In the Old World the dead do not rest easy. Vampires lurk in haunted castles, Necromancers seek to escape death by searching for forbidden knowledge, the Liche-lords rule over legions of corpses, and on the Blood Bowl field players who died long ago return to the scenes of their former glory and play Blood Bowl once again…
| QTY | Position | Cost | MA | ST | AG | PA | AV | Skills & Traits | Pri | Sec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0-12 | Skeleton | 40k | 5 | 3 | 4+ | 6+ | 8+ | Regeneration, Thick Skull | G | AS |
| 0-12 | Zombie | 40k | 4 | 3 | 4+ | – | 9+ | Regeneration | G | AS |
| 0-4 | Ghoul | 75k | 7 | 3 | 3+ | 4+ | 8+ | Dodge | AG | PS |
| 0-2 | Wight | 90k | 6 | 3 | 3+ | 5+ | 9+ | Block, Regeneration | GS | AP |
| 0-2 | Mummy | 125k | 3 | 5 | 5+ | – | 10+ | Mighty Blow (+1), Regeneration | S | AG |
| 0-8 | ReRolls | 70k | Apothecary: No | |||||||
| Special Rules | Masters of Undeath, Sylvanian Spotlight |
Shambling Undead Team Overview:
Shambling Undead are one of the best teams in the game. They have a great mix of strong, fast, resiliant and cheap players. They have access to the strongest standard players of any starting team. Most of the team has the ability to regenerate allowing them to shrug off injuies and death! With cheap players to use for fouling or tying up big guys, and the faster more agile Ghouls give the team a strong running game.
The bad news is the high cost of Rerolls, the Ghouls are fragile and have no regeneration or a team apothcary to keep them alive. They will often get targetted as the easiest players to get out of the game. They also aren’t that great at passing the ball, normally having no access to passing skills and you don’t really want to run ghouls off into the opposition half to be catching the ball.
For a beginner they are a great team, if not the best team, to start with. Strong, tough Mummies for hitting the other team and hiding your players behind, Zombies are cheap and fairly resiliant and the Wights and Ghouls give you some ball carrying ability. If you can keep the Ghouls safe and start with a few Rerolls, this is my recommended team to start with.
Shambling Undead Team Strengths:
- Great mix of players
- Resilient
- Great Beginner Team
Shambling Undead Team Weaknesses:
- Expensive Rerolls
- Weak Passing game
- Ghouls need to be protected
These are rumoured to be in the first expansion of the Cyanide Computer Game, so I was trying to decide what a starting team would look like and was surprised that they are one of the few teams that could easily start with more than 11 players without sacrificing ReRolls.
But was curious about Skeletons Vs Zombies. As far as I can see Skeletons are faster and cheaper, and don’t know why anyone would bother with Zombies?
A little history lesson for you. Originally when undead were added in the Death Zone expansion for 3rd edition, both zombies and skeletons both cost 30k. During that time pretty much everyone would only take zombies. The reason for this is that they are pretty much used as fodder for the other team to hit. So for this job extra armour is preferable to extra movement. One skeleton may have been useful to use as a fouler but a zombie can still do that well if you position them really well.
LRB5 put the price of zombies up to 40k to encourage more use of skeletons, though I still think zombies are more effective and 40k is still really cheap for a player. Also undead are typically one of the better teams and the price increase was also an attempt to weaken them ever so slightly. There is a proposed change to skeletons for LRB6 (due november sometime) to also go to 40k but gain thick skull as well.
In my opinion though zombies are still the better player in all three combos of the different players.
I suppose if they are only there to get beaten up then Zombies are the better choice, but as a speedy player (I primarily play Skaven and Wood Elves) I suppose my play style appreciates the extra speed that little bit more.
Thanks.
If you are a speedy player, dont play undead 🙂
You’re quite likely to become very frustrated very quickly!
Necromantic (which arent joining cyanide) play a little more speedy
and agree : Zombies all the way on this one.
Doesnt matter if you are a speedy player and play plenty of skaven and wood elves. Don’t underestimate the power of 4 ghouls and the 2 wights. Whilst most undead players tend not to go down this route, I think its vital for a balanced undead lineup.
This also includes taking mostly zombies for line-fodder. 1-2 skeles is enough to help cover breakouts against faster teams – if you find yourself being outmaneuvered frequently, you should take a better look at your positioning 😉
There are teams that some undead can have trouble with (Dodgy amazons for one), but in general, a solid wall of flesh marching down the field, with wights and ghouls covering breakouts or blitzing holes can take care of most opponents.
Oh, and don’t protect the ghouls TOO much. You’ll need to spend your money on SOMEthing, after all…
I thought all Undead teams eventually get all 4 Ghouls and 2 Wights, I’ve certainly never seen an Undead coach with a developed team choose not to get all 6.
My point was more that, with 4 ghouls and 2 wights, undead arent really a ‘slow’ team. They can outmaneuvre dwarves, and even Necro can struggle to match their speed, particularly with how vulnerable (and more expensive) wolves are. As the average speed in bloodbowl is 6, careful positioning of Mummies and zombies will mean you can ‘shorten the field’ for your higher movement players.
While its true Undeads out of the box is not a good passing team, they can defenetly develop their players into a very strong passing team.
Wights have access to skills like Sure Hands, Strong Arm and Kick Off Return, and with a double Accurate and you suddenly have a strong and reliable thrower with good survivabillity.
Ghouls easely develop into really nice catchers with their Agillity skill access.
Since passing games work well with 1 thrower, a few catchers and a lot of stuff in the middle to mire down the oponents players, it does not have to be a problem that most undead players are relativly slow. Your 5 players that will be doing the main running around are quite fast. As long as your mummies, Zombies and Skeletons tie down the oponent in the middle, you will end up with a very fast play.
Hey Coach –
I rolled an Undead team for my latest league, and three games in, I am at 1-2. My opponents are mostly Necromantic, but there is a Nurgle and Khemri team in there as well. Anyways, I am having major trouble getting anything done against teams that can take four ST4 players. With only two fairly immobile ST5 Mummies, what usually happens is that they get marked by the ST4 players and gang-blocked with assists, while the remaining ST4 players either smash my cage apart or blow out my defense. Can you offer any advice on how the Undead should deal with this situation, apart from marking the ST4 guys with zombies and hoping they don’t get CASed?
That question requires more advice than it suitable for this overview article, create a thread on the forum to get more comprehensive advice. For best results post your roster and also what teams specifically you are struggling against.
As a big fan of the undead teams, I tend to lean to them as my go to team. With zombies and mummies on the line and ghouls and wights on the outside with a safety ghoul deep (with wrestle) defense is my main aspect. Shutting down elves can be a little tricky but with the right placement and tackle is an important skill.
Typeo in the table, no number for max Ghouls.
I just checked and it should be there, if you still can’t see it then let me know and I’ll investigate further.