Guard as a starting skill?

[Joemanji]

I think the reason because no player starts with guard is that it is the most powerfull skill in the game.

On 1 or 2 players in a team with no strenght access it might be balanced.... but I wouldn't bet on it.

Block and Dodge IMO are the best skills in the game, followed by Guard & Side Step. I don't think its necessarily game breaker to apply it in small amounts to players who won't have GA access.

Well they are pretty much the top four, and the other three all exist as starting skills. So why not Guard?

[nonumber]

In my opinion guard is already too prolific in the game simply by being the go-to option for too many teams. I'd never want to see it become a starting skill. I've often wondered what would really be lost if it was removed from the game altogether. One or two teams become slightly more challenging to progress is the worst case scenario in my book. Maybe a couple of rosters would need a minor tweak to compensate for removing this wretched, fun-dissolving aspect of the game altogether. Fair trade.

[J_Bone]

I'm in two minds about this... Guard can be a real trade-off kind of skill from what I've seen. Sure, it's great when you're just wanting to bash but when I play teams that have spammed guard I find that unless they really start to send players off the pitch they tend to get mobbed up and quite easily out-manoeuvred. I've never found it to be a real gamebreaker. Played against a guard spam Dwarf team last night and won 4-0. Just played keep-away and gave him cheap linemen to punch / bog him down the whole game.

[Digger Goreman]

Floated the thought, during the bbrc years, that guard should cancel all guard assists in the same way that non-guard assists cancel non-guard assists....

Set off migraines and coronaries, as I remember....

[juck101]

yeha block is best skill in the game, so I dont see a problem with a guard based team. I thoughts Brettonia had a list with 4 guard players and some other stuff. I think this invention has already occured

[flick]

I've been thinking about this kind of set up myself recently.

My 2p

I'll keep it a lot simpler.
0-16 Human lineman
0-2 Halfings
0-2 Dwarf blitzers (Animosity)
0-1 Human thrower (Animosity)
0-2 Pro elf catchers (Animosity)
0-1 Ogre
RR 60k

Basically a slightly upgraded human team.

Was also thinking a Amazon/Norse mix up
0-6 Norse lineman (Animosity)
0-6 Amazon lineman (Animosity)
0-1 Norse Thrower (Animosity)
0-1 Amazon thrower (Animosity)
0-1 Norse blitzer (Animosity)
0-1 Amazon blitzer (Animosity)
RR 70k

If you wanted to do a Guard set up run a stunty mixup

0-16 snotlings + guard = 40k
0-8 Goblins
0-2 Trolls
0-2 Ogres
RR 70k