Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs Overview:

Bull Centaurs are one of the best players in the game of Blood Bowl, let alone on the Chaos Dwarf team. This is reflected by their high price, they are the most expensive non Loner player or 0-1 positional player in the game. They are faster than their average movement suggests thanks to starting with both Sprint and Sure Feet, they are strong and highly armoured and being Dwarfish they also have Thick Skull, so getting them from the pitch is no easy task. With General and Strength skill access they can become very formidable players. Apart from the high cost their only other downsides are the below average agility and the lack of core starting skills. Thankfully the higher cost is offset by the rest of the team being fairly cheap.

Another thing that sets Bull Centaurs apart from other players is that they are perhaps the single biggest player that coaches will disagree on how they should be utilised on a team. It basically all boils down to if you feel you should use them as your main ball carrier or not. There are valid arguments both ways so I will try and outline both and let you make up your own mind how to use yours.

The Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaur Ball Carrier Conundrum:

The Argument for it:

There are two main reasons for using a Bull Centaur as your ball carrier and that is that they are your fastest players and also they are strong. If they are sat in the middle of a cage they are going to be very tough for the other team to get the ball off them. Their higher strength also means they can blitz away easier if the situation calls for it. Also those times that the ball carrier needs to make those go for its to get out of trouble, they come with the in built skill reroll to aid that.

These attributes mean Chaos Dwarfs are the only other team apart from Vampires that are likely to choose a ST4 rookie player to be their main ball carrier. From time to time you may see Saurus or Black Orcs used but that is usually to try and feed them SPP rather than because they feel they are best suited to the role. Due to the rarity of such players, many coaches are often not that prepared to deal with them which can be to your advantage.

Development of Bull Centaurs can also be on the slow side if all you do is bash with them, so using them as your offensive ball carrier will get them more touchdowns and aid in generating SPP and more skills for them.

The Argument against it:

While there are some good points for developing them as your ball carrier I think there are more reasons against it. There is a fair amount of overlap in skills anyway it really boils down to if you are going to give them Sure Hands or not.

Most teams will look to use their most agile players as the ball carrier as they are better at ball handling and moving around. For Chaos Dwarfs that would be a Hobgoblin, sure when you factor in a Bull Centaur with break tackle can dodge easier and they are a bit faster there isn’t a lot in it. Hobgoblins are also weaker but that usually doesn’t matter if you are successful in avoiding your ball carrier taking hits (which you should be!) When they are nice and snug inside a cage the strength of your ball carrier doesn’t matter if they can’t hit him. Some players can use Leap to get into the cage easily but they will then often be facing a lot of hits from Guard, Block and Tackle players and then perhaps a foul after for good measure. You somewhat make your Hobgoblins a bit redundant taking the ball carrying role away and leave them mostly for fouling and getting the odd assist. Hobgoblins also only have general skill access. Their skill choices are limited and Sure Hands is usually one they will consider, though you wouldn’t take it if you have it on your Bull Centaurs. The Bull Centaurs on the other hand have a lot of great skills to pick from that you are passing up if you take Sure Hands.

However the advantage of using a Hobgoblin instead of a Bull Centaur for your ball carrier is that then frees up your Bull Centaur to do other things. Another reason other teams don’t tend to use their ST4 players to carry the ball is that they are better at hitting and protecting another player who is carrying the ball. Compared to most other bash orientated teams Chaos Dwarfs are one of the weakest ST wise, so hiding one of your two possible ST4 players inside a cage doesn’t help in the hitting game. If one of your Bull Centaurs is inside the cage, that means you have  a Hobgoblin outside the cage to do the job of protection and helping advance the cage. There isn’t much between using either of them as the ball carrier, but a Bull Centaur is by far more useful on the outside of a cage. It is harder for the other team to deal with a ST player on defence than a ST3 one, especially when the weaker player is also only AV7! So not only would a Hobgoblin be easier for them to hit, they can’t get easy access to Guard and other strength skills but they are much easier for the other team to injure and start to get a numerical advantage. If the other team is already stronger, giving up the numbers to them will make life harder for you.

Bull Centaurs are one of the best blitzing players in the game with their movement and strength, especially when they get more developed. Taking skills to aid them in being a ball carrier means you are sacrificing a skill that would make them even better Blitzers. I  don’t understand why someone would do this when you have an alternative player who can carry the ball with just as much success. When you also consider that they don’t start with any core skills you are limiting the effectiveness of your blitzing opportunities. The first two skills are generally going to be Block and Break Tackle (in either order) and the more skills a player has the longer it takes to get the next one, delaying the blitzing skills in favour of Sure Hands is something you should consider.

They can also become a SPP hog if you go this route as you will rarely do much scoring with anyone else. If you are also doing most of your blitzing with them too, then other players may suffer from slow development instead. A team built with Bull Centaurs primarily carrying the ball may struggle to ever get any skills on their Hobgoblins making them juicy targets on the pitch for the opposition.

Even if you don’t build them towards being your primary ball carrier, they can still do the job on any given drive if you feel tactically it is to your advantage. The main reasons to take Sure Hands would be that it helps counter their low agility when it comes to picking the ball up, saving your pricey rerolls for the rest of the drive. It also negates Strip Ball, though it isn’t a commonly taken skill these days apart from Wood Elves and a couple of other races. Depending on the teams in your league this may not be a concern at all. A Bull Centaur can often pick up touchdowns from defensive drives much like other players who blitz the ball carrier of the opposition. If you knock them down and get the ball loose they may your only player in range to attempt a pick up. If they succeed it can then often lead to a touchdown your next turn, or if you don’t you still then have a ST4 player stood next to the ball that they have to deal with.

There will also be offensive drives where you whittle the numbers on the other team down that you may decide to try and do a hand off to the Bull Centaur in order to feed them some SPP to aid their development. This situation will occur far more frequently if you have the Bull Centaurs outside the cage with an extra blocking orientated skill, rather than sitting inside it with a ball handling skill. Even if you get an AG3 Bull Centaur, I don’t think that changes the arguments much as you still would be taking one of your strongest players away from a role they are better suited for than their team mates.

Development builds on page 2…

Post from: Blood Bowl Tactics

Chaos Dwarf Bull Centaurs

Chaos Dwarf Blockers Overview:

For years the Blockers on the Chaos Dwarf team were identical to their kin on the Dwarf team. Recently though they gained access to Mutations harking back to even earlier editions of the rules and to make them a bit more “Chaotic” then their brethren. Generally their role on the pitch doesn’t really differ a great degree even though their team mates are vastly different. Their stat line of being slow, but well armoured with low agility means they are pretty much only going to be used for marking and hitting things unless a drive takes an unexpected turn. Being Dwarves they have Thick Skull which combined with their high armour keeps them on the pitch quite a lot. Starting with Block and Tackle means they can block with success more often than not and strength skill access on normal skills gives them a great selection to go hand in hand with that. Mutation access really has just given them the ability to get Claw with none of the others being overly useful for their job demands.

Given their low agility though they can suffer from slow development, but at least starting with Block and Tackle can go a little way to mitigating that issue. They also have a reasonable cost and along with cheap team mates you will usually see any Chaos Dwarf team with the maximum allowed six Chaos Dwarf Blockers on their roster.

Standard Chaos Dwarf Blocker:

• Normal: Guard, Mighty Blow, Stand Firm, Pro / Piling On / Dauntless / Grab
• Doubles: Claw
• Stat Increase: +ST +MV

I personally find there isn’t really a massive amount of leeway or difference in the development of your Chaos Dwarf Blockers. I would recommend to always start off with Guard as their first normal skill, the only time I wouldn’t is if you have a team that already has a lot of Guard on it. You will be going up against a lot of stronger teams where it will help you get one die blocks and some two die blocks (backed up by your Block skill) and make it harder for them to get two die blocks. Against other similar strength or weaker teams, then Guard will let you dominate the blocking game. After that I would follow up with Mighty Blow which will help remove players off the pitch and also aid in their development. I’ve experimented with Mighty Blow before Guard but the massive decrease in two dice blocks you can get is more detrimental than the benefits of +1 to AV or injury rolls. For a third skill I would get Stand Firm, it helps keep your Guard players exactly where you want them, means you can’t be pushed away from players you are marking and helps control space on the pitch, especially near the sidelines.

At this point you start to run out of really great skills to take and I’d be more than happy to have a team with six built up exactly this way. Some however may reach more skills and I’ve found Pro to be the best fit. It allows you to get a free 50 50 chance of rerolling unsuccessful blocks without wasting your team rerolls. I would still use a team reroll on double skulls though, unless the risk of turnover isn’t critical, I just try it for double pushbacks or pushback skull results etc. Pro can also give you better odds at catching bouncing balls, intercepting and some other agility rolls when you are out of rerolls, like gfi and dare I suggest it, dodges. Some coaches may take Piling On in order to reroll injury rolls, I may consider this on a couple but I like to keep my slow players upright, especially with the other skills they have. Dauntless is another to consider on a couple, especially if your league has a lot of stronger bash teams. Grab could also be of some use, though I’ve yet to personally play a Chaos Dwarf team since it was added. Other options like Fend, Frenzy, Juggernaut don’t really have as great a benefit and I can’t see me selecting these.

For doubles I think most coaches now are going to obviously take Claw, the only real argument against it would be if you are facing a lot of AV7 teams where it is useless. A couple of alternatives to perhaps consider would be Dodge if not facing much Tackle (Block, Dodge, Guard and Stand Firm is a horrible combo to play against and makes them excellent at marking Big Guys), or Side Step if you don’t yet have Stand Firm. Tentacles could be annoying but it is really better on stronger players, so give it more thought if your player also got a strength increase. Prehensile Tail may also be useful if facing a lot of agile teams too.

As far as stat increases are concerned you really are just hoping to get a strength increase though they can be developed to really great players without any stat increases and will also be less team value. Later in development I would also perhaps take a movement increase. In a new team without many skills though your priority will be getting Guard so I would pass it up unless you are happy to take a short term hit for some perhaps more potential long term gain. I’m not convinced there is a massive gain to be had though as they tend to spend most of their team in contact with opposing players and not doing much in the way of movement. An agility increase may be helpful on a rare occasion but not enough for it to be useful and while getting AV10 would be nice, there are skills that are going to be a bigger help overall, especially if you play a lot of Claw teams.

Killer Chaos Dwarf Blocker:

• Normal: Mighty Blow, Piling On, Dauntless / Frenzy / Stand Firm, Guard
• Doubles: Claw
• Stat Increase: +ST

Chaos Dwarf Blocker Summary:

Chaos Dwarf Blockers make up the core of any Chaos Dwarf side, there is nothing fancy or complicated really in their development and they are very good players for the roles they typically perform. I can not stress enough though that you need to get Guard as quickly as possible on nearly all of them. Success can be had mixing it with Mighty Blow, but going Mighty Blow all out first skill on all of them just isn’t as effective, if you only take one thing from this article let it be that.

Another outside skill I didn’t go into is perhaps taking Pass Block on one, especially in pass happy leagues. Even if it just gets one of your players next to one of theirs and doesn’t really affect the passing play, that may mean another block in your next turn and perhaps the removal of an opposing player. Given the lack of passing in most games though it is of very marginal use and should be considered as a late option at best.

If you wanted to play around a bit more with Mutations, then a late double may mean Foul Appearance should be considered. Combined with Block, Guard and Stand Firm, you could have a very hard to shift and annoying player. If you get Dodge as well then expect a lot of opposing players cursing at him and it may even end up having the result that they don’t target him at all, preferring perhaps an easier to shift player. You’ve a lot of small ways to tailor your team once you start getting into the 4th skill and beyond, but for the first three don’t be surprised if every Chaos Dwarf you see has pretty much an identical skillset across teams.

Post from: Blood Bowl Tactics

Chaos Dwarf Blockers

Compared to every other team Goblins have perhaps more options to consider, with their range of cheap players and cheap inducements which include their Star Players and half priced Bribes. Due to this it is hard to give a definitive selection of the best way to actually set up your initial lineup.

The main things to consider would be if you want to take advantage of all the cheap inducements and start with a lower Team Value like is common for Halfling teams. This can either get you some cheap bribes which will let you get more time on the pitch for your Secret Weapon players (or Stars). Or you may elect to hire the cheap Star Players, or maybe even a combination of both Stars and Bribes. When it comes to the Star Players, they have the advantage that they come with some extra skills straight away and if they get hurt, that money isn’t coming out of your treasury. The downside is that they have Loner and they may end up taking SPP that your on roster players could have got.

Your other big consideration would be the number of players you have on the team and how likely it is that you will get outnumbered. Most of your team is low strength and has low armour, so injuries to them shouldn’t come as a big surprise, especially against opposition who have Block or Tackle. The other way you will frequently lose players is your Secret Weapon players getting sent off and either you have no Bribes or the Bribes fail. You could also get sent off due to fouling as well. As soon as you start to get outnumbered it will become increasingly easier for the other team.

Thankfully though your players are mostly very cheap so it is easy to get a full team of sixteen players if you wanted to do so. Even if you used money to hire Star Players you are still likely to be able to start off with more players than the opposition.

Basic TV1000 Goblin Starting Roster:

This is probably the bare minimum you want to start out with, having the bare eleven players and three rerolls. You could start with even less rerolls though bare in mind they double in cost so I would go with at least three. Otherwise though you have both Trolls who are the most likely of your players to stay on the pitch thanks to their high strength, armour and Regeneration. Then nine Goblins gets you up to the required eleven and none of them are hindered by Secret Weapon. This leaves you with 240k to either keep in the bank and rely on Inducements, or to perhaps tailor the lineup a little bit more to your liking.

Which ever way you decide to go I would at least get two more players, you can easily afford a tenth Goblin and one of the Secret Weapon players and still have enough left over for two bribes against a TV1000 team. If you are playing a more developed team already then you will get even more inducement money to spend as well, though chances are you will be even more likely to need more players as well.

All of the Secret Weapon players have their own advantages I personally recommend that you consider the Fanatic as their strength seven is very hard for most other teams to deal with, especially if they are still fairly new themselves. It also means that you can field a strong Line of Scrimmage for at least one drive which will protect the rest of your Goblins a bit better. Assuming you have at least one bribe to be able to start them on the first turn of at least two drives, they are probably the most likely not to get injured as well (unless they fall over from a go for it). The others all perform better against certain races, the Chainsaw against lower armoured teams and the Bombardier against lower agility teams. So if at all possible consider the other teams in your league, or cause you are playing Goblins just take the ones you think will be the most fun!

TV1000 Goblin Starting Roster Summary:

Unlike the other starting roster articles I’ve left this one a bit more open to interpretation. I feel as long as you start with a decent amount of players to minimise the chances of getting outnumbered then there isn’t going to be a great deal between the many choices. Goblins are one of the harder teams to be successful with and the players can be quite fragile. Given the likelihood of  player turnover you will probably get a good chance to try out all the different Secret Weapon players at some point, even if that is cause you are getting lots of inducements because your team has been battered about previously. Compared to Halflings going completely minimal in the starting roster isn’t perhaps the best way to go, though I would give some good consideration to leaving 100~130k free so you can induce two bribes from game one.

Post from: Blood Bowl Tactics

TV1000 Goblin Starting Roster

Skaven Rat Ogres Overview:

A Rat Ogre offers something different to a Skaven team compared to the other players available to them. Their main draw is that they are very strong adding some hitting power to an otherwise low to average strength team. Their speed is good for a big guy and offer some better though not brilliant armour. Rat Ogres also have some useful skills, Frenzy and Mighty Blow help with the blocking game and Prehensile Tail helps them tie players up giving them more hitting opportunities.

The downsides to them though as usually mainly their reliability. Like other big guys they have Loner limiting their ability to reroll and their negative trait is Wild Animal. As negative traits go though Wild Animal isn’t a bad one as long as they don’t end up isolated and you need them to move. Their agility is also below average though they aren’t likely to be anywhere near the top of your list for ball handling duty. They are also somewhat limited with their skill access only getting access to strength skills on normal. Lastly they are fairly expensive compared to the rest of your team, there is a trade off in team value that you may prefer as skills instead.

Rat Ogres under older rules were not often taken and most Skaven teams would usually not have one. The latest rules have seen their agility go down and their price go up. That may make you wonder why they are more commonly taken now and the biggest trade off was that they are now much less of a liability. Many coaches say if you aren’t going to take one then you might as well play Wood Elves. I don’t agree with that as they have Treemen and Skaven can cope perfectly fine without a Rat Ogre. If you do take one though I think they are best used to soak up some damage and keep them hitting the opposition. If you do get a change to get them next to the opposing ball carrier, then their Prehensile Tail can cause problems that way as well.

Hitting Skaven Rat Ogre:

• Normal: Juggernaut, Break Tackle, Stand Firm, Guard
• Doubles: Block, Pro
• Stat Increase: +ST, +MV / +AV

The best way to make use of the high strength is to keep them hitting the opposition. Unfortunately without general skill access and having Loner this isn’t without risk. One way to help negate though is to give them Juggernaut and try to blitz with them. That can make up for their lack of Block and it also combines well with their Frenzy skill. Break Tackle will keep them more mobile and let you pick your targets. Stand Firm means they will be in base contact with opponents as often as possible. That will let be able to block as often as possible, help manage Wild Animal and also works well with Prehensile Tail. Options are a bit limited after this but Guard is never going to be a bad choice.

For doubles as usual for big guys without general skill access is between Block and Pro. Block will help negate their unreliability when hitting and keep them upright more often. Pro also helps negate poor reliability and makes getting isolated and needing to do move actions less of an issue. Stat increases are a marginal choice, strength can be great for getting three die blocks though some prefer to use the double roll for Block or Pro. An agility increase can let them dodge better and even handle the ball, though you don’t really need them to do that. Movement and armour could also be useful, though a double would perhaps be a better choice. I’d be tempted to skip all stat increases and take skills instead, doing that will also increase their value by less than the stat would.

Skaven Rat Ogre Overview:

If you want some extra strength and resilience on your team then a Rat Ogre can make a great addition to your team, as long as you can handle their reliability issues. With a somewhat limited choice of skills most will tend to develop along similar lines eventually. Depending on what your preferences are and what you want from them, you may reorder the skills and use them in a slightly different manner depending on what order you take them. The biggest decision perhaps to make is whether or not to take one on the team at all and would you rather have extra skills spread around the rest of your team at the comparable team value.

Post from: Blood Bowl Tactics

Skaven Rat Ogres

Amazon teams are blessed with cheap players who are hard to knock over. This makes them one of the more effective teams at low team values. Their team rerolls are also cheap which also helps along with all the team skill rerolls. Your choices really are if you want to start with more rerolls or more players and there isn’t much really in the way of starting the team that you have to decide to start without.

Reroll Heavy TV1000 Amazon Starting Roster:

This is my favoured starting roster for an Amazon team as I like starting with a lot of rerolls. The team has eleven players and also an Apothecary which is a pseudo twelfth player. You could elect to have another Linewoman instead, though the Apothecary can save you the cost of one of you more expensive positional players.

Starting with all four Blitzers is really a must in my opinion, they are the core of the Amazon team and starting with both Block and Dodge is great. Their strength skill access is also the most important on the team, so having them from the outset gives the maximum time to generate SPP.

As you start with four rerolls, you could just max the team out with Linewomen up to the needed eleven. You do have 40k left over from doing that though which will let you upgrade two of them to Throwers or Catchers as you see fit. There are arguments for starting with both Throwers, both Catchers or one of each. Early on though you will want to score with your Blitzers to get Guard as soon as possible. Which is more effective to start with between Throwers or Catchers really doesn’t make much difference because of that.

You could also drop the Apothecary which would let you afford all the positional players, though I being able to save the cost of a Blitzer from game one is more valuable in my opinion and you can also use it to save a player from a KO if you wanted to risk that.

Player Heavy TV1000 Amazon Starting Roster:

This is really a slight variation from the previous roster in that you exchange a reroll for an extra reserve, giving you twelve players and an Apothecary. Unfortunately you are 10k short of getting one more players so I would use that leftover 40k to upgrade two Linewomen into a Thrower and a Catcher. I think one of each is handy to have in case you need to do a quick score. The Pass and Catch skill rerolls could be critical to have, especially as you have given up one of your team rerolls for that extra player.

While I personally prefer the four reroll roster, this one does have more merit if joining into a league where you are playing more developed teams. You can use your inducements to get an extra team reroll and that extra player is more likely to be needed as well. You could get even more players by dropping a Blitzer though I think this would be a mistake, the team performs so much better when you have them all at your disposal.

TV1000 Amazon Starting Roster Summary:

I’ve given the two main starting options for the Amazon team, there are minor considerations for each, mainly to do with the Thrower or Catchers and it is really down to personal preference. There aren’t really many other teams that can start with a lot of rerolls and in effect twelve or more players. Due to this Amazon teams are probably one of the most straight forward and easy teams when it comes to deciding what you want to start with.

Post from: Blood Bowl Tactics

TV1000 Amazon Starting Roster

Under older rules it was quite common to see a lot of High Elf teams start with just eleven Linemen as that was the only way you could afford to start with three rerolls and nine Fan Factor. The changes to the rules have given you more options to actually get those rerolls and also have some positionals as well. Or you can use the alternative of taking only two rerolls and have a bit more flexibility with what you create your team with. There are really two base lineups to start with and slight variations of these will be how most teams are created.

Three Reroll TV1000 High Elf Starting Roster:

Eleven Linemen and three rerolls comes to a total of 920k which leaves you 80k to upgrade some of those Linemen into positional players. As Block is the most potent against starting teams when their players are less likely to have it, it makes sense to start with both Blitzers. It gives you a bit more speed as well. You can then either save that 20k towards an Apothecary, or use it to start with either a Thrower or Catcher. I prefer to get the Thrower, they have more armour than a Catcher and won’t be the SPP hog a Catcher will. It will also let you slowly start getting them developed from completions. Not having Catchers also means you can concentrate on advancing the Blitzers who tend to see a slow down in SPP when the Catchers join the team.

You can make an easy variation from this roster by dropping one reroll for an Apothecary from the outset. Even a basic High Elf Lineman costs more than an Apothecary so it could save you some money (though you lose out from the doubling cost of that dropped reroll). If you do take the roster as suggested though then an Apothecary should always be your first purchase, after which you can start adding in some Catchers to the team.

Two Reroll TV1000 High Elf Starting Roster:

Like the first example, if you only take two rerolls that gives you an extra 50k to spend on “upgrading” Linemen. This means that you can start with two Catchers in addition to the Blitzers and the Thrower. The downside apart from having one less team reroll is that you add two of your lower armoured players to the team before you get an Apothecary. The Catchers may also really hog the SPP, though they need to so they can get some protection skills. Taking the three reroll team means you can add the Catchers one at a time and hopefully get that one their first skill before you add another. The advantage of doing this though is that you get two Catch skill rerolls and even more speed on the team. It also has 10k left over which you can put towards an Apothecary after the first game and not starting with a full 1 Million may upset those teams that don’t spend all their starting money hoping to get an advantage from inducements.

Again an Apothecary is your priority for purchases. There is a slight dilemma afterwards though as you could do with that third reroll but you also could do with getting some reserves. This is where the cost of starting with two rerolls comes in. It is then also tricky as to if you want to save up for the Catcher over getting some more Linemen each time. This is why I prefer the three reroll team as future development decisions are much easier.

TV1000 High Elf Starting Roster Summary:

It is quite like you will go for one of the above options. There are even more alternatives such as starting with no rerolls to get all your positionals at the start. This can work for some teams, though High Elves lack many in built skill rerolls outside of passing options. If they had a player who started with Dodge it would have more merit. If you are joining an existing league though where you know you will be getting inducement money, then you could do this and take extra training rerolls. Personally though I would still stick with one of the above options, buying new players is still cheaper than the extra rerolls and some games you may not get the inducement money you need.

Post from: Blood Bowl Tactics

TV1000 High Elf Starting Roster

When it comes to starting a Necromantic team you really have to to sacrifice something. Despite having some cheap players in the form of Zombies, half the players are expensive and your rerolls are also very costly. The prices of the players have changed a bit from edition to edition of the rules and the current ones do you the least favours. As starting teams go Necromantic teams are one of the tougher ones for the first few games which isn’t helped by the lack of core starting skills. You have to leave something out so it is down to you what you feel you will miss out on the least.

Max Agility TV1000 Necromantic Starting Roster:

This roster leaves out your strongest players in the form of Flesh Golems but it enables you to start with all your agility three players and three rerolls. You have both possible players who start with Block and both that start with Dodge so that is all of your possible core skills to start with. This roster gives you the most flexibility with regards to mobility and ball handling as the higher agility players are also your fastest.

Starting with three rerolls can also save you money in the longer run as they double up to a massive 140k after team creation. As that is more expensive than any of your players I like to get them in at the start. The rerolls help with the lack of core skills and can aid SPP generation to help develop your players. This roster also starts with only five Zombies while other alternatives tend to have six and Zombies aren’t the most flexible of players!

The downside to it though is that you start without some of the strength and higher armour the Flesh Golems provide. They are also slow to skill up so they are missing out on possible MVP awards in those early games while you are saving up for them. The 30k left over is best saved towards one, or possibly replacing one of your injured positionals that you start with.

All Regen TV1000 Necromantic Starting Roster:

If you drop a reroll then you can start with all you four most expensive players, taking both Flesh Golems instead of the two Ghouls. This means your whole team has Regeneration now as well which can be helpful. Losing a reroll can make things difficult and you also lose some speed and the Dodge skill. Ghouls are often targets though due to their lack of Regeneration and low armour, so you eliminate that but this could put more heat on your Werewolves instead. You only have 20k left over with this roster that you will probably want to save up for that third reroll first, though saving for a Ghoul is cheaper and getting to twelve players quickly can also win you games. If you get a free Zombie by killing an opponent though then perhaps go for the reroll next.

This roster also has a variation where you drop one of the Wights for a Zombie and use the change with the spare cash to get a third reroll from the start for the cost of a full 1 Million.

More on Page 2…

Post from: Blood Bowl Tactics

TV1000 Necromantic Starting Roster

As one of the three newer races there isn’t a great deal of tactical information about Underworld teams. Obviously the first thing you will have to do when you decide to coach an Underworld team though is come up with your starting line up. Generally though your players are fairly cheap and even though the team rerolls are expensive you can easily fill out your roster with pretty much everything you wanted. There are perhaps a couple of variations to consider if you are going into an existing league, though for a brand new one I would be surprised if you weren’t facing the suggested lineup below.

Standard TV1000 Underworld Starting Roster:

When you first look at the players you can select you can basically see the core of a Skaven team with the addition of a Troll and some Goblins, all of which can mutate on normal skill rolls. As usual when creating a team you would look to how many of the positional players you can afford (considering the Underworld Goblins as Linemen). Purchasing the Warpstone Troll and all six possible Skaven players comes to a total of seven. You need at least four Underworld Goblins to get to the minimum of eleven. Usually at this point you don’t have much cash left and with expensive rerolls you may think you need to drop something. However after counting all the pennies up using your fingers you notice that you actually have enough money for four of those expensive rerolls! You even have 30k left over which you can save towards the likely purchase of an Apothecary after your first match.

Going by that thought process I think most coaches would be pleased enough and settle for that as their starting lineup. It is certainly the way I would go even if I was joining into an existing league. The Warpstone Troll offers you some muscle and something to hide behind. The Skaven players prevent you from having to field more low strength Underworld Goblins and having more Skaven means you are less likely to suffer from Animosity, they are also your fastest available players. Goblins can still be very handy if used well and are nice and expendable, that and you have no other choice but to take at least four to start with. Having four rerolls is a luxury that most teams can’t afford, also with their high cost starting with more saves you in the long run. A reroll after team creation will cost you 50k more to save up for compared to your second most expensive player, so get them early is what I say!

TV1000 Underworld Starting Roster Summary:

I’ve not offered many options here (or any really) as I can’t see many cases when even someone new to the game wouldn’t go down this route. If someone were to stray from the path, then your main choices would be to drop a reroll, though bear in mind the only player you can buy more of at this point are Goblins.

You could swap a reroll for two more Goblins which will give you thirteen players, though costs 10k more. Your team is fragile so they can come in helpful in those early games and if you don’t take injuries then fouling becomes far more viable. Alternatively and perhaps a better choice would be to get an Apothecary and an extra Goblin which costs 20k more than the reroll. Twelve players and an Apothecary is similar to having thirteen players though the Apothecary could perhaps save one of your more expensive players.

These two alternatives are probably better if you are joining an existing league where you are far more likely to get outnumbered in those early games. I still don’t go for them though as if you consider the price of that reroll you drop. After you have created the team for the price of that reroll you could have bought an Apothecary and two more Goblins with 10k change left over. That extra reroll could also possibly win you those early games when you have less skills. The same could be said for the extra players instead though there is no way of knowing! Due to that I can’t blame anyone for getting the extra players as three rerolls is usually fine for a lot of other starting teams.

Post from: Blood Bowl Tactics

TV1000 Underworld Starting Roster