Taking tackle as a skill for an agile team?

[Warpstone]

I always struggle with committing to tackle in a tournament when fielding a quick team (I admit it's a no-brainer when you're coaching a bashy roster). The reason being that the principle nemesis for Elves, Skaven, etc. is always Dwarves and similar bashers. Tackle is a wasted skill in these tough matchups when you need every edge you can get.

Assuming the tourny is large and diverse, how do you break down when to use a skill choice on tackle when fielding an agile roster?

What skill would you choose instead to mitigate the chance of a wasted skill?

[Smeborg]

Warpstone - it depends what the player has already. If he has Block, then Tackle can work well, but of course can be wasted. If the player does not have Block, I like to consider Wrestle, which at least is never wasted. Of course there are situations when Block is better than Wrestle, but the reverse is also true.

Hope that helps.

[Warpstone]

Smeborg, it's a good point, though it thickens the conundrum for me to be honest.

Any Elf blitzer is a crucial piece and giving him tackle is basically akin to dropping a skill that is more universally useful (i.e. dodge or perhaps even side-step). So again, how important is it to simply bite the bullet and accept that you'll be "down a skill" against bashers but well-equipped against everyone else? Assuming the tourny is balanced between bash and agile, I'd be interested to see if coaches think it's worth the risk to lower anti-agile efficiency in the hope of combating your heavy-hitting foils.

[TalonBay]

Smeborg, it's a good point, though it thickens the conundrum for me to be honest.

Any Elf blitzer is a crucial piece and giving him tackle is basically akin to dropping a skill that is more universally useful (i.e. dodge or perhaps even side-step). So again, how important is it to simply bite the bullet and accept that you'll be "down a skill" against bashers but well-equipped against everyone else? Assuming the tourny is balanced between bash and agile, I'd be interested to see if coaches think it's worth the risk to lower anti-agile efficiency in the hope of combating your heavy-hitting foils.

I tend to play elves in tournaments and rate tackle on one of the blitzers/wardancers with strip ball on the other. I'd not swap it out for a more anti bash skill as it's useful against so many good teams (undead, amazon, other elves, lizards).

[Blammaham]

Have you thought about Break Tackle? Might be worth a look! S.

[neverworking]

I'm not really a tourney player but I believe smeborgs argument makes the most sense given your stated concerns. Any 2 die block with two acceptable results will work 55% of the time;80% with reroll. I'm assuming we are talking about a single critical block to take down the ball of course but the point is wrestle will never be wasted. It's probably fair to point out that frenzy is also a poor mans tackle; 4 dice needing a pow comes in at 52%, 2/3s with a reroll. Of course frenzy has other issues and you can't always get 2 dice on both blocks but it also has other values.

[besters]

Playing High & Wood Elves I mostly take defensive skills, block, wrestle, dodge, etc, as I think if you still have most of the team at the end of the game you have probably won it, or at least not lost.

[Tritex]

I would prefer strip ball on a wardancer before tackle as when he goes to get the ball it gives a better chance that the ball is freed than tackle. However I wouldnt have a problem taking tackle as a second skilll for its useful against most ball carriers, goblins, Zons, other catchers etc.

I wouldnt put tackle on a lineman as there are far better skills to take and use.

[Warpstone]

Thanks for the feedback everyone. In the end, I took strip ball + frenzy instead of tackle on my Wardancers.

I was happy with Frenzy. I don't doubt that Tackle would have been quite worth it against Amazons (yuck), but there were several tough bashers I faced (Chaos Dwarves, Orcs, Norse) that would have seen that skill pick wasted.