While playing the 'cage' can seem quite safe, I find it too unreliable (unless you have dwarves, or orcs) because of the low amount of strong/resistant players - only two mummies. Remember that while they have block, your two wights are no more than a human lineman, since they cannot improve their hitting power with strength skills.
I had more or less success with the different races I've played (and I've played them all except amazons, norse and goblins). However, I had quite a steady amount of success along my few games with undead.
Undead have something very specific: they have a combination of agility and strength, concentrated 'where you need it'. As means of explanation, let's analyse the different players:
- mummies: huge amount of strength, big armour, free MB skill, + the access to strength skills. Yet, they don't even embarrass themselves with more than 1 in agility (unlike BoB, or all dwarf linemen and troll slayers for example...). Only 3 in ma, which therefore require careful positioning of those players.
- ghouls: average agility, but free dodge skill (making them as good as human catchers, amazons, norse (or even goblins when dodging in no TZ)), access to ag skills (very useful: access to catch, side step...) and 7 ma. Only 7 in armour though, so don't use them where they might get hit...
- Then you have wights, average players, who nonetheless have block and therefore can fill in some of the positions taken by blitzers when it is not for strength jobs, but rather 'specialised' tasks, like putting themselves in the way of a catcher (with the tackle skill to acquire), or taking the ball back from an opponent (strip ball...).
- To save you money, you have access to cheap players: zombies and skeletons. They are clumsy, but of an average strength, and flexible: you can pick zombies who are slow, but fairly hard to get rid of (av
or trade 1 av for 1 more ma (skeletons)... One hardly gives the ball to one's linemen, or even makes them dodge away (unless you play elves or amazons), so ag 2 for those players is not really a loss.
To add to the bonuses, all your guys, except the ghouls, have regeneration, which means that normally half of your new casualties should come back after each drive...
From my experience, the key to success with undead is to exploit the advantages of each player:
- use the mummies to injure (piling on comes in very handy... I've relied on it at tournaments, and it's always been a very reliable tool for my team), and even as a fear factor: your opponent will want to stay away from them. You can consequently control where your opponent will put his players, to a small extent, by positioning your mummies well. You can mark guys with them easily.
- zombies are reasonably hard to take out, like a human lineman - use them as fodder, and put them in the way of your opponent. Don't worry if they get blitzed or blocked - they are easily expandable and are good as a 'human' (or rather 'dead human'...) shield. Skeletons, because they are more mobile, are more useful to create tackle zones than actually mark opposing players (i.e. staying in physical contact).
- ghouls can be used pretty much like human catchers, running around your opponent's half and forcing him to spread his players to try and catch them. This however is based on the assumption that you have a vampire star player (who can pass with 4 ag) or that you are ready to attempt a pass with a ghoul or a wight to those other ghouls at the front...
You can also use them as last minute 'runners', i.e. once they pick the ball, you can keep them safe and make them that final blitz towards the endzone (since they have st 3).
The strength of your team is the multiplicity of its playstyle. Your opponent has to prepare himself for both high strength assault and reasonably agile moves... This is very difficult for any coach to face.
Do not adopt the slow cage style of dwarves, or try to compare yourself to humans or amazons. Always view your game as a combination of both styles - move around fast with your ghouls, create tackle zones with your zombies (who can go to physical contact) and skeletons, blitz and block with your wights, and cause as many injuries as you can with your mummies.
As a typical roster (though you can obviously pick your own...), I usually take, or face:
2 mummies (a must to make sure you exploit the full strength potential of your undead) - 200k
3 wights - 270k
2 ghouls - 140k
4 zombies - 120k or 2 zombies + 2 skeletons - 120k
3 rerolls - 210k
6 fan factor.
= 1Mgc
To focuse more particularly on your two issues here are my tactics:
- to protect your ghouls, play the hitting game, and keep your ghouls at the back, or as plain assists. Then once the opponent has adopted a more 'defensive' set up in response to your aggressive style, fully exploit your ghouls' speed and agility by running / dodging through his lines, and score (or position yourself to catch the ball, if you think you can pass it successfully, or have no other choice...). I also suggest you get block as early as possible for your ghouls, either as a first skill, or after they gain sure hands.
- to stop throwing play, then rely on your ghouls to mark the opponent's catchers. Your wights can also do that job well thanks to their reasonable speed and agility. This is also where 'tackle' comes in handy for them.
To prevent your opponent from running too much in your half of the pitch and send in too many catchers, keep your ghouls on the sides of the pitch, so that the other coach will be deterred from trying to blitz them to get on the sides, but rather focus on the centre of your half. Then you can easily surround his players who got in, and crush any chance of their getting away... Also remember to spread your zombies and skeletons, to fill in all the gaps with tackle zones.
As you can see, the key to playing undead is flexibility of style (shifting from aggressive to agile...), and good positioning of players. If you keep in mind each of your players' strengths and weaknesses (sheer strength, speed, agility, or slowness, low resistance to hits, low agility...), you should do very well.
Works for me
