Overview
This guide is here to help improve your win rate, refine your playstyle, and avoid some bad beginner habits.
Introduction
Welcome, Coaches!
Nuffle, the Great God of Dice, is about to take your soul (and your free time). May He, in His infinite Wisdom, grant you triple skulls only on unimportant rolls. Praise be!
Blood Bowl is my favorite game of all times and I’d love more people to share in its blood, tears and glory! It could be tricky though – rules are not the most complicated, but their application can be. It’s hard to become good at it, and official tutorials (as well as BB2 braindead AI) don’t help much. Many new players struggle to overcome these early barriers, get disappointed and leave.
Now, we can’t let this happen, can we? Nuffle demands daily sacrifices, so I decided to make this guide for you to get over this initial curve and pledge your souls away. However, THIS IS NOT the fundamentals guide, it is more of a Handbook to help you improve the way you are playing this game. That said, I will assume that you know the basics (i.e how tacklezones work and what certain skills do) and are capable of looking up the unfamiliar terms yourself.
Please remember that Blood Bowl is a dice game. Sometimes you roll dice and win, sometimes you do everything perfect and lose. However I believe you will win more if you manage your risks and position your pieces well, and I will try to show you some best practices. During my time playing and watching Blood Bowl I’ve seen lots of great, questionable and outright bad plays and I divided them into three categories:
– Bad habits – some strategies that generally lead to frustration and loss
– Ugly habits – mediocre plays, that are not always terrible, but could be done better
– Good habits – proven tactics that are used by successful coaches
I will explore these categories in detail below, share my opinion on the starting teams and leave you with a few helpful links. I hope you will find this useful!
P.S. By popular demand I am adding a brief Glossary with some most used terms I refer to in the guide:
– 1D/2D/3D: the number of block dice you get when you hit (block) someone or when they hit you. It is affected by relative player Strength, number of assisting players and some skills (dauntless, horns, guard).
– LOS – Line of Scrimmage, it refers to players that you put on the first line during defense or attack.
-Str/AG/MA/AV – Stats that your players have: respectively Strength, Agility, Movement Allowance and Armor Value. Average values are 3/3/6/8
– Pow/Both Down/Push/Skull – refers to the result of a dice roll during Block/Blitz action. Pow is pretty much rolling a 6, always a success, Defender Down. Please refer to fundamentals if you don’t know these.
– Go-For-Its (GFIs) – Go for It actions when you have to roll 1d6 to move a square beyond your normal range.
– TZs – Tacklezones that every player has. Normally, moving through a tacklezone requires a dodge roll.
– Marking – when you move your player next to opponents players either by move, block or blitz actions. Usually it forces the marked player to make block or dodge action or risk being blocked next turn.
– Frenzy/Surfing: Frenzy is a skill that allows you to make a second block during block action if t he first one wasnt a knockdown. Surfing is moving a player out of pitch bounds, Frenzy is often the cause of it.
– Fouling: separate action to roll for armor/injury on a downed opposition player. Normally if you roll doubles on this roll, you get sent off.
– Piling On (PO) – is a skill that allows you to reroll the block results if it was a knockdown. Results in your player going prone for a turn.
– Red Dice (uphill) blocks – when your strenght is lower than opponents either due to stats or assists, you roll two dice and your opponent chooses one of them instead.
– Positional – a player with a distinct function on your team (killer, ball carrier, sacker, etc.). It could even be developed Lineman that offer something rare (like guard on Elf team) that you should maybe consider not sending them to mark the Beast of Nurgle.
That should be it, please refer to Helpfull Links section if you are still confused about the basics – there are some links to beginner guides. Cheers!
Bad Habits of Blood Bowl
Here I would like to talk about the plays and situations you should generally try to stay away from :
1. Conceding. This is probably the worst of all. People concede when they are unlucky, outplayed or just enraged/bored. Concessions teach you not to try too hard and leave when things go bad. If you have lost the will to play, at least inform your opponent and let him score. Maybe you can agree on skipping turns. But better yet – stick with it till the end. You won’t learn if you run from defeat all the time.
2. Getting salty. Sometimes you are diced, sometimes – outplayed, it is not always an obvious distinction. But If you flip out in the middle of the match, you’ve already lost. Being angry will just cloud your mind and won’t bring satisfaction from the game. Losing could be fun if you made peace with it. Don’t blame your opponent’s luck or your poor dice, look into your own actions instead.
3. Marking aimlessly. Even if you have av9-thick skull and/or Blodge (Block+Dodge) players, marking someone means you might lose this player next turn. Never unnecessarily mark, expose or put important positionals on LOS (Line of Scrimmage). Pows (Defender down result) happen, Death follows suit. That said, marking all relevant players (going “all-mens”) can be a valid tactic when it will force your opponent to do a lot of risky moves and potentially expose the ball to a blitz. If you do that, make sure they will have to pay a heavy positioning price to get 2Ds on your marks.
4. Casual 2D without Block. It is equal to dodging with dodge at ag3 (not considering reroll, of course). These can (and will) fail and eat your turn/reroll. Obviously you can’t avoid them, but caution is advised. Always do blocks with Block first and consider what would happen if you roll both down next.
Special mention goes towards deliberately choosing Both Down when no participants have Block or Wrestle. Do not do this casually, even if you are av9 hitting on av7. Nuffle will play a joke on you, killing your av9 and stunning av7 at best. It is worth considering to prevent an opponent from scoring or if attacking a valuable positional with a crap lino. Most of the time though, just pick a push.
5. 1D blocks. These will fail often, especially if you do not have Block/Wrestle. Attempt them when it is 1D block or game loss or when you don’t care if it fails. Push must be considered a great result. Very often simply not doing a 1d is a better strategy – it keeps the player marked and forces him to divert resources or roll their own 1Ds.
6. Uphill/Red Dice blocks. Generally it is a bad idea, but there are few exceptions however. Rule of a thumb, if they have Block and/or Stand Firm it is more likely not to work out for you. If they don’t, however, and push is a great result (like pushing away the big guy marking a few players or hitting a ball carrier with strip ball) it might be worth a shot. Generally you must plan for these to fail and rerolling them usually not worth it. Remember that 2d+ uphill with Block is like rolling 3+: if 3+ dodge could get you in a better position, do it instead. 3d uphill is never worth it.
7. Mindless Pilling On (PO). Pilling On, combined with Mighty Blow (always taken before PO) and Claw (if possible), is a great skill stack for removing players. It does not mean it needs to be used every time you get someone on the ground. Firstly, PO player loses his tackle zones and – 3 movement next turn (unless he has Jump Up too which is not that common). Secondly, experienced opposition coach will foul unprotected pilling on player even if slightly possible. And finally if not used right it might not make a difference or even reroll a KO back to stun.
Rule of a thumb, only PO when you get to break the armor first, ideally if mighty blow was still not used. Never PO on KO, unless it is the last turn of the game. Only PO on armor if it is a vital positional with AV7 (or if you have claw) and if failure to break armor won’t put you at disadvantage. Always make sure your PO can not be fouled with 2-3 assists and especially Dirty Player. Pilling Own is a scalpel, not a hammer.
8. Casual GFis. GFIs are a trap. They look like a lucrative 2+ roll, but actually they have the same one in six chance to fail as 1D with Block. GFIs may eat your rrs and ruin your game if not taken seriously. Best GFI is the one you don’t mind failing. It goes double for 2+ dodges without Dodge by the way – don’t do them unless it is worse than a failed dodge.
9. Frenzy trapping your players. Frenzy trap is when the push on a first block will get you in trouble of following into 1d block or worse. Frenzy is a powerful tool but you must always plan on pushes at first block and know where the frenzier will end up.
10. Getting Surfed. When your player is pushed off the pitch bounds (crowd surfed) he rolls for injury with no armor roll, which is potentially lethal. Most importantly though is that your player is out for the drive, whether he survived the surf or not. To avoid the surf, never put your players next to the sideline, unless they are protected. Also if there is frenzy player in range, a one square from the sideline is also not safe. Putting someone in contact 1-2 squares from the sideline could result in chain block and surf on blitz.
Stand Firm allows you not to be surfed, while Side-Step gives option to step to any direction when hit near the sideline (provided it is free of other players). Finally, Fend will protect from frenzy surf , as frenzier can not follow up. Juggernaut cancels Stand Firm and Fend, while Grab counters Side-Step. Keep it in mind for both surf protection and surfing someone.
11. Not paying attention to opponents’ skills. There are a few skills that change the usual outcome of actions: sidestep, stand firm, diviing tackle, juggernaut, pass block, nerves of steel etc. Some of them are not common, and thus have to be kept in check even more. It is not generally a good idea to dodge away from diving tackler or frenzying the sidestepper. It sounds like a common knowledge, but if you don’t respect these skills you can fall into the trap. Play with a skill overlay on (press ctrl twice) to know what’s what.
12. “Greed” rerolling. Mostly it is rerolling a push to get a pow. You can get skulls instead. Push is a great result 80% of the time, praise Nuffle for it instead. Rerolling a push on a ball carrier is generally acceptable, but should be carefully considered. Rerolling both down (with Block) is acceptable only when you will be forced to do much riskier actions otherwise (like 4+ dodge to score instead of none, etc). Also all unnecessary actions should be avoided if you are are out of rerolls, unless it is ok if they fail. If it is turn 8 or 16 and you are about to score to win, just score and don’t risk a 2d block.
13. Leaving the Ballcarrier blitzable. You should never give your opponent anything better than 5+ dodge -2 red dice on the ball. Keep the ball in a cage or a good screen all the time, especially against fast teams. Ideally also screen the cage off so it will be hard to attack the corners. Your ball carrier should ideally have Block and Dodge (also Sure Hands and/or Sidestep) to minimize their chances of a crazy sack. Count the movement squares of potential sackers and discourage any heroics.
Ugly Habits of Blood Bowl
This section is about suboptimal and inefficient strategies employed by lots of beginners. They are not always terrible, but just not good enough.
1. Picking up useless skills. There are a lot of skills in Blood Bowl, but majority of them are situational or outright bad for most players. Always usefull skills are: Block, Dodge, Guard, Mighty Blow, Tackle and Side-Step. Even these should not be picked on every player, but skills like Pass Block, Hail Marry or Sneaky Git should not generally be taken at all. There are also not terrible, but very situational skills like Kick or Strip Ball that could benefit some teams, but be useless on others. Check streamers/youtubers for advice on specific teams.
2. Passing play. Passing game should be considered an emergency measure. First reason is because it involves at least 2 rolls with a ball. Even if both of those are 2+ with reroll, they might fail and cost you the game. Also sometimes it rains or it is very sunny, Sometimes you play vs Nurgle. Sometimes your zombie holds the ball. There could also be an interception chance and 6s happen. Finally, pass play strategy forces you to score early or bet everything on a couple of rolls. Run when you can, pass when you absolutely have to. Even with High Elves.
Passing the ball for spp (i.e. to lvl 5/6spp player) aka Vanity Pass is ok if done safely in a backfield and protected by the screen against a slow team. Those should not be rerolled or abused as they cost you time and position. Don’t do them if you have places to be with a ball, especially if you try them on AG3.
3. Relying on Big Guys. With only a few exceptions, Big Guys are not reliable because they are at least 2+ away from failing an action. They don’t start with block, which means that even if they decide to act, they can fail a 2d (or even 3d) block with ease. Loner trait makes rerolling it a bad idea. Big guys also usually cost like 2-3 lineman and quite often extra lineman are a better choice. Big guys are not necessary for most teams and should be considered advanced in coaching.
4. Bad Stadium Upgrades. Most of them are very situational (like -50k Star Players) and are a waste for anything but joke teams. Others benefit both teams and generally should be avoided – your skaven opponent would love a free wizard. Recommended stadium upgrades are to cancel Riot/Pitch Invasion, Bribe/Rock and the Weather Dome as they should help you reduce the kickoff effects that could doom your game. It also worth mentioning that there is no point to upgrade your stadium beyond 100k – you will get no extra upgrades and waste cash that you might need to buy inducements or replace a positional next game.
5. Wrong pregame inducements. There are a lot of inducement options, but quite a few of them are a waste. Best single inducement in the game is a Wizard, any team could benefit from it, and for agility team it is a must. After that it all depends on how developed your team is. A reliable star player (i.e Griff, Chaney, Glart) is not a bad choice early on. Loads of star players are inefficient or outright bad though – pick ones with block or wrestle at least as well as some useful skills (mb, tackle, etc) and ideally built-in rerolls for loner fails (dodge, catch, sure hands, etc).
Later in development you would want KO babes if facing bash and a bribe if you have dirty players to use it well. If you take extra Apo, prepare to use it on Badly Hurt or even KO to battle attrition. Chef is too random and expensive to be useful by most teams within 500tv limit. It is often a good idea to spend some of your own money to top up the inducements price – i.e. paying extra 50k for a wizard.
6. Misusing a Wizard. Wizard wins games – the whole threat of a wizard makes smart opponent be extra conservative and silly one – open up for a ball sack. However wizard requires proper care – never Fireball for attrition unless you’ve won the game already and look for the way to utilize lighting Bolt. Good strategy is to Bolt the ball carrier, blitz away tzs on the ball and steal it or a least swarm it for a pickup next turn. Fireball is 4+ crap shoot and should not be relied on unless Bolt (which is 2+) will achieve nothing. Never use a Wiz after you’ve moved someone, unless it is a game loss otherwise. Position your players to take full advantage of a Wiz next turn, always consider Bolt before Fireball, and never fire it unless you are sure you will get your shot at the ball.
7. Holding to an Apothecary (Apo). Apo is there to try and save your important player, however if he gets anything but Badly Hurt, it becomes quite dicey as it could reroll it into something worse. If you play to win (and you should), a reliable way to use an Apo in the first half is on a Badly Hurt positional that is crucial to the game In a second half you can even opt to reroll a KO on someone too important to lose for a drive. Doing so might actually save lives of your other players (i.e Apoed clawpomb Stormvermin killing that nasty trollslayer who was trashing your team). Rerolling Miss Next Game (MNG) is almost always a bad idea as it carries all the risks of not working while MNG does not actually kill anyone. Never consider saving a lineman unless he rolled doubles or it is turn 16.
8. Silly kick-off setups. When you defend (kick) obvious things are not to put niggled on LOS and don’t make your valuable or lower armor/niggled players be easy to blitz on defense. Also don’t put players a square away from sideline against frenzy. Finally 3 players on defensive LOS is enough in most cases (unless you can make sure they won’t be 2D blocked easily). Otherwise you are just giving up extra blocks.
On offense (receive) always remember Perfect defense (PD) and Blitz kick-off events. To defend from both don’t put too many players on LOS and cover as many squares as possible with TZs. Don’t put fragile players where they could be easily attacked during the Blitz event. Remember that sometimes it is ok not to block the LOS if failed block or PD will put you in a lot of trouble. Watch how experienced players setup during kick-off to learn the best positioning.
9. “Potato” play. It means sending a ball carrier up the field in opponents range in a hope he wont be taken down. It has to be done sometimes in a desperate situation but never as a go to strategy. If you have to do this, at least make sure the opponent will have to roll some dice in order to get to you.
10. Choosing to kick first. This is a highly debated topic, but in general you always want to receive first and there are only some situations, when kicking first is better. Reason is that a good player would try to stall till turn 8 and, unless the dice say no, he will succeed and leave you only an option for a draw or a loss. Rain/Snow or reliable oneturn option (i.e someone with Movement 9-10 and Sprint/Sure Feet/SideStep) are the main reasons to kick first, otherwise consider receiving.
11. Positioning mistakes. Overcomitting to one side of the pitch, leaving gaps in the screen, not moving far enough or moving too far, etc – this is a bread and butter of blood bowl and mistakes happen to everyone. Always double check before moving your pieces first and consider opponents options next turn.
12. Tired Bowl. This is more of a personal recommendation. Playing this game when you are mentally exhausted, sleepy or drunk will most likely lead to more Bad and Ugly habits being used. In turn, this will lower your win rate and might make you unhappy. Not sure if you are up for one more game? Better play something else.
Good Blood Bowl Habits
Key to Blood Bowl is risk management. You want to roll as few dice as possible and make your opponent do the opposite. Below are some tips to make it happen:
1. Take time to think. Usually you have 2-3 minutes for a turn. Execution could take 30 seconds. Take at least a minute to think, you might find a better option.
2. Safe actions first. Standing up/movement is safe most of the time. Try to do those first if possible. After that actions should be taken starting from low risk (assuming you are prepared to use a team reroll): 3d block with Block, 2d with Block, 3d without Block, 2d without Block, and 2+ actions (with in-built reroll, ideally). After that do 3+ actions, crucial 1d blocks and other high-risk actions that you have to take. Of course situation must take priority – sometimes you just have to make a 3+ dodge to get a 2D on a ball carrier, etc.
3. Contingency planning. Blood Bowl is a pessimists’ game. Expect your next 3d block to fail. Twice in a row. Blitz, Perfect Defence, Pitch Invasion and Riot happen often on kick-off. Ball carrier might keep a hold on the ball against all odds. Hell, ag1 might intercept or catch the ball on a scatter. You can’t prepare for everything, but always ask yourself – what happens if my next action fails?
4. Protect the ball. Quad skulls happen. If the ball is within your opponents reach, screen it off and put a few tz on it before doing any blocks or other moves involving dice. During the drive, plan where the ball goes and how you are going to protect the carrier before any actions are made. Never dodge with a carrier unless there are no other options, even if it is 2+ with a reroll.
5. Plan your defense. Remember it is ok if you opponent scores as long as he leaves you plenty of time to score back and win. Passive column defense is good for keeping opponent from scoring quickly, but allows him to stall and limits your chances to steal the ball. Marking players and blitzing the ball may turn them over but leave you outpositioned. It all depends on whether you must stop the score, force an early touchdown or steal the ball at all costs.
6. Predict your opponent’s next turn. Will they be able to blitz the ball or someone important? Could they score or outposition you next turn? Think what would you do in opponents place and deny them the better options. It is easily said than done though and requires plenty of game experience to be able to execute right, don’t despair.
7. Stalling. Delaying your score to, ideally, turn 8 (or 16) is not just a perfectly valid strategy, but often the only way to ensure victory. Classic blood bowl game plan is to score late, steal the ball from your opponent (or make him score early) and score again. Stalling is a way to do that, especially when it is 1-1 in second half and you are receiving. That said, stalling to get a tie is ok strategy, but generally not worth it, if you can get a shot at stealing the ball and scoring later. Finally, when you are leading 1-0 and receiving in the second half, there is no need to stall till the end – scoring in 2-3 turns means that the best your opponent could hope for is an unlikely tie.
8. Fouling is totally fine, it is a part of the game mechanic. Getting offended by a foul is the same is getting offended by a block. Fouling is an integral part of some teams’ strategy and a good way to remove someone very nasty. Learn to foul though – use dirty player for strategic fouling and if not available use assists to reduce your opponents AV to 6 or less. Av6 foul with dirty player against a positional is generally a good idea. Remember though that it does not bring spp and is always about 25% to backfire.
9. Reroll management. Generally you never want to start a team with less than 2 rrs and you should never need more than 3. Always try to do the appropriate actions with in-buit reroll first (Dodge, Sure Hands, etc). Also not every failed block, dodge or even ball pickup must be rerolled. Sometimes it is ok to eat the skull and turnover. Rule of a thumb – if it does not leave you at serious disadvantage (being outpositioned, giving up lots of blocks, etc) it does not have to be rerolled. Save reroll to fight another turn.
10. Chainpush to Victory. Chainpush is blocking or blitzing a player the way it moves other players around as there are no free squares to go. Chainpush can achieve a lot of goals: from 1-turn TD to pushing an opponents player in or out of tacklezones. It might be hard at first, but once you’ve learned all the squares a blocked player could go to, it becomes your second nature. Remember that it could be used against you as well, plan you positioning accordingly.
11. Learn to 3d block. You need str 5 (str 3 + 2 assists, etc) to 3d str 2 players, and 7 for str 3. Former is almost always possible, latter is possible with big guys or a gang. It is generally a good idea for a Big Guy block (especially with no Block skill), no tackle block on a Blodge player or blocking someone when you have no rerolls left. Take care not to divert too many players for it though.
12. Embrace the Frenzy. Frenzy means crowd surfing someone is often possible 1 or even 2 squares away from the sideline. It is also a poor man’s tackle as 4d with Frenzy and 2d with Tackle on a Blodger have surprisingly close odds to knock him down. Frenzy skill is good on any team, but a good frenzier has MV 6+ to blitz without GFIs. Always look for a surf opportunity and don’t get surfed yourself.
13. Know when to Yolo. Sometimes you will have to throw a caution away and try risky actions. Just plan for those to fail and attempt them only when the alternative is worse (like getting a stuck player surfed) or it is the only way to victory. But risk smartly – i.e. 5+ dodge in the cage with Dodge to uphill 2d the ballcarrier with wrestle-strip ball is high risk, but high reward action as well with riskier part having in-built reroll and push being a great result.
14. Accept Death. All blood bowl players are born to die. And they will. Just laugh at their suffering and move on. No need to get angry about it. Only the team is important and it’s only winning that matters.
15. Know when to fire players. -Str is almost never worth keeping, so is – ag on someone who is supposed to dodge or pickup the ball. You can leave -mv on a line fodder or ♥♥♥♥♥♥ on a star positional. But generally lots of those should be fired asap to avoid getting more spp. Also lineman with more than 1-2 normal skills generally should be fired to avoid tv bloat.
16. Manage your Team Value. Main idea of Blood Bowl is to stay in as low TV as possible while maintaining an efficient team. Most lineman do not want any stats most of the time and only guard on doubles. Secondly, stats on positionals must fit their strenghts – no point in giving +ag to black orc. +AV is generally never worth it and + MV should be taken on someone who can use it well (like a long-range blitzer or ball carrier). Sometimes stats or even doubles should be skipped for a normal skill early on.You also don’t always want to have all the positionals your team can purchase. This is a complicated topic and should be tailored to a particular team.
17. Take a break sometime. Last, but not least. This game is addictive because it is always changing. Unless you play against AI, you never know what to expect in your next match. However playing continiously for weeks could lead to a clouded judgement, which will result in silly things you did or forgot to do because you stopped paying attention. Take a break for a week or two when this starts to happen. Blood Bowl will always be there for you.
What team should I choose to start with?
Everything above is true regardless of the team you play. However choosing a proper team is a topic in itself.
There are a lot of teams in Blood Bowl and a few are looking particularly attractive for beginner’s eye. However many of them are a trap, leading you to early disappointment and/or bad habits.
Teams in Blood Bowl are not exactly balanced. No team is completely overpowered at any given Team Value, mostly because there is a lot of RNG and skill involved. However there are teams with added challenge that beginners should not pick.
One thing to avoid is choosing a team based on a lore or aesthetics reason. You might want to charge for Khorne with Chaos hordes…unfortunately Chaos is somewhat of a trap team, looking scary, but actually not so easy to win with early on due to their lack of skills.
That said, it is widely agreed that there are three teams that are beginner-friendly: Orcs, Undead and Dark Elves.
– Orks are dependable with their armor 9 and str 4 plus some skills thrown in a mix. They are however not fast and start with only 4 Block, teaching you the value of blocking with block and planning your moves. A default bash team with no obvious weaknesses.
– Undead are great because of regen and no-loner big guys. Arguably the best team at 1000TV even though it requires a bit more coaching than orcs. Undead will teach you that ag3 ghoul dodge is not good, av8 is not exactly indestructable, MA 3-4 is really slow and that 3d block might fail. All good habits to learn.
– Dark Elves are the best team to learn the agility play. They are relatively robust with av8 and some starting block and dodge. Witch Elf is a bit more advanced with her frenzy, but again she is one of the safer frenziers due to dodge and ag4 from the start. They are not fast and don’t come with ball skills which will teach you the value of running game and positioning vs pass to score. All great things to know. That said, elfs in general can teach you some bad habits and as such it is highly recommended to start with AG3 team to appreciate but not abuse AG4 afterwards.
I won’t go into details why other teams are more advanced and should be avoided in the beginning. General guide is if the team has little to no block (i.e. Chaos/Nurgle), lots of positionals with frenzy (i.e. Norse, Necro), ag3 and/or av7 (i.e Skaven, Humans) – these are the signs that this team might be a bit (or a lot) more advanced.
Dwarves stand out from this rule at a first glance – they have block, av9, sure hands, what’s not to like? The main reason is that they teach you some bad habits: 2d blocks are safe, marking someone mindlessly is not punished, and 1d blocks are a great idea. Things like that set you on a wrong path.
Finally, even these three teams must be managed right. Using assassins and gobbos, for example, is a bad play. Check guides for team builds.
When I say “beginner-friendly” I mean the team that you will have at least an average win rate at the beginning and will most likely avoid the pitfall of bad habits mentioned in this guide.
However, the only way to trully learn is to try different teams. A thing to avoid is to focus on only one team, even the beginner-firendly one.
It also should be mentioned that joke teams do not adhere to many of these rules (i.e Vampires need more than 3 rerolls and Halflings want Chef in any game). These teams are great to mess around with, but not so great to learn how to play Blood Bowl better.
So start with Orks or Undead for your first 10-20 games or so, get your fundamentals right and then you can try all the other teams. Just don’t start by playing over9000 games with dwarves and then get bored of Blood Bowl. BB has a lot more to offer.
Closing thoughts and helpfull links
Blood bowl is a hard game. Really hard. Fundamentals are easy enough to learn, but their application is very complex due to RNG and the opposition coach actions. There are two main ways to get better at it:
– Play Online! Use campaign as a tutorial. AI in this game is not good, playing it offline is pointless. Campaign gives you a decent overview of the fundamentals, but AI does not play good at all. My advice is to go straight for Cabalvision Champion Ladder (CCL). Joining a good scheduled private league (OCC, REBBL, Ukbbl, etc.) is another plausable solution. Leagues are more fun for team builiding purposes, but CCL will allow you to clock a lot of games in a short time, and playing games is the only true way to learn. Cabalvision Open Ladder though will teach you lots of bad habits, avoid it like a plague.
– There is a great league specifically dedicated to learning and mentoring new coaches: https://www.reddit.com/r/ReBBRL/. It has a College program where you are paired with experienced players who help you find your footing. Worth a try!
– Watch good blood bowl streamers to learn how to play well. In my opinion, two best streamers are Jimmy Fantastic and Sage. Links to their youtube channels are below. They also go live on Twitch.
Jimmy: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkdy8MQbkyaGSuv217TFtJw
Sage: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGjD6wrYhwE-gMmDmGZw7WA
Not all streamers are equal in skill. Some are good entertainers, but are mediocre at best at playing. Not good to learn from. You have been warned.
I’d like to leave you with a couple of links I personally find usefull:
A probability calculator: [link]
Use it to check which particular play would have higher success chance and make informed decision next game. It also helps to put your mind at ease when you were outlucked or outplayed. Opponent has just pulled ourageous elf bs on you?! Oh, it happens to be 70% with a reroll…
A fouling table: [link]
A quick reference to what kind of fouls are worth it.
A great article about skill synergies: [link]
“Let’s talk about” series, fun and thoughtfull team guides: https://www.reddit.com/r/bloodbowl/comments/4w6bpe/lets_talk_about_dwarves/
A great collection of team guides: [link]
A great guide on risk management and blood bowl basics: https://fumbbl.com/help:Thousand+Losses+Playbook
What I describe in this guide is essentially a “conservative” way of playing the game. As your skills progress you will realize that some rules were meant to be broken. But if you never knew these rules, you would not know when to break them in the first place.
Blood Bowl has a massive learning curve, and at times you can get very upset and disappointed at yourself. But experience and knowledge will llve on, eventually shaping you into a good coach.
Remember that the the black belt is the one who didn’t stop trying.
Thanks for reading, I hope it was helpful and welcome to Blood Bowl!