Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

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Boothdom
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Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Boothdom »

Hi there all,

Well, I'm heading to the STABB cup this weekend. My first proper Blood Bowl tournament! :D

It's a pretty standard resurrection style and there's a skill package with some limitations. I've got pretty much everything sorted but I have one skill left to take.

I'm torn between Frenzy or Mighty Blow and was looking for some opinion as to what people think of the suitability of both.

Before anyone suggests other skills, I've already chosen everyrhing else (yes, I have my full quota of Block Suarui!) so its just the two options.

I can see the benefits of both, Frenzy shutting down the wide zones and MB hopefully giving me player advantage.

So, what do people think?

Thanks in advance for any advice, it's appriciated.

Dom

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I get vexed, and want to beat the world with a pork chop"
Hitonagashi
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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Hitonagashi »

Frenzy.

It's a poor mans tackle, with the benefit it works on AV9 orcs. There will probably be a lot of blodgers around, and MB isn't as useful against them because you need the pow.

With Frenzy, you've also got surfing threats, which MB doesn't offer. Just the threat of a surf causes a complete game plan change.

I knowww you said no other skills....but guard? :D. If you've got block saurii, they'll be doing most of your blitzing, so having a lump who stands there giving assists against black orcs etc can be really useful.

In the NAF, I took one frenzy and one MB, and I really regretted the MB (took it when I had norse next game), the Frenzy was far more useful. If you do your blitzing with the frenzy player, expect to burn RR's though.

This should also probably be in the tournament tactics section :D.

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Boothdom
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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Boothdom »

Hitonagashi wrote:This should also probably be in the tournament tactics section :D.
Doh! :roll: Sorry!

I've already got a guard piece. :D And a Tackle as it happens. I really like the deffensive properties of Tackle. More often than not I keep him backfield and then park him next to the catcher etc rather than blitzing. Makes the elves think twice and if a scrum ensues it combos up really well with the Tail of the Krox.

Would you still take Frenzy given the Tackle piece?

Thanks,

Dom

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Hitonagashi
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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Hitonagashi »

Especially given the tackle piece :). As far as I can tell with STABB, your tackle might not turn up. Also, a tackle and a frenzy are both threats for different reasons. An elf player might mark the tackle, but forget the frenzy, and if you've got to mark both of them in such a way they can't be blitzed free...it's tricky and easy to mess up.

MB is useful if it's your primary blitzer to take players off the pitch...but you don't want to be blitzing with a nonblock saurus.

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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Da_Great_MC »

Break Tackle, unless you already have one, in which case I would also suggest Guard :)

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Boothdom
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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Boothdom »

Thanks for the help everyone,

I wasn't going to post my full list, but I don't suppose it'd hurt.

It's 1,050K with up to two skills (ord or double) that can be bought prior to the start of the tourney at cost.

Then you nominate 6 players with a skill and one randomly gets their skill per round and keeps it for the tourney. 5 are ord and one is a double. Max of 2 of any single skill and only one skill per player.

Full rules can be found here

Krox
6 Saurus
2 Skink
1 Skink + Sure Hands
1 Skink + Leader
2 Rerolls
1 Fan Factor

6 Random Skills:

Krox: Break Tackle
Saur1: Block
Saur2: Block
Saur3: Tackle
Saur4: Guard
Saur5: Frenzy

Cheers,

Dom

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"As you can tell i'm from a basic stock,
I get vexed, and want to beat the world with a pork chop"
phil78
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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by phil78 »

Since you have a spare saurus would it not make sense to give him leader rather than a skink, he's more likely to last the whole game.

I think i'd rather have guard or Stand Firm on the Krox, although as you haven't used your double you could give him tackle or diving tackle to pair up with his tail.

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daloonieshaman
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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by daloonieshaman »

Drop leader on skink
Give Sarus Leader so you have it all 6 rounds

if other skink diving catch
Give Krox Pro you will thank me in the morning
Give normal to Sarus (frenzy works)

so:
Krox (double) Pro
Sarus Block
Sarus Block
Sarus Tackle
Sarus Guard
Sarus Frenzy or Skink diving catch

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Hitonagashi
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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Hitonagashi »

1) No break tackle on Kroxigor. Look at it like this..whenever you want to use it, it's like making 2 gfi without a rr! That's only a 70% success chance of even getting free (comparable to a 1d without block). Pro I'm not super keen on, though it could be useful. Diving tackle is quite good, because it draws 1ds and 2ds on him. Personally, I'd go with guard. Stick him somewhere in the middle, leave him there, and let the play shift and move around him while he provides assists, not activating him.

2) No leader. You've got block...you don't want to waste a skill on a saurus. 2 rerolls are just about enough. Just be careful where you use them.

3) On the skinks, I'd go block on your surehands one...it's a tossup, sure hands is *far* more useful against wardancers, block against everyone else :D. It also makes him a credible sweeper at this TV....a few dodges to free skinks up, and with 2 assists from the other skinks, he can whack a sneaky ball carrier trying to make a run for it. I'd also take sidestep as the other skill. Fun doubles for skinks are dirty player and kick :D. Depends how zany you want to be...against quite a few teams, kick on a skink is a complete game changer (kick deep, blitz backfield, or if they set up deep, kick shallow and overwhelm the hasty cage with saurii).

I think my 2 starting skills would be block on both saurii. Simple and effective...use one as a backfield sweeper, held 3 squares out of the action while the other blitzes in, hits something and retreats to hit something else. The rest of your saurii and krox then play a shielding game, keeping the action from your skinks getting blitzed.

I'd load up frenzy and guard for the other 4 saurii, 2 of each.

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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by daloonieshaman »

Through League play and a combined 109 games the 4 lizardmen players without a doubt agree that surehands is a MUST first pick for a skink. (it is not holding the ball it is picking the damn thing up) If a skink has the ball he is in one of two placements. To far away for anyone to hit him, or scoring. Block is the very last skill of ALL of them he needs

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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Hitonagashi »

daloonieshaman wrote:Through League play and a combined 109 games the 4 lizardmen players without a doubt agree that surehands is a MUST first pick for a skink. (it is not holding the ball it is picking the damn thing up) If a skink has the ball he is in one of two placements. To far away for anyone to hit him, or scoring. Block is the very last skill of ALL of them he needs
Well, if you are going to be like that..with 182 lizardman games and a +50% win record with Lizardmen on FUMBBL, I say it's fine without it ;).

To me, there are 3 situations where you are picking up the ball:
1) Deep. Lack of a reroll isn't an issue, except against elves. Keep the ball deep, and keep the other skinks near it. They can't get there in the first turn, so you have a second turn with a reroll to pick it up and run to a new cage.

2) Short: Assuming you haven't lined all your saurii up on the LOS (cos that would invite a blitz), then you have spare saurii. Apart from the one that will do your blitz, you surround the ball with skinks before moving into the pickup. You then form a wall in front of the skinks with the saurii. If you are facing leaping elves, then you might need a reroll...but usually having to go through a loose wall of saurii and a tight X of skinks prevents them from capitalising on it.

3) Medium: 2 spare skinks to cover the ball, one to pick up, and your saurii wall them off. When I play, I use the saurii to create a wall higher up the pitch, which means that their first turn is smashing through the wall. It's more important to stop them swarming the backfield than it is to put the LOS down. Casualties with lizardmen are very much a secondary option.

In all cases, if it's absolutely vital, you have a team rr *shrug*. The times when I've needed desperately to pick the ball up and couldn't spare a team RR are few and far between. With the right planning, you plan for the first turn pickup to fail, and then move to the offense on the second or third turn. You usually have 8 turns to score, why rush things? In this recent game I failed the first 2 pickups (with a reroll on the second), and still scored fairly easily in 8.

Now, the case for why block is useful:

1) -2d's. You play elves, you take a -2d. Heck, if you haven't got enough guard, you'll take a 2d. There's no guarantee that you can guard up all the cage corners(especially in rookie tournaments), and if the elves can remove the TZ, then it's an easy 5+ dodge into the cage (on average, by turn 3-4 they will have succeeded a 2d in). Block means they have to pow you, especially in a tournament like this where the only players with dodge and tackle are likely to be wardancers(who will leap in anyway, and require a whole new set of tactics).

2) Blocks of your own. It gives you a 2 pronged threat to their defense. I've played the skink 1d several times in low TV tournaments...backfield throwers don't always have block, and one thing saurii are *very* good at is trashing an X cage (just engage it and wait for them to try and shift you). If you can storm the backfield, that can completely stuff slow teams like orcs on a deep kick....but if you commit your saurii reserve blitzer(you were keeping one out of TZ and central to respond to threats right?) you are asking to be flanked. Skinks make the perfect storm...4 skinks storm backfield, one dies to a blitz, 3 then dodge out of whatever they were trying to cover them with, into the ball carrier next turn and 2d him with block, grab the ball and run it in.

3) Survivability. On defense, stopping the ball comes first. A 3+ dodge is inherently risky, so quite frequently, you have to disrupt the cage etc. It might be (happened a few times), that leaving your 4 skinks in contact for a turn is worth the chance of having a load BH (they don't have 4 players to try and move your saurii, forcing them to dodge or get their cage smashed). If this happens, your block skink is very good at surviving them. They need a pow on 2d to put him down...hardly certain by any means. In addition, your skinks will get blitzed when your opponent is on offense. Block means that it's more likely that you'll have a ball carrier in the second half.

I've always held that if you set up your initial receiving position correctly, you don't need to worry about sure hands *shrug*. As I said, very very useful against strip ball elves though.

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Boothdom
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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Boothdom »

Thanks for the help on this everyone. I'e made a few tweaks thanks to the comments above. My final roster is chosen and printed! :orc:

1 Krox
6 Saurus (one with Leader)
4 Skink (one with Sure Hands)
2 ReRolls
1 Fan

Total: 1,050k

Random skills:

Saurus - Block
Saurus - Block
Saurus - Break Tackle
Saurus - Tackle
Saurus - Frenzy
Krox -Guard

Wish me luck, It's my first tournament proper! I'll try and write a mini review of how things went after the weekend.

Cheers,

Dom

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"As you can tell i'm from a basic stock,
I get vexed, and want to beat the world with a pork chop"
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Re: Skill on a Saurus for tournament play.

Post by Skurk78 »

Good luck in the tourney. Hope you have a good time.

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