Arioso wrote:After re - reading the thread with its numerous hidden tipps i stumbled upon some points i'd really like to dig in further again
There are also some who use tactical patterns to attack. They know what works, and work that way
Anybody likes to share some of these Patterns? I Know there is the obvious Lizardman-Side Step Skink Sideline Cage or that WD 2-Turn-TD, but i am interested in more of these plays. Do you really go into a match and think: "hey i got pro elf playing against undead, its best to put the blitzer on that part of the field and one of the catchers there?". If so, then should ppl should have some "data" that they may be willing to share which works better than other things? Do you setup all the same on a kick-off depending on opponent? For example when playing khemri do you setup the tomb guardians on LoS against elves? against Chaos? Patterns like this i was initially looking for (or maybe experiences)
A possible pattern I use when I play with dwarves is what I call The Hook. Basicly I set up my line and grind forward, more towards one sideline. I keep attention to keep at least one blitzer near the other end of the line (where it's weaker defended). I will use that blitzer to hook around the defensive line with one or two players in support.
I find that doing so requires the opponent to react and commit less players to the side I'm attacking on, and it generally leads to either one of two things: 1. I can force the issue with the blitzer has wrapped around or 2. the dwarf numbers on one side begin to tell so much that I am able to punch a hole in their line to have my ball carrier run through and score. In addition it allows the dwarfs to shorten the line and you get sort of like a hammer and anvil type of game.
In essence the pattern focuses on creating a situation where your team will play to it's strength's: For the dwarfs it's grinding through the opponent as you'll have a numbers advantage on one side of the pitch.
You can use this with most slower hitting teams, but I find it is really good with dwarfs, as your line has the stamina to hold and force the line forward. The above tactic is also the reason I don't like to get guard on my dwarf blitzers, because they can only use their guard in the thick of the fight and doing so just kills the described pattern.
There's other patterns, for example the setup skaven and Elves generally use where they defend with the aim to turn loose the ball, pass and handoff and score in a turn.
As that in general is nothing new, i am really interested if players do these things the same in all their matches (probably not). I.e. do you dodge away from a ST4 Opponent with AG3 and no Reroll if it doesnt matter to positioning? What if it fails, RR it? Is it more important to let the opponent do the block first and not risk the dodge (and hope for a turnover or a push?)
As you noted, a lot of this comes with practice, but I think you're focusing on the wrong details. I find one of the key aspects of the game really is the timing when you do certain things. Before you attack you generally defend, just in case something goes wrong. Once that is set up, I don't see no harm in trying to dodge away unless I want that high strength player pinned for whatever reason.
Lately I'm really enjoying playing vampires and one of the last tournaments it drove my opponents nuts that I dodged with thralls into tackle zones, and actually made it. My defense had been set up and my attack had succeeded in recuperating the ball. I had two thralls which I didn't want to move before because I didn't want to turn over. But when they were available I used them to further strengthen my position. If it would fail, worst would be to loose a thrall and I was still in a pretty good position. In fact I wasn't even planning on rerolling a failed dodge because there was no harm in failing.
Because of similar plays opponents have called my gameplay sambaplay, because they count statistics, but at that stage (when I had defense and had stolen the ball) there was nothing left to loose so why not take the risk, as the advantage far outweighed the potential harm. Besides the risk is much smaller than what the calcubowlers were counting on as the decision to adopt my offensive plan really was taken when there was only one or two dice rolls that needed to be made.
This is very similar to what Joe was referring to when he talked about calculated risks further above.