Talk Fantasy Football

After a glorious first season, my Woodies have been languishing in mediocrity for some time now. I'm wondering if I'm suffering from TV bloat (or merely from uninspired play on my part). I'm constantly facing a Wizard and/or Bribes now and find myself forced to score earlier than I would like to. Playing against Count Luthor is no fun either.

I also lost my last match against Undead (though in my defense, it took a long bomb by a Ghoul for them to win it), but five of my players gained a level. All normal rolls. My next match-ups will be Orcs, Woodies, Dark Elves and Nurgle, respectively.

My questions are:
- What skills to choose?
- How to trim my roster/TV (if at all)?

Here's my roster, '?' marks pending skill choices (all normal rolls):

WD - +AG, Tackle, SS, MB, -MV
WD - Strip Ball, SS, ?
CA - +ST, SS, Block, ?
CA - +ST, Guard, Block
CA - rookie
Thrower - Dodge, ?
Line Elf - Wrestle, Kick
LE - Wrestle, Dodge
LE - Wrestle, ?
LE - Dodge
LE - ?
LE - rookie
Treeman - Grab

4 RR
Apo

TV (before skill ups): 1930

Your help is much appreciated!

Not much woodie experience, but here comes my suggestions anyways

- Drop a RR
- DT on the WD and/or catcher might help against the elven opponents, but one more tackle would also be nice
- Dodge on the linemen
- Block, accurate or sure hands on the thrower depending on how you play with him, personally I'd go for accurate

I second what Dines wrote, mostly.
Dodge or Wrestle on the Linemen, Tackle for the WD and the Catcher (maybe DT for the latter).
The second WD especially need to become a more versatile blitzer (ie not-only a ball hunter): Tackle for my money.

Klauser, what are your perceived problems?
Your team look fine, but if your problem is really TV-bloat, the usual solutions (beyond cutting RR) are Leader for the Thrower, cutting the Treeman, cutting Linemen with too many skills (3 solutions I would hate to take... )

klauser wrote: WD - +AG, Tackle, SS, MB, -MV
WD - Strip Ball, SS, ? Dauntless
CA - +ST, SS, Block, ? Sure Feet
CA - +ST, Guard, Block
CA - rookie
Thrower - Dodge, ? Block, or if you cut two RR, Leader
Line Elf - Wrestle, Kick
LE - Wrestle, Dodge
LE - Wrestle, ? Fend or Dodge, I'm partial to Dodge
LE - Dodge
LE - ? Dodge or Wrestle, depending on how your league/opponents look. Lots of Tackle, go with Wrestle
LE - rookie
Treeman - Grab

I love 13 man rosters for WE. I'd get the last catcher and sack the rookie line elf at next opportunity. With those two + STR you really don't suffer from lack of overall Team STR that WE sometimes do.

I'd cut two Reroll right off. You have plenty of Dodge and Block. You do most stuff on 2+. So you are protecting against traumatic rolls of double skulls or when a play needs a series of 3+ dodges... These don't happen too often... you hope.

You have two STR ups, that will bloat any team, but I'd take what you got. And MV 7 is good enough for a "doubled," 4 skilled WD... especially with AG 5...

klauser - I agree with the suggestions to drop a RR, especially if you are struggling when giving away inducements. I would keep the Tree, especially since he has a good skill.

You do not have a dedicated ball-hunting Blitzer yet (Dodge, Wrestle, Tackle, Leap). Such a player can be either a Lino or a Wardancer (or a Catcher with D-Less). The purpose is to be able to threaten a Blodge/S-Hands ball-carrier in a Guarded cage. On your team it would likely be a 4-skill Lino (or a couple of 3-skill Linos).

How is your one-turn-score capability? The Tree with Grab is a good start. I think you need a Catcher built for the purpose (perhaps the rookie). S-Feet and S-Step are the 2 key skills for this, I guess. A Frenzied player might possibly help too (J-Naut on doubles). The aim is to acquire a solid one-turn-score capability even when you are down on numbers (then you are threatening to at least draw against the best bash teams, by denying them the 2-1 grind).

I suggest a main reasons you are struggling is due to a lack of Guard. 2 doubles in some 26 skill advances is poor. If you can get just one more Guard, you will notice a step up in performance. My aim is to get 4 Guards on any elven team (Nuffle permitting!). But 2 will do.

Nice team.

Hope that helps.

Hey all, thanks a lot for the advice so far.

Based on your suggestions, I will cut a RR, but keep the 13-man roster. I might replace the Tree after its next level-up though (barring doubles or +MV of course).

I know I lack Guard and was really hoping for some double rolls after my last match, but to no avail.

As for the skill choices, I will go with Accurate on the Thrower and Dodge on both Linemen. That leaves the Wardancer and the Catcher:

For the WD, I'm torn between Tackle and Frenzy. Having just one Tackle right now, another instance would be nice. However, I would really love some surf-potential and the WD with Leap and Side Step seems like a perfect fit for Frenzy.

For the Catcher, it comes down to Diving Tackle (zero so far) or Sure Feet to improve OTS potential. I tend towards going with DT right now and developing my rookie Catcher as a one-turner (as Smeborg suggested).

Wardancer - tackle
Thrower - Accurate or Safe Throw
Line elf - wrestle
Line elf w wrestle - Dauntless
Catcher -??? Sure hands/Fend/ or another Tackler because it's a nigh WD now.

TV bloat? 1 too many rerolls and you have 100K slapped on 2 ST+1 Catchers (luck or curse).

Alternatively you could look at the advice in the Play Books, Garion's seems to be the closest style to your method of play.