Leader

Leader (Passing)

The player is a natural leader and commands the rest of the team from the back-field as he prepares to throw the ball. A team with one or more players with the Leader skill may take a single Leader Re-roll counter and add it to their team re-rolls at the start of the game and at half time after any Master Chef rolls. The Leader re-roll is used exactly the same in every way as a normal Team re-roll with all the same restrictions. In addition, the Leader re-roll may only be used so long as at least one player with the Leader skill is on the pitch – even if they are Prone or Stunned! Rerolls from Leader may be carried over into Overtime if not used, but the team does not receive a new Leader re-roll at the start of Overtime.

Overview:

Leader has now become a passing skill under the new rules instead of being a general trait. This means it is a doubles skill roll for most players still, though now anyone with passing skill access can take it. For most teams this means the thrower, though a few teams have runners or perhaps even linemen who can take it.

It is fairly obvious that the benefit of Leader is gaining another Reroll and it should be used pretty much the same way (read the Reroll article for details).  One benefit that it has over standard team rerolls is that it can’t be lost to an opposing team who has a Master Chef. Leader rerolls will also add less to your team value than a standard team reroll. Tieing in with that it is also cheaper and frees up the money you would have had to spend on a team reroll to spend on more players instead. This is of more benefit to certain teams than others though. Teams will usually get more of a benefit from Leader the earlier in the team development you take it, the older the team is the higher chance you can just afford normal rerolls anyway.

There are some drawbacks to consider with Leader though. First of all selecting it means that you had to take it instead of another skill that may have been more useful to that one player than the whole team. That player also needs to be on the pitch as well, leave him in the dugout, gets injured or knocked out, you lose that reroll if you havn’t used it, or can’t start the second half with it. This can make your player more of a target if you havn’t yet used it. Generally it is assumed that the first reroll you use in a half will be the Leader reroll, though it is worth checking with your opponent before the game or mentioning it is your Leader reroll when you use it, just to avoid arguements.

One of the other changes in LRB5 has also affected the choice of taking Leader. As you now no longer need to start with a high fan factor you have more money to spend when starting your team. Personally as rerolls cost double the price after team creation I am an advocate of starting with a lot of rerolls. Most teams should easily be starting with three, some you can afford four, though a few teams still only start with two rerolls as their players are expensive. If you have four rerolls to start with, I can’t see much merit in using a skill to take Leader, unless you can’t really see anything else overly useful for that player.

One last benefit of taking Leader as a reroll is that it can’t be stolen by Halfling Master Chefs. This can be vital, especially early in team development. Should a team hire one and you don’t have many team rerolls then you can find your turns ending with alarming frequency if the dice don’t go your way.

Benefits:
  • Extra Reroll
  • Frees Money to Spend on Players
  • Worth Less TV than a Normal Reroll
  • Immune to Master Chef

Go to page two for team by team suggestions.

9 thoughts on “Leader”

    • No, a Leader reroll works the same as a team reroll, just if the player with the skill isn’t on the pitch then you don’t have access to it. This is why it is assumed when you use a reroll, you use the Leader one first in case that player gets knocked out or injured before you get a chance to use it.

      So just to be clear, you can not use a Leader reroll and a normal Team reroll in the same turn.

      Reply
  1. Better doubles choices on a snotling, huh? I sure couldn’t find any. 70k rerolls makes this skill basically a no-brainer: save the 40k in TV (almost a babe, every game!) and buy a player (or 7) for the $140k. No rookie team with 70k TRR has the kind of cash to fritter away just because they want Pass or something. It seems you recommend Leader mostly to Elf teams, and I just wanted to offer a counterpoint. Great article, cheers

    Reply
  2. Little update: the snot died in the very next game on a snake-eye dodge. Carefully consider the pressure you’re putting on the little guy, apparently.

    Reply
  3. I took the Leader skill on one of my vampires which is really great. I wouldnt recommend it on a thrall because they easily get knocked out or hurt by bloodlust or the opponent.

    Reply
    • Although I can see your logic in this, Vampires themselves already have too many skills that they need to be effective. If you were going to get leader on a vampire id be more inclined to just take Pro which doesn’t require doubles, and most the time you will use pro to try and reroll bloodlust when it isn’t key to reroll it, but would be convenient to save a thrall from getting bitten.

      Reply
  4. 2016 rule removes ‘after any Master Chef rolls’ suggesting you could argue that Leader rolls can be taken by the chef also! Maybe the leader skill players mind is on lunch?

    Reply

Leave a Reply to Street Cancel reply

css.php
Represent BBTactics in the BB3 (PC) Blood Bowl World Championship by signing up to play in the Big Crunch League