This article was written for a previous version of the Blood Bowl rules and has some outdated information in it.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 Underworld Denizens Starting Rosters article.
Underworld Starting Roster Overview:
As one of the three newer races there isn’t a great deal of tactical information about Underworld teams. Obviously the first thing you will have to do when you decide to coach an Underworld team though is come up with your starting line up. Generally though your players are fairly cheap and even though the team rerolls are expensive you can easily fill out your roster with pretty much everything you wanted. There are perhaps a couple of variations to consider if you are going into an existing league, though for a brand new one I would be surprised if you weren’t facing the suggested lineup below.
Standard TV1000 Underworld Starting Roster:
| Quantity | Player / Item | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Underworld Goblins | 160k |
| 2 | Skaven Linemen | 100k |
| 2 | Skaven Throwers | 140k |
| 2 | Skaven Blitzers | 180k |
| 1 | Warpstone Troll | 110k |
| 4 | Rerolls | 280k |
| Total | 970k |
When you first look at the players you can select you can basically see the core of a Skaven team with the addition of a Troll and some Goblins, all of which can mutate on normal skill rolls. As usual when creating a team you would look to how many of the positional players you can afford (considering the Underworld Goblins as Linemen). Purchasing the Warpstone Troll and all six possible Skaven players comes to a total of seven. You need at least four Underworld Goblins to get to the minimum of eleven. Usually at this point you don’t have much cash left and with expensive rerolls you may think you need to drop something. However after counting all the pennies up using your fingers you notice that you actually have enough money for four of those expensive rerolls! You even have 30k left over which you can save towards the likely purchase of an Apothecary after your first match.
Going by that thought process I think most coaches would be pleased enough and settle for that as their starting lineup. It is certainly the way I would go even if I was joining into an existing league. The Warpstone Troll offers you some muscle and something to hide behind. The Skaven players prevent you from having to field more low strength Underworld Goblins and having more Skaven means you are less likely to suffer from Animosity, they are also your fastest available players. Goblins can still be very handy if used well and are nice and expendable, that and you have no other choice but to take at least four to start with. Having four rerolls is a luxury that most teams can’t afford, also with their high cost starting with more saves you in the long run. A reroll after team creation will cost you 50k more to save up for compared to your second most expensive player, so get them early is what I say!
TV1000 Underworld Starting Roster Summary:
I’ve not offered many options here (or any really) as I can’t see many cases when even someone new to the game wouldn’t go down this route. If someone were to stray from the path, then your main choices would be to drop a reroll, though bear in mind the only player you can buy more of at this point are Goblins.
You could swap a reroll for two more Goblins which will give you thirteen players, though costs 10k more. Your team is fragile so they can come in helpful in those early games and if you don’t take injuries then fouling becomes far more viable. Alternatively and perhaps a better choice would be to get an Apothecary and an extra Goblin which costs 20k more than the reroll. Twelve players and an Apothecary is similar to having thirteen players though the Apothecary could perhaps save one of your more expensive players.
These two alternatives are probably better if you are joining an existing league where you are far more likely to get outnumbered in those early games. I still don’t go for them though as if you consider the price of that reroll you drop. After you have created the team for the price of that reroll you could have bought an Apothecary and two more Goblins with 10k change left over. That extra reroll could also possibly win you those early games when you have less skills. The same could be said for the extra players instead though there is no way of knowing! Due to that I can’t blame anyone for getting the extra players as three rerolls is usually fine for a lot of other starting teams.
I have considered starting with only one thrower, five gobbos and the apothecary. That leaves 10k towards the second thrower, but you might save an expensive player with the doc.
I can see some merit in that, just obviously means you start with another ST2 player rather than ST3.
I love the Underworld team, it’s a lovely skittering blend of speed, stunty dodginess,a decent big guy to cower behind and possibly the best pure blitzer in the game. I’d say you want both throwers as the more skaven on the pitch the better, but you do ideally want to start with that apothecary just in case your stars aka your blitzers come a cropper in that first match. So based on that I’d say the second build with the three rerolls seems the better one.
I don’t think I would ever go up to 4 rerolls on this team, never mind start with them. You have heaps of rerolls skills on this team to start with, dodge, sure hands, even pass, plus some block. With the cost of them so high, I would stick with 3 get that apothecary and the 5th gobbo in from the start and look to keep the team mean and lean to utilise them great star players.
Both Underworld teams I’ve used in leagues had three re-rolls, an apothecary, an assistant coach and cheerleader, finished with four fan factor. Despite the loss of one team re-roll, I generally find the additional staff to be a serious benefit… Getting FAME easier, combined with the staff means you have a much higher chance of grabbing that additional re-roll with the kick-off results, so that should offset the loss of one team re-roll. Add to that the availability of the apothecary from match one and well, I rather take my chances with that one less team re-roll.
After much trial and error I’ve found the same as Vinz-D to be my prefered choice;
1xTroll
2xBlitzers
2xThrowers
2xLinerats
5xGoblins
3xRerolls
1xApothecary
1xCheerleader/Assistant Coach
Total: 1 million GPS
All your positionals, deeper bench, apothecary from the start, solid amount of rerolls and a cheerleader to help with the kickoff result.
i’m a big fan of:
1 Thrower
1 Troll
2 Blitzers
2 Linemen
7 Goblins
3 Rerolls
1 Apoth
It gives you a 13-player roster with apothecary right from the gate. It means extra ST2 players, but it also means that game ONE you’re able to gratuitously foul vs. other teams who probably don’t have spare players or maybe even apothecaries. Throwers also level up very fast too.
I’d honestly be hard pressed to even consider another starting roster after having used this one, as it really seems to have everything you could want, only missing a (fast levelling) thrower, which you could easily have after 2 games.
i would consider to drop one skaven lineman so that u can start with 12 players for fouling. fouling really helps, especially in the beginning when u face teams consisting of only 11 players. u really need to play the numbers game with underworld in order to win matches. i would, however, not advise to start with less then 4 rr’s since they r way too expensive and you really need the 4 (5 with leader) in the long run.
Is there an article for the goblins on an underworld team ?
How about using only 3 rerolls to stay at 900K and use Fezglitch (fanatic starplayer)?
That’s certainly a possibility, manipulating inducements adds many more options to each race.