Starting Roster Skills

[plasmoid]

Hi all,
I had a look into which skills were represented on starting rosters. The reason? Well, that would get this post relegated to the House Rules section, so just ignore that for now. I found it interesting that a lot of skills aren't on any roster at all, while a fair few skills were only present on a single team, as "flavour". Conversely, not many skills are on 3 or more rosters - and of those, a handful are on a lot of rosters.

It should be noted that I've only considered skills that can be picked (so none of the xtraordinary skills like stunty, right stuff or regen), I've disregarded 0-1 players, and I've included Khorne and Brets.

Just 11 skills are present on 3 or more teams. 9 If you disregard Brets & Khorne:
Block (16 Teams)
Dodge (13 Teams)
Pass (10 Teams)
Thick Skull (8 Teams)
Catch (6 Teams)
Sure Hands (6 Teams)
Frenzy (5 Teams)
Mighty Blow (4 Teams)
Dauntless (3 Teams)*
Horns (3 Teams)*
Jump Up (3 Teams)

20 Skills are rare (i.e. on 1-2 Teams):
Claws (Necro), Disturbing Presence (Nurgle), Diving Catch (Slann), Diving Tackle (Slann), Dump-Off (DE), Fend (Brets), Foul Appearance (Nurgle), Juggernaut (Khorne), Leap (Slann+WE), NOS (EU), Safe Throw (HE), Shadowing (DE), SideStep (EU+Ogre), Sprint (CD+WE), Stand Firm (Halfling, Necro), Strong Arm (Halfling), Sure Feet (CD), Tackle (CD+Dwarf), VLL (Slann), Wrestle (Brets)

Or to flip that around, 13 of the 26 teams (or 11 of the 24) have "exotic" stuff - most of those having 2+ rare skills:
Bretonnians (Fend, Wrestle)
CDs (Sprint, Sure Feet, Tackle)
Dwarfs (Tackle)
Dark Elfs (Dump Off, Shadowing)
Elven Union (NOS, Side Step)
Halfling (Stand Firm, Strong Arm)
High Elfs (Safe Throw)
Khorne (Juggernaut)
Necro (Claws, Stand Firm)
Nurgle (Disturbing Presence, Foul Appearance)
Ogres (Side Step)
Slann (Diving Catch, Diving Tackle, Leap, Very Long Legs)
Woof Elf (Leap, Sprint)

Finally, 21 available skills aren't on any starting rosters
General: Dirty Player, Kick, Kick-off return, Pass Block, Pro, Strip Ball
Passing: Accurate, HMP, Leader
Agility: Sneaky Git
Strength: Break Tackle, Grab, Guard, Multiple Block, Piling On, Strong Arm
Mutations: Big Hand, Extra Arms, Prehensile Tail, Tentacles, Two Heads

Cheers
Martin

[lunchmoney]

Why disregard the 0-1?

[lunchmoney]

Finally, 21 available skills aren't on any starting rosters

Strength: ... Strong Arm


Cheers
Martin

19 Skills are rare (i.e. on 1-2 Teams):
..., Stand Firm (Necro), ....

Treemen have Strong Arm and Stand Firm. They are 0-2 so get through your 0-1 dislike/regard.

[JT-Y]

Also, there's only 23 teams. If you're going to include any fan made teams, include them all.

[GalakStarscraper]

Also, there's only 23 teams. If you're going to include any fan made teams, include them all.

To be clear ... the Slann team is NOT fan made. It was created by the BBRC at the same time as the Underworld and Chaos Pact teams with the full direction and approval of Jervis Johnson.

The team was playtested as part of the CRP rewrite as part of the official GW approved testing and at the end of the testing the BBRC unanimously voted to include all 3 teams into Blood Bowl. The only reason they were not part of the CRP is because GW Suits above JJ asked him to remove any teams for which models were not already in existence. So they were removed from the CRP but still had JJ's full approval (and thus GW's full and tested approval).

When the NAF approached JJ and asked him if he wanted those 3 teams to be an official part of Blood Bowl ... he said definitely yes which was why the NAF added them as official teams.

So waaaaayyyyy far away from fan made good sir. GW authorized, GW tested and GW voted, GW approved and GW confirmed official for tournament play by the man that wrote the game himself.

Just because it is not in BB 2016 ... it does not mean fan made.

So just correcting your history.

[plasmoid]

Hi Lunchmoney and JT-Y,

Why disregard the 0-1?

My thinking is that I'm trying to describe what teams are made of. When I started the list I figured that Big Guys we're too small (and often outlandish) a part of a team to count properly. Not only that, but quite a few big Guys are "gimped" and avoided by a substantial number of coaches. Then I ran into other 0-1 players, and decided to disregard them too. Then I tan into 0-2 (or 0-6) big Guys, and decided to include them…. But somehow managed to forget about the 0-2 Treemen.

So I'll update the list. Two secs.

Also, there's only 23 teams.

Maybe on GW forums. On this one I believe there are 24

Cheers
Martin

[Stout Youngblood]

Also, there's only 23 teams. If you're going to include any fan made teams, include them all.

Is this the rewriting of history? Or are you forgetting Slann?

Whoops! Looks like Tom already replied.

[Gaixo]

The Khorne roster wasn't created by fans either, right? I know that Tom and Dode were involved, but they were working under the direction of a GW licensee creating a retail product.

[GalakStarscraper]

The Khorne roster wasn't created by fans either, right? I know that Tom and Dode were involved, but they were working under the direction of a GW licensee creating a retail product.

The Khorne roster was created for Cyanide for the video game with the help of 2 BBRC members and Dode. The team was laid out what it needed to looked like and approved by GW Corporate directly but for use as a video game team. So this has a GW stamp on it but one not nearly as large as the one on the Slann team ... but you are right in that this was not fully a fan creation as GW directed how the team had to look for them to approve it and they had to give it the final thumbs up to be used as well.

[Christy42]

Actually this came up for me recently as I took part in a draft competition recently (with one of each player of each team available to draft).

So this meant people had to analyse unique or near unique skills. For instance one player with wrestle and two with tackle increased the value of block/dodge. Even then some more common skills came with a high cost. For instance mighty blow only on big guys really limits the ability to hunt down specific players.

I would also consider unique stat/skills combos (gutter runner, blodger).

I am a little curious what house rule you have coming off this though!

[plasmoid]

Hi all,
Stout Youngblood said:

Is this the rewriting of history? Or are you forgetting Slann?

Nope, JT-Y is not "forgetting" Slann. He is pointing out that in the official BB2016 rules, Slann are not included.
Galak is not challenging that. He is merely challenging that JT-Y called them "fan created".
I'm not challenging it either. I just don't feel obliged to ignore a team that the majority of people here use in their Leagues/tournaments.
Cheers
Martin

[plasmoid]

Hi Christy42

I am a little curious what house rule you have coming off this though!

I'm glad you see it that way.
I'll do a write-up in the House Rules section. Hopefully today.
It's slowly developing into a "theory of everything". Which Means it will take some time to write. And as I know it will never get played, it does seem like a bit of a wasted effort. But fun

Cheers
Martin