Leeg 2012 - Tactical Advice & Team Selection

AUTHOR: STEPHANE BOIRON
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
http://www.impactminiatures.com/index.php?option=elfballteams

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...