reid66
Joined: Jul 17, 2024
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  Posted:
Aug 21, 2024 - 17:59 |
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Hello,
I've been playing FUMBBL for a while now and have been suffering with my defensive approach, particularly against more agile teams such as Elves and Skaven. Regardless of how I build up my defense, they appear to easily slide through my lines or dash by my players. I'm having trouble consistently preventing them from scoring.
I'd appreciate any advise on how to enhance my defensive stance and tactics while playing these kind of opponents. Are there any specific formations or player positions I should be concentrating on? How do you strike a balance between rushing the ball carrier and defending your own end zone?
I also check this: Limited or Slayer-Less Dwarf Builds But I have not found any solution. I've lost a number of games because I couldn't stop them in the last minutes.
Thanks! |
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Carthage
Joined: Mar 18, 2021
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  Posted:
Aug 21, 2024 - 20:32 |
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A good coach with a healthy agility team is going to score a vast majority of the time. I haven't reviewed your games, but I'm concerned you may be thinking about defense against them wrong conceptually.
If they received, you should be trying to convince them to score early (before turn 6) so you have time to equalize before the half. You can do that either with aggressive pressure or removal hunting. If they manage to stall out until turn 8 but you took a huge chunk out of their team, you could try to quickly score on your offensive half and take the ball back from them for the win, or at least ensure a tie.
If you received then you should aim to slow your offense down and get removals as you aim to score on turn 8. If you got a large number out, you can try to play for a 2-0 win, but if you only are up a few players, then you want to play a more solid defense slowing them down, continuing to attrite them. With how unreliable passing is in this edition, if you are up a few players, you should be able to make it pretty difficult for them to score at the end of the game just by following the "rule of 2" for spacing.
If all players are healthy the whole game, then that is going to favor agility teams most of the time. So get bloody.
As far as particulars on how to structure the defense, its very team dependent. Mid speed bash teams like humans and chaos can set up columns to force opponents to move laterally and attack stragglers (this is what elves do too), but slower teams like dwarves risk leaving their opposite wing guys on an island. And a good agility coach will have multiple handoff threats to split your attention further. Definitely don't be afraid to base up more aggressively against elves and rats since they lack the bashing skills to be a huge cas threat. |
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JackassRampant
Joined: Feb 26, 2011
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  Posted:
Aug 21, 2024 - 22:18 |
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Double line screens, JR terminology.
A screen is a formation of two or more players standing, unable to be blocked without use of a Blitz action, with Tackle Zones intact, such that their zones connect in such a way as to impede the opposing team's movement. You probably know this.
A double screen is two overlapping screens, positioned in such a way that removing a player in the screen does not drastically affect the width of the screen's coverage. Some double screens are "box" screens, either "one-box" or "two-box", meaning there are one or two empty squares between the players in front and in back, but other double screens are based on player pairings, or pairs of adjacent players.
These screens come in three types: lines (players side by side), columns (players back to back), and traps (players diagonally placed, which can be "inside" or "outside" traps, depending on whether the rear player is protected or exposed). Each type of screen has a menu of assets and drawbacks: lines are hard to attack without going into contact and are slightly wider than columns, columns aren't subject to lateral erosion and are good for player protection, and traps have the width advantage of lines with the player protection of columns, but lack the intimidation factor of lines or the precision resilience of columns. Obviously, traps are the most popular in the wide zones. The key is that corresponding players in each pairing are two squares apart, so line and trap screens have one empty square between pairings, and columns have two. (ALWAYS. Two empty squares between line screens is a liability.)
Against anybody who paid for that ST3 but didn't invest in bash, line formations are the way to go. Force them to engage whenever they pick their battles. Set up the "orcish conveyor belt" where you get someone to man up on your line and then block diagonally over and over in a deadly game of pinball. Elves have lots of tools to disengage from this, but when they do, they have to roll dice that can turn them over and/or burn rerolls, and they have to cede the ground to you. For this reason, using tight control of midfield makes a huge difference.
Others will tell you not to sweat when elves score. In my opinion, this is good/bad advice. On the one hand, you can't get bent out of shape about likely turns of events. On the other hand the way to beat them is to make them work for it, and then either get unlucky or burn too many resources making it happen, and the two ways to lose are either to not make them work hard enough, or to make them work, see it succeed, and then have a bad day on offense. So yeah, you kinda have to have a "cornerback" mentality here: short memory for the bad play, but you work hard to engineer the good one.
Oh, and one more thing. Tackle and Mighty Blow on the same player. Then, after that, another one. A third one couldn't hurt (well, not in a bad way, for you), but any more in this edition just makes you an edgelord until you hit about 1600k. |
_________________ Lude enixe, obliviscatur timor. |
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Carthage
Joined: Mar 18, 2021
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  Posted:
Aug 22, 2024 - 00:47 |
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Also if you are new, I highly recommend the 145 club. https://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=group&op=view&group=7437
It's meant to teach players that are newer to the game some of the hard-earned tips and tricks.
Even if you've played tabletop for a while its still a good idea to check it out, the competition on FUMBBL is, on average, a cut above what most people will face in their local gamestore or on Blood Bowl 3. |
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Grod
![](./modules/PNphpBB2/images/avatars/upload/85124973249f0274912f2b.gif)
Joined: Sep 30, 2003
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  Posted:
Aug 22, 2024 - 09:17 |
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I will give it a crack:
1. Don't rush the ball carrier, especially if you are playing a slower team like Dwarves or Orcs. Similarly, don't send players around behind the other team - keep every player goal-side (i.e. between their team and their scoring end zone).
2. Keep a safety in the backfield and avoid committing the safety. The safety needs to be extremely deep so that the agile team needs a full cage if they slip past your defensive line, and the safety can't be marked.
3. Be aware that a fast agile team can shift from the top of the field to the bottom or vice-versa. Cover both corners.
4. Focus on blitzing their catchers in your back field.
5. Learn how to crush a sideline cage (there is a trick to it). Elves generally resort to one if you put enough pressure on.
6. Kill things - it's a numbers game. If they delay the score long enough and run short of players, scoring starts to get tricky.
7. Always man-mark prone players. Consider man-marking other players at times too (particulary players without block or wrestle). Your aim is to get your opponent run out of rerolls.
8. Around turn 6 or 7 is when you turn the heat up, because a well defended drive needs to take risks at this point if they are still going to score. |
_________________ I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
Oscar Wilde |
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Grod
![](./modules/PNphpBB2/images/avatars/upload/85124973249f0274912f2b.gif)
Joined: Sep 30, 2003
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  Posted:
Aug 22, 2024 - 09:27 |
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Also, where are your teams? Do you have games under a different coach name? |
_________________ I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.
Oscar Wilde |
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