Use or ignore double skill for Underworld Blitzer

[Vinz D.]

Well, the additional damage potential of Piling On is Obvious, but the matter comes more from the fact that it's the only proper damage potential in the team right now (with the Troll taking a frikkin' ten games to get to that first skill), so the Blitzer will be a target in general. Survivability (especially with two dead and one retired Skaven in two games, with minimal income to hire some new bodies) is therefor an important factor for me.

Dr. Von Richten, who had his Undead experience first-hand that not having Piling On can also do a lot of damage ( ), knows who will be coaching the Chaos I am facing next, and I don't fancy losing the Blitzer due to a piling on at the wrong moment.

As for not going with Piling On at all; I play Underworld in a FUMBBL league as well and my best Blitzer to date ran with Blodge, Tackle, Horns, Claw and Mighty Blow... Two seasons of absolute destruction that didn't require Piling On at all.

Still, this all gives me enough to think about.

[Jimmy Fantastic]

Well if you play on fumbbl surely you know who is always right

[squirrelfanatic]

Say Jimmy, to what extent do you provide cover for your PO guy on the ground? Do you think it is sufficient to have one guy cancelling the offensive assists like so (P=piler, V=victim, A=assist)
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ A V _ _ _
_ _ _ P _ _ _

... or like that?
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ V _ _ _
_ _ A P _ _ _

Or would you go out of your way to move additional guys in the way of opposing players? I'd assume that the AV of the PO guy does also play a role, as does the consideration for the following turn. Some teams (say, developed Chaos or Nurgle) surely wouldn't mind having someone stand next to their best killers, especially if those guys have JU...

[swilhelm73]

In my last match, I played my nurgle with a Block, MB, Claw, PO, Tackle, -AV pest against a Khemri team.

I piled on a TG and KO'd him.

I had a screen of players around my PO piece.

My opponent blitzed one of the screen players down, dodged a skellie to come in for the -1 foul (since he had no assists and was in the middle of my players) on my PO guy and injured him.

So...some people will go to great lengths to foul a PO player.

That being said I did win the game.

[squirrelfanatic]

This is getting further and further away from UW discussion but I still would like to comment on that.

Yeah, these things happen. Just like the -2 dice blocks without Block against that MB Block ball carrier (or whatever) succeed. That doesn't mean that it's something that should be expected. Just as the rest of BB, this has a lot to do with calculated risk. Without having done the numbers myself, I'd assume that the foul in question wasn't very likely to succeed (well, maybe it wasn't all that unlikely against a AV7 dude) and yet your opponent gave it a shot. Works 10% of the time all the time.

I was more interested in hearing some input on how much protection is generally considered to be enough for a downed PO guy to be worth the rerolled injury roll.

[Jimmy Fantastic]

Like so much in BB it's very situational, no hard and fast rules really apart from of course low av and niggled guys are more likely to get hit by a low odds foul so that needs to be factored in. I try to put a few guys around if I feel a foul is likely and sometimes won't pile on a low value player if I can't protect him. Sometimes I would want to protect with a screen and a player or two adjacent but sometimes I don't even bother protecting them at all. Also as you get up in numbers and the opponents situation becomes more dire there is less need to protect them. Probably best to watch some replays and see what people do, in particular I have always found Stonetroll very good at winning cpomb wars. One thing I always do is let my best cpomb block the line at kick off rather than blitzing a higher value player as I feel that often leaves them too exposed.

[mattgslater]

PO. Underworld are killer when they win the attrition war.

[TalonBay]

Some great choices.

Dodge is very tempting to keep him alive, I'd raise or lower the priority here depending on how much tackle your league contains. If all the killers are tooled up with tackle then dodge drops in value a lot.

PO has the clear benefits you're aware of.

If you're thinking longer term I like the jump-up suggestion, less optimal right now but combo's really well with PO and you're going to get more blocks with him even before he gets PO. I find jump-up one of those stealth skills that coaches forget about, like diving-tackle. Given that PO is a normal skill I'd be tempted to use the double now.

[squirrelfanatic]

snip

Thanks for the insights, that makes a lot of sense. Will have a look at Stonetroll's games.

[Digger Goreman]

Dodge is very tempting to keep him alive, I'd raise or lower the priority here depending on how much tackle your league contains. If all the killers are tooled up with tackle then dodge drops in value a lot.

I think this is what you want to hang your hat on....

[Vinz D.]

As the league started with teams capped at 1300 TV, with several coaches kicking off with rookie teams, I don't believe there are any teams with Tackle yet. Obviously, the more we progress through the season, the more I'll propably face, but so far, I don't think it's something I'll have to worry about.

[Big A]

It may have been suggested already but I would go jump up in preparation for piling on.

[Smeborg]

I have taken Dodge on Underworld Blitzers (on both of them last time). By the end of the season, I wished I had not taken it. So I shall ignore such doubles in future. Yes, Dodge is good on them, but not as good as the other skills to which they have access.

[Heff]

Late to this party but l will PILE ON and agree with Mr Fantastic