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Jonny_P |
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Post subject: What skills do you recommend for a Vampire Team?
 Posted: Aug 14, 2006 - 02:35 AM
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Joined: Feb 10, 2003
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I'm looking for suggestions for skills to give players on a Vampire team. This team consists of 4 vampires and 7 thralls and uses LRB5.
I'd like ideas for the one skill choice you'd see in a tournament as well as maybe a 3 skill progression for league play.
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Grumbledook |
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Post subject:
Posted: Aug 14, 2006 - 06:51 AM
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for starters i'd drop a vamp and get a 5th rr
I assume you are taking 4 and no ff with that lineup?
as for the tournament, I think block on a vamp is a safe start, depending on the other races in the league/tourny tackle might also be useful
not quite sure how potent dirty player is going to be under LRB but thats always useful
again if there are a lot of woodelf teams, i'd get a sure hands vamp (not that it helps when they keep rolling pow pow etc)
ignore pro, specially in tournaments, you should have a lot of rerolls and most actions you are looking at 2+, don't be scared to bite thralls unless its wasting your blitz
league play i'd focus on getting some skilled up thralls, give em block help keep them on the pitch longer |
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Jon
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Panico |
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Post subject:
Posted: Aug 23, 2006 - 06:06 AM
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Joined: Sep 05, 2004
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| A good choice imo is strip ball... with all that hypnotic gaze, it becomes easier to get the way open to the ballcarrier and, even if you don't manage to knock him, at least leave the ball free... |
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Grumbledook |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 24, 2006 - 01:53 PM
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Having played them in 3 tournaments now I do like having strip ball and block on 2 of the vamps.
Tackle has come in useful in some games, others utterly useless.
I'm yet to try taking dodge but I feel that it would again be handy to have on one.
As for the thralls, I tend to just take block. Though kick has been useful too. |
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Jon
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Rune_Master |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 25, 2006 - 07:09 AM
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Joined: Apr 02, 2005
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Just played Vamps in a tourney. I had three vamps, 9 thralls, 4 RR, 3FF.
IMO, Pro is a must for the vamps. Block is always good, but with strength 4, you're going to be throwing two-dice blocks more often than not, minimizing the need for block. The last thing you want is to HAVE to bite a thrall instead of performing an action. And if you fail the Pro roll, you can still use a team re-roll to re-roll the failed Pro roll.
For this tourney, I took Pro on all the vamps, and leap as the fourth skill allowed was given to one vamp. I was a little skeptical about leap, but it helped me bust up three cages in my last two games.
A team as average in MA as the vamps are, I don't think kick is worthwhile until way later in a league, never for a tourney, save that for the lizzies and the rats.
And I wouldn't bother with any skills for a thrall in a tourney, they're far too fragile. But in a league, give them block, might help them stay alive a little longer. |
_________________
Erik Grogswiller
"Ho! stand to your flagons steady!
'Tis all we have left to prize.
A drink to the dead already,--
Hurrah for the next that dies."
- ancient Dwarf toast
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TuernRedvenom |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 26, 2006 - 12:33 AM
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Rune_Master wrote: Block is always good, but with strength 4, you're going to be throwing two-dice blocks more often than not, minimizing the need for block.
2-die blocks without the block skill is still rather risky in my book! It fails 1 out of 9 times, seeing that you have no block in your entire team andd will be throwing a whole lot of 2-die blocks there will be turnovers a-plenty.
Quote: I was a little skeptical about leap, but it helped me bust up three cages in my last two games.
Vamps already come with hypno gaze out of the box, which is a great cagebreaking skill, why would you bother with leap? |
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Xtreme |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 26, 2006 - 03:58 AM
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Da Boss
Joined: Mar 12, 2003
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| I played Rune Master and he used used Hypno Gaze very well, he didn't have leap yet so I can't commit on that. If you take the 3 vamp roster and no pro, they if the odds work out correctly you will use all 4 rerolls on failed OFAB rolls each half. I know there are times when you don't mind the failure, but with only 3 vamps there aren't going to be many of those times. With no other skills to help you out with rerolls its hard to imagine commiting a large portion of your TRR to OFAB rolls. I would agree with Rune and go Pro crazy in tournament play. League wise I may be more willing to take other skills first, especially in a 5.0 league where I could take advantage of journeymen bloodbags, I mean thralls. |
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Rune_Master |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 26, 2006 - 12:45 PM
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TuernRedvenom wrote: Rune_Master wrote: Block is always good, but with strength 4, you're going to be throwing two-dice blocks more often than not, minimizing the need for block.
2-die blocks without the block skill is still rather risky in my book! It fails 1 out of 9 times, seeing that you have no block in your entire team andd will be throwing a whole lot of 2-die blocks there will be turnovers a-plenty.
Risky...it is. But failing one out of nine with a 50/50 shot at rerolling the outcome, or rerolling a failed dodge, or ball pickup, or pass, or catch, etc...overall outweighs getting a better success average when blocking, IMO.
TuernRedvenom wrote: Rune_Master wrote: I was a little skeptical about leap, but it helped me bust up three cages in my last two games.
Vamps already come with hypno gaze out of the box, which is a great cagebreaking skill, why would you bother with leap?
You can't always get two vamps there. Sometimes only one player can get to the cage. HG doesn't help in that situation since it can only happen at the end of a MOVE action. |
_________________
Erik Grogswiller
"Ho! stand to your flagons steady!
'Tis all we have left to prize.
A drink to the dead already,--
Hurrah for the next that dies."
- ancient Dwarf toast
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Grumbledook |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 28, 2006 - 12:17 AM
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Having played 3 tournys with them I am very much against the pro route.
You should have your vamps positioned to break the cage down with one using gaze and the other getting the ball carrier. You are missing out on skills like strip ball and block.
I know you said you don't agree with it, but you are getting far more knockdowns with it than without and pro fails half the time. I would rather reroll a 2+ than a 4+
You don't have to use every vamp every turn either and a lot of the time I am moving them into positions to use gaze, in which case if you have a spare thrall you can move them there and still get the gaze off before biting them. Or just take the bite instead.
The way kick comes in handy is the way that vamps can break up a line with a st4 guy blitzing, 2+ dodging or a gazed hole. You can run players through cutting the ball carrier off from the rest of the team a lot of the time. This makes them have to take chances on offence a lot, which can lead to turnovers. Also cage teams have to cage from further back meaning you should more chances to crack it.
Bloodlust can be controlled in some manner with a vamp being the ball carrier. Twice I have run a thrall next to the endzone before rolling to move the vamp to go into score. I got a 1 both times yet was still able to move the vamp to score, just having to bite the thrall first.
Its those kind of tactical nuances that make the vamps slightly harder for newcomes to deal with. One of the great things about the vamps is that most of their actions are 2+, I just don't see the advantage of trusting to a 4+ chance when you have a lot of rerolls, specially when it means giving up other useful skills. |
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'Boomshanker an Interception'
Jon
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Rune_Master |
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Post subject:
Posted: Sep 28, 2006 - 07:47 AM
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Just a different strategy, you like yours, I like mine. I believe both are viable.
jpelitis, you just need to think about how YOU play the vamps and figure which would work best for your style. |
_________________
Erik Grogswiller
"Ho! stand to your flagons steady!
'Tis all we have left to prize.
A drink to the dead already,--
Hurrah for the next that dies."
- ancient Dwarf toast
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Jonny_P |
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Post subject:
Posted: Oct 17, 2006 - 01:28 PM
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Joined: Feb 10, 2003
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| Thanks for the tips everyone. I'm not using them yet - too many other projects to work on! But I would like to try them out in a league probably before a tournament sometime in the future. |
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Heroic_Tackle |
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Post subject:
Posted: Oct 23, 2006 - 01:34 PM
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Joined: Aug 30, 2005
Germany
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| When the Vampires are on the offense do you always use a Vamp as the ball carrier? Are Thralls a bad choice for that? |
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Grumbledook |
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Post subject:
Posted: Oct 25, 2006 - 04:06 PM
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depends on what team I am up against, vs wood elves I like to use a vamp pref with block or sure hands
this means I can dodge away and hopefully force 2 dice hits in my favour on the ball carrier
if against caging teams having the vamps free helps to open up holes, untie thralls etc
having said that though obv the vamp can still dodge away from these guys too
the other advantage of a thrall carrier is that you don't need to rely on having another player in position in order to guarentee movement where you want |
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'Boomshanker an Interception'
Jon
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