flame on! where to.put kick.on an elf or high elf team

[Bullroarer4]

I have been struggling with this internal question
where to put kick on a high elf (or elf for that matter)?

While most experienced coaches say lineman, In my last match, I had to place a Thrower with block on The line during kick off due to some early losses and that my kicker needed to stay backfield to use the skill. Putting a Thrower on the line seemed counter intuitive to that position and the potential skill access.I realised that with a minimum team with full positionals, that would leave space for three linemen on the roster.

With an elf team, how important is kick? And with full positionals, where does space for the fourth lino come into play? I have toyed with adding kick as the first skill of the second Thrower or perhaps the first skill on the first Thrower.

Flame on!

[Smeborg]

I have toyed with the idea of giving Kick to Throwers on some teams, but have never taken the plunge and done it. A fellow coach takes Kick on a Skaven Thrower, I believe he is not alone. The problem with HEs is that their Throwers are rather good as Throwers, Kick seems a waste of development.

Kick can be a "problem" for some teams if they have 8 or more positional players, with 3 Linemen on the LoS, or if their preferred defensive set-up has no Lineman except in the wide zones. The latter is the case, for example, with my Nurgle team, thus I forget about Kick altogether for them.

Hope that helps.

[Digger Goreman]

I would give you the French answer, but the mods would censor me....

[Winged_Human]

buy more linos. that's how I solve that problem

[the.tok]

With any elf team, always kick in the head

[mattgslater]

Ranked or League?

Ranked: I run 7 linos, 3 Catchers, 2 Blitzers. What's a Thrower? We're smackdown artists.

League: I run 13 men in low-value leagues like NCBB Non-AQ, with 2 Blitzers, 4 Catchers, 1 Thrower, and 6 linos. Several guys have to go out before the Thrower hits the LOS.

All Formats: The difference between a Thrower and a Lineman is only money. Until you start wasting the Thrower on Lino skills. Then it's skills and money.

[spubbbba]

Despite hardly ever passing I like throwers on human, elf and high elf teams. They cost a little bit more than linemen but get some useful skills and skill access for that cost so are worth it. You can comfortably take 2 without it being a big waste of TV.

They are also easy to skill up and tend to survive longer since they are exposed to less blocks than linemen and aren’t prime targets like blitzers and catchers.

Linemen tend not to love as long as other players since they will get the dirty jobs and apoths will usually be saved for positionals. That’s one of the reasons I like giving throwers utility general skills after block (and dodge). Skills like kick, strip ball and tackle are useful, but blitzers often have other skills take priority and if linemen get to the stage of taking those they are entering TV bloat territory.

It has the added advantage of making your thrower useful all game (particularly if he has block already) rather than just on offence.

[el Superbeasto]

Linemen tend not to love as long as other players since they will get the dirty jobs

Brilliant!

[Smurf]

I always put kick on Throwers. Play with 2 Throwers too, one offence, one defence. Mind you my Skaven team are a scream, the worst injured players are the 2 throwers! One has MA8 and is wanting kick but is ST2 and the other is Accurate, Safe Throw, AV6.

I have plans. For Elves I would go for the uber passer and the Kicker, maybe add on NOS for getting in and tossing balls out or something. The Kicker is a slow developer anyway.

But this means more line to do line stuff.

[Hitonagashi]

First skill on the first lino to skill.

My thrower goes Dodge/Sure Hands/Block/(Leader/Accurate), and is responsible for picking up and clearing the ball once I pop it.

[MKL]

In this ancient thread (well, 2010) , there was a discussion about giving Kick to a Pro-Elves Catcher as late skill, after the lineman kicker goes (inevitably?) killed/maimed
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=30002&hilit=kick+catcher&start=30

[mattgslater]

Heheheh... I was playin' a different game then. SE in 6-9 games? After two years of Ranked, I almost never hit Spiraling Expenses with any race, let alone elves.

I still stand by the idea of putting Kick on your last Catcher if you need to replace your Kicker, though in a longer-running format I'd rather make it a #3 lino skill to replace the first one if he dies. That High Elf team I was talking about still has its Lino kicker: he's kind of a stud at this point, and his presence really helps the other players develop. They don't get in a lot of games anymore (I've been on a Human kick), but they're fun. I've been playing without Kick lately, and I think I'm ready to start taking it again. I got Block Linos on most of my Human teams, I guess Kick is next.

[el Superbeasto]

Linemen tend not to love as long as other players since they will get the dirty jobs

Sorry, but this still cracks me up!