Naming the common defensive setups

[mattgslater]

I have a buddy who's finally got the pieces in place to run a scary, scary Necromantic 101 Crossbow. He runs Weres on the wings, a Ghoul and a Wight in the protected flanks, a Blodge Golem and a Dodge/ST4 Wight at midfield, a Kick Zombie centerfielder backed up by a Ghoul at safety, Block on the Zombie ends and a Guard Golem on the nose. Nasty stuff.

Edited 4/12 for accuracy

[voyagers_uk]

play creator image please.

[mattgslater]

You'll see it takes a pretty advanced team to pull off. Undead can do it with a bit more ease because they have a leg up on Blodgestep. The FG on the nose could just as easily be a Wight or Z with Guard, and Mummies are the best midfielders to be found.

FWIW, this guy's record sucks (1-1-10). But the last couple games have been very, very close, and his blocking skills are seriously in need of help*. I can tell you that I don't blaze through many 2TTDs on him until I've started to pick off his positionals.

* He has kind of a disadvantage. He's a fairly smart guy, but he's severely dyslexic, so he struggles mightily to read anything more than a sentence or two. So he picks up what we're doing, and he's doing his best learning from the veterans in the group, but the other newbies are at least reading the literature and getting new (to them) ideas. The Necro coach has to either see them used on him, pick it up in conversation, or work it out himself, so he's always a bit behind the curve. It would be one thing if he were just a blocking natural, but he's not. He does have a good understanding of the macro-level BB strategy, and his team is maturing very nicely for such a struggler.

That's ok: everybody comes along at his own rate, and his improvement this season has been dramatic, especially on defense. I mean, he came up with that Crossbow obscenity on his own. He knew the Arrowhead and the Inverted Zig, and just said "hey, I'm too slow on the inside for an Inverted Zig, and I can't protect my LOS from interior runs, but my midfielders don't need any help, so I can use the safeties to reinforce the centerfield!" It's like chocolate and peanut butter!

[dines]

That necro defense is pretty nasty! Definately not a defence I would like to meet.

[daloonieshaman]

Here is my "Open Z"
for my light armor teams such as Halflings/Goblins/Skaven/Zons. I haven't really tried it with tough bashy teams as I tend to use a regular Z



The "Funnel"

[ombwiri]

Is the funnel right? Leaving a gap down one sideline and another through the centre but on the opposite side to the sideline gap?

[mattgslater]

I like your 303 Zig if you're either running positioning skills on the line-ends (not Fend), or up against a team that can't realistically crowd-surf you. Otherwise, I recommend moving the ends in a square. On a Goblin team that has a lot of skills built, Side Step ends might not be out of the question. If your line is at all competitive, though, you should keep your players close in to support one another.

The "funnel" you have there invites partitioning and crowd-surfing. The left side leaves a space along the sidelines, which doesn't bug me so much. It's a little more troublesome that the midfielders are too deep to support the flanker, and the left flanker has to maintain a screen all by himself; that won't survive a Blitz action. But the right (bottom) side leaves a way in along the WZ marker, which is a big no-no. You're asking to take a lot of damage and see the cage form right at centerfield. I'm hesitant to cage up the line on some opponents, but Goblins aren't exactly renown for the toughness of their minimum D-line, which is what you have there. Also, speed teams will get a downfield formation pretty much across the whole board: wherever the Troll commits, the action goes the other way.

[daloonieshaman]

oops the wide outs are supposed to be in the same position

[mattgslater]

Which one?

[daloonieshaman]

The "Bottom" of the Funnel is correct (blocking out the Wide out)

[Milo]

So maybe we need a name for those often used LOS placements?

"Linefodder" and "spaced linefodder"

"The sacrificial three"

[Daht]

Shit, Out and Luck

[Ulthuan_Express]

Expendable Bob, Expendable Jeff and Expendable Fred.

[nick_nameless]

NOTE 1: I may be displaying a bit of ignorance here...I am just trying to clear up in my mind why the "common defensive set-ups" tend to have one particular thing in common:

And that is that they commonly leave the rank behind the LOS empty.

NOTE 2: Let me apply this question to a particular team...Lizardmen so that it makes a little sense in a game.


In this defensive set-up, rather than spacing my players back to defend against a ball carrier getting into my backfield, I am defending my LOS against the opposing team being able to gang-block me off the line. It's a typical tactic, especially when s3 teams find themselves up against stronger teams. They load the LOS so they can get 2D blocks, and bring guys in to the sides of the ends if they need an extra assist to get the 2D block. The "midfielders" here, linebackers, whatever you want to call them, are protecting the ends from more than 2 models (guard withstanding) getting in on them to make the block. Especially with Lizardmen lacking block early, this seems like it would be a solid tactic to keep opposing defenses from taking away their strength advantage on turn one.

What's the downside of crowding the LOS a little like this, especially if you have the mobility to fall back and cover a play? Maybe Dark Elves could benefit from something similar, Chaos dwarves, maybe a few others.

[Oxynot]

NOTE 1: I may be displaying a bit of ignorance here...I am just trying to clear up in my mind why the "common defensive set-ups" tend to have one particular thing in common:

And that is that they commonly leave the rank behind the LOS empty.

...

What's the downside of crowding the LOS a little like this, especially if you have the mobility to fall back and cover a play? Maybe Dark Elves could benefit from something similar, Chaos dwarves, maybe a few others.

In short, the 11% chance of Quick Snap.