New League - Slann

[Furry47]

I am trying something with a slann team in our new league. Everyone has a brand new build (no returning teams) band the regular season runs 7 games.

My build is:
5 Linefrogs
3 Catchers
2 Blitzers
1 Krox
2 Re-rolls

I know that everyone suggest starting with more rr's but I wanted the all the player types. My team will be updated on our site but I will post here as we play to show how this is doing and to get advice from you guys..

I would like any feed back or opinions you may have. Our league site is http://www.kalamazoo.bloodbowlleague.com.

Thanks

[Da_Great_MC]

Good luck. You are so going to need it...

[Ullis]

This is simply madness. Your start will most likely be awful and frustrating and you won't be able to get your team skilled.

If you're able to score - at all - then it will happen with the catchers. Catchers hogging spp's is not a good way to start a slann team as first skills on linos and blitzers offer much better value.

Buy more rerolls. At the very least swap the kroxigor to a lino and buy a third rr.

[Demagoge]

I started with 4 RR and sometimes I really want to have even more. Slann are really RR-heavy. 3 RRs are the absolut minimum for a succesful play (I played two games against halflings with chef and it was a horror with 2 RRs, even against the little ones), but I really think 4 RR are the way to start.

[Gaixo]

I think you need to start with all the catchers and at least three rerolls. I'm pretty sure I started with 2 blitzers and had some success, but in retrospect I think I would trade one of them out for a lineman and apothecary. I almost never start with an apoth, but the slann team had too many expensive players with low armor and no defensive skills. That's the main issue: the lack of block or dodge on the positionals, especially because slann defense requires you to initiate a lot of contact.

In other words, I recommend:

4 catchers
1 blitzer
6 linemen
3 rerolls
apothecary

The blitzers work better in pairs, but I would rather have the extra reroll or apoth. The kroxigor just creates way too much trouble for a starting team to manage.

[Furry47]

When others have played for or against slann were the re-rolls used up on leaps, blocks, or was it a combo? Also my only experience against them starting with dwarves and I got 11 casualties, from your experiences are they really that squishy they have alot of 8 armor which seems fine.

[Gaixo]

Again, they don't have any "safety" skills. So you use up a lot of rerolls on leaping, but you also use some on failed blocks and dodges and pickups.

As you say, most of the team is AV8. But the only good thing about the blitzer (at first), is that he has diving tackle. So you're going to be using him to check runners and that means he'll be prone to getting knocked down. If you're going to optimize your leap gimmick on defense, that means leaping into cages and other dangerous positions. Plus, your catchers are going to be leaping a lot, and once you run out of rerolls 1/6th of those leaps are going to result in an AV7 armor roll.

This is highly anecdotal, but I played a practice half against a friend of mine the other night and destroyed his slann team. My dice were admittedly hot (his were average), but with dark elves I badly hurt both of his blitzers, put MA hits on two of his catchers, and put a lineman out for the next game. That was only one half, and with me using a fairly lightweight team. Most of that was down to dice, of course, but I still think the slann team is more fragile than it appears.

[Ullis]

When others have played for or against slann were the re-rolls used up on leaps, blocks, or was it a combo?

You have to reroll everything. Blocks, ball handling, leaps and GFI's. You have no reroll skills and no one starts with Block or Wrestle. That alone explains why you need those rerolls. Leaping is just another drain on the rerolls.

Also my only experience against them starting with dwarves and I got 11 casualties, from your experiences are they really that squishy they have alot of 8 armor which seems fine.

The anecdotes here are from freaky dice. Slann catchers are really fragile at the start with only ST2, AV7 and no defensive skills. Humans do fine with AV8 and so do slann. The key is controlling turn overs. For that you need rerolls and avoiding leaping all over the place. On defence just the threat of leaping can mean that you don't in the end even have to leap!

[Furry47]

From what I'm reading, if I'm following correctly; dont be too aggressive to start until you skill them up? try to skill linefrogs over catchers, catchers will get spp without much trying?

[MeatLoafX]

Your catchers skill decently fast - it's incredibly hard to stop a Slann score, especially along the sidelines (a few 2+ and you're good). Blitzers are the hardest, unless you give them the ball a lot. I'd get some skills on the catchers (dodge) and then work on the blitzers.

Linemen are great pieces, but they also skill slowly. The good thing is that they aren't that expensive and you'll eventually get a few with some skills - most of my linemen stopped at 1 or 2 skills anyway, but my blitzers and catchers went 4+

[Furry47]

Thanks for all the input so far.

I played a trial game with the team tonight verses a human team.

The Krox had a kill and a miss next, he caused one failed dodge, and boneheaded 3/15 uses.
I had one blitzer td and one lineman td.
My catchers got one completion and failed four leaps out of six, ouch. My catchers were turnover machines. I used my rerolls (all on catchers) on turns 2 and 5 in the first half and 11 and 12 in the second (double failed both of them, ouch again). I ended up losing 3-2 but winning casualties 2 -1.

[Furry47]

Finished first season with team 4-1-2 earning second seed in playoffs. I now have all four catchers and four rerolls. If I could start again I would have gone 7 line frogs (420), 3 catchers (240), Krox (140), 3 re-rolls (150), and an apoth (50).

What I learned:
My blitzers have been all but useless. 0 diving tackles in a seven game season, not because they were out of position just that no one failed a dodge on them.
The catchers are absolutely amazing!
Bonehead will happen at the worst time, so dont use Krox for anything important
A stripball piece on this team is incredible.
No matter how much you want to skill up linefrogs the catchers slop all the SPP.
Positioning for them is different than the dwarfs (what I have played by far the most as) you can be much more aggressive.

Tactics I used for my team:
I average 1.5 blocks per turn not counting my Blitzes. The frogs don't hit that well for me so I just didn't do it.
I played defense to bend until I could get a blitz on the ball carrier that would allow me with minimal luck to strip, pick-up and get out of dodge all in one turn. If that wasn't an option I just blitzed the lowest armor guy I could get to with my Krox and waited.
Score as soon and as often as you can. Stalling with them didn't work nearly as well as with my dwarfs and their defense makes up for it.
Use linefrogs and blitzers to tie up threats and keep them from your catchers.

Sometimes you get lucky:
My last three opponents were dwarfs, chaos, and high elves. I won the casualty battle against them 4-0 over those three games with none against the high elves.

Our playoffs start next week and I play the Chaos coach in round 1. Thanks for all your suggestions and help.

[stashman]

A good balanced slann team is

2 catchers
2 blitzers
7 linemans
4 rerolls

maybe no blitzers and more catchers and more rerolls, or an apo.

2 rerolls is simply crazy!!!

[dr. evil]

A good balanced slann team is

2 catchers
2 blitzers
7 linemans
4 rerolls

maybe no blitzers and more catchers and more rerolls, or an apo.

2 rerolls is simply crazy!!!

I started my slann team with this build. Worked great and finished the season 6-2-2 in a very competative league. Try and build up your blitzer early and they will pay off big time at the end of your season.

[Furry47]

2 rerolls cost me in the game i tied. The ones I lost I just got beat regardless of re-rolls. I just bought my fourth post season. after getting the third I only used all three one half after I bought it.

Re-rolls: Never there when you need them, show up when you don't.

But I think now I wouldn't start a slann team without at least three