Khorne Starting Rosters Overview
With the news that the team actually has 60k rerolls rather than 70k rerolls as expected I’ve made some adjustments below to the original assumption.
Khorne are making their official tabletop debut late in 2021 so I would expect to see an initial influx of teams making an appearance in leagues and tournaments. Their Linemen are low armoured, the strong players and rerolls are expensive but the Khorngors seem quite reasonably priced.
Please note that this version of the Khorne team is different from the one found in the PC Game Blood Bowl that came out back in 2012.
| QTY | Position | Cost | MA | ST | AG | PA | AV | Skills & Traits | Pri | Sec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-16 | Bloodborn Marauder Linemen | 50k | 6 | 3 | 3+ | 4+ | 8+ | Frenzy | GM | AS |
| 0-4 | Khorngors | 70k | 6 | 3 | 3+ | 4+ | 9+ | Horns, Juggernaut | GMS | AP |
| 0-4 | Bloodseekers | 110k | 5 | 4 | 4+ | 6+ | 10+ | Frenzy | GMS | A |
| 0-1 | Bloodspawn | 160k | 5 | 5 | 4+ | – | 9+ | Claws, Frenzy, Loner (4+), Mighty Blow (+1), Unchannelled Fury | MS | AG |
| 0-8 | Rerolls | 60k | Apothecary: Yes | |||||||
| Special Rules | Favoured of Khorne? |
3 Rerolls Khorne
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Bloodborn Marauder Linemen | 200k |
| 4 | Khorngors | 280k |
| 3 | Bloodseekers | 330k |
| 3 | Rerolls | 180k |
| Total | 990k |
I always try to see if I can make a team with having three rerolls in when I first see their team options. I think this comes out as a nice well rounded team. The Khorngors are the prime candidates for doing the ball handling as they don’t have Frenzy. You can just about afford to get three Bloodseekers into the team, they are expensive but as they are slow to skill up having them early gives them more chance to get MVPs or cause casualties.
I would be wary of starting with less rerolls, they take a long time to save up for after starting the team. You don’t have any players that come with any ball handling or core skills like Block and Dodge. The lack of primary Passing skill access also makes it tricky to get a Leader reroll as well. I would start with this team but let’s look at some more options.
Bloodspawn High Strength Khorne
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Bloodborn Marauder Linemen | 250k |
| 2 | Khorngors | 140k |
| 3 | Bloodseekers | 330k |
| 1 | Bloodspawn | 160k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 120k |
| Total | 1000k |
There will certainly be an appeal to taking a lot of high strength players as Frenzy as possible on the team and this is one way of doing it. You get the really expensive Big Guy (who is surprisingly agile) to go with three Bloodseekers. The extra strength along with the nasty combination of Frenzy, Claws and Mighty Blow would be great to have if facing a lot of high armour bashing teams. To afford all this you drop down to only two rerolls and then a single Khorngor who may end up hogging all the touchdowns. You do also have to take an extra Lineman who is that bit more fragile.
Maximum Bloodseekers Khorne
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Bloodborn Marauder Linemen | 150k |
| 4 | Khorngors | 280k |
| 4 | Bloodseekers | 440k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 120k |
| Total | 990k |
Rather than taking the less reliable and very expensive Bloodspawn, you can fit in all four Bloodseekers and get all four Khorngors. This roster also leaves a bit of change to either afford an Apothecary after game one, or to start with some Dedicated Fans.
Getting skills on the Bloodseekers is probably more important than on a Bloodspawn so starting with them as early as possible is appealing. Having more than one Khorngor gives you a backup if one gets injured and lets you develop two for ball handling and two for blitzing ball carriers. It also will spread the star player points around a bit better, assuming you share the touchdowns between them. This roster also has the highest average armour, which combined with the ease you can get an Apothecary suggests it should be the most resilient. If you’re in a bash heavy environment then that can be appealing, but then so is the can opening capabilities of a Bloodspawn…
Khorne Starting Rosters Summary
Despite the high cost of the rerolls and some of the players I think there are some solid starting choices that you can build for Khorne teams. You can make a decent argument for starting any of these three options and I think it will come down to a combination of personal preference along with the opposing teams you are going to be facing.
If you’ve any feedback on any starting rosters you try and if they went well, or if they went terribly, then please feel free to share your experiences in the comments.
Hi there.
Why don’t use 20k of the remaining 30k gold to upgrade one of the lineman to a third khorngor in the last roster?
There’s some chance to be able to afford the apothecary after the first game and you will play with one less AV8+ fury guy and have more chances to get the mvp one your more interesting players.
As always, good article, guys!
Great point Torhem, I’ve updated the article to reflect that.
I see the bloodspawn as a trap, it costs way too much for a liability. Frenzy is great as long as the opponent doesn’t set up frenzy traps. I think that a lot of coaches are going to learn how to deal with frenzy from now on.
Blood seekers are great, yes, but no block or tackle is going to make them sad. More dice is nice, but nuffle rules the pitch. Also the Khorne gors are going to be doing the blitzing, because of horns and juggernaut.
As soon as I saw the cheap cheap roster my first thought was doggos, grunts and rerolls !
However, even though 4 khorne gors and 8 marauders (Khorne’s favourite number!) and 5 rerolls is possible, that 5th reroll might be overkill (ironic for a khorne team) Of course more fans or an apothecary (but to save who?) could be nice instead.
An alternative could be 1 bloodseeker, 7 Marauders, 4 Khorne gors, 4 rerolls, it fits nicely too.
Hello, I just wanted to put out my go-to roster. 6 linemen, 2 khorn-gors, 2 bloodseekers, 1 bloodspawn, and 3 rerolls. saves you some much needed earnings from investing into a 3rd reroll from the start. I think on a rookie roster like this, you need that mighty blow/claws on the big guy. sure the combo got nerfed, but it is still strong at removing opposing pieces off the pitch.
I’m surprised that you keep putting so many Khornegors on a starting linup. The old wisdom is that they have diminishing returns since only one each turn can actually blitz.
Starting with four strikes me as inefficient.
Sure only one can blitz a turn, however having more of them means you are more likely to have one in the best position to do that blitz. It gives you flexibility in positioning and to change your plan. Having them more spread out also makes it harder for the opponent to work out where the blitz will be. Lastly it also protects you against injury, if you only have one and they get injured then none of them will be blitzing.
Also consider that a Khorngor is likely to be your main ball carrier. The old wisdom also says to avoid blitzing with the ball carrier. Combine that with the above and hopefully that spells out why I place importance on them.
Each khorngor you can put on the pitch is one linemen less on It. You don’t want to have many of those frenzy hobgoblins. There’s nothing that they can do better than khorngors. Khorngors are everything when the ball is on the pitch.
Yes, you can try to score with a linemen, same movement and agility has some value, but the khorngors have quite better skills to choice, are more resilients and are good balanced on cost.
That’s why I guess the maximum bloodseekers roster is the best option.
Against strong bash game, linemen just stand a couple of hits.
I am 4 games in with a modified 3 Rerolls build (swapped out a Khornegor for a Marauder and spent the difference to bring dedicated fans up to 4). I am pleased with the performance so far. With an average of 2.25 TDs per game, the winnings have been good (bought apothecary after game 1 and Bloodspawn after game 3). Skill-wise, Bloodseekers have been saving for Block, 1 Khornegor is at 14 SPP saving for stat roll, and everyone else has been rolling random primaries. Bloodspawn just had his debut and his misbehaving was pretty bad. No regret on not buying him at the 1M start.