Kickoff Change (Impacts One-Turn Scoring)

neoliminal · Post by **neoliminal** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 10:43 pm

voyagers_uk wrote:wow, a revolutionary suggestion and you not even being German.

I like it, is it too late to suggest it to the BBRC?

someone nudge Neo

Consider me nudged.

neoliminal · Post by **neoliminal** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 10:49 pm

My initial reaction is that this is a very fine idea. Play testing will find any holes in that logic. I do have one possible alteration. What if this was a result of having the Kick Skill?? That way if you feared the OTS, you could get the skill, and if you didn't, then it wouldn't really affect play for the regular game.

Bookman · Post by **Bookman** » Thu Oct 16, 2003 11:58 pm

neoliminal wrote:My initial reaction is that this is a very fine idea. Play testing will find any holes in that logic. I do have one possible alteration. What if this was a result of having the Kick Skill?? That way if you feared the OTS, you could get the skill, and if you didn't, then it wouldn't really affect play for the regular game.

That's an interesting thought. I'm sure someone knows with what frequency the existing kick skill is currently taken in the big on-line leagues; in my limited experience (just a couple of small groups of face-to-facers -- certainly subject to a certain amount of groupthink on the issue) it is not considered a high-value general skill. As a revised kick skill, on the other hand, it seems very worth taking but not unbalancing (at least to me). Also, if the skill is attached to a player and the kick skill, I think we can retain the guideline which says that you have to use the catch skill to take the ball. Without the current kick skill added on to this, the ability to really take advantage (by using the 'high kick' in a specific area of the pitch) is limited, and teams without agility skill access will have the opportunity to take out their frustration on the kicker!

I'm inordinately pleased that the reaction to this has been so positive.

Bookman

MickeX · Post by **MickeX** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 12:57 am

I was thinking just the opposite. The Kick skill is already widely considered a crucial skill for most teams, at least on FUMBBL (and I think this goes for the TBB discussions as well).

Even if we invented a new skill for making a kick-off like this, that skill would be so important that it would get silly. At least that's my guess. And then we're back to the issue of whether we'd really like this kind of Kick Off on every drive?

MickeX

Bookman · Post by **Bookman** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 2:22 am

MickeX wrote:The Kick skill is already widely considered a crucial skill for most teams, at least on FUMBBL.

I acknowledged this might be the case, but I'm still surprised. Educate me -- why is this so critical? It seems to me that fast teams can still get the ball to the deep backfield (even if its within 1-3 squares of the sideline-los) and that bashing teams set up close on offense and can therefore protect the ball adequately. Is it that important to kick the ball deep against the hitting teams or am I missing some important bit of BB strategy?

Thanks for your input!
Bookman

DesTroy · Post by **DesTroy** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 5:54 am

Just to mention, my league uses a house rule that states that if a kick-off lands in the receiving team's half or touches a player in the receiving team, then ends up in the kicking team's half, it isn't a touchback but an Onside Kick, which is a free ball. With that house rule in effect, Kick skill has become more popular in the HFFL. I can see how an Up & Under skill might be mis-used, so perhaps it should be just in the Kick-Off Table...except we use a variant Kick-Off Table too...hmm...

Post by **DoubleSkulls** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 8:47 am

IMO this is a nice idea - but one that ought to be on the kick off table.

Maybe drop Get the Ref (far too powerful with IGMEOY), move Blitz to '3' and "Up and Under" to either 8 (nice parallel to "bad kick"), moving quick snap to 9 & coaching to 10, or put it straight in at 10.

MickeX · Post by **MickeX** » Fri Oct 17, 2003 11:43 am

Bookman wrote: Educate me -- why is this so critical?

Some examples of how to use it:

- If you're faster, kick in the backfield. They'll have to pass or risk you ganging up on the thrower. Same goes for any team who likes to cage up.

- Against a team that's trying to go to the left, kick to the right close to your players. They'll have to either make a pass or build a cage there.

- If they have this superthrower who likes to sit in the backfield first turn and then run ahead and make a Long Bomb, you can also kick close to to your players. They'll have to make a pass back to their thrower to do that tactic.

- Kick is one of the few skills that can be used to counter oneturners.

If your opponents has to make just one extra, crucial pass on every offensive drive, your chances to get nice turnovers to exploit increases significantly. Besides - a nice ball placement means they may want to use an extra player or two as a protection. Those players would otherwise be free to participate in the offense.

The only team I don't take Kick with is Lizards - and that's just because skinks don't get general skills. I'm even tempted to give up a Saurus skill to get kick...

MickeX