Norse Starting Rosters Overview
2022 sees the Norse team have a bit of an update from the previously released version in the Teams of Legend document. The Throwers and Catchers / Runners have been done away with and replaced by a Valkyrie position. The Linemen have had a buff and a nerf and the team now also can utilise a Beer Boar or two…
Whilst the Linemen and Boars are fairly cheap the rest of the team’s players are fairly expensive. I personally would choose to take the Berserkers last. The Yhetee and Ulfwereners are slow to get skills on, so the more games they play the better. Also the Valkyries give you some much needed speed and are better at handling the ball then the rest of the team. As they don’t start with Block or Dodge getting them skilled up asap is also going to be useful to their survival. The Berserkers have Frenzy which is nice, though so do the Ulfwereners. They also start with Block so even adding them a bit later they have reasonable protection from the get go. They are slightly cheaper than Valkyries or Ulfwereners so starting with one might free up some funds to get you the options you want.
| QTY | Position | Cost | MA | ST | AG | PA | AV | Skills & Traits | Pri | Sec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-16 | Norse Raider Lineman | 50k | 6 | 3 | 3+ | 4+ | 8+ | Block, Drunkard, Thick Skull | G | APS |
| 0-2 | Beer Boars | 20k | 5 | 1 | 3+ | – | 6+ | Dodge, No Hands, Pick-me-up, Stunty, Titchy | – | A |
| 0-2 | Norse Berserker | 90k | 6 | 3 | 3+ | 5+ | 8+ | Block, Frenzy, Jump Up | GS | AP |
| 0-2 | Valkyrie | 95k | 7 | 3 | 3+ | 3+ | 8+ | Catch, Dauntless, Pass, Strip Ball | AGP | S |
| 0-2 | Ulfwerener | 105k | 6 | 4 | 4+ | – | 9+ | Frenzy | GS | A |
| 0-1 | Yhetee / Snow Troll | 140k | 5 | 5 | 4+ | – | 9+ | Claws, Disturbing Presence, Frenzy, Loner (4+), Unchannelled Fury | S | AG |
| 0-8 | ReRolls | 60k | Apothecary: Yes | |||||||
| Special Rules | Pick One: Either ‘Favoured of… (choose either: Chaos Undivided or Khorne)’ or ‘Old World Classic’ |
Reroll Heavy Norse
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 8 | Norse Linemen | 400k |
| 1 | Valkyrie | 95k |
| 2 | Ulfwereners | 210k |
| 4 | Rerolls | 240k |
| 1 | Apothecary | 50k |
| Total | 995k |
Norse Linemen are cheap, start with Block and are now slightly harder to remove from the pitch due to the addition of Thick Skull. Drunkard will be a bit annoying but they are still decent players for their price. Starting with a lot of them frees up a lot of funds to allow you to go heavy with rerolls. Being able to use multiple rerolls per turn under the latest rules makes them even more useful.
Ulfwereners can be slow to develop so starting with both of them gives them more chances to get SPP (usually via casualties or the MVP). Frenzy and strength four is also a useful combination to have. With lots of rerolls don’t be afraid to try and feed them the ball to get the odd touchdown either. Valkyries have the unusual combination of Catch and Pass and whilst they have lost Block, Strip Ball is a powerful skill, especially early on when other teams will be less likely to have Sure Hands. Not having Block does make it less awkward to go with Wrestle instead and you’ll also want to try and get Dodge asap. For those reasons I would start with one over a Berserker. There’s also enough left over to fit an Apothecary in from the get go. All your winnings can then go towards adding the rest of the positional players.
Yhetee & 3 Reroll Norse
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Norse Linemen | 350k |
| 1 | Valkyrie | 95k |
| 2 | Ulfwereners | 210k |
| 1 | Yhetee | 140k |
| 3 | Rerolls | 180k |
| Total | 975k |
This roster gives you the three strongest starting players that you have access to, all of whom can be slow to develop. Three rerolls is very serviceable to keep your options open for most of the game. The Valkyrie is in there for a bit of speed and you want to start getting skills on them asap. The Berserkers again take a back seat as they are pretty good as soon as you buy them. You can’t quite fit in an Apothecary to start with, though the option is there to drop the Valkyrie to another Linemen if you wanted. This is probably the most well rounded option and the one I’d recommend to most people.
You can also swap two Linemen and take a Beer Boar and the second Valkyrie which leaves you 10k in the bank. That does mean two less players with Block on the pitch, along with a very low armour strength one player. Though the Pick-me-up from the Boar could come in useful and the second Valkyrie can be hard for the other team to defend against.
12 Player Positional Heavy Norse
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Norse Linemen | 200k |
| 2 | Beer Boars | 40k |
| 2 | Norse Berserkers | 180k |
| 2 | Valkyries | 190k |
| 2 | Ulfwereners | 210k |
| 3 | Rerolls | 180k |
| Total | 1000k |
The addition of Beer Boars gives you two very cheap players which let you spread the funds further. The Beer Boars are pretty weak and fragile but their Pick-me-up trait can come in handy. They are cheap enough to not mind losing them when fouling and it also means you can start with twelve players. You could also elect to drop one of them to save 20k towards an Apothecary after the first match. The existence of the Beer Boars not only means you can afford most of your better players, but there is also enough money to have three rerolls too.
Maximum Frenzy Norse
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Norse Linemen | 250k |
| 2 | Norse Berserkers | 180k |
| 1 | Valkyrie | 95k |
| 2 | Ulfwereners | 210k |
| 1 | Yhetee | 140k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 120k |
| Total | 995k |
Whilst I’d probably look to start with a Valkyrie over a Berserker, if you’re a fan of Frenzy then this gets you all five of your Frenzy players to start with. Unfortunately you can’t quite squeeze in three rerolls but there is enough money to get an Apothecary. As someone who likes a lot of rerolls starting with two isn’t a route I’d personally go with, especially as they cost double after team creation. You could downgrade one of the positional players to a Linemen which would free up the funds to start with an Apothecary.
All Positional Norse
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Norse Linemen | 100k |
| 2 | Beer Boars | 40k |
| 2 | Norse Berserkers | 180k |
| 2 | Valkyrie | 190k |
| 2 | Ulfwereners | 210k |
| 1 | Yhetee | 140k |
| 2 | Rerolls | 120k |
| Total | 980k |
This roster is the other end of the spectrum from the first one. Starting with only two rerolls and just two Linemen you can fit in every single positional player that the Norse team can select. It does have a bare eleven players and two of those are strength one with low armour. Hopefully you can make sure of all your starting skills to alleviate the need of rerolls. If you do end up losing the Boars then a journeyman Norse player is one of the most useful types of journeymen you can get.
Norse Team Starting Rosters Summary
Even with the changes to the Norse team in 2022, they are still one of the most flexible when it comes to selecting your starting roster. The addition of the Beer Boars is an interesting twist that’s not been seen before in Blood Bowl. Valkyries also give you something different to think about and my initial reaction to them is that they may end up being the most important players on your team. With so many different starting options that are possible it’s going to come down to each player’s own preferences on how you like to play.
Made a mistake on Sec for Norse Berserker they get P on Secondary. Also the Yhetee has AG4+.
Thanks Robert, missed those changes as I was editing a copy of the old one. All updated now.
With regards to New Norse:-
They seem to have better linemen now. I agree that the Drunkards rule shouldn’t impact them a great deal. Like with Orcs and animosity it will be more of an annoyance than a crippling nega trait.
Ulfs and Beserkers seem very similar if not exactly the same.
Valks could become my favourite players. What a fantastic starting point! You could grow them into catchers, blitzers, safeties or even passers depending on their skill Choice. With AGP Primary and S Secondary With 3 skills you could have:-
Safety – Wrestle, Tackle, Dodge – Having strip ball already means you’re popping the ball out on all but a skull.
Blitzer – Block, Dodge, Tackle (Mighty Blow if you wanted to save) – Dauntless means you could even take out bigger foes.
Catcher – Block, Dodge, Diving Catch (Sure Feet, Side Step and Sprint would also be great). Having pass means that if you get stuck you have a free reroll for a quick switch play. Dauntless means you may be able to blitz out of trouble.
Thrower – Imagine OTB, get under the kick and you already have catch to reroll. Then if you can get accurate and sure hands you have a semi-reliable thrower. Okay it’s not optimal but it gives another option and you have a Another Val team mate somewhere who can catch! Also Dump Off can help.
Beer Boars – Brilliant thinking outside the box. I did wonder when people began saying no-one would take them. I think its a great design idea and something we haven’t seen before. Of all the changes this may be the one that doesn’t work so well. I suppose if it was a choice between boars or linemen there is no choice. Starting with one may help you afford other players though.
Anyway, I’m so excited to see how this New Norse shapes up for League and Tournaments.
The major problem Valkaries have is that they have too much potential when you are restricted to only fielding 2 of them. I rather wish we could field 4 so that we could explore all of the things they can do.
As for the Beer Boars, for being so cheap, I think they’re plenty worth taking. I’ve played Ogres enough to know that titchy little gits like this get into all of the most annoying places. Even without Pick Me Up, the little 20k boar can really get in the way and make up his cost easily.
I don’t think that Drunkard is really comparable to Animosity.
Passing/hand offs with orcs is exceptional, especially with orc linemen.
GFIs will happen regularly, or rather, could. Turning the 2+ into a 3+ means that sometimes, you won’t reposition your lineman to get better dice. And it also means that catching with faster teams will be more difficult.
Yes, you should avoid GFIs. But there are regularly games where you have to do them. In fact, for the opponent, knowing that the 2+ GFIs they can make to outspeed you mean that you have to make 3+ GFIs already changes a lot of things.
By comparison, Animosity on Orcs is only very situationally relevant.
—-
Ulfs and Berzerkers are nothing alike. Ulfs are tough guys for the team, and perfect pieces to get guard, block, stand firm. They won’t necessarily block a lot.
Berzerkers are blitzers that develop into killers. They need assists from other players. They get mighty blow and tackle.
—-
Valkyries: yeah they seem like swiss army knives. However I want to note that the purpose of Dauntless on them isn’t to take out bigger players. As ball carriers, dauntless makes it possible to blitz out of complicated places, then dodge away.
And honestly, I’d rather save for +MA or +AGI than take something like Diving Catch or passing skills on them. Especially since +MA costs less TV than surefeet+sprint.
Beer boars are exceptional foulers and can even get sneaky git, they also can get into tight spots for some much-needed assists. Only the greediest player would throw their block or assist on a boar when there is an angry drunkard with block right beside it ready to punish you for your hubris.
It looks like Beer Boars cannot take primary skills. Is that right? That means they either need to roll random at 6 sp or wait until they have 12 to take sneaky git.
It will take a good long while for them to get SP since they can’t touch the ball and won’t be throwing blocks.
U don’t want to level those little piggies anyways. I’ll start with one or two to free up space for good positionals/rerolls. if the boar gets killed or i fire it after first game i get 50k loner lineman with block for free and I’m going use the boars as turn markers :).
They’re actually not bad on the team purely to turn off frenzy traps since there is alot of frenzy on the team. That’s actually how I’ve been using them and if they get a pick-me-up then yay.
Well yeah, if you’re unlucky enough to get two MVPs on a board, you roll random agi. If you don’t get SG you just rebuy it, it’s quite cheap.
I feel like the Valkaries have a lot of pressure on them to be the only ball handlers. Drunkard does make the linemen worse as ball runners or even box corners (they’ll never keep up with the Valks).
Valks have a nice set of skills, though it is rough to have lost those old catcher/runners who were secretly fantastic blitzers.
This team has really come a long way since it was first introduced as “humans with lower armor and block.”
I think that Drunkard is more of an annoyance defensively than offensively. With norse, you can manage your offense without the need to make GFIs.
But defensively, against teams like elves or lizardmen, you’ll probably need to make a few GFIs, and sometimes with linemen…
So I’ve been less than impressed with the zerks and only a bit more impressed with the valks. They’re good really early but once teams all have sure hands they struggle to have impact equal to their TV.
But the beer boars… Getting a titchy piece to dodge in and turn off frenzy traps is amazing.
I’m new to playing Norse and was unsure of beer boars. I’d love to know what you and the other commentators mean by ‘turning off frenzy traps’ – I can’t quite follow what that means. Please can you explain this tactic in a bit more detail? Thanks.
Hi. A Frenzy trap is one where a positive block in the favour of your Frenzy player turns into a negative second Frenzy block in favour of the other team. These situations happen due to the change in assists after you only get a push result in the first block.
You can sometimes use a Beer Boar to move into position so that the second Frenzy block isn’t going to be such a turnover risk. It won’t always be possible depending on what squares are available, or if there is a lot of Guard in play.
I think the zerks are great, not because they are amazing players in and of themselves, but because they are pretty solid even as an unskilled rookie. If you lose an experienced zerk it doesn’t really matter that much as you can just pick up a new one and they’ll be effective right away, so you can afford to be more aggressive with them. Valks, not so much – they need a couple skills before they really start shining and with AV8+ (and being the primary ball carriers) they are probably not going to live too long.
The pigs though, oh dear lord the pigs. Far and away my favourite player in the team. AV 6+ doesn’t matter because nobody’s going to waste their Blitz on them when all the positionals are AV 8/9+, and with Dodge/Stunty/Titchy you’re rarely going to end your turn with your pigs basing your opponents. So there’s a solid chance your pigs are going to stay on the pitch until they get ejected by the ref. Until they do though, you’re getting a player that dodges into any square on a 2+, who can assist/remove assists to support your Frenzy players, and get into the perfect position to deliver devastating gang-fouls.
As for Pick-me-Up – consider that having a player stand up like that will often mean an extra block per turn if your opponent follows up. Conservatively, this means around 2-3 extra blocks per game, which is a good deal for 20k, especially since you’re getting a pretty useful support piece as well.
All this, plus Thick Skull on the linos! I absolutely love the new Norse.
I’m new to blood bowl and looking at Norse as my first team. Any tips or guidance is more than welcome.
Also what do you mean by “turn off frenzy traps?”
Hey Matt, I’ve explained Frenzy traps in an above comment. This article is about the starting rosters, so look for more specific advice on both Norse and Blood Bowl generally in other articles on the site. Good luck on the pitch!
4 RR norse is the truth. Or, if you want to bully a long term league, go 3 RR, take 5 DF and throw randoms on Valks until they hit leader, drop another reroll and run 110k cheaper than you should and bully everyone with your great star players.
Hi, Coach.
Creat article. IMO there’s another good day to start if your league is not a short one.
7 lineman 350
2 valkyrie 190
2 ulfwerener 210
3 RR 180.
1 apothecary 50
Total 980
After that, I would save money for a yethi and then I would try to get my first berserker or maybe a 4th RR.
It’s a small variation of your first roster, dropping a RR to get the last valkyrie just to try to get both as blodgers ASAP.
Hi Torhem, thank you for commenting, this seems like a perfectly reasonable alteration to make. In theory having so much Block should help negate the need of a reroll.
Hi Coach, this article is a great start for beginners like me looking to start in a league. I’m torn between 2 list, so I was wondering which one you think would be better.
5 linemen
2 Ulfwereners
2 Valkyries
2 Berserkers
2 Rerolls
Apothecary
or
6 linemen
2 Ulfwereners
2 Valkyries
2 Berserkers
2 Rerolls
Both total 1000k.
Hi John, after a few seasons under my belt since writing these up, it turns out the Apothecary is no where near as good as they used to be. Due to both that and the fact that fouling is useful I would go with the 12 player version. I’m undecided if an Apothecary is even worth having for a lot of teams under the current version. If you’ve got important positional players, especially with lower armour, then maybe…
Would the Apothecary be useful because the Valkyries and the Berserkers.
Berserker are linemen + frenzy (which is dangerous for a 3ST player) – thick skull, if you play a 1M friendly game I would never use berserker.
Against agile teams I would play:
– 8 linemen 400
– 2 ulf 210
– 2 valkyrie 190
– 1 beer boar 20
– 3 RR
this makesa total of 1M and you have 13 players on your roster !
How does this line up fare?
x2 Valkyrie 190K
x2 Norse Berserker 180k
x6 Lineman 300K
x2 Beer Boars 40k
x4 RR 240K
x1 Apo 50 K
1000K Total
12 People 4 Rerolls
Hi, there.
Honestly, I would try to fit the Ulfeweners instead of Berserker. With a better armor and strenght, they are a big difference on the board.