Khemri Skeletons

Blood Bowl Khemri Skeleton

Khemri Skeletons Overview:

Skeletons are the equivalent of Linemen from other Blood Bowl teams. While they aren’t as cheap as they previously were they are still very cheap players. Their movement is slightly below average, they have average strength and low agility and armour. The increase in cost was offset a bit with the introduction of Thick Skull to go along with Regeneration.

The main strength of Skeletons is that they are both cheap and with Thick Skull and Regeneration they add to the teams impression of having a never ending supply of players. While their armour is low, having Thick Skull helps them to stay on the pitch and even if they go get injured half the time they are available on the next drive anyway. This gives Khemri teams an ability to usually start a drive at the full compliment of eleven players. With their low speed and agility, not being outnumbered is crucial to their success.

Usual roles for Khemri Skeletons are of more of a supporting role than perhaps most Linemen. They will be often used to screen team mates and lend assists to the Tomb Guardians to get them three dice blocks. With their low armour they won’t tend to be doing as much marking as the Tomb Guardians are well suited instead to be in player contact and hit opposition. There are occasions though where marking is still needed as you won’t always want the Tomb Guardians tied up. There may also be call for a couple to be developed as safeties as the rest of the team is likely to get Block, Skeletons are the best candidates to get Wrestle on the team.

Perhaps the main role that they are considered for and one they are effective at doing is that of fouling. Being cheap is a great advantage here as you can often trade them for a much more valuable opposing player if you get a good gang foul. Combined with the blocking of their team mates, fouling with Skeletons will help you get a numerical advantage. That will not only make doing more blocks and fouls easier, but also make progressing the ball inside a cage easier as well. Beyond that there isn’t much more to be expected of a Skeleton, though perhaps the odd occasion where they may be needed to handle the ball.

Kicker Khemri Skeleton:

While Khemri teams don’t have the speed or agility to usually take advantage of a good kick, having a kicker on the team can help dictate the early turns of the other teams offensive drives. While on a lot of teams I recommend getting a kicker on the first Lineman to get a skill increase, I don’t think it is necessary for Khemri teams and you could wait until you have more of the core skills on the roster first. The first skill though would naturally be Kick which is followed up by Block. There is nothing wrong though with taking Block first on some Skeletons and then getting Kick as a secondary skill later. I doubt they will get much further than two skills but Fend is probably next best, both for protection and to help avoid having to do dodges. Past that Tackle or Pro are perhaps the best options but I would be really shocked to see many advance this far.

For doubles I would get Dodge unless facing lots of Tackle, otherwise Side Step is always a very useful skill to have. Guard is also something you can never have enough of, though a kicker is usually your last choice to put in tackle zones. A strength increase is great for making your defence even harder to get through and also gives more protection. An agility increase gives you a better ball handling option and if you get it as the first increase then don’t follow this build. Movement is a big weakness on Khemri teams so it would edge out an armour increase for me.

Fouling Khemri Skeleton:

  • Normal: Dirty Player, Block / Fend
  • Doubles: Sneaky Git
  • Stat Increase:

It probably isn’t unusual to have a couple of foulers on a Khemri team to ensure you have at least one each half. Dirty Player first up as it is your best chance of getting an injury assuming proper gang fouling strategy to ensure a higher chance of armour break without it. Ideally they would stop development at this point, but if they do get some more skills then Block can keep them upright more and give you some better blocking options with them. Alternatively Fend can help keep them out of tackle zones so they can get to their target, I would think Block the better choice though.

Sneaky Git would be the obvious double so you can happily foul away during turns you can’t get a suitable number of fouling assists in. Stat increases aren’t overly great and you could skip them, but I think it would be very hard to pass up on either a strength or agility increase. Both are very useful especially they latter on such a low agility team, either would perhaps dictate a change of development direction which could make having Dirty Player on them less than optimal but sometimes that is how things go.

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14 thoughts on “Khemri Skeletons”

  1. Wrestle on the LOS Skellies? I would of thought with a control team like Khemri you would want those guys with Block, mainly because with your low AG and speed, you’ll be hurt more by the loss of your tackle zones than your opponent will be by the loss of his. Especially if you’re hoping to get guard on them.

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  2. You certainly can take Block on them, probably close either way. Of course with Wrestle you are losing your tackle zone when you go down, but you are also taking out an opposing one as well. That can free up space and also some of your team mates. It may also mean that you can stand up and move as well (albeit between 2 and 4 squares) depending on the position of the rest of their players.

    I’m not sure I agree with you saying that the opponent is hurt less by you both losing our on the tackle zones. If you have Block instead then both your players stay where they are, if you were blocking them in order to free up your team mate to move, then Wrestle is the better option.

    If you prefer Block then by all means take it, there are certain league environments that I would prefer it as well and I may even mix it up. I just think the value of getting opponents off their feet to help your unagile team move is helpful. Wrestle can also be great for bringing down opponents in order to foul them, or remove a player who is preventing you getting more assists for a gang foul. Very much a swings and roundabouts situation and like I mentioned I think a lot of the time you are going to have unskilled Skeletons there anyway.

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  3. I’d be a big advocate for Block on the LOS skellies for several reasons, firstly Khemri don’t have a lot of Block, only 2 Blitzers and probably your Thro-Ras who you don’t want to be getting in to the mix of things anyway.  Secondly you are hoping for a double on your skellies for Guard and you don’t want Wrestle and Guard on the skelly.  Thirdly there are several teams out there that likely have a number of players without block for which it is way better for you to have block in answer.
    Of course Wrestle means you are getting rid of his assists but in the same token you want your obstacles to stay obstacles.  You have such low mobility you don’t want to have to fill a hole in your defence or offensive cage because your opponent was able to pick both down, or you could only pick both down when blocking a threat away.

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  4. “Thirdly there are several teams out there that likely have a number of players without block for which it is way better for you to have block in answer.”
    The only teams that are not likely to have Block (or pick it up quickly) are teams that don’t have access to it, such as Goblins or Ogres, otherwise yes, most teams do indeed have (or get) Block.
    To me Wrestle is easily a good skill on skellies.  As you said you don’t want Wrestle on your Thro-Ras as much (since they are your best ball carriers, though wrestle on a safty style Thro-Ra could be good), you don’t want it on Blitz-Ras since they already have Block, and you don’t want it on Guardians because well it’s hard for them to get it and Block is better on big guys.  That just leaves Skellies as your main source of Wrestle and every single team should have some wrestle on it.

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  5. Just counted 15 out of 21 teams have players without general access.  Yeah many of those are Big Guys but I know what I’d prefer to have when a big guy has to pick both down with no block.  And how many people set up their big guys to bash your guys on the LOS…

    Reply
    • The other side to that is as follows:

      It isn’t that uncommon for Big Guys to get Block despite not having normal access to it. They also tend to have high armour so you don’t break armour that often (sure by taking Wrestle you do give up some occasions when a Block player would have broken armour). Wrestle and Block both take the other player down. Wrestle will always so do even when the opponent has Block, if you both have Block then it can leave your player open to get hit by another opposing player and it also leaves the Big Guy standing. If you have Wrestle then you can take them down and avoid being blocked again that turn, or if they don’t have block then you can elect to not use Wrestle and cause a turnover. (AT the sacrifice to taking an armour roll on your player which you could avoid if you have Block and they don’t.)

      Also a lot of those 15 teams you cite only have one player without General access and that being the Big Guy, there aren’t really that many who will have a lot of players without General access that should cause massive problems. You also have Block on some team mates who can target their non Block player if you wished. I would also suggest that a lot of the time you would use a Tomb Guardian to hit their Big Guy due to the strengths on the players involved and not a Skeleton. There is a good case for Block but don’t dismiss Wrestle either.

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  6. Ok well you are arguing about 1 reason I gave out of many.
    I love Wrestle and take it a lot with my more mobile teams, usually Elves or Skaven but on a team where the cage is so important I don’t want to take tons of Wrestle on the team.  A couple of safeties like you suggested would be nice but 3 LOS skellies plus safety skellies all with Wrestle and no Block?
    Opponents are going to have a field day getting to my ball carrier with most of my team falling to the ground on 50% of each and every dice.

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    • You are putting them on the field for defence which is when the other team has the ball and you are trying to get it off them. You will likely have four Tomb Guardians, two Blitz-Ras and two Thro-Ras on the pitch when they are all available. That leave space for three Skeletons. You may forgo one if you have a kicker who I recommend should get Block. There is also some overlap between the LOS builds and the Safety build. If you do have a full compliment of positional players and three Block Skeletons on the LOS, where are you fitting a Wrestler into the formation?

      On your offence you are probably going to probably want at least one Dirty Player build on there so I don’t think having a couple of Wrestle players is that detrimental. You can also have other Skeletons with Block on the bench as well to bring on and I did suggest it as a second skill for the Dirty Player build. At no point have I said though that taking Block isn’t a good idea!

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  7. On defence you often don’t put both Thro-Ras on the pitch, they are so easily KO’d or injured it’s best to have 1 next time you receive.
    That leaves space for a dirty player skeleton who I would quite possibly give Wrestle if he gets that far.

    On attack you need to put some of them LOS skellies on the field, unless you have a 14 man roster and no injuries and all of your skellies have at least 1 level up (ie never).
    In my experience having to choose both down happens a lot and I just can’t imagine how that would be if the player you are blocking with is a key part of the ball carrier defence.  You don’t have the mobility to recover it.

    Do you really think you have room for 4-5 Wrestlers on the roster?

    I have forgotten to give credit where it is due though, it’s a great article as always, I’m just a little stuck on this one point.

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  8. Then I guess we will just have to agree to disagree on this point Haree.  I too am stuck on this.  To me Wrestle is the default skill for skellies hands down and I don’t feel you’ve made any points that change that for me.  If you’d like you could make a post int he forum for more discussion on the topic.

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  9. Your defensive LOS of skeletons will get blocked until they go down, it’s better they take someone down with them. So pick Wrestle. Wrestle is optional: if a Big Guy gets Both Down on you, don’t use the skill and the opponent will suffer the turnover.

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  10. My +ag lineskelly just leveled up and rolled 6+4. Should I get the +MA or get a normal skill like block, wrestle or sure hands? My team is low on block/wrestle + I’ve got 2 throwers already/

    Reply
    • For questions on specific players like this, you are better off posting a thread on the forum, including your full roster and the other races you are facing and the league format.

      Reply

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