TV1000 Halfling Starting Roster

This article was written for a previous version of the Blood Bowl rules and has some outdated information in it.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 Halfling Starting Rosters article.

Halfling Starting Roster Overview:

When you are starting a Halfling team you have options to consider that aren’t usually an option for other teams. As Halfling players themselves are so cheap and even a couple of Treemen aren’t overly expensive, you have quite a bit of cash left over after you have the mandatory eleven starting players. One of the key things for success with a Halfling team is managing how much inducement money you get each match. Being able to induce a Master Chef and Deeproot Strongbranch makes your team much tougher to play against. This requires your team to be worth 400 TV less than your opponents. This may mean starting your team really cut down if in a new league, or if you are joining an existing one with developed teams already, you may be able to spend all your money and still get those inducements.

TV1000 Halfling Starting Roster

QuantityPlayer / ItemCost
13Halfling390k
2Treemen240k
3Rerolls180k
8Fan Factor80k
3Cheerleaders30k
3Assistant Coaches30k
1Apthecary50k
Total1 Mil

For an existing league this can be a good way to start, though it can also work well in a brand new league as well. With such cheap players you can afford both Treemen and thirteen Halflings giving you fifteen players to start with. It is possibly to start with sixteen players but you want to have at least one free slot on your roster to be able to hire a Star Player if you get enough inducements. Having fifteen players means your are more likely to be able to start every drive with the maximum eleven players. Also when you consider that nearly every other starting team you will face will only have eleven players total, being able to foul with abandon cause you have lots of reserves can come in useful.

You still have a lot of money to spend even with fifteen players on the roster. You can easily afford three rerolls which you may well need. Your only core starting skill is Dodge so there are lots of other rolls that may require team rerolls. With such a slow team (even Dwarfs are faster) you may find you do a lot of go for its, then there are all the ball handling rolls as well. Without Block, if you can’t get the assists for three dice when hitting with the Treemen, the rerolls come in handy there as well.

An Apothecary can come in handy, though save them for the Treemen with a new team. A new Halfling is easy to afford if one gets injured, if you get any star Halflings with useful stat increases and double rolls then you can perhaps use the Apothecary on those players as well. While I normally advise not starting with any Fan Factor, with Halflings you can easily afford it. Reroll denial from the opposing teams is a large part of a successful Halfling team strategy. Starting with a high Fan Factor (80k in this case) will usually win the FAME against other new teams and give you a chance against established teams.

That then leaves you with 60k so I would get three each of Cheerleaders and Assistant Coaches. Again this gives you a great chance of winning all the rerolls on the Kick Off Table even if you lose the FAME roll. Developed teams may also have the same extra support staff but at least you make them to have to win the dice roll rather then them automatically gaining a reroll. Being able to win all the rerolls on the kick off table, along with stealing some via a Master Chef means that starting with only the three rerolls when you can easily afford more is worth doing. Sometimes just denying an opponent the reroll can help more than you gaining it. You may also elect to drop one of these and get the full nine Fan Factor instead of eight as you can always buy them after your first match, but you can’t buy more Fan Factor.

More on Page 2…

7 thoughts on “TV1000 Halfling Starting Roster”

  1. Thanks for the article Coach, my halfings are fun to play but get routinely brutalised. With playing teams who are less than tv1000, can’t petty cash be used to top up the inducements? Usually it will only be about 30K or so. Or am I misreading the tv/inducement rules

    Reply
    • Any money you add from petty cash adds to your team value, so the amount you add you lose the same value in inducements. So you are reading it wrong, there are circumstances where an underdog might use petty cash but that is a separate article. You can’t use it to “top up” your inducement money though.

      Reply
  2. Another roster I’ve heard good things about (never coached the flings myself) is the 750k roster, with 13 flings 2 treemen and 2 rerolls it’s a bit more rounded than the 600k roster giving plenty of players for fouling and reserves, the usual 250k inducement is then spent on a master chef and a wizard with the wizard giving great opportunity to knock the ball loose on defence or cause some casualties in a tight pack to gain a numbers advantage

    Reply
  3. I have gone with a 720k roster for the new season with 12 flings, 2 trees and 2 re-rolls. Its a league full of new teams and as I couldn’t count on coaches having a starting TV of 1000 I wanted to maximise my inducements but not bank on them. I should hopefully have enough for the wizard and chef as a minimum.

    I also would advise coaches that fouling with abandon should probably be postponed until the second half when you’re sure you’ve still got enough players to remain in the game. The odd tactical foul can be gold but pick your targets carefully early on.

    Reply
  4. Recommended starting roster that I use:
    2 Treeman- 240k
    11 Halflings-330k
    2 Rerolls- 120k
    4 Fan Factor- 40k
    2 Assistant Coaches- 20k
    TV= 750k

    Reason for using this type of roster is that it gives a very solid middle ground with some added advantages compared to that of a full roster and minimum roster. You of course get the two treeman which is standard along with 11 halflings which means you have 2 halflings on the sideline which opens opportunities for you to foul freely on the field and be prepared for injuries. 2 rerolls is recommended in case chef does not succeed in taking rerolls otherwise you will be hard pressed to do important actions in game safely. Starting with 4 fan factor will normally put you above other teams and increase your chances at having double fame. Double fame affects rock throw and pitch invasion to work completely in your favor. It will also help prevent teams from gaining rerolls through cheering fans. The assistant coaches are adjustable, though the general goal is to have 2+ of them to prevent your opponent from gaining rerolls with Brilliant Coaching.

    With inducements, this will generally start out with you using chef/wizard. Other teams will rise much faster than your team though in TV which will allow you to apply star players. Keep in mind that since Halflings always have money banked that you can adjust your TV as you see fit.

    Reply
  5. Thanks for the article coach, I’m planning to play as a halfling team so does anyone know the starting lineup what is best for an Amateur

    Reply

Leave a comment

css.php
Represent BBTactics in the BB3 (PC) Blood Bowl World Championship by signing up to play in the Big Crunch League