Darkson wrote:Dzerards wrote:I've played Dreadball heaps. Go check the Dreadball thread for my critique of why the inability for bash teams to control the tempo of the match results in the dominate strategy being you score - I score, just like basketball. The teams with the best strikers should always win meaning only about 3 teams are truly competitive/viable.
You may have played "heaps" but you've obviously not "played" the game much. Bash teams (which don't really exist in DB, just there are some that can remove players easier than others) can easily stop the "you score, I score" with careful positioning, unless their opponent can make lots of 6s, which is the same in BB.
Please enlighten me then, instead of being vague and condescending.
If I've got the ball what careful positioning can stop me scoring? You need a minimum of 3 men to totally block off a strike hex and there are three strike hexes and nominally only 6 to a team. Even if you just block off the 3/4 point hex I'll have 3 slam attempts to clear one guy off it still leaving two actions for the score. It's the same logic if you leave one guy in each strike zone to block off the bonus hex, three slam attempts to move him if I don't just want to score unimpeded from the side for a non bonus score. You could put two guys in a line in the 3 point hex to both block the bonus and prevent an unimpeded shoot at the strike hex, but again it is easy to clear and against skill 3+ strikers they don't even blink at going one dice down on a strike attempt. You can spread your players out to prevent an evade-less path into your back field, but again a couple of slam attempts will get me in, plus such a set up only works in the first rush by that team and quickly breaks apart once you move up the pitch to score yourself. You can put 4+ men on the 3/4 point hex to make it hard to slam/misdirect a clear shot but then you are just giving up the 2/1 point zones and significantly reducing your own offensive threat.
If you have the ball what careful positioning will prevent me taking it off you and having a shot myself? Because of the hex system, the limited threat hexes, limited actions a rush, and there only being 6 players on the field at a time caging in the BB sense appears to me impossible. Are at least I have yet to see it done. Even then with multiple slam and steal attempts possible for me I should have at minimum two steal attempts with one action left over for the shot (or at least for picking it up in the hope of doubling the pick up and then taking the shot).
It was this inability to hold on to the ball in your opponents turn that made the season 2 Judwan so deadly, where the only viable tactic was the prone cage! Imagine trying to cage in BB with only 6 players, only the front half of the tackle zone and your opponent able to do 5 blitzes with negligible risk of turnover! It is the limit on blitzes in BB that makes it such a compelling tactical game of positioning and risk management. With no such restriction on Slams and Steals positioning has at best a tertiary impact on DB, in my experience.
I my anecdotal experience so far there hasn't been a league game so far where I haven't taking the ball off an opponent, who held on to it at the end of their rush, and attempted a shot. If I'm shooting every rush and you are not then I'm far more likely to win. If we are both shooting every turn then the team with the best strikers wins (on average), not the best coach. Just look at the latest stats.
I played the best coach in our league in my last match. Nothing he did could stop me scoring, nothing I could do could stop him scoring. The only difference was he scored on 3 ups and me on 5 ups. It was a miracle the game lasted as long as it did before the whitewash.
If I'm missing something obvious or even not so obvious I'd like to know, because at the minute I don't see how the dominate strategy isn't just a skill-less straight out dice off between opposing strikers.