Catch/Diving Catch combo

[Trambi]

I agree, even if can dive only if pass is adressed to you. The more good catcher you ahve, the more difficult to play against it is.

[Marcus]

You can, if you feel the need, build up all your recievers with diving catch, you can also give HMP to one or two of your throwers. Yes it's hard to stop, but no harder to stop than a accurate/strongarm thrower who can throw a deadeye long pass from the backfield.

It takes just as much effort to mark a reciever who is catching a Hail Mary as it does to cover a player who is expecting the accurate pass. However, if you're taking an accurate pass you don't have to risk the 51.5% (IIRC) chance that the ball wont' even reach your reciever. Note also that percentage goes down depending on how many players are man-marking your reciever. For every defender in your tacklezone that's one less eligible square you can catch in. If I'd forced a player to make a hail mary pass to a diving catch player I'd say that I'd made a successful defensive play and reduced his chance of scoring.

You have also, spent 2 skills to build a 50% combo - HMP and DC. As Acerak pointed out, unless you want to telegraph the play you should have at least 2 players with DC so that means you require 3 skills to build a 50% play. One more skill for each reciever you want to try this with. That's a hell of a lot of skills for just one play option, especially considering you're really only talking about Offensive drives here (and if you're making a lot of offensive drives you can't be winning).

I rarely choose skills on my team that guarantee scores for me off the kickoff. With any finesse team it's pretty easy to score without having to build up multiskill combos to do so. I prefer to buy skills that have multiple uses in multiple contexts. Not only does it give you more play options, it disguises your plays and gives you the advantage against a player who has over-specialised their team.

Marcus

[Longshot]

Agree with you, But i think i will try this combo with My gobbo, they need that pass way.As this i could change my tactic if i want between running and HMP.

[Marcus]

Works very nicely for gobbos, gobbos can't pass the ball, gobbos are limited to agility skills. It's a good choice for gobbos because it adds a dimension to your game (ie: the long pass). I'd argue against it on teams that already pass well because it limits the dimensions of their game.

Marcus

[Acerak]

As Marcus noted, Diving Catch works well with Goblins. By extension, it's also a good skill for Halflings and Skinks. These players have difficulty throwing the ball, so inaccurate passes are more likely.

I wouldn't give DCatch to AG4 players - after all, Elves are passing gods so long as the game isn't on the line - but I might give it to the occasional AG3 Catcher. These players usually have AG3 Throwers tossing them the rock. Allowing for Accurate, you can fire off a Long Bomb on a 5+ roll, but you'll fumble on a roll of 1 or 2. If you have Diving Catch on the other end, it might be worth your while to allow a roll of 3 or 4 (inaccurate pass) to stand, trusting to Diving Catch to either (a) allow you to come up with the ball before it comes to rest of (b) get a tackle zone on it when it does bounce.

I'm thinking primarily of Norse and Amazon Catchers here. One skill roll gives you the B/D combo. Sure Feet is good for a second one; Side Step is also nice. But Diving Catch will give you a few options, not the least of which has not yet been mentioned!

Yes, that's right...

1. Declare pass.
2. Opponent moves Pass Blocker on top of your player.
3. Pass is inaccurate.
4. Even if you can't use DCatch to come up with the ball, you use the skill to move AWAY from the Pass Blocker!

Voila! You're no longer lunch for next turn

Cheers!

-Chet