Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Deathbowl IX coming up... decisions decisions
Labels:
(NAF) Deathbowl IX,
blood bowl,
tournament
Hot on the heels of my Chaos Cup coverage, Deathbowl IX is not far away!! I've begun planning my team roster. I had great success using Slann last year (my infamous Jawbreakers counts as team) coming in 6th. This year is "Year of the Elf" so Pro Elf teams get bonuses this time around. Each Pro Elf team will get a "Magic Codpiece" (this stops any adjustments being made to armour/injury rolls from skills such as Mighty Blow) and as well armour increases only cost 10K, and you can get two of them (however if you do, you fail Go For It rolls on a 1 or 2)
I debated bringing the Jawbreakers again - all that Leap is really helpful in Deathbowl format. Considering how well I did last year and how I forgot about the other benefits of Diving Catch (+1 to accurate passes, I forgot the entire tournament!) it's very tempting to bring the exact same roster. The "Magic Codpiece" is pretty solid though as it would nullify some of the concern about making one very strong player who should always be able to get the ball.
I have a new team I kinda started painting that I am debating trying to finish for Deathbowl this year. Failing that I could possibly draft in my dark elf team as Pro Elves. Here are a couple Pro Elf rosters - TV1250 and remember AV for Pro Elves this year is only 10K and can be taken twice.
Blitzer; AG5, Dodge, Leap, Strip Ball
Blitzer; Tackle
Catcher; Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
Catcher; Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
3x Lineelf; AV9
2x Lineelf
Thrower; Sure Hands
Thrower; Leader
Reroll
Blitzer; AG5, AV9, Dodge, Leap, Strip Ball
Blitzer; Tackle
Catcher; AV8, Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
Catcher; AV8, Block, Dodge, Sure Feet
3x Lineelf; AV8
2x Lineelf
Thrower; Sure Hands
Thrower; Leader
Reroll
Leaning towards the second as it would keep my more important players around longer with the extra armour - thoughts? Or do I bring back the Jawbreakers? Here is the roster from last year. I would probably drop Nerves of Steel on one catcher to get Block on all of them.
Catcher - block/dodge/sure hands
Catcher - block/dodge/nerves of steel
Catcher - block/dodge/guard
Catcher - dodge/tackle
Blitzer - strip ball
Blitzer - tackle
Line - leader
4x Line - no extra skills
2 Rerolls
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13 comments:
With Pro-Elves getting a pretty cool boost, and Elves being the general theme, why not go the opposite direction with a 'smashes all Elf teams' team?
Barring that, I'd be a sucker for sticking with the theme, and specifically Pro Elf at that.
Not sure if I love the AV8 + Surefeet. If you are going down on 1 or 2 then you probably should not be going for it on those guys. I would leave that stuff on the lineman. Str 3 Catchers with Block and Dodge should stay up OK.
This is a pretty high team value event but you still only have 1 normal reroll (lots of skills though) and 11 players especially as your lineman are just going to get pounded if they have no skills and armor 7. Mauler team will probably have you down 2-3 guys after the first drive. Orcs and Dwarves with 12 skills are going to take a toll on that line of scrimmage.
I find going for the bash in deathbowl just doesn't work. The fact there are two other teams involved make it a crapshoot. Scoring as many TDs as possible is the best plan.
Going down on a 1 or 2 only happens with 2x AV upgrades. So catchers w AV8 and Sure Feet only fail on a 1 as usual. In roster one the linemen with AV9 would fail go for it's on 1 or 2.
In order to get an extra reroll I would have to drop the extra armour on either the 3 lineelves or the catchers & blitzer and lose sure hands. I can almost guarantee that one of those rerolls would be spent on picking up the ball, so not sure the value is really there.
About both elf rosters I'd go with the second one, no doubt.
AV8 can usually handle bash quite well and your catchers will thank you for it, hopefully holding on the table for a little longer!
Now between Elf and Slann, lets see... who do you believe would fare batter against Elves between those two?
Because you're probably going to face a flood of elves there!
I missed that it was a 4 player on one board game. I have not played in any of those is like 20 years.(back when you would just put together 2 styrofoam boards.
Given the extra width in the middle it is very hard to hold a line. So it looks like movement might be key.
It looks like in the rules that the special things apply to all elf teams not just the pro elves. "Elven Rosters"
I can see where Bash teams are not going to be effective since you cannot control those starting blocks. You do not know who is going first on setup and no initial blocks since the lines of scrimmage do not touch.
I can see how Slann could be fun in this environment.
Axt, that's a good point - but I'm not sure that that many people will take the Pro Elves, lots of folks just love their Dwarves and Orcs.
Brad, the extra teams and the extra space also means that you don't usually start taking casualties right away either - as the two people next to your players aren't your direct opponent.
Also for sure the benefits are only for Pro Elf teams - they confirmed on NAF just too lazy to update the PDF.
The only issue I really see is that so much team value is invested in that cage breaker but I see that at this team value level he will really be only good at secondary cages as the primary cage will probably have sure hands/block in the center and 2 guards at opposite corners so you are most likely you are looking at 2D uphill blocks where only defender down gets you anything. Ofcourse there may be plenty of weaker cages in a 4 player 2 ball game to go after. Droping the AG5 could get you leap and dodge onto the other blizter also. This might give you options for attacking cages with either dodge or sure hands in the center.
That's a good point about Sure Hands - though in my experience lots of the guys I play with put their faith in a reroll instead of Sure Hands. At this level most people will have one though.
I will play around with dropping the AG5, though that means 3+ Leaps :(
Just getting tackle on him as well might be worth it. I debated wrestle but honestly with three other players there I don't want my "star" so easily fouled.
Wrestle is not optimal since he already has block. Now if you were building one of these out of your catchers it might work but in a game without refs you will get fouled badly if a 200K player is on his back in the middle of the cage.
3+ leaps are not a good as 2+, I am just concerned about so much of the team tactics tied up to one player.
I usually don't like the "all eggs in one basket" either - but with the magic codpiece and cheap extra AV I found it a little more palatable.
Loving this! I agree you cant go the bash effectively with all those other players so you need lots of stats and skills. I'd probably go with Skaven given the choice, but with those theme inducements you have to go fancy-boys all the way!
Have an awesome time!!!
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