New To Blood Bowl? Please read.

Hello, this is my first post to these Steam forums and figured this would be the best place to start.

I've been playing Blood Bowl for about 16 years now, ever since I was 10. I made my first team, Dwarves, and spent 4 afternoons painting them and coming up with names.

I saw the 10 dollar sale and figured there would be a bunch of new players who will get frustrated with the game and quit before giving it a chance. Here are just some basic stuff:

1. Picking up the ball may seem like an easy thing, but sometimes, you get unlucky. And unlucky. And unlucky. The best thing to do, until you get skills like Sure Hands or +Agility, is to have people backing up your ball picker-uper.

2. Always start off the round by picking up prone players, and if they aren't in someone's tackle zone, moving them. Also do the least riskiest moves first, then move onto riskier things. Blocking with a Skaven Stormvermin(with block) that has 2 db is much better than blocking with a Skaven Lineman without block. Why? Because block is probably the best skill in the game. More on this later. Remember, least to most riskiest moves when starting a turn.

3. Spread out the SPPs. Your team won't be any good with one star player and ten rookies. Don't have one ball hog, but then again, don't try to make 11 star players. Some guys are line of scrimmage fodder and should be treated as such.

4. Big guys can either be the greatest thing ever, or the most useless players on a pitch. There is no middle ground. Best big guys, in my opinion, are Ogres > Trees > Trolls > Minotaurs = Rat Ogres. Minos and Rats can mutate and can become deadly, but wild animal and low armor make them hard to level. And they cost a lot, so a killed or injured big guy can set a team back quite a bit.

5. When playing online, your best players will be targeted, and fouled, and killed. Don't become angry when your Wardancer with +STR and +AGI gets fouled 4 turns in a row. You would do the same thing. Scratch that. You *SHOULD* do the same thing.

6. Blodge. Learn to love it(if you can learn them). What's blodge? Block + dodge. I'm not saying every player needs this, you need some variety, but block + dodge will make players live longer.

7. Other useful skills: Tackle, mighty blow, stand firm, sidestep, Leap (only if you have high agility players), sure hands. Mutations got nerfed a bit this game, but still, very useful. Make sure you read them throughly.

8. Always take stat boosts over regular skills. +Agility, +Movement, +Strength are amazing things. If you give a lineman +movement, he suddenly becomes another Blitzer type player.

9. The dice will always seem unfair. But when you think about it, 1/6 chance is a pretty decent chance of failing. Or 1/3rd. And with all the actions a player does, chances are that you will fail and lose a reroll. And chances are, your reroll might fail. So once you understand this, the game becomes more enjoyable. Understand that bad things will happen.

And last but not least:

Don't taunt Nuffle. Who is Nuffle? Nuffle is...basically, the reason why your best player died on a go for it, or why the opposing team's ogre caught a long distance pass. He is the God of Blood Bowl. He is the guy who throws the rock that kills your star player at the start of a match. Do not taunt him. Play your game, have fun, and kill goblins.

Well written and extremely helpful. Thanks!

[Terramis]

Nicely put and I have to completely agree with you. I think the game itself is great, although in the online context I can understand how non-newbie-friendly it is. That is especially true I think for people with no previous experience with the table-top, and/or those people who expect Madden N-elf-L football rules.

Hopefully the new version has a much more accessable tutorial and starter season with solid rulez discussion and an in-game knowledge base to draw from.

Took me a while to get back into the rules myself even having played the table-top... and yes it's completely normal to have your star players die on the field and/or spend two turns watching your players fumble the ball. (tip: don't try to pick up the ball your first move...since it is a risky endeavor...save that till your no risk moves are done)

There are a ton of online resources for the rules etc but I think most who have major problems were just expecting something that isn't Bloodbowl.

The Ball is covered in goblin blood and has giant spikes on it, you try picking it up lol!

good op

T

Most importantly, download and read the full living rulebook! It's a must to understand how the game mechanics work.

http://www.bloodbowlonline.com/Rules.shtml

[EvanBGood]

Glad to see messages like this! With no prior experience, I was able to teach myself Blood Bowl with the living rulebook and some good ol' experimentation during the sale. Now, I'm addicted, and I even got a friend to play, too.

A couple of things I'd like to add:
- Though "blodge" is great, there are a few other skills that I find almost, if not more, useful. Tackle is definitely one, as it cancels out dodge. Dwarves have quickly become my favorite team, since most of them have tackle, block, or both. Dodge/stunty combos are also great (given to goblins, skinks, etc) since they're even harder to catch. And then I wouldn't want to go onto the pitch without a few 'specialist' abilities, like pass, catch, and sure hands. They make those cruel and hilarious-if-it-wasn't-me fumbles a lot less likely, and can double your chances for a crazy game-saving long distance throw.
-Though I agree that stat ups should be taken most of the time, there is the VERY occasional instance that I'd pick a skill over a stat. Namely for things like big guys and other super-specialist types. For example, my deathroller could have gotten +1 MA, but I barely ever move the guy. His job is to stay in the center of the field and cause as many injuries as possible in one half. So, block! Similarly, I probably would have avoided agility, since he has 'no hands' and 'break tackle'.
-And lastly, if playing in league mode, always save some money between seasons, especially early on. On my orc team, I was able to enlist a level 6 goblin (of all things), who gave me more game-savers than I could count... and he hasn't even been smashed into pieces yet!

Go Blood Bowl! This game is highly underrated! I hope the new edition will be better received.

Having a combination of skills is the way to a team's success. Having a few guys with tackle, dirty player, pass block and other utility skills is great.

Obviously, you don't want to have blodge on linemen, since they cost the least and replacing them isn't that big of a deal. But with dark elves, I think their blitzers cost 100k and witch elves cost 110k, and having blodge makes them last just that bit longer (blitzers come with block already, so getting dodge with first skill is easy, and witch elves *need* block in order to survive).

Big Guys are strange, and I don't consider Deathroller as one. It is listed as one, but unlike other big guys, it doesn't stay on the pitch for the entire match. I also forgot about the deathroller, since I'm used to the previous rules where you can only hire the DR for one match and it isn't considered a player, but rather a star player/secret weapon.

As for stat increases on big guys, I wouldn't take +agi with a troll or treeman, but I might consider it for an ogre or minotaur. +str is always useful, no matter what (helps multiple block and against pesky guys with dauntless).

Kick is highly underrated by most new players, it helps control the beginning of a round much easier.

Wow, no one mentioned my favorite skill: Guard!

My play style is very team oriented (playing Dark Elves) and this helps my puny 3 strength team kick the pants off of Dwarves and Chaos, not to mention all of the big guys. It's hard to get (need to roll high or doubles typically) but it really helps even the odds.

Spread out your guys with Guard so they are in the thick of battle. Placing a player with Guard in the middle of 2 or 3 opposing players can quickly even the odds against the Box Walls around the ball carrier and can really help the needed Blitz count. Guard helps to thin the herd and used properly, can crush opposing defenses.

Be aware however, that this is most helpful offensively and your players with guard will often be the target of attacks, so "Blodge" is a useful addition to help keep them alive. Stand Firm with Guard is awesome since they will stay where they need to guard. Tackle is also a great combo with this skill since opposing players will often try to simply run from the scenario where everyone is being Guarded.