TV1000 Undead 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This article was written for a previous version of the Blood Bowl rules and has some outdated information in it.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 Shambling Undead Starting Rosters article.

Undead Starting Roster Overview:

While some races can be quite tricky when it comes to creating a starting roster, Undead teams pretty much pick themselves and it isn’t unusual to find nearly every Undead team starting out with the same initial lineup. This is probably more likely these days then under older rule-sets where you had more flexibility as the Undead players were cheaper than they are now. With the prices of Zombies and Skeletons going up and Mummies having two price increases, your options are somewhat less limited now than before. I would imagine that the only variations you would likely see are new coaches who don’t realise the importance of rerolls and perhaps coaches who are trying out some kind of theme, such as an all Zombie roster.

The other part of the Undead team that has changed a lot over the various rule-sets has been the Wights. While their price has stayed at a consistent level, in some versions you could get four of them on the team, this is now capped at two which forces you to take more Linemen. The other thing that has changed has been their normal access to strength skills when the advance. Currently they are able to take strength skills normally which is great for access to Guard and on balance I think the current roster is probably about right when compared to the rest of the races in the game.

Standard TV1000 Undead Starting Roster:

QuantityPlayer / ItemCost
5Zombies / Skeletons200k
2Ghouls140k
2Wights180k
2Mummies240k
3Rerolls210k
Total970k

Generally the first players selected for an Undead team would be putting both Mummies in the starting lineup. They are very strong, start with Mighty Blow and have high armour. They are the force which the team moves behind and one of the main reasons people tend to play Undead in the first place. After that both Wights would be commonly seen, they have reasonable speed, and start with Block which is great to have on a starting team. They also give you some reasonable though not great agility, allowing them some flexibility when it comes to dodges and ball handling.

Follow them up with a couple of Ghouls, they do have low armour and lack Regeneration like the rest of the team. They can be a target for opponents, though Dodge offers them some protection initially against most opponents. Usually taking them to do most the ball handling as Dodge and their higher movement makes them the most mobile players on the team. They are also the ones you tend to want to skill up the quickest so that they can get Block or Wrestle for more protection and also gives you more blitzing options.

This puts you at six players so you need at least five more. Typically most teams will take five Zombies, though you could mix this up and take Skeletons instead. I think at least three Zombies is probably a better idea for placing them on the Line of Scrimmage and getting a couple of Skeletons is a fair mix. Use your own judgement and preferences to suit your preferred play style and also perhaps some bearing based on the opposing teams in your league. You might want to take a spare Zombie to increase your chance to have three for the LOS every drive you kick off, though you can get more Zombies free by killing opponents.

That leaves you with enough money for three rerolls, they are expensive on an Undead team and you don’t have any ball handling skills to start with. You aren’t exactly heavy with Block from the outset and overall the team isn’t that fast, going with less than three rerolls might leave you struggling in early games. If you were going to try and start with less the only thing you are likely to spend the money on would be more Ghouls. They are your most fragile players and the more you start with the greater the chance one gets injured and you have to replace them. Rerolls can’t get hurt and also double in price after team creation, so I can’t see much reason for dropping them. With the older player prices starting with four rerolls or a deeper bench was also an option but I don’t think it is that realistic to do that now.

This leaves you with 30k left over, you can either keep that towards buying those last two Ghouls, or you could perhaps spend it on a Fan Factor, Cheerleader and Assistant Coach. That could make the difference with winning the kick off table rolls, though it is marginal and I personally would probably save it. Getting that next Ghoul quicker is probably more use but you never know. Being an Undead team you can’t take an Apothecary so saving the money towards that compared to other teams isn’t something you need to concern yourself with.

TV1000 Undead Starting Roster Summary:

Following through that reasoning behind creating the team you can probably see now why most Undead teams would be the same. It lets you start with a decent amount of your positional players and nine of the team have Regeneration as well. You can fit in three rerolls fairly easily too. Trying to shoehorn a fourth reroll in requires dropping too much compared to the gain it will give you. Swapping one of the Ghouls for a 40k player doesn’t give you enough money for the reroll so it would have to be a Wight or the Mummy. Losing one of those from your starting lineup will probably hurt more than the benefit you will get from having a fourth reroll.

14 thoughts on “TV1000 Undead Starting Roster”

  1. Why would you not use the 30k left over to upgrade a zombie to a goul? This still leaves you 4 Zombies for the LOS, not to mention the 2 mummies which I often see on LOS.
    The quicker you get all your positionals on the team, the quicker you can start saving for that 4th re-roll.

    Reply
    • My brain didn’t register that when I was writing it, that is certainly a viable thing to do as well. Having three Ghouls would give you more speed on the pitch and options for moving the ball easier, the downside being that it is another player more likely to get injured easier.

      Reply
  2. I’ve noticed a general preference for zombies over skeletons, and I’d love an explanation as to why. Is the +1 AV really worth that much more than Thick Skull, or is there some other reason?

    Reply
  3. Yeah, definitely start with more than just 2 Ghouls, since you can so easily start with 3. You’re going to lose some anyway, but you also really need their speed.

    Reply
  4. I like to start with Coaches roster, but 4 zombies and 1 Skeleton. The Skeleton is my designated fouler and in a pinch he has a bit more pace than the zombies to catch up to the ball carrier. I only start with 2 Ghouls as having 3 means that they are harder to hide behind your higher armour/regen guys. Also, buy having 2 you can focus on skilling those 2 up. Hopefully they will both gain block/wrestle by the time you get the 3rd and then you can focus on skilling him up (perhaps after 1 match). Starting with 3 means 1 Ghoul will likely not get a skill for 3 to 4 games which decreases his survivability.

    Reply
  5. I think I’ll go with coach’s reccomendation and take three zombies and two skeletons and go with two ghouls and skill them up first.

    One question though… The first thing to buy is the third ghoul yeah? So is it more important to get the 4th ghoul next or get the 4th reroll or even a cheerleader or something?
    I’m thinking the 3rd then 4th ghoul, then the 4th reroll and then get a cheerleader.

    Reply
  6. Cheerleaders and coaches are never a priority and you can play a team without ever buying any.

    You also have injuries and things that get in the way of your planned purchases. I’d certainly get the third Ghoul first and then perhaps the fourth though it is probably more likely that you will be replacing one at this point!

    It is hard to give a hard and fast buying outline as no two teams will develop the exact same way or likely be in the same playing environment. Any time you aren’t sure about a purchase you would be better off posting the current state of your team in a forum thread along with other information like the other races you are playing against and the state of their teams. The more info you give when posting such a thread the better the responses you can get.

    Reply
  7. I prefer more the Skeletons because of thick skull because if it hits most time its a death or high injury roll. So my team always starts with 3 Skeletons and 2 Zombies. It is like a Bone Minefield that i lay up if my Mummys are already left behind by the enemy ball carrier.

    Also i like the Assisting coaches instead of a third Ghoul, because a 4 Reroll is really helping if you kick over a Player with a Skeleton.

    Reply
    • I would stick with Zombies personally, extra speed doesn’t matter when your agility is low and you don’t want to risk failing a dodge with them. Zombies and Skeletons tend to mostly just do the job of marking opponents and lending assists. Due to that they are more likely to get hit and extra armour is more useful for that job. Even with only 2 Ghouls and 2 Wights, Undead teams don’t really suffer from a lack of speed. There are lots of slower teams out there.

      Reply
    • The original Khemri team did but it was hard to balance having four of them on a team. Due to that they were given a different name so that they could be made different from the Undead Mummies without confusing new players why the same player had different abilities on different teams.

      Reply

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