Wrestle

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rolo
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Re: Wrestle

Post by rolo »

Dwarves hate Wrestle. When they hit a wrestler, they'll almost always take a push over both-down. They also generally have more Guard than you do; sometimes your best move is a 1d bock against a guarder. This is worth taking if a push is "good" to move the Guard out of position and gets you more, better blocks. Wrestle turns 4 "good" results on the die into 5.

The obvious use is hitting a ball carrier, who will almost always have Block.

An underrated aspect is that an attacker getting wrestled down ends his movement. If an opponent needs to blitz a wrestler out of the way and continue moving, Wrestle puts him on the ground. I've seen opponents use rerolls to avoid that, which just makes you smile inside.
Not to mention that if a ball carrier gets wrestled down, it's a turnover! So marking a ball carrier with a wrestler, even if you didn't take him down, makes it riskier for the ball carrier to just blitz himself free. If your marker had Block, the ball carrier could accept Both-Down and then dodge.

In my experience:
Wrestle is better on players who focus on taking opponents down (Sackers, some front line players, players on teams who foul a lot), especially fast players who don't mind the 3 movement to get up, and especially players with Jump Up.
Block is better on players who prefer standing up, either because they have skills which work when standing (Guard, Diving Tackle, Prehensile Tail), Ball Carriers, slow players, or players who sometimes have problems taking a move action to stand up after using wrestle (Big Guys, Vampires, etc).

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Jip
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Re: Wrestle

Post by Jip »

Here's one for the hivemind then - I play Norse.

As everyone but the Ulfwerners and the Yhetee come with Block, my only sensible options for Wrestle are players who already have Block. The Yhetee isn't a go'er (for obvious reasons). Having recently skilled up my second (the first has Block) Ulf, I just couldn't bring myself to give him anything but Block.

So, is there a place on the Norse team for a Wrock (that's definitely not going to catch on, is it!) player?

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rolo
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Re: Wrestle

Post by rolo »

I've taken a Wrestle wolf in tournament play before. In theory, I can see how a Wrestle/Tackle/Break Tackle Wolf would be an excellent sweeper/emergency blitzer in League play, but I've never gotten there in practice.

I think a Norse lineman with Block/Wrestle isn't terrible, it's just hard to take when you so desperately need Tackle, Kick, Dirty Player ...
The obvious benefit is when getting hit, you get to decide what skill to use and which not to use - after your opponent chooses what the block die result is. So if your opponent chooses Both Down, you can inform him that you are choosing to use Wrestle and not Block, and he can't go back and pick a different result.
But the huge benefit of having either Block or Wrestle is that it makes the Both-Down result "Safe". Once you already have one, the marginal tactical benefit of choosing the other probably isn't as good as the team value hit, or the opportunity cost of another skill.

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dode74
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Re: Wrestle

Post by dode74 »

Jip wrote:Wrock (that's definitely not going to catch on, is it!)
I prefer "Brestle". It sounds... snugglier.

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Re: Wrestle

Post by mawph »

After arguing for a Wrestle Wolf in tournament play, for league play I'd definitely go with Block. Given the follow up skill options, I'd struggle to take anything else (although rolo's suggested tri-skill wolf is good, I'd probably want Block, MB and Guard for a 3 skill one).

While comments about Norse Lineman skills are valid, they don't really have many options to take, so wrestle seems sensible if you've already got enough tackle, dirty player and a kicker (if that's what you like - I'm not sure how much value you'd get out of kick with Norse).

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