"Safe" human team

[Ixnatifual]

If most people are like me, most people hate losing their turn because of bad luck. So I've tried creating a human team that's less "risky".

2 Blitzers
2 Throwers
2 Catchers
7 Linemen

1 Apothecary
3 Rerolls
3 Fan Factor

I have two throwers and two catchers - if one catcher or thrower is somehow out of a match, momentarily or permanently, I'll have a spare ready. Particularly catchers are prime targets of the opposition (they are weak and have low AV). I also have an extra lineman to take the place of any injured or KO'd player.

Right from the start I've bought an apothecary to prevent serious injuries or fatalities - those are expensive.

Also 3 rerolls - humans aren't exactly stupid with the ball, so 3 rerolls -should- be plenty. However, I've played many times where I spent them all on the first 3 turns to stop early turnovers. So it seems a good idea to have them.

Think this team is okay? Any thoughts?

[Cervidal]

Forget the catchers. At S2, AV7, they aren't exactly your safest players. They also aren't much help to you on defense as a starting team. Drop them both for a Lineman and a Blitzer.

Blitzers are the best players on your team. Fast, come with block, they can get ST skills. You're going to need Guard on your squad pretty quickly.

Also... if you REALLY want to be a 'safer' team, drop the apothecary and one of those spare linemen. Use that money to max out your fan factor to keep your team from getting smashed on the kick off table. Use the remaining 40k you should have left to get your fourth blitzer. Now you should have...

4 Blitzers
2 Throwers
5 Linemen
3 Rerolls
9 FF
10k leftover

Or maybe even:
4 Blitzers
2 Throwers
5 Linemen
4 Rerolls/3 Rerolls + Apothecary
6 FF

I think you risk too much with a low fan factor of 3, as well as leave yourself vulnerable with Catchers starting on your roster.

[Ixnatifual]

Forget the catchers. At S2, AV7, they aren't exactly your safest players.

True, but it's safer to pass to a catcher than to a blitzer (unless the catcher is in a very bad position).

[Cervidal]

If you take the 4 reroll roster, you shouldn't have a difficult time passing to a Blitzer or an open Lineman. Everyone's AG3, they all have a good chance of handling the ball on an accurate pass.

[longfang]

Hmmmmn!

I might post more on this later but two Human line ups I've taken to tournaments this year have included 3 catchers, 1 thrower, 4 Blitzers + linemen and the extra fluff. Move 8, catch, dodge.............love them!

[Ixnatifual]

If you take the 4 reroll roster, you shouldn't have a difficult time passing to a Blitzer or an open Lineman. Everyone's AG3, they all have a good chance of handling the ball on an accurate pass.

Good point. I'm not very happy about losing the Apothecary, though. If I settled for 1 FF I would get to keep him.

[Zombie]

You said you wanted to go safe, but presented the exact opposite. By definition, in Blood Bowl, starting a team the safe route means very high FF (8 or 9), lots of rerolls and no ST2 players.

If you want to go the catcher route, by all means do so (i'd start humans with 4 catchers myself), but don't call it "safe".

Oh, and always take 9 FF.

[Mestari]

IMO it's not the ST2 but the AV7 that's the problem with the catchers. With humans, however, I'd say that most starting lineups are "safe". The linemen are cheap so replacements will be easy to make, you got lots of rerolls in every case and even a few position players. Only thing that makes the linup unsafe is (as noted before) that you take a too low FF.

What about:

The really alternative lineup:
11 linemen (550k)
1 thrower (70k)
5 Rerolls
a apoth
8 FF

Or even drop one of the linemen to get 6RR's...
This team ensures that the first thing you do is to develop the linemen - and when you got more positional players, you already have linemen with Block or some other nifty skills... Rerolls ensure that the linemen succeed in making those touchdowns.
And this also distracts the opposition as everyone of your players is an equal candidate for scoring..

But seriously though, most of the teams presented here (the ones that have high FF) are safe. Even with catchers, as long as you're facing rookie teams. If you start in an established league, the catchers might be a liability.

[Korhil]

Starting Humans:

4 Blitzer 360
1 Thrower 70
6 LineMan 300
4 Re-Rolls 200
7 Fan Factor 70

Block is the most important skill to a Starting team.
You have SureHands too.
4 Re-Rolls means you can buy you Apothecary & Players without having to save for another RR.

---Korhil

[Ixnatifual]

If you want to go the catcher route, by all means do so (i'd start humans with 4 catchers myself), but don't call it "safe".
Oh, and always take 9 FF.

I think you've misunderstood me. By "safe", I didn't mean that my players would never get injured, I meant that the team overall would be less influenced by the occasional bad dice roll. For example, if I pass the ball and accidently roll a 1 on the catch attempt, I can try again without spending a valuable re-roll. If someone blocks a catcher, it's not that strange if the catcher goes down - that's because he's weak, not because I have bad luck - at least I can somewhat control the situation so the catcher faces minimal risk. But I can't control whether a d6 ends up 1 or 6 in a single throw.

I typically put my catchers out of harm's way if playing defense, but that's another thing.

I appreciate all the comments. I really like the 5-reroll team. Most of my friends have 3 rerolls at MAX, not counting leader rerolls. It'd be cool showing up with 5 of them in the first match

FYI, the team will be playing in a league with all-new teams (all with 100 team rating).

[Zombie]

If you really are that worried about screwing up rolls, then team rerolls will help you immensely more than positional players in that regard. With enough team rerolls, everyone is a potential threat.

[DaFoola]

Well, Zombie, that depends . . . certainly, a TRR means that a lineman is now just as effective at receiving passes as is a catcher, but he won't be able to reroll a catch And a dodge, while a catcher will be able to do so.

But having a FF of 9 is definitely "safe", because a few unlucky rolls on the kickoff table can do just as much damage as unlucky rolls in other aspects of the game.

[Coach Barry]

If most people are like me, most people hate losing their turn because of bad luck. So I've tried creating a human team that's less "risky".

2 Blitzers
2 Throwers
2 Catchers
7 Linemen

1 Apothecary
3 Rerolls
3 Fan Factor

I have two throwers and two catchers - if one catcher or thrower is somehow out of a match, momentarily or permanently, I'll have a spare ready. Particularly catchers are prime targets of the opposition (they are weak and have low AV). I also have an extra lineman to take the place of any injured or KO'd player.

Right from the start I've bought an apothecary to prevent serious injuries or fatalities - those are expensive.

Also 3 rerolls - humans aren't exactly stupid with the ball, so 3 rerolls -should- be plenty. However, I've played many times where I spent them all on the first 3 turns to stop early turnovers. So it seems a good idea to have them.

Think this team is okay? Any thoughts?

I started a human team with exactly the same Cockerel, only I played so much with that team that I just can't play with anything else than Humans, although I'm trying chaos now. But my love is as always will be Human Team. Jees... my avatar is my Griff Oberwald!!

[Skummy]

I am having some success with a Human team that started with 1 thrower, 1 catcher, 2 Blitzers, 7 Lineman and 4 rerolls. My theory was that when my skill players were out, my extra rerolls would help my regular lineman compensate. So far it has worked out well, and the lineman have been the stars of the team. Oddly, the weakness in the team has been Blitzer deaths - 2 in 8 games.

Catchers are key for humans, because they add a lot of speed to a team. Outdistancing people is sometimes more important than outhitting them - and variablility is the strength of the Humans.

[Ixnatifual]

I am having some success with a Human team that started with 1 thrower, 1 catcher, 2 Blitzers, 7 Lineman and 4 rerolls. My theory was that when my skill players were out, my extra rerolls would help my regular lineman compensate. So far it has worked out well, and the lineman have been the stars of the team. Oddly, the weakness in the team has been Blitzer deaths - 2 in 8 games.

Catchers are key for humans, because they add a lot of speed to a team. Outdistancing people is sometimes more important than outhitting them - and variablility is the strength of the Humans.

Cool - I decided to make a team almost like that - 5 rerolls, 1 apothecary, 3 FF and the same players.

Unfortunately, the match didn't go well for me. I started as offense, but he rolled a 10 on the kick-off table (blitz) and KOed one player and badly injured another during his extra turn.

I managed to get the ball going well into the opponent's half, but lost it as my catcher failed a dodge rolled by rolling a 1 and a 2.

The opponents (a high elf team) then passed the ball forward, ending with a touchdown, but not before killing one of my players (saved from death by my apotechary).

Again, he rolls 10 on the kick-off. With only 9 players, I can't stop him as he wades down the field. He gains another touchdown and KOs a player.

And, for the third time, he rolls 10 on the kick-off. Hoping to gain strength in one wide zone, I've let the second wide zone free, and receive a touchback (hands the ball to my blitzer in the widezone). He manages to wrestle it from me, though.

Second half, I kick-off the ball and get a 5 - bad kick. It doesn't go as bad as it could, though. But he gains his 4th and final touchdown. End of the match. I did manage to give a niggling injury to a high elf lineman in my last turn. At least I earned 70k, so after my next match I can get another blitzer.