Killer / Crowd Push Orc Blitzer:
- Normal: Mighty Blow, Piling On, Tackle / Frenzy / Juggernaut / Pro / Stand Firm
- Doubles: Jump Up
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV
This Orc Blitzer is designed to hurt the opposing players and get your a numerical player advantage. Mighty Blow to start with and then Piling On to give you the best chances to cause an armour break and injury. After that Tackle is helpful in Dodge heavy leagues, Frenzy can compensate against not having Tackle and increases knock downs generally. Juggernaut is great for Wrestle heavy leagues and also combos well with Frenzy to double his role up for crowd pushing too. Pro again helps with knocking players over. Stand Firm will help you get more blocks as it will be hard to get pushed off players you mark with him, doubles up with avoiding getting pushed into the crowd yourself too.
For doubles I would take Jump Up, gives him greater range from being prone and can also let him block from prone as the opposing side will look to injure this guy and be hitting him a lot. It combines well with Stand Firm which will keep you in the tackle zone of anyone who blocks him. Stats for all the same reasons as before.
Support Orc Blitzer:
- Normal: Guard, Stand Firm / Mighty Blow, Tackle / Pro / Pass Block
- Doubles: Diving Tackle / Dodge
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG +MV
This build is always useful and developing all four Blitzers with this build can be just as hard to deal with as mixing the development of your Blitzers up. With the other builds not having Guard you should be taking it first on these ones, losing the Guard race can make like difficult for you and weakens your blocking ability of the team overall. Seeing how Orcs somewhat rely on that side of the game it shouldn’t be ignored. After that both Mighty Blow and Stand Firm are useful. Mighty Blow can help remove opposing players and speed development to the next skill. Stand Firm keeps your Guard where it is useful, helps keep cages intact, denies space from the other team and is very helpful with positioning for set up when kicking. Tackle and Pro are useful after that for reasons already mentioned. Pass Block can be another option as well, especially in a league where plenty of passing happens. It will let you position your Diving Tackle to great effect as well as perhaps making the pass or catch harder.
Doubles I would go to Diving Tackle to tie up players, useful in a brawl and for also marking receivers and Break Tackle Big Guys. Dodge is the other option unless you are looking to avoid it to render opposition Tackle useless. Stat increases follow the same logic as the other builds.
Ball Carrying Orc Blitzer:
- Normal: Sure Hands, Fend
- Doubles: Dodge, Catch, Nerves of Steel
- Stat Increase: +ST +AG+ MV
Personally I would use the Throwers for the main ball carrying duties, but some coaches prefer the speed of the Blitzer to do the job. So Sure Hands first off, to help with both picking it up and negating Strip Ball. Fend will help against Frenzy and avoid some potential dodges. Not really many other good ball carrying skills they can take after that, really you are going to want double skills. Another reason I would prefer to use the Thrower and keep the Blitzer for doing other jobs. For doubles Dodge (unless you are avoiding it), Catch can let you use them somewhat as an outlet for either a hand off or pass. Nerves of Steel can also let them act as a receiver while in traffic (though I’d look to have a dodge into the open as well if doing that). Stat increases follow the continued logic of the other builds.
Summary:
As you can see Orc Blitzers have lots of options to develop and are happy enough to progress without any double skills at all. You can’t go far wrong just loading up on the basics though, Guard, Tackle, Mighty Blow, Stand Firm, so if in doubt stick to them. Over specialise and you can actually make your team less effective, especially if the opponents position really well, which can keep your specialists away from where they are of most use. They are the most useful players on the Orc team so learn to get the most out of them and you will find your team can be really competitive.
I’d like to offer an opinion on the ball-carrying Orc Blitzer build.
I used to play Blood Bowl, and am currently playing the Xbox version. My Blood Bowl expertise is very limited, but I’ve always preferred to use my Orc Blitzers to score, either extracting the ball from the opponent, or having an Orc Thrower pass or hand off the ball to them. Granted, the passing game with Orcs is always a nail-biting experience, but with their tough line, they can more often afford to make a ball handling mistake than many other teams (assuming they have knocked down enough opposing players).
I figure that Blitzers have a movement of 6 for a reason, just as Throwers have the “Pass” skill for a reason, and the two players can be used in conjunction in order to make quick touchdowns (Or, what I like to call the Orculate Reception). In any case, I would suggest that the “Pro” skill would be invaluable to any ball-carrying Blitzer. Granted, it only works 50% of the time, but if the player is one that is used often, its value will shine through. Furthermore, it can kick in at critical times, such as picking up the ball, catching the ball, dodging, or going for it. In addition, it can be stacked with the regular team re-roll, potentially allowing two re-roll opportunities. I would even suggest that “Pro” should be the first skill taken for Orc Blitzers destined to be ball carryers, as it will have a bigger impact when the team has fewer re-rolls.
Thanks for your input, though I personally see Pro as a poor mans reroll. Given that Orc teams have a low rate of player turnover, cheap players and average priced rerolls, I prefer to get other skills. As you said Pro fails half the time and using a reroll on the Pro roll again fails half the time. I’d rather just use the reroll on the original roll and keep Pro as a backup (unless perhaps you want to save the reroll for rolls from other team mates later in the turn who don’t have Pro). Generally though if you are using a Blitzer as a ball carrier then they are the ones likely doing all the rolls (dodges, go for its, etc.).
It is easy to start an Orc team with three rerolls and you can save up for more fairly easily. Their general game plan doesn’t involve much in the way of risky stuff on offence, especially when you get some more Block on the team. Any roll you make with the player holding the ball is a double risk if a turnover occurs. Not only does your turn end, but you are likely to lose possession of the ball, making things much easier for the other team. That 50% failure rate of Pro then starts to look a lot worse…
It’s been awhile since I’ve played tabletop Blood Bowl, and I haven’t played since 3rd Edition, so perhaps “Pro” is implemented differently in the Xbox version. Unless I’m mistaken, if I fail a roll on a player with the “Pro” skill, I can choose to use “Pro” first. If the 4+ roll to use the skill fails, or if the re-roll itself fails, I can then use the regular team re-roll (assuming I have one) as a backup. This is how it’s implemented in the Xbox version at least.
It’s also the only way a player can have a chance to re-roll a failed roll twice, which can make a big difference at critical moments, especially for an average Agility player. Also, if the player has to make two or more rolls in order to score a touchdown, the “Pro” skill provides for more insurance (For example, if the player needs to Dodge and Go For It in order to score).
Obviously the “Pro” skill’s value will be determined by how much it comes into play, so it probably is only worth using for a player that will be used often and will have to make critical rolls, which is why I think it is worthwhile on a Blitzer that serves as a Running Back.
Pro is implemented incorrectly on the Xbox version then. You can’t reroll any roll twice in the game, that has been the case since 1994 and hasn’t changed since. You can however use a reroll to try and reroll a failed Pro roll.
If Pro did work like that though I’d take it a lot more often!
You’re correct. Only one re-roll can be used per action, even with “Pro.” I have managed to re-roll a re-roll with “Pro” in Xbox though (Sadly, Xbox is my only outlet for Blood Bowl…and the reason I bought an Xbox). So yes, that makes a big, big difference for critical rolls, and the value of the skill.
Thx for the direction man, I got 3 skillups after game 2 in cyanide and I decide to go one of each type and it paid of immidietly.
Keep up the good work
Umm why would you give an orc blitzer wrestle? lol.
As explained if you want a dedicated player to take down opposing ball carriers who will usually have Block, Wrestle will combat it. A typical starting line up for an Orc team typically consists of: Troll, 4 Black Orcs and 4 Blitzers, which leaves two spaces, perhaps one or both is a Thrower, maybe Linemen or even a Goblin or two. Out of all those players a Blitzer is the best option for the roll, you don’t want Wrestle on a Thrower, Linemen are somewhat slow and Goblins are weak…
Hey Coach, could Dauntless on a Blitzer build be viable? I know Orcs are pretty beefy with 4 ST4 and 1 ST5 guy, but since Orcs rely on bashing heavily I was thinking of something like a Big Guy Blitzer/Killer or more muscle against teams like Chaos and Lizardmen. Maybe something like MB, Dauntless, PO/Frenzy/Pro/Tackle. Maybe even a Dauntless on a ball hunter in late development for more utility/breaking ST4 Ball Carriers. Thoughts?
I generally find Orcs shouldn’t need it with strong players themselves and easy access to lots of Guard. I could see a use for Dauntless I just personally would rather have one of the many good options. Give it a try and see how it works for you, best way to find out at the end of the day! If there are lots of particularly strong teams in your league it could prove very useful, though it’s only really Lizardmen and Ogres that have the strength advantage.
Hmm, yeah, I do see the point you make, considering I’m highly thinking about Guard first instead of Block on my B.O.Bs, maybe it seemed more useful in my head since alot of teams have a Big Guy and if I made a Blitzer to take em out it freed the B.O.B and Troll to do other duties. I might just give it a whirl on one Orc and see how it turns out, thanks for the input! I can’t wait to get the PC version and test out my team in practice instead of theorycrafting it in my head.
I prefer to deal with the Big Guy players by marking them up and forgetting about them, Orc Linemen are perfect for that being cheap and having high armour.
not just lizardmen & ogres, undead are the bane of my team as I am still saving up for a troll, while they have 3 ST5 players (2 mummies, & a vampire (we’re doing star players in the style of the 1994 version))
any tips?
I’ve been trying a lineup of 4 blorcs, 4 blitzers and 3 linemen recently, keeping 2 Blitzers back when receiving (one in each half) to pick up the ball.
If going for the ball carrying blitzer build, should I just give one of them Sure Hands and leave him back alone or should I give it to two of them? The other option suggested to me was giving the SH player Kick-off return. Are either of these options good ideas?
3rd option could be having both a KOR Thrower and a SH Blitzer back which should cover the back field very well. What do you think?
I can’t really comment as I like to use Throwers, try asking on the forum I believe there are coaches on there who play Orcs without them.
Coach, i just rolled a double ten on my blitzer orc with mighty blow and block. I have couple of options ranging from dodge and sidestep to +MV. So far my team is fairly new with none of my other players having any levels. What do you recommend to me?
While Side Step is super useful to have you can get Stand Firm on a normal roll. I’d go with Dodge unless you are facing a lot of Tackle heavy teams.
Not +1 MV? Having a movement 7 blitzer sounds a lot better on such a slow team.
I very rarely take extra movement, just a personal preference of my own.
As he has mb i would not go mv+. if it had been at tackle blitzer i would.
With a Tackle mv 7 blitzer. you can place him in the back on any defence. Securing at least 1 dice on any Catcher or ball carrier coming down on you side. This helps so taht he oposing coach feel he has to for a cage on your half before going for the TD. That leaves you in a perfect position where you just have to hold the Los i order to prevent himn form scoring, and with Orc that is easy vs most teams.
Depending on what leauge you are in i would recomend dodge in long leauges where you canm develop you team or pion if yuou are in cabal and want to win evry game. To have a mbpion blitzer as the first 2 skill pos on the Orc tgeam is simply amazing.
Hey Coach, I could use your opinion with my orc team. My team looks like this after one Little Crunch season:
4 Black orcs, 1 with block,
1 Thrower with block,
2 Linemen
4 Blitzers, One with Str+
The Str4 blitzer and a rookie blitzer both rolled a normal roll. I’m thinking of going with tackle on the Str4 blitzer and guard on the other one, but I guess it could work the other way around too. Not really sure of building the Str4 guy as a killer, yet atleast. I’d like to keep him standing up. What are your thoughts?
Either way could work, though Guard and ST4 is harder for opponents to deal with so I would go that way. You need some Tackle on the team so taking it on the rookie fits well. That’s the longer term route, the short term route I would go the other way as blitzing with ST4 and Tackle requires less support in the form of assists.
Figured. Thanks, just wanted to be “sure”. 🙂
Mb on the str 4 as he will hit almost every turn, and the tackle on the rookie
I had a Blitzer with Tackle.
My Orc team suddenly happened to have a passing option with +Ag on the Thrower.
Next two levelups on that Blitzer were +Ag and +Mv. He now scores most of my team’s touchdowns, even Tackle players cannot stop his 2+ dodges.
Would Catch be a good option if I roll another double with him? What skills he needs most, in your opinion?
You can replicate the Catch skill with a team reroll, so whilst it’s a useful skill it’s not one I will often take as an upgrade as a player who doesn’t have it already. It’s also something you aren’t going to use that often compared to other options. Nerves of Steel is a more effective choice in the passing game than Catch, though Catch helps with scattered balls, bouncing balls and interception attempts.
If taking a double then Sure Feet is more useful than Catch, it’s something you can use every turn without the ball and gives you a more reliable extended scoring range. Side Step is probably the best doubles choice though, makes it harder to blitz him out of scoring range, extends the width of the pitch as you can be safer near the sideline and generally makes it harder to tie him down in a bog of tackle zones.
I would probably give a lot of consideration to Guard, it’s one of the best skills in the game and you’d have it on one of your fastest players who can also dodge around to get it in the most useful position. Guard will also help when your Blitzer is marked and you want to use another of your players to hit a player marking him. Guard will help on both offence and defence and makes other players on your team better. It also combos really well with Side Step if you’ve taken that on a double.
Thanks for the answer. I will probably lean towards Sure Feet on a double because I run into a lot of fast dodge teams, and reaching that Gutter Runner behind your lines reliably seems more important to me right now.
hi coach, I have a new team, with 4 black orcs, 4 blitzers, 2 throwers, & 2 gobbos. i’m saving up for a troll.
one of my blitzers got a +AG, what build should I go for? i’m thinking ball targeting, but do you have any suggestions?
Hi Coach, I got lucky and have an AG+1 Blitzer with already dodge and now I rolled a double again!!
SideStep looks too expansive and with stand firm I’ll have a similar effekt with lesser TV increase.
Jump?
or ignore it and take Guard?
Thx for Help 🙂
It really depends on what the rest of the team looks like and what role you use him for. Side Step is great but as you said you can get Stand Firm which can be just as good. If you’re using him for Blitzing then Tackle & Strip Ball could be needed, if he is carrying the ball then Sure Hands. Guard is always useful, though there is a lot of other players on the team who can take it and his extra mobility might come in useful for a more specific build. Take a look at the rest of the teams in the league, lots of Dodge, then Tackle will be useful, lots of strength teams then Guard etc.