Vampire playbook - work in progress

[Tourach]

For some time now Plasmoid has asked me to write a playbook on vampires.
This is my first draft of it.
Any comments are welcome! I know its not very well structured and english is not my native language, but I would like response on everything, so fire away.
https://akira.ruc.dk/~truls/VampiresPlaybook.pdf
https://akira.ruc.dk/~truls/VampiresPlaybook.docx

[Smeborg]

Hi Tourach and well done.

I am unsure about the comment regarding rookie coaches. We have a rookie coach who began playing BB in February this year. We are lucky in that we have a nice active league with plenty of opportunity for games. After a few months of learning the basics and trying out teams (Humans and WEs) with little success, he began playing Vampires. He is now very successful with them, and they are one of the most feared teams in the league. He dished out a 4-0 thrashing recently to my Nurgle team. I believe that the fact that he has not developed any prejudicial habits from playing other teams has actually helped him to learn how to play Vampires in a "correct" way.

I don't think we should discourage rookie coaches from playing a team, if that's the team that they are attracted to. I never do so. I would prefer for your playbook to say something like this: "While Vampires are a lot of fun to play, their performance and results can be mixed. They play in a unique style, and because of this, rookie coaches may find them a challenge." If you say something like this in the right way, it will actually encourage more coaches to play Vampires, by a sort of reverse psychology!

Hope that helps, and all the best with your project.

[Tourach]

hey smeborg.
Thanks for your input.
Ill use that sentence for sure! There was some remark in the official channels that vamps / darkelves and some other teams wasn't for rookie coaches but your way to put it is alot better!

[TuernRedvenom]

I really like it. Picked up some things I didn't realise before. Your english is fine. Good work!

[Niebling]

Was a good read

[Ullis]

Good writing there. This was easy to read and really got me thinking about playing vampires (you know I can use any tips...). The idea

How about some ideas on doubles picks for vamps and thralls? It would be interesting to hear your take on those. Passing skills and their viability on the vamps is one obvious issue as is taking Leader for a thrall.

Last, I'd suggest typing out the roster yourself instead of copying from the rulebook to save on any copyright issues.

[plasmoid]

Hi Truls,
nice work.

I've got a roster written up in word format, if you want to use it.
That being said, it includes the logo, so it's still a copyright infringement

You know where to send it after considering the feedback
Cheers
Martin

[txapo]

Nice playbook!!

There's a guy I know who atends to the tournaments with vampires quite a lot with quite good results for his vampires in tournaments arround here and he always picks one vampire with strong arm as ball carrier and plays the passing game with them. Sounds crazy but it works for him!!! Really considering the sure hands-thrower vampire is a choice any vampire coach soner of later can have. Give us some thoughts about it please!!!

[Tourach]

Hey everyone.
Thanks for your kind words, nothing much i need to change according to you then ...

txapo:
This is for league play, so i couldn't say. I done quite well with the vampires in tournament play (3rd place in the danish championship), i went with dodge on all vampires (plasmoid had tried that out and it worked marvelous for me to). Strong arm is not really a skill you can use in defense so i would not personally go for it for tournament play.
For league play i really don't know, as you need a thrall backfield anyways (because of bloodlust) i would be more interested to get the ball to my team with a blodge sure hands guy so i have more thralls to choose from. I guess against slow teams it is a nice option to have a vamp backfield that can do a pass, as the opponent needs to commit quite a lot of players to actually threaten a vamp and it saves some guys for your cage. Passing is also a nice way to get spp for your vamps. So i guess this is a viable option if you can spare a to have a 2 skills for a sure hands, strong arm vamp in defense. I never tried it though.

[Smeborg]

The successful Vampire coach in our league has worked out and followed the following development strategy:

- 4 generic Vampires: Dodge, Block, Tackle, M-Blow, S-Step

- 1 Vampire Thrower: S-Hands, S-Arm, K-Ret

- Thralls: Wrestle as first skill, Leader as first doubles skill, otherwise Guard.

- 5 RRs plus the Leader (I think - it might be 4).

This seems to be a "correct" strategy.

All the best

[Carnis]

Strong arm is a waste, cause the first vamp to roll +AG will be a better thrower. Also not usable in def. I like the basic ideas behind the playbook, it never goes to too much specifics though, so if I hadn't played vamps a fair bit I'm not sure how I'd react..

Given that I've been playing a lot of LRB6 vamps lately, I wonder if you have any opinion about the best bang for the buck 4th or 5th skills of vamps..?

Also very generic stuff, using quickpasses to skill your vamps, especially on a high RR build like yours should possibly be mentioned, although it's pretty generic AG4 stuff, but with vamps it's especially important to declare every ballcarrier move as a pass, if you happen to lust with no thrall where you want to go at least you can usually punt it.

[Tourach]

Well you can't actually pass if there is no thrall to be bitten.
About the 4th and 5th skill on your regular vamp, guessing you have blodge, sidestep /standfirm. I think either pro or guard.
The first two skills (unless you buy a basher vamps) should be blodge or wrodge. Its first after theese skills you can begin to customize your vampires and there are alot of interesting choices, depending on the coach and what works for him, so I can't really give any precise answer. I do like guard though becase it makes you thralls alot more useful if things get messy.

[Carnis]

I said no thrall where you want to go to.. You can still pass the ball to where you were going to go.. To another vamp or an empty field..

[plasmoid]

Hi Tourach,
just let me know when you consider the playbook closed

[Tourach]

Ok martin, ill keep it open for some more comments and ill wrap it up.