Slann / Kislev Circus Teams

The Slann team is an ancient race of space travellers stranded on our planets many ages ago. After realizing that rescue was never coming they settled down and began ordering the Lizardmen around as their leaders. While most Slann prefer to become fat and lazy lording over the Lizardmen, a few of younger and more energetic members enjoy travelling the realm and playing Blood Bowl. While the Slann have no passing game to speak of, their ability to leap, dive, and intercept are second to none.

QTYPositionCostMASTAGPAAVSkills & TraitsPriSec
0-16Lineman60k633+4+9+Pogo Stick, Very Long LegsGAS
0-4Catcher80k722+4+8+Pogo Stick, Very Long Legs, Diving CatchAGSP
0-4Blitzer110k733+4+9+Pogo Stick, Very Long Legs, Diving Tackle, Jump UpAGSP
0-1Kroxigor140k655+10+Bone Head, Loner (4+), Mighty Blow (+1), Prehensile Tail, Thick SkullSAG
0-8ReRolls50kApothecary: Yes
Special RulesLustria Superleague

Slann Team Overview:

Slann Teams currently haven’t been officially updated for the new Blood Bowl 2020 Second Season Rules. The NAF have released a PDF for an updated roster which you can download from https://www.thenaf.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/NAF-Rules-for-Tournaments-2021.pdf To see the team’s old roster please get this pdf file: http://www.thenaf.net/files/NewTeams_LRB6.pdf Slann were added to the Blood Bowl 2 computer game, though refashioned to be Kislev Circus using the same rules but with a Bear rather than a Kroxigor.

The most obviously unique point about Slann teams is the amount of Leap and Very Long Legs that they have on their players. This gives them two abilities that really sets them apart from all the other races. First is that they are really hard to pin down due to their Leaping ability which they can all do, the Catchers are especially good at it. They also have the same level of Interception chance as elven players, with their Catchers being the best rookie player in the game at Intercepting. As they can all leap, when they are on offence they can just jump over your defenders, or when on defence they can just jump next to the ball carrier. They can move around the pitch in ways that no other team can from the get go and this can take some time to deal with, for both coaches involved!

The down sides to the Slann are that the team starts with no blocking skills and are very light on the ball handling skills as well. This means they will have games where they burn through rerolls very quickly, or lose players if they get stuck in a game of attrition. The other thing to consider is that Leap has no skill which allows you to reroll failures. If you jump around with the whole team all the time you will eventually suffer turnovers. While the Catchers leap on a 2+ the rest of the team requires a 3+ and with only team rerolls available for failures this can make the difference should you need the reroll for a block, dodge or a go for it.

I would really suggest beginners look elsewhere, they are a very tricky team to coach if you are new to the game. Even experienced coaches may have trouble adjusting to a team that is lacking core starting skills and dealing with all those players with Leap. On the plus side not many coaches will have faced them yet, so you can spring some surprises with the team.

Slann Team Strengths:

  • Very Manoeuvrable
  • Good at Intercepting
  • Unusual Tactics
  • Cheap Rerolls

Slann Team Weaknesses:

  • Start without Core Skills
  • Unusual Tactics
  • No Passing Access

24 thoughts on “Slann / Kislev Circus Teams”

  1. They are indeed an unusual team to play.  Lots of surprises.

    I like the fact the Blitzers have normal access to General, Agility & Strength skills.  If I’m not mistaken, vampires are the only other players that have that.  Plus, with Jump-Up already on the Blitzers, skills like wrestle & pile on are fairly useful.

    Reply
    • Indeed, Slann Blitzers are a point of contention for some coaches, I will get into that and obviously their skill builds when I eventually get around to their specific article. They are at a rather low priority at the moment in time though.

      Reply
  2. Slann are indeed a very fun team to play. I have played about every other teams in 20 years of BloodBowl and I find Slann are very refreshing, they have a unique play style. The team is very dice heavy with no skill rerolls from the start, so I advise to start with no fewer than 3 rerolls. In my opinion, one of the strengths of the team lies in their catchers: they have the same potential for pulling off impossible plays and being a pain in the a** to the opponent that the skaven gutter runners have.

    Reply
  3. 1000TV starting roster:
    1 Kroxigor
    3 Catchers
    7 Linefrogs
    4 Rerolls
    1000TV even.
    The blitzers are 110,000g alone. That’s almost a Kroxigor!  Leave them at home, don’t worry about your Linefrogs getting injured, the journeymen are just as good.  You can pull off some amazing passing plays with your catchers as they come with diving catch standard.  First doubles on a Linefrog is Hail Mary! =)

    Reply
  4. I also thought I should mention that even though they can only take passing skills on doubles, they still have a decent passing game.  The Catchers come with diving catch and AG4, which means that even if they are in a single TZ, they are catching on a 2+ if the pass is accurate (-1 tz, +1 accurate pass, +1 diving catch accurate pass bonus).
    Also, if the pass is inaccurate, they still have a 46.85% chance that the ball will land in reach for a regular catch roll.  Check out the scatter table here: http://bbtactics.com/inaccurate-scatter-odds/

    Reply
  5. 1000TV Starting Roster:

    4 Blitzers
    5 Lineman
    2 Catchers
    2 RR

    1000TV Even

    This is the roster I started in my league with and it was very effective. Of course I sacrificed RR’s but with my diving takle blitzers I had no problem stopping the runner. Also staring out this way let me turn to blitzers into killing machines right of the bat with block, mighty blow, and piling on. It is tempting to go for the big guy on the starting roster but I hate dealing with loner and I find that I rather add him in later on down the line. The Catchers are great on this team but the heart and soul of this team is it’s Blitzer’s!!!!

    Reply
  6. I have played this team twice and they are amazing. Both times they have generated one catcher that turns into an unstoppable touchdown machine. First level is dodge to not have to rely on leap. Then add sure feet to up the movement to 9, sure hands for the ball and ignoring strip ball, sidestep to capitalize on where they get pushed and BINGO! No one can keep him out of the endzone. I also got lucky with a strength upgrade which left opposition angered at only throwing one die blocks.
    Blitzers, although expensive, are amazing for stopping fast, dodgey teams. Diving tackle with jump up makes these guys impossible to dodge.
    And i have to use the kroxiger since i play in smashmouth leagues.

    Reply
  7. I have played almost an entire league with the team and I must say I very much have mixed feelings on the team. The catchers are amazing and are almost as frustrating for opposing coaches to deal with as gutter runners are. My starting team was.
    1 Kroxigor
    3 Catchers
    7 Linemen
    4 RR

    AS

    Reply
    • After playing that team for 8 games in a primarily all bashy league. The team has a serious identity crisis. They aren’t really a agility team because of their lack of speed or lack of passing skills to choose from makes them a bad version of an High Elf team.

      Though they can really get around the field if needed. They are a fresh feel on Blood Bowl though and if you can get past the fact you will have lots of turnovers. They are really fun to play and I would recommend them to be played at least once.

      Reply
  8. Hey all,

    I’m considering playing these in my league next era. Its a 3 season league, with 16 games per season, so lots of development time and lots of TV ranges you end up playing in.

    We start at 1150TV teams. The caveot is there is also some free agents availalbe – experinced players that come loaded with skills. What roster would you reccommend? Since these guys are so expensive, i’m tempted to skip the experinced guys and just go all rookies so i can get mroe skill players and rerolls right off the gate. But it could be smarter to get some skill players who are even better at thier job (due to being levled somewhat already) but that would give me less overall rerolls or skill players. What would you suggest?

    Reply
  9. Since these jerks finally showed up in BB2 (under the guise of Kislev Circus), is there any chance you’re going to give them an in-depth overview like most other teams have (starting rosters, player development guides, etc.)?

    Reply
    • I can see this is getting a lot of interest, I’ll hopefully get around to them but with a new rulebook out later this year I don’t want to do a write up that will soon be out of date and there are going to be a lot of other articles that will need updating! Just thought I’d let you all know that I’ve seen the request.

      Reply
  10. Hey Coach, I’m really missing out on those individual player analysis pages for these guys! I just levelled one of my catchers and he got an Agi increase (5). How would you suggest I build him from there?

    Reply
    • It really depends what skills they already have and what the rest of the team looks like. Your best bet would be to post on the forum and list your whole roster. Also the other races that you most frequently face will come into play.

      Reply
  11. This article needs an update.

    Looking at the 2020 statlines, new Slann have Pogo Stick and Very Long Legs.

    Doesn’t that give the linemen and blitzers a 2+ leap that can never be modified? Am I reading something wrong?

    Expect Slann to be as hard to pin down as Elves and better at cracking boxes than Vampires.

    Their passing game took a hard hit (we cannot just have a Slann Catcher pretend to be the perfect thrower now). So they are going to have to rely on hand offs. But they still get that diving catch bonus for accurate hand offs.

    Reply
  12. Now I am rereading very long legs. It reduces penalties against leapers to potentially -1 rather than give the leaper a bonus.

    Since Pogo Stick completely ignores penalties, Very Long Legs doesn’t do anything except give you some pass interference.

    Reply

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