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Elf Strategy

Summary

Of the four elven races in FUMBBL, the Elf roster has the greatest discrepancy between the positional players and the linemen. As a rule of thumb, they are best at a fast passing game and defense is best played aggressively, trying to cause and capture turnovers wherever possible.

Strengths

Cheap line-elves are a very nice addition to the Elf lineup. They allow a coach to keep a full roster slightly more easily than most similar teams. (Or do they? HE and DE Linemen are 10K more expensive, but that 10K buys them AV 8. WE Linemen get no AV for their increased price, but the team does get access to a Treeman who can reduce attrition on the Linemen. In each case, this offsets the problem of higher initial cost. In practice, despite slightly cheaper Linemen, Elves often find it even harder to maintain a full roster than similar teams.)

The Throwers are a steal at 70k and the Blitzers and Catchers are outstanding - almost as good as Wardancers, given the slight difference in cost. Catchers with Dump Off and/or Leap are incredibly difficult to stop on offense. Blitzers are essentially Dragon Warriors with an additional, highly-effective skill for 10k extra.

Weaknesses

Those cheap linemen die fast! AV 7 is less than a DE or HE lineman and MA6 is less than a WE lineman. That puts them on the bottom of the heap - until you consider their price. With relatively flimsy linemen, the bulk of the SPPs ends up on the positional players unless the coach is careful in distributing his skills, which then unbalances the team.

In-game Tactics

(Largely copied from the HE strategy, as the basic notes are similar to start with.) As with all Elves, the focus must be on the ball. You will often find that a team you force to worry about possession will be less concerned with mincing your team!

I find that using Catchers, especially those developed as safeties, to pressure the ball retriever on defense is effective this way. Safeties often start out wide, to avoid getting caught up in mid-pitch brawls, but close enough to the LoS so that they can advance into the opposition half to apply pressure. Don't waste team Re-rolls on GFIs unless your players can apply a tackle zone on the ball carrier or, better yet, blitz them. Catchers that have run into the oppositions field will be blitzed at times, since they have no protection around them. Still, this means that the other team is blitzing backwards, and that must be good. Catchers also make good sweepers; I like to keep one deep in my own half on defense, should the opposition make a break for the endzone.

With Av 7, unlike HEs or DEs, your team will have a hard time trying to employ man-marking in defense. Attrition simply makes things harder. Against cages, if your players are knocked down, try to go prone next to the ball carrier if possible, using the Blitzer's Side Step. This will force the other player to take some kind of action, even if it only to move the cage. If you choose to do this, keep an eye out for enemy Dirty Players, and even if they don't have one of those, expect to be fouled.

Always try to keep one player in scoring range when defending; if the ball pops free, you can get the ball to him and score before the other team can recover. The exception would be in last-ditch defending late in the second half, especially if you have a 1 TD lead, in which case scoring again is not as important as preventing the equaliser. If you are playing vs a very good coach you might not want to do this, as they will be less likely to drop the ball, and you will need every single player to stop their offense.