BB2020 Human Starting Rosters

Human Starting Rosters Overview

Humans teams have had a bit of tweaking under Second Season. The Throwers have benefitted from the new Passing stat and are better at passing than before, this does come at the cost of a price increase. Catchers and Blitzers are cheaper than they were under the Living Rulebook / Competition Rules. As you will have more of them on a team than Throwers this does count as an overall win for Human teams. Similar to Orc teams having access to Goblins, you can now take some Halflings on Human teams.

All those changes mean that there are some new and different options to consider for your starting lineup, whether you actually decide to use them though is another matter.

Ogre + No Catchers Human Team

This is very nearly identical to the roster I would have started Human teams with under the older rules. The rule changes now mean that you can also squeeze a Halfling in as an extra twelfth player! Whilst you can just view the Halfling as a cheap substitute, they are also a great trade off to risk when performing a foul action and you now also have a Throw Team Mate touchdown option. If you aren’t keen on the Halfling then you can bank the money and get an Apothecary after match one.

Starting without the Catchers keeps the average strength and armour up and like a lot of Catchers they tend to hog the star player points, which you desperately need to get on your Blitzers. If you wanted to start with a Catcher, you could lose the Halfling and upgrade one of the Linemen. That would also put you half way towards the Apothecary, or you can get some Dedicated Fans.

No Ogre Human Team

Dropping the Ogre and the Halfling gives you a lot more flexibility on how you want to start. If you drop a Lineman as well then you can have eleven players, an Apothecary and a nice big four rerolls. This might seem like a lot of rerolls for a team that has a lot of skills but with average strength and agility you might need to make some dodges with the Thrower or Blitzers, or some risky one die blocks. Rerolls just let you push your luck more frequently, especially now that you can use more than one a turn (though you still can’t reroll the same roll more than once).

If you don’t think you need that extra reroll then you can swap it for either another Lineman or add a Halfling to your team. You could also swap the two Catchers for two Linemen which gives you enough funds for adding a Halfling. The obvious downside to this roster is that you are missing that big bit of muscle that the Ogre provides.

Human Starting Rosters Summary

The changes to the Human team have opened up a lot choice and you can nearly fit everything you want in right from the start. Given that most leagues will have a lot of teams that are stronger it’s rare to see a Human team that doesn’t start with the Ogre. Even if you do, there is some flexibility with the starting choices you can make.

Despite the Blood Bowl lore always suggesting that they are meant to be the best race at the game, that hasn’t really ever translated into tabletop performance. These new rules have given them a little boost that might help make them that little more competitive.