BB2020 Chaos Renegade Starting Rosters

Chaos Renegade Starting Rosters Overview

Chaos Renegades differ from their Chaos Chosen cousins in that they can field up to three of four different Big Guy players. They are also serviced from a choice of renegade players from other races. This all adds up to a lot of different options and choices on how you want to start your team. The Big Guys are all expensive and so are the team rerolls and they also have the downside of lacking in starting skills, making a beginner team tough to play. Nearly all of the other players are pretty affordable so there is scope to get most of what you want.

The only player I would advise every team taking is the Dark Elf to get that very helpful high agility. The Orc is great due to his high armour, the Goblin gives you a cheap player to foul with and opens up Throw Team Mate plays (assuming an appropriate Big Guy is taken). The Skaven offers some extra speed but is a bit more fragile. Due to all the Animosity and average agility most of the time you are going to probably just try scoring with the player who picks the ball up. The Thrower does give you easy access to passing skills but I think you’ll best off using that to just get Leader for that extra reroll.

No Big Guy – 14 Players Chaos Renegades

Maybe you’re drawn to the idea of not starting with any of the Big Guy players. With cheap players you can load up on a huge squad of fourteen players to start with and still have change to get three of your expensive rerolls and an Apothecary. Going this route really points towards a heavy fouling strategy, trying to trade your plentiful cheap players for more valuable opponents. It does seem to miss some of the fun out by not having a big guy. You could also trade two of those perhaps excessive players to grab a fourth reroll and either bank the change or get some Dedicated Fans.

Single Big Guy Chaos Renegades

An obvious change from the fourteen man roster is to trade three of the Linemen and take any one of the Big Guys of your choice. The Minotaur and Rat Ogre use up all that budget and neither has the Throw Team Mate option from the get go. You will also find that they somewhat demand the use of your blitz action on most turns or they can stand around doing nothing.

The Ogre gives you 10k excess, is the most reliable and offers the Throw Team Mate ability with the Goblin. Trolls offer even more change and is a slightly slower and slightly less reliable Ogre. You still get more than eleven players and an Apothecary so you have a deeper bench than a lot of starting teams. It still isn’t really making the most of the unique draw that Chaos Renegade teams offer.

I would also give some consideration to dropping the Thrower, going to 11 players and starting with a fourth reroll. You’ll be able to save up for the Thrower much quicker than an extra reroll, or you might ignore the Thrower and go straight towards getting a second Big Guy.

3x Big Guys Chaos Renegades

This fits in all the big fun with a little bit of change. The Dark Elf is too good not to have in my opinion. You could juggle things about a bit if you wanted both the Minotaur and the Rat Ogre, however they both will want to use the team blitz action, unless you have them in the thick of it. As they have the lowest armour of the Big Guys they are a bit more fragile and might need looking after. If you will be blitzing a lot with them, then the Minotaur having Horns just about edges out the two and Thick Skull will keep them on the pitch that little bit more often. Having two strength five monsters with Frenzy could be good fun, so by all means go that way if it attracts you.

The downsides to getting all the monsters in is that you have to drop down to two rerolls on a low skill team. The total number of players now is down to the minimum of eleven and you can’t afford an Apothecary for protecting those expensive big guys. Dropping the Dark Elf to a cheaper team mate, along with the money in the bank would let you get another player in (or the Apothecary) however an agility four player is very hard to pass up when you have minimal skills and rerolls.

Balanced Chaos Renegades

This roster probably offers the most balance between all of the more extreme examples above. You get eleven players including two Big Guys, three rerolls and an Apothecary. One of those players is the rather weak and fragile Goblin. There is a bit of change in the bank so you could upgrade the Goblin to either an equally fragile Skaven, or a slightly more robust Lineman. Dropping the Goblin does mean giving up any Throw Team mate from the outset and despite their low strength their nimbleness can be useful as well.

You could also swap the Apothecary for the Skaven or Lineman, though I think the Apothecary offers more, especially if it saves one of your expensive Big Guys. There is also enough in the bank to swap the Apothecary and the loose change to get a fourth starting reroll which is another option I find appealing.

Chaos Renegade Starting Rosters Summary

The starting rosters suggested above are all quite different without going to the full extremes of taking even less rerolls. I’d lean towards the balanced one, I advise starting with as many rerolls as practical, especially on low skill, average speed and agility teams. I’d be very tempted to go with that last one and swapping the Apothecary and leftovers for that extra reroll.

Going with a starting lineup of three Big Guy players does mean only having two starting rerolls, though all three of those players do have Loner. If you’re using them a lot on your turns, then using rerolls when they mess up isn’t a desirable option anyway.

Outside of the Big Guys there isn’t a lot of strength on the team and not much access to strength skills to easily grab Guard. On the other side of the coin the team isn’t very agile either and doesn’t have much easy access to agility skills for getting Dodge. Both of these factors also contribute to perhaps doing slightly more risky rolls, where again team rerolls can be worth their weight in gold.