Post by gone on Aug 23, 2015 6:27:07 GMT
Dwarves
abbreviations
mvp = most valuable player
re-rolls = RR
spp = star player points
st = strength
ag = agility
TD = TouchDown
Team Play: Dwarves are the worst team for passing the ball, but the best for running it! Generally, they rely on beating on the opponent while trying to move the ball up the pitch to score TD's and a very tough team for those that will try to run it against them. However, with fast moving teams such as Wood Elves or Skaven, Dwarves can find themselves in trouble in regards to winning games if they aren't careful!
Dwarves rely on shear brutality, but they ain't got no speed. Getting tied up in the melee of things may be good for casualties, but it won't win you games.
Offensively, you want to create a box around your ball carrier and proceed up the pitch always protecting the ball. If the ball somehow comes loose, you may find the enemy with it waiting a few turns at your endzone before scoring. PROTECT THE BALL! Passing should be the last thing on your mind as Dwarves simply do not have the agility to make a pass remotely reliable under any circumstance!
Defensively, don't get bogged down unable to move against the opponent! Having players play as a safety role is vital in attempting to stop high agile or fast moving teams! Even then, its not always a guarantee! If your players are together, fast moving teams will get the advantage picking off one straggler and zipping right past you with the ball. So try and keep your players playing zone coverage to help avoid that! The idea is to surround the ball and bash your way in to get it from the opponent!
Overall, Dwarves are relatively boring because of their movement! Many o' players don't like playing them or playing against them. And they have the right to feel that way due to how strong and slow the Dwarves are. If you like the idea of Dwarves in regards to being brutal but don't like how slow they are, feel free to check out the Norse teams. They are faster and have different looking players, but they come with a cost of way lower in armor value!
Team Build Starting out:
2 Troll Slayers (180k)
2 Blitzers (160k)
2 Runners (160k)
5 Blockers (350k)
3 RR (150k)
Apothecaries are usually the last concern to get for a rookie team for me. Apothecaries do not go up in price and aren't that expensive to get. Generally, you should be able to get one within the first 2 games unless you are extremely unlucky for money rolls. So, instead of getting an apothecary when building your team, your money will be better spent on getting another RR. RR's get doubled to buy once you play your first game. This will help make it easier to build your team.
I get all the higher "speedy" guys first. Odds are that they will be the ones that are the ball chasers while the slower ones will be used to tie up opponents elsewhere. So it is kind of important to get them leveled up and getting those mvp's right away!
Team Build during rookie time:
With a new team, my focus would be to get an apothecary right away. Then replace any player that I lost or retired due to injury that have a movement faster than 4. I generally don't replace Blockers until I get the Deathroller as Blockers are replaced with hired help if you are short of players for matches. Once I have enough money, I get the Deathroller. After that, then I find replacements for my Blockers. Getting money for this team should be easier than most other teams due to the high armor values and less chances of being injured.
Now, on to each type of player.
Runners
Stat increases:
Strength = maybe
Agility = always
Movement = never
Armor = never
Skill increases:
1) Wrestle
2) Dump Off
3) Nerves of Steel
4) Accurate/+1 Agility
5) Hail Mary Pass
6) Leader/Pass/Tackle/Kick/Kick Off Return
If you get an agility stat increase, take it. Dwarves have a bigger lack of it and would benefit from their ball carrier having a higher agility greatly! If you do get one, take out the accurate ability above in replacement of it! If you get it as one of the first three rolls, take it and simply move the other skills down the ladder a notch. If your lucky and get doubles, dodge would be an excellent choice. Just simply move the ladder down a notch from when you get it (I would take agility stat increase first though, then dodge)!
Explanation:
Runners are pretty much your ball carries and possibly your safeties as they are the fastest moving player on your team with normal agility. With a starting skill of sure hands, this also makes them more reliable in which to pick up the ball. Also, they will find themselves in the role of playing safeties often. Because of this, wrestle helps ensure that they can get the ball out of the opponent's hands. You could swap wrestle with strip ball, but you will then lose not only a defensive ability as well because wrestle helps minimize possible chances of being injured, but also Strip Ball can be negated by Sure Hands! So I usually choose Wrestle. Dump Off ability works well for the just in case situations that you may find yourself in. Nerves of Steel helps with Dump Off. So does +1 agility and accurate. Hail Mary Pass helps with getting the ball out of possibly bad situations where the opponent might threaten a chance to score. The last skill can be whatever you choose. Pick whatever fits you the best! The skills I mention for level 6 are what I find most useful. And I never choose the same one for both Runners. Up to you though!
I don't have any variances with Runners as any other ideas that I have tried out doesn't work well for my ball carriers.
Blitzers
Stat increases:
Strength = maybe
Agility = maybe
Movement = always
Armor = never
Skill increases:
1) Guard/Tackle
2) Guard/Tackle
3) Mighty Blow
4) Piling On
5) Grab
6) ?
Explanation:
Blitzers are your faster moving guys. They will probably be the ones to do the blitzing as their speed will be more useful in which to do this. This seems to be the most common build. Guard to strengthen your other players, Tackle to help knocking over any dodge bastards, Mighty Blow in hopes of increasing odds to hurt them, Piling On to increase odds even more to hurt them, and Grab to control where your opponent gets knocked back or to stop them using Side Step. These guys that follow the above chain of skills are my focused pounders. If you get a movement up, take it! Having a faster blitzer can't hurt for your defense! If you do get one, move the ladder down a notch from when you got it. If you get a strength stat increase, take Dauntless off the list! You won't need it... But if you are concerned about your tv and wish to keep it low with higher skilled players, don't get any stat increase. Strength and Agility are both 50k each and a normal skill is 20k. And since you are playing Dwarves, you might find that having a higher tv might get you into trouble considering pre-game inducements! Something you may wish to consider.
Various Builds:
----------1--------------------2-----------------3------
1) Mighty Blow-----1) Guard --------------1) Grab
2) Piling On---------2) Mighty Blow-------2) Guard
3) Grab-------------3) Piling On------------3) Mighty Blow
4) Tackle------------4) Grab---------------4) Piling On
5) Stand Firm------5) Jump Up (doubles)-5) Dodge
6) Shadowing-------6) Pass Block---------6) Tackle
Category 1 focuses on making the players dig graves for their players and helps gain spp's faster. Shadowing is there only if you fail to knock the opponent over and if they are more than likely to try and dodge out of your tackle zone after (of which Stand Firm helps a bit with that).
Category 2 is a cross between functionality and gaining spp's faster. Jump up to keep his mobility in play. And Pass Block for doing something that the opponent may not see coming (even if it more than likely does not cause a turnover). More of a fun build than a serious one.
Category 3 focuses mainly on positioning the opponents to where you want them. Dodge helps keep him from being tied up!
You only get two of these guys. So make your choice carefully when picking skills. Just keep in mind that your Blockers get the same skill categories, but have less movement and agility! So the Blitzers are the ones that will be moving around the pitch a lot more! So try and use that to "make up" for what you lack in the Blockers!
Troll Slayers
Stat Increases:
Strength = Always
Agility = never
Movement = always
Armor = doubtful
Skill Increases:
Same as Blitzers except I replace Grab with Juggernaut since they have Frenzy and cannot use Grab.
Explanation:
These guys are pretty much the same as Blitzers in regards to what skills I would choose for them. With a lower armor value and less agility trading in for Frenzy and Dauntless, I generally only block with these guys when I can be sure of having 2 die blocks or when in a dire situation to make a single die block. These guys are also good to handle opponent's big guys with minimal support, but that is only often, so don't do it too much without support! If you are not careful with these guys, these guys can be the bulk of your turnovers because of frenzy or failed dauntless rolls. So calculate if he's worth using at that time and whether its worth the risk! With a speed that matches Blitzers, these guys are also often blitzing!
Blockers
Stat increases:
Strength = maybe
Agility = never
Movement = never
Armor = never
Skill increases:
1) Guard/Grab
2) Guard/Grab
3) Mighty Blow
4) Stand Firm
5) Piling On
6) Sure Feet
Explanation:
These guys are your front-line warriors! They will get pounded on the most and also do a lot of pounding! Add in being able to re-position the opponent's players to maximize pounding from other of your players and you've got a pretty lethal combination going! I usually go back and forth between Guard and Grab amongst my Blockers! Guard to help minimize an opponent's offensive and Grab to maximize both my defense and offense! Sure Feet I pick later on, but it can be and probably should be moved further up the ladder as more often than not, you will be moving those extra squares to get them where they need to get to! And it is a doubles roll, so you may not get it either. But if you do this, leveling them up will take longer. I have tried other variances for Blockers, but I find the above most useful. You could switch Sure Feet out with other abilities like Dauntless, Break Tackle, Dirty Player, or even Pass Block if you haven't rolled doubles. Or take Jump Up instead of Sure Feet when you do get doubles. Whatever way suits you.
Deathroller
Stat increases:
Strength = none
Agility = pointless
Movement = always
Armor = very near pointless if not already pointless. Not sure if armor 10 is max in the game.
Skill increases:
1) Multiple Block
2) Grab
3) Guard
4+) Pray for doubles!
Deathrollers already have the better skills from the strength category, so options are limited with them. If you get doubles, get Block. Then Pro, Frenzy, and/or Tackle. After that...wait...there is no after that! That is pretty much it for these guys. These guys are the strongest in the league and beyond worth of what they cost. There is only one major little itty bitty teeny tiny problem...you only get them for the first drive of the game without a Bribe the Ref inducement or kick off result. If you receive the ball first, great! This will allow maximum time in which to utilize this guy before the Deathroller gets ejected provided that you PROTECT THE BALL! If you are on defense, keep him in the middle to help with stopping the opponent from going left to right on the pitch! Chances are that the Deathroller will always be in tackle zones and tied up, so getting Pro just in case you fail a dodge roll will help tremendously against that Loner drawback from sucking away your team RR's!
How to play Dwarves:
Offensively, use your Blitzers, Deathroller, or Troll Slayers to open up gaps in the opponent's defense. And use your Blockers to defend the ball carrier and/or use as fodder. Your objective is to cause as much bloodshed on your way to scoring a TD. More often than not, you won't be able to score more than one TD a half. So if you are getting near the end-zone, you may wish to wait until later to score to cause more casualties on the opponent! JUST MAKE SURE YOU PROTECT THE BALL! Protecting the ball is the number one priority and is a very big concern as you are not a fast moving or high agile team! And any smart opponent will capitalize on that fact if you allow them to. Basically the same concept against bash teams too. Dwarves are one of the best at that game, so don't shy from it!
Defensively, let your opponents make the mistakes trying to get the ball past you. Don't get all bunched up until you secured the ball (ie: have it picked up by a player of your team). Just about any team out there will have a higher agility than you and are more likely to get the ball moving. So you need to keep your players available to cover as much pitch as they can that the opponent can reach! This will help with high agile teams to minimize their success of throwing the ball and running right past ya! Against other bash teams, you can effectively slow the opponent down greatly and make them panic. Other bash teams don't like the idea of being surrounded as this limits their movement to gaining advantages. Just make sure they don't have a fast little f***er that can sneak by with the ball!
Overall, this is the only team I would consider letting the opponent receive first. That way, you scoring a TD in the second half might be easier as they should have less players on the pitch! However, you do give them the first strikes of the game. Which you should be able to take it unless playing against claw/mighty blow combo!
This team is generally good for beginner players to learn more about the game fundamentals such as assists in blocks, how to run the ball protected, and to know how dangerous it is to be another team playing against them!