How to make "kick" useful?

[Pitch Dark]

In my darkelf team i have a lineman-kicker. Ive tried kicking long and into the corners to force the opponent deep into their on side, ive tried kicking short inhope of blitz, or when meeting low agilityteams with the weather on my side. All in all, i still cant say that it has been useful to me.

So what am I doing wrong?

[Balrog]

Kick is only useful if you know what you are trying to accomplish. If it's late in the half and the opponent has few turns left, kick the ball deep - this makes it harder for your opponent to move the ball forward. Otherwise, try to place the ball in an area where he has few players, that way if a turnover occurs you will be in a better place to get at the ball.

All Kick does is make life a little harder for your opponent on his first turn on offense. But if he doesn't mess up then it won't do much, it's an "in case" skill. I love my Kicker on my Skaven team, makes my Gutter Runners very dangerous.

-Balrog

[Snew]

Don't forget that you get to apply the skill after you see the die roll. That means that, if you like the number that comes up on the D6 better than the halved version, use it.

[Asperon Thorn]

Kick is one of the best skills for a DE team, it doesn't sound like you are using the kick itself incorrectly, but it probably has more to do with the execution after the kick.

Against dwarf teams it is good to put it in a back corner, they may have put a runner far enough back to gather it, but you should be able to get players to that runner faster than they can get that runner to safety. Charge a couple of players straight at him, and have a couple of players circle the line of scrimmage, to slow down players moving back to help.

Against a faster, pass team, I like to kick it short and to a side. Lots of times they load up one side, so I kick it to the weak side. Chances are they will have a guy that can collect it, but they will have more difficulty trying to get the ball back to thier deep thrower.

In both cases, if they fail an early action, you can that much more of a break on the ball, because you have forced some control over what happens. Without kick (and without a blitz), the receiving team has almost complete control over that first turn, but with kick you can take at least some control for yourself, by dictating where they need to recieve the ball.

Asperon Thorn

[Pitch Dark]

Wow, that was quick

Unfortunately we declare the skills before we roll the dice in our league, wich makes kick a littlebit less useful i guess. (but also skills as piling on and mighty blow). I think i prefer it that way anyway.

Ill keep on trying then. Maybe i can kick the ball right at the opponents and see if i can knock em out. Yes, ill think ill try that.

Btw: How does the skill kick and the kickoftableresult bad kick work?

[redlizard]

Btw: How does the skill kick and the kickoftableresult bad kick work?

No change. Roll 2 dice and halve the result.

[wesleytj]

ah no it's a bit more complicated than that.

you halve each die, round down, then add. so if you roll snake eyes on the bad kick, it still goes 0, not 1.

[Snew]

It's a big arguement. Do it whatever way you can all agree on. I agree that it's 2D6/2. We used to play that it was 1D6 if you had kick till we found that you got to decide after the die roll whether to use the skill.

[berserker]

We half the total in 2, rounded down

[DoubleSkulls]

you halve each die, round down, then add. so if you roll snake eyes on the bad kick, it still goes 0, not 1.

No you don't. You halve the total.

Bad Kick: The ball scatters a number of squares equal to the roll of two dice on the kick-off, instead of only one dice.

Because his kick is so accurate, the number of squares that the ball scatters on kick-off is halved, rounding any fractions down (ie, 1 = 0, 2-3 = 1, 4-5 = 2, 6 = 3).

[Rogerg1979]

I scoffed at kick until I actually started using it!

The ability to control (to an extent) where the ball is goin makes such a difference, you can set up your defence much more sensibly, preventing the offence form dominating the drive, also if your opponent isn't expecting it, kick can ruin carefully laid plans (overloaded sides for example).

Gk.

[Sputnik]

Rogerg1979 wrote:

preventing the offence form dominating the drive, also if your opponent isn't expecting it, kick can ruin carefully laid plans (overloaded sides for example

How often did it happen to you that your opponent didn't realize you have a kicker? Did he forget it? Did you tell him in advance?

Most opponents I know can still dominate a drive, they just need longer to get their ball carrier into position which is your chance if you have some fast players.

Kick can help you to spread the offence and/or to force your opponent to secure the ball first. The movement into your half may be slowed down a bit. You can also hope he needs a rr. An Orc thrower for example can't reach the whole field. If there is only one in his backfield, you may hope the ball comes down where a blitzer either has to pick it up or where they have to sit next to the ball. Thus, you can direct the Offense into a certain position you like.

Against slow teams, you can also try to put your defensive specialists into a better field position.

Try out variations. With dark elves, you should be able to pressurize his ball carrier early on.

Good luck

Sputnik

[wesleytj]

you halve each die, round down, then add. so if you roll snake eyes on the bad kick, it still goes 0, not 1.

No you don't. You halve the total.

Bad Kick: The ball scatters a number of squares equal to the roll of two dice on the kick-off, instead of only one dice.

Because his kick is so accurate, the number of squares that the ball scatters on kick-off is halved, rounding any fractions down (ie, 1 = 0, 2-3 = 1, 4-5 = 2, 6 = 3).

See I read that same section and get the opposite opinion, especially since it specifies what a 1 is, what a 3 is, etc. So if I roll a 1 and 3, it goes 0+1=1 squares. You take each die, round down according to kick skill rules, then sum.

[Relborn]

Well although both versions sound good, I believe Ianwilliams is right. It doesn't make much sense to round down each die roll seperately.

I have no problem by using either one, but I would prefer Ianwilliams version.

IIRC the BBRC has discussed this topic already.

[Grumbledook]

ian is right, the ball travels 2d6 and kick halves the distance traveled