Talk Fantasy Football

When I last played a couple years ago, there were only 12 teams (six original and six from the expantion). Now I see that there are a whle bunch of different human tribes, four differnt undead teams, and a slew of others. My questions are, are all of these new teams playtested and balenced? Do they all require very specialised stratagies (compared to the original teams' stratagies)?

all of the teams you find in the LRB are (mostly) playtested and balanced. Those that need tweaks already have input given for the next revision of the LRB. Some require special strategy, some do not - but more or less, you're all still playing BB

I couldnt tell from your post if you asked your question after looking at the LRB, or looking somewhere else at a team list (I wasn't sure what you meant by a "bunch of different human tribes"?) If it was anywhere else, I wouldn't pay them too much mind unless you really WANT to play with that many teams. I know the MBBL2 has a slew of different rosters, most of which Galak claims are balanced. I've never played there though, so I can't comment on that or not

By "human tribes" I ment the Amazons and Norse, which I assume are human. I was just looking at the teams in the Living Rulebook, and I guess they wouln't be in there if they weren't balenced.

As for stratagy, it seems that some of the new teams would have very abnormal stratagies (Ogres and Vampires come to mind). Should I encourage new players to stick to the core teams for their first tournament?

Ogres and vampires are indeed difficult to master.
The same goes for goblin and halfling.
The rest of the teams are pretty much balanced (allthough some are more suited for long term leagues than tournaments)

Well, a number of teams are not ideal for new players. In fact, I would recommend using either humans or orcs for new players, at least until they picked up the basic rules and a general understanding of the game.

Asperon Thorn wrote up a great overview of the teams that I find handy to show to new players:
http://www.specialist-games.com/forum/t ... IC_ID=2472

If you know folks personality/gaming-style, it also helps to steer them towards teams that are a good match. If you get disheartened at taking heavy casualties, go for a heavy armour team like Dwarves. If you like maneuvering and don't fail your own morale checks when you're down to 3 players left on the pitch, go for a speed team like Skaven. If you just like the mayhem and think winning a game is just extra frosting, go Gobbos!

Cheers,
Maureen

Mo wrote:Asperon Thorn wrote up a great overview of the teams that I find handy to show to new players:
http://www.specialist-games.com/forum/t ... IC_ID=2472

Brilliant! Simply brilliant!