This article was written for a previous version of the Blood Bowl rules and has some outdated information in it.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 contains some useful information.
There is now an an updated Blood Bowl 2020 Second Season Chaos Dwarf Starting Rosters article.
Overview:
There are a number of different ways to start a Chaos Dwarf team in a TV1000 league environment each with their own benefits and drawbacks. Things to bear in mind are the high cost of their rerolls, the starting skills of the players and the speed of which the players will gain SPP. The length of the league you are playing in may also have some bearing on your choices as well.
Reroll Heavy Chaos Dwarf Roster:
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Hobgoblin | 160k |
| 6 | Chaos Dwarf | 420k |
| 1 | Bull Centaur | 130k |
| 4 | Rerolls | 280k |
| Total | 990k |
I’m a big fan of starting Chaos Dwarfs with a lot of rerolls, even more so now that they are more expensive than they used to be. I would also recommend starting with all 6 Chaos Dwarfs, they are slow to skill up and as they start with Block they are good players early on, as less opposing players will also have it. This gives them the maximum chance to develop though both casualties and playing more games increases their chances to get an MVP. Most of your money will have gone by this point and I love to start with a Minotaur but with the increased price on rerolls and the Minotaur you can’t afford one. Rather than cut back on a reroll or a Chaos Dwarf I would opt to take a Bull Centaur instead. This gives the team a bit more strength (though you can do fine with a lot of rerolls and no stronger players) and gives the team a bit more speed as well. The roster is rounded off with 4 Hobgoblins to get the required 11 players for a starting team. They are cheap and make good ball carriers sat in a cage.
You have 10k left over which I recommend to save and get an apothecary as your first purchase. After that save up for the Minotaur (though I would first replace any Chaos Dwarfs if they die or you sack injured ones) and then the other Bull Centaur. I would only get more Hobgoblins if you can’t field at least two that aren’t journeymen.
Minotaur Chaos Dwarf Roster:
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 5 | Hobgoblin | 200k |
| 6 | Chaos Dwarf | 420k |
| 1 | Minotaur | 150k |
| 3 | Rerolls | 210k |
| Total | 980k |
Minotaurs are really great players on a Chaos Dwarf team if you learn how to use them effectively and negate their Wild tendencies. The downside of them is that they are very expensive and mean you have to give up something somewhere else. I wouldn’t drop a Chaos Dwarf though you really should start any team with all 6 you are allowed. As a result you can only afford three rerolls, this isn’t a big problem though and the team is more than capable of doing well with three as they are with 4. The benefit of starting with the Minotaur is it gives him more games to get the first skill and get either Juggernaut or if you are lucky Block. This makes a great addition to the team and really helps them move a cage.
As usual first purchase should be an apothcary and you have 20k left over to go towards one. Then you want to save up for the Bull Centaurs, though I may be tempted to get a 4th reroll next or get one between the first and second. This is why I prefer to start with four rerolls and take the first line up over this.
I think the Bull Centaurs Chaos Dwarf Roster is the best. The Bull Centaurs are just too awesome. But definately have to agree that the Chaos Dwarfs are the heart of the team and should be max’d out asap.
I hope we get these guys for the Cyanide game soon.
What skill choices would be the best after block and break tackle for the bull centaur?
Any of the skills that help with blitzing, though as that has little to do with the starting roster why not start a thread on the forum for more in depth discussion. Building Bull Centaurs is a hot topic that will generate a lot of off topic comments for this article!
Hello Coach,
What do you think of using 4 hobgobelins, 5 dwarves, 1 minotaur, 1 bull centaur and 3 rerolls
I’m starting a league with friends and i want use this balance(?) roster (i’ll play vs fragile players (humans, elves, etc., except dwarves) and i want to use a blitzing minotaur for more damage. What do you think of it ?
Thanks
It isn’t a bad option, I just prefer to have all six Dwarves to start with. Dropping the Centaur to do that either lets you save 40k for a guarantee that you can afford the Apothecary after match one, or have enough to get an extra Hobgoblin for 12 players.
You may prefer the extra strength and movement of a Centaur though, all those options are much the same as each other and I can’t see a problem starting with that line up. Good luck!
Hi,
for the beggining of a league, i can’t start without apo.
If one of your bull gets killed in the first game, it will take 3-4 games to rebuy one.
I’m not a fan of BG, except for the chaos minotaurs which has mutations skills without doubles, trolls for the OT and kroxy.
So i play without the minotaur.
And for RR, 3 is good, but 2 will be quite ok for starting, as i do not reroll except double skull, and pick up in certain circounstances.
So i start with this :
– 2 bulls
– 6 dwarves
– 3 hobos
– 2 RR
– Apo
Nearly the same as your last one, but apo instead of a 12 players. This twelve player i buy it as soon as i can, except if i have some bad injuries in the first game and i won’t have 12 players anyway.
Twice the apo save my bull in the very first game of a ligue.
First time for a GFI to score, 1 rr 1, 11/10/dead. No apo, tears only.
Second time on a drive, throw a rock in one of my bull’s head, -1Str… And thanksfully apo to change it by a miss next game.
This was a 15 days ligue, so a dead bull isn’t allways the end, but still hard to deal with.
Thanks coach for you answers
I love the CD rosters, though thinking of going with 2 centaurs; 3 rerolls; 5 Hobs; 4 Blockers; and an Apo. The thought of not having an Apothecary early on with so many expensive players makes me nervous.
You can also start with the Minotaur, 1 Bull Centaur, 5 Chaos Dwarfs, 4 Hobgoblins and 3 rerolls for 1 milllion. Yes it’s risky and you might not get an Apo for 2 or more matches if you’re unlucky, but you do get your strongest player and your fastest from the get go. I would only use this if I knew my first games were against Elves, Skaven or other Agility teams though.
You can even get the Mino and both Bulls, though you drop to 4 CD’s and 2 RR’s. Probably not the wisest idea, but perhaps if you start in an established league and can induce those extra rerolls and an apo until you can buy them.
Buying rerolls at 140k after the league starts sounds expensive, but buying the minotaur and one bull Centaur costs just as much as 2 rerolls, and is more expensive to induce. Also, there’s the fact that rerolls don’t need to get SPP’s and your players very much do, so having the players from game 1 instead of the rerolls is better from that perspective too.
P.S.: Coach, when will you get around to doing the Hobgoblin and CD Minotaur writeups?
I’m not seeing the point of ever bringing Mino to the party. You already have your mobile high-ST hitters in the Bull Centaurs, without WA or Loner.
My favored line-up is all 6 Dwarves, both 2 Centaurs, 3 Hobgoblins to round it out, just 2 rerolls, and Apo for security. With all that Block you should be able to save the rerolls for the other stuff (or blocking with the Centaurs), while maximizing the chances of the important players getting the MVP early. And Apo is there just because you’re 10k short of getting the 3rd reroll, so might as well pick the other thing you’re going to want as soon as possible anyway.
You’re also missing out on one of the more popular starting rosters: 6 Dwarf Blockers, 1 Centaur, 4 Hobgoblins, 3 rerolls and the apoth. It means you start with all the Dwarves, a decent number of rerolls, your apoth, and the first of 2 Centaurs.
Not sure why you’d bother with the Minotaur – he doesn’t get mutations on a normal roll, and with Loner/Wild Animal he’s a liability.
In the long term, the mino is no good on a CD team, I agree (unless you roll 2 or more doubles). But initially, it is useful to have a serious ‘spaceclearer’ available, and with str 5, Horns, Frenzy and MB, the mino does fit that role perfectly. Your Chaos Dwarfs won’t be able to hit very hard (yet) and are slow, your Bull Centaur is fast and Strong, but until he gets Block, he’s as likely as the mino to fail 2d blocks, and much less likely to get 3d blocks.
I’m not sure you need 5 hobgoblins on the minotaur roster, I’d rather trade a hobo for an apothecary and start saving for bull centaurs from game 1
I’m going for the six Chaos Dwarfs, four Hobgoblin, one Bull Centaur and four rerolls. Thank you coach, great advice 🙂
Also a build not discussed is the all positionals with 1 reroll . minotaur, 2 bull centaurs, 6 dwarves and 2 goblins. You have to play quite conservatively but it is an option.
Just wanted to say thanks for all of your input here. This weekend we started a League and Sunday I went 1 and 1 with the following roster:
2 Bull Centaurs
4 Dwarf Blockers
5 Hobgoblins
1 Apothecary and
3 rerolls
We also got to choose either 1 ST or Ability for one player and 1 AG or ability for another player. I put the Strength bump on a Centaur and Agility on a Dwarf. Lost the first match to an experienced player with Orcs, don’t feel too bad as it was my first BB game in years. Won the second match against a tough Dwarf team.
An update from last night’s game against a Dwarf team. Really grateful to have had my Apothecary as he saved one of my Bull Centaurs! Just missing the next game without long-term injury! Best investment I could have made!
I can understand that the Apoth is great if it saves your Bull. I have had the opposite. I went for the 2 BC, 5 CDB 4 Hobo 3 TRR.
I still feel this is a great starting roster as it’s about 1/36 to happen that a AV 9 player suffers a CAS. So 1/108 for him to die.
I am convinced now that the 2 BC, 6 CDB, 3 Hobo 2 TRR and Apoth is even the strongest line-up to start with. You need to be experienced in order not to make any positional errors, in order to make it with 2 TRR.