The Wonderful World of Wood Elves, Pt. 1

Starting Your Wood Elf Team

For most teams, the way you start your team depends on the rules variations your local league uses. Well, that's most teams! For Wood Elves, I haven't seen a rules system yet where I didn't start my team the same way.

The 100 point Wood Elf Team

#	Position/Type	Cost
1	Wardancer	120,000
10	Line Elves	700,000
2	Re-Rolls	100,000
8	Fan Factor	80,000
	Total	1,000,000

Reasoning:

Now I'll explain why I use this starting lineup.

Well, the Wardancer, without question, is necessary for making this team competitive in the starting game. He's probably going to be the fastest player on the field (unless you play a skaven team or something), and he's really hard to knock down. He should be your main player for the first game or two.

The line-elves (calling them line-MEN is a sure-fire way to utterly convince them that they cannot dodge very well, so they won't) are neccessary because they are the cheapest players available to you, and you have to start with 11 players. Don't worry though, they cost 70K each for a reason, namely that they are the best athletic linemen in the game. They can keep up with or outrun most other teams' speedsters, especially early on, and the fact that they all have AG4 means several things.

You don't have to worry about not starting with a thrower, since line elves pass as well as most rookie throwers from other teams anyway
The opposing teams' defense has to worry about every player on your team being a possible scorer, since they can all catch
You can dodge off the line fairly easily (when you're done with everything else) so that your opponent can't pound you into oblivion.

Remember that your team is the fastest, most agile team on the field, and that the only way any non-wood elven or skaven team can compete with you is to outnumber you. All you have to do is not allow them to do so, and the best way to do that is to only allow your opponent to hit you when it is absolutely necessary. This usually means only once per turn, the other teams' blitz.

I choose to start with 2 RR's because that is the maximum number I can have while still having a Wardancer on my team, which I feel is essential, and having a good FF, which I also feel is essential. (I'm getting to that part.) I'd love to start with more Re-Rolls if I could (I sometimes start undead teams with 6), but I just have to sacrifice too much.

I choose to start with 8 Fan Factor because it's the most I can do without losing either a Wardancer or a Re-roll for 1 point of FF, which obviously isn't worth it, even to a FF-happy freak such as myself. The reason I need Fan Factor is that it drastically improves your teams' winnings (due to higher gates) which is vital to a team whose players are so terribly expensive, like this one. It also helps when it's you who wins those re-rolls, pitch invasions, rocks, refs, and other Fan Factor related kickoff events, and not your opponent. Those really add up!!

I'd really love to start with an apothecary, but I just can't afford it given the circumstances above. It's always the 1st thing I buy, though!

On a side note, if you'd like to know if this strategy works, the last team I started with this method was on an on-line IRC league, the OLBBL. They started out 5-1, out-scoring their opposition 13-7, and even out-casualty-ing their opponents 12-11!