Confessions of a Dreadball Coach III

Not so much to confess this time round I have to admit so I'll see where I manage to get us to ;)

I played Craig last night, Shaun's son, and it was his fourth game so a bit of a learner. He also had Orx and Gobs so useful for me to consolidate what I'd learnt by passing it on. On that basis and as it was his first league game I ignored my various upgrades and skill increases.

We had a good game managing a three and four pointer each for a highly entertaining draw. Striking each turn simply didn't happen and there were several big punch ups over the ball.

The interesting thing for me was that this didn't matter so much as we both playing in a similar style, mine, with identical teams. I'm sure that this shouldn't be a surprise and the point I'm eventually driving at is about specific tactics for specific teams.

Lots of chatter around the DB community about the apparent dominance of Corp teams and the point that they're easiest to use because their all round abilities mean that you don't to vary your game to your opponent.

I'm relatively sure I touched on this in part Part II and I suppose its a development of the theme. Mr C and I chatted about that very subject on the way home with myself questioning my 1 card, 1 assisted slam, move the ball model. Read an interesting post on the Mantic forums today where a guys better half runs Veermyn against his Forge Fathers and often holds onto the ball knowing that he can't strip it.

Nothing wrong with sticking to a formula when you're learning a new team / faction / army etc but variation on a theme is key.

Goblin sandwich!

Back at the game we'd been having mixed luck and I'd been waxing on about the importance of doubling when picking up the ball. We had done quite well at slam prioritisation and a steady chain of goblins flowed through both injury boxes. Not having that extra dodge dice makes a big difference,....playing to your opponent then!
We both also had some outrageous exploding dodging with both Orx and Gobs performing a few deft pirouettes! 6s always welcome!

With only Craig's final rush remaining his was four points down with ball deep in his end.

Four Pointer! :)

Run to the ball and pick it up - Double.
Free run down the pitch plus a couple of dashes.
Throw to the Gobbo on the two point strike hex.
Two successes and double the catch.
Free run and a dash to the four point strike hex.
Final action for a one dice strike.
Score the four pointer :)

Gobbos CAN get the job done and anything that gives them a chance of a double is golden but with one dice and card they NEED a bit more luck than others.

You can make you're own luck apparently, just need to work out how ;) The thought that comes to mind is identifying where each team is limited an then targeting that.

Ill let you know how I get on! Promise :)