Wardancers and lizardmen cages

Shoft · Post by **Shoft** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 3:34 pm

I, some friends and my sister (!) have just started a small tournament. I play lizardmen and the most experienced of us plays WE. Now, he has hired two wardancers and I have no idea how to keep them out of my cage. I've played one match agains him where he used the WDs, and they really were a pain in the ***. (Luckily, i managed to get them both off the field by the second half, but i probably wont be that lucky next time.) The problem is that my ball carriers has ST 2, so its no problem fror him to leap in and get a two dice blitz on the poor little skink right in the middle of my cage. And after that match, one of them got strip ball...

I guess guard on a couple of sauri would do the trick, ut I'd much rather give them block first.

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 4:02 pm

The best way to keep wardancers out of your cage is to foul them out of existance.

You're right though, that the second best way to get rid of them is to have some Guards around. Lizardmen are probably the ideal team for a Wardancer to exploit. They don't get Tackle until fairly late in their team development, and their ballcarriers are 2 strength players who can only get Sure Hands on a doubles roll. Ouch.

harley_topper · Post by **harley_topper** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 4:48 pm

just place eight players around your ball carrier and there will be no room to leap in the cage

sean newboy · Post by **sean newboy** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:01 pm

I guess guard on a couple of sauri would do the trick, ut I'd much rather give them block first.

Its not a bad idea to alternate guad and block as first skills for sauri.

Skummy · Post by **Skummy** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 5:09 pm

Break Tackle is an essential skill for a saurus as well. I'd take it as my first skill overall.

Post by **Dave** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:25 pm

harley_topper wrote:just place eight players around your ball carrier and there will be no room to leap in the cage

but then he only needs a block to push the ball carrier out...

SSS
SBS
SSS
W

the W Woodelf only needs to push the Saurus (for simplicity assuming you got

to ge teh ballcarrier on the other corner of the cage

S
BSS
SSS
SS
W

now he can be blitzed without any leaps... Perhaps even blocked by a player that was standing there for that purpose.

my 2Ct

I'd go for the fouls and guard. You can also make the way he needs to go to leap into the cage pretty hard with some TZ's. Fat chance he falls over early on. (my WD would at least

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harley_topper · Post by **harley_topper** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:48 pm

You are right but I'm just joking.

Guard will help you defending the ball carrier but you have to try to take the wardancers out. A wardancer having strip ball may take the risk of a two dice block against, cause only a push back result will get the ball loose from the ballcarrier.
You should also give some saurus tackle to make it more likely two get the wardancers down. The have only AV7, so the chance to get through the armor is pretty good. When you don't get through the armor you may foul him. Tackle on one guy and a dirty player is always a good option to take elven keyplayers out.

Post by **Dave** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 6:59 pm

OK, sorry

For some reason downed WD's allways attract a formation called 'the Pile' as many players as possible are freed to go sit on top of him.

dunno why..

harley_topper · Post by **harley_topper** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 7:05 pm

Yes, downed wardancers always suck up all the efforts to get them into the trash

In my today match against a woodie team (i play humans) the opposing wardancer takes my thrower (badly hurt) out. In his first action. But next turn my ogre gets a three dice blitz and niggles him.

But that's not the topic.

Post by **Dave** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 7:08 pm

it is fun though, depending on who's side you're on..

Shoft · Post by **Shoft** » Fri Jul 11, 2003 11:07 pm

Thanks everyone. I guess the only way is to get them off the field. It just seems a bit hard to have to injure or knock two specific players before being able to launch a reasonable offence.

JJB · Post by **JJB** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 1:27 am

I see two very workable ways to prevent WDs from leaping into your cage.
The first one is based upon deterring WDs from trying to get you because the retaliation will be too hard for them. The second way actually aims at preventing your ball carrier from being hit by the WD altogether.

1- First method:

It is based on your resignation that the WD is unstoppable and will always manage to reach and hit your skink carrying the ball. However, out of the four players normally constituting the 'core' of your cage, ensure to have two sauruses. They need to be at opposite corners of the cage (and not next to each other). In this case, you will always have one of the two able to hit the WD. If the saurus fails to knock the latter down, you should be able to push him next to the other saurus. If he still resists, a blitz with a third player should statistically prove successful.
With the WD down, another of your skinks can pick up the ball and run away...

2- Second method.

It implies your refusal to yield to the WDs' power and your determination not to be reached by those guys at all.
I think it is slightly riskier to carry on, but it can be so fun to carry out if you are successful...
You need to spread skinks all along the length of the pitch.
Keep the skink who picked up the ball in your half of the pitch, far enough from the opponent's half to make it impossible for his WDs to reach you.
Put 2 skinks in the middle of the pitch, around the line of scrimmage, and at least two others in the middle of your opponent's half.
The aim is to make your first skink hand off the ball to one of the skinks in the middle, who will in turn pass the ball to the any of the ones closer to your opponent's endzone so that the latter can score. Once your skinks are positioned, you should be able to score in one turn, without leaving your opponent any chance to intercept you in the way.
I actually got this tactic from one of my league-mates, who set it up for his skavens in order to counter the WDs of another of our co-league members. Skinks not having ag 4 like gutter runners, you will be much more at risk, and this is where skills like 'catch' will come in much handier. I don't remember if skinks also suffer from the -1 range for passes like goblins and halflings do. If this is the case, you can only see that my method is even harder, and calls even more for an ag 4 player in middle of the pitch (the ones due to carry out that quick pass...), if you do have the luck to gain an agililty increase for one of your skinks of course.
Nonetheless, if you do manage to score that way, you will leave your opponent in a state of absolute shock...

Cthulhu · Post by **Cthulhu** » Sat Jul 12, 2003 2:10 am

With my lizard team, I gave guard as the first four skills my saurus got. It works very well, and I dont miss block that much. And it makes a good cage against wardancers, I can easily make them have to block with 2 dice against if they try. Then they have 11/36 of getting skull!

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Mon Jul 14, 2003 9:39 am

Don't form a tight cage. Looser defences, ideally with 2 layers of TZ between the ball carrier and the War Dancer should do the trick.

Also ensure that if the ball carrier is hit you have enough TZ around to ensure the Woodies can't exploit the loose ball.

Longer term give a skink Sure Hands and Block (2 doubles I know) then use them inside the protection of Guarding Saurus.