This article was written for a previous version of the Blood Bowl rules and has some outdated information in it.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 useful until an updated version is available.
Black Orcs are no longer available to Orc teams and have been replaced by Orc Big Uns. Black Orcs have their own separate Black Orc Team now. Check out the new Black Orc Blockers Development guide if you’re playing the new version.
Black Orc Blocker Overview:
Black Orcs make really good blockers and are a key position for a successful Orc team. They are great value which above average strength and high armour, whilst not paying extra for movement and agility that they will rarely use. They do all the muscle work around the Line Of Scrimmage and in the middle of rucks, freeing up the Blitzers to perform their roles. Without Black Orcs an Orc team wouldn’t be able to stand up in a fight against the other bashing teams. Their high strength also means you can funnel agility teams where you want as they will have trouble fighting their way past the Black Orcs.
The main downside with Black Orcs though is that they are very slow to skill up. Their low movement and agility makes handling the ball and scoring with them somewhat tricky. They also come with no starting skills, notably Block, which means they can be unreliable and also will get less knock downs compared to those who start with Block and can engineer assists. Apart from SPP from casualties they will generally rely on getting the MVP.
With that in mind when developing them you have to decide between taking skills that will help them generate SPP quicker (mostly from blocking), or to taking skills which will help the rest of the team out as a whole. Quite how you develop may also depend on the other teams in your league, if there aren’t many other bashing teams then your higher strength should lead towards taking Block and Mighty Blow first. Otherwise you may be better off taking Guard to help against other strong teams. If you don’t do this then your Blitzers will probably need to take Guard instead, which means they will have to forgo other options.
General Blockers:
- Normal: Guard/Block, Mighty Blow/Stand Firm/Grab
- Doubles: Dodge/Diving Tackle/Jump Up
- Stat Increase: +ST +MA
Guard is probably the best choice for the first skill as it aids their role in the team perfectly. They will often be in the middle of a ruck where Guard is invaluable. Their high strength means they are harder to block away and they are also strong and armoured enough to stand the hits that Guard players will often take. It also frees up your Blitzers to take other skills to help them perform. Guard will stop other teams from being to out muscle you as it will be really hard to get two dice blocks on you.
The alternative is to take Block first, though if you do this other bashing teams are still likely to be able to hit you easily. The flip side is you get more knock downs and progress faster whilst also being more reliable. Which ever of Guard or Block you take as your first skill, then take the other of the two on your second increase, unless you get a double or a useful stat increase. If you do take Block first on the first Black Orc to skill up, then it is probably best to take it as the first skill on all of them. The reason being is that you want to do the less risky blocks first, which means using your Block players. As a result they will get in more blocks and progress faster leaving the other Black Orcs behind in development, especially if you gave the others Guard.
For a third skill you have quite a few options now, Mighty Blow will make them hit harder, aiding progression and removing more opposition players. Stand Firm combos great with Guard, especially so on higher strength players. Grab can also be useful for getting in more Blocks, creating bigger gaps for moving a cage through, or setting up crowd pushes.
For doubles rolls, the main options are either Dodge, making them really hard to knock over, or Diving Tackle to keep targets to hit in your tackle zones. Jump Up can help get more blocks in and also helps keep your movement to keep up with a cage, it will also combine well with Piling On for a killer build. For stat increases, +ST is obviously great, +AG is a waste, though +AV can be useful I would lean more towards taking +MA to keep them a bit more mobile. For a first skill increase though, unless it was +ST I would probably skip it to take Guard or Block instead, otherwise you will really lag behind in development.
Killer Blocker:
You can’t go wrong just building all four Black Orcs using the general build, though you may be tempted by building one to be a bit more nasty (though Blitzers can also go this way instead). Start off with Block to be more reliable and knock more opponents over. Follow up with Mighty Blow to cause more damage and then Piling On to really pile on the pain. I would probably take Guard after that as you can never have enough, though Grab may keep targets next to you to give you the maximum number of blocks.
For doubles Jump Up is probably the best choice as you will be left prone after using Piling On to injure the other team, Jump Up will give you more range around the pitch. +ST is great as you can get your two dice blocks on more players and +MV could be useful to be able to reach targets.
Black Orc Blocker Summary:
As you can see Black Orcs are key to running a successful caging Orc team. As they are somewhat hampered by their slow development it is best to start with them all in your starting line up to maximise their opportunity to get an MVP. If you are running away with a game then by all means try and score with them as well, a touch back on the kick off means you won’t even have to roll to give the ball to one of them. Be wary about taking doubles and stat increases as well for their first couple of skills, whilst they may be useful in the long run, you can really slow down their development.. This could really hamper your team as a whole, so think about just how useful that +MV or +AV actually is for their first skill when you roll it.
Can we get a guide like this for the rest of the orks, this is very well done and teaches me a lot ^_^ Thanks for this website it is very useful.
Glad you appreciate it, the other Orcs are on their way, as in every other player at some point!
I’ve recently been toying with ways to break a cage using a strength team, one thing that has proven remarkably helpful (unexpectedly so) is black orcs (or chaos warriors) with jump up and grab.
You pin the cage down during your turn, by obstructing in the usual way, then at the end of your turn (as your last action) you dodge into contact with the ball carrier (or as close as you can get) with your black orc. He falls over, ending your turn. Unless you’re very unlucky though, he’ll be merely knocked down.
Assuming your pinning of the cage did a reasonable job, they will really struggle to NOT have a member of the cage still in contact with the fallen black orc at the start of your next turn. At which point he jumps up and, using grab, either rips a hole in the cage, or puts the ball carrier in reach of other players. Either way, there’s a possibly exposed ball carrier without you having to have used a blitz.
My actual current orc team i was playing around with this on has two blockers with jump up, one also has stand firm, the other doesnt.
So the stand firm one now goes and stands in contact on one side of their cage, the non-stand firm does the deliberate failed dodge into the other side.
The rest of the team is arrayed to stop the cage moving more than one square.
They then knock down your standfirm/jumpup blocker in their turn and at the start of your turn you now get TWO free hits at the cage before your blitz.
Jump up is a surprisingly handy skill.
For an agi 2 player its a 3+ to standup and block, so if you’re using two of em, chances are you’ll fail one or the other, up to you whether you want to use a reroll on it
I’ve recently been messing around with DT black orcs and I must say they have an amazing use. Advancing your cage against a wall, with 2 BO each with Guard, Block and Diving Tackle on point these players place a tz each on a leading man of a column, a 2nd player (I use the other 2 BOs both of which also have guard) add a 2nd tz so that blocking leaves the defensive player in contact and a 5 man cage directly behind them leaves 2 men for screening the flank, marking key players, being injured or moving in as receiving threats.
This leaves the opposition in a very difficult position, extricating his leading wall edges is now a very difficult set of blocks or dodges and given a few turns of this pressure most walls start to crumble and soon the orcs are able to punch a hole through. Highly effective tool for offence against agility teams.
Great article ! It helps a lot in developping these nasty big bad black Orks !
As cage corner guard they are very good even if your cage will be slower. I love them bashing each turn
In defence they keep the los, they keep the edge and finally they hold up the enemy cage.
I think that we don’t have to hesitate to contact opponent players with a good assist of blitzer or an other Black Ork , it is really difficult for you opponent to get rid of them.
Hard to build up because they don’t collect a lot of Xp unless you are lucky blocking.
They are why I begin a new Ork Team after i felt bad with them. The last year My game with Ork wasn’t in progress. I felt i was regressing my game. May be it was because i had not the game experience I have today after playing other team. Now It is maybe one of my favorite Team !
Bash Bash Bash with Black Orks For Gork and Mork!!!!!
Sorry the Waaaag is making me mad ….. 😉
is it worth taking Dodge as a first skill for a BOB, or better just to stick with either Guard or Block? so far my other BOBs have Guard…….Guard & Block…….Block & Mighty Blow.
Thanks!
This website is so helpful, the player summaries are great!
I’m glad you’ve found the site useful!
It could be if you are in a long term environment and don’t mind the fact it could take longer for them to develop. In the short term though Block is probably the most useful. If you want to ask about specific players rather than generally, then you would be better off asking on the forum in future.
@ eggroll
I’d recommend not taking dodge as the very first skill on blockers(of any team). Don’t get me wrong, its an awesome skill to have, but you need the basic blocking skills to get the job done. Games between young teams are usually decided by who has less turnovers, so you really want the blocking skills asap so you can block without causing turnover, and therefore the game.
I generally prefer block before guard because guard only comes into play when fighting another bashy team.
Is it worth looking at Frenzy for Black Orcs?
I know this is a skill mocst consider for Blitzers, but frenzy Black Orcs seems like a good way to open holes and move cages.
I can certainly see some merit and usefulness to taking Frenzy, though I would prefer to have Block first if possible. I would also be aware of the other teams in your playing environment. If there are other strong teams about loaded with Guard then it may not be so useful.
Would you say in an open/neverending league (like Cyanide) that going Guard first would still not be a bad choice even if you face more pass-oriented teams, or would you go Block for reliability vs any team?
Remember this: You can NEVER have too many guys with guard. A first skill Guard pick also makes your Black orc not hog all the SSP (as one would do where you would pick block/MB first)
And since it is very likely you will have a minimum of 4 blockers (+ any other lineman or thrower whom you have given it) guard will add too to your game allowing your blockers to open the lines for hitting and THEN having your black orcs hit.
As an example: A chaosdwarf team, where they have 5 dwarves lined up with 3 guards, is absolutly disgusting to even touch since they will probably DESTROY you.
Guard is an amazing skill and I would highly recommend it as a first skill on Black Orcs
Good point about the 4+ Block guys on the team, that’s a luxury that the other teams with the beefy 4ST guys don’t have out the gate. Guard it is then!