BB - Elven Union

Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you:

No adverts like this in the forums anymore.
Times and dates in your local timezone.
Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance.
Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely.
Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net.

If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

**captain bloody fists**

morning guys,

i have a question. how should the Elven union be played? i'm three rounds into a league and i've had three losses. i think it's my play style that might be the issue.

any assistance would be appreciated.

**infinite_array**

Poe did a pretty decent write up about Elven Union over on Reddit.

As for direct advice (from that url mentioned above):

Trumpkin wrote:
Pro Elves are the most bs of all the races. This is due to their positionals: Nerves of Steel means ball play is not reduced by tackle zones, so the normal strategy of swamping elves with bodies simply doesn't work, and Side Step out of the box means that they're spectacular at getting in your face and staying there, then whipping the ball away the moment it pops free. They're also so goddamn fragile. No dodge, two block, Armour 7 almost everywhere… They're not fast enough to escape danger, and not strong enough to fight people off. What this means is you often have to sacrifice players to earn the touchdown. Shove a few linemen in the way, let them get chewed on, then get the valuable players the hell out of there. Due to being down on players (and you will be down on players) there’s a tendency to have to rely on the dice sometimes. You’ll have to start making passes, dodging through tackle zones… But that’s why you’re playing elves in the first place, right? So in summary, they're elves that excel at getting all up in your grill, but they'll often get torn to shreds in the process. This is fine. Playing Pro Elves is a philosophical battle against the inevitable death of the universe versus making your mark in eternity. As the game goes on, you WILL lose players, moreso in longer leagues, but it’s about keeping the spark alive long enough to ensure you win. Elves will die, but your glory is everlasting.

General Playstyle: SCORE SCORE QUICKLY NOW BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE JESUS THEY'RE COMING Pro Elves need to score, and score quickly. They're amongst the most fragile teams in the game, but they make up for this with awesome skills and the ability to really pull off the bs when they need it. You can try to stall with them, but you're really going to suffer. They have the tools for cage cracking, so my advice is score ASAP, then spend the rest of your time hunting that cage. Shove your blitzers on it, get to the ball carrier, screen off everyone else with catchers and linos, pick a few unlucky Linemen to mark big, ugly players, and keep applying that pressure. Many players cannot handle that pressure, which is why they consider Elves OP.

**Thargrim**

Elven Union can run into trouble if the enemy cages up, one options is to blitz the corner guy and then stick both blitzers with side step on the carrier...and hopefully you can get them the dodge skill. And this can be a pain for the enemy as they scramble to get them off the ball carrier. I like to build 1-2 catchers with wrestle so they can be long range ball sackers.

I find this team can be frustrating to play, but fun and rewarding when things go your way. They don't have the hitting power of dark elves or the speed of wood elves though, and are as squishy if not squishier than both.

**infinite_array**

Actually, this is bad for me. I know I've got a bunch of teams on the painting table (Underworld, Chaos Pact, Chaos, Slann/Kislev), but Elven Union was kind of tempting me. I haven't played an Elf team yet. And Impact Miniatures has that great resin team for $35, or $45 for a bunch of star players.

**captain bloody fists**

hmm i'm hoping that i can get into the ork cage this evening.

**Mantle**

Im 3 games in to a league and I've lost my two starting catchers, as I went for 3 rerolls from the start I lost one in the first game and the second I lost today by my waster of an apothecary rerolling dead in to dead haha, I have a blitzer that's an absolute star of a player, he's been voted my MVP in all 3 games so dark elves might serve me better to be honest being able to have 4 blitzers and better AV for the line elves. Still getting the hang of union.

**captain bloody fists**

i'm now 6 games in and i've finally won a game....

i've had some rather tough starting lists to verse but managed a 2-1 win over a Goblin team.

next team is High elf so that should be interesting.

dodging out is mandatory as it appears. i'm not really replacing linemen when they fall just going with Journeymen until my earnings require me to spend money. my catchers, thrower & Blizters have been kept repetitively safe except when they heed to blitz

**Niiai**

I am a beginner in BB so take what I am saying lightly. But have you considered taking less chances with the dices? Every dodge has a 1/6 chancr of failing. (1/36 with a re-roll. Models without block has a 1/3 chance of ending the turn unless you manage to stack the dices. With ods like that you can not count on luck as a primery plan. Even if you are a lucky person you need to decrease the amount of rolls you make.

Just getting in some onces face and atanding there meqns it is their problem getting a good roll.

**captain bloody fists**

Niiai wrote:
I am a beginner in BB so take what I am saying lightly. But have you considered taking less chances with the dices? Every dodge has a 1/6 chancr of failing. (1/36 with a re-roll. Models without block has a 1/3 chance of ending the turn unless you manage to stack the dices. With ods like that you can not count on luck as a primery plan. Even if you are a lucky person you need to decrease the amount of rolls you make.

Just getting in some onces face and atanding there meqns it is their problem getting a good roll.

the stats for dodging is better than that. Elves Dodge on a 3+ (technically on a 2 if you're dodging since you get a +1 for a roll). with elves you want to minimise the number of guys getting hit union players are lighter on armour and lower on strength (7 & 3 respectively) so dodging out means that only one guy per turn can get hit from a blitz. not to say that standing there isn't a bad idea. sometimes you need to do that to tie up enemy players to protect your ball carrier.

**Niiai**

If you dodge on a 2+ is that not the 1/6 talked about. There is no need to point out that they dodge on 2+ when we are saying the same thing.

On averadge with 6 dodges one of them will fail. There is a 50% chance it happens after 3 dodges. Now team re-rolls help you out a lot in this aria.

Compare that with blocks. With block you have an innate 2/6 of failing. But once you build up a 2 dice dicepool you have 4/36 chance of failing. This is much better ods, and will not chew through your re-rolls. After getting them away from you do not follow up. Now the only way to reach them is to blits. Then after all safe rolls have been made you can dodge out where you can not get a 2 dice dicepool.

If your goal is to get out of dodge possitoning so you can use a block and not follow up you have a better chance of survival. How do you position yourself like that? Not easy. I would suggest 2 players in a straight line pointed and the enemy team. Then 2 squares away a ned unit like this.

EEEEEEEEE
EXEEXEEXE
EXEEXEEXE
EEEEEEEEE

E is emty, X is your player. Mind you I am not very experienced with this game. And your 3 linemenn are screwed.