Jim and Bob
I presume you have found you way here due to having at least a passing interest in the game of Blood Bowl. There are many sites regarding the history of the game and what it is about. This site however is dedicated to the tactics and strategy for use in a Blood Bowl match. You will find descriptions of the races that play the game, explanation of the skills and their application and various articles discussing strategical concepts.
The reason for the creation of this site was to have a go to place where you could find everything. There are a few other sites with various how to guides, though the rules have been evolving over recent years and as such some of these are out of date. The information found here will be based on the Living Rule Book version 5 at the time of writing, though will be updated with changes as the rules change. As such the information found on here should be the most up to date and will contain the missing parts of older guides.
I hope you find the site useful and if you have any questions, or comments, then please get in touch, or just comment on any of the articles and I’ll reply as soon as possible.
August 5th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Do we post questions here in the comments?
August 9th, 2009 at 1:42 pm
Sure, or you can use the contact form, or message me on twitter, which ever works best for you
August 13th, 2009 at 9:26 pm
I need some advice for my Skaven. I have Storm Vermin that just leveled up to level 6. This is very rare for my team, and expensive TV wise as well, but I really can’t think of a good skill to add to him. Normally I would just take something that could be useful, but because he’s bloating my TV so much, I want to make sure whatever I choose isn’t a lame-duck skill.
Currently he has: Mighty blow, tackle, guard, pro.
I rolled singles for regular skills. What should I add to him? Frenzy, dauntless, thick skull, stand firm, junggernaut?
Thanks for any advice.
August 14th, 2009 at 11:31 am
I would suggest either
Stand Firm (works well with Guard),
Piling On (makes him a real killer, but leave him vulnerable to fouls), or
Shadowing (his high movement and Tackle will make him the bane of dodgers).
August 15th, 2009 at 1:20 am
I ended up giving him frenzy, and was not happy with it. Not only do I always have to follow up, but I would often lose my 2d block on the follow up. I think it would have been better to put dauntless on him, like I have on my other Storm Vermin. I never realized how great this skill was until I tried it out. Turning 1d blocks on black orcs into 2d blocks with claw and mighty blow is way better than Frenzy!
August 15th, 2009 at 1:21 am
By the way, does shadowing force a dodge roll on each square moved if you maintain contact with shadow?
August 17th, 2009 at 11:07 am
Yes, If an opposing player dodges out of your tackle zone, and you win the Shadowing roll, you move into the square they vacated. If they want to move further they have to dodge again, and again if you keep rolling your shadowing rolls and maintain contact.
Frenzy is a dangerous skill, anyone who has played Dwarfs will tell you that Troll Slayers can get you in a lot of trouble. You have to chose your push back direction carefully to make sure you get an assist on teh second block as well. Having a guy with Guard and Frenzying in a circle around him is the best way of always throwing two dice.
Dauntless is a nice skill, you only need to roll 2+ to throw a 1d block on Black orcs, so get 2d with only one assist as opposed to needing 2 assists. But if you put it on a frenzy player, you have to roll for dauntless seperately on each block and if you fail on the second block you can find yourself throwing 2d block with your opponent choosing!
August 20th, 2009 at 7:35 am
Question about block assistant: lets say Player a is blocking enemy 1, and player b is other side of the enemy, so that enemy is between these two players. does player 1 get assistance from player b? It doesnt say that assisting player has to be next to blocking player AND enemy in rulebook.
August 20th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
I assume you meant does player a get an assist from player b who is blocking player 1. Yes he does, unless player b is in the tackle zone of a team mate of player 1, in which case player b would need the guard skill in order to assist.
If you did mean does player 1 get an assist from player b, (so 1 and b are team mates which would be confusing, hence I think you just typed 1 instead of a) then b can’t assist 1 as he needs to be next to a. Hope that helps.
August 20th, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Thanks… always assumed that assisting player has to be next to own and enemy player + no tackle zones etc. cause it felt more logical. My eyes have opened for your wisdom.
May your Bloodweiser be cold ´n foamy
September 1st, 2009 at 7:26 pm
I have a simple question. Does multiblock works with blitz cause i know FOR sure it worked in the LRB 4.0 so did something changed that it prevents it from working?
September 1st, 2009 at 10:48 pm
Multible block only works for block actions and not blitz actions. If I remember correctly this has always been the case, though I can’t remember for sure for LRB4 and previous. As they are out of date I’ve little inclination to look it up and confirm or deny that as well, it doesn’t matter any more and the current rules (if you are playing them) you can only use it during a block action.
September 7th, 2009 at 10:20 pm
I have a question coach: What do you think about Orc Throwers? I’ve heard many coaches say to forgo them all-together in favor of higher-armor linemen. Others say that the passing threat can keep teams “honest” and is more valuble than the extra armor point, and that with a properly caged Orc team, the thrower shouldn’t be getting hit anyway.
September 8th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
Sure Hands in a starting team is invaluable.
September 9th, 2009 at 11:23 am
I second that. Especially if you have no AG 4 in your team
September 29th, 2009 at 7:59 pm
Passing
Setup: Your QB cannon throw into the endzone for a TD, but has receivers in range that can run it into the end zone for a TD.
Question: When doing a passing play and all your receivers are marked, is it better to pass to a marked receiver (risking the incomplete/interception) then dodge away and run for a touchdown, or move the marked receiver first then pass to him and try to survive being caged/blitzed for a turn before he can run it for a TD next turn?
September 30th, 2009 at 10:17 am
It’s entirely situationnal Red.
Ideally, you can
Free the receiver by blitzing the player shadowing him.
Receive in the tackle zone, and dodge to score
Dodge and receive, then protect the receiver
The last option is the most desperate IMO. If you have to call that play, it means that your thrower is in position of being sacked. Otherwise, protect it and place yourself in position of scoring next turn.
Remember that you can do both a pass and a hand-off in the same turn. If you’re playing an elf team (or skaven to some extent) you can call the following play
Protect thrower if possible (and if no rolls are required)
Dodge away the receiver and run it to the end-zone
Run your thrower and either throw a quick-pass or hand-off to another player in a forward position
Have that player run to your receiver in the end-zone and pass or hand-off for TD (depending on your previous action)
It’s all a question of stats, after that. But as a general rule, passing to a player in position of being blitzed the next turn is not really a good choice. Teams that are good at ball handling, usually do not like being dragged into a brawl. Scoring avoids being bashed the next turn (except for your 3 meatshield guys ofc).
October 7th, 2009 at 11:04 pm
Hiya, I have played fumbbl blood bowl a bit and I have played quite a bit of the new game on single player. I like the chaos team a lot but it does struggle at low team values. I am thinking of starting to play the board game with a friend, I had the board game as a kid and I loved it although I only played a few games.
So the question is what team would you recommend to a coach who has the basis of the rules sorted, wants an evil team and likes the blocking game a lot. I have some experience with the game but I don’t know if I would suit one of the really hard teams. I am torn between necromantic, chaos dwarves and norse. Any suggestions on what to pick out of those teams would be great. I like the necromantic for the flesh golems and the frenzy wolves. The chaos dwarves would be good because of the minotaur (which I love) and the mutations and good all round game. And the norse might be good for the blocking and crazy skills all over the place. I am really torn.
Any suggestions of a team and possible starting line up would be _most_ appreciated.
Paul, midbie coach
please help
PS my friend could end up picking a dwarf team I think
October 8th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Well I’ve covered the basic overviews for each race on their own already. For the tabletop I think your best bet is to look around and see which miniatures appeal to you the most. Chaos Dwarfs and Norse are nice early on cause they have lots of Block, though the slowness of the Dwarfs might annoy you, so if I had to pick one for you then perhaps Norse, though Frenzy can be a pain to deal with. For my money though you should make up your own mind and take a lot at the miniatures you would be using.
On that note don’t just look at the official Blood Bowl miniatures, they are really dated these days. There are many alternatives from other companies if you look around, or you can make fantastic looking teams converting miniatures from other game ranges. Good luck and I hope you enjoy the game as much as I do.
October 8th, 2009 at 9:35 am
I hope you don’t mind if i partially disagree Mr Coach Sir. But I think the current Games-workshop miniatures are pretty good. I own and Undead team and a Human Team. Although I also agree that there are plent of good alternatives as well. I wont mention any sites here. This isn’t my site so I think that would be a little rude. But maybe you could link to a few of the alternate miniature sites?
Also…
The teams you play don’t even have to look like the races. I guess it’s party down to who you’re playing with. I’ve played against playboy bunny pro elves and Dyiads posing as wook elves. As long as you and your opponents are happy with it. Of course I don’t know how it works with organised events.
October 8th, 2009 at 10:53 am
The current Human team are one of the exceptions as they were released fairly recently and not back in 1994. Looking at the Wood, High and Dark Elf teams though and they are horrible. As long as you are happy with them personally and it is fairly easy for your opponent to tell which player is which, or at least which positionals are which then most tournaments are happy with anything, usually as long as they are painted though. The actualy Blood Bowl itself hosted by Games Workshop in Warhammer world requires you to use their own miniatures, not necessarily the Blood Bowl ones, converted Warhammer ones are fine for example.
October 8th, 2009 at 12:29 pm
converted warhammer minis are the way to go a lot of the time. Though the conversions can be difficult if you dont have a lot of time.
The GW range is good for most teams in general (though I agree the dark elves are pretty dodgy, converted warhammer dark elves ftw there) but even using their range you’ll run into issues quite often.
The most commonly discussed one is Ulfwerener for Norse. But there are several others where the mini-range doesnt quite stretch to them properly.
October 8th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
I believe games-workshop have almost entirely stopped supporting chaos dwarves in the main warhammer rane (correct me if i’m wrong). So finding a suitable miniature for the chaos centaurs seems almost impossible.
October 8th, 2009 at 5:20 pm
Ok thanks a lot for your help, what I think I’ll go for is the following team:
1 snow troll
2 ulfwerener
1 berserker
1 thrower
6 linemen
3 rerolls
FF 0
Thanks a lot for your help, any tips welcome.
Also I think i’ll get GW miniatures for the team just listed. For the ulfwerener I will either use the necromantic werewolves (or some reaper miniatures possibly). For the snow troll I’ll either get a Yheytee or convert the standard Goblin Troll with snow and fur. The rest of the team I’ll just the norse team that comes in the box, I don’t think they look too bad.
October 9th, 2009 at 9:16 am
@Ian the Geek
Do you know the Impact! Miniatures for Elfball?
The Black-Rock Dwarfes has Centaur too which you could use for the Chaos Dwarfs.
@Coach
I hope it´s OK to represent the link here? Otherway delete this post.
October 19th, 2009 at 12:26 pm
Wow, I cant believe I didnt notice that Chaos Dwarves had been Dropped from Warhammer Fantasy battle!!
I mean I dont play fantasy much at all anymore, mostly 40k but still, I didnt think they’d have been dropped, there were loads of cool miniatures and lore for that race!
Dropping squats in 40 k i understood, but chaos dwarves were cool
October 19th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
Centigor models are probably now the closest GW mini for bull centaurs. Lame imo.
November 12th, 2010 at 5:45 pm
Excelent website. Still very accurate even if we are now with a new LRB.
Thank you very much !