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Poll
How much wood would a wood chuck chuck if a wood chuck could chuck wood
An indeterminable amount
20%
 20%  [ 16 ]
Would he chuck wood even if he could?
79%
 79%  [ 62 ]
Total Votes : 78


Kzarik



Joined: Sep 25, 2016

Post   Posted: Mar 24, 2020 - 20:22 Reply with quote Back to top

Malmir,

You are consistently excellent across races so I believe there must be some principles that you adhere to that generate such results. I find myself being much better with certain styles/races than others so I'm looking to bring the results of my lesser styles/races in line with my better performances.

Do you have such a set of principles or common goals that you would be able to illustrate or expound upon?
bghandras



Joined: Feb 06, 2011

Post   Posted: Mar 24, 2020 - 21:43 Reply with quote Back to top

Dear Malmir,

As a Monty Python fan, i am deeply concerned about the discrimination of swallows. Why is a woodchuck more important than the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? I argue it does not matter whether it is african or european, or with or without nut. We are talking about woodchucks that may not even chuck wood!

Cheers,
András

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Malmir



Joined: May 20, 2008

Post   Posted: Mar 25, 2020 - 11:28 Reply with quote Back to top

I like the opening to this letter - more best butter please. To speak in very broad terms, there are basically two styles of play, bash and ball. If you are good with a team of one style, there is no real reason why you shouldn't be good with the others. Yes there will be nuances, but the broad style will be largely the same so whatever it is you feel you are doing well with particular race should also help other races of the same style. Added to that there are of course the basics that apply to all races: protect the ball properly, make sure you are maximising blocks (safely i.e. 2d or better), make sure you are choosing skills sensibly and getting those key basics (block etc), position carefully and try to think ahead (like chess) and think what the opponent is likely to do and then counter it.

Kzarik wrote:
Malmir,

You are consistently excellent across races so I believe there must be some principles that you adhere to that generate such results. I find myself being much better with certain styles/races than others so I'm looking to bring the results of my lesser styles/races in line with my better performances.

Do you have such a set of principles or common goals that you would be able to illustrate or expound upon?
Malmir



Joined: May 20, 2008

Post   Posted: Mar 25, 2020 - 11:31 Reply with quote Back to top

Dear Bghandras,
There's no discrimination here my friend. Just because one thing was chosen, is not a slight on all other things. Just think of all the parties over the years and around the world you weren't invited to because you didn't know any of the people involved. Were you discriminated against? I hope so.

bghandras wrote:
Dear Malmir,

As a Monty Python fan, i am deeply concerned about the discrimination of swallows. Why is a woodchuck more important than the airspeed velocity of an unladen swallow? I argue it does not matter whether it is african or european, or with or without nut. We are talking about woodchucks that may not even chuck wood!

Cheers,
András
Malmir



Joined: May 20, 2008

Post   Posted: Mar 25, 2020 - 11:31 Reply with quote Back to top

Arthur Wynne:
You asked for feedback specifically on your drive so that is what I am going to focus on.
Slaanesh v Snakemen:
turn 2 of second half you left your cage in base contact which allowed him 2d by tagging a few (no rolls needed) to create a hole and sack the ball.
Four Nations v Myrmidia:
Second half (I think – forgot to write down what turn it was. Probably about turn 4) You ran your carrier in to assist on a block but then had no-one to then protect him leaving an easy 2D. Far better to take the 1d on and leave the ball safe. You actually got away with it but it left you badly positioned so you couldn’t protect him properly the turn after either and paid for it.
Avelorn vs Myrmidia:
Turn three of first half. After being a bit unlucky with your block the turn before, leaving him a 1d on the ball, you survived it. On your next turn you blocked the carrier free, but instead of then getting him safe, blocked someone else into his tacklezone. The carrier then knocked the guy over but then this left him surrounding your ball. A solid dodge and he had 2d on the ball which proved enough.
Four Nations v Albion:
Turn 1 second half. You got needlessly involved with a treeman, which tied up half your team. You also left the carrier back on his own, even though the guy had a wiz (which proved successful). You should have put one guy on the tree and the other two to tie them up in the case of blitz, had one of your mb, tackle sweeping at the back, had a couple of other players ready to run back and cover and sent the other mb tackle with a bit of support to go and pop snots. If he still wizzed you could have popped the snot who came to get it and had others to get the ball and/or protect it. For some reason your opponent needlessly decided to charge through your diving tackle which saved you. You continued to have too many players upfield which allowed him another straightforward shot at your ball, which you also survived. However, your players upfield had been sensibly tagged, which meant the next turn you managed a semi cage, but didn’t have the extra players to screen it properly. He bashed into your cage and continued to press, but you still didn’t try and get players back to help. Eventually, this pressure told.

Dark Elf v Bretonnian
Your attempt to equalise at the end of the first half was a bit unlucky. You scored to early in the second half which gave him too many turn to get the winner. You should be aiming, where possible, to score in the final turn of your drive. Sometimes you are forced to score earlier, but you weren’t here. You could have swung back round to the centre and protected the ball, but you piled through and then had to score.
Overall: The key thing I have noticed on your drive is that you are not paying enough respect to the ball. The whole point of the game (though a certain Khemri coach might disagree) is to get the ball to the endzone. The rest is all window dressing. Try to keep your ball properly caged (i.e. not in contact) with ideally a shielding screen in front of it. This won’t always be possible but people shouldn’t be getting shots at your ball without having to roll some damn good dice. Hope this helps and good luck!
ArthurWynne



Joined: Sep 23, 2015

Post   Posted: Mar 25, 2020 - 11:39 Reply with quote Back to top

Many thanks! I'll keep that in mind when planning my turns.

I do have a tendency to not think ahead enough when considering whether the ball is protected.
MrCushtie



Joined: Aug 10, 2018

Post   Posted: Mar 26, 2020 - 06:34 Reply with quote Back to top

I struggle a lot with teams that have more Guard than I do. Do I give in to the inevitable and start spamming it on my own teams, or are there better ways to stop Dark Elves (as an example) getting pummelled by teams with 4 or 5 Guard pieces?

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Malmir



Joined: May 20, 2008

Post   Posted: Mar 26, 2020 - 07:48 Reply with quote Back to top

MrCushtie wrote:
I struggle a lot with teams that have more Guard than I do. Do I give in to the inevitable and start spamming it on my own teams, or are there better ways to stop Dark Elves (as an example) getting pummelled by teams with 4 or 5 Guard pieces?

If you send me a link to a particular example I could go through it and see if there’s anything you could have done instead. Spamming guard is obviously one solution but there may be others
dorfeus



Joined: Nov 18, 2005

Post   Posted: Mar 26, 2020 - 08:51 Reply with quote Back to top

Dear mr. Malmir

I like your style, here and on field.

Some time ago I had a played a tie againts Orges with Pro Elves. I was quite sure I would win. What went wrong? Was my over all agressive strategy right one?

I can spot couple of mistakes in my offense like ignoring BT Ogre and not protecting my +3,+2 dodge with blitzer, instead i sended him build screen for my stall.

http://fumbbl.com/p/match?id=4112418

While we are at it do you see how Orgres could have won this game?
Malmir



Joined: May 20, 2008

Post   Posted: Mar 26, 2020 - 15:17 Reply with quote Back to top

Thanks Dorfeus, You're now next on my list after Muff2n,

dorfeus wrote:
Dear mr. Malmir

I like your style, here and on field.

Some time ago I had a played a tie againts Orges with Pro Elves. I was quite sure I would win. What went wrong? Was my over all agressive strategy right one?

I can spot couple of mistakes in my offense like ignoring BT Ogre and not protecting my +3,+2 dodge with blitzer, instead i sended him build screen for my stall.

http://fumbbl.com/p/match?id=4112418

While we are at it do you see how Orgres could have won this game?
Malmir



Joined: May 20, 2008

Post   Posted: Mar 26, 2020 - 15:18 Reply with quote Back to top

Muff2n
High Elves v Orcs.
Very rookie High Elf team with leader on the thrower as the only skill. Orcs have five skills including a str4 blitzer and one with blodge. Our lack of tackle could be a problem here but that’s out of our hands as the team is so young.
Set up:
If we set our blitzer up on the corner of the three bobs (on the side of the blodge blitzer) with the other blitzer next to him and three linos, we might be able to knock down that front line. We will blitz the blodge blitzer out the of the way so we can then get 2d on UMbl. If we pow that we could follow up for a 1d on the guarder with block. At least a shove is likely so we then get 2d on the last Bob and control of the centre is ours for now.
You went for a more conservative approach, just tying up the three Bobs to prevent blitz which is a perfectly viable alternative with the potential blitz roll well covered.

Your turn 1
You charged down the left knocking the lino out of the way and making a feint down that touchline. The ball is well covered and you have fanned out nicely, making it harder to tag mass players with bobs, as we don’t want to get into a slug fest. Solid start.
He is likely to blitz Verwarthil to both start to pressure the ball and gain control of the centre, potentially beginning to split our offence.
His turn 1
He’s much more conservative than that, knocking down the most advanced lino and adopting the standard defensive posture of lines of two with two spaces between each line. This tells us he knows how to set up a defence, so we will need to be on our game.
Because he retreated a bit, there’s a nice space around half-way which we can claim for free. Blitzing Umbbl with a blitzer plus assists will also then give us 2d on kukuku if we get the pow. Everyone else just needs to gather round the ball in the centre (fanned out a bit to make tagging harder) and this maintains our options as to which side to ultimately go.
Your turn 2
You pretty much did what I would have done, though I might have advance the ball a couple more squares. The blitzer you left out wide I would have probably put near the ball where he can’t be tagged and can blitz next turn.
His turn 2
He repositions his defence but leaves us a nice option up top with the blitzer in contact and unprotected.
Our opponent’s strategy is clearly going to be to rinse and repeat his nice lines of muscle so we need to remove him from that comfort zone and to start making some progress up field. It might sound early on to be doing that, but that line of Orcs is not going to be easy to break, so we need to start chipping away at it. I think our best play here will involve advancing the ball up the top side of the pitch (probably to just before half way) and then screening it whilst advancing players further down the flank. Sometimes I might feint one way and then move back to the middle and outpace them down the opposite flank, but in this situation I think advancing up the top and committing to it is our best shot. Those bobs are going to take time to get back across and there’s a good chance we can get completely through the turn after this and then stall at the endzone. So I would use the players lower down to get 2D on Umbl. Hopefully we pow him but if we don’t, I’d be tempted to push him next to my assisting players, as it makes it harder for him to shut down our charge. We can now tag kukuku and use the thrower to get 2D on the blodger. This guy is going to be a pain and needs to go and here’s our chance. If we push him next to the sideline then the surf is on. Our blitzer is going to need to make a 3+ dodge to get the 2D to make it happen but I’d say this is well worth the risk. If it doesn’t work our charge down this flank is probably over, but if it does (and odds are well in our favour) then we tie up the gob and he’s only got two blitzers who can cover across in one turn. Plus, his blodger is out of the drive.
Your turn 3
Arrgh, no idea if you would have gone for the surf or not but pesky dice ruined it – bad luck. We’re still in an okay position though as the ball is safe and we still have 11. He should spend his next turn tagging us to force dodges though from what I have seen so far, he may well just reset his defensive line whilst closing off our drive down the flank and surfing the poor sucker we have now got stranded.
His turn 3
He does the latter, but our man takes a pow and stays on the field.
I’d be tempted to still go up top here, as those Bobs are still going to take a long time to get across. I’d blitz the gobo with Simenion (after I have moved the ball and covered it and moved the rest across to support this continued foray) as he may pop which would help us numbers wise (need a gfi to get back safe). I’d then dodge Verwarthil towards the endzone to give him a new problem as we may need to pass here at some point and I’d also try and dodge rission away on a 3+ 2+ too (not worth rr though)
Your turn 4
Okay this is the first time our plans have widely differed. You chose to blitz the blodger and the blodge saved him, which was why I chose the gobbo instead – not just saying that, I did honest  The failed dodge on Verwarthil was unlucky, but by retreating the ball and the thrower we’re now letting him outnumber us upfield and he knows we can’t run it through his line, as we can’t reach it. We’re basically committed to making a pass/hand off now at some point, unless we make a massive charge up the field in the remaining turns, which is going to be hard to cover well. He should now just cover our 3 linos spread across the front, whilst keeping that nice defensive line and covering our prone players on the flank.
His turn 4
He does this, but sportingly leaves himself a bit top heavy.
This could be our best shot yet to get past his line. Smell and ff need knocking over so we blitz Smell running in Simenion to set up the chain push in case we don’t get our pow. Garnon lends the other assist and our blitzer does the blitzing. If we get the pow we follow up and use the thrower to 2d the other bob. If we don’t we knock the other bob out of the way and have a second shot at Smell. The two standing linos move down to get us a 1D on the str4 Bob and we then have the str4 blitzer and that bob tied up as long as we manage a shove or better. I’d stand up the 2 prone players at the top and let him waste players (hopefully blitzers) knocking them back over.
Your turn 5
You went ultra-defensive, actually going backwards with the ball. By not using the chain blitz you actually pushed a Bob into the way of where we are going to want to run and blocked off the 2d blitz on the other Bob. You solved this by tagging him but unfortunately for us the bob is already where he needs to be so he gets a hit on us and holds his position. He’s also now got plenty of cover as we haven’t tagged the players out of position who can now make it across. If he covers this well it is going to be hard to score.
His turn 5
He does and we’re in big trouble.
Right, here’s the plan. Garnon goes to assist on the lino at the top. The bottom is a closed shop so up it has to be. The Thrower moves in for an assist on the guard bob who we then blitz with the free lino in the middle. By blitzing straight on we can chain Turcinnien up diagonally one so he can dodge away and head up the pitch into a scoring position. Move the ball forward one (he can only be reached by 2 gfi by the blitzer and this means he can reach verwathil for a hand off next turn. If we got the pow, Simenion is now free and can run upwards or he may need a 2+ dodge if we didn’t. We can 2d Kukuku (before the dodge) and Horborn can take one for the team. Leave Daugorathion on the floor or he can be used to chain the blitzer within range of our ball.
Your turn 6
I think you missed some opportunities that turn I’m afraid to be in a better position with less risky dice needed. Luckily for us the dodges all worked (we were probably due that I’d say) but we’re well within range to be covered.
His turn 6
He covers us but with a few dodges we will have options for turn 8 pass. Dodge Tursinninen, Horthborn and Rission into scoring range. Use Garnon to blitz on Kukuku and then run that lino up too. The thrower needs to dodge and cover the blodge blitzer. Once he does this we can safely hide the ball in the top left corner. If we are lucky our bluizter might make the 3+ 2+ to get into another scoring position. We want our rr for turn 8 so unless something fails straight away, don’t use it.
Your turn 7
A decent turn though we lost our rr unfortunately (you had to use it though).
His turn 7
He covers pretty well.
Hand off to the thrower who passes to the catcher, hope there’s no int and that he makes the 4+ catch with rr (pretty good odds for us). We now have to make three 2+ all with no rr to score. Could well fail but could well work.
Your turn 8
Immediate dodge fail ends the half.
Overall I would say you were not aggressive enough with your drive, which meant you didn’t ask enough questions of his defence and meant he was able to cover things more easily. Good luck with the now banzai elves.
MrCushtie



Joined: Aug 10, 2018

Post   Posted: Mar 26, 2020 - 15:39 Reply with quote Back to top

Thanks Malmir,

here's an example.

I can see at least three potential faults, but would be good to understand what else:

* the team's bloated (or just has a bad selection of positionals)
* initial positioning isn't good enough
* being overly conservative with the apo because I'm worried about losing my AG5 blitzer later on

(and those are on top of poor coaching choices per turn)

Cheers

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Endzone



Joined: Apr 01, 2008

Post   Posted: Mar 26, 2020 - 16:42 Reply with quote Back to top

MrCushtie,

I hope you don't mind, I took a quick look at your example game out of interest. From playing it on fast forward the think that struck me was how much fouling influenced the game. You took a beating and it ended up very close (had he not intercepted on a hard 6 you might have won 2-1) but a key reason you were under pressure in the game was because on your turn one of half two you only had five players left. Most of your player removals were due to fouling (either the injuries you took from fouls or your players being banned).

The learning I would take from that would be thinking about how much you both had to risk and gain by fouling. Generally, when your opponent fouled you he 'gang fouled' with lots of assists and used a zombie (risking little) and he started with 12 players. When you fouled it was with fewer assists and using more valuable players, and you only started with 11. In the first half you had two players sent off.

Necro v dark elf would be a classic example of cheap players v expensive players where a fouling game is to Necro advantage. Personally, I'd not have retaliated by fouling back in that match up unless I could get a favourable foul on one of his key players.

A quote I recall one coach saying was that he liked to foul 'like a surgeon, not a butcher'. In your match up fouling selectively (like a surgeon), if at all, would have been the way. For your opponent, he had a great game fouling 'like a butcher' and that was good tactics from him, because his players were cheap, he fouled in gangs, he had spares, and yours players were expensive.

I appreciate I have not answered your question - hopefully Malmir will do that, and better than I could - but learning when to foul is a good lesson too.
Kzarik



Joined: Sep 25, 2016

Post   Posted: Mar 26, 2020 - 16:50 Reply with quote Back to top

@MrCushtie: A very broad stroke on fouling...you want to get the opponents effective AV(meaning AV after assists) to a maximum of av5 and be fouling with dp in almost every case. The odds go sharply downward if you aren't using dirty player and fouls against effective AV6+ start to tilt towards your opponent.

Obviously, there are other factors to be considered. Does the opponent have thick skull? What are the relative costs of the players? Is there a tactical or interest in such a foul? Race matchups certainly matter as well as Endzone pointed out. If you are the Elves playing bash then usually you don't want to drop the boot unless and until you have a key target vulnerable.

Good Luck,
Kz
Kzarik



Joined: Sep 25, 2016

Post   Posted: Mar 26, 2020 - 16:54 Reply with quote Back to top

Malmir,

If you would be so kind as to review this game...I am playing a good coach in SL with a bashy dwarven style team(ST3 and S L O W). I am much more adept and comfortable at playing baller teams or teams that have some pace(Lizards, for example).

https://fumbbl.com/p/match?id=4135394
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