As a newbie, I highly encourage you to play a high elf team

[Vuyek]

You have super expensive linemen with no skills whatsoever - because they are high elves, they are elite anyway.

You will watch your team get kicked, punched, stomped, bitten, rammed by horns, and basically murderized by EVERY OTHER TEAM.

The playstyle of this team is to dodge away from everybody else - basically run away.

The meta of high elves is to wait for the opponent to make mistakes.

Now, what happens if the opponent is not a total idiot? If he/she covers the zones, does 2 dice hits, dice do not roll skulls twice in a row per each enemy block (remember, the opponent ALSO has rerolls... and usually not just one, but trust me, chances of rolling both skulls are small anyway).


So how does a typical game look like with the elite pointy ear, silly hat team?

Run around the field, dodge out of enemy zones, and then watch your team get KO'd and murderized one by one.

An orc or a bashy team can basically make a cage and walk into the endzone turn by turn, and there is NOTHING you can do about it as high elf. Nothing.

It's great to watch the 3 players left on your team in turn 16 do their thing - really encouraging for a beginner like me



So I will do what I should have done - and play a lizzie team.

Dinos to murderize, skinks to run the ball in.

Why punish myself with high elves?


In case you don't get it, this is a bit of a vent - satire post. I am sure players can do very well with high elves - just me, as a total beginner, have issues with them.

[Marmelizer]

I've played High Elves quite a lot on FUMBBL. They are notoriously difficult to get off the ground at low TV, because they lack important skills (e.g. dodge), so you will burn a lot of rerolls and fail often. However, at higher TV levels, once you've got a handful of skilled stars, they can compete with anyone.

Breaking cages can be tough for rookie High Elves, again because they lack the necessary skills. One important thing to be aware of is that you can dodge into a tight cage (3 tackle zones) on a 5+, which is around a 50/50 chance with a reroll. At higher TVs, once you've got a leaping, wrestle, strip-ball catcher, cage breaking becomes much easier (although, that catcher will get fouled a lot) :-)

[Vuyek]

"They are notoriously difficult to get off the ground at low TV"

Yes, that is the issue here.

Once linemen have blodge (and so do blitzers) they become much easier.

[vampire_harlequin]

I'd agree that 'agility teams' (EG: Wood, Dark and Stoner elves) are awkward to start with as they're objectively less forgiving; they get hurt more easily, they rely on dodges which are more complex to set up and execute than blocking manouvers and players are more expensive; not a great factor when you consider their squishiness and the propensity for newbie to make mistakes. On the defence, these agility teams rely on 'screening' rather overtly attacking a cage. on offense, they rely more on sprinting past a line and using passing plays than they do punching the other team in the face.

To that end, I've always said Orcs are, pound-for-pound, the best starting team. Their positionals have clear roles, they're relatively cheap, have cheap re-rolls, an effective big-guy if you wanna use him (I'd advise newbies don't however), and there are reliability boosting skills like block and sure-hands aplenty.

The stats on prolific BB championship sites would suggest though that for veterans, in terms of actually acheiving victory through, you know, scoring and ♥♥♥♥, Wood Elves are THE 'best' team, with most of their elven breatheren also earning a totem-topping placement. Generally speaking, the brutal bash prevails at lower TV, finesse and agility plays pay off at the higher end of the scale.

Please note that milage may vary for individual players and it's not to say one style is objectively 'better' than another, and the meta is currently skewed by the race choices and open-ended ladder format, but the devs are addressing this so it'll be interesting to see how this develops within BB2 over time.

[Vuyek]

In this game, different TV's have different best teams.

Lower TV, elves suck.

[Cirolle]

Originally posted by Uncle Timo:

In this game, different TV's have different best teams.

Lower TV, elves suck.

Compared to who?

[RustyLinks]

It took me a while to get to grips with a starting High Elves team, and eventually I found that the first 3 games were better if played ultra-conservatively to protect players but when I did have the ball, try to make as many quick passes as possible - the high agility allows this and each SPP on completion is a godsend to get towards some starting skills. For this reason be very selective on attacking setups to ensure your 5/6SPP players are positioned to receive the ball and pass it quickly for an easy level up.

[hk_prometheus]

High Elves are an advanced team and should not be recommended for new players. Mostly because they have few skills and coaches must have a thorough understanding how how agility and tackle zones work, plus the passing mechanics and hand-offs on the same turn (which tend to trip most new players up). They are also costly, so building the team must be done more carefully.

Elves in general are an intermediate team that new players should avoid until they learn the basic mechanics of how to play the game.

Best team for new players is Human, they can learn all of the basics from this without being penalized for it as much.

[hk_prometheus]

Originally posted by Uncle Timo:

In this game, different TV's have different best teams.

Lower TV, elves suck.

False.

Wood Elves at low TV are among the best teams in the game. Pro Elves too.

[Chris]

Horses for courses.

HE can be a good starter team, if you're familiar with turn-based strategy and the playstyle of a passing game. High AG, good passing skills, mid-range AV, plenty of movement to get you out of positional errors.

It'll definitely be easier on you as a rookie if you come in with the sort of mindset that's used to the complexities of zonal defence; screening; hand-offs and passing channels. And that could come from watching sports, for instance.

I find that the best team for a Rookie is one that mirrors their natural playstyle. So it could well be different for lots of people.

[hk_prometheus]

Originally posted by Dantés:

Horses for courses.

HE can be a good starter team, if you're familiar with turn-based strategy and the playstyle of a passing game. High AG, good passing skills, mid-range AV, plenty of movement to get you out of positional errors.

It'll definitely be easier on you as a rookie if you come in with the sort of mindset that's used to the complexities of zonal defence; screening; hand-offs and passing channels. And that could come from watching sports, for instance.

I find that the best team for a Rookie is one that mirrors their natural playstyle. So it could well be different for lots of people.

Most newbies won't understand any of that. Which is why the HE are a bad starting team.

A coach needs to know the rules and teams in this game very well before they can be successful with a HE team.

Hindsight is always 20/20, and knowing what you know about Blood Bowl now will often tell you what teams are the easiest to play however that doesn't hold true for new players.

[the Sage]

Dark elves and wood elves rock TV100-1400, high elves rock TV 1800+.

[Snorri Nosebiter]

Originally posted by Uncle Timo:

In this game, different TV's have different best teams.

Lower TV, elves suck.

No, they're just difficult. Dark Elves and Pro Elves are very effective teams at TV 1000.

Woodies are a little less forgiving, and High Elves are the least forgiving of them all.

Something I read in a High Elf playbook once sums them up: "High Elves are a bad team to get good on, but a good to team to get great on."

[Snorri Nosebiter]

Originally posted by Uncle Timo:

The meta of high elves is to wait for the opponent to make mistakes.

Any elf team should be pressuring the ball from turn 1 on defence. Stop the cage from forming.

Their 'meta' (ugh) is to use their superior speed to harrass the opponent's backfield, and their superior positioning to prevent the opponent from forming a cage and then to prevent them from getting the ball back.

Obviously, this isn't that easy at TV 1000. That's the price you pay for AV8. :)

Originally posted by Uncle Timo:

So I will do what I should have done - and play a lizzie team.

Dinos to murderize, skinks to run the ball in.

And you'll find them even harder for a beginner than High Elves.

No Block on the Saurus means that they end up on the floor a lot more than you'd expect, AG1 means that they can be marked out of the game by a 50k lineman (unless you've picked up some good positioning skills. Now, which teams can teach you that......), and Skinks have no ball handling skills to start.

In fact, you need a double for them to even get Sure Hands. :)

[khornight]

"So I will do what I should have done - and play a lizzie team.

Dinos to murderize, skinks to run the ball in."

Personally I wouldn't recommend lizards to beginners... Play a team with a ball handler with sure hands (orks if you want to be bashy)... So you have some ball handling options... Even chaos are better.

[Snorri Nosebiter]

Originally posted by Uncle Timo:

Y
The playstyle of this team is to dodge away from everybody else - basically run away.

Sounds like you'd be better suited to Dwarfs or Chaos than Elf teams. I hear this 'argumant' a lot from their players.
The aim of the game is to score touchdowns, and dodging away to do this isn't running away.

It's just silly to expect an elf team to stand still and play to a bash team's strengths.