Blood Bowl 2020 FAQ

[dissatisfiedcow]

Here is an odd one... when and how does a player become "Activated" as a player need to "Activate" in order to use the Pro skill. I'm sure it has nothing to do with your team being the Active team as player can Activate ouside of that like in a Blitz kick of result for example.

Page 42, Player Activations, describes when a player is normally activated, and the Blitz kick-off event also mentions that you activate the players. As far as I can tell there are no other occurrences where a player is activated.

Are the player counting as "Activated" when performing a pass action from the Dump Off skill for example... or what about receiving a pass or hand over... can Pro skill be used for a catch roll or an Interference roll?!?

No to all of these. A player is "activated" during their team turn and possibly during a Blitz event.

I think that the Dump Off seem to indicate the player is Activated as they perform an Action, but catching and Interference might not constitute the player being activated. The problem that I see with the rules is that it does not explicitly tell what it means to "Activate" the player other than a player may activate once during your turn and some during a blitz or perform an action such as Dump Off.

No, Dump Off states that the player can "perform a Quick Pass action", not that the player "is activated". I can definitely see the confusion between "being activated" and "performing an action" though.

I think it is a pity if a player can't use Pro to re-roll a catch roll for example

Yeah, Pro only works during your own activation. If you need the catch re-roll, you'll need the Catch skill or use a team re-roll.

Related to this... can the Dodge skill be used on a Blitz kick of result. The skill specifies it can only be used once per team turn and a Blitz is not a team turn just an odd player activation. You can't use team re-rolls during a Blitz for example.

Yes, the Blitz event states the players are "activated to perform a move/Blitz/TTM action".

[Edit: note that a Blitz does not happen during your own team turn, but the Dodge skill states it can be used "once per team turn", not "once during your own team turn" ;-)]

 

[dissatisfiedcow]

I'll quickly correct myself on that last one: the Blitz happens outside a team turn, so apparently Dodge cannot be used. Did not expect this one.

The same applies to Sure Feet, but not to [Catch,] Sure Hands, Monstrous Mouth, or Pass.

 

[tys123]

Am I right in thinking that when throwing a bomb you can use Accurate , HMP , Cannoneer and Cloud Burster but you can't use Nerves of Steel or Pass as throwing a bomb isn't a pass action.
Also elven union catchers can't use NoS when catching the bomb as it isn't the ball.

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

I'll quickly correct myself on that last one: the Blitz happens outside a team turn, so apparently Dodge cannot be used. Did not expect this one.

The same applies to Sure Feet, but not to [Catch,] Sure Hands, Monstrous Mouth, or Pass.

I probably have the same interpretation but it is a bit weird that activation is not more specifically stated what it means when there are other rules depending on it. I will probably still rule Dump Off as something you can use Pro on until an FAQ say otherwise as it is an action and the player should realistically need to be "activated" to perform an action.

I also think that the intention is that Dodge and Sure Feet should be usable during a Blitz, it would be weird if you could not use those skills just because. In the same way I think that Pro skill probably are intended to be usable with Dump Off and possibly Catch roles as well, but I will wait until an official FAQ for that. It just seems weird that Pro would not be usable to Catch a ball but you could when throwing the ball. I understand the Pro skill are only suppose to be used once per player activation or team turn, the same goes for Dodge and Sure Feet, that is why they are worded like this. The difference with Catch is that this skill is used every time the player tries to catches the ball not just once per turn, why they are worded differently.

So... my thinking with the intention is that some skills can just be used once per turn such as Pro, Dodge and Sure Feet. So I would instead go with what I think is the intention rather then RAW. That is either of these skills can be used once in any team turn (either teams turn) this also includes once during a Blitz too. I think this is the intention of the rule, just not well written in this instance.

There also are some weirdness about the catch ability for Pro... let's say your Pro player elect the throw with ball to a player standing next to them and the ball is Inaccurate (failed with a team re-roll) and scatter back onto him and he has yet to use the Pro skill... as it is still his "activation" he can now use Pro on the Catch roll. But if it was the other way around he would not be able to use it on the Catch roll. Thematically this make very little sense to me...

 

[patbou73]

TBH, I really like the new Pro skill on a pair of Dark Elf Runners. Either of them could Dump Off to the other and use a reroll on the pass or catch, without having to invest in both skills...

I hope it works as intended, and there’s not a funky rule that prevent one to use Pro during opponent’s turn.

Same goes for Dodge. It can currently be used during a Blitz event, or as part of the Pass Block action. Removing one option means removing the other, which would be super and incredibly dumb.

 

[tys123]

You can't use pro on the catch roll as you are not the active player.

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

You can't use pro on the catch roll as you are not the active player.

I agree that RAW it probably work like that... I just question the intention of the rules here.. like Dodge not working during a Blitz Kick Off result either. Until I see an FAQ and explanaition of the intentions I will stick with using all of these skills once per turn (either teams turn, including a Blitz result). This make more sense and also make Pro a bit more interesting as a skill for more types of players, runners in particular.

You still can only use these skills once per turn, Pro in particular are certainly not OP in that context, just more interesting as a valid choice.

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

Here is also what I think they made a mistake in the FAQ... at least indirectly...

Q: If a player with Animal Savagery knocks down a friendly model, are they forced to use Claws, Piledriver, Mighty Blow (X+) (or any other Skills that would affect Armour or Injury rolls), or can they choose not to? (p.81)
A: The opposing coach may choose if the player must use these Skills or not.

The thing is that neither of those skills mentioned can be used when a player with Animal Savagery "Knocks Down" a player in order to do an action. All of those skills specifically say that they can ONLY be used during a block action. Animal Savagery is NOT a block action and only knocks down the player. Might Blow and Claw also specifically state the player have to be the one initiating the block action.

 

[Gallows Bait]

Here is also what I think they made a mistake in the FAQ... at least indirectly...



The thing is that neither of those skills mentioned can be used when a player with Animal Savagery "Knocks Down" a player in order to do an action. All of those skills specifically say that they can ONLY be used during a block action. Animal Savagery is NOT a block action and only knocks down the player. Might Blow and Claw also specifically state the player have to be the one initiating the block action.

I agree. The wording is specifically for an own block action so shouldn't apply to Animal Savagery. This is probably the clearest indication that despite my hopes wording and intentions are not particularly clearly aligned after all.

 

[dissatisfiedcow]

Am I right in thinking that when throwing a bomb you can use Accurate , HMP , Cannoneer and Cloud Burster but you can't use Nerves of Steel or Pass as throwing a bomb isn't a pass action.
Also elven union catchers can't use NoS when catching the bomb as it isn't the ball.

Bombardier states that skills that apply to a pass action apply to a throw bomb action as well, so pass and NoS work for the player throwing the bomb.
Bombardier also states that it uses the rules for pass actions (with exceptions), so NoS works for interfering with the ball.
A bomb is not a ball. However, bombardier also states that the bomb can be caught just like a ball. This leads me to believe that NoS should also work for catching the bomb.

 

[Coach]

May I encourage anyone with questions to email the address GW put out bloodbowlfaq@gwplc.com and then report back answers. The more people who ask the same question to them directly the more encouragement we give GW to sort things out. It's going to be annoying to have to wait till April before we get some of these things cleared up though.

I've also added it to the start of the thread for an easy reference place to find it. I'll try and clean up the OP with official answers when I get some time. Hectic time of year for me at work.

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

I have already e-mailed them questions about the Dodge and Pro issues that I found earlier... I think I will send a question about the Animal Savagery as well.

 

[Jairo]

It is useful to let new players know a zero move action is allowed, for example if they want activate a player to un-hypnotise them.

Isn't this in the main rulebook? I skipped rules that I assumed where to ubiquitous to look at.
But if it isn't, this isn't the best way to introduce the notion.

Maybe enter a new question like this.
Q: "Does activating a players requires for him to move from their original position to count as being activated and regain their lost Tackle Zone?"
A: No, you always have the option to declare a move action and move zero (0) squares and ending that player's activation. In this way the player will be active (again) and have his tackle zone up.

 

[Jairo]

Here is an odd one... when and how does a player become "Activated" as a player need to "Activate" in order to use the Pro skill. I'm sure it has nothing to do with your team being the Active team as player can Activate ouside of that like in a Blitz kick of result for example.

Are the player counting as "Activated" when performing a pass action from the Dump Off skill for example... or what about receiving a pass or hand over... can Pro skill be used for a catch roll or an Interference roll?!?

I think that the Dump Off seem to indicate the player is Activated as they perform an Action, but catching and Interference might not constitute the player being activated. The problem that I see with the rules is that it does not explicitly tell what it means to "Activate" the player other than a player may activate once during your turn and some during a blitz or perform an action such as Dump Off.

I think it is a pity if a player can't use Pro to re-roll a catch roll for example

Related to this... can the Dodge skill be used on a Blitz kick of result. The skill specifies it can only be used once per team turn and a Blitz is not a team turn just an odd player activation. You can't use team re-rolls during a Blitz for example.

OMG, these are very 'unfortunate' wordings of the skill. This might be intended to tone the skills down but they don't seem to make any sense logically.

Looking at it RAW, Dump-Off makes the thrower perform a Quick-Pass Action (because it is called "Pass Actions" so I guess each passing range has it's own unique action?) so technically the player isn't activated. It's during your turn that you are allowed to activate a player, who then has to declare an action.

The wording of Pro skill should be changed to read in the first sentence:
"During their Action, this player may attempt ..."

Likewise the Dodge skill first sentence should read:
"Once during their Action, this player may re-roll ..."

Or it could be that GeeDub did evaluate these skills to be too powerful if they could also be used during action outside their respective team turn.

 

[Jairo]

May I encourage anyone with questions to email the address GW put out bloodbowlfaq@gwplc.com and then report back answers. The more people who ask the same question to them directly the more encouragement we give GW to sort things out. It's going to be annoying to have to wait till April before we get some of these things cleared up though.

I've also added it to the start of the thread for an easy reference place to find it. I'll try and clean up the OP with official answers when I get some time. Hectic time of year for me at work.

To save yourself time, try to look at the thread that TFF is forming on Rules Queries. They even have a Google Spreadsheet keeping track of them.

 

[Jorgen_CAB]

OMG, these are very 'unfortunate' wordings of the skill. This might be intended to tone the skills down but they don't seem to make any sense logically.

Looking at it RAW, Dump-Off makes the thrower perform a Quick-Pass Action (because it is called "Pass Actions" so I guess each passing range has it's own unique action?) so technically the player isn't activated. It's during your turn that you are allowed to activate a player, who then has to declare an action.

The wording of Pro skill should be changed to read in the first sentence:
"During their Action, this player may attempt ..."

Likewise the Dodge skill first sentence should read:
"Once during their Action, this player may re-roll ..."

Or it could be that GeeDub did evaluate these skills to be too powerful if they could also be used during action outside their respective team turn.

They could also just have said that once per team turn (including during a Blitz kick off result) this skill can...

That would mean the skill can be used once during that turn no matter how many times a player activates or move around or do what they are suppose to be doing... it really is not that hard to remember.

I certainly don't think Pro would be OP if it worked on a Catch roll as well as on the Passing roll for example, this skill can still only be used once per turn (any teams turn).

Dodge can for example still be used on the opposing teams turn according to RAW, just not during a Blitz result on the Kick Off table.

 

[dissatisfiedcow]

I would love to see a rule (modifier) like Limited Uses. This could clearly define how these skills are all limited in the same way (e.g. once per team turn, and once per blitz) and could then be referenced by all the rules (and actions) that are limited in this way, instead of repeating the same clause every time. This reduces space taken per rule and even reduces the risk of copy-paste errors.

 

[dissatisfiedcow]

I've also sent an email asking the following questions:

Q: Secret Weapon states that after the drive the player gets sent off for committing a Foul. Does this mean that you can apply Argue the Call to keep your Secret Weapon in the game for another drive?
Q: Swarming happens between Step 2 and 3 of setup, i.e. after the ball has deviated. Can you place a Swarming player under the ball, assuming that this is not in a Wide Zone?

I assume that the answer is yes to both, but I still thought it worth asking.

 

[dissatisfiedcow]

Don't know if these were already asked:

Now that you can use multiple team re-rolls per turn, can you re-roll the loner roll? I would say yes, but obviously using a second team re-roll to to compensate for the first is costly.

Can you re-roll the Pro roll? I was confused to find out that this didn't work in BB2 (the computer game), while I was told this did work under the LRB6 rules. Now, I guess it's up for debate again...

 

[Street]

Don't know if these were already asked:

Now that you can use multiple team re-rolls per turn, can you re-roll the loner roll? I would say yes, but obviously using a second team re-roll to to compensate for the first is costly.

Can you re-roll the Pro roll? I was confused to find out that this didn't work in BB2 (the computer game), while I was told this did work under the LRB6 rules. Now, I guess it's up for debate again...

If you can reroll the loner, would that 2nd reroll also have it's own loner roll which also can fail?