[Mika]

Hi all,

I've thought for some time to coach a Blood Bowl II team composed of the forum members. We're going against AI as I have a limited amount of time to play per week, I can probably do 2 to 3 matches per week. Any takers?

Now, what's Blood Bowl you might ask? Well, it's a fictional sports game - don't worry, you haven't heard the best part yet - based on Warhammer whocares universe (and a table top game), carrying some resemblance to actual Super Bowl, but being more violent and lax on the rules. Killing and maiming the opposition is encouraged, though scoring will still be necessary to win a match. The best part? It's not a real time game, but turn based.

So, there's a total of 16 turns per match if it doesn't go to over time, and each side has 10 field players up to a maximum of 16 players on the team. The players have stats and skills, and with most of the teams, the players will have roles, such as linemen, blitzers, catchers and throwers. In addition for standard Super Bowl stuff, there's also the Big Guy, a notoriously unreliable big dude who delivers in physical force what he can't in thoughts.

The game is actually a risk management game where each action has a specific probability of failing. Typically that's 1/6, so if you thought XCOM 95 % to hit missed much too often, all I can say is welcome to Blood Bowl! The game indeed provides quite a random gaming experience with reasonable amount of control for the player. That's not to say there won't be Those Games where you just roll ones all the time.

What I haven't thought yet is what race I'd like to play, as I have access to:

• Dwarves (boring except the Death Roller)
• High Elves (ridiculous dodging and passing game referred as Elven BS in the circles)
• Dark Elves
• Orcs
• Chaos (ah so malleable)
• Skaven (ratmen who excel at speed but also die in scores)
• Bretonnians (crusaders and peasants team)
• Human (average everything = not good at anything)

My personal preference would be Chaos or Skaven, where Chaos murders and Skaven scores, leading to games with quite a bit going on in them. Oh, there's also Lizardmen and Wood Elves, but **** Cyanide for DLC teams that I can only pay through Steam.

Let's have a vote of a team you'd like to see me coach (and a vote I that can ignore), and your preferred position in the game. The way it goes is:

• Linemen are expendable line of scrimmage dudes who stop the opposition offence or tie their players
• Blitzers are more skilled players that excel in taking out opposition players from further distance away - but there's only one Blitz per turn
• Catchers catch the ball and run (and hope not to get tackled)
• Throwers pick-up (in theory) and throw the ball when receiving the kick-off
• Big dudes: unreliable, often stupid, and awesome in injuring the opposition. Also, there can be only one big dude in the current teams.

And one last thing: all teams have attrition rates. Skaven and Wood Elves being the most squishy, while Dorfs almost never get knocked out or injured.

[Spoon]

No lizardmen? Pity. Voting Bretonnians first, Orcs second and Chaos third then.
Also voluntering to be a big dumb dude who spends most of his time failing his bone-head rolls.

Edit: psh, no big guy.

[Mika]

Unfortunately, the Bretonnians do not get a big guy. Other than that, I'll reserve the big guy slot for you.

And yes, failing Bone-head (or Really Stupid or Wild Animal) rolls shall happen. Who wouldn't love even more unpredictability in the game? 

[Scourge of Ages]

This sounds like fun! Count me in. I'll cast my vote for Chaos, because of course, and I'll take any role available, preferably something that can dish out the pain.

[Mammothtank]

I vote for Chaos and any role since... I don't really know the Blood Bowl mechanics.

[swashmebuckle]

Orcs and I wish to be a passer so I can carry on my glorious tradition of inaccuracy from the X-COM thread.

[Mika]

Okay folks so it's 4/10 positionals filled. I'll still be waiting this day, as if I recall, once I've created the team, I can't change the player names any more, and I need ten players.

We can start with 4/10, but once more people join in, I think I'll have to sack some of the worst performing random name players.

I'll follow up next with a post that just shows a couple of basic game concepts.

[Mika]

Ladies and gentlemen, introducing to you the Blood Bowl commentators, Bob Bifford (ogre) and Jim Johnson (vampire)!




Bob is a fine lad, and Jim asks the question what most of you likely have in your mind:


Yes yes, how do you actually play Blood Bowl? Well, it's a game like Super Bowl, but more tactical. And violent.

We deal with the introductions by playing a tutorial match.

----------------
Tutorial match post #1, explaining movement and stats

Hidden Text: Show

Coach:
So after working hard in the junior league, I was elected to become a coach of the famous Reikland Reavers, who have recently got a bit of a downturn. But I have no doubts that I'll be able to turn the things around!
However, as a slight concern, I was immediately challenged by our sponsors to sack the earlier players and choose a number of a fresh faced rookies on the pitch.



Coach: Where exactly are my big name star players?! The Reavers do have them! Where's Griff Oberwald and Mighty Zug?

Coach: What do you mean they left?!! What do you mean the dismal performance of the Reavers in last season??!!



[Yup, the troll drools even as he punches. That's sick.]

Coach: Well, no reason to dwell on the bad memories of last season, so let's go to play a more "friendly" match against the Death Headz, which I heard is a competent Orc team.





Coach: So they have lineorcs, goblins (yeah!) and Black Orcs  Boys, you know how the saying goes, the blacker the orc, the stronger he becomes . So stay away from those things. Gosh they look mean.

As a first concept, let's look bit on your movement abilities. The thrower can run six squares on the pitch, which, if necessary, he can extend to eight squares in a pinch. However since this is such a strain to a non-professional player, he runs to the risk of overextending his abilities and may then fall down [there's 1/6 probability that happens per square with a die].



Coach: Let's then look at the bigger picture from above. The three guys in the front - the big guy, and two linemen, are on the line of scrimmage as they should, tying up opponent players within the zone.



Coach:
There's also your tackle zones, anyone entering your tackle zone (red) and then leaving it has to roll a dice if he gets tackled or not. Which is why you defaulted to this spread, trying to cover as large area as possible. Please remember not to do that again as the Orcs have an easy access to the ball.  See below what could have happened had the Black Orc blitzed either of our positionals! They could've brought players close enough to the ball to force the team to abandon offense and switch over to defending our side!

Click here to expand part of the post that explains blocking and blitzing

Hidden Text: Show

Coach: Luckily, it is our turn to be receiving, so we get the first shots. Also, Butt [yes, our Ogre's name is Butt - must have had monster like parents], please try to stay focused next time and do not go punching first

Butt: "Someone said punch!"
KAPOW!

Coach: Yes, yes a great demonstration Butt, but next time knock the opposition player unconscious!

So where was I? Yeah Butt started with a block against a goblin which is good, but he did it first which is bad. I'll explain that later. Because Butt has more than twice the strength of the goblin, he rolls three dies, each of them having six outcomes:

• ATTACKER DOWN (white skull)
• ATTACKER STUMBLES (white skull with kapow)
• PUSH(blue arrow)
• PUSH(blue arrow)
• DEFENDER STUMBLES (a POW sign with !)
• DEFENDER DOWN (a clean yellow POW)

Coach: In total, by rolling a single dice, he has a 1/3 chance of knocking the Goblin down, and 1/3 chance of causing a turnover (if this wasn't a tutorial game). Since he rolled three dies, the chances are in our favor.



Coach: Nuffle, the god of dice, smiled upon him and Butt crushed the Gobbo quite handily, but the armor saved him from a knock-out and from an injury.

Butt: CRUSH?

Coach: No, not now Butt. Next our linemen advanced with a push and another with a knockdown:




Coach: Gotta say I love that uppercut, Edwin! Straight to the lineorc's kisser! Due to their resilience, the jaw bone did not give way, but he certainly was stunned!



Coach:
Next our Blitzer decided to Blitz the Black Orc as he was blocking the way. Normally you wouldn't go against an opponent stronger than you, would you Marquis?

Luckily, you had two friends assisting your block so that the odds were again two dice in our favor.



[The way this actually works is: equal strengths -> 1 dice block. +1 strength over opponent -> 2 die block. More than 2x the strength of the opponent -> 3 die block] A solid play, and the Black Orc was down, but not stunned.

Coach: At this point, our catcher realized that he could actually contribute to the game by picking up the ball, which all in all, made sense (pick-up is assigned with a probability of failure as well, but in this tutorial game this isn't accounted):



Coach: The rest of you correctly moved in around the ball carrier to support him against any blocks or blitzes.



Coach: And that's our first turn done.

To be continued

--------

I don't actually plan to keep this kind of details of the game, but this is more for the introduction of the game mechanics.

[Mika]

Click here to expand the post of basic strategy and ball movement on the pitch

Hidden Text: Show

Coach:
And now, the Orcs first turn did not turn out to be a slammer, they mainly moved their players around



Coach:
The Black Orc managed to return a punch to Marquis, probably the earlier blitz needed a revenge. But so thinks Marquis too, and re-blitzes the Black Orc as the support is still there! This time, knocking him down, and allowing a breakthrough through the weakly defended side of the Orcs line. See ya, suckers, and thanks for the fish!



Coach:
That is a proper breakthrough, with the ideal cage formation that principally forces the Orcs to Blitz the corners of the cage instead of the ball carrier. There's little that they can do to stop the breakthrough attack as most of their players are already too deep in our end to be viable in this situation. Now that's being done, the central players concentrate on smacking the enemy opposition on the ground to stop them from reaching the cage.

Butt Dwarf-slasher takes the initiative and punches the goblin again.
[So I take it that his parents were Dwarf and Slasher?]



Coach: Well you can't succeed every time

Coach: The lineman goes next against the weakling goblin.



Coach: ...and rolls double skulls and chooses from both getting smacked down and him getting smacked down. For revenge, he takes both down.

[This would normally cause a turn-over, but this is a tutorial game so that doesn't happen. Yet.]

Coach: Viscount, a goblin just almost kicked your ass. That ain't lookin' too good for the rest of your career...

The thrower then decides to try his luck in dodging out of the Orc blitzers immediate vicinity.



Coach: Facing favorable 2/3 odds, he makes it, leaving the Orc Blitzer gawking at the dust with his mouth open. Then our two blitzers below make one good block (= 2 die block) against an Orc Blitzer. They roll sixes, and it's a stun!



Coach: That Orc blitzer follows a clean parabolic flight path to the ground, saved only by his helmet and chin guard.

The Turn 2 is a smashing success, any coach would be happy seeing the following development:



The Orcs cannot do much else but to scavenge all the players they have available and try to create a road block in front of the human cage. Unfortunately, they lack movement to do so. They take their revenge on a blitzer that doesn't contribute to the game at all, and to a lineman next to Butt (the Ogre).


[Seriously, I don't know what the AI was smoking with those moves]

Coach: Scanning the available options, the Catcher checks the range to the finish line: it needs one Go For It, 83 % probable that it will succeed.



Coach:
Unfortunately, this is Blood Bowl and Go For Its are notorious (if failed, there's a small chance that they kill your player) and that 83 % just ain't gonna cut it if the other option is to be certain. Before blitzing the range limiting orc, the non-risky moves are pulled first. Thus the knocked down players stand up first, tying the opposition once again.



Coach: Now that's been done, let's blitz the orc. The Blitzers automatically get the Block-skill (signified by the small hand icon on his player image), thus in his case, a Both Down result is negated and only the opposition gets knocked down.



Coach: So that's two dice and 66 % 83 % probability for successful removal of the Orc (since only push is needed) per dice. What could possibly go wrong?



Coach: Hieronymus Sigric, you suck
[This would cause a turnover again if it weren't a tutorial match. Yes, he rolled double ones, while the probability to succeed was around 97%...]

[Actually, this is also a strategic blunder. I could have moved the blitzer away without the Blitzing the orc, yielding the same end result. Mika's mistake count = 1]

Coach:
To recover what can be recovered, Catcher Manfred Wendel runs in the true Forest Gump fashion next to the finish line. Hieronymus failing the Blitz forces our hand, and the team now has to roll that GFI. 83 % probability suddenly doesn't sound that bad any more, but if the Catcher falls and the ball scatters out of bounds, who knows where the fans will kick it. It could well be our touch down line.
[And yes, that has already happened to me]



Manfred Wendel turns out to be star player material, and DELIVERS THE TOUCHDOOOOOOOOOWN!

Coach: Now, we are 1-0 ahead, and have to kick off the ball so that the Orcs are receiving. Thrower Eomund Rudil is kicking, with the arrows indicating the scatter range. Yeah, we gotta do something about it soon... By placing the ball in the middle of the field, it is most likely that the ball will at least land on the field, and a touch back where the ball is directly given to the opposition players (with no chance of failing) is avoided.

Click here to expand kick-off event

Hidden Text: Show

Coach: Eomund kicks...



Coach: Uh-oh



Coach: Yeah, Blood Bowl fans can be like that

--------------------
To be continued

[Mika]

Click here for post that demonstrates how defensive turn quickly changes for offensive turn. Also some strategy of gripping the ball from the opposition.

Hidden Text: Show

Coach:
Luckily, this time the pitch invasion hurts more Orcs than us. Half of their front line crumbles as the enraged fans storm the pitch. It takes some minutes until the order is restored and the game can continue, leaving three orcs and two humans lying on the ground.



Coach:
In the truest Blood Bowl sense any advantage that can possibly be used, will be used. So everybody realizes now that the defensive plan is scrapped and shift to a blitzkrieg like offense. You can't take too long, boys!
While the central part of the pitch stands firm, the flanks are unguarded, leaving us with a possibility of bringing a numerical advantage to the Orcs defensive side in the truest double pincer maneuver from the "Don't try this" - chapter of Sun Tzu's book of war. Also, as can be seen, the kick was great, almost at the touchdown line, forcing the goblin to take the long route and not advancing much towards our end on his turn.



Coach: A blitzer takes the long route along the sole standing Orc's tackle zone in the left flank. That leaves him one short of closing the tackle zone gap in the middle. If that corridor exists, the goblin will certainly use it. Can the blitzer make it?



Coach: He luckily could.

Coach: Next we shift on to pounding the opposition down so they cannot reinforce the ball position. Viscont, you had the beef with that goblin, wanna redeem yourself?





Coach: Viscont goes down AGAIN by the same goblin! Oh Viscont, you never were strong! We do need to consider your continued existence in Reikland Reavers after the match.

[This would cause again a turnover, but I don't see this as a mistake from my side. The most important thing was to bring sufficient number of players towards the ball carrier]

Coach: Let's see if left most Blitzer can reinforce the right hand side tacklezones. That's a 2/3 chance he'll make that dodge!



Coach: He does, leading five human players against two Orcs. I like these numbers. One lineman (white circle) did not move, but against STR 4 Black Orc, he just watches carefully, considers his options and says "Oh hells no!"



Coach: It is AI's turn, and it does shuffle some players around.



Coach: Did he just??!!!



Coach: The Black Orc blocks the lineman, and leaves room for the goblin to run past.

Coach: ... and the opposing coach indeed left the ball carrier goblin sandwiched between two of our blitzers! [WTF AI???]

So Manfred Wendel checks his blitzing options, but because human catchers are STR 2 and the gobbo is STR 2, the two additional blitzers bring the total strength to +4, one short of three die block. Hence the Manfred's participation to the block is unnecessary.



Coach: Baldric, our left flank Blitzers, does the deed. Since he wants to show he ain't no Hieronymus, he rolls Both Down and takes it like a champ. The ball scatters away from the knocked goblin.



Coach: To make this less risky, Catcher Manfred Wendel secures the ball by going between it and the last standing Orc.



Coach: Before picking up the ball with a blitzer, let's see if that's actually the less riskiest play available.
Butt seems to be surrounded by three orcs, leading to one die block against any of them.

Butt: "I got 'em right where I want 'em!"

That's right, there's a good lad. But don't press the attack.



Coach: Hieronymus the unlucky Blitzer considers blocking the orc thrower again, but given his recent performance, it is a no-go.



Coach: Instead of that, our left flank Blitzer Eomund Fentleberry braves the pick-up chances and Goes For It!







Coach: Way to go Eomund!

-------------------
To be continued

I think I'm only going to post the first half here as the idea was to give you a picture what kind of game this is. Which, hopefully, this series does.

I'm seeing Orcs and Chaos being popular, playing Orcs could be fun, Chaos is fun (but you'll be more challenged to write proper bickering between the Chaos beastmen), while Skaven and Dark Elves (a.k.a Emos) could probably offer best role-playing chances for that.

[Mika]

Click here to expand the final post of the tutorial

Hidden Text: Show

Coach:
Since we scored, we will kick once again - with the same scatter



Coach:
And as for the kick of event, it can't get worse than pitch invasion or blitz.



Coach: Oh you gotta be s****ing me

The extend of the damage can only be seen from the aerial image, all the players with red circles around them are stunned and will remain prone until next turn. We only have six players available for this turn, and one of them is lying on the ground [Viscont, he just got blocked again by the Goblin! One of these days...! ] - and one of them is an Ogre. So effectively four players to secure the ball. Which just happens to be almost in our zone, luckily the closest orc also got stunned during the invasion.



Coach:
Manfred Wendel, the Catcher with a capital C, jumps up and mutters: "Man's gotta do what man's gotta do", and promptly catches the ball. However, he also needs to secure it, and with four players available, this is going to be difficult. A brilliant idea strikes his mind and he moves the ball backwards, among the stunned Reavers. Since the rules do not allow stepping on the players on the ground, this will limit the available options Orcs have to Blitz him. He succeeds in the Go For It.



Coach: Eomund Rudil, our Kicker / Thrower, immediately picks up what's going on and runs to assist. He takes a risky Go For It, as the Black Orc must be contained, or else we face the possibility of the Horde scoring.



Coach: He as well succeeds.

Coach: Seeing as his team mates do everything they can to protect Manfred, Catcher Eomund Tonkai takes a deep breath, and runs harder than he ever ran, succeeding in dodging out of the Orcs tackle zone. He secures the frontal sector of the ball carrier, now forcing 1 die blitz against him.



Coach: Finally, heartened by what he just witnessed, Edwin Advar throws a one dice block against Eyepuke the Black Orc, and succeeds!
[The sequence of all these events happening as they did had a probability of 15 %, so that almost makes us even with Hieronymus failing at 97%... ]



Coach: We simply ran out of options, that's all we can do, and it's the Orcs go.



Coach: Orc blitzer has eyes on the ball carrier, but seeing that it is still only a one die block, decides against it. (It would have been two die block had the blitzer attacked from the square next to the border. This however, is highly unadvisable due to the rowdy crowds in Blood bowl)



Coach: On the other hand, Viscount the Loser is being harassed by a Orc Blitzer and the obnoxious goblin he so far has failed to knock down. Maybe it is karma? The Blitzer gets a clean hit and lands Viscount.

Coach: Luckily the Orc strength is so scattered they are not able press the offense further, and it is our turn again. A cunning plan forms in my head as I instruct the players. We are going to hit hard through the right flank, which is only guarded by two Goblins. This attack can then be reinforced from the now awake left hand side players. The only thing we need to do is to punch through the Orc Blitzer!



Coach: Hieronymus, take the charge!



Coach: Since it is an Orc Blitzer, he also has block skill. Since Hieronymus rolls double Both Downs, the result is two blitzers slapping each other and after the embarrasing encounter just eyeballing each other. Great going guys. Hieronymus, goddamit!

Coach: Eomund Tonkai, it's your go! You have to get rid of that Blitzer!



Coach: Godf***ingdammit! Since Tonkai failed
[This would be a turnover and a possible opening for Orcs scoring on the first half if the actual rules were in place. Though I don't know what I could've done otherwise, given the Pitch invasion and all that.]

Coach: Change of plans! Manfred, get your ass on the center of the pitch, NOW!



Coach: He miraculously succeeds the dodge, and escapes the Orc blitzer who is now perpexingly faced with the prospect of dealing with two human Blitzers and a Catcher. Say good night, Gracie!

Coach: The rest of the available players cage around the catcher to make the Orc blitzing as hard as they possibly could.



Coach: The Orcs press the attack, but the final Oomph is missing, leaving us with a nice chance of keeping the ball and extending forwards. Edwin goes down as Eyepuke approaches the ball carrier.



Coach: Gorfang, the obnoxious goblin, has had enough of making Viscount look like a sissy and engages our blitzer Eomund Fentleberry, assisted by Orc Blitzer. Unfortunately, the goblin rolls both down, and with the blitzer being trained against opponents falling on him, punches the poor goblin back. Hard. So much of the invincible Gorfang, this time he messed with a guy he shouldn't have messed with.



Coach: Our eight turn begins with a safe feeling: due to the way their players moved, and due to the lack of the big Troll in their team, they cannot score anymore on the first half. The players feel relaxed, but for certainty's sake they still maneuver to secure the ball. Baldric smashes the first goblin, showing Hieronymus how it's done. Count those teeth, sucker!



Coach: Manfred decides to change sides, this maneuver would place the humans in to advantage as the Orcs are then displaced and most likely could not react fast enough to respond to the now looming threat of touchdown happening on the next turn. Unfortunately, that is one turn too much for Reavers, as this is their final turn on the first half.



Coach: He fails the dodge roll, and gets tackled by the Black Orc. Zumzum!

[This would be a turnover, but I don't think this could be called a mistake from my part. I could've ended the turn once I got it, but the idea here is to minimize the casualty possibility in the actual games by leaving as few players marked as possible]

Coach: Remember your training Manfred! Do a roll!



Coach: Marquis, go get that ball, pronto!



[Anybody else wondering his name, Marquis Smutzer? As in "Smutzer, Marquis Smutzer"]

Coach: The ball is secured, and our lineman runs from back to assist Butt on his block.

Butt: "Me need no assists!"

Coach: Yeah, but you'll get one anyways. The lineman is a nuisance at that spot anyways.



Coach: Eomund Fentleberry sees all this and says, "It's now between you and me, pal" to the Orc Blitzer, and initiates a one die (gasp!)



He succeeds, leaving us in a rather secured position. The Orc offense on the following turn is uneventful, and the players scurry to the locker room, probably to play with the towels. Ready to the challenges of the second half.

-----------------------
That concludes my introduction to the Blood Bowl mechanics. Randomness and unpredictability is the name of the game, and as a coach you'll have to learn to cope with the uncertainty. The game can indeed infuriate once you play it for the couple of first dozen games, but you'll learn to appreciate the variation and challenges. The replayability is almost infinite, and the game has been played for next to 25 years starting from the table tops, so there won't be that many balancing issues left... I didn't cover lots of the player skills (including the already infamous Really Stupid), but I think we can do it once I create the team. But I'll have to say Block is a good skill.

If you liked this and would like to participate in this LP, just write your preferred role and the favored team option. I'll probably create the team tomorrow.

The players in each team are (with maximum number of each class, 16 players is the cap for players in a team):

Chaos
-----------------------
Chaos Warriors x 4
Beastmen x 16
Minotaur (Big guy) x1

Skaven
----------------------
Linerat x 16
Thrower x 2
Gutter Runner (multipurpose catcher, also the fastest player in the game) x 4
Stormvermin (blitzer) x 2
Rat Ogre (Big guy) x 1

Orcs
----------------------
Linemen x 16
Thrower x 2
Black Orc x 4
Blitzer x 4
Goblin (not sure of the numbers)
Troll (Big guy who can throw the goblin - on failure he'll eat him) x 1

Dark elves (aka the Emos)
----------------------------------
Assassin x 2
Line elf x 16 ( I suppose)
Blitzer x 4 (not sure if 4 or 2)
Runners x 2
Witch elf (just wait till you see this one ) x2

[Spoon]

Troll (Big guy who can throw the goblin - on failure he'll eat him) x 1

Yesssss

[Mika]

Troll (Big guy who can throw the goblin - on failure he'll eat him) x 1

Yesssss

Know what? You're right!

We shall indeed start with an Orc team, with an overall description such as:



The team is of course HLPBowlers that runs with a motto "Piling modders on!"  (Booyah!). You'll realize the pun some games later.

We wear hornet logos 'cuz we dance like butterfly and sting like bee, and the uniform color theme is the always stylish black and red.



Our stadium is called Da Big Bowl, 'cuz with Orcs it can't be anything less



We take three re-rolls (that each allow re-rolling a failed dice roll), trust me, we are going to need all of them! I believe we won't be able to afford an apothecary that allows re-rolling an injury (but there's no guarantee). We can't afford Bloodweiser babes either.

[Mika]

Spoon, meet your new alterego, Spoon the Troll.



Your start up skills include:
Loner - Which means team re-rolls have a 50 % chance of working when you screw up. I suppose you're loner because you are big and not so smart. You also look about as dumb as you are.
Throw Team-mate - You can throw team mates who have the skill Right stuff. In this case, that means goblins, the rest of the Orcs are just too big to throw even for you.
Your also Always Hungry, which means that you'll have a 1/6 chance of eating the unfortunate goblin if the throw roll is failed.
You have Mighty Blow, which adds +1 to the result of the armor break roll or injury roll. If the armor roll result itself exceeds the armor value, the +1 is added to the injury roll instead.
You are also Really Stupid, the bane of more reasonable team mates who often have to stand next to you telling you what to do. Effectively this means that without an adjacent player of your own team next to you, you'll have 50 % chance of failing what you were supposed to do. With a team mate next to you, the chance is reduced to 1/6.
Being a Troll, you can also Regenerate, meaning that after receiving an injury or getting killed, you'll have a 50 % chance to regenerate from the injury. Regeneration happens after the apothecary roll has been made if available.

You are the strongest and slowest dude in the team, starting with Strength 5 and Movement Allowance 4. With Agility 1, there's no hope for you to escape anybody's tackle zone and picking up the ball is akin to a miracle. You also sport a strong Armor Value of 9, meaning that the armor roll has to be at least 10 (with two dice) to break your armor - that means averagely every sixth block you receive can break your armor.

[Mika]

Swashmebuckle, you get to be our thrower. While the Orc team doesn't really excel in throwing game, you can always try. The main ball recipients are Orc Blitzers and Goblins, in the abscence of dedicated Catchers in the Orc team.


Your massive skill set includes Pass and Sure Hands.

Pass means you'll automatically re-roll any passing attempt if you fail it. If you fail even that, it'll cause an instant turnover. Sure Hands means you'll automatically re-roll any ball pick-up attempt after failure. If you fail that re-roll, it's an instant turnover. Since any event can only be re-rolled once, that means the role of these skills is to save the team re-rolls for something more important. Basically, your are likely going to be a turnover machine with occasional wins with game winning passes.

You sport a Movement allowance of 5, which is not great but not slow either, your strength is average 3 that is about the average all teams considered. You sport Agility of 3 that is also average, so you'll have a 67 % chance to pick-up the ball from the ground, and about 67 % chance to succeed throwing it. You'll automatically re-roll those, leading to about 89 % probability of success. Trust me, you'll fail more often than you'd think. However, those failures are likely going to be epic. You have always hoped for being more agile as that would make you a much better thrower, a game changer.

[Mika]

Scourge of Ages the Black Orc is our mainstay in the line of scrimmage, ready to punch, block and crush any players foolish enough to venture on to his proximity (well except the Chaos Warriors of whom you shall run like a sissy).



Being a big guy liking the action close by, you don't have any special skills.

That is offset by you having Strength 4, guaranteeing two dice unassisted blocks against any weaklings. With Movement Allowance 4, you are as slow as the Troll. But not as dumb. You have an Agility of 2, meaning you'll have a 50 % of escaping anybody's tackle zone (i.e. guaranteed to fail). But you weren't gonna run anyways, you ain't that sort of guy. With Armor Value 9, you can stand firm on the Line of Scrimmage with relative safety and look down upon the weaklings. And run like a sissy when faced with Chaos Warrior or Beastmen with Claw skill, as your armor is akin to paper mache for them. Anybody else you don't need to worry about. Much.

[Mika]

Mammothtank, you'll be our Blitzkrieg machine. Your role is going to be Blitzing, and thus you don the role of Orc Blitzer.



With a jaw line like that you can probably Blitz with your jaw alone.

You sport Block skill, meaning you'll treat Both down result on any blocks made as if nothing happened. This will decrease your chance of failure for each block by 1/6, meaning that any one die block you make has about 83 % chance to not cause an instant turnover (without Block that would be 67%). Which is much loved. You can still fail one die blocks 17 % of the time, and that will cause me to use a team re-roll as the Blitzer blocks are typically very important. If the team re-roll fails, it's an instant turnover!

You are the fastest Orc on the team with a Movement Allowance of 6, only the Goblin being slightly faster. But that weakling is not an Orc to begin with anyways so it sorta doesn't count.
Your strength is the average 3, so you'll typically need assists. With Agility 3, you pick-up balls with the probability of 67 %, and dodge from tackle zones equally well. You are our make-do ball carrier. With Armor Value 9, it's unlikely they could hurt you. Except the Claw wielding bad guys.

[Mika]

Now, late participation in the actual game is going to be more difficult once the team is created. If you think this could be cool, now is the time to join. After the team has been created, you'll either have to wait until we have sufficient cash to hire you or that somebody dies. This is because renaming the players is not possible after they have been hired.

What it comes to the tournament I think we are going to do a Round-Robin tournament where every team plays against every team, with a probable number of teams around 20 - 24. That'll give a couple of months of Blood Bowl gaming.

Perhaps some of you will become superstars during that time.

[Scotty]

I'll play!  I'll be either a Black Orc or a Blitzer, whichever works best.

[Mammothtank]

That class sounds exactly like me. Yay!