A Goblin team’s game plan owes much more to hope than potential. Goblins can make quite good catchers because they are small and agile, but the art of throwing is sadly lost to them, while the chances of their blocking anything larger than a Halfling are remote to say the least. Still, this never seems to bother Goblin players, and occasionally the use of a particularly devious secret weapon will even allow a Goblin team to win a match.
| QTY | Position | Cost | MA | ST | AG | PA | AV | Skills & Traits | Pri | Sec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-12 | Goblin | 40k | 6 | 2 | 3+ | 4+ | 8+ | Dodge, Right Stuff, Stunty | A | GPS |
| 0-1 | Bomma | 45k | 6 | 2 | 3+ | 4+ | 8+ | Bombardier, Dodge, Secret Weapon, Stunty | A | GPS |
| 0-1 | Looney | 40k | 6 | 2 | 3+ | – | 8+ | Chainsaw, Secret Weapon, Stunty | A | GS |
| 0-1 | Fanatic | 70k | 3 | 7 | 3+ | – | 8+ | Ball & Chain, No Hands, Secret Weapon, Stunty | S | AG |
| 0-1 | Pogoer | 75k | 7 | 2 | 3+ | 5+ | 8+ | Dodge, Pogo Stick, Stunty | A | GPS |
| 0-1 | ‘Ooligan | 65k | 6 | 2 | 3+ | 6+ | 8+ | Dirty Player (+1), Disturbing Presence, Dodge, Right Stuff, Stunty | A | GPS |
| 0-1 | Doom Diver | 60k | 6 | 2 | 3+ | 6+ | 8+ | Right Stuff, Stunty, Swoop | A | GPS |
| 0-2 | Trained Troll | 115k | 4 | 5 | 5+ | 5+ | 10+ | Always Hungry, Loner (3+), Mighty Blow (+1), Projectile Vomit, Really Stupid, Regeneration, Throw Team Mate | S | AGP |
| 0-8 | ReRolls | 60k | Apothecary: Yes | |||||||
| Special Rules | Badlands Brawl, Bribery and Corruption, Underworld Challenge |
Goblin Team Overview:
Goblin teams are one of the weakest and most challening teams to play. Their players are cheap, weak and break easily. Goblins do however enjoy the biggest access to secret weapons and you will often see them deploying players with things from a chainsaw to a pogo stick. They also have the ability to employ two troll players to help stiffen the team up on the line of scrimmage, as well as giving the threat of a one turn touchdown.
As mentioned, the goblins are weak, have low armour and break easier than most players if you penetrate that armour. Their secret weapon players that are often seen on the pitch, tend to get sent off and trolls aren’t reknown for being reliable. They are fun to play but they are also a challenging team as well. Goblin teams are also known for giving bribes to referees so they can keep their weapons on the pitch, though should this not work, they are cheap enough to be able to have a full bench of substitutes.
The fact that goblins by design are one of the hardest teams to use, they aren’t suited to a beginner unless they are happy enough to try the challenge and have fun with the diversity of the team.
Goblin Team Strengths:
- Very cheap players
- Access to lots of secret weapons
- Can have two trolls
- Dodge and Stunty
Goblin Team Weaknesses:
- Low strength
- Low armour
- Fragile (stunty)
- Unreliable players
I tried these for the first time the other day and I have never been so stressed playing Blood Bowl in all my life!
While the Chainsaw is the most fun thing ever and a great equaliser; and I can’t help but smile every time the Pogo Stick bounces up the pitch; it is so stressful trying to make any meaningful plays with these guys.
My Trolls decide to get Stupid at the worse possible moment and the Goblins need to gang up to take on anything bigger than a Gutter Runner (And while they are doing that the rest of the opposing team is unmarked and making life difficult)!
So while these guys are fun they are not for coaches who plan on winning convincingly!
this is not a team for a coach that wishes to win, but a team for a coach that wants to cuase as much mayham before the first touchdown! cuase let’s just face it the only teams that can realisticly beat are other stunty dominated teams for everyone else your team is basicly an SPP farm
They are certainly a challenging team. They really only suit coaches that are committed to luck dominating their play.
Some days everything will go wrong and they will get so badly torn up you’ll want to cry. Some days they’ll go right and you will be crying with laughter at your opponents misfortune.
Few things are MORE destructive than a goblin team when it works.
The key to using them is really secret weapon management and working out ways of stalling/concentrating the enemy so your trolls and fanatic (and/or chainsaw) can give a good return.
‘meaningful plays’ are indeed difficult. Throws beyond quick pass are risky at best and your movement (aside from the pogo) is not sufficient to allow ‘quick’ TDs (aside from throwing goblins which is the main reason I play this team lol)
But for all that, they arent THAT much worse than other teams in a lot of ways, and Stunty can provide the most frustration in the world for opponents, particularly if you get +1AG.
Its a pity you cant get mutations, a big hand would be darn handy in combination with stunty to get balls on the ground in TZs!
But the average goblin, if he lives long enough, can have block and dodge off his first level up which is always annoying for opponents and since you’ll run through goblins pretty quick, you’ll end up with a surprising number of doubles (assuming you manage to score at all 🙂 )
Winning convincingly isnt often on the cards (though if you get a little run of luck, particularly against elves, you can clear their team off the pitch by the end of a game) but you can definately win with them and they quite often end up in the place positions in leagues.
The Cyanide game doesnt include the bombardier which hurts them a lot, but it also doesnt seem to include the chance of a goblin being eaten when you throw teammate either which saves you about a goblin a league 🙂
But honestly, NOTHING beats breaking an orc cage with a thrown goblin to the head of their ball carrier. Its a slim chance and the goblin often wont live through it, but there’s plenty more where he came from!
Playing a Goblin Team is a high art and a noble endeavor in a league with new players or those lacking the experience that you might bring to the table. In these scenarios your team brings comedy, fun, and a sense of play to the pitch.
Should you find yourself a scenario where fun becomes a much more competitive environment there are a few core concepts and a few key plays that anyone looking to run gobo’s for the win must learn before diving headlong into a more serious tournament.
** Team Value is an essential part of the meta game **
A low cost goblin team can often start with a wall of inducements even in a closed league with starting teams. It’s not impossible to start your team at 800 TV and 200,000 gold in inducements just for showing up for your first match.
This will buy star players, wizards for slow driving teams, and most importantly numerous 50,000 gold bribes to keep your most fun players on the field longer.
** ABF – Always Be Fouling **
Starting a game with three bribes means you can press your luck. A goblin tackle might not be a thing to be feared but once a player is downed, it’s your goblins time to shine. Don’t be afraid to stack 2 to 3 goblins around a player to make sure you do some damage early.
Stunning, KO’ing, or injuring players early will help you with essential blocks later one. You’ll be up the players you need to be to see the dice you want to see.
The same rule applies to an apothecary, a medic is for fools. When your talented players die, it just means you’ll get even more star players in the next game. Don’t waste time bandaging green skins, don’t appreciate it.
** Never Blitz A Loony **
Fanatics, Trolls, and goblins with a death wish are all great options for putting an opponent on his back. To not only keep your looney safe but insure that a downed player stays down, if he’s on the pitch your looney should be your primary fouling machine.
Most players forget that these chainsaw wielding monsters get a +3 on foul rolls to break armor. With luck you’re looney can take down the most heavily armored of opponents.
** The Bigger They Are The Harder It Is To Catch A Bomb **
It’s possible to run a line of scrimmage with regular gobos on offence. All you do is simply scamper backwards to form a cage and throw a bomb directly at anyone lazy enough to leave their big’un’ on the front line.
** High Risk, High Reward – Might-As-Well **
2 red dice blocks, turn 16 goblin throws, 3 tackle zones, all those things that would be too risky for your average team are worth a shot when you need to make a goblin play happen. Adopt a ‘Might-As-Well’ or MIAS mentality you’ll be amazed what can happen when a lone goblin takes down and kills a Orge.
** Numbers Matter **
It’s not the amount of goblins you bring to the field it’s about having more goblins than the other player has players on the field. You’ll feel the moment your strategy shifts from injuring to driving the ball forward.
Learn to feel that exact moment, the morphine like high of “we might just get away with it” at that exact moment your entire team shows what stunty can do and it should be a mad race to the end zone.
GOOD LUCK TO ALL THOSE GOBO PLAYERS OUT THERE.
Not only do you make the game more interesting but you make strategy and the metagame a more fluid target.
I have to argue this point – Goblins have one of the most complex and exploitative styles of play you’ll find in Blood Bowl – They are built for some of the most unfair kinds of power gaming.
So much so that in a lot of games, luck is not even a factor. A good goblin game is won before you step onto the pitch.
** TV is Everything **
It is possible to have a level 4 Troll with skills like pilling on, break tackle, and block, as well as a second support troll with guard, a chainsaw, a wrecking ball, and a ball carrying goblin with block for under a 100,000 team value (TV).
It’s simply a matter of firing every goblin that makes a successful play. They get rewarded by not dying on the pitch.
** Morg N’ Thorg Ball Carrier **
With a ultra lean TV you can start committing crazy, ungodly vs. an established league team.
Ever seen Morg carry the ball down field with two trolls as support? Most players don’t know how to react to this kind of hurt rolling down the field and begin to panic when a wrecking ball helps clear the way and a chainsaw wielding foul machine follows up from the back field murdering downed players in their wake.
** Done Right There Is No Second Half **
Goblins are all about player elimination. Every goblin you loose costs you 20,000, yes, but collectively they can remove 2 players a turn from the flied.
…but it also doesnt seem to include the chance of a goblin being eaten when you throw teammate either which saves you about a goblin a league…
In my games goblins are eaten quite often 🙂
Aye my troll has a habit of ‘goblin’ all he picks up…..
Boom-Boom
‘Hangs head in shame at terrible pun’
Sq – is that in the cyanide game or are you talking tabletop?
Its a pity you cant get mutations, a big hand would be darn handy in combination with stunty to get balls on the ground in TZs!
They can but only in underworld teams
I got my goblin eaten in a game on the cyanide game last night, so its definately implemented.
Ah! Cool, I wasn’t sure as I have done it multiple times (perhaps a dozen times) and never had it happen and it is a 1-in-6 chance.
So I guess I was just lucky (though I can see it now 3 Gobbos eaten in a row!).
p.s. Where the graphics of it any good?
Nah its a one in 36 chance, gotta roll a one on the throw, and then a one on the ‘eat or fumble’.
The graphic was awesome, I covered my lap with coke.
It was in a single player competition, I decided to play goblins through on hard tournament rules to see if I could (I get a lot of ‘playing slots’ that are less than an hour unfortunately so i cant play a full multi game, but i can get a few turns on a single in).
He was my only goblin to skill up and I had got him the ball, attempting the one turn jobbie.
He was on my side of the troll, so the troll turned towards me (on screen) picked up the gobbo, stuffed him in his mouth, swallowed and the ball scattered off lol.
Unfortunately it was on my fiance’s laptop, so all the graphic settings were on min, so i cant vouch for what it would have looked like on my main computer (which is currently being shipped to australia) but even on min it was hilarious.
Let’s face it, our beloved Gobbos are not for power gamers, or those seeking a placing at any tournament. Those boys pick Dwarfs, or Wood Elves, or something with reliability & the odd flash of brilliance.
Our Gobbos are far too erratic, unpredictable and frustrating for that sort of player.
We play Gobbos for the massive challenge they present, for the sensation of walking the very edge of the abyss on every single play, and for the sheer, never ending cascade of laffs. They are anything but dull, boring or blandly safe.
And Troll Air has to be the very epitome of why we play. It’s breath taking when we pull it off, and side splitting when we don’t (on Cyanide or irl).
If you’ve read this thread this far, you’re obviously looking for something unique in gaming, and so, my friend, I can safely say that GobBole is for you. May your first flight with Troll Air come very very soon.
‘No reported crash landings’ Is what I’ve heard.
Apparently either they never crash….or noone ever walks away to tell the tale.
I’ve been playing around with Goblins on Cyanide’s Blood Bowl and man are they different! I definitely agree that they’re the most destructive team in the game and from what I can tell, they seem to play a kind of harassing game where most of your gobos won’t even throw blocks and just focus on placing tackles and tying up other players. Definitely a fun team, even if they are pretty hard to use!
Bombardier = greatest Fun ever!
You have to strike a balance between 1 turn TD’s (thrown goblin play) and keeping your Secret Weapons from being sent off.
I have found, that if I am receiving I will have the Fanatic on and try to score as quickly as possible (using a bribe to keep the Fanatic from the dungeons).
Then when the opponents have the ball I can shower them with bombs and keep the Looney in the backfield to blitz any players that get through the line of scrimmage.
I agree on the inconsistency of Goblin’s. I have played 4 games so far which ended in 0-2, 1-0, 0-3 and 2-0
My perspective on the goblin team:
Goblins team is hard at first, but when you get used to the goblin nature and getting better at it, then you draw or even win matches!
it’s take some time to become the master of the goblin team, but when you mastered it, then you started to unleashed some REAL fireworks, I know this because I’m main goblins and I’m the TryHard, and I play the goblin team differently.
my campaign as a goblin coach was going smoothly and managed to win a clean cup on hard difficulty so I give the wiff how I play the team
first of all, I used the different build, the reason why I don’t like the normal build is because:
1. two trolls at the same time is too expensive, about $220.000!
2. the goblin team rely on numbers and special equipment then actually “Power”, so two trolls and 11 players is not the best idea in my view
3. the goblin team is known for being unreliable and risk-taking, so three-rerolls might not be enough.
is my custom strength and weakness from my perspective:
Strength:
1. two trolls
2. goblins “normal” skills allows them to annoy and dodge easier to the opposing coach players
3. some secrets weapons is cheap as goblin linemen! (about 40k)
4. have variety of secrets weapons
5. cheap goblin linemen
6. bribes slice in half!
7. a mobile team….
weakness:
1. but weak in strength and actual power
2. rely on skills then stats
3. Rely on Re-rolls (I meant intensive use of Re-rolls, in my view in this case)
4. more likelihood of injures and KO
5. reliable part is an issue
6. goblins will have a tough time on their own when it comes to the fight.
7. more chance of losing when outnumbered (I could be wrong in that part)
goblin team is the type of team that secrets weapons and skills is the key to drawing and winning matches, numbers is also play a factor in this role, as goblins is well known for going in a huge wave of green bodies, but unreliable part is also going to play a factor in goblin only drawing or even lost the match and goblin team being more likely to get KO or injured AND weak in stats means is not easy to try not to get outnumbered. inducements and staff also play a factor in goblin team success!
here’s the build I use:
one troll
a looney
a bombardier
and the rest is linemen goblins to reach 14/16 players
the reason why I din’t buy the pogo goblin and fanatic, Is because two secret weapons is enough for three bribes for fouling, and they become useful later on.
then I buy 4 cheerleaders, three assistance coaches, four re-rolls, and put the rest in fan-factor, no Apothecary.
the reason why I don’t buy a Apothecary Is because I prefer to rely on fan factor and staff but you can buy a Apothecary if you like
that’s all for today, hope you enjoy!
I can see the fun of this build, though I heavily question why you would ever take cheerleaders, coaches or start with fan factor.
Cheerleaders and coaches do not add much, just a bonus chance to win the extra reroll on certain kick off events, granted they are fairly common events you can and will very easily go many games without getting either event which is just wasting that tv.
Starting with any fan factor is a waste too as it only takes a couple of games to get to the same fan factor naturally anyway.
I also feel you are underestimating the usefulness of trolls and the fanatic, they are amazing when posititoned correctly to make sure you score on your drive and to help stall the opponenets on thier drive.
Looney and the bomber are both fun but also both unreliable, you really only need 3 rerolls with goblins if you play carefully and position well, even if you are using one of those 2 weapons (I rarely would recommend using both a bomber and a looney unless you are just playing for fun)
I wrote a guide a few years ago which goes into a lot of detail on my thoughts of playing goblins, they are just my views and do not think that you should just follow what I think to the letter, but the explinations I give may help you rethink the way you play and refine your team build in a way that suits your play style.
https://bbtactics.com/forum/threads/streets-guide-to-the-art-of-goblins.5637/
Apparently the Pogoer ist not a Secret Weapon in the 2020 ruleset. It also says “Fantatic” instead of Fanatic in the table.
Thank you Isarnwolf, I’ve corrected those errors now.