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Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 2015 10:16 pm
by Smeborg
I had some good fortune in my first little tourney with 'Flings last year, going unbeaten with 2 wins and 2 draws. A failed landing on the last turn of the last game saw me just miss out on 1st place (out of 12). Admittedly, the format was 'Fling-friendly. Somewhat encouraged, I put a very similar team into a bigger tournament last weekend (25 players), the Capital Shield (CAS) in Wellington, New Zealand. A very enjoyable and sociable tournament. Here was my roster:

Willow
Tree with Block, B-Tackle
Tree with Block, B-Tackle
'Fling with S-Hands, S-Feet
'Fling with Catch
11 rookie 'Flings
3RR, 2AC, 2CL

1st game: Drew 1-1 with Amazons (CAS: 2-3). Received, got turned over, had to chase the game. Equalised on turn 16. Phew!

2nd game: Drew 2-2 with Dark Elves (CAS: 0-1). Received, got turned over, had to chase the game again! Equalised on turn 16 with a thrown 'Fling. Phew!

3rd game: Beat Skaven 4-0 (CAS: 3-0). A former club-mate (my apologies to him). I received, he over-committed to the counter-attack, I managed to break through somewhat luckily and score on turn 2 with a thrown 'Fling (on the same turn a 'Fling CAS'd a Gutter Runner). After that I could do nothing wrong, and (more importantly) my opponent could do nothing right. I was 3-0 up at half time, a rather improbable result. Starting to feel better at the end of the first day.

4th game: Beat Dwarfs 2-1 (CAS: 3-0). A sweet and even more improbable result. I knew I was in with a chance, as my opponent had only 11 players, including Grim (thus only 4 Tackle, 5 x AV8 players, and only 2 RRs). I kicked, pressed with the Trees, and eventually pulled off my most elegant sack of the tourney (one Tree chain pushed the "caged" ball carrier next to the other prone Tree, who jumped up and blitzed him). But alas, the ball scattered around the scrum and into the arms of Grim, who promptly blitzed and dodged his way downfield to score. But I still had a decent chance at a 2 turn score to equalise. This succeeded, not without good fortune (a thrown 'Fling again). In the 2nd half, I managed a "perfect" grind, my opponent had only 6 players left on the pitch by the end (of which 4 were stranded or stuck to Trees). I had all 11 players on the pitch... The Trees were at their best in this match, they were very adhesive. I managed to surf 3 Dwarfs in the match, none were injured, though.

So after 4 games, I had reached the giddy heights of the top table and 3rd board. As might be expected, Nuffle duly punished the Stunties for their presumption.

5th game: lost 1-2 to High Elves (CAS: 3-2). Received, failed my first dodge of the game, this allowed the "cage" to be sacked, the ball scattered favourably, my opponent scored immediately. More of the same after that, a thrown 'Fling failed the last GFI to the end zone, the ball scattered way back (but I got lucky when the HEs failed to score). The HEs duly scored in the second half on their receive, leaving me 4 turns to score twice (not impossible, I was starting to dent the HE roster). But the thrown 'Fling landed 1 square short, meaning I could only score 1 TD.

6th game: lost 0-1 to Halflings (CAS: 1-4). A peculiar match, due to my opponent's unusual roster (Deeproot, Zara, 1 Tree, no RRs, 5 x Sneaky Git). I kicked and had only my Trees left on the pitch by the end of the first drive. But the match was decided by blocks on the ball-carrier. In the first half, I got 6 dice of blocks on my opponent's ball carrier, I could not get better than a push (I would have been happy with a both down). In the second half, a failed GFI (with RR) gave an opening for my opponent to get a 1-die block on my ball carrier. It was a pure POW. Ah well...

I have to say I love Trees with Block and Break Tackle. It seems there is little they cannot do. Willow was decent, she sacked the opposing ball carrier a couple of times IIRC, and posed a nice threat at other times. In the last game, however, she left the pitch on the first drive (KO), never to return. With 16 players, I never ran out of players, I think I always had a reserve! Sure Hands, Sure Feet and Catch all worked well, for me this is a way to re-inforce the fact that the Halfling roster is all about Rerolls. 2 wins, 2 draws, 2 losses, TDs: 10-7, CAS: 12-10.

I had a good time, I hope you enjoyed that too.

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 10:25 am
by babass
Deeproot rules 8)

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 12:44 pm
by mzukerman
Sheesh, you must be the number one halfling coach in the world with results like that...

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:23 pm
by babass
mzukerman wrote:Sheesh, you must be the number one halfling coach in the world with results like that...
Kwek won 2 weeks ago a Naf-tourney with histoire legendary halflings.

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 1:27 pm
by Glowworm
So, will we see them at the WCIII?

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 2:12 pm
by lunchmoney
mzukerman wrote:Sheesh, you must be the number one halfling coach in the world with results like that...
Yeah, without checking, I believe that title belongs to Kwek.

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 2015 4:01 pm
by babass
glowworm wrote:So, will we see them at the WCIII?
I've heard the "Groovy Grass Blowers" will be at the WC3.(Nice ruleset actually for halflings)

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2015 9:56 am
by Glowworm
Good to hear other coaches are taking stunties.

Always think each team should have 1 stunty coach, then we could have a Stunty WC as well :wink:

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Tue Mar 17, 2015 5:00 am
by Smeborg
Some of my club-mates took an all-Stunty team to a team event last year (teams of 3). They had a lot of fun, and pulled some pleasing "upsets". I haven't been brave enough for that sort of thing yet.

All the best.

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 10:30 am
by kwèk
Glad to see that the flings are still populair :P

Lol someone told me to watch this threat, I'm not a big Forum-poster/reader.
Lunchdude, you are giving my flings way to much credit... my rating - W/D/L record ain't that good. I'm playing them verry conservative, and I've not tried out a lot of diffrent tactics.

NAF ranked games at the moment
Tournaments without stars: 36 / 33 / 66 (W/D/L-record)
Tournaments with stars: 30 / 24 / 24 (W/D/L-record)
All Tournaments together: 66 /57 / 90 (W/D/L-record)

So it's not that spectaculairrrrrrrrr! ... I just have manny games under my belt.
... The flings do get a LOT better with starplayers. In the old days (few years ago) the starplayers were not allowed in most tournaments on this side of the world. So you were pretty much screwed with all your cash. Leaving you with 5 FF, 3 chearleaders, 3 coaches... that actually don't really do a lot on the pitch (unless you roll pitch invasion, or steal another reroll... which you had plenty off, but your opponent doesnt get it). Maybe in those days, I should have experimented more with break tackle treemen. (which I didn't)

Lol Babass, Yeah, I won a "little" tournament :) , only 8 guys entered, and it was only 3 games... funny fact is that it was my 100th NAF tournament (altough it will never register that on the NAF site because I played in a NAF tournament, where all my 3 opponents where not NAF ranked...).

What is spectaculair in this post is the 4-0 win vs Skaven... lol. I'm having a pretty rough time against the vermin.

I ussually induce Deeproot, cause the 3th treeman is a monster on the pitch. I'm also a big fan of Puggy Baconbreath, and played a couple of tournaments without rerolls (except for what the mastercheff can steal). ... I found out however, that 1 reroll is a lot better then none at all, cause Flings try to exploit their TTM ability (for it's sometimes the best chance they have to score the TD). Being conservative, and holding 1 RR on the side for that important moment is pretty big for the little ones.

1.150.000 (1RR , Cheff, Puggy, Deeproot)
1.100.000 (0RR, Cheff, Puggy, Deeproot OR 1RR, Cheff, Deeproot)
Has been my set up so far.

For the World cup, I'm going to try out Zarra this year. Cause I would like to have another reroll.
1.100.000 (1RR, Cheff, Puggy, Zarra) is going to be the experiment in some of the upcomming tournaments.

So far I've not tried out willow... I'm generally pretty weary about star players without Block (or wrestle) to defend themselves for the double skull/Blockpow, skull - result. Also, I don't want my investment to leave the pitch to early. The Star has to do some important stuff (like blitzing some halflings free so they don't have to dodge, sacking ball caries, or even fly through the air for the TD - GO GO PUGGY (you can even use him as a bullet, in the hope he lands on the ball cariers head at times... who cares, he's a fling he can take it). Annyway, Puggy is 10K cheaper... So I don't see why you would go for willow. Yes, she has ST4, and yes she has sidestep, her AV is better and her thick skull keeps her on the pitch. But Puggy has Blodge, +ST, and nerves of steel (which doesnt do a lot, but can be really painfull at times). At key moments he just goes in (with stunty) do the 1d, ball scatters in his hands, and he catches it... and can still try to dodge out. He can be insane at certain times. He can always be trown... and he has more movement then willow. I think Puggy beats Willow on the pitch... of course, I never fielded her, so this is more theory then practise.

Nerves of steel: I've handed off the ball to puggy while he's standing in tacklezones. Is it a good play? Probably not (because of loner)... but a 3+ is still doable, and if it gets you the TD or even trow the fling away (far enough), so the opposition can't score... it's still a good play.

Annyway, Puggy and deeproot has been amazing for me... the high cost of the guys do have the problem that you have less halflings in the reserve box, which makes the game against skaven/wood elves ... even more problematic... cause you tend to swarm them out, and foul the crappers out of them.

Best skill (for me personally) on flings... is an overload of Side Step. It rocks in defence, and it safes halflings from being blocked twice in turn. Which also safes you on armour and injury rolls. Sometimes the opponent will block a side stepper, and if he keeps standing up (cross fingers) he will gain 1 square for a blitz or just the TD. Just keeping them around a ball that is on the ground can be extremely annoying. Yes your opponent can manage it so you can't side step to that important square... but that will cost him resources. And this is a resource management game. 2 guys delivering an assist means there are 2 guys less beating the crap out of the other guys. (and flings carry a lot of crap to beat out of them)

I ussually don't skill the trees accept for guard... I love guard, for it does something when the trees are rooted. Flings can hide in the forest and gain a strength benefit for doing so. It also makes the "leap in the cage, block" for slann (which is a terrible mach up in my opinion) and wardancers, a bit more difficult. Even skinks, goblins, halflings that go for the 1d blitz are having a more a difficult time. With stunty, you can also create situations where you can chainpush your unrooted treeman into a cage, and then all the flings around it, just become problematic (+1 ST from guard).

But I've heard a lot of people going crazy on break tackle... maybe i should try it sometimes. I'm just not a fan of rerolling the take root.... which I almost never do. Cause I'm already low on rerolls to begin with. If you play without stars, or have a huge cash increase because of tournament rules... it can work. I ussually don't have tournaments like that annymore... I try just to play the starplayer tourneys lately.

Block on flings is great... I don't know why you didn't take 1? Block helps you defeat stunties, keeps your ballcarier on his feet, makes the blitz (to open up more flings) easier, make the 2D against more reliable... And it doesnt make your fling go down (like wrestle) where he's a foul target (stunty on injury, is the same as dirtyplayer). It's pretty good to have at least one blodger. They are pretty annoying if they survive and don't go "double skull".

Annyway, they are fun to play... can be frustrating at times, but it's not that you have the idea of winning a big tournament with them... if the occasion comes up however, I hope you end up the lucky one. Flings are pretty dice + match up dependant (even more then other teams). And when things go bad (a failed dodge early in the turn) they go really really really bad. Lol.
Still, if you position right, and your armour doesnt break early in the game... you can give annyone a verry exciting game... for it's only over if your trees are dead, or all the flings are off the pitch.

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 11:50 am
by Darkson
mzukerman wrote:Sheesh, you must be the number one halfling coach in the world with results like that...
Only just in the top 50. Thomsy is listed as #1, but there's an issue with his ranking.
Kwek surprisingly is only on p.2!

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 11:56 am
by kwèk
Darkson wrote: Kwek surprisingly is only on p.2!
Yeah :P
Rub it in :lol:

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 9:47 pm
by Smeborg
kwek - the reason I do not take Puggy is that in numerous games (playing against him) he goes into the dugout very easily and very early.

I like Willow, but Zara is of course better if TV permits. I am not a fan of Deeproot - too much cost for an MA2 player.

All the best.

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 10:00 pm
by Toffer
Smeborg wrote:kwek - the reason I do not take Puggy is that in numerous games (playing against him) he goes into the dugout very easily and very early.
Impossible.

Re: Having fun with Halflings

Posted: Wed Mar 18, 2015 10:30 pm
by sann0638
I took Bertha when I took flings - bit of a one-trick pony (BT, Dodge cage breaker), but it's a pretty cool-trick if either Block or Dodge are missing on the ball carrier!

Kwek also made it to table 1 in Round 6 of Thrud 2014. Can't remember how that game went. :lol: