frigidmagi wrote:The Imperial Guard are still the better army. Because they're not a bunch of communist smurfs.
Well yeah.
Necromunda conversion would rock, even if the one time I ever played it my stupid dude with the big gun got knocked off the tower in the first turn and had me scrambling like a hunted rat for the rest of the game.
But then my fairly limited exposure to GW tabletop has almost always turned on stupidly improbable events.
Josh, I'd be up for it if you don't mind random obscenities screamed during the game when my QB decides to disembowel himself on the ball when he picks it up.
Saint Annihilus - Patron Saint of Dealing with Stupid Customers
There are two primary modes of offense in this game: caging and passing/mobility. There's a spectrum between these, with most teams falling somewhere along it.
Caging is basically getting a wall of dudes around your ball carrier and bashing your way down the field, smashing anything that gets in your way. A simple basic cage consists of the ballcarrier and at least four other players in a checkerboard pattern with a strong guy on each corner, and others filling in the gaps as available.
Examples of teams that primarily run cages or work really well with them are the Dwarfs (pretty much all they do), Khemri (ditto), Orks, Chaos, Nurgle, Ogres, Undead (sorta). Beating cages typically consists of hitting them at a weak point, then widening the breach and surrounding the ballcarrier with hitters before splatting him. Easier than it sounds.
Then there's passing/mobility. These are teams that work best by spreading the field and avoiding contact with non-strength characters. The king example here would be the elves (all flavors) and skaven, who absolutely have to avoid the contact because of their fragile, high-speed characters. They move the ball by passing and handoffs and profit most when the opposition overcommits to one side of the field and can't catch up when they reverse field. The key to defending against mobility is to maintain a web of tackle zones for Hotfoot's attacks of opportunity. Make them make those dodge rolls continuously- an elf team will make most of them, but they only need to miss one and you have a turnover. Marking a mobility team is essential- even if you can't blitz or get a block in on them, make them choose between evading away (and risking a botched dodge) or stand still and risk getting flattened.
Other mobility teams include the Necromantic, halfings, and goblins.
Some teams fall toward the middle. The humans are perfectly in the middle of everything, capable of specializing toward a run-heavy style or a passing attack. They won't be nearly as bashy as the orks or killy as Chaos, or passy as Elves, but they have a degree of Swiss Army knife to them that keeps them competitive. Lizardmen are a strange one, because with their big Saurus they're built to cage, but skink to skink handoffs will blow the doors off of a defense. Norse are too fragile to cage, so they have to attack their way down the field decking everyone to stay in the game. Amazons can cage better than humans or Norse (especially with their starting skillset) but can also wing it out a bit.
Past that, the key strategy is this: if your opponent is going to score you want them to score quick and leave you plenty of time to answer. When it's your turn, you usually want to burn as much clock as you can before making the score. Against the AI it's pretty easy- if you are totally out of position and know they're going to get through in the next three turns, you might as well just veer off and let them have it. Do that to a human and they'll just sit on the ball until right before the end of the half.
I think my inexperience hurts me, but I also think that I probably should have spent more time in my years watching football so I might have a better understanding of football strategy
Saint Annihilus - Patron Saint of Dealing with Stupid Customers
Not so much. Blood Bowl is only very tentatively a football game, it's half rugby. There's all sorts of stuff that you don't consider in football, like how to properly cripple the other team and deplete their reserve players over the course of the game so that they're fielding less than a full squad by the end.
I think one of the problems the game has had is that there's a level of frustration from the learning curve that's easier to overcome on the tabletop because you have other players there to advise you, whereas with the solo play you're just wondering why the AI can make shit work when it seems like the player can't.
Okay, some points from observing Scottie that are generally helpful to newbs.
If at all possible, do not one-die block. Get more people in there if you can so you at least have two dice. If you can't, in most situations you're better off maintaining the stalemate than taking the odds on getting knocked down yourself and free up the other player.
Secondly, while there is a lot of dynamic action in the game and there are times when going kamikaze is called for, the main thing to remember is to use the time you have to set things up to improve your situation. It's perfectly fine to leave the ball on the ground for a couple of turns while you clear out the neighborhood and set up to move down the field. The game requires a mixture of patience and daring- you're maneuvering your players into position to strike with maximum effectiveness, and only with certain teams and certain playstyles does it really reward constant hell-bent-for-leather attacks on the ball and aggressive plunges down the field.
(Elves being the usual case for constant fast-moving aggression, as it happens. Skaven and Norse also.)
Anyway I have a test league set up, Libarc Alpha. Password is 'fuckit' and I'll approve anybody who signs up. I have no idea how to configure leagues as yet, so I didn't want to mess around championships and stuff. We can get into that later when we get our feet under us.
The loss to the hobbitses was entirely my fault. I failed to move my guy instead trying to free up my runner by taking out one of his blockers on a 1die roll. If I had tried to just run it and rely on elfy twinkletoe bullshit I had at least a fair chance of getting away and getting the TD. Instead I opted to try to smack the furfoot away and we both went down. Fortunately Josh's blocker failed his next roll and went down when he failed a dodge and ended the turn before he did anything real damaging. Then realizing I couldn't score (2 squares short) even on a long drive I said fuck it and took out my frustration at the tricksey hobbitses by stomping one into the ground until their skull caved.
But Josh is correct. I have a great newfound hatred for halfling twinkletoe runty bastard bullshit. Stunty dodges induced much hilarity and rage as they managed to nimbly move between lines and rows of dark elfs. I'm going that they coated themselves in grease from some roast or other and that was how they kept slipping away.
Saint Annihilus - Patron Saint of Dealing with Stupid Customers
Despite their spectacular and unlikely victory over the Dark Elves, none of my hobbits actually leveled. So they're a decent competitive match for a starting-level team.
I figure if we make a go of a league and all we'll just all start over. Hence the 'Libarc Alpha' for practice and figuring shit out.
