How to Avoid Getting Marked:
So now you know why and how to effectively mark opposing players, you are going to want to minimise opposing teams from doing that to you! As marking the different player types differs, the prevention against getting marked also differs along the same lines.
Bashing Players:
Clearly most of the time it is going to be fairly impossible to prevent the opposition to just run up a player and mark most of yours. The only real way to stop this is to have a player in a cage (or being in a square none of their players can possibly reach) and you are only likely to be doing that if you have the ball. So while you can’t stop them doing that, you can position your players in such a way that you can free up the players you want in your following turn. It is worth keeping this in mind regarding how you position your players in your previous turn.
You probably won’t be able to prevent the other team from marking at least someone on your side if they choose to do so. When considering which player to put where when multiple players on your team can reach certain squares you want players in, you should bear in mind if putting someone in that square means they can get marked out the game. For example when forming a cage you would prefer to have your Mummies at the front of the cage and perhaps Zombies at the back, rather than the other way around. You want your Mummies at the front cause they are most useful there in getting the cage moving forward. If they were at the back then the opposing team may just stick a Lineman on them to stop them moving along with the cage. This can lead to them getting split away from the cage as it moves forward and leave them as a bystander to the action you would prefer to have them in.
The best way to avoid getting marked out of the action is to have team mates standing nearby so there isn’t an unsupported square of your tackle zone that they can run someone in to mark you. Should they decide to try and mark your player anyway, then you can use the team mate to block your other player free so you can get them back into the action. If you are already standing next to a couple other of their players who you want to hit then you don’t really need to worry as you are quite likely to still be able to do so next turn anyway. It may not be such a disaster to have your strong players tying up a couple of theirs away from the action, a Beast of Nurgle is such a player you don’t mind this happening too. As long as it is at least more than one player they are tying up, if they are stuck with one then you are perhaps missing out on their abilities elsewhere.
Agility Players:
Spread out and position your players in such a way that either they can’t get opposite sides of your players, so that you then have a dodge into a tackle zone free square. Another option is to spread out really far so that they can’t use a single one of their players to put a tackle zone on more than one of your players at a time. So if they want to mark each of your receivers with two of theirs then that will leave a lot of the rest of your team free next turn. Pay attention though when positioning as to where they are likely to use their blitz and try not to leave them such a situation where a good blitz can really let them mark your players. The more players you can get through that need marking the harder it is going to be for them to deal with them all. Obviously bear in mind that the more you run through, the less players you have actually protecting the ball, no good having lots of players in scoring positions if you lose the ball!
Freeing up with Chain Pushes:
One thing you should look for when your players are marked (and to bear in mind when marking the other team) is if you can position your team mates and then use a block or blitz action to chain push your marked player free. These options are harder to spot and if very much a more advanced play that new players will overlook. It can really swing the game if you can spot good opportunities to make use of this tactic, so take a moment at the start of your turn to look at your options before you start moving players. You will probably kick yourself if you spot a chance to have done this but you wasted it by moving someone or doing a block, before considering where everyone should be and the order you need to do all your actions.
If I come across a situation where a chain push comes in helpful then I’ll edit it in here. Or if anyone has a screenshot or a diagram I can make up in Play Creator, please let me know on the forum or via the contact form.
Good to see you back Coach
Great article, Coach, but one question: while you never state it outright, it seems from your examples that you primarily want to mark players when you’re on defense. How often do you mark players when you’re on offense?
The diagrams were as it was easier to explain those for defensive situations with some visual examples. For offence you don’t as desperately need to contain players like that. Combine that with the fact that protecting the ball is of a bigger concern, you usually aren’t going to have enough players to spare to be able to do it either.
You still want to mark certain players to at the very least cause them to do more dice rolls. You would rather not have a big guy ploughing into your cage for example, so sticking a Lineman on them will usually stop any without Break Tackle. Making the route harder to the ball carrier for the opposing sacking specialists is also worth while.
Excellent article, I will attempt to apply this stuff to my future games 🙂
Frenzy players deserve a mention. Marking them will help in stopping your players getting crowd surfed.
With good marking you can force them into multiple 1 dice or 1/2 blocks should they decide to blitz free of just throw a block.
Minotaurs can be dragged far, far away from the action with good marking, providing they dont eat the player you are offering up.
Thanks for that, you just gave away my play book.
This is still a concept many coaches struggle with. Just look at the discussions on troll being a crap player. Could you wish for better when marking a star saurus?
Actually, the by far most awesome marker is someone with the Iron Man (all injury rolls are only stunned) Handicap result from LRB 4. I recently had this on a Skink, and used this Skink to mark a Claw-RSC-Tackle-Multiblock Monster for half game.
THE classic chainpush is the one countering the “mark-the-non-agile-player-so-he-can’t dodge-out-easily” ploy:
1,2 -> elf linemen
B -> low AG ball carrier
1
2B
As you explained there’s no way B can blitz himself out of this without making a dodge. But with 2 extra players a chain push can be set up to free B.
H = helping player on B’s team
First fill the free square for the push with one of your players:
1
H2B
Next blitz 1 from above (L = blitzing player on B’s team):
L
1
H2B
Hopefully, he gets a push+knockdown making the situation like this (L follows up, P = prone player 1, meaning no TZ):
L
H2P
B
B has been pushed an extra square closer to the EZ and is free to move without dodging (another option would be to push 1 into 2 and 2 out of B’s tz).
Thank you very much for this article Coach, this was a very weak part of my game, especially the marking stronger ballcarriers like in your CW example. I’m sure I’ll come read again for a quick recap at some point.
Redvenom, thanks for your tips on Chainpushing to free up a low agility ballcarrier. Very helpful.
Coach, I think you should attempt to write an article on chainpushing at some point. For many inexperienced players like me it is something we never use or spot and very frustrating when a more experienced player uses it against you.