7s Skill Choice

[Ben_S]

I'm currently playing in a 4-person BB7s league. It's resurrection-style, with no SPPs but one player gains an advance each game (though with a 1/6 chance per advance of being drafted into the professional leagues and hence lost).

We have one more game before play-offs and here is my current Dark Elf roster:

Runner with Leader
Blitzer with Dodge
Blitzer
Witch Elf
Assassin
Lineman with Kick
Lineman rolled a normal skill

I have Undead in my next game and am likely to be top 2 with a play off against another Dark Elf team. I don't know what skill to give the newly advanced Lineman. Probably Dodge or Block, but does anyone have any other ideas? I suppose I could go for something like Strip Ball or Wrestle.

 

[Fold]

Probably block, but have you considered tackle to take down the ghouls I assume the next opponent will have and the blodging dark elf blitzers should you make the play off?

 

[Ben_S]

Tackle is also a good shout, though it's interesting how the league rules here have changed the meta game.

I'm not sure whether anyone has risked a second skill on a player yet so, for instance, ball carriers tend to gain only one of Sure Hands OR Block OR Dodge. And people are a bit wary of skilling players they can't afford to lose. The other DE player tried advancing his Witch Elf earlier and lost her. This is why I've put half my advances on Linemen though I should have enough gold after my next match to risk skilling either the other Blitzer or the WE before the play-offs, knowing that I can replace them with another rookie if they go.

Anyway, the result of this is that there's not as much Dodge or Tackle around as you might expect from a league consisting of 2x DE, Undead, and Skaven. I'm probably more inclined towards Dodge than Block though. (The re-roll is the more useful bit, since we're not allowed to buy team re-rolls - i.e. it's only Leader and kick-off results available.)

 

[spafe]

I'd consider wrestle as a huge advantage against the undead... they are hurt more by having to slowly get up again than your elves and also more likely to have taken block...

but it doesnt help as much against the elves...

 

[Ben_S]

I went with Dodge in the end, though it didn't make a lot of difference. If anything, it may have cost me when I confused my Kick lineman with my Dodge lineman...

I end the regular season with another win, giving me first place with a 4/1/1 win - I'd drawn with the Skaven (who finished a distant 4th) and lost to the Undead (who finished 3rd) but came top due to my head-to-head wins over the 2nd place Dark Elves.

We'd agree to play-offs between top two and bottom two, which I thought was a bit of a fix having come first over the regular season. Thankfully for me, the play-off was the most one-sided game of the lot.

My opponent lost one play to a crowd-thrown rock before kick off and then I cas'd another in the first turn. I think he hardly had more than 5 players on the pitch at any point and at some points was down to 3. Being a couple of players down, at 7 vs 5, is worse than being 11 vs 9 down. I actually started feeling guilty every time I broke armour on the way to a 3-0 win, though I think it was deserved over the league as a whole.

 

[spafe]

Sounds like a solid win there!

So do I understand right that you are now in the final against either skaven or undead?

 

[Ben_S]

No, the play-offs were just 1st vs 2nd for winner and 3rd vs 4th for wooden spoon.

Ironically the Skaven - having managed only two draws and four defeats in the regular season - won their play off in sudden death overtime. So they finish 3rd, according to the logic of play-offs.

I still find this play-off idea rather odd, but I don't care too much as I won either way.