves are on the floor, it is much easier to position your guys to surround.

          Slowly move the cage up and keep trying to surround.

          As you play and practice some more, you’ll start to see more and more ways to implement these traps. As you start playing against human players, you’ll see that agility coaches will back off so that these traps can’t be formed. This is where the cat and mouse game becomes fun!

          Reply
          • Thanks for all the advice! Orcs were my go to race because they seemed to be a little more bashy than humans but still versatile. It seemed like with goblins and throwers and such you could sort of pull off a Lizardman style game or a throwing game if you were lucky.

            However as I’ve done a lot more research it seems risky plays like throwing goblins for touchdowns and such is too many dice rolls to risk. Dice roll to throw, dice roll to catch dice roll for this and that.

            I’ve learned to make as few dice rolls as possible. I just don’t know how to level up Black Orcs because I never get injuries inflicted with them and they can’t run the ball for touchdowns, pass the ball, or really do anything to get SPP it seems 🙁

          • You are correct! Orcs are versatile, and yes, you wouldn’t want to try to throw a goblin on the first turn, BUT.

            When it’s turn 16, X% chance of scoring is much better than 0%! 😉

            The last turn TD could be the difference between victory, tie, or loss! And it happens more often than you think it would!

            As far as Black Orcs are concerned, AGI 2 does penalize ball-handling but when you look at the numbers, they’re NOT THAT BAD.

            For instance. For a Black Orc to dodge out or catch a ball, you need a 4+ roll. That’s 50%. With a reroll that goes up to 75%. Typically you will want to try this in either desperate situations OR if you’re already smashed the opponent team and you’re caged up near your opponent’s TD.

            Attempt a hand off at least 1 space away from the End-Zone or out-of-bounds (so a failed drop doesn’t bounce out of bounds). Also make sure to have your cage nearby to make any fumble difficult to pick up. If you’re lucky enough, you can line up two Black Orc’s side-by-side so that if one fails the catch, the other has a chance to catch the bouncing ball.

            Try to do this turn 6 or 7… On turn 8, you should just score (unless you’re already winning by a lot…)

            Remember – first thing with black orcs is Block. You need them to be able to level up quickly from blocking. Remember, your main play makers are your blitzers. Black Orcs are merely muscle to dictate positioning. They don’t need much.. Block, Guard… they’re already great at that point. Mighty Blow, Stand Firm, Dodge is just icing on the cake.

    • Omorgoth,

      You are absolutely correct about Leap! In my fervor to write this article, I wrote only about the nuances of the elf game that people might overlook. In the case of Leap, Coach provides a good countermeasure.

      Leap is obviously more dangerous, so the coach must protect his cage with an extra screen of players. Keep track of the leaper at all times, and try to keep a wall between the dangerous Leap player and the actual cage. In this way, the player needs to dodge 3+ multiple times before making the leap in. If you have a numerical advantage, you can afford to keep more players by the cage impeding his direct route in.

      Basically, do not leave an isolated cage to a leaper if you can help it. And of course, if you do get the chance to blitz / foul him, DO IT!

      Reply
  2. I remember going against my first Elf team and likewise with Dwarf teams, they’re just teams that you realize they’re not so bad when you’re looking at it critically. Sure, Elves are the team with the most capabilities to pull off shenanigans but if they do that it’s typically your fault.

    After your first time getting trounced by them (usually dark Elves, evil bastards) you think they’re the bees knees, roll one yourself, and wonder why you just absolutely suck with them. It really is down to the coaches involved and when you see two savvy coaches going against each other it’s a beautiful positional dance where the slightest error tips the game all over.

    While not all teams are balanced to the letter and quite frankly they shouldn’t be, they always have their own weaknesses that you just need to realize in order to exploit and once you do it it’s almost pitiful watching them getting whipped out of the stadium.

    Reply
    • I can show you some great HE on WE action.

      http://www.oldworldfootball.com -> Schedule

      Season 9 Week 6 – Phoenix Kings vs. Got Wood (intense match)
      Season 10 Week 6 – Phoenix Kings vs. Iron Tree Hurlers (systematic decimation of Wood Elves)
      Season 10 Week 11 – Phoenix Kings vs. Clumsy Dodgers (Pro Elf) (vs. Viajero!)
      Season 12 Week 13 – Chosen Ones vs. Phoenix Kings (vs. Viajero!)

      The last 2 games are against Viajero, an elf beast! #1 in his conference (20 teams) in past 2 seasons. Awesome matches.

      Agility vs. Agility are exciting matches, but in my experience the slower team typically wants to revert to “bash”. If you try to go TD for TD against a faster team, they’re typically going to outscore you.

      Faster teams are usually all av7, so in that case. Sit back, destroy, and enjoy.

      A great positioning chess match:
      Season 12 Week 13 – Chosen Ones vs. Phoenix Kings (vs. Viajero!)

      Viajero is a ridiculous beast at elf… Since he knows that I know that he knows how to play elves, I turtled up but gave him access points to my STR4 ball carrier. I did this to somewhat dictate his blitzes, but also to get his wardancer into a fist fight. See if you can figure out what positions are me trying to “bait” him and what positions were actually mistakes. In true elf fashion, Viajero made me pay for them, lol.

      Reply
      • Hi Skip,

        it may be a bit late for a comment here but i dont know how else i should ask this… or where. You talked about some matches in your comment, but is there any way to see the rematches? On ” http://www.oldworldfootball.com -> Schedule” I can download data base files, but what do I do with these?

        Thank you and greetings from Germany.

        DerSchlund

        PS: I’m sorry if my english hurts to read 🙂

        Reply
        • These replays are viewable by purchasing Blood Bowl Legendary Edition from Cyanide.

          Save the files to your Documents\bloodbowlchaos\saves\Replays directories.

          Then go to Single Player -> Load -> Replays. You should be able to see the old games.

          Reply
      • I’m struggling to win with High Elves in a very bashy league. Any tips on how to win with elves against players who know how to beat elves?

        Any recorded matches of yours against Chaos Dwarves, Nurgle and/or Norse?

        Reply
        • Sorry I’ve got no recorded matches, you could try asking on the forum or perhaps check on youtube if you’ve not already. The other option is to upload replays of your games and ask for others to perhaps watch and see if they can spot any mistakes. You can also try and analyise your own games to see if you can pinpoint any different plays you could have made instead. Other than doing that the best thing to do is just to keep practising!

          Reply
    • Short answer…

      Receive first half and grind out the game for 8 turns. Attempt to blitz high value targets such as catchers and war dancers… especially catchers as you don’t want them to 1 turn TD.

      If you did your job and they’re low on numbers, you will have a significantly easier time defending… hopefully you can do a takeaway and score on your turn.

      If they’re lucky and it’s still 11 on 11, make them score quickly (high stress plays), so you can grind the rest of the game out.

      Watch the war dancers. When you cage up, make sure you put up a wall between your cage and wardancer. Do not put ball carrier on the sidelines (they could leap in and blitz you out of bounds on a -2d). Any opportunity you have to blitz / foul a wardancer, take it!

      For examples of this type of play, check out the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th game I posted above.

      Just remember, you want to lure the woodies into a fist fight.

      Reply
      • Thx for the answer! It’s the first game of a new league. Both teams are new. I’m really looking forward to it. 😀

        Reply
  3. Two questions for ya, and feel free to redirect me if they’ve been answered elsewhere. Firstly, as a wood elf player, how bad is it if I try to play clean? I understand fouling is part of the game, and fouling seems to be the go-to answer for a lot of problems, but I don’t like doing it myself (too many knight/samurai movies as a kid maybe :)). Just wondering how much of a disadvantage I’m taking by sticking to my guns :). Also, I love the skill reviews, but don’t see one for either jump up or pro, am I blind? Thanks in advance!!

    Reply
    • Nothing wrong with playing clean, I rarely foul with most teams I play. Wood Elf players are expensive and fragile, getting one sent off due to fouling may snowball into losing more players.

      As for skill reviews I’ve not had time to cover them all yet, I recommend using the forum if you wish to discuss them, there are many great coaches there who can give you their input.

      Reply
    • Hey Joe!

      I didn’t see your comment, so sorry for the slow response! If you don’t want to foul, you’ve definitely picked the right team!

      Fouling is a high risk venture. Rolling doubles has a probability of 1 / 6. If you break armor, you now have an 11/36 (~30%) chance of getting ejected!

      If you’re going to foul, the high risk must be justified!

      If you’re Necro playing against Elves… the justification is MUCH easier. A zombie only costs 40k. Compare that with the high cost of an elf player (70k+) and you can easily find the risk is worth the reward of fouling.

      Fouling with a 70k+ TV player, though, is typically not justified. An elf lineman is extremely valuable. They can mark, screen, handle the ball. They are extremely versatile and for this reason that’s why your opponent will try to eliminate them.

      If you’re up against an elf team, a lineman for a lineman trade on a foul to me is not worth it. However… a lineman gang foul against a strip ball wardancer? Now we’re talking. At this point, the reward could justify the risk.

      This reminds me of a game from Season 13, Week 5 (you can watch the replay by visiting http://www.oldworldfootball.com -> Schedules) at the Old World Football league between the Phoenix Kings and Cereal Killers. In this game fouling was a huge factor in the game!

      The game was tied 0-0, and the Kings were stalling the entire 2nd half to secure a 1-0 victory. Throughout the game, the elves did not foul at all. Looking ahead, the Elves realized the Pact team would get a 1 turn TD attempt with their Chaos Ogre and goblin. At this point on turn 15, the Cereal Killers were venting frustration by gang fouling straggling elves. In their zeal, they left their goblin wide open for a blitz. The Kings’ Mighty Blow Tackling blitzer Connor MacCrimmon dropped the goblin with no armor break. Here is a clear example of reward outweighing the risk. The Kings’ moved up a lineman to foul the goblin, KO!!!

      On turn 16 the Elves scored. Unfortunately for the Cereal Killers, the goblin did not wake up! Without the goblin, the Cereal Killers lost all opportunity of scoring. The game was over.

      So back to my point. There is nothing wrong with refraining to foul. In most cases (especially with an elf team) the reward doesn’t justify the huge risk. You do want to keep an open mind about it, though. In this case fouling directly led to a victory in lieu of a draw.

      Reply
      • Blood Bowl stories are like reading something out of a sports article. It’s kind of a shame that it’s not canon in it’s lore and it’s just a joke (albeit a well fleshed out one).

        But yeah, it’s truly a powerful thing to know that you don’t have to foul and oftentimes you don’t want to for certain teams. I made the silly mistake of fouling with skinks for lizardmen… and fouling with a sauraii would be silly.

        Reply
        • It is silly, and it’s the calling card of my Crazy Gang/Wimbledon FC-themed lizards. Vinnie (Jones) is a Saurus (of course), so the first skill I gave him was dirty player. Disappointingly, he has a spotless disciplinary record thus far.

          Reply
    • The hardest player in the game to mark. Your best bet is to mark them with Diving Tackle, though for that to work best you ideally will want Block+Dodge+Side Step as well. Pass Block and Catch might let you move a player into an interception position if they aren’t careful with their throw, or get a Tackle Zone on the Thrower to make the pass harder. The best way to beat them is with a 2-1 grind, it’s not the most fun strategy or way to play but it’s effective.

      Reply
  4. actually, i like the orc team committing 2 or more players to a rando lineman or even better a journeyman. i’ll just send 1-2 new scoring threats up there. what i don’t like when playing wood elves is negating/threatening all(!) my handoff or short pass options while pressuring the ball carrier as well.

    Reply

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