Blood Bowl PlayBook

by Stephen Babbage with Coach Blacknife (www.blood-bowl.net)

To me, Blood Bowl is a fun strategy game: yes, the most important element is strategy. In our league a team winning by luck alone is very rare; obviously luck does affect gameplay and can help determine the outcome of a game, but if the Coach is not using strategies and intelligence to win then they’ll find it difficult.

by Stephan Babbage (Paradigm Central)

So you’re interested in our secrets eh? Well, come and meet a nice female dark elf I know. She’s just dying to meet you. :)

In all seriousness, Dark elves aren’t the easiest team to play. Some days they have the habit of just dying by ‘the sword’. In Blood Bowl, the sword is the block dice and the die 6 you roll. Dark elves live by the sword more than most teams. And if you live by the sword, you die by the sword – as the saying goes.

That being said the dark elves are a lot of fun. They are stubborn and cruel enough to hit some teams hard. They won’t last long in a big brawl, but they’ll make casualties as fast as a lot of teams. They also have enough skill and speed to race the fastest of the Blood Bowl teams.

But don’t get the idea that they’re the perfect team. Long term, you’re in for a fight – and will have to use more than your stat line to win a game.

by unknown (FUMBBL)

Necromantic teams are an interesting mix of power and scoring potential. This team is pretty much a Bashy team vs High speed teams and a speed team vs other bashers; note that the wolves must be placed so your opponent can block/foul them as little as possible as if he does he can kill them with a bit of luck, which will put your team in a bit of trouble.

by Sigurd G (Blood Bowl Home of @rnholm)

Overall, the Dark Elves start out as a fairly lowpowered team. Their movement is generally insignifficant, but not to scoff at either. Their AV of 8 allows the to get stuck in and survive a few punches. They lack high-speed catchers, and they are not going to win any fist-fights.

by Gavin Thorpe (Blood Bowl Home of @rnholm)

The Undead are one of the most rewarding teams to coach in Blood Bowl and i hope that the following hints and tips will encourage you to try them out. They do require a good sense of tactics, but when used properly they can be almost unstoppable, burying their opponents under the weight of their attack.

by Matt Brown (Games Workshop)

“Dark Elves are renowned for being evil and depraved – and that’s just the Cheerleaders!”. So begins the “Did you know…” for Hubris Rakarth, star blitzer of the Cowboys, and, as a Dark Elf coach of some time, I know the cruel fate that would befall me if I were to divulge too many of their secrets (not to say the number of games I would soon start to lose). However, the great God Nuffle (and his pet minion, Andy) doth compel me to speak, so speak I must. Here then are some thoughts on the Dark Elves. Of course, these are not exhaustive and you may well, should in fact, find yourself developing a few tricks of your own – but this will certainly get you off to a good start. Enjoy… and if Rakarth comes looking for me, tell him I’ve joined the Khemri Foreign Legion.

by Babs (Paradigm Central)

I’ve never thought of my Chaos Dwarf teams as the most successful teams I’ve coached – but over my entire 3rd Edition Blood Bowl coaching career – of the three times I’ve coached Chaos Dwarves – I’ve won the league three times. Quite suprising. I think that a primary reason (not the primary – but contributing) is that other players are not used to playing against the Chaos dwarfs and the element of suprise counts for upset win again and again.

by Robin Dews (www.blood-bowl.net)

Human teams offer a Blood Bowl coach an almost perfect combination of speed, strength, resilience and agility. So says Robin Dews who ran a successful team called the Deathheads in our Studio League. We asked him to convince us…

by Stephan Babbage (www.blood-bowl.net)

Now getting into a debate over this is pointless, as there is no ‘right way’ to play High Elves. Let’s face it (speaking from a High Elf pointy eared view [point of view]) If you’re playing High elves then you ARE playing right. :)

But What ‘D’ has suggested is not the only ‘two ways’ of setting up a High elf team. So here’s my reply as a kind of ‘second opinion’. I don’t find Doug’s version offensive, but there’s more than one way to skin an opponent :)

by Coach 'Krusher (Coach Blacknife's Dugout)

Overall, the Chaos team has two obvious Strengths – the team’s overall ST (in conjunction with Horns and Strength Skill access) and its good overall AV (no player suffers from below-average armour).

However, there is one glaring Weakness (aside from price) – Chaos teams do not have any bona fide ballhandlers. With no Throwers and no players with a 4 AG, regular players (in this case, Chaos Beastmen) are asked to shoulder the load when it comes to scoring TDs.