Rebalancing Wild Animals: Trapped Rat clause

[Al the Rat]

There seems to be a general consensus that the WA is slightly to damaging a trait. The potential for turnover on the first action of a turn can too easily be exploited by competent coaches with very little tactical mitigation. This leaves only strategic team development to collect skills that help keep them on there feet when they are faced with making 1 or 1/2 die blocks. Some don't see this as a problem, but really all players should be viable as rookies, which WA clearly are not.

Rather than rehash the WA rule completely I've had an idea that might add something more to the WA mix. WA remains the same but with this addition. Each time a WA is forced to throw a 1/2 block before the block is made roll 2D6, if the result is equal to or below the number of attackers the WA becomes even more wild, for this turn only the WA receives double strength and the skill multiple block. The idea behind this is that of a cornered animal becoming even more ferocious in its attempts to escape.

Some thoughts on this would be appreciated, it is a fairly unrefined idea and the odds of its use might need some analysis. Against standard St 3 it would only activate on a roll of 4 or below. A one in 6 chance of maybe avoiding a turnover. It adds an element of risk to playing turnovers against WA which currently is not there, and so forces opposing coaches to weigh up the odds a little bit more.

[DoubleSkulls]

How about keeping it simpler still?

If a WA would normally have to throw a 1/2 die block then they may roll 1 die instead. This does not apply if the WA could throw a 1 die block or the opponent has higher Strength.

Still makes them a bit of a liability but severely reduces the swarming the RO ploy.

[Al the Rat]

That works too, Ian. The liability is 1 in 3, or only 1 in 6 once the WA gets block. With my fluffier but more complex idea the odds of avoiding the liability are 1 in 6. The question is how far back towards the favour of the WA do we need to come?

[DoubleSkulls]

Having thought about it I believe the best solution is to say that WA's can just give up their turn - its the only way to keep WA pretty much as is but to prevent playing the WA rather than the game.

[Marcus]

Was going to suggest you change it to "can never take worse than a 1 die block" when I noticed ian's post.

Actually I was going to refine it to say that assists cannot make it worse than a 1 die block. If you block a ST 6 player it's still 1/2 die. If you block a ST3 player with 3 defensive assists it's 1 die.

I'd say run it past your commish but, since Ian and I are your league commishes and we're both in agreement on the "sacrifice your turn" thing, we probably won't use it

[DoubleSkulls]

And we are waiting to see if the BBRC comes up with anything

[Al the Rat]

The sacrificed turn works pretty well to prevent playing the WA, but it isn't really inkeeping with the spirit of the trait. Agreed wait to see what the BBRC comes up with but at least this means that there is another idea out there for them to mull over.

[Mekanik Kommandoh]

I have to say I'm against the idea. In a starting league if one team buys a big guy others have to really think about getting one for themselves. It would seem that this one team forces others to get big buys as well, but as we all know not all team can not afford it. So one team has a big guy and the other team has more players altogether. In average it takes four players to take the upper hand over a ST 5 big guy. Which would you rather take?

Now with this rule suggestion it would take nine players in average to force a 1/2 dice block everytime, right? This would mean that all teams would have to take a big guy if one team takes it. And since some teams do not have a big guy to take would you choose them on a starting league? I say the rules are fine as is. Big guys are strong and deadly, but come with a price. This price ensures that the score is not set until the match is over.

[Icedman]

I dunno Mekanik; I've played an Ogre with the LRB Bonehead, and I've played a Mino with the LRB WA. What I can tell you is this:

Ogre: if you leave him till last/late in your turn, you may fail elsewhere and his trait never comes into play (yea, i know that means HE doesn't come into play, but bear with me...) ie: a ST5 f******g ROADBLOCK.

Mino: his nega-trait ALWAYS comes into play, even in a situation where you REALLY don't want it to.

Now, yes, all BG's should come with a price, but with the comparison above, who's "costing" you more? Shouldn't "cost"(penalty) vs useability be pretty much equal? And believe me, I've had the Mino played rather than the game, and it cost me a TD (and I think, the game...) on at least one very memorable occaision.

Anywho, I like the look of the rule addendum; as ppl have said, it might slow down the coaches who swarm the WA coz they can't stop you any other way (although, hitting the Orc player's Ogre for 1/2 dice coz he had 2 BO buddies and watching both dice come up Dodge Down was a DAMN FINE way of getting my opponents to back off!!!)

[DoubleSkulls]

I have to say I'm against the idea. In a starting league if one team buys a big guy others have to really think about getting one for themselves. It would seem that this one team forces others to get big buys as well, but as we all know not all team can not afford it. So one team has a big guy and the other team has more players altogether. In average it takes four players to take the upper hand over a ST 5 big guy. Which would you rather take?

Well it depends on the team. A lot of teams with access to big guys don't need them (e.g. Orcs, Lizzies, Chaos) as they have S4 guys anyway. Also you can compensate with a Dauntless player or two, which allows you to put them down.

The second side is do you actually need one for the S3 teams? Well humans, norse and dwarves can benefit from the injection of strength. Wood Elves have to fork out a lot of money for a Tree that misses 1/4 of your turns - and the other elves can't have one at all. Skavs only have the choice of a RO - which is a liability until its got block.

[Grumbledook]

I often just stick a cack player next to a strong player, sure they will block him, but it stops him blitzing my ball carrier (unless they get some lucky dodges) A 30k zombie is perfect for this, also my choas dwarfs come with block and with av9 they usually can get up to do the same thing the next turn. Also they cost less than the big guy, so my extra money is spent elsewhere on the pitch, usually to help me score.

I have only ever taken a big guy for my goblins, though I am tempted to get a couple of the new ogres when they are released, just cause they look cool.

[DoubleSkulls]

I often just stick a cack player next to a strong player, sure they will block him, but it stops him blitzing my ball carrier

It also stops the "roadblock" moving too.

This works great for teams that have the linemen for it - Orcs, Dwarves, Undead.

However a lot of teams don't really have this luxury of cheap/resilient linemen - elves suffer for it, especially as they don't have the strength to take them on head to head.

[Grumbledook]

Elves have the speed advantage over the teams with slower cheaper players. They can also dodge away from the big guy and make a web of tackle zones protecting a ball carrier.

This means that the other coach can use the big guy to blitz, risking a bonehead or something, or try and get another play through to go and blitz the ball carrier. At the end of the day touchdowns win games not beaten up linemen.