Amazon Linewomen Overview: #
The Linewomen on Amazon teams do all the usual jobs of Lineman on a Blood Bowl team. Their advantages are that they have a fairly average stat line, are fairly cheap and also start with Dodge. Their biggest weakness would be that they have low armour, early on in a league starting with Dodge and not many opponents having Block doesn’t make that such a big problem. When playing against more developed teams, or Dwarfish players, Block and Tackle are more prevalent and their low armour is more of an issue.
As I mentioned their team mates have more easily defined roles within the team, so when developing your Linewomen as well as the usual jobs of this player type, you should also look to fill in the roles that are missing within the team. There are quite a few jobs on the team that will need doing and they are best explained by just going through them.
Ball Carrier Blitzing Amazon Linewoman: #
- Normal: Wrestle, Tackle, Strip Ball, Frenzy / Pro / Dauntless
- Doubles: Side Step / Guard / Mighty Blow
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV
With your Blitzers typically taking Guard and Stand Firm and not being developed to getting the opposing ball carrier, a Linewoman or two can do this job really well. With all the positional players on your team taking Block and you really need Wrestle to counteract Block on the opposition, these just leaves the Linewomen to take it. Follow that up with Tackle to deal with Dodge players, Strip Ball is great, especially if your opponents don’t have Sure Hands. After that Frenzy can be helpful to get more than one hit though it is very much an optional choice. Amazon teams are typically somewhat weaker than a lot of opponents and Frenzy could get you into trouble here. Pro can help to give you a free shot at rerolling double pushes and can be useful in other situations. Dauntless can be a great help if facing lots of stronger opposition in your league.
For doubles Side Step is always handy to have and lets you mark your target if you fail to get them down. You might want to take Guard though instead to help counteract your average strength on the team. Mighty Blow could also be useful for someone who blitzes a lot. I probably take Guard though cause that is how I roll. A strength increase is brilliant and may mean you don’t need to get an assist in to get the strength advantage. Agility is great as it makes getting to the target easier. Movement can be helpful, though I would probably skip it early on in a short term league, or perhaps change to a different role for the player.
Kicker Amazon Linewoman: #
A Kick player is always handy to have, I’m not sure if I would go with one on the player who skills up first as I would want to get a Wrestle player in the side as soon as possible. Amazons are also not the fastest or most agile team to be able to take advantage. It still has its uses though so Kick first, followed up by Block to help keep her alive. Fend offers some more protection and beyond that you run out of useful normal choices so Tackle is what I would probably select. Chances are though you Kick player won’t get many more SPP and might not even get this far.
For doubles either Side Step or Guard, the latter more so they can help team mates block or blitz them free if marked up. Also as you tend to keep Kick players out of opposing contact, having someone you can move in for a crucial assist without having to dodge them away can be handy. A strength increase isn’t great but I still wouldn’t pass it up, if you get it first increase then make them into a blitzer build instead. Agility makes dodging away easier and you can also use them to collect a loose ball or whatever. Movement also probably edges out an armour increase in usefulness as well.
Line of Scrimmage Amazon Linewoman: #
- Normal: Wrestle, Fend, Dauntless, Tackle / Pro
- Doubles: Guard
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV / +AV
Having a few players with this build will help disrupt the opposing team on the Line of Scrimmage. Wrestle can bring down stronger, slow opponents with Block, that slows them down and may also make forming a cage harder. Fend prevents them from following up so you don’t have to Dodge away and protects against Frenzy and Piling On. Dauntless helps combat those stronger sides, if mostly facing other ST3 or lower teams then don’t bother with it though. Pro is handy in combo with Dauntless and for rerolling double pushes. Tackle is more useful if facing a lot of Dodge opposition though. For doubles I think Guard is probably your best choice here.
Any stat increase is helpful here, strength combats one of the biggest weaknesses of an Amazon team, though would make this player too valuable to place on the Line of Scrimmage to get hit straight away. You would set them up off the LOS when defending but their skills are still useful and is a great player to have. Agility gives them more freedom to get to where they are most needed. Movement is great to have on a average speed team, especially if you are standing up and want to move after using Wrestle. There could be an argument for an armour increase but lots of Claw and Mighty Blow might render that useless.
Dirty Player Amazon Linewoman: #
- Normal: Dirty Player, Block
- Doubles: Sneaky Git
- Stat Increase:
Having a Dirty Player is helpful to counteract the best player on the opposing side you want to try and get off the pitch. Either their star flair type player, or trying to remove a killer build who has Piling On etc. Block is a good follow up skill to keep them on their feet and with Dodge already can be useful to just mark opponents if you don’t want to foul. Sneaky Git can be a handy double, though if you are fouling right you should be breaking armour most the time anyway making it a bit redundant. You don’t want a lot of skill on this player as they will probably be getting sent off a lot. Having more Team Value sat in the dungeon is just going to help the other team more than yours. Also if they are sent off a lot they probably won’t be getting many skills anyway.
Amazon Linewomen Summary: #
There aren’t many teams that you would look at the Lineman to build into your main blitzing players. Typically the Blitzers on the team, or Catchers are usually built to blitz. Those two positions on the Amazon team though are better served with their skill access for other roles. To get the opposing ball carrier down though the main skills are all general access so the Linewomen can happily step up to do the job. You still need to develop some players to deal with taking the hits on the Line of Scrimmage. Rookie Linewomen aren’t terrible at doing that though so it isn’t an urgent thing, especially in a new league where the opposing teams aren’t that developed.
When advancing any of your Linewomen, consider what the team is missing and needs help with based on your previous games. A stat increase early one will really change their role, strength points to building them to blitz, agility gives you someone manoeuvrable who can catch or carry the ball. I’m not convinced at the usefulness of movement or armour early on as it takes it longer to get some skills. In a long term environment though taking them can eventually pay off to your advantage.
