Double dice blocks

[Tackledummy]

I recently got smashed in a game against Wood Elves (I play Classic Undead) and it was primarily because he got a lot more double dice blocks on me than I could get on him despite me having the blocking advantage in terms of Strength and skills.

So as far as I can see I lost because I had a weaker understanding of field positioning to get those vital assists. Are there any guidelines or principles people can help me with to reduce my opponents chances of double dice blocks and increase my own. Just a reminder that I'm looking for field tactics rather than advice on skills.

Much appreciate any help you all can offer

[mattgslater]

I recently got smashed in a game against Wood Elves (I play Classic Undead) and it was primarily because he got a lot more double dice blocks on me than I could get on him despite me having the blocking advantage in terms of Strength and skills.

So as far as I can see I lost because I had a weaker understanding of field positioning to get those vital assists. Are there any guidelines or principles people can help me with to reduce my opponents chances of double dice blocks and increase my own. Just a reminder that I'm looking for field tactics rather than advice on skills.

Much appreciate any help you all can offer

Man, I've been trying to get to this for years. My problem with this part is that blocking is instinctive for me. If you've got the attention span to help me identify the techniques we intuitive blockers use but don't see, you can be the first beneficiary.

You have read Ian's article, right? 'Cause that's still the state of the art in blocking discussions, even though it's more than 10 years old.

[Digger Goreman]

Play smash-mouth to get him off the field *shrug* and make him roll ones on dodges .... He has Ag 4, a powerful ability to reposition for 2d blocks....

Initial setups might help a little, but I'll leave that to the master (matt) to figure out....

[mattgslater]

Tabletop or online? If online, what format? Can I review your matches somehow?

Obviously, proper line blocking is one key. But style drives blocking rate, especially on offense. If you're a backfield cager, you'll make fewer blocks, and if you like to drive and cage in response to pressure, you'll make more.

I'd caution you, there's no relationship between number of blocks and win/loss except at the very low end: that is, if you threw 15 blocks you probably lost, but if you threw 25 (low normal) or 70 (high normal) or 90 (extreme) that doesn't mean you won or lost. The relationship between number of blocks and outcome generally breaks down to:

1) Teams that get crushed like an eggplant often throw very few blocks. In early concessions, the conceding team usually throws fewer blocks than the winner. This has only descriptive value.
2) Bash teams throw more blocks (duh), and more blocks against other bash teams or against midrange teams than against agility teams. Agility and midrange teams throw more blocks against other agility teams.
3) If a midrange team throws more blocks than a bash team in a match between the two, it's almost always indicative of an early mob of casualties against the bash team, and often means a blowout.
4) Bash teams throw more blocks in close games. Opponents throw more blocks against bash teams in close games than in blowouts going either way. But when it's all midrange and agility, there's not much correlation.
5) Coaching tendencies are a major driver. PurpleChest and Joemanji are both great coaches, but given the same team, PC will throw 50% more blocks, because that's who he is.

Note: I don't yet have good data to back this up. This is gut feeling and impressions from playing, replaying, speccing, scouting, and reading.

[Tackledummy]

This was playing on-line. Very new to this though so not sure how to record and review games, though this would be extremely helpful for me if someone can tell me how?

Have not read Ian's article sorry. Where do I find that?

I'll try to provide a little more info so tell me if this helps: I found the frustrating thing was that he was knocking down a lot of my players so I spent most of my time picking them up and could only get off 1 or 2 blocks (including blitz) per turn. The difficulty was my team are not so savvy in dodging so he would knock so many players down if I were ever to break my ball carrier out of the cage and go for the endzone he would have no support because anyone who wanted to follow would have a maximum of 3 to 4 squares to move and would need to make a minimum of 1 dodge roll. Maybe I'm not using the right tactics or something but the odds seemed very risky. Or am I playing too defensively and need to take more of a risk?

[JaM]

If you played on FUMBBL then reviewing the game can be very instructive. Also for us, who wants to give some advice.

[Tackledummy]

Play the computer game in the Auld World League.

[Dzerards]

I always rated the Art of Blocking Article on the GW website for people new to the game.

[Ullis]

One thing to bear in mind, which is really important is that if you end your action with a player in contact with a standing opposing player, then chances are he will be blocked by the opponent. This means that you shouldn't walk up your players to the opponent. You should also consider whether you want to follow up on your own block which failed to knock down the opposing player. If you want to tie the opposing players up, you should position one square away from them in the direction where you don't want them to go.

Undead don't really have all that much more strength in relation to wood elves with starting teams. Only the mummies are more than ST3 and they are so slow that their high ST might not help you at all due to the mobility of the elves. And your (max) two wights at start are matched by the wardancers in Block skill.

[mattgslater]

Remember, if players are two squares apart, your opponent can't safely run between them (AG5+Dodge or Leap stretches the definition of "not safe" and may be the exception). This is called the "screen" in my BB terminology, and is one of the most important concepts to remember.

The way to beat Wood Elves with Undead is to try to keep all the action in the middle, and to try to control one of the two wide zones, so you can corral your opposition. That's the key, because that's how you start your turn in enemy TZs without ending your turn in enemy TZs, always the #1 consideration when you're the heavy.

[Smeborg]

I second Ullis' advice. The following will cause you to get blocked a lot:

- Standing prone players up in a Tackle Zone (unless you doge away).
- Following up blocks with a pushback result.
- Moving voluntarily into opposing TZs.

To give an example, at the end of the first turn of offense, a team like Undead can aim to have no players in enemy TZs. This leaves no easy lines of attack for the opposing coach.

Hope that helps.

[mattgslater]

There are exceptions. If you stand a Mummy up in a TZ, and your opponent can't/shouldn't get multiple assists, you may not get blocked.

[sann0638]

I always rated the Art of Blocking Article on the GW website for people new to the game.

That's the one Matt was talking about, btw.

[Wanchor]

I don't know how new you are to the game, but I've noticed that new players may simply feel more confident and follow up on push results for no real reason other than to continue a fight that they feel they might, maybe, win. Don't do that.

[spubbbba]

One thing I think I should point out is that giving your opponent 2 dice blocks is not always a bad thing.

At low TV the “hit me until you fail” tactic can be very viable. It works best against teams low on re-rolls with players with no block or damaging skills using your high AV or disposable players. A lot of players focus far too much on blocking in the hope of removing opposing players and will automatically re-roll a failed block even if it’s not in a positionally bad part of the pitch.

Remember a blockless 2D has a 1 in 9 chance of failure so giving away 5 a turn will mean a turnover every 2nd turn on average. In your example game I’d often place zombies next to skilless wood elf linemen to try and get the wood elf coach to burn re-rolls.