I was going to start by saying "we've all been there" but maybe we haven't. It occured to me that cowardice on the pitch is something I haven't seen from players other than myself. I suppose, then, that I must be the most gutless of Blood Bowl coaches.

If faced with a team I feel I cannot beat, and who I am sure will CAS most if not all of my team, my response is to defend ultra-deep, put loners or linemen on the LOS and then try to stick in a formation I call "The Hammer" and keep our opponents from getting more than 1 or 2 blocks a turn.

At the risk of giving away too much, this is "The Hammer"
x x x
x x x x x
x x x

Generally, if we are facing a clawpombing team and lose the coin toss (a 100% certainty) I will play this way and basically write the first half off as a dead loss. In the second half, if I get a favourable KO result and he doesn't get blitz, then I'll try to score and play for the draw.

This is terrible, weak play. The thing is, I love my players. I am genuinely fond of their tiny careers. I really, really hate to see a player forced to retire or killed outright because I know just how long it takes to level them up again.

In games like these, if a player gets knocked over, I'll just leave him on the ground. At the very least, players getting fouled have a chance of getting someone sent off, thereby removing an opponent from the pitch. Sometimes I will leave a neat line of four players down to form an impenetrable wall for my more valuable players to cower behind.

Is this a losing strategy? Well....yeah of course it is. But the long term safety of your players is surely more important than throwing their lives away just for a feeble 1-1 result against a coach who will take excessive pleasure in perming and killing your star players, right? Players who have taken 40+ matches just to get one or two levels. Players who are, on another day, the fear-inducing match-winners.

Having said all that, I know I'm wrong. I know that the only true way to play BB is to bring it to your opponent directly. Nuffle despises weakness. As evidence, two matches I played against none other than BillBrasky, he of the infamous "WMDs in the Box" team...

Firstly
http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=match&op=view&id=3211793

In this match, I hid. Watch the replay. You will see gutless play rewarded with zero tolerance from almighty Nuffle.

Then, in a sort of rematch, consider this game
http://fumbbl.com/FUMBBL.php?page=match&op=view&id=3212894

In match one I took 2 wandering APOs to try to save my men and prayed that we'd survive. In this match, however, I took bribes and began stomping BillBrasky's players right from the off.

Gutless self-preservation approach - a 3-0 loss and a pasting.

Brave balls-to-the-wall approach with a side order of fouling? 2-1 over BillBrasky's WMDs, no less.

It's clear then. Cowardice may sometimes feel like the right approach as doubt and fear clouds your judgement, but stay true - put on your best hobnailed boots and KICK THEM TO DEATH WITHOUT MERCY.