High Elf skill choice

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 9:03 pm

On an Elf team it's a bit of a waste. Leaders are golden when you have to deal with Big Guys, though.

wesleytj · Post by **wesleytj** » Thu Mar 13, 2003 10:51 pm

Grumbledook wrote:ive always thought leader was a waste of a skill, certainly a waste of a double roll, there are far more useful skills to take

it depends...if your team has a lot more skills than it has money, and you already have enough guard then leader is a good choice.

generally i wouldn't waste a doubles on it either tho. when it was a general skill it was worth it to have one guy with it...now it isn't.

Fronko · Post by **Fronko** » Fri Mar 14, 2003 8:29 am

I believe leader is a valuable asset. With the elves lack of money an additional RR comes in very handy. I consider having 5 or 6 RR = being on the safe side. You´ll rarely need all 8 of them, but having 6+ provides a good safety net.
With expensive elves even 6 RR are a long way to go. So, I suggest take a leader and then drop him, if you got the RR you need, replacing him with a fresh one. That one extra RR (for me) pays up for that "wasted" player.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Fri Mar 14, 2003 10:05 am

Grumbledook wrote:ive always thought leader was a waste of a skill, certainly a waste of a double roll, there are far more useful skills to take

Agreed - unless you've got a Big Guy.

Korhil · Post by **Korhil** » Mon Mar 17, 2003 3:43 am

And I'd definatively choose sure hands before accurate on the thrower.

???
Accurate should be the first skill for any Elven Thrower, and pretty much the first skill for any Thrower but the Norse or Amazon ones.
Its means hes useful in getting to the 2nd skill.
And with Elves you want to try end up with a Strong Arm/Accurate Thrower, if you take Surehands first, you've just made that harder/further away.

That, and how often do you pick up with your Thrower?
Get a Line Elf to pick up and pass to him early on so they get skills, later on you have enough RR's for it to not matter, given its a 2+.

---Korhil

Fronko · Post by **Fronko** » Mon Mar 17, 2003 10:58 am

I wouldn't want to have an accurate + strong arm elven thrower!

I mean, with accurate alone, he'd be 2+, 2+, 3+, 4+ for quick/short/long/bomb. Let's face it, you'll hardly ever have to throw long bombs with an elven thrower. You have enough movment to avoid that. You are probably better off, short passing it to a nearby pal and then move/handoff the ball to the original receiver.

And for those occasional long passes? Well, a 3+ with skill reroll is not so bad as to justify the waste of a double on a thrower. in my opinion, at least. Nerves of steel would be much more appropriate, or you may even want to try Jump Up or something else. But never Strong Arm!

No offense meant.

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Mon Mar 17, 2003 12:34 pm

Fronko wrote:I wouldn't want to have an accurate + strong arm elven thrower!

Strong Arm has two major advantages - 1st he makes Long Passes on a 2 - and Bombs on 3. Only fumbling Bombs on a 1 too.

Secondly a lot depends on how you use him. In my first turn I'd normally run the thrower deep - so he can't be reached by my opponent - and make a quick pass to him with one of the line elves.

Then on turn 2 he runs forward 6 squares and makes the pass. The advantage of Strong Arm is that if my opponent's defence is quite flat then I can push my Lion Warriors that little bit further upfield and still have a very reliable long pass/bomb.

The handoff option is much harder to pull off (your opponent ought to cut off the option) and requires an extra die roll.

Finally what would you take instead? Nerves of Steel looks like the only decent option, and ideally I'd like one of each on a team.

Fronko · Post by **Fronko** » Mon Mar 17, 2003 12:54 pm

My procedure on turn 1 is about the same as yours: Getting my thrower out of blitzing range and into ball possession.

Then I try to break a hole somewhere in my opponents defense, get at least 4 receivers through. Try to form some kind of pocket or spread them wide, depends on opponent and setup. The rest of my gang spreads over the pitch in a way, that I have several unattended players in the middle of the pitch. I can't be more specific on that one, as it pretty much depends on the scenery. But I think, you get, what I mean.
The wardancer I didn't use for the blitz and my AG 5 lineman (you remember?

) try to reach the opposing half , too, if not too risky.

Turn #2 it wholely depends on what happens in the mean time. Usually my opponent tries to blitz/cover all receivers, sends 2 or three guys towards my thrower and tries to keep my middle men at bay. Usually he can't do all of those jobs in a way, that I can't dodge-blitz a reciever free. And what is more, usually not all of my middlemen are covered. So, I either my thrower hands off to a middlemen, then a dedicated receiver is blitzed free, middleman lobs ball to receiver, which dodges into endzone.
If alle middlemen are occupied, with one or two GFIs of my thrower I can long pass one receiver, which then might still do a handover to a better positioned one.

Either way, I hardly have a situation that needs a long bomb to succeed. I believe in the last season I had exactly one of those LBs. And I'd be happy with a 4+ reroll in that case.

As for other options on a double: NoS is valid, and I also thought of Jump Up, as he often is a target and start on the ground (or in the KO box

).

wesleytj · Post by **wesleytj** » Mon Mar 17, 2003 10:22 pm

Korhil wrote:
And I'd definatively choose sure hands before accurate on the thrower.
???
Accurate should be the first skill for any Elven Thrower,

to me, i roll enough 1's that having sure hands is WAY more important than having accurate early on. there's nothing worse than failing to pick up the ball. plus elven throwers are already pretty good when it comes to passing, and my elves generally dont do anything beyond long pass anyway.

zeroalpha · Post by **zeroalpha** » Tue Mar 18, 2003 1:09 am

I always take dodge first for my linemen who roll normal skills. I know a number of people would disagree and take block but i think that dodge works better and really helps with the step away type defence and gives you more scoring options.
As for the doubles, i am a fan of guard. dauntless works well but i think having a guard player is invaluable when trying to break open a cage or crack a hole in the line of scrimmage.