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As the thread title says. I have my first vacation in 7 years coming up in two weeks and at the end of said vacation is a Blood Bowl tourney. I pretty much have the game down and have played a fair amount, but never competitively. I have the Orcs and Humans that come in the starter box as well as some Chaos to convert, but I can still order one if need be. I'm thinking Orcs are how I want to go, with 4 Black Orcs, 4 Blitzers, 1 Thrower, 1 Lineman, 1 Goblin and 3 Re-rolls. Any better ideas? I love the Necromantic team's play style mainly because of Werewolves, Ghouls and tons of Regen, but that team is currently made of DnD minis which won't be allowed Orcs let me play passing, cage or a moderate running game as opposed to just running with the Necros. Enlighten me!

Your Orc team is fine, resilient, strong and not too slow.

The necromantic teams are not my favorite, I prefer the classic undead team with 2 mumies to spoil the lateral zones, 2 wights to run and hit the ball bearer, 3 ghouls to score 2 skeletons and 2 zombies to endure pain in the front line and prevent your opponent to cross your lines too easily; 3 re-rolls.

If the tourney rules allows to give some skills to your players, don't forget block for the Black Orcs (at least 2 of them) and to turn your lineman to a catcher if possible.

Enjoy your free time !

I'd throw catch on a Blitzer or Gobbo first, but Block indeed. Your Undead team sounds solid as well I love Ghouls, though mine love to get targetted. Just lost one the other night to some Skaven :/

Lizardmen. Strength 4 Saurus are awesome, and backing them up with Skinks to ensure the dice are always in your favour isn't hard.

Skaven. Two turn scores are hard to say no to. I'd take tentacles and/or wrestle as my skills. Tentacles to keep other fast teams from their two turn scores and wrestle to open big holes for your gutter runners to dash through.

Skaven!! always good fun.

Max out the gutter runners, by the end of the league I played I had two gutter runners that could get all the way from the last square on my side to the try line with go for its, and two that could leap. 1 rat ogre - I found it quite useful even if it does get bad reviews. 2 stormvermin and the rest were 4 linesmen.

Chaos are the standard kill everything team and with mutations can get very tasty.

But they are squishy.

If this is going to be a kind of perpetual league thing which lasts a long time I'd suggest Chaos Dwarves. Tough and smashy.

But seeing as it's a event that starts from a rookie team and likely ends before 2 million team value I'd say your Orcs look a decent set up. Reasonably easy to get right and forgiving. Pretty flexible too. Not as much as humans but that's a minor price to get wonderful orc blitzers and black orcs.

Found the full rules for the tourney. Have 110K for picking out the team and can basically add 6 basic (single roll) skills, with some other options but that's the one that makes the most sense to me. Each skill can only be used twice and only one skill per player. Two BoBs with Block, two with Mighty Blow, Sure Feet on the Gobbo and Accurate for the Thrower. SF would probably be better on... anything else, but he's going to be running more than the Blitzers. It also helps make him slightly more threatening for the sake of target saturation.

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Two BoBs with Block, two with Mighty Blow, Sure Feet on the Gobbo and Accurate for the Thrower. SF would probably be better on... anything else, but he's going to be running more than the Blitzers. It also helps make him slightly more threatening for the sake of target saturation.

It sounds good to me, even the gob with sure feet (your adversary will certainly not pay enough attention to it during the game- he will probably be more focused on the danger your black orcs and blitzers are going to be).

Don't forget to tell us how it worked!

Me personally i would play Humans,But your Ork team looks good.

Hyenajoe wrote:

Cannerus_The_Unbearable wrote:Two BoBs with Block, two with Mighty Blow, Sure Feet on the Gobbo and Accurate for the Thrower. SF would probably be better on... anything else, but he's going to be running more than the Blitzers. It also helps make him slightly more threatening for the sake of target saturation.

It sounds good to me, even the gob with sure feel (your adversary will certainly not pay enough attention to it during the game- he will probably be more focused on the danger your black orcs and blitzers are going to be).

Don't forget to tell us how it worked!

Seconded. I also would like to hear your escapades.

Slight change to my list after some playtesting:

4 Black Orcs (2 w/Block, 2 W/Guard)
4 Blitzers
2 Linemen (both w/Wrestle)
1 Gobbo
1 Thrower
4 RRs
1 Cheerleader

The other way worked, but I really wasn't getting my bang for my buck when it came to Mighty Blow and the throwing supplements. I figure my number one priority will be knocking and keeping their guys down/out, so I tried a game or two with this list and it was fairly amazing at doing just that. I'll use my Wrestlers against opponents with block so the less expensive guy can counter the big ones (like Star Players or that damned Beast of Nurgle), and when the opponent tries to play keep away from my Black Orcs, the Blockers can use get assigned my Blitz as appropriate and the ones with Guard will still be useful, adding an assist to make one of my other players S4 effectively and not wasting themselves. I really wish Guard were a General skill, but oh well I tried to pick skills I'd use with more frequency to make them more worthwhile and it seems to have worked so far. Fingers crossed folks! And let's hope I can get my painting finished. 3 of 12 down, the rest are primed and have the base colors but need detailing which I've gotten down to about an hour and a half. Issue being, it's inventory week at work so I lost my vacation and I'll be getting tons of overtime trying to squeeze it all in >.> Joy of joys.

edit: I could change my Gobbo to another Lineorc, but I bought the Orc Cheerleader and reeeeaaaally want an excuse to use it

Orcs are a very strong Tournament team. For the BoBs, Block x2 Guard x2 is the perfect skill loadout for them.

Something else to consider is a Blitzer with Sure hands (you REALLY want Block on your ball carrier), and then you don't really need the Thrower. Without block he is a poor ball carrier if he ever gets hit (and he will).

Your remaining skill could either be Wrestle on a Linorc (as you want) or StripBall on a Blitzer (to put pressure on any non-Sure Hands ball carrier.... if the opportunity is presented and you have a RR, it is worth getting down blocks on non-SH ball carriers, since the odds of getting the ball loose are high)

Something else to consider is
4 Blitzers
4 Black Orcs
2 Lineorcs
1 Troll
your Choice of 4 RRs or 3 RRs and 1x Lineorc
1 or 2 FF for the leftovers

I have had decent luck with a Troll in tourney format, but I play them conservatively (i.e. not at all when going Stupid is a game breaker).

- Piousman

Piousman wrote:Orcs are a very strong Tournament team. For the BoBs, Block x2 Guard x2 is the perfect skill loadout for them.

Something else to consider is a Blitzer with Sure hands (you REALLY want Block on your ball carrier), and then you don't really need the Thrower. Without block he is a poor ball carrier if he ever gets hit (and he will).

Your remaining skill could either be Wrestle on a Linorc (as you want) or StripBall on a Blitzer (to put pressure on any non-Sure Hands ball carrier.... if the opportunity is presented and you have a RR, it is worth getting down blocks on non-SH ball carriers, since the odds of getting the ball loose are high)

Something else to consider is
4 Blitzers
4 Black Orcs
2 Lineorcs
1 Troll
your Choice of 4 RRs or 3 RRs and 1x Lineorc
1 or 2 FF for the leftovers

I have had decent luck with a Troll in tourney format, but I play them conservatively (i.e. not at all when going Stupid is a game breaker).

- Piousman

I was attempting to have a more versatile list, but focused with a running game is making more sense. It also keeps <AV9 out of my list, making it more sturdy. I'll def have a playtest or two with it to see if it "feels right" I have to agree on your point with the Troll. Big guys I see as more of a tool to strategically be in the way and be a threat, basically a glorified lineman. Thanks for the feedback!>

Bump for crappy team pics. I only own a webcam, sorry. 6 down, 6 to go.





I also tried the Troll, but the Goblin and thrower existing helped out immensely just to threaten options if nothing else. Nothing says Orc-y like telling the Goblin to run down field, drawing one or more of their linemen out of the way to cover/ intercept, only never to pass in the first place I'm so looking forward to this tournament!

Orcland Raiders, Or your own team?

Looks a good list, Aura played something similar with her old Ironrock Sharks team.

It's the plastic guys with a few metal ones tossed in and a converted 6th ed starter goblin. I'm actually going to be use the starter set linemen as blitzers, but every model that looks the same has the same skills across the team (two different looks for the black orcs with two different skill sets) so I don't figure anyone should care as long as it's marked on my roster.

Aye, I was more wondering what you where calling them.

Looks like a sturdy Raiders scheme, of course that might be a coincidence.




I'm a bit of a fanboy of the old NAF setup.

I've got yellow/purple for my scheme and deyz da 'Ard Ballerz It actually is quite close to that setup, though I was ripping off this guy mainly:

I tried a couple schemes before, but the Mistress insisted I use yellow How they got their yellow so smooth I'll never know.

Hehe, its all good, it looked black from the shots, webcams are hard to get good pics from though so I appreciate the problem there.

I like the name though, hope to see some pics when they are all done.

Okay, serious question. How come on the PC game defensive players always assist on blocks, even if in an opposing player's tackle zone? I can't find any rules to support this in the LRB.

Short answer - the AI is gak. Long answer - the Ai in the game is fething awful.

Hehe, aye sadly it seems Cyanide's idea of making the game difficult was not design a well thought out AI well versed in how the game works with counters to plays, and tactics to draw from.

Instead they put in basic plays, cheating dice roles and rules that shouldn't effect their teams, effect them for advantage.

When you see a Ogre dodge through four tackle zones and lay out your ball carrier, or you have a three block dice roll chance of dropping a fella and the only way you can fail is three skulls, and you get those three skulls, and the same on the reroll, you know the AI is terribly flawed.

The online verses players is fine, but the single player game became a lesson in frustration, haven't touched it in months. Sadly on the xbox we also lack the online leagues, so all I can do is pick up games with players, can't even pick my colours, just red or blue.

Shame really.

It's interesting because the guy who initially taught me said that was how the game worked, then the pc game confirmed it, so every game since I've been playing that way >.< That means there will be lots more single-dice blocks than I expected. So for the sake of argument, three players of each team are lined up in rows next to each other and directly facing one opposing player (tl;dr: two rows of three ). If the middle guys try to block one another, nobody gives any assists so it's just base strength, yes?

Aye, its only when you have an extra player totally free in a tackle zone that he grants the +1 to the block Str, unless he has Guard of course.

I'm glad I'm taking the time to review everything And I have 3 more to paint. So close yet so far.

So the Bugman's Bowl has come and gone I ended up being 2-2 for the day, losing to both Halflings and Vampires. What the hell. But, I'll elaborate on my whimsical tale, and of the legacy of Kenny the Goblin.

My first game was against Norse. I CASed two guys on Turn 1. I proceeded to beat his face in til on the final drive he had something like 6 guys left. My wounding rolls were right were they needed to be, to unfair amount. Regardless, Guard was amazing here and Block was only minorly frustrating for him. Wrestle caught him off guard at one point if I remember correctly, but it may not have been the use of the skills so much as remembering which minis had what. I didn't let up milking the casualties on this one. I'll post rosters later, as this guys was really nasty and he swept everyone else he played, leaving one guy with only one player on the board.

Next up was the Halflings from hell. Like Hellflings. Hell flings because they get thrown by trees and land accurately and hand off the ball to the guy who dodges through three of your tackle zones, then trips and drops the ball but manages to pick it up next turn and score a TD cuz another of the little buggers tied up your closest man. And then Satan appears and eat your minis. Nah, but they were really, really maneuverable and the two treemen + starplayer were just tough as nails on the line of scrimmage. A couple of really crazy moments occurred in this one. For one, I had three orcs in his end zone and the ball in his end zone yet failed to score a TD. One of his little buggers got in the middle of the mess and picked it up then got Pushed into the stands, causing the ball to shoot like a rocket into the closest other side of the stands, launching it all the way back to my half of the field. Next, a thrown midget was one away from a TD. The only one I could free up was Kenny, the Goblin. He Blitzed 5 squares with reckless abandon for the ultimate single dice block. Skull. Ugh. 10 armor, 12 CAS. He would only die once this day, but he drew about 10 fouls overall with only Stunned results. This player in particular was really helpful and I learned a lot from him. Master chef ate 2, then 3 re-rolls. The wrestle linemen were incredibly effective against the treemen. Making them stand back up on a roll was priceless.

Lunch was delicious. I had Shiner, a jalapeno burger and stuffed peppers.

Next I played against the guy who won, with vampires. I can only remember some sort of strange, hypnotic gaze... that and he kicked my bum. Got a couple casualties off him, but he really knew his stuff when it came to the team. Only ran 3 vamps and had tons of thralls in reserve for nomming on. I remember him gazing a guy to let the ball carrier by at one point, which was very cool. I simply never got around to scoring this game. The thralls are just livable enough to be a pain.

Last I was playing a kid with Dwarves. Nothing much noteworthy here, other than we kept bumping heads non-stop.

Overall : I missed having Tackle somewhere on my team, but all of my skills were very useful. I'm really liking the idea of Chaos Dwarves. Wrestle is great on cheap guys. Goblins are fire magnets of sorts. Guard is stupid ran in pairs, just way too good, though sometimes it doesn't grant any bigger advantage than one already had. Throwers really just suck, and Blitzers with sure hands would be objectively tons better.

I'll give more info tomorrow and will post rosters, and also answer any questions anyone may have.

Sounds like a good day of Blood Bowl Action.

I really like the kenny bit, reminds me that for some reason the 'dice Gods' seem just as likely to allow your mad off the wall plan to suceed in this game as fall flat on your face at the first hurdle.

I guess thats part of the attraction.

Guard is certainly a great skill, not up to date on some of the LRB changes, so never used wrestle, but it sounds you made a good accounting for yourself.

Looking forward to seeing more info.

Event pics are up!

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.133276850121520.26063.100003176179315&type=1

Should be public. Of note:

The match report about the Hellflings made me laugh. It confirms my opinion that in good hands, these little buggers can be pain in the .

I take good note of your experience for my next Orc team.

Ok, so a couple things. The Norse roster from the tourney:

2 Runners, one w/ Dodge
2 Berserkers w/ Mighty Blow
2 Ulfwerener w/ Block
5 Linemen, one w/ Kick
1 Snow Troll

4 Fan Factor
2 Ass. Coaches
2 Cheerleaders
1 Apothecary

Note that this guy rolled several people with no Re-rolls. Very interesting experience.

Vampire Roster that won the tourney:

3 Vamps, 2 w/ Dodge, one w/ Block
12 Thralls, one w/ Block, two w/ Wrestle

3 RR
3 FF
1 Apothecary

I can attempt to answer whatever play-style questions you might have.

-----------------

Also, I made a dungeon in the shape of the Khorne symbol that's roughly 30x30. Every time a player is removed from the pitch, a chart is rolled on:

Khorne Dungeon

2 Blood Rage - The player who just inflicted a casualty must make a Blitz action with any team member immediately, and must attempt throw a Block if possible. Players who have already moved may be affected.

3 Blood Frenzy - Until the end of this player's next turn, all players within 5 squares of the casualty gain the Frenzy skill.

4 Blood Lust - The team who inflicted the casualty gains 1 Team Re-roll that may only be used to re-roll a Block which would have not resulted in a player being knocked down.

5 Blood Bubbling - All Teleporters bubble with a strange red substance... When attempting to move onto a Teleporter, a Go For It roll must be made.

6-8 Add 1 to the dungeon's Rage.

9 Furious Summoning - Roll on the Summon Daemon Chart and add +1 for every Rage the dungeon has. Daemons are summoned onto a random Teleporter, but will not bounce to another if one is occupied.

10 Furious Quaking - Every player in the dungeon makes an Agility check, modified by +1. Anyone who fails is placed prone.

11 Furious Restlessness - The ball explodes, as per an exploding chest. Place a new ball on a random Teleporter.

12 Furious Eruption - For every Rage, randomly select a player (roll a die to see which coach is affected, then which player each time). Anyone selected must make an armor check and injury roll if necessary. Reset the dungeon's Rage to 0.


Summon Daemon Chart

2-6 Bloodletter (M5, S4, A3, AV7, Frenzy, Block)
7-9 Flesh Hound (M7, S3, A3, AV7, Frenzy)
10-11 Skulltaker (M6, S5, A3, AV9, Frenzy, Mighty Blow, Block, Stab)
12+ Bloodthirster (M7, S7, A3, AV10, Frenzy, Mighty Blow, Block, Stab, Break Tackle, Disturbing Presence, Stand Firm, Throw Enemy) Note: This creature takes up as many squares as the base occupies.

It's designed ideally for 6 players, sort of an apoc dungeon. Thoughts folks?