This article was written for a previous version of the Blood Bowl rules and has some outdated information in it.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 Chosen Starting Rosters article.
Overview:
Chaos teams are well known for being slow starters but can turn into one of the most formidable teams once well developed. Their expensive players and lacking of core starting skills can really lead to problems in their first few games until they start to pick up skills. Under the latest rules though they have benefited from the extra cash of not needing fan factor and have also had a price drop for their rerolls. With their lack of skills it is probably sensible to start the team with at least three rerolls as you have nothing else to fall back on when you get bad rolls. The other main decision is whether or not to start with a Minotaur on your team and there is debate about having one on the team at all.
Tv1000 4 Chaos Warrior Starting Roster:
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 7 | Beastmen | 420k |
| 4 | Chaos Warriors | 400k |
| 3 | Rerolls | 180k |
| Total | 1M |
This is probably the most rounded and “safest” way to start a Chaos team. You get all fours Chaos Warriors and an adequate amount of rerolls. Having all four Chaos Warriors increases their chances of getting the MVP and skilling up, though with AG3 though don’t suffer so much from slow progression compared to other ST4 players. You do avoid the trouble of having an unreliable Minotaur as well. The roster is rounded out at a full 1 million, so you don’t have any money to bank towards getting an Apothecary.
Tv1000 Minotaur Chaos Starting Roster:
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 9 | Beastmen | 540k |
| 1 | Chaos Warrior | 100k |
| 1 | Minotaur | 150k |
| 3 | Rerolls | 180k |
| Total | 970k |
This roster gets the Minotaur in from the start giving him more games to start gaining SPP, whilst also leaving you with three rerolls. It does mean though that you can only afford to start with one Chaos Warrior so the overall strength is lower. You do have the luxury of 30k banked towards an Apothecary which makes it highly likely you can get one next game. Another option is to drop the Chaos Warrior for a tenth Beastman and starting with an Apothecary, with 20k banked. This can save you a big chunk of cash if the Minotaur gets killed or seriously injured.
Hi Coach, just to let you know the last list is a copy and paste and you forgot to edit it. Great work though, although for me the 1st option has always been the only way I would go.
Thanks for spotting that, missed it in my proof read.
Hi Coach – I just wanted to comment on the value of the Minotaur. I think he’s one of the best 5ST guys in the game outside of maybe the Kroxigor. I started my Chaos team similar to the 1st option. I just play casually with a buddy of mine, but we have built all 24 races. Over 23 games, my Minotaur has racked up 21 casualties and leveled-up 3 times. I’ve given him Claws, Piling on and Break Tackle. Combined with the Horns, Frenzy and Mighty Blow he started with, he has become an absolute killing machine. My Chaos team is only 11-12 over their 23 games, but they are competitive and fun to play. Win or lose however, my opponent ALWAYS feels the effects of their matches against this Chaos team!
I disagree that two rerolls are essential; As they’re probably the hittiest team around I genuinely do follow the stereotypical Chaos attitude of only bothering the consider the ball once there’s nobody left standing on the opposing team. Having a lineup which includes four CWs and a Minotaur at the very beginning maximises the chances of being able to double up the block dice on practically any line of scrimmage, which means it’s only really picking up the ball where I’m really worried.
– Chris
A two dice block without the Block skill will cause a turnover one in every nine blocks on average. You need the rerolls to negate that. They also help with getting SPP for completions in the dead turns you sometimes get at the end of halves. Sometimes you also need to score quickly and will be rolling a pass, catch and go for its, with perhaps a dodge or two thrown in as well.
Starting with two rerolls is going to give you a lot of headaches against better coaches, unless you get lucky in removing lots of their players.
Coch, i must say: SCREW rerolls when you have a chance of making the other coach cry! i like to max out chaos teams, and also other teams! i actually now got 4 rerolls on my chaos team, and they started with 4 cw’s and 1 mino.
ive had good succes with them =), but i must ask you. only 1 of all my cw’s has leveled up, and the other ones is pretty close to but that is from mvp’s and stuff.
i would just like to know if i have done anything wrong with my cw’s, i always put them on the LOS with my mino when i receive. so question is in short: quickest way how to level them up?
great site, and thank you =).
They will cry with laughter as you keep failing rolls and have no rerolls to try again.
I’ve asked you once already, please use the forum for unrelated questions. Chaos Warrirors skilling up has nothing to do with a starting roster. I’ll answer this time but don’t expect me to keep going off topic on subjects. They have AG3 unlike other ST4 players so getting them the ball should be fairly easy. So the best way to get them SPP is to score touchdowns with them. ST4 ball handlers in a cage aren’t going to be easy to get the ball from. You don’t need to put all of them on the LOS when being kicked too. You could happily even use Beastmen with assists to hit most players who are usually on the LOS.
Heya Coach and first of all my compliments for this great page!
Secondly I tried out a startingteam consisting of 3 Warriors, 8 Beastmen, 2 RR and an apotechary and so far its gone swell. Sure I play utterly safe almost to the borderline of boring but but limiting all unneeded rolls it really comes down to dumb luck/bad luck with the blocks. The fact that I play in a league with mostly agility teams might be helping 😛
I have started in a league with 6 BM 4 CW and a Mino with no rerolls an apothacary and 4 fan facter. At this point I’ve played around 12 games against ten or so teams in this league with only one loss (Dark Elfs) and have only gained 1 reroll but my team has become very strong in the bashing part of the game with all 4 CW haveing Block 2 with Claw 6 BM with gaurd 2 with extra arm and a Mino with Jug/Block (had to pick Block on the Doubles roll). So after all this I really think its all about those first 2 to 3 games going good for you with any list to give your team the skills that make them better at what they do best
Risky strategy that will cause you to lose a lot of early games with no rerolls, especially against better coaches. Not to mention the fact that rerolls cost more than both Beastmen and Chaos Warriors after team creation. Glad it worked out for you though!
After having played in a league where we knew the schedual and my first two matches were against orks and dwarves i will definately say those early RRs allowed me to ensure i could take out key positional players in turns 1, 2 and 3 to allow me to dominate the halves
If i had been drawn against the humans or the elves, then i probably wouldn’t have picked so many re-rolls to begin
Coach what do you think about the all beast lineup?
1 Mino
10 Beasts
4 RR
10k Bank?
It was common to start with 11 Beastmen in previous editions where it was sensible to spend 90k on Fan Factor. It can work well and having 4 rerolls on a team that lacks skills at the start can be great. The obvious downside is that you don’t start with your ST4 players and it can take longer to skill them up. I think the Minotaur loses some value on a team that has lots of players with Horns. It can certainly be workable though and if you wanted to play the beast only theme for the whole league, I can see it being competitive.
Heya coach ive been wondering would getting an extra CW and only 8 BM and 3 RR any good?
As long as you start with at least three rerolls I think the rest of what you start with isn’t really going to make a big difference.
Hey coach just another quick question but is the chaos team sposed to be so freaking hard? ive tried all your formations and a couple of my own but im having difficulty bashing a team running with the ball, normally im a norse team and im doing pretty well with them 15-0-0 but i cant get my head around chaos any surgestions?
I have played Chaos on and off for many years (about 15 years..:) )and always start them a little differently each time. I think the reason for the slight differences might be solely based on the league-team makeup, as in what kind of teams are in the league. If there are a lot of bash-centric teams eg. Dwarf, Chaos, Orc. I tend to take max CW and Beastman no Mino. If there are more agile teams or more balance in a league, I seem to take this team and I have found it is at the limit of minimum required punching power for a Rookie Chaos Team. While not sacrificing essential re-rolls and apothecary. I believe that this is the most evenly balanced starting Chaos Team with a Minotaur.
1 Minotaur
2 Chaos Warriors
8 Beastman
2 Re-Rolls
1 Apothecary
TV1000
Tactically, if you receive the ball at any stage, get those Chaos Warriors to do a quick pass even if you have to burn those team re-rolls. Once they get that 1SPP that first skill is usually not far away. In the first game of any league that I have played Chaos, generally both Chaos Warriors have 1SPP (min) at the end of the game.
Team Re-Rolls are definitely essential for this team “more is better!”, but if you’re willing to bite the bullet and maybe have a few frustrating games early on (losses and draws) because of all the failed dice rolls, 2 Re-Rolls can get you by.
Apothecary is REQUIRED when you have a Minotaur. Remember he has only got AV8, he gets nailed just as easy as a Beastman and with no starting skills or protection assists like Guard, he generally has a target painted on his head. Even Elf Teams will coax or throw 3-4 players at a Minotaur just on the chance they can get him off of the field, ST5 will not keep him around.
I allways get 4cw 1mino 6beasts 1rr
yes on 2 dice block without block you go down 1/9 times, but with this starting roster you can block 9 times each turn, so to negatethatyou would need 8rrs… i like to buysoem fan factor for the leftower cash which givs me rerols on kicks of in the beginning, and i can get my second rerol without raising my TV too much on avarage after3 maches.
>>RoarMon
i also like norse adnits way of: hit hard and fast, to get the numerical advantage, i use the same aproach with chaos works nicely.