Norse runners on the line?

[sunnyside]

So while things are pretty smooth sailing for young Norse, stuff gets hairy when I get into spiraling expenses range.

If you don't field a thrower on defense you could put all the other positionals out and put three linemen on the LOS.

However I'm increasingly finding a dirty player linemen to be indespensable, and I might have a pair of linemen with guard. I don't exactly want to put those guys on the line against a bash team. And even losing linemen on turn one can make for a rought defense.

So I'm wondering what people think about making a LOS out of a pair of runners and a single fend lineman, maybe backing the line up with the snow troll/Yhette if the runners don't have fend. If not any better ideas? At least runners are relatively easy to rebuild should they die.

Would you advise giving runners fend after dodge and sidestep? It would seem to give them a lot of survivability and it might leave them free to move after the kickoff.

Do you think putting kick on dirty players would work out well? It makes sense to have it on seperate guys at first, but again you start running out of mooks, and if you're kicking a bunch the game is probably going so well you don't have to worry about being optimized.

Would you advise putting dodge or sidestep on a linemen for LOS duty if you've got two others with guard? That hasn't come up yet, but you never know.

[txapo]

no way sacrilege!!!!


lol

[swilhelm73]

If your opponent has no tackle, putting two blodgers on the line is a reasonable decision.

Otoh, once you are facing teams with tackle, it is a waste.

2 Bz
2 WW
2 Runners
1 Snow troll

So leave one thrower on the bench and field 3 LOS guys.

Oh, and for DP, I prefer that to be their only sklll (or with SG).

[neverworking]

I think the answer to your question is the players that go on the LOS should either be 1)the most easily replaceable players on your team or 2)players built specifically to go on the LOS (fend/ss). I don't think I'd build a runner to go on the LOS and its unlikely they will be the right choice once they have side step, but I could imagine on a developed team there could be times when the most easily replaceable player is a rookie positon player. The other 8 players on the pitch should be the 8 most useful one based on your opponent. This can easily lead to a useful player being on the bench for some drives because they don't qualify as being one of the most useful 8 and they are too valuable to put on the line. Personally I would want to protect my guard linemen too, and would be reluctant to drop them on the LOS most of the time.

As for dirty player on your kicker, I think generally most of the time people think its not a great idea. On offense you field the dirty player, on defense you field the kicker. However one thing I've discovered on some of my teams is that after I have kicked, the player I need the least for the remainder of the game is the kicker so I end up fouling with the kicker on defense. I would not suggest this on every team, and I wouldn't suggest making the kicker my first and only dirty player, because you'll need a different one for offense. However, if you play a 2-1 grind most of the time and already look to foul on defense its a reasonable second skill on the kicker if you are looking to field multiple dirty players on the roster. I don't think it would be a great idea on teams that get into 3-2 scoring matches though. Kickers are also naturally set up in a central defender position, so giving them safety type skills is arguably a better path (tackle, strip ball, wrestle if you're inclined to the block/wrestle combo, etc.) and may be the better choice.

[sunnyside]

If your opponent has no tackle, putting two blodgers on the line is a reasonable decision.

Otoh, once you are facing teams with tackle, it is a waste.

2 Bz
2 WW
2 Runners
1 Snow troll

So leave one thrower on the bench and field 3 LOS guys.

Oh, and for DP, I prefer that to be their only sklll (or with SG).

You forgot about the pair of guard linemen and the dirty player linemen.

Sidestep is still good even if they have tackle. And poking around my league, tackle isn't so high on the priorities. Probably people are more worried about bash. Even with dwarves, it'll often be the blitzers and slayers kitted out with the murder skills. So just getting popped in the nose by a regular lineman would be an improvement.

@neverworking I suppose I'm not so big on fouling on offence. I'm usually playing that more conservatively, and reducing players (such as if both the fouler and foulee leave the field) tends to favor the defense.