Norse Yhetee / Snow Troll Overview:
The Snow Troll has replaced the Minotaur that Norse teams were previously able to field on their team. They have some similarities but also some differences that perhaps make them more useful. A Snow Troll is strong, with slightly below average movement, low agility and average armour. Like all big guys they are hampered by being unreliable and only access to strength skills, they aren’t the cheapest of players either.
Unlike most other big guys they lack Mighty Blow but start instead with Claws, making them more of a threat to high armoured teams. Similar to a Minotaur they also have Wild Animal and Frenzy but they also come with the unusual Disturbing Presence which can also help out against passing plays.
Given the low armour and general hitting nature of a Norse team, a Snow Troll gives them a bit more backbone and someone to soak up some hits. Their lower than usual armour for a a big guy means they aren’t quite as proficient as others are for this role, but it is better than nothing. Staying in base contact with opponents also means they are less likely to become useless due to Wild Animal. Alternatively with Claws and Frenzy they can be used more in a blitzing role, though frequently on a Norse team there are probably better blitzing opportunities with your other players.
Supporting Yhetee / Snow Troll:
- Normal: Mighty Blow, Guard, Stand Firm, Juggernaut / Break Tackle
- Doubles: Block / Pro
- Stat Increase: +ST +MV / +AV
I would think that nearly everyone on the first normal skill for a Snow Troll is going to take Mighty Blow. Combined with Claws it makes them really good at removing any player they knock over from the pitch, as well as speeding up their development for further skills. After that I think the wisest choice is probably Guard, Norse are usually a hitting team and only have a maximum of five players who can take Guard naturally. If you are using them to stay next to opponents as well then having Guard is a great help. I would probably follow that up with Stand Firm, it combines really well with Guard and also means the opposing team can’t just try and push him out of contact. Stand Firm can also open up more crowd pushing situations when you would be left exposed on the side line yourself afterwards.
Juggernaut can be a useful skill to have, though it only applies if you blitz with him fairly often. It will help negate the lack of Block and also cancels out Wrestle and Fend so means you can always get that second Frenzy hit in if you need it (when blitzing). Break Tackle is also worth weighing up so you can move him where he is best needed and can help against getting marked out the game. Again it is more useful for a blitzing action as Wild Animal will cause you to lose half of your attempted move actions. Grab would be great but as they have Frenzy they can’t take it.
For doubles there is the usual big guy toss up of Block or Pro. I think I would prefer Block as it lets you do far more reliable hitting with them and if you do fail Wild Animal you don’t lose his tackle zone like with other negative traits. Which ever you don’t choose though I would take the other if you rolled a further double. For stat increases strength can be great to have though give some thought to taking Block instead. Agility is rather wasted so don’t bother. For the roll of a 10, take a double skill on a 5,5 otherwise early on I would perhaps skip either available stat. Late on (I think skills are more useful early in development) extra movement could be useful, though if you are using them to mark up and take hits then perhaps the armour increase may be of benefit. In a long term league you can take them earlier just understand it can slow their development down.
Norse Yhetee / Snow Troll Summary:
While not every Norse team may start with a Snow Troll, I would think most teams would hire one at some point. Even with a Snow Troll a Norse side is still out muscled by nearly every other bash style race. They are a bit more fragile than most big guys with their average armour and also neither Thick Skull or Regeneration. You should bear this in mind when playing, though also remember that no player is bigger than the team and if sticking him somewhere dangerous gets you a win, then I would still do it.
Disturbing Presence is also handy to have though it can be hard to get it where it is most effective. Wild Animal and low agility makes moving them somewhat tricky, though be aware that a blitz could get them where you wanted if you can spare it. Do pay attention to Frenzy though as forced follow ups can still cause you to have to dodge if the opponent thought of that. A Snow Troll is very much geared up towards hitting opponents and I think their best application for both themselves and towards the team is to utilise them as such.
‘no player is bigger than the team’
Haha! Good work getting this classic (association) football punditry truism onto the site, Coach. And bonus points for combining it with a pun 🙂
The article itself is comprehensive, and has even caused me to reappraise the relationship of Frenzy, Juggernaut and Stand Firm to the role of non-big guy Blitzers (I’m currently playing with Humans and Orcs, where they’re the key players both on the pitch and in development terms). So this sort of stuff is useful indeed.
Yhetee took the spot for the worst big guy, in my books. Norse have other, a lot more reliable people to blitz with, and Yhetee’s AV8 + no Thick Skull + no Regen makes him so frail that he doesn’t work as a meatwall either.
The worst Big Guy would undoubtedly be the dwarf Deathroller(Secret Weapon big guy).
After all, Wild Animal can be annoying, but if triggered, will not lose you neither a tacklezone nor Guard.
With MB as first skill it will eat th LOS for lunch. True, it is one is the lowest AV around, and with lack of regeneration is certainly making it a liability. But its fun, and did i already say you will lose at most a block blitz, but not the very important tacklezone?
I have found that Norse lineman will work as meatwall, no dodge, but all come with block. With MB and Pilling On its the biggest foul magnate around, but if you like 3 dice blocks (usefull due to not having block) then the amount of assists is usually limited.
I have seen a SnowTroll make a cas a game AND a failed foul a game. 2 players out on average due to just one player is certainly worth the money. It does depend on what you are playing against.
The writer is right about one thing, no NOT place it on the LOS, its not safe there.
Also a rogue lonely ST5 player is unlikely to be a main target for blitzes, if its not on the LOS. This deselection of it as a target is important to its surviverability.
But worst BG? no way
One thing I don’t understand:
“Do pay attention to Frenzy though as forced follow ups can still cause you to have to dodge if the opponent thought of that”.
What do you mean by this? Are you talking about moving the player in consecutive turns, and the risk of locking him up in tackle zones because of frenzy? Or are you talking about having to make Dodge rolls on the second Frenzy block? Because that’s not really the case is it..? You don’t have to dodge when you follow up on blocks…
It is quite common for players to use a blitz action to hit an opponent they are next to in order to push them away. They are then free to move elsewhere without a dodge if they don’t follow up, if you have Frenzy you have to follow up so then you need to knock that player over. If you just got a push back then you have to follow up and would still then have to roll to dodge away.
I faced a Str 6, MB Yhettee with my Khemri team yesterday. So terrifying!! I would always take +str over block for a big guy with claw as it allows you to dominate str 5 opponents. Also lack of block can be partly compensated for with juggernaut.
When I played my Norse (not quite a lot)on defence and got marked I normally tried to Frenzy the marking player to one of the flanks.
Pushing him out of bounce when my opponent tries to steal some turns by not scoring. With Disturbing Presence it also makes ist harder for my opponent to pass on that side so most people try to use the other flank or throw from the middle with a chance of interception for me. Playing against a passing Team at least.
Whilst blitzing is the best use for Mr Yhetee, all mine are used by my ulfwereners or tackling linesmen/berserkers. Without the blitz, the only use I have fond is to give him guard then stick him on the LoS and get in the way.
Most of my actual fighting is done around the wings. The centre is just there to tie people up until I can get behind them or get nnerical advantage. Guard yhetee is perfect for this.
I think the yhetee should take AV asap! It helps keep this big guy alive! But Mighty Blow and Block are my first choices always if I get doubles it has to be block if I don’t its mighty blow unless AV comes.
The Yhetee can be unreliable, but in my opinion, he is absolutely vital to norse teams. I always include this guy on a starting roster. Once he gains mighty blow and guard, he is enormously useful. Any strength 5 guard is useful, but combined with claw/mighy blow he will remove players from the pitch.
In my private league, over 7 games my Yhetee leads the league with 9 casualties, as a measuring device, the #2 most violent player has 4 casualties… In addition to the 9 casualties he causes a multitude of KO’s on a game to game basis.
I usually try to keep the yhetee from getting hit very often and I only move him into contact with enemies who are unlikely to knock him over.
Many times playing norse can feel like a race to remove the enemy from the pitch before your team gets removed. This is the reality of playing a norse team, and the Yhetee is great at removing people from the pitch while also giving a strength 5 guard so that other players can better remove players from the pitch.
I think Juggernaut is a crucial skill for the yhetee because if he gets knocked down, the only way to get up and minimize ‘Wild Animal’ is to Blitz and blitzing with juggernaut means not getting knocked down on a ‘both down’ roll
I don’t see why people think the yhettee is bad. Sure, he starts with claw instead of MB, but your first skill is obviously gonna be MB, giving you a sweet combo. Its a sweet combo that only a small minority can take, so I’d say starting with claws is a net gain over time.
Sure, he only has AV 8, but all his opponents will have AV 7. Once he levels up, he will dominate nearly every other big guy with his MB + Claws combo.
Getting disturbing presence on top of all that is just pure win.
I would say he’s second BEST big guy, second only the chaos Mino.
since with norse you either get the initiative or lose and yhettee beeing the best tool to remove players from the pich, i always include him in the starting roster.
very helpful against dwarfs/chaos/orcs
Hi Coach, I suspect you’ve already responded to this, but I believe you are incorrect about the Yhettee having to dodge out of a square to perform his mandatory follow up with Frenzy. This is page 10 from LRB5:
“This move [follow up after a push] is free, and the player can ignore enemy tackle zones when he makes the move (i.e., he does not have to dodge to enter the square).”
Reading back what I typed it perhaps wasn’t the clearest way of putting what I meant. You aren’t forced to dodge as you read it, but opponents can mark him with a player and then place team mates so that you can’t just block the marking guy away and be free to move as the forced follow up will put you in the tackle zone of another of their team mates. Hope that clears it up for you, apologies for the confusion.
I think the Yhetee is a great facet of the norse team, but I wouldn’t take him as part of the starting line up. You can get a positional and a lineman or a positional and an apothecary for the saqme money, and keeping players on the pitch is essential early in developement!
I’d pick up the yethee as player 12 probably. Early on you have enough block that you really don’t need his extra power (no one has gaurd or block on thier str 4 guys yet) but as they start to get those skills, your yethee comes in.
i think you really have to sell out with your Yethee. mine uses my blitz probably 60% of the time. He was the cas leader of my divison, and second in my league of 48 teams last season, and is second so far this season with 14 over 10 games. There are games where hes a big bag of useless, but there are also games where he decimates the opponent and takes out thier killers.
Mine got block as his first skill though so i’m a bit skewed on how useful he is as hes way safer than the average Yethee. he’s level 6 now (and the best looking big guy in the game in my opinion) and has block ,guard, mb, piling on and break tackle. He scares the crap out of most teams who spend a fair amount of time trying to foul him out when/if he piles on, which is OK as a) he’s tougher than the zerkers and b) he tends to get them to use thier blitz on his protector linemen to try and get a better foul on him, meaning again my more important guys don’t eat the blitz. I always pair him with a gaurd lineman or two, and that makes it hard for oppoents to get more than a few extra foulers on him and thus far he’s been great!
Well,
I would rank the Yhetee below Big Guys with Av9 and access to mutations, and below the Kroxigor, however he is a great deterent value on the pitch.
He can for example protect your LOS dudes by being one field back of them.
If someone blocks your LOS and follows up, they end up next to the Yhetee, and that is likely going to hurt.
as far as i know, there is exactly 1 big guy with both av9 and access to mutations on normal rolls, and the underworld team has other problems.
The kroxigor is good no doubt, but when the yhetee and the krox meet in a face off. The yhetee is gonna win. The claws mighty blow combo is just that good.
I bet my recent Norse opponent loved his Yhetee. Until I decided to put my two Assassins next to it. AV8 on an expensive big guy? Got to love that… if you’re a Dark Elf.
I do not think the Yhetee is suited for a role as road block – with AV8 he has a notable disadvantage against the other big guys in a big brawl. And even if he can block, frenzy could draw him behind the front line making him vulnerable with bad odds at a second roll or a gang foul in the next turn.
So I use him as blitzer. I started with MB, followed up by Juggernaut to avoid RRs. Afterwards I took PO to max his damaging potential when he is hitting. When doubles followed I gave him Pro instead of Block because it makes him more reliable when a blitz is needed – and with ST5 he is not so often targeted, as he is not going to the real tough places. With norse, you cannot win these fights in any case.
As a 6th skill I got +ST. With Claw, MB, PO, Frenzy, Juggernaut my Yhetee makes even the toughest chaos-ultrabashers nervous and he causes heaps of casualties. Even with added strength he is too much an asset to join heavy fighting, and you have to think twice before using PO – that killer is bound to be targeted by foulers if he gives away any chances.
So far I am contend with my decision to give him Pro instead of block, but that is only because he already got Juggernaut – at an early double I would probably give him block too.
I bet he was glad you went after AV8 instead of AV7 players…
I love the Yhetee with MB PO. Its powerfull, clears roadblocks due to its claw.
I made a Yhetee with MB,PO Guard, Juggernaut who is the league’s Casualty Machine. I am not saying that its the Best ever. But I think Wild Animal is the best nega trait available, at least your tacklezone remains. if you have enough assists, you can get 3 dice block easy, advantage to preventing the opposing player to have players…. but also to counter assists on fouls. a 30% on removing players is always a good deal.
Combine that with some PO/MB blitzers and although your opponant may have plenty of targets to foul, he wont get much assist to foul effectivly. It all works to minimize the players on the pitch. There are definitife downsides, Glass house and all, but norse are great on the lower levels and a loner lineman with block is not really a problem… Norse is special(negative and positive), and i kinda miss that in the above review