Orcs at a Res tourney!

[Krulfang]

Well, my friends and I are having a tourney here pretty soon, and I'm taking Orcs! It's a "we all built our teams, hooray" tourney, so very loose and for fun. I'll be up against humans, lizardmen, and chaos, and I'm trying to build a solid roster. We are following the same rules as the West Coast Quake (1000TV, nobody dies or gets SPP) with the exception where we all take skill package A (6 basic skills to spread among different players, no more than two of any position may have the same skill.

So, with this in mind, I'm trying to build a fun Orc list. Here is my first thoughts on a good list:

Thrower + kick-off return
Black Orc + block
Black Orc + block
Black Orc + guard
Black Orc + guard
Blitzer
Blitzer
Blitzer
Blitzer
Lineman + guard
Lineman

This let's me recover the ball quickly from a kick off and the 3 guard can give me a solid front line. I put guard on the linemen instead of a blitzer as I want the guy to stick with the black orcs and cause some mayhem.

Well... What do you all think? This will be my first tabletop tourney, and any advice would be appreciated!

[waaght]

Hmm... I usually use my black orcs to form my cage, and so they will be on their own, and won't make much use of guard (on offense). Not really sure about the skillz . One idea would be to take guard off the black orcs, and put kick on the other lineman. Also, I like mighty blow on a blitzer in order to inflict some pain , or break tackle on one of the black orcs because cages tend to get bogged down, and that will help maneuverability.

Overall, I really like the choices of players, but I think you could make better offensive skill choices. However, if defense is more your style and/or you like the black orcs on the line, more power to ya, cuz i'm a tourney noob too!
Hoped that helped

[SillySod]

You need to switch the guard from the lineman to a blitzer - linemen cant take guard. It might be worth considering a single tackle or frenzy but guard is a solid skill anyway.

Kick off return is not a great skill, especially against the teams you are up against. Block will suit you alot better because it protects the ballcarrier, gives you an extra blitzer on defence, and helps you use the ballcarrier push players away to defend the cage (which is more helpful than you'd think). Some orc players might suggest that you ditch the thrower altogether and take surehands on a blitzer instead.

If you have the models...

Drop a re-roll and a lineman in favour of a troll. I'd also look at taking goblins but they dont seem to fit in well with a 1mil roster.

[Krulfang]

I choose kick-off return because I've seen both the lizardman and human players use kick well in the video game version of Blood Bowl. I figure it lets me get a cage set up just a little quicker, which is very useful in my book. Also, Guard on Black Orcs is still pretty dang effective at advancing a cage in my experience. It's hard to bust a cage when the assists keep coming unless you take out each one of them.

I will have to remove Guard from the lineman. I always forget its a strength skill and not a general skill.

I'm still not sold on taking a troll... I know they can be good, and frankly, a 4 black orc plus troll line is pretty hard to budge. I just wonder if the extra reroll would allow an all-orc team to pull off some fancier plays. My previous team had 3 (forgot to list that) and dropping down to 2 makes me a bit uncomfortable. Still, I'm going to make a list following advice given, and give it a test run this time. This mini-tourney for the four of us is also our way of seeing what works/what doesn't before we all go to west coast quake. Here goes!

Thrower + block
Black Orc + block
Black Orc + block
Black Orc + guard
Black Orc + guard
Blitzer
Blitzer
Blitzer
Blitzer
Lineman
Troll + Guard
2 rerolls
10k left over

[Coach]

Hardly anyone takes Kick at tournaments though due to the skill limitations, there are usually more pressing skills for teams to take.

The only ones who may have it, but not always, are Skaven and Wood Elves. Lizardmen have no start skills so will be taking Block, Break Tackle etc. Humans take Guard, Block and Wrestle usually.

[Krulfang]

Well, after this discussion and a discussion on the NAF forums, I've decided my final lineup will be this:

Thrower + block
Black Orc + block
Black Orc + block
Black Orc + guard
Black Orc + guard
Blitzer + tackle
Blitzer
Blitzer
Blitzer
Lineman
Lineman
3 rerolls
10k left over

The troll, while solid 5/6ths of the time, is just a bit too unreliable for my tastes. I'd rather have a lineman in his place and an extra reroll. My line doesn't suffer that much because of it (he still takes up space, it just puts a little more of the job in the hands of the black orcs) as he still generates tackle zones and can assist. That combined with the fact I'd have to buy an additional model tips the troll off the roster. Goodbye for now, Grakack Two-Wart! The muscle of the troll won't be too needed at 1000 TV (especially against the opponents I'm expecting - Humans Chaos and Lizardmen). The Saurus of the Lizardman team may give me a problem, but matching them in strength and having much more block guaranteed (they can only get 2 per the rules- I have 2 on my black orcs and 4 on my blitzers) puts me in a good position over them. Chaos the same way, and although I'll have to watch out for blitzing beastmen and the minotaur (I know the chaos player will have one) some good guard positions and my sheer amount of block I think will win the day.

I think this lineup is good to go. Now to build the models and make this team a physical reality and not just a digital entity! Oh, and I'm also building the Chaos team (it's my girlfriend's team, and I'm building them for her for her birthday.) so they've got to get made as well... If I can dig up my camera, I'll put up pictures in the miniature section as the teams get made!