Blood Bowl PlayBook

by M Spanke (www.blood-bowl.net)

Goblins, goblins, everywhere, on the pitch and in the air… So, you’ve picked out the most unique Blood Bowl teams to play and you want to win. Well, word to you, cheat! You picked Goblins because you love to cheat, maim, and do anything that is unsavory and ill-mannered. You picked Goblins because you have a certain mean streak, kind of a gang or hit man mentality. Or you have a malign sense of humor. Winning aside, playing Goblins is easy and fun. These little guys are gifted with a sense of mayhem. Because Goblins are so one dimensional, you will never have to fear organizing specialists.

by Dan Barnaby (www.blood-bowl.net)

Dark Elves have a great advantage over most other teams. They ALL have an agility of 4!! Now this may seem like a weak advantage, but in Blood Bowl, and advantage is a good one.

by Andy Meechan (www.blood-bowl.net)

You’ve played against the same Coaches with their same teams and their same tactics for a lot of games. You’ve no doubt sussed their favourite plays and have, hopefully, developed some nasty counter-plays of your own. You’ve also noticed that they use similar tactics no matter what race they Coach. No doubt they know the same about you.

What you need is to ‘throw them a curve’ in your plays, let them think and react and not respond like automata. Put some interest into your games again – this is, of course, where lateral thinking comes in.

by Jeremy Vetock (Blood Bowl Home of @rnholm)

Since the new version of Blood Bowl was released, the staffs at the American Games Workshop office in Baltimore have been running a very intense Blood Bowl League. In a frenzy of high-voltage gaming we have already completed two exciting Tournament Cups and are about to start on our third.

by Andy Meechan, with Harald Hedlund (Blood Bowl Home of @rnholm)

Ask anyone to name the worst team in Blood Bowl and Chaos Dwarf isn’t far from their lips. This doesn’t sound unreasonable for a team where it’s best players on par with the Dwarf Longbeards and it’s Linemen are notoriously stupid. Welcome then to the tactics you need to make your opponents shut up and take notice of you Big Hats and learn that the Hobgoblins are hardly notoriously stupid. Dangerously stupid perhaps…

Prepare to be enlightened.

by Milo Sharp (www.blood-bowl.net)

The vicious Skaven live far beneath the Olde World in their burrows and warrens, but occasionally venture above ground to plunder, pillage, or play Blood Bowl! The Skaven Blood Bowl game revolves around their blistering speed, frequently scoring four or more touchdowns within a single game. Their fascination with the mystical warpstone leads to a greater than normal incidence of mutations within the Skaven species, and the best of these are put to use on the Blood Bowl pitch.

by unknown (FUMMBL)

High Elves are arguably the best rounded elven team. With AV 8 on everyone except the Lion Warriors, and ST 3 catchers (4 players with Wardancer’s stats!) they can take more of a beating than Wood Elves while the 4 MA 8 players gives them an edge in speed and the long passing game over Dark Elves. In the early games, with few Catchers in the team, they will employ a mobile running game similar to the Dark Elves. As they develop, they become more and more a fast-scoring team, typically scoring in two turns, though they can delay against teams that aren’t likely to cause a rash of casualties.

by Matt Brown (Games Workshop)

“Dark Elves are renowned for being evil and depraved – and that’s just the Cheerleaders!”. So begins the “Did you know…” for Hubris Rakarth, star blitzer of the Cowboys, and, as a Dark Elf coach of some time, I know the cruel fate that would befall me if I were to divulge too many of their secrets (not to say the number of games I would soon start to lose). However, the great God Nuffle (and his pet minion, Andy) doth compel me to speak, so speak I must. Here then are some thoughts on the Dark Elves. Of course, these are not exhaustive and you may well, should in fact, find yourself developing a few tricks of your own – but this will certainly get you off to a good start. Enjoy… and if Rakarth comes looking for me, tell him I’ve joined the Khemri Foreign Legion.

by Andy Meechan, with Harald Hedlund (www.blood-bowl.net)

The following may be of use to you in a few ways: you’re a beginning Coach; you want to learn some new plays; or you want to see if your favourite cunning plays are original after all. This should be of use to you unless you fall into the last case; the Lateral Plays page is probably more your style – here we’ll see basic kick-off Offensive and Defensive setups and take you through a turn-by-turn guide on how the play should progress. If you’re a new Coach you’ll find the word ‘should’ gains more meaning as you get into the game: experienced Coaches know what I’m talking about.

by fork (FUMBBL)

After the BBRC launched their rules updates making the Vampire team an official one it’s about time we figure out weather or not they actually can win games. At first glance, the Vampires look like the dream team; six players with the magic combination of Strength 4 and Agility 4, and access to just about any skill they want. They even have cheap linemen, to better allow you to buy more Vampires at the start.