General guidelines

[martynq]

Before I begin this, many apologies to the fine people out there who have tried to help me. Let's just say that the penny is beginning to drop, but very slowly. Cheers, Dave, DW, and several others!

Anyway, finding myself as probably the coach of the least successful elf team in the MBBL2, but also a coach of a pretty successful undead team, I'm trying to work out what I'm doing wrong. I am also reminded that in the league I used to play in my chaos team came top, but my dark elf side (which was my favourite team) was fourth... though the chaos team relied quite cheesily on Lord Borak.

My suspicion is that I'm playing far more agressively with undead and chaos. I guess I'm aware that I can safely put ST4 and ST5 guys in a ST3 player's TZ and it's going to take some effort for the opposing coach to knock them over. Clearly the same is not true of a ST3 elf, so I have generally taken the advice of my elven tactical guides which say only allow your opponent a single Blitz and no blocks in his turn. Doing this, I have made a good job of not losing many players on my elven teams, but not of winning many matches.

So... am I probably playing the elves too timidly? Should I try to put more players in TZs? More generally, does anyone have any thoughts about when one leaves players in your opponents TZs and when once doesn't? (This last question can apply to almost any team.)

Cheers,
Martyn

[DoubleSkulls]

Absolutely, High Elves and Dark Elves don't need to run away to survive. Av 8 is a lot better than Av7 so you can afford to get stuck in when necessary. You might find that against some teams you actually are better overall on taking damage (equivalent Av, more blockers & dodgers).

At the end of the day pulling everyone back and leaving a single blitz to your opponent might slow them down, but they'll never turnover and turnover's win games.

IMO, you have to exploit your agility and mobility to bog down attackers leaving them with single die blocks (especially if they don't have block) or dodges. This isn't to say stand next to Block, Claw, Fangs Chaos Warriors, but tie down enough of the linemen that you open them up in the subsequent turn. You are far more likely to make 2~3 dodges on 2+ than your opponent is on 3/4+. Use TZ's or distance to reduce the options of Big Guys, mummies etc.

Another good tactic is to line up blocks so that if one of your players does get blocked the if opponent follows up you'll be able to block him in your turn (with the assist from the downed player).

On defence always try to leave at least one player up field so you can pass to them if the ball does pop loose you can score or get away from any potential blitz. I often finds it helps if you get ~3 players upfield because then some of them can come in from the rear and really help break up your opponents formation.

With my new HE team (4 games) I've beaten Chaos and Chaos Dwarves, and drawn with a different Chaos team and a Dwarf team - and I'm ahead on casualties despite not getting any against the CD's.

[Rupert]

You may still call yourself least succesfull HE coach in MBBL2, but I started a team for this season, which just may challenge you for that title. Two losses, one win due to a forfeit, and I'm currently getting my team destroyed because my opponent got the ref two times.

Besides this last match I like you have been able to avoid too many casualties by following the "dodge away tactics", but like you I find this strategy to be a tactic of slow but certain defeat. I am usually able to play a decent first half, things tend to go wrong in the second half because of the difference of numbers.

Maybe we could make a support group!