Talk Fantasy Football

My orcs are going up a wood elf team this evening. It's the first time I've played against Wood Elves - any advice you can offer?

1) How should I set up on a kick-off return to minimise the impact of his kick skill?
2) How should I set up my cages to guard against dodging and leaping Wardancers?
3) What should I be spending my inducement money on? I'll currently have 110k - down to 60k if I buy another Lineman.
4) Any general advice you can offer against Wood Elves?

His team's a bit more advanced than mine. 2 Wardancers (1 with Strip Ball), a thrower, a catcher and 8 linemen (2 with Wrestle, 1 with Kick). He's only got 2 Rerolls to my 3.

My orcs have one Blitzer with Dodge and another with Tackle. I also have 80k in the bank, which I've been saving for a Troll - guess I could burn 50k on hiring another Lineman for fouling and to avoid getting outnumbered.

Thoughts?

Make sure that your thrower(s) are in the back field, with 2 blitzers to guard the ball. Maybe all 4 of them, but having 2 linemen nearby is also good.

Get that ball and try to cage up/make it hard for him to blitz your ballcarrier. Make sure that he has to make dodgerolls if he wants to get to your ball handler. Every roll helps, as soon as he starts to think wether he has to make that 2+ or not, you're almost set. It's all in the mind, after all. Well, most of the time.

it will take at least 1 more turn before you can grind your way to the endzone, if he has kick. So you might as well prepare for that. Or prepare for a shallow kick instead of a deep one. Be flexible, hit hard, get them off the pitch. Make him sweat every block, make him fear for his precious woodelves.

After playing against woodelves a couple of times recently at tournaments, one thing I've decided to potentially do differently next time around is hire a chainsaw. If you've some inducements, this (plus bribes) might be a useful deterrent for leaping, blitzing Wardancers. If it doesn't deter them, them you hack them with the chainsaw. (NB: I've not tried this yet myself)

If this isn't an option, guard in your cage (reduces his block dice), a tight cage formation and a ball carrier with block and surehands certainly lower the risk of coughing the ball up. Don't be worried about moving too fast either just plod onwards through the half.

Spread out and cover the pitch on initial set up and accept that if he gets a blitz, he'll likely be holding onto the ball whatever you do. The initial spreading of players will just assist in the recovery operation.

I don't think he has guard. I've coached woodies with pretty good results and frankly without guard it's going to be really difficult. You have to make him make tons of rolls. If he's smart, he'll keep it spread early for when you mark him up to get the hits. Then he'll dodge away and run inside your defenses, leap into the cage and strip you of the ball. Don't take that bait. Keep things in a tight formation so he has to dodge/leap in and out. The key to your game is to make the hits count, which is hard to control because they're dice. Wood elves aren't a good matchup for orcs until the guard starts rolling in.

Good luck!

Sword of Solkan wrote:My orcs are going up a wood elf team this evening. It's the first time I've played against Wood Elves - any advice you can offer?

Bring a good book to read while you wait for them to roll double ones.

If you could take a Chainsaw, take a Bribe instead. And foul every turn with a lino while you've got it. If you get no inducements, and you have no TPOMB and no Guard, your best strategy is to play really tight, pray for dice, and be ready to laugh off whatever happens. Oh, and target the Dancers with the Tackle guy and gangfoul them when they go down.

Smeborg wrote:

Sword of Solkan wrote:My orcs are going up a wood elf team this evening. It's the first time I've played against Wood Elves - any advice you can offer?

Bring a good book to read while you wait for them to roll double ones.

This....

Unfortunately the 2-1 grind and stomping them to death is the only way....

Any way to hire the halfling hotpot...?

Digger Goreman wrote:Unfortunately the 2-1 grind and stomping them to death is the only way

Oh, yeah, that too. Hang on for turn 8. Pound pound pound. Embrace your dark side. You know that axiom that says you should roll fewer dice than the other guy? Doesn't apply to armor rolls.

I read more carefully, got a better answer. Save your money, take a Bribe. Foul until you burn your Bribe, targeting the best players you can get prone in the open. If you have a couple re-rolls, try to throw a ton of blocks; put maximum strain on that AV7. Once you've burned down to one re-roll, you might tighten up.

Since you only have 1 man to protect, on defense I recommend a "Ziggurat" formation, stretching across the width of the pitch. He has no Tree, so a line of BOBs carefully supported can force him to either clog up on the LOS (advantage: you) or ignore it entirely (advantage: you). It can also stop him from flooding the backfield except with his Wardancers, which you then knock down (with Tackle) and foul. It's ok if you give up a fast score, but the Ziggurat gives you the best chance to a) stop it, b) turn the elves over to score on them, and c) either isolate the best players or corral the elves on one quarter of the pitch.

On offense, I think it's important not to overcommit either to the line or to the backfield. A two-man screen in front of the carrier is plenty, esp if one is the Tackle Blitzer (the other should be a lino). You must win on the line of scrimmage; use diagonal blocking, so you can push laterally and maximize your chances of a knockdown. If you get a ton of knockdowns early on you can run away with the game, but it takes some luck. You must own the line from the play-side sideline to the off-side wide zone marker. Takes several men to do that for sure, but definitely leaves you 3 in the backfield. That part doesn't take any luck. Get the ball to the line as fast as possible, then you can create a proper cage for it and dare him to leap inside. It's important to use the non-cagers to corral and isolate elves as much as possible, break up those formations, do some damage. If you can get the elves to 7 men or less, your chances of getting through their lines increase greatly.

I am about to play orcs with my WE for the first time so I find the information in this thread most comforting.
I do agree that Zigurat is the best defense setup as you want to keep the elves on the right side of your line.
If they prepare for the elven stall : leave their ball carrier deep in it's own half. Then you should pressure him with a blitzer or two. If you let them burn too many turns, you will be hard pressed to get the 2-1 grind in.
So better to force them to score quickly because preventing the score will be almost impossible.

hit as much as possible, cage the ball with a tight cage, pressure the elf to score, every time he kicks to you there is another chance to break his elf toys

He spanged em and killed a skilled wardancer. It was an honour to be in the room.

Heff wrote: killed a skilled wardancer.

The only good elf is an undead elf... but that's a damned good start....

Heff wrote:He spanged em and killed a skilled wardancer. It was an honour to be in the room.

Chapeau

Poor wardancer.../sob always feel sorry for the lil chaps dying.