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ILF pLaYBOOK

by "Harry" Harrington

farren sat up slowly, his vision blurry, the metallic taste of blood filling his mouth. Gradually his vision began to clear, revealing the silhouette of Kaleb Windtalker, the team Apothecary, hovering over him. "What happened?" said farren, his musical voice spoilt by the fat lip and missing teeth.

Kaleb's hands wove intricate patterns over farren's head and he whispered arcane words beneath his breath. Surprisingly qUickly the bleeding stopped and farren's memory seeped back. "He cheated!" shouted the injured Elf, realisation flooding back. "That low-down sneaky Beardling deliberately cheated!" Indignant rage brought a rosy flush to farren's otherwise pale face.

Arching his back he flipped athletically to his feet and strode back to the reserves' bench. "Well two can play at that game!"

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As a long time fan of the Blood Bowl game I had eagerly awaited the arrival of the new Elf team and the models did not disappoint in the least. However, with the armour of Wood Elves and the speed of the High Elves I was a little disappointed with the stat lines - that was, until I started to play. With cheaper players than my traditional Wood Elves I found my starting team had something I had never expected in an Elf Team: reserves! That, coupled with quite a good Fan Factor and two re-rolls, meant I had something else that my previous Elf teams lacked: durability. Previously in tournaments and leagues the first few games were less about winning and more about surviving. The death of a single Lineman could spell disaster to a starting team and send you into the spiral of doom as each match started short-handed meant more casualties. Frequently it was preferable to simply disband the old squad and start from scratch. Now the Elves had a force to be reckoned with that could start swinging straight from the whistle and take their destined place at the top of the leader board.

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However, success is never guaranteed, so I've put together the following few tricks and tips to hopefully help any budding Elf coaches out there. The playbook maximises all the best points of the Elf team and also includes a few little dirty tricks to even the playing field against some of more robust teams in the league.

1: RECEIVING THE BALL

As with most teams it is a lot better to receive the ball at the kick off rather than kick to your opponent. Receiving lets you take the initiative and, hopefully, the lead.

With Strength 3, Speed 8, Catch and Nerves of Steel your Catchers are without doubt the best in the game. Smash a hole (or holes) in the opposing line and send your Catchers through the gaps, striking deep into the backfield. This will force your opponent to split up his forces and send guys to stop them. In most cases it will take two defenders to neutralise one Catcher and this will either leave a free Catcher behind the enemy lines or you will outnumber the enemy at the line of scrimmage. If you have a free Catcher then take the quick TD. If you have the numbers on the front line then punish them by beating up his Linemen.

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In this case the Human team have set up to defend against my attack by leaving three Linemen at the line of scrimmage and trying to cover the flanks to prevent my speedy Catchers breaking through into the backfield. By smacking the front line back and down, and sweeping my speedy Catchers into the backfield, I leave my opponent with a difficult decision. 1/ he doesn't neutralise my Catchers quickly I will score next turn, but by moving men away from the line of scrimmage to stop the Catchers he will leave himself dangerously outnumbered and will pay the price when I systematically gang up on his front line.

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By placing two Catchers in a scoring position and only allowing the opportunity for one of them to be blitzed, the defenders must choose between stopping the m or protecting their Lineman. Either way is great as you have a good chance to inflict serious damage to his team or rack up the scoreboard.

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2: KICKING THE BALL

Although you are automatically at a disadvantage if your opponent receives, you should realise one thing: if you're playing against a big hard team that pootles up the park in a blob, just don't get in the way. Dodge your line of scrimmage away from the enemy as quickly as possible, then go hunting. Assume that your opponent will take most of the half to work his way up the pitch, this gives you time and opportunity to catch the stragglers on their own and beat them to a pulp by surrounding two or three stragglers with your entire team. You will leave your opponent with three choices.

A: Score quickly.

This means he can't protect the ball carrier with his harder, slower players, giving you the opportunity to blitz the ball carrier and swipe the ball.

B: Send men back to help the guys you're bullying.

This means you're still probably going to outnumber them in the fist fight and it also weakens the cage around the ball carrier so you might sneak in a blitz.

c: Leave them to die.

In which case he scores and next time you set up to receive he has players lying in the dead and dying box and you have him outnumbered across the board.

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The Orcs are receiving the ball and are preparing to form a cage and march down the middle of the board. After knocking the three Linemen off the line of scrimmage the Thrower picks up the ball and chucks it to the nearest Blitzer who moves into the safety of the cage. Slowly but surely the cage moves down the pitch squishing everyone in its way. Instead of playing a meat grinder where the opponent has all the advantages, why not ignore the ball and pick on the guys around the edges, just keeping a skirmish line in front of the big block of enemy players?

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By ignoring the ball and targeting a couple of the opposition key players you leave your opponent with a difficult decision. While he's deciding what to do, add more Linemen to swarm the targeted players to guarantee that any foul goes through the armour.

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3: SNEAKY STUFF

Side Step is one of the most underrated skills in the game. By standing next to your enemy's defensive cage you can actually be bounced around and end up in a position to block the ball carrier on your tum. Or, even better, lure enemy players towards the edge of the board and side step around them. Then you can give them a discreet shove into the crowd on your following tum.

Nerves of Steel on a Strength 3 Catcher means you don't have to worry about dodging away from those nasty defensive tacklers. Just catch the ball then blitz the guy (don't follow up, just push them away and make a run for it). Even on a one-dice block you have a 66% change of either knocking him down or pushing him away.

In this situation the nasty Orc is attempting to slap our heroic Blitzer out of the park. However, with a nifty sidestep our hero moves to square 'Z' rather than 'Y', leaving the Orc in the perfect position to be punted into the crowd himself in the next turn whether he follows up or not.

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In the situation below the Skaven have surrounded their ball-carrying Gutter Runner with a defensive cage. The Skaven try to knock the Blitzer out of the way so the Gutter Runner can make a break for the End Zone. But with a deft swivel of his hips, our heroic Blitzer slips past the flailing Skaven and slides up alongside the Gutter Runner to give him a slap in the next turn.

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4: FOULI

Important note! No one expects Elves to fight dirty. The judicious use offouling can be the difference between a close game and a massacre. Since you only have a 1 in 6 chance of being caught fouling for the first offence it makes sense to target the odd guy on the floor and improve your morris dancing skills on their heads (also see the detailed analysis of fouling in last issue). Personally; I always foul at least once each half on the off chance that I can remove some pesky opponent. But don't waste this golden opportunity. If you're going to foul, do it with style and get as many guys as you can around the victim to help you get past that armour and cause some serious damage. Of course, if you're lucky enough to have "gotten the ref" as a kick off result, it is your duty and privilege to systematically stomp on anyone foolish enough to fall down. Remember Elves might be a "Good" race, but they hate losing and attempt to excel at all disciplines within the game. The awards for longest drop kick, most casualties and, of course, the highest vocal octave shift inflicted on an opponent, are all hotly contested.

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ELVEN PLAYBOOK

The second part of this article revolves around team progression. With re-rolls and reserves normally lacking from a starting Elf roster there are many options crying out for each gold piece, but where should you spend them? A priority is, of course, the Apothecary: an absolute "must have" for every Elf team. Once the Apothecary has been signed up you can then add reserves. Do not buy any specialist positional players until the Lineman roster is complete. Only when you have enough reserves do you risk shelling out on that second Thrower.

When building a team you have to make a basic decision: do you make a team of all-rounders or do you go for a few uberhard star players. My advice is to get a team of all-rounders so your opposition can't target a few players to change the course of the game. The way to do this is simple, place a random Lineman halfway into the enemy's half as soon as possible, then do all the razzle-dazzle with your Catchers and Blitzers. Once you've secured the ball simply run round and hand off to the Lineman for an easy score.

The other, more cheeky; way to get experience is to keep two players back ready to catch the ball from the kick off. Place your Catcher one square behind the ball then pick it up with a normal Lineman (on a 2 +) and throw a quick pass to the Catcher (on another 2+) and then watch the Catcher catch it ... (you guessed it, on a 2+) for an instant completion for the Lineman. Use MVPs on Linemen rather than Blitzers and Catchers (they get enough SPPs on their own) so every player in your team gets the skills he needs to survive. Remember that there is no such thing as redundancy in an Elf team; every player has the speed and agility to score if he needs to, whilst still having the strength to stand up and take a beating.

SKILL PROGRESSION

There is no choice when starting a team as fragile as an Elf team that the first two skills on the Elf coach's wish list should always be Block and Dodge. These are two of the very few skills that affect both offence and defence. Making your players deadly on the attack as well as impossible to knock down on defence is essential to the survivability of your team. The only exception to this rule is the doubles roll where you can start looking at some of the Strength skills like Guard or Mighty Blow.

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"lndividualise the players and give them specific roles"

Defensive Tackle: This is a perfect position for a Catcher - just add Dodge and Strip Ball. Most speedy Catchers are Strength 2 with Dodge, and with this guy as a target you can

pretty much guarantee knocking the ball out of his hands. Your Catcher can then hop onto the ball, pick it up, and skip away towards the opponent's End Zone.

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The Enforcers: A Lineman with Dirty Player is a great way to even the balance against those heavily armoured brutes you will face week after week. Keep him away from the line of scrimmage, but close enough to punish anyone foolish enough to fall over. Don't waste this opportunity, target players that can affect the game then nobble them quickly using as many assists as possible to boost the chances of a kill.

The SpoUer: Giving one of your Blitzer Shadowing and Tackle means that simply placing him next to the opponent's ball carrier causes them some serious difficulties. Any attempt to avoid this player is hampered by the Shadowing skill which will keep him close to the ball carrier. Having a guy with Tackle and Shadowing really cramps the style of even the fastest Gutter Runner.

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The Leader: A Leader re-roll is a godsend for an Elf team. Most skills work out at about 20K worth, but with a Leader in your team you get lOOK worth of re-rolls for free (re-rolls costing double after the initial team design). Use him as a normal Lineman, but make sure to use his re-roll first as he may not be on the pitch that long.

The scream rose higher and higher, passing out of the Dwarf's audible range and into the higher bands that caused dogs throughout the city to wince. Inside the stadium a silence had spread through the crowd as all eyes turned to the Dwarf in the middle of the pitch. His eyes had rolled up in their sockets and the look of abject agony on his face made even the most depraved cultist gulp and cross his legs. Slowly, like some great oak in the forest, Gramli Dorfsson fell forward, his hands too busy cupping his groin to protect his face from the astrogranite. On the big screen, Cabalvision replays showed a stylish blur flying across the pitch followed by a well tailored boot executing a textbook, up and under, that the star kicker would have been jealous of Swaggering back towards the bench surrounded by irate officials, farren soaked up the sudden applause from the crowd, heading towards an early bath, but with a broad grin on his face.

The Psycho: Every team should have one! A guy with Block and Dauntless who can take down even the hardest opponent. Give him Pile On if the opportunity arises and suddenly the Minotaur is hiding in the comer of the pitch because there's an Elf out there with a weird glint in his eye ...

When designing your team you should really make room for some of these specialists. In a perfect world an Elf team should have 4 Catchers, 2 Blitzers, I Thrower, and the rest Linemen. Of these 9 Linemen you should aim to get at least one Enforcer, one Psycho and a Leader. This team then has the ability to take on all comers in both a high scoring TO fest or a down and dirty brawl.

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***Did you know ...

The Elf Great Hawks of the Elven Kingdoms League take so long to get made up for a game that they only manage to attend every other one!

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ILF PL8YBOOK

by "Harry" Harrington

This article follows on from Harry's article last month, as the more astute of you will have guessed from the cunoing title. Having already covered the basics, this time he delves into the Dirty Tricks box to see what the Pro Elves have in there alongside their skipping ropes and Barbies.

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After the first few matches, your opponents are certain to have picked up a couple of skills and can really put the pressure on what is a very fragile line up. Remember that keeping your team alive is a priority; unless the dice gods decide to desert you there should be no team that can outscore you in the league. What you need is the durability to keep a full roster on the pitch for the entire game. There are two ways to do this. For the more aggressive minded among the Elf coaches (like myself) Block is the first skill I give every player (doubles notwithstanding) whereas other, more testosterone challenged, coaches prefer to take Dodge across the board. There are plusses and minuses to each strategy. By taking Block your guys are more durable in defence and offence, whereas a "Dodgy" team should leave you with no one in a square next to an opponent at the end of each tum - meaning you only have to withstand one blitz a tum. I personally feel this is quite a negative way to play and take every opportunity to beef up the durability of my team by reducing the number of opponents they're facing.

Where both the aforementioned tactics fall apart is against some of the power teams in the League. Chaos, Orcs and especially the latest version of Chaos Dwarves can grind out a victory simply by scoring after the other team has taken a trip to the morgue. The tactic of receiving the ball and crawling up the park two squares a tum whilst battering the enemy before falling over the line for an eighth turn touchdown is an absolute killer to a team like the Pro Elves. The coach has one of two choices: pick on the stragglers as mentioned in the last issue, or try a snatch and grab. If the opposition is Orcs or Humans I tend to go for option one, and when facing Dwarves, Chaos Dwarves and against other high Strength, high AV teams I go for option two. Why? Because if you're lucky enough to catch a Dwarf straggler it would be a miracle if you get through the armour and actually cause some damage, and against Chaos Dwarves and Undead the stragglers are usually the 30K cannon fodder that the coach won't mind sacrificing. If this is the case a smash and grab is the only real option.

In the case on the next page, the nasty Undead coach has formed a cage and is trundling up the pitch in the Funeral March (slowly plodding towards an eighth turn touchdown).

The ball carrier is a Ghoul and some hard hitters designed to keep him safe surround him. The Elf Blitzer has Leap and Strip Ball so as the Lineman has cancelled the two assists the Blitzer leaps between them to Blitz the Ghoul and most likely knock the ball to the floor. Now if he's feeling lucky he can follow up and attempt to pick up the ball. If his luck holds then he can look to dodging clear, but even if he fails the ball will scatter and it will be very hard for his opponents to grab it. Since failing to pick the ball up would cause a turnover, it might be better to sneak a Catcher with Dodge into the cage to pick it up and slip free. OK, the risks are high, but if it succeeds once in a game you will have a two-goal cushion to play with and you can start to playa little more conservatively.

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The other way to deal with the cage is to slow it down so much that they eventually have to make a break for it. By surrounding the cage, but keeping one square away, you can slow the march down to a crawl forcing the opponent to leave the cage behind and dart for the end zone. If you have your guys in position you can swipe the ball on your own touchline and still score a TO that Tum. The Blitzer/ Defensive Tackle with Strip Ball will force the Catcher to drop the ball then your Thrower can pick it up and race up towards the halfway line before throwing a quick pass to one of the Lineman who in tum hands off to the Catcher for an end to end touchdown! By always keeping a Catcher within range of the opponent's end zone you will instil a sense of desperation in the away team's coach who knows that even the slightest mistake can be punished with a one tum TD. If you prefer you can leave a Lineman in range of the end zone so he can gain the SPPs and you can keep the more skilled Catcher closer to the action.

This technique has its faults too. You will need to have most of your Linemen with the Dodge skill to assist in keeping one square away and hope the opposition hasn't got Tackle. In games against Tackle-heavy teams it's better to try the smash and grab rather than slowing them down as your team will fall down on a regular basis. Remember though, that if the ball is on the floor your high Agility Elves will have a much better chance at picking it up than the lower Agility teams that usually form the cage.

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SPECIALIST SKILL PROGRESSION

You'll find there are at least two types of player for every position and deciding which of these you want to take will determine how your team plays.

Thrower

There's the quintessential quarterback who stays back on his own touchline before launching a beautifully spiralling pass three quarters the length of the pitch. His skill progression is designed to make his the ultimate passer without ever getting close to an opposition player. Ultimately the most headhunted player on the pitch, he relies on others to save him from getting squished whilst he perfects his throw. Accurate, Strong Arm*, Nerves of Steel, Dump oft; and Safe Throw, make him the ultimate Thrower in the game.

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The other Thrower is a lot more down and dirty: Sure Hands, Dodge, Block, Sidestep and Nerves of Steel makes for a lot more durable Thrower who relies on chucking short or quick passes to free Catchers so they can sprint away for the TO. He still has a better than average chance oflaunching a long pass (AG 4 with a re-roll), but can mix it up with the big boys if he has to.

Catcher

There are both offensive and defensive positions that need to be filled by a Catcher (if you think of a rugby winger who has to tackle as much as he gets to run with the ball, you can see why matching skills to positions can really help). In my team I take four Catchers as quickly as possible, two become the scorers whilst the other two become defensive tackles.

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Offensive Catchers are, not surprisingly, designed to survive a blitz and sprint clear for the TO. Skills revolve around keeping him upright and increasing his chances of reaching the end zone. Dodge,

Jump Up, Sidestep, Sprint and ~-c~ ..... Sure Feet can really make him almost impossible to stop, but since he is only Strength 3 and won't stay upright for ever, you should try to keep the ball out of his hands until he is ready to score.

Defensive Catchers are there to take down the enemy ball carrier swipe the ball and get it to the Thrower. Block, Strip Ball, Tackle, Sure Hands and Dodge means he can regularly nip into the opponent's cage, swipe the ball and skip clear, or against faster teams he can catch those pesky Gutter Runners, beat them up and rob the ball.

Blitzers are probably the easiest players to gain SPPs in the early days of a league and can become absolutely awesome at taking down even the toughest opponents.

The more aggressive coach can tum his Blitzer into an enforcer who can take down the biggest baddies on the pitch and make sure they stay down.

Dauntless, Tackle, Dodge, Pile On*, can cause fear in even the hardest Big Guy.

The other type of Blitzer is the ball thief who nips in and spoils the enemy play by either blitzing the ball carrier or slipping through for the intercept.

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Catch, Pass Block, Dodge,

liliraRlE Strip Ball and Nerves of Steel

make attempting to throw around this player extremely difficult.

In the position above there is nowhere on the pitch that the attacker can throw the ball without the Blitzer ball

thief nipping in the way and getting two 5 +

chances to

intercept (Pass Block, Nerves of Steel and Catch).

The Lineman is the most versatile player in the team. Relatively inexpensive, these are the players you stand on the front line ready to take a pounding, but with a few skills under their belts they can become great utility players.

The front row Linemen are the willing victims that line up against the worst that the opposition can throw at them. With a few defensive minded skills you can make them almost impossible to shift.

Block, Dodge, Sidestep, is the best defensive combo in the game, enabling your Linemen to slip away from the front line relatively unscathed.

The first Lineman that is lucky enough to get a skill should always be given the Guard skill and turned into a Bodyguard. From then on you can either use him to shadow your Thrower to prevent him getting squished, or use him in conjunction with the Enforcer Blitzer to take down the Big Guys anywhere on the pitch.

Knocking down a Star Player or Big Guy is good, but unless he stays down it's often just a waste of time and effort; one or two Dirty Players in the squad can make sure anyone foolish enough to fall over never gets the

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opportunity to stand back up. The easiest way to protect your own team and win the game is to reduce the number of opponents that can hit back. Don't worry about getting sent off - if you do get shown the red card it's likely that you've already stomped your way through a couple of the opponent's team and it's well worth the risk (have a look at Doubleskull's article on Fouling in issue 7).

For every Lineman you should try to get Block and Dodge then choose between Sidestep, Leader, Dirty Player and

even Kick.

MY VIEW ON SPORTSMANSHIP

If you play a high Agility low AV team you can find yourself in a position where hanging on to the ball near the opponent's end zone for a tum or two may seem an attractive option. In my view this is not in keeping with the idea behind these elegant sportsmen, and in a fun game between friends I recommend not using this tactic. However, this is only if your opponent keeps to the same spirit. There is no team in the game that can't get a player from the line of scrimmage into the end zone in two turns. Those players who regularly take eight turns to crawl over the white line for a TO and spend these turns dismembering your team are being just as beardy, so feel free to resort to the run and hide tactic.

Fouling is a part of the game. Anyone who says I won't foul you if you don't foul me is, in my opinion, a big girl. If you don't want your players broken and bleeding, go play Snap! and leave Blood Bowl for the real men (grrr ... ). This sort of agreement over illegal procedures is, however, perfectly acceptable in my view. I always thought that Blood Bowl was the greatest friendly game GW have ever made, packed with tongue in cheek humour, sick jokes and fun. The one thing that can spoil it is when your opponent spends the entire game shouting "Illegal Procedure" time and again. I am not a cheat (much), I do, however, get caught up in the game and sometime forget to move my tum counter. In the Blood Bowl Tournament this year EVERY player I faced asked to ignore the Illegal Procedure rule and that made the game a heck of a lot more fun even in the competitive atmosphere of the biggest Blood Bowl Tournament of the year.

Point out mistakes to your opponent and only if he repeatedly offends should you even think of calling him for it. Winning a game because you called an Illegal Procedure on tum eight when he was one square from the end zone is_ bad sportsmanship pure and simple, and winning on such a technicality won't give you as good a feeling as drawing a hard-fought game.