Blood Bowl PlayBook

by James Stewart (Games Workshop)

In this article veteran Blood Bowl coach James Stewart lays down methods for leading your Ogre team to victory on
the pitch, including team design, tactics, flying Goblins, and… philosophy?

by Carl_Stoneyard (FUMBBL)

Chaos Dwarf teams employ an interesting mix of strength and speed. Think of the Chaos Dwarf team as a 17th-century army: The blockers are the regular infantry that can be relied upon to survive and stand their ground. The big guy are the powerful but unreliable and expensive mercenaries. Your hobgoblins are the cheap auxillary troops used to plug gaps in the frontline or to do behind-the-line duty. And the bull centaurs? Well you guessed it. They are the cavalry.

by Coach Blacknife, Dr Pestilance, Coach Bubonic Plaguers, with help from Nigel Buckle (Blood Bowl Home of @rnholm)

Skaven are an uneasy blend of low armour and very fast players. The Wood Elves have an advantage in that all of their players are more agile – which balances the low armour; the Skaven have to rely on their low cost to keep them supplied with plentiful replacements.(Which seems appropriate for rodents really.)

The Skaven are fast, but they break easily. Actually it’s remarkable as to just how fast these rats can run – this can infuriate your opponent if they’re not used to it. A good thing too, as it can throw them off their gameplay!

by Sigurd G (Blood Bowl Home of @rnholm)

Overall, the Dark Elves start out as a fairly lowpowered team. Their movement is generally insignifficant, but not to scoff at either. Their AV of 8 allows the to get stuck in and survive a few punches. They lack high-speed catchers, and they are not going to win any fist-fights.

by Paul Gegg (Games Workshop)

It’s late in the match, the opposing star player is looking for a last-second game-winning touchdown and your fans are already drifting off to get drunk. But then one of your players somehow fashions a block on the ball-carrier and the ball squirms loose – another player picks it up by his fingertips and launches a hopeful pass into opposition territory – your marked catcher pulls it down, dodges out and dances into the Endzone for the winning score. Snatching victory from the jaws of defeat – is there a better feeling? This end to end play is beyond most teams but with the awesome Skaven, it isn’t too uncommon. Sometimes they really can achieve the seemingly impossible.

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 Andy Chambers (Blood Bowl Home of @rnholm)

After a long and succesful career as coach of the Skavenblight Scramblers I finally decided to hang up my running shoes and try something different. I wanted to play with a slower but harder team than Skaven, a team with players which didn’t give me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach every time they got blocked. Although I was tempted by the Orcs, I was eventually seduced by the lack of subtlety of the Chaos team and the mouth-watering selection of hideous monsters that will play for them. After winning both the Spike Trophy and the Chaos Cup and getting to the semi-finals for the Blood Bowl, I must say that I’m delighted with my choice.

by WarNerve79@aol.com (www.blood-bowl.net)

I have been playing undead since first starting BloodBowl and I must say they are one of the best teams out there if played correctly.

People say that the other races can “dance” around undead, that is not true. Just look at the above average 7 movement on the ghouls, or the average 6 movement on the wights. Do not forget the vampires movement of 6 also, they might be big guys but they are worth the effort it takes to lose the off-for- a-bite drawback skill.

by AFK_Eagle (FUMMBL)

Humans are the great all-rounders of Blood Bowl; depending on their opposition, they can run the ball, pass it, or stomp some heads! This can even happen halfway through a drive, when a change of tactics is needed. They started off as the average Blood Bowl roster, but recently introduced new races have pushed them more towards the light-weight end of the spectrum.

by Coach Blacknife and Nigel Buckle (Coach Blacknife's Dugout)

Orcs are a popular team. A really popular team. There are a couple of reasons for this aside from getting the majority of your players free in the box! They’re a good all round team, but you can also specialise them to a degree. They also epitomise Blood Bowl; they are as green as the turf, as tough as the standard issue boots and could even give the crowd a good challenge in a straight up fight!