Post by Hudd on Jun 24, 2015 20:45:15 GMT
Made my own thread for this:
The last 2 bits. 1st of all, leaping elves are lizzie nightmare - the most difficult match ups to win. And making your cage leap proof is just not possible. What you can do is to make the blitz 1d and make the recovery of the ball very difficult.
Let's look at this from elves point of view. What I try against cages is to get 2-3 guys behind the main line columning and screening in front of that line. When the switch to 1 side happens, I can box the tight formation to 1 side where maintaining solid columns/screen is possible with less guys if some attrition is taken. And when the cage gets stuck, I'll swarm. Tag some saurii if necessary and make the leap and hope for a good scatter. And since I have guys behind the lines, lizzie ball scooping can be quite difficult even if elves don't get the pigskin. Even if lizzies escape from that 1 side, they usually have to reform using skinks as cage corners and that is way more easy to break while many bigger guys are still stuck on 1 side.
So, how I try to counter that. I try to keep the cage pretty tight in the middle. Back of the cage can be manned with skinks. Keep maybe 2 saurii on both flanks of the cage in such manner that elfies can't easily get (without dodging or blitzing a saurus) to my back. Skinks can help that screening. That will also prevent getting tying assists on the sides. So leap has to be from front with no good expoiting possibilities. Krox (well, a saurus as well) can even run a bit in front of the cage to provide frontal screen and to make getting those assists more difficult. It's worth noting that your guard pieces have to be properly positioned in the cage to prevent 2d blitzes.
Eventually elves will penetrate tho. Then I tend to switch. The side screening lizzies on 1 side should be pretty free tho to start a new cage. But usually at this point some elf attrition has struck and that's when I usually look to charge thru. Deep enough to get your BC into scoring range. After that I try to grow a big blob with double screens if possible and slowly grind closer to EZ before last ditch sprint for TD.
Let's look at this from elves point of view. What I try against cages is to get 2-3 guys behind the main line columning and screening in front of that line. When the switch to 1 side happens, I can box the tight formation to 1 side where maintaining solid columns/screen is possible with less guys if some attrition is taken. And when the cage gets stuck, I'll swarm. Tag some saurii if necessary and make the leap and hope for a good scatter. And since I have guys behind the lines, lizzie ball scooping can be quite difficult even if elves don't get the pigskin. Even if lizzies escape from that 1 side, they usually have to reform using skinks as cage corners and that is way more easy to break while many bigger guys are still stuck on 1 side.
So, how I try to counter that. I try to keep the cage pretty tight in the middle. Back of the cage can be manned with skinks. Keep maybe 2 saurii on both flanks of the cage in such manner that elfies can't easily get (without dodging or blitzing a saurus) to my back. Skinks can help that screening. That will also prevent getting tying assists on the sides. So leap has to be from front with no good expoiting possibilities. Krox (well, a saurus as well) can even run a bit in front of the cage to provide frontal screen and to make getting those assists more difficult. It's worth noting that your guard pieces have to be properly positioned in the cage to prevent 2d blitzes.
Eventually elves will penetrate tho. Then I tend to switch. The side screening lizzies on 1 side should be pretty free tho to start a new cage. But usually at this point some elf attrition has struck and that's when I usually look to charge thru. Deep enough to get your BC into scoring range. After that I try to grow a big blob with double screens if possible and slowly grind closer to EZ before last ditch sprint for TD.
X..X.X..X
....Z
X..Y.Y..X
Where X is my Saurus / Krox
Y is skinks
Z is ball carrier skinks
I do my best to screen my cage
I am 4-2-2 (despite my rubbish play) and need a win to guarantee promotion to the second tier of OCC. And I got the 4th place Wood Elves last game... (Phototropia)
I have got some guard now at last, and his wardancers are only S3, so I am feeling confident about holding him off - if not about advancing this monstrous cage forwards...