Talk Fantasy Football

Hi everyone - I tried making a start on putting together a playbook for the Timberline Elves and have tried various different strategies with this team, but the truth is.....I'm really struggling with them! I can see how they are meant to work, but I just can't seem to get them performing properly.

I put great faith into the Dryads, seeing their potential. With high Jog, Might and Dodge, I see them as shovers and receivers primarily. I tend to work these girls up the outside of the pitch, far enough away so that they can't be tackled, or only tackled from the front - this also puts a nasty shoving threat onto the opponent. This is all great, but their skill of 2 really means it's a risk to give them the ball before they are within range of scoring on their next turn, and it's proving difficult to keep them on the pitch for this long!

I've been using Hunters and Midfielders to protect the dryads, and a single thrower to make the skill pass from backfield.

I'm starting to think I may be better leaving the Dryads out and replacing them with Strikers. They're not so robust in the shoving game, but they are MUCH better with the ball and can play the tandem passing game. However, this seems to be working against the main reason for using this team and you may as well play Black Widows.

Its been my experience that if this team loses the face-off they have a VERY hard time. To increase the odds of winning in the face-off I've been putting a Dryad there to use her Might, but if she loses she almost invariably gets put into the infirmary on turn 1.

I've tried hanging back and waiting for the opposition to come to me, but every time I've been out muscled.

So....I'm asking the community for help and applying their tactical genius to this problem....
How best to use the Timberline Elves?

Am starting to play with Desert Dogs, a similar team. Will post more when I have time!

The Painted Goblin wrote: I put great faith into the Dryads, seeing their potential. With high Jog, Might and Dodge, I see them as shovers and receivers primarily. I tend to work these girls up the outside of the pitch

I think you should try using them in a more central position, maybe both working together from 1 rover circle. If you set them too far out, you can't effectively deal with players who come inside your position. You need to position them so that you can threaten as much area of the pitch as possible with a potential shove out of bounds.

I would also ensure your hunters are in a position where they can protect if anyone does then decide to tackle the Dryad. Keeping opponents out from their rear is crucial, as a 2 success impact challenge followed by a 3 success tackle from the front is very unappealing

Unlike a defender, who can threaten pitch area about 5 hexes in any direction, your Dryad controls pitch space in a more linear/directional area.

Sann0638 has had good mileage using the Dervishes in tandem. I moved a lone striker just a few hexes into his half once, and he had a dervish in each of the Rover circles, and in the next 2 turns he'd pushed my player into his goal hex.

Timberlines are one of the more challenging teams to learn with IMO, if you're coming from the Bloodbowl perspective as Shoving, Area control and Facing are the more alien concepts, and I think you need to be good with all of these for the team to be competitive.

Don't give up on them! I really want you to get the hang of this team (so you can then show me! )