Frenzy Wardancer:
- Normal: Frenzy, Side Step, Tackle, Diving Tackle / Dauntless / Jump Up / Shadowing / Fend
- Doubles: Guard / Mighty Blow / Juggernaut
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV
As I mentioned on the previous page, Frenzy can open up some great opportunities for you and also give the opposing team something else to worry about. Leaping behind his players and then shoving one of them into the crowd is a very effective tactic. I’d be careful about doing it into cages or areas of heavy traffic, you don’t want to end up doing a second hit at a disadvantage if you can avoid it. The extra block from Frenzy will also let you knock over more opponents that you choose to target, especially against Block and Dodge players if you can’t get a Tackle player there easily. I’d go Side Step next so that you don’t have to worry about finishing on the sideline yourself too often (watch out for Grab players though). It can also prevent the other team hitting you, with Wardancers being hard to knock over, they don’t want to end up pushing you into a position where you can push them off the pitch, or open up their cage. After that the skills are much the same as the previous build.
Doubles again are similar, Guard will let you assist the Strip Ball build (bear in mind Guard players will tend to get hit more often though as they will usually be in an opposing tackle zone) and combos well with Side Step. Mighty Blow for the same as before and Juggernaut is also worth consideration. It can make crowd pushes even easier and also cancels out Wrestle, which is great for targeting fast light armoured players who have it. Stat increases follow the same observations as before as well.
Wood Elf Wardancer Summary:
So your most expensive player and in contention for the most annoying player to have to play against. With two at your disposal you can expect them to really be a thorn in the side of the opposing team. Learn when to put them at risk and when to keep back and you will get a lot of mileage out of them. Don’t worry too much about them getting killed, though if they do look to replace them as soon as you can. A rookie Wardancer is still a lot better than a lot of developed players from other teams. They can slot right back in from new and still be one of your most useful players. If you do get plenty of inducement money you can get an extra Apothecary (or two) and keep them in the game for even longer.
I don’t play the likes of elves very I often, so I very much consider dodgy teams “The Enemy”, and within there Wardancers are right at the top of the list.
I therefore couldn’t help but cackle with glee when reading a report from a game in one of the leagues over at Rock Paper Shotgun where a guy was playing as orcs and when he had the ball at one point the opposing woodies sent a wardancer downfield, past the orcs. The orc player promptly marched the majority of his team back down the field so he could blitz and gang-foul the wardancer into the injury list. 😀
You can reroll a failed leap with Pro can’t you?
You can yes, good point. You may find room to squeeze it in, generally though if I’m going to be doing a leap I will prefer to have a reroll handy for it. Not a big fan of Pro for what I consider a fairly crucial roll.
What do you give to your wardancer when you roll double 5 on your first skill roll?
I’d personally take Guard, though that is a good question to ask on the forum as there are a lot of options that could be worth discussion.
@ Konstantin I would take +Ma always, however on a normal double. I would take either MB or Guard, MB is possibly better as they will be doing most of your blitzes but you also desperately need guard on Elf teams to compete at a higher TV
I just wanted to say this: Wouldn’t you consider sure feet as a good skill for the ball hunter? Mine as Stripball and I went straight for Sure feet after ward. There is often a turn where the opponent doesn’t have a cage formed. I can use my ball hunter to jump over the defence and run after the ball carrier that way almost ALL of the time. This shift a lot of there energy to defend and take back the ball early in the drive. I don’t know, I find that Sure Feet with a potential +2 to movement for only 20TV is much better then a stat increase (well I don’t know how much is +MV). But if your playing MM (online) then it’s better for trimming TV, increase you threat range more (well not more but in a safer way at least). And allow you to threaten REALLY far.
It can be handy to have, though you have other fast players on your team. Sure Hands and Sure Feet on a Catcher may be better suited to collect the ball after knocking it free. While the situation you described it would be handy, I’d rather have Tackle and Side Step first as they are more use in many more situations and not just this one. Catchers also already have Sprint so also get more use out of Sure Feet, but generally most of the time in my opinion there are skills that are a higher priority and have less situational use. Wood Elves are the second fastest team, positioning isn’t something that is usually going to be an issue to need Sure Feet. Couple that with the fact you can use a team reroll as well, where other skills can’t be replicated in use and that is why I don’t recommend Sure Feet, at least not as an early skill choice.
Regarding building for MM, that is an unnatural environment that the Blood Bowl rules weren’t designed for. As such I don’t want to give specific advice based mainly on that environment. If you want to discuss skill choices on a team specifically for that environment in mind then start a thread with your team roster on it on the forum.
No one mentioned Jump Up for a non-Strip Ball build, but I find it awesome.
I’m currently playing a wood elves team with some experience on their backs (something like 8 games), and without realizing it (I just started playing BB) I skilled up one of my wardancers far more than the rest of the team, and my team is now a two-pieces always-winning team with some useless players round them, the two pieces are:
THROWER: accurate, strong arm
WARDANCER: +1 AG, +1 MA, Jump Up
Fairly often I can just send my WD trough the enemy lines, recover the ball (geeeez those Orcs just can’t hold it) and score a TD in two turns; of course the enemy will blitz me in order to prevent the TD, but because of block and dodge the chances of having me face down are kinda low, and Jump Up allows me to use my full 9 units of MA to recover my ball (once again) and fly for the TD ^^
Same thing goes for attack schemes (I have the ball in my hands from the start, I throw some passes for the lulz – and advancements, then send my WD as mentioned earlier).
Whoops, the skill is actually mentioned…well I’d put more attention on it! xD
Haven’t had too much experience with playing Woodies myself (though quite some experience playing against them), yet, I’d like to share one thought:
I feel like on rolling doubles Grab is a very good skill for a blitzing/ball-loosening Wardancer. It enables you to control where the ball gets loose if you attack an incomplete cage, which is useful because you probably neither want to pick it up with your blitzer (for two reasons: first, avoiding to move into a half-formed cage, which might result in getting beaten up badly and second, because you probably want to move the ball out of the cage and cannot perform another action, that is a hand-off or pass, with the guy that blitzed) nor want it to rest within the cage or be caught by another player of the other team. Yet, thats what your in for, quite often, as your movement and the leaping skill tempt you often enough to attack from the unprotected side of a forming cage, thus pushing the ball-carrier towards his teammates. With grab you can instead choose to pull the ball-carrier out of its cage, meaning he will (hopefully) loose the ball out in the open space where it’s easy to fetch for your catchers. Plus, Grab is obviously useful for easier blocking chain arrangements, to move some new fodder to your treeman when he’s taken root, to push opponents towards the sideline, and from time to time it’s even nice (though that’s rather rare with an extra mobile Player of mediocre strength and inferior protection like those Dancers) to be able to keep an opponent’s catcher or runner (think Skaven, Elves or passing-game Humans) at bay.
I’m currently trying this (skipped +MA in favor of the double) at the PC game, but as it’s in single-player there’s no challenge anyway and any inferences on how it would work out normally are pretty much hypothetical and presumptous, which is, why I ask:
Any opinions on this, coach?
Grab when used in a Blitz action only cancels Side Step. It doesn’t let you choose any of the free squares to push the opposing player back into. Also there are more useful skills to take on a double, Mighty Blow, Guard etc. If you could chain push one of your players who does have Grab (typically your Treeman) then he may be able to Grab the ball carrier out, but cages are often formed where this isn’t ever going to be possible.
Another point is that Frenzy is fairly popular on Wardancers, you can’t have both Grab and Frenzy on the same player.
Darn. Would have been nice, though.
Thanks for the quick reply and the rules reminder. Clearly there is no great use in having it on a WD, then.
You forgot to list Juggernaut as a key double for the Strip Ball Wardancer. This combines very well with Strip Ball as you can treat a Both Down result as Pushed (i.e. ball popped loose!), even if the opponent has Block or Wrestle. That is very useful – basically you always have a 5/6 chance of popping the ball on each dice, unless your opponent has Sure Hands.