Woodies sweet spot in a long term League set up

[Viajero]

I am trying to explore the possibility to keep a WE team´s TV under a certain threshold in a long term scheduled league I am playing in.

The League is a predominantly bashy environment with teams now around the 1600-1800 mark.

Typically, and generally (there are always exceptions) in a long term league higher TV than your opponents is usually a good thing as more useful skills/bodies tends to be better than inducements. But WE can benefit tremendously form inducements. A Wizard/Eldril combo for example etc.

So my plan was to test my WE by keeping it below 1400 TV so to be able to at least get a wizard in most games, and hopefully also enough for either a Star Player for an actual 12 piece roster, and/or babes etc.

In order to do that I d need to aim for a 11 piece roster only, and consider firing players beyond their 3rd skill or so... including WD possibly! I d like to keep a Tree in the roster as it will help my Treasury in the long term.

Do you think such a sweet spot strategy could be viable? Any advice?

[mattgslater]

The short answer: LOLWUT?

The long answer:

You shouldn't be looking to fire healthy players in that environment. Elves have infinite track depth and take bad attrition. Don't replace losses until you have a bank, let the Journeymen take your damage and hire the ones who MVP.

Wood Elves at high value do fine. They do get skewered, but not as bad as cheap elves against the same opponent: the TV that denies you a Wizard also gives you 3 or 4 more Blodge, which is effectively a 60% save vs. knockdown from a non-Tackle opponent with Block (and one more target for the Tackle guys, so your Dancers and Catchers have that much less to deal with). Me, I'd rather have the save, not to mention the more reliable blocking and dodging that are just gravy in that equation. In a league format, trimming value is almost always a mistake, unless you're talking about like hiring/firing an Assistant Coach or something, and maybe when you're contemplating injured players.

You'll get your chance to field stars and wizards, when you face the big heavy-hitters (and maybe in the next game too lol). You don't have to manage your TV: that's your opponent's job. Let 'em try. Eldril is fun, but a team with 200k more in studly player improvement value is that much better.

As long as you're not facing heavy bash over 1600, staying at 11 men is okay. Running Journeyfodder is okay too, though skills on linefodder (read: free actions and zones!) are better than their inducement value.

[Viajero]

The short answer: LOLWUT?

The long answer:

You shouldn't be looking to fire healthy players in that environment. Elves have infinite track depth and take bad attrition. Don't replace losses until you have a bank, let the Journeymen take your damage and hire the ones who MVP.

Wood Elves at high value do fine. They do get skewered, but not as bad as cheap elves against the same opponent: the TV that denies you a Wizard also gives you 3 or 4 more Blodge, which is effectively a 60% save vs. knockdown from a non-Tackle opponent with Block (and one more target for the Tackle guys, so your Dancers and Catchers have that much less to deal with). Me, I'd rather have the save, not to mention the more reliable blocking and dodging that are just gravy in that equation. In a league format, trimming value is almost always a mistake, unless you're talking about like hiring/firing an Assistant Coach or something, and maybe when you're contemplating injured players.

You'll get your chance to field stars and wizards, when you face the big heavy-hitters (and maybe in the next game too lol). You don't have to manage your TV: that's your opponent's job. Let 'em try. Eldril is fun, but a team with 200k more in studly player improvement value is that much better.

As long as you're not facing heavy bash over 1600, staying at 11 men is okay. Running Journeyfodder is okay too, though skills on linefodder (read: free actions and zones!) are better than their inducement value.

Totally agree with you that WE trimming value in a long term league is not a good idea. I actually defended that same point of view in another forum, as a discussion turned that way. WE dont need to trim because a long term league which is bash rich will do that for you anyways. No need to accelerate your demise and bankrupt your team on purpose.

But it made me think that trying it out (trimming I mean) may be an interesting experiment with WE anyways.

Plus there may be other TFF patrons that may disagree with our view so hopefully we can get more interesting ideas.

[Oventa]

I also dont believe in trimming just to get inducements.
BUT I do believe to some extend in trimming to not give inducements.
Wood elves in a bashy and closed environment ( strict timetable, no choosing opponents,...) to my experience suffer much from bribes in long running league ...

[mattgslater]

Yeah, but it doesn't matter 'cause if you build smart, then you can win with whatever.

If you keep it to 11 guys your TV can't skyrocket for long. If it does, distribute enough Blodgestep among your linos that the enemy just has to kill one to make the game playable.

My Guard-intensive Amazons get Wood Elves next in NBFL on FUMBBL. I was ready to induce a couple Bribes and slash them up. But then their last opponent SI'ed their +AG MB Block Line-elf and their Strip/Tackle/Shadowing Dancer. Do you see me wishing I had those Bribes? What, so I could do it myself? Nah, I'm happy. Now I get to go demolish the other Dancer uninterrupted. And ooh, maybe lose a lina in the process....

[Aliboon]

I don't think you should trim your woodies at all. Woodies can benefit from Edril and the wizard for sure but Edril is pretty fragile and can get taken out early and the wizard could do nothing.

What does work is to just stick with journeyelves and build up a cash reserve, then buy all the players/rerolls you need in one fell swoop. A bit of an abuse of the rules maybe, but it works.

I wouldn't advise running an 11 man roster once you've done this as although elves can play and win being players down, the problem with being players down is that you then get ganged up on and lose more players. Ive no problem with running a 14 elf roster as I think woodies work much better as the overdog. Saws and bribes can put the pain on but saws are generally pretty easy to take out so the worry of them is generally worse than the reality.

[juck101]

Elves get better with more skills. Aim for 2k with a bench