TV1000 Goblin Starting Roster

This article was written for a previous version of the Blood Bowl rules and has some outdated information in it. You might still find it contains some useful information.

There is now an an updated Blood Bowl 2020 Second Season Goblin Starting Rosters article.

Goblin Starting Roster Overview:

Compared to every other team Goblins have perhaps more options to consider, with their range of cheap players and cheap inducements which include their Star Players and half priced Bribes. Due to this it is hard to give a definitive selection of the best way to actually set up your initial lineup.

The main things to consider would be if you want to take advantage of all the cheap inducements and start with a lower Team Value like is common for Halfling teams. This can either get you some cheap bribes which will let you get more time on the pitch for your Secret Weapon players (or Stars). Or you may elect to hire the cheap Star Players, or maybe even a combination of both Stars and Bribes. When it comes to the Star Players, they have the advantage that they come with some extra skills straight away and if they get hurt, that money isn’t coming out of your treasury. The downside is that they have Loner and they may end up taking SPP that your on roster players could have got.

Your other big consideration would be the number of players you have on the team and how likely it is that you will get outnumbered. Most of your team is low strength and has low armour, so injuries to them shouldn’t come as a big surprise, especially against opposition who have Block or Tackle. The other way you will frequently lose players is your Secret Weapon players getting sent off and either you have no Bribes or the Bribes fail. You could also get sent off due to fouling as well. As soon as you start to get outnumbered it will become increasingly easier for the other team.

Thankfully though your players are mostly very cheap so it is easy to get a full team of sixteen players if you wanted to do so. Even if you used money to hire Star Players you are still likely to be able to start off with more players than the opposition.

Basic TV1000 Goblin Starting Roster:

QuantityPlayer / ItemCost
9Goblins360k
2Trolls220k
3Rerolls180k
Total760k

This is probably the bare minimum you want to start out with, having the bare eleven players and three rerolls. You could start with even less rerolls though bare in mind they double in cost so I would go with at least three. Otherwise though you have both Trolls who are the most likely of your players to stay on the pitch thanks to their high strength, armour and Regeneration. Then nine Goblins gets you up to the required eleven and none of them are hindered by Secret Weapon. This leaves you with 240k to either keep in the bank and rely on Inducements, or to perhaps tailor the lineup a little bit more to your liking.

Which ever way you decide to go I would at least get two more players, you can easily afford a tenth Goblin and one of the Secret Weapon players and still have enough left over for two bribes against a TV1000 team. If you are playing a more developed team already then you will get even more inducement money to spend as well, though chances are you will be even more likely to need more players as well.

All of the Secret Weapon players have their own advantages I personally recommend that you consider the Fanatic as their strength seven is very hard for most other teams to deal with, especially if they are still fairly new themselves. It also means that you can field a strong Line of Scrimmage for at least one drive which will protect the rest of your Goblins a bit better. Assuming you have at least one bribe to be able to start them on the first turn of at least two drives, they are probably the most likely not to get injured as well (unless they fall over from a go for it). The others all perform better against certain races, the Chainsaw against lower armoured teams and the Bombardier against lower agility teams. So if at all possible consider the other teams in your league, or cause you are playing Goblins just take the ones you think will be the most fun!

TV1000 Goblin Starting Roster Summary:

Unlike the other starting roster articles I’ve left this one a bit more open to interpretation. I feel as long as you start with a decent amount of players to minimise the chances of getting outnumbered then there isn’t going to be a great deal between the many choices. Goblins are one of the harder teams to be successful with and the players can be quite fragile. Given the likelihood of  player turnover you will probably get a good chance to try out all the different Secret Weapon players at some point, even if that is cause you are getting lots of inducements because your team has been battered about previously. Compared to Halflings going completely minimal in the starting roster isn’t perhaps the best way to go, though I would give some good consideration to leaving 100~130k free so you can induce two bribes from game one.

4 thoughts on “TV1000 Goblin Starting Roster”

  1. Great to see a new update, Coach!

    If you’re thinking about going lower than the very solid TV 760+ build here, we had a discussion about it over on the forums which threw up a few interesting ideas:

    http://bbtactics.com/forums/low-tv-goblin-starting-roster-t609/

    The general consensus was that there weren’t the sort of advantages to be gained that the same approach with Halflings would allow. But that’s not to say it wouldn’t be fun to find out!

    Reply
  2. Good idea with the more open structure on the article. There are so many possible Goblin starting rosters that it would be pointless to try to describe all of them here.

    I think the key to a successful Goblin team is managing the TV – that’s why I wouldn’t recommend this team in a TV-based match-making environment. In the Cyanide game, for example, You want Your team’s TV to be at least 150k lower than the team You’re playing against next (for three bribes) and ideally it would be 420k lower (for three bribes and Ripper star player), or more. If You don’t use secret weapons all that much (why wouldn’t You? ;), You can survive with less bribes, but I would get at least one each time, as it will allow You to foul knocked down opponents every turn, without wondering too much about getting sent off.
    So, for a new league I would recommend keeping the total starting TV below 900, but if You join an already running league, You can safely go higher, depending on other teams present.

    Reply
  3. If you are so lucky that you get a double on a normal gobbo, then Dirty Player all the way – just for the heck of it.

    Reply
  4. If you want the ultimate challenge, go for 16 basic goblins, 6 rerolls and ff6.

    If you can play it is a reasonably effective team.

    Reply

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