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Strategy and Tactics - How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

tomros - May 31, 2007 - 07:03 AM
Post subject: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

My opponent has just started a dwarf team and has a deathroller in his starting lineup.

His strategy, which we have discussed but not seen in action, is going to be get the ball and just hold it for eight turns while he sends the roller to crush my team. Then in the second half when I have nobody to oppose him he will just march downfield and score the winning TD. This sounds like a very sound and effective plan to me.

My question is, how do I defeat his plan?

I field an orc team, 4 bobs 4 blitzers 1 thrower and 2 lineorcs,
and a human team, 1 ogre 2 blitzers 2 throwers 2 catchers and 4 linemen.

Right now I am thinking of just trying to avoid it, but don't know how that will work out. I also don't know how i will be able to just avoid the roller if I am trying to bust the ball out of his hands to get my own TD.

I have tried to search this site for tactics but can find none and TBB is down so I can not search there right now.

Sorry if this is an overasked question but any ideas would be appreciated.

OldManDraco - May 31, 2007 - 07:13 AM
Post subject: RE: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

Try and get the deathroller in the direction of the sideline and then push him of. Your team is strong and faster than dwarves so you should be able to take out some of his players as well. Go for his positionals whenever you can and foul them. If he wants a grinding match, then give him one. One he'll never forget!

Hope it helps.

Kheldar - May 31, 2007 - 07:22 AM
Post subject: RE: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

If you have the ball, then just score. Tie the roller with a lineman, and break through. After the TD the roller is ejected from the game, since he is a secret weapon.

If you opponent has the ball, make pressure on his ball carrier and try to avoid the roller. So he has to score quickly. If he cages near your endzone and stalls kill his remaining players. They will be outnumbered by then.

Spazzfist - May 31, 2007 - 09:53 AM
Post subject: RE: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

The deathroller is strong, but not invinicible. Hit it! Even if it is two dice his choice, it is better for you to be on the offense. When it is knocked down, surround it and get a lineman to foul it.

But don't make your whole game plan around trying to get rid of it/avoid it. Your opponent's strategy sounds good on paper, but you will find that it doesn't play out as well as you fear. It is one player, and while he may run you over a few times, your armour is good - you should still have a team in the second half.

DarkDancer17 - May 31, 2007 - 10:35 AM
Post subject: RE: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

It's a psychological weapon... it's already got you on the defensive.

As Spazz said, hit it. It doesn't have block. Smile

DukeJan - May 31, 2007 - 11:49 AM
Post subject: Re: RE: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

DarkDancer17 wrote:

It's a psychological weapon... it's already got you on the defensive.

As Spazz said, hit it. It doesn't have block. Smile

And since I understand your opponent is also new to the game knocking the deathroller over should pull the psychological advantage to your favour quite effectively. Take a chance, perhaps a few times, and you will knock it over.

nyarlathotep - May 31, 2007 - 01:43 PM
Post subject: RE: Re: RE: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

Yup. Guard and Block are your friends.

tomros - Jun 01, 2007 - 05:41 AM
Post subject:

Thanks for the tips. I am feeling much more confident now.

TanteKaethe - Jun 01, 2007 - 06:53 AM
Post subject:

I've got nothing really new to add, but I agree with most tips that have been made so far.

Feed a Lineman to the Deathroller, he's cheap, has AV9 and can take some punishment.

If you want to try to block the Deathroller, don't overcommit yourself trying to overcome ST7. You can always try a "2-dice-against" (your opponent chooses between the two blocking dice) with a Block-player. You have 25%-cance to knock him over and a 30,5% to go down yourself. So, with the help of a Reroll your chances to be knocked down are only 7% - it's worth a calculated risk Very Happy

.

But most importantly, try to minimise the time the Deathroller is on the pitch by either scoring quickly or pressurising the ballcarrier.

Good luck Very Happy

Spazzfist - Jun 01, 2007 - 07:38 AM
Post subject:

You also have to consider that by adding a deathroller, your opponent is not going to be having a very balanced dwarf team - he is going to have to give up a lot on rerolls and positional players in order to field a player that is only good for one drive!

voyagers_uk - Jun 01, 2007 - 07:44 AM
Post subject:

I agree, he is banking a lot on bashing you down to below 10 fit players after his first drive...

Unrealistic against AV9 even with a Deathroller.

you can take him tomros! Twisted Evil

tomros - Jun 01, 2007 - 08:10 AM
Post subject:

I suppose the best thing to do with my humans would be to try and crush the roller with my ogre and a couple of assists and run around it to get at his ball carrier with the rest of the team?

Doubleskulls - Jun 01, 2007 - 09:18 AM
Post subject:

Win the toss & receive. If he fields the death roller then score quickly - if he doesn't score slowly enough he won't be tempted to bring it on when you do score.

It sounds like he send the DR out on its own? If so you've two options. Feed him linemen OR leave enough of your team to slow down the rest of the team - and then gang up against the DR. It is pretty slow - so once away from the action it might take a while to get back anywhere useful.

Spazzfist - Jun 05, 2007 - 04:39 PM
Post subject:

Curious to hear how the advice worked against the Deathroller.

tomros - Jun 06, 2007 - 06:02 AM
Post subject:

I havn't had a chance to play the match yet. We were supposed to play last night but taking care of my sick wife and daughter took precedence over the scheduled game, I know I know a real gamer would have ditched the family for the game Laughing

. Fear not, as soon as the match is played, next teusday, I will post a game report for all to peruse. I will even try to take some photos of the action this time.

Glorian_Underhill - Jun 07, 2007 - 02:00 AM
Post subject: Re: RE: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

Draco wrote:

Try and get the deathroller in the direction of the sideline and then push him of.

I wanna see how you push a Stand Firm Player into the crowd. Very Happy

Now the Perspective of a Death Roller User. Usually I field him on a Tournament with 1.100.000 gcs.
2 Re Rolls, every Positional, 1 blocker as reserve.

The Death Roller is just the best big guy around. And with all your advices you are just doing everything I hoped he would achieve.

Advice 1. Get your big guy and 2 assistents to block him.
PERFECT!
Next turn the Stand Firm Death Roller stands up and 3 of you players are pinned.
AV 10 means that even against fouls he is quite resilient.

Advice 2. Avoid him.
PERFECT!
I can use the Death Roller to Blitz into the biggest bunch of opponents and pinn them.

Advice 3. Score Quikly.
PERFECT!
The biggest Problem of the dwarfs was that the opponent stalls 2 or 3 turns before your endzone. Then You have only 4 to 5 Turns to score back. Sometimes not enough time for a dwarf Player.
With the Deathroller hold 2 or 3 paces behind the sideline I can Blitz with the Ball carrier Cage and can Dodge with Break Tackle into every 3 Tackle zones at a 2+. And re rolls can been used as there is no Loner.

Advice 4. Get yarself a Lineman
So the only soundabel advice is this. Get two cheap players and Tackle him. But make it right. Tackle him from two different directions. After he has Blocked or Blitzed one of them he couldn go after because his main task is to pin players. And if he doesnt pin at least 2 players he has no additional benifit for the team as a Blocker can do the same job.

SolarFlare - Jun 07, 2007 - 07:06 AM
Post subject: RE: Re: RE: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

Sure the deathroller is good, but it's not that good.

It's only one player that goes off after the first drive it's in. If my opponent has a deathroller, then he is missing something else (slayer, blitzer...?)

If you score quickly while the roller is on the field, sure the stall is over, but the dwarf comes back with one less player--the deathroller.

Tying up the roller with a lineman, especially an orc lineman, is just an effective way to limit the damage it's going to do.

Don't get me wrong, the roller can be effective, but I'm not buying that it can neutralize all opposition tactics.

A developed dwarf team with 8 players with guard and mighty blow is much more scary...

DarkDancer17 - Jun 07, 2007 - 08:50 AM
Post subject: RE: Re: RE: How Do I Cope With A Deathroller?

How do you push a stand firm player?

Juggernaut. Smile

tomros - Jun 13, 2007 - 06:53 AM
Post subject:

Spazzfist wrote:

Curious to hear how the advice worked against the Deathroller.

I played the game and the deathroller was not very effective. Though it pretty much rolled around wherever it felt like it it did not break my human armour once. I'm not really sure how to keep the thing under control with its strength as agility skill. The only thing I could come up with was to mob it with four or five guys. Like I said though I pretty much ignored it and it got crappy rolls, so I suppose I may have just gotten lucky.

DarkDancer17 - Jun 13, 2007 - 10:00 AM
Post subject:

Well, it can only use Break Tackle once a turn, if it has it?