Blood Bowl for Beginners

As the new League approaches, players are gonna start to want to plan their new team.

Here are a couple of websites for in depth Tactics and what models are currently available (Non GW ones).
http://www.comixininos.com/
http://www.plasmoids.dk/bbowl/LRB6Playbooks.htm

For a beginner, it’s always hard to chose which team to start with, as you don’t really know “how” they’re gonna be played.
Usually the questions to ask yourself are: “Do I want to hurt people?” “Do I want to play the ball?” “Do you I want to run the ball, or on the contrary throw it?”; “How will I defend? Zone control? Aggressive to get the ball back? Kill the team first?”... Obviously comes in the fluff and also the how nice the models are as well, but although you will have some very fun games, Blood Bowl can end up very frustrating if you first team ever is Halflings and you have to run them for a whole league...

Here’s a quick review of all the teams available for Blood Bowl. I’ll start with the competitive ones, and then I’ll finish with the ones beginners shouldn’t take...

Humans:
They are the most basic team and also the best one to start with due to the good amount of rerolls. They can do everything but do none of them perfectly. They can run the ball, bash the other team and even pass quite reliably.

Amazons:
Funny enough, the Amazons are actually a bashy team, despite their poor armor; the profusion of Dodge skill makes them awfully resilient at low TR until tacklers start appearing as the opposing teams evolve. It obviously makes Dwarves your most dreaded enemy... They also have nearly the same basic skills as humans, so are not terrible if passing or handing off is required.

Norse:
An “upgraded” version of the Humans, very good at bashing and running the ball, although a little bit squishier; you’ll have to embrace the Frenzy, learn how to use it and make the most of those extra blocks without being a liability.

Orcs:
Bash team that uses the superior Strength of the Black Orcs as well as the reliable Block of the Blitzers to cage and run the ball. You have the Throw Team mate option as well with the Troll and Goblin as well as a nice ball recovery option if you have to go through tackle zones with the Goblin.

Dwarves:
The ultimate bashy team: Block all over makes them superior at hurting, but they are also awfully slow. Be prepared to a slow grinding game and punch people. The skills required later will have to concentrate on Guard as all your players are Strength 3 only. The Deathroller is the big guy of the team, stupidly high Strength, good mobility, but very pricey and will only play one drive...


Chaos Dwarves:
Still in the bashy teams there: three types of players are available. Basic Dwarves for the line and cage. Hobgoblins that can handle the ball but are fragile. Bull Centaurs provide a superior Strength and a good mobility (you will need Break Tackle). Minotaur is a very good blitzer.

Elves in general:
Four Elves teams are available, Dark, Pro, High and Wood Elves. All are very good at handling the ball; they will be more mobile and faster than most teams but relatively fragile.
Wood Elves are really squishy but are the fastest team with Skavens in the game (Catchers are movement 9) and will defend aggressively with their Stars, the Wardancers.
High Elves are the ultimate passing team and are better armoured than the Wood Elves, so can take a bit more of a beating.
Pro Elves (my favourites ) don’t have the armour of the High Elves nor the speed of the Wood Elves, but have some fancy skills instead that open good passing and running options (Catchers with Nerves of Steel) and their defence is orientated to control tackle zones rather than blitzing the ball carriers (Blitzers with Side Step)
Dark Elves are the odd one out there as they are more orientated towards a running game. They have a good armour all round, can handle the ball well (like all Elves)and can be very aggressive (Assassins, Witch Elves).

Khemri:
If there is a team that can’t handle the ball, it’s them... Agility 2 at best forces them to kill everyone first and then handle the ball. They are not slow but will have to wait and clear the pitch first before doing anything else.

Necromantic and Undead:
They are both bashy teams that rely on cheap and resilient Linemen (Zombies), good Blitzers (Wights) and fast and good ball handlers (Ghouls). The Undead have then access to the mighty pure strength of the Mummy whereas the Necromantic use the Stand Firm and good Strength of the Flesh Golems and the great speed of the Werewolves.

Chaos and Nurgle:
I’m not sure I want to recommend them as first team, they progress very slowly and don’t have any “basic” skills like Block, Catch, Sure Hand... They will be very good at a later stage, but they’ll need to skill up first. They are of course going to use their superior Strength of the Warriors before running the ball and use the mobility of the Beastmen/Pestigors.

Lizardmen:
The team relies on the Saurus and the Kroxygor to do the damage and defend the ball carriers, the Skinks who are extremely fast and agile. Lacks sadly the option of Throw Team Mate, but running with Skinks is honestly much more reliable.

Skaven:
They’re a very fast team, on par with the Wood Elves, that relies the Gutter Runners for handling the ball in general, but apart from that, they all have roughly human stat lines, so can do a bit of everything.

And now, the new teams; they all have an unusual play style and need some sort of experience in Blood Bowl as they don’t start with many useful skills, but once their figured out, they extremely fun and can also be very competitive.

Chaos Pact:
They can have up to 3 Big Guys, an Elf, a Skaven, a Goblin and several Human Linemen, meaning the players are very specialised between speed, ball handling, ball recovery. They also all have access to mutations (so far only Nurgleand Chaos ahd access, but they’re boring  )which opens a new world of for skill combinations.

Slanns:
Jump, jump, jump! All the players have Leap and Very Long Legs, which allows them to just bounce around and laugh at cage or other zone control. There is now way to truly stop a Slann, as there always will be a gap they can exploit. Fortunately (for the opponent), Leaping is not fantastically reliable, and Slanns are not great at Blocking sand lack the “useful” skills, so will burn reroll like no one.

Underworld:
Another fun team that combines this time Skavens and Goblins, a bit more subtle than Chaos Pact. Once again, having access to mutations, a new world of skill combinations opens: just imagine a Big Hand, Extra Arm, Two Headed Goblin that can just run through tackles zones (2+), pick up the ball (2+) and come back...

Finally the last ones: once again, they can be fun, but you must be ready to lose A LOT!

Goblins:
They’re packed with fun and tricks, and you get lots of options between the Chainsaw, Fanatic, Bomber and Pogoer. Can achieve a nice One Turn TD (but don’t rely on it), the team overall is quite fast but of course very fragile.

Ogres:
Combining the worst player in the game (Snotlings) with the mighty Ogre is a very fun thought. The Ogres will do a lot of damage and the Snotling are fast, very mobile through tackle zones and can handle the ball quite well. But the team overall lacks Tackle Zones (Ogres lose them, Snotlings nearly don’t have any) and Snotlings are very very squishy.

Vampires:
Vampires are tricky, they seem to be very good by just looking at the stats, but the Blood Lust rule changes the game entirely: your very good Vampires that can handle the ball and bash other players now become unreliable. It’s a good team but you must be prepared for the worst and be ready when the Blood Lust comes.

Halflings:
The worst for the last: I present the slowest, most fragile and unskilled team ever. The Halfling are slower and more fragile than Goblins. The One Turn TD is a bit more reliable than any other team’s (but still not very reliable). The Strength lies of course in the two Treemen, not only for raw Strength, but also for the Throw Team Mate option in order to get your Halflings in range of the ball. The only way to play Halfling well is through inducements: keep your TR low and try to buy a Master Chef systematically as well as the famous Deeproot Strongbranch. Good luck!


Don't hesitate to ask any questions about team building before the league starts, or any other advice...

Thank dude thats rly helpful. I'm stuck between two teams wood elves and Norse. Have any good websites for minis?

The 3 i look at are gaspez, impact, and tri-tex games i think ill post links soon as im on my phone atm

Stephane, this is a super post!

On the subject of the new bloodbowl league, I now have access to update our stuntyleeg, and will start tidying it up tonight.

I am proposing two levels of commitment to bloodbowl:

Regulars: Regular Fixtures every three weeks, giving you three weeks to play them. Games can be played either at the club or elsewhere, but if you play away from the club you MUST have a third Regular present to act as (hopefully 100% impartial) referee. You can nominate a stand-in to play a match for you IF your opponent agrees.

To ensure only those who are seriously committed to the regulars league sign up, I propose we put £10 each in a kitty at the start of the league to go towards a Trophy and prize at the end of each season, with room for a plaque to engrave your name on and all...imagine the GLORY!!! In facvt, how about using one of Heresy's Awesome Thrud Models on a trophy base?.

If you still haven't played your scheduled match by the time the next match comes around, you'll lose 3-0 and suffer 3 random casualties. Your opponent gets all of your winnings and MVP from the match. In addition, the loser automatically loses one Fan Factor and may not roll for a new one, and any players in the losers team that have 51SPP's or more will leave the team on a D6 roll of 1-3. Roll Separately for each player with 51 or more SPP's to see if they leave. In the unlikely event BOTH coaches miss the match, it will be scored 0-0 and the above will apply to BOTH teams.

I know this is harsh but it's deliberately so, if someone drops out it really "Roger's" the Fixtures and means your opponent misses out too.

Ad-Hocs: Ad Hoc Matches played whenever you feel like it, with whatever additional rules you see fit to try out. Dungeonbowl, Dock Bowl, whatever. I will keep a Ad-Hoc League table at the club and find a way of getting it up on either stuntyleeg, the bognorgaming website or warbunka (probably all three). The only two things you MUST do is
(1)keep your roster 100% updated at the club (I'll put a folder in the cupboard for your teams) and
(2) Fill out a Match Report Sheet (there will be LOADs in the same folder) to report casulaties, TDs, and any other interesting information. You can have one team in the regulars and also as many Ad-Hoc teams as you wish.

If you are interested in either Ad-Hocs or Regulars then add a post with your team name and race, so I can get started...

I'll go first... Frank Hill, U.F.C.'s (Useless Fling Chappies), Halfling

Elvis Norse

Tony: Peg Leg Untd (founders of treasure hunters anonamus)
dwarves

regular league

Name: Charlie
Race: Human
Team Name: Araby Allstarz

Regular player please

Elvis, go to this website, that's ALL the minis from the non Games Workshop producers. You have a nice overview of the available minis.
http://www.ffstore.it/
Then a couple of awsome ones:
http://www.gaspez-arts.com/
http://www.impactminiatures.com/

A couple of french ones:
http://uscarlminis.free.fr/Uscarl_UM_01fr.htm
http://www.goblinforge.com/index.php
(the second french link is more for extra cool models)

Some girls playing Fantasy Football... (section gridiron)
http://www.shadowforge.com.au/

Most of them are on the FFit website.

Frank, I'm in for the regular, but not sure for the team yet.
When would it start roughly?

Thanks dude

Stephane,
Lets say starting 6th December. I'm WIP on Website(s) tonight...Please can I have all of your team sheets by 29/11 latest (novices can ask me for help)

Elvis,
Are you ad-Hoc or Regular? Can you think of a team name? Could maybe base it on an American football team name[e.g.
"The Chicargo Were-Bears" perhaps] team or just make up something (maybe "The Pub Crawlers") ?

Raggie / StuntyGaz / Dutty Dave / Grumbledook? I'll ask Aaron and Mark, Alf and Michael, as they all seemed interested...but not sure regarding their commitment level yet.

Any one else?

Are all regulars willing to part with £10 towards a trophy & Prize?

anything I've missed?

I'm in for both just need a name

Frank, I wanna see if I like Underworld after a game. If I like them, I'll give it a go.

And I'm ok for the £10.

Giraffe wrote:

If you still haven't played your scheduled match by the time the next match comes around, you'll lose 3-0 and suffer 3 random casualties. Your opponent gets all of your winnings and MVP from the match. In addition, the loser automatically loses one Fan Factor and may not roll for a new one, and any players in the losers team that have 51SPP's or more will leave the team on a D6 roll of 1-3. Roll Separately for each player with 51 or more SPP's to see if they leave. In the unlikely event BOTH coaches miss the match, it will be scored 0-0 and the above will apply to BOTH teams.

I know this is harsh but it's deliberately so, if someone drops out it really "Roger's" the Fixtures and means your opponent misses out too.

I am interest but would like to make 1 observation which is why i never proposed something quite so harsh when i wrote up the rules for previous tournament. Im my situation i can only make certain Tuesdays and tend to not get a lot of free time around the rest of the week except Saturdays which are no good for a lot of people due to family's or work. So if in a 3 week period I can only make 1 Tuesday which my opponent cant, how do u decide who take the 3-0 loss and other consequences.

You need to consider the possibility we could both make 1 Tuesday on the 3 week slot but could not make the same Tuesday it make not be down to 1 person not making an effort to fit game in.

also realistically i think you maybe better to look at a post x-mas date as people will have some busy weeks ahead.

Steve homer in for both to. I like the rules that Frank put up might mean ppl turn up etc. Also in notthingham today for warhammer doubles wish us luck guys

To Elvis and co., good Luck!!

To Gaz, I know what you mean but the plan is to FORCE coaches to COMMUNICATE and arrange 1 day in 21 when they can BOTH play...as I am NOT going to be chasing coaches up. If they fail to play by the end of the three weeks then tough. People failing to play their games in time killed the last league off, so we need a more severe approach.

I recommend coaches arrange TWO dates, the date they will play AND a back-up date, in case an emergency occurs. If one coach lets the other down on BOTH dates, their opponent automatically gets the 3-0 win, cas points, etc. Of course their opponent could decide to play them on another date outside of the two dates arranged if they wanted to give their opponent another chance, PROVIDED their match still happens within the three week deadline.

If people really will struggle to find 2-4 hours in 21 days, then I'd recommend they consider the Ad Hoc League instead.

I think you are right about starting after Xmas though, as I guess there will be a lot of people doing Xmas Overtime...

Is the general consensus of opinion to start in the new year?

Post Yes for starting 10/1, No for starting 6/12...

My vote is YES = Start 10th Jan

I vote yes and agree with Frank. And thank u we got a best painted nomination

Im in if thats ok Frank, Skaven: Vermintide Wanderers

Steve H

Yes for After Christmas

And agree with the rules but I think there should be an extra punishment of wearing a dress for a day!!! lol ok just joking about the dress but if I could not make it within 3 weeks then I would happily accept the punishment.

lol

WarBunka-Charlie wrote:Yes for After Christmas

And agree with the rules but I think there should be an extra punishment of wearing a dress for a day!!!

Any Excuse!

thanks for the game frank i learnt alot and thanks for the loan of the team

Thx too to Stephane for the game and the great advice

have decided to go with High elves for the league

That was a fun half game Steve Looking forward to the league!

Frank, I'll stick with Underworld, team name is: "A Fistful of Warpstone"

when is the dead line for enntering the main league as relly interested


I know ive mentioned this befor but i recon at soime stage you are gonna have a matched missed that you can't persifically say is 1 persons fault.

Have we got any stunty teams yet as im contemplating goblins for some silly fun

is this league up and running on "DA LEEG" yet and do you want teams made already ??

I'm going to say deadline for entries is next tuesday 10/1, and the first round of the league will start the following Tuesday 17/1. Gives me 1 week to get it all sorted on the stuntyleeg website.
I'll need your tenners (for the Trophy and Prize Funding), and starting team rosters on paper preferably by then please chaps. If you’re suffering from January financial troubles like me I’ll loan you the tenner till end January BUT you MUST pay by then latest. Your Tenner is obviously NOT refundable in the event you have to or choose to drop out the league.
The rules regarding missed matches are:the plan is to FORCE coaches to COMMUNICATE and arrange 1 day in 21 when they can BOTH play...as I am NOT going to be chasing coaches up. If they fail to play by the end of the three weeks then tough. People failing to play their games in time killed the last league off, so we need a more severe approach.

I recommend coaches arrange TWO dates, the date they will play AND a back-up date, in case an emergency occurs. If one coach lets the other down on BOTH dates, their opponent automatically gets the 3-0 win, cas points, etc. Of course their opponent could decide to play them on another date outside of the two dates arranged if they wanted to give their opponent another chance, PROVIDED their match still happens within the three week deadline.

If people really will struggle to find 2-4 hours in 21 days, then I'd recommend they consider the Ad Hoc League instead. If you still haven't played your scheduled match by the time the next match comes around, you'll lose 3-0 and suffer 3 random casualties. Your opponent gets all of your winnings and MVP from the match. In addition, the loser automatically loses one Fan Factor and may not roll for a new one, and any players in the losers team that have 51SPP's or more will leave the team on a D6 roll of 1-3. Roll Separately for each player with 51 or more SPP's to see if they leave. In the unlikely event BOTH coaches miss the match, it will be scored 0-0 and the above will apply to BOTH teams.

I know this is harsh but it's deliberately so, if someone drops out it really "Roger's" the Fixtures and means your opponent misses out too.
I’m quite happy for you to arrange for a stand in coach to play a match for you provided:
1) Your opponent agrees it’s a fair replacement (e.g. Elvis might rightly be miffed if Garry couldn’t play a match but asked Dave Downes (the NAF President) to stand in for him
2) Your stand in does NOT miss his own scheduled match as a result of standing in.

Need all of your Rosters 10/1 please, will bring some blank rosters with me 10/1 and will help people fill them in if you need help. Remember teams must be TR100 and to the latest LRB (available from this link:

Competition Rules

We all get Pre Season Training, i.e. 1 random NORMAL skill (i.e. the skill types you can take WITHOUT rolling a double), please roll this randomly in front of another coach.

Regarding Teams, I have the following so far:
Me Halflings, the Useless Fling Chappies (U.F.C.s)
Elvis Norse. team name TBC
Tony Dwarves, Pegleg United
Charlie Human, Araby Allstarz
Stephane Underworld, A Fistful of Warpstone
Steve Homer Skaven Vermintide Wanderers Now High Elf team name TBC
Garry Race & Team Name TBC
Raggie Saurus Team Name TBC

Dutty Dave, Grumbledook, Aaron , Mark, Alf and Michael all possible, will chase tonight.

Only thing to decide is how long does the league run before we present the trophy(s) & prize(s)?