| 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? |
Khorne Team Overview
Introduced by Games Workshop late in 2021 Khorne teams officially make their way to tabletop after already being seen (in a different form) in the digital version of Blood Bowl. Both incarnations feature a lot of players with Frenzy, which is what would be expected from team that worships the Chaos Blood God, Khorne.
As is typical for a Chaos team, they come devoid and the common fundamental skills such as Block and Dodge. Combining that with a lot of Frenzy can make them tricky to play as a fresh team, especially so for newer coaches. If you can work around Frenzy then it offers a lot of benefits. The sidelines become more dangerous, you can get an extra hit on opponents which helps mitigate not initially having Block / Tackle a bit as it increases the chances you get that knockdown.
Khorne Team Strengths:
- Lots of Frenzy
- Pretty Strong
- Access to Mutations
Khorne Team Weaknesses:
- Lots of Frenzy
- Lacking core skills
- Expensive Rerolls?
- Bad at passing
- Nearly everyone will use red as the team colour
Khorne Team Tactics
Khorne teams have pretty decent strength to combine with Frenzy. You’ll want to maximise the amount of hits you can get in and really work around this. The Linemen might be a liability starting with an average strength and Frenzy, watch out for Frenzy traps where a favourable initial block can turn into a detrimental turnover inducing second block. Getting Guard on the team will really help a lot to work around this issue.
The Khorngors are almost certainly going to be doing a lot of heavy lifting when it comes to carrying the ball. They are a bit more controllable when it comes to blocking as they are the only players on the team without Frenzy. They can also blitz themselves out of trouble fairly well due to having Horns and Juggernaut not only saves them from not having block (which blitzing at least) but can also get that occasional much needed push against players who do have block.
For blitzing duties I can see teams going either way between Maurauders and Khorngors and it probably wouldn’t hurt having options from both position types.
Bloodseekers are going to be in the thick of things with their high strength and Frenzy. They are especially dangerous near the sidelines where you can set up other team mates to push opponents into the crowd. They are going to help clear paths through a congested pile up in order to advance a cage. Bloodspawns also add some more muscle to the team, though their armour isn’t the most durable for a big guy. If your playing environment contains a lot of weaker / faster / agile teams then I could see teams forgoing the inclusion of one.
Khorne Team Development
Like nearly every team the players who score the touchdowns will typically advance the fastest. This will probably be your Khorngors unless you make an effort to spread the touchdowns around. I’d look to get one or two who are able to safely carry the ball with skills like Block, Dodge, Sure Hands. Then perhaps turn the other two into ball hunters taking skills like Wrestle, Tackle, Strip Ball.
Marauder Linemen you’ll likely be sticking with Block or Wrestle and maybe taking Guard. They can also do ball blitzing duty by adding Tackle. However they don’t get the blitzing strength bonus from Horns like their Khorngor team mates, so you need to watch out for Frenzy traps. They are also cheap enough to use for fouling so grabbing a Dirty Player might not be out of the question.
As Bloodseekers will be relying on hitting a lot, Block will keep them upright, Mighty Blow aids in both attrition and towards earning more skills. I would consider Guard a high priority as well as it not only helps other Bloodseekers but the weaker team mates will also benefit.
Khorne Team Summary
If you like the idea of doing a lot of hitting and using Frenzy for space manipulation then Khorne might just be the team for you. With so much Frenzy you might find it gets you into trouble, especially given the lack of starting skills on the team. Games are going to revolve around both maximising the benefits of Frenzy whilst minimising the drawbacks. If you can master both of those, then I can see them being a rewarding team to play.
On comparison to other teams, they are very closely aligned with the traditional Chaos Chosen teams. You get some slightly cheaper linemen and a lot of Frenzy. In a lot of ways I can see Khorne replacing Chaos Chosen, both have skill deficiency at the start which doesn’t make them beginner friendly. Adding the extra complication of playing around Frenzy, does make them even less beginner friendly, though this team feels a bit more flavourful and perhaps fun to play.
If you do decide to start a Khorne team franchise, just give colours other than red some consideration!
The biggest problem I can see with the team is the armour of the linemen.
All the other teams with AV8+ linemen either have block/dodge as a starting skill to give them some protection , are faster more mobile teams who can survive being outnumbered or only have a couple on the starting roster.
You don’t even want to make one of them your ballcarrier to hide him out of the way as you don’t really want frenzy on the guy carrying the ball.
This means you are likely to be outnumbered which makes frenzy traps even more of a problem.
The Marauders certainly do have low armour, though the closest parallel in my opinion would be Hobgoblins on a Chaos Dwarf Team (Thralls also have the same stats). The Bloodseekers are generally going to be at the forefront between the opponents and the rest of the team. Also once you’ve got 4x Khorngors, 4x Bloodseekers and if you also include a Bloodspawn then you are only going to be setting up 2 Marauders.
They certainly are going to be tricky to start off though. I would think an initial starting roster would be 4x Bloodseekers, 3x Khorngors, 4x Maurauders, 2 Rerolls and 10k left. Or you drop a Bloodseeker down to a 5th Marauder to get the third reroll. I don’t see it as that big an issue that I would be concerned about it more than other teams. Worth highlighting though as others may not feel the same!
As a new player I am willing to try the Bloodspawn from the start, but it leaves me with 1 re-roll (1x Spawn, 4x Bloodseekers, 2x Khorngor, 4x Marauder). How much of a trap do you think this actually is? Is this a viable way to start a game or are the re-rolls absolutely mandatory?
Just looking for more general advice to start out with the Khorne team. I do agree that with more skills they have the baseline to become scarier, but then again this applies to quite some teams! Thanks for your help.
I think most coaches will struggle with only 1 reroll, even on teams that have a lot of in built skill rerolls. To do that on a team that lacks in skills that offer security against failure will be even harder. You can ramp this up even more if you are a new coach, especially on a team that also has a lot of Frenzy to factor in. I wouldn’t start a Khorne team that way and I’m an experienced coach who knows how to play around Frenzy. The team also doesn’t even have any AG2+ players who can pull off some remarkable recoveries with the right dice sequence. The other skill that you need if you have a low number of rerolls is the ability to know when to just accept a turnover in order to save the reroll for a more vital circumstance, this is something that a beginner will also probably struggle with.
My recommendation would be to try and play a couple of friendly games with your 1 reroll roster and see how those go. That way you can at least either go into the league with a bit more of an idea what to expect, or you can change it up so you aren’t stuck playing the whole league season with a roster you feel you can’t achieve anything with.
Thanks a lot for the help Coach!
Hey Coach,
For Khorngor development, would you thinking saving your BC up for a stat up roll first would be a good idea in a redraft league? Thinking MA or AG+ would be great on them as ball carriers.
It’s a tricky one as the team is desperate for skills which you will delay getting if you save up to get a stat increase. Will your team and that player suffer more from those lack of skills whilst your opposing teams are gaining skills themselves? Does that skill discrepancy make it harder to win and slow down the rate at which your players will then improve? All those factors would lead me to not saving up for a skill increase, it can take a really long time. The last thing to consider is how long are your league seasons and how many games do you get before you will have to redraft the players. The longer / more games your seasons run for then perhaps the more you can consider saving up, in a shorter format though I wouldn’t bother.
Thanks for the reply coach! I’m in a mostly noob league so it hasnt hurt my win rate terribly so far 4-2-1 (tied for first out of 8) and there are 3 games left before playoffs then redraft. My ghor is at 16/18 so I think I’m already committed. I was just curious your opinion on whether my decision to sit and wait was dumb or not haha.
Coach, how viable do you think this line up is?
4x Bloodseekers
6x Marauders
1x Khorngor
3x Re-roll
Personally, I think getting the max amount of Str4+ on the pitch early would be good without getting the less reliable Bloodspawn, especially so that you can skill up the Bloodseekers ASAP and get skills on them. However here you only get one Khorngor, limiting your possibilities with ball-carrying and also most likely SPP hogging, but is much more like the starting Chaos Chosen roster. I would like to avoid trying to only go with two re-rolls, but if that is the case getting more Khorngors may be the way to go. This leaves you with 10k to go towards probably an apo first, then you save up for more gors most likely.
It’s certainly workable and there is merit to having all the Bloodseekers. You just need to be careful as you only have one player without Frenzy.
Honestly, I max out Khorngors. Theyre the bread and butter of this team.
I personally went for:
5 Marauders
2 Khorngors
3 Bloodseekers
1 Bloodspawn
2 Re-rolls
I’ve enjoyed the hitting power and as a former dwarf player I have enjoyed having a bit more movement. I find the key for me is moving the linemen around to set up the follow up block from frenzy. Once I got that sorted after my first game I’ve found little risk from frenzy.
Agreed. I’ve been running 3 seekers, 4 gor, 4 linemen and 3 rr’s.
It’s been really solid so far, the Gor’s really tie everything together and give you enough control when people go running off with frenzy.
Where did they publish this roster?
I keep looking for the PDF, but cant find this one.
I have the 2020 rulebook and the teams of legend one.
Hi Azimov, the Khorne team were introduced in Spike! Issue 13 and can now also be found in the 2021 Blood Bowl Almanac. You also get the team rules in the team box.
Thanks for the info.