However for 2018 this restriction has been dropped, I’ve added a poll to see how people would feel about including those teams in my list of options. Ideally I want to maximise the chances that the winner will get use out of them. Below I have listed the main ideas I am mulling over along with some pics of test models, there is a decent selection and plenty of time to add new ideas too.
One thing that will be an influence for me is if I can paint up representative stars to go with the team. I’m also wanting to complete all 56 stars (57 including Grotty) from the crp.
Amazon
Both Blood Bowl and GW’s other ranges in general have a distinct lack of female models. This always makes it more of a challenge to find suitable components to make a team.
I have already made an amazon team before, using Mordheim amazons combined with Dark eldar bits. The main attraction for them would be to use the new plastic sisters of silence. Those are lovely models but a bit too well armoured for AV7 and I’d have to find a way to get rid of cloaks that have no place in Blood Bowl. I could even use them as an interchangeable human team if I added 2 more catchers and Bertha, they both share Zara and Helmut making them options too.
There are 2 stars that play for amazons I still need to complete, Bertha and Helmut. Bertha is rarely taken and few existing models exist for her leaving me lots of scope for conversions. In comparison Helmut is a popular star due to being cheap and a choice for 6 quite different teams. He has an existing 2nd edition model and quite a few good alternatives. You pretty much just need to stick a chainsaw on any model and it is clear who he is and I could do a female Helmut to fit in with the team.
Amazons are one of the strongest teams in tournaments and decent in low-mid TV leagues as well.
Norse
Despite having already completed 1 Norse team (and a half if I include the Norse Dwarfs) I do have a desire to work on them again. I’d even gone so far as acquiring most of bits and they were one of the options I was considering for the NAF GT 2017 team. I only abandoned them as I didn’t think there would be time to do them justice and complete the 3 stars.
The team would be based on the plastic Bloodreavers as they have a suitably brutal appearance along with lack of armour common to norse. I’d remove any obvious khornate symbols and add in some space wolf heads and other blood bowl armour pieces. I’m also thinking of mixing them in with the Tzeentchi cultists too since have little armour either.
The main difficulty would be with distinguishing the positional players from the rest of the team. Ulfwereners are easy and I’ve got the new Wulfen models to use. I am thinking of using the character model and barbarian from warhammer quest as the berserkers and the *name* for a thrower. That just leaves the catchers and a potential 2nd thrower, though I don’t know if many people take 1 much less 2. The snow troll would be made from a yheti, but with some conversions thrown in.
Norse are strong at low TV and still competitive right up until the highest TV, making them a good choice for tournaments and leagues.
Like humans they also have 3 stars I could use for them, Icepelt who only plays for Norse, Boomer who plays for just them and Dwarfs and Helmut. I have even got a colour scheme selected as I already painted up Wilhelm in it so could include him.
Ogres
I have been considering doing an ogre team for some time as they are one of the teams I have yet to complete. The fact that they are regarded as the worst team in the game by many may have something to do with that. I have some of the 2nd edition ogres, but with scale creep they look more like weedy ST4 players now and I’ve even seen their bodies be used for black orcs. I also have a couple of the 5th edition range, these were cool looking models, but I was never a fan of the pose their legs were in.
Instead I decided to combine the torsos from the dragon ogres with the legs from the 40k ogryns. These legs were a bit short for the bodies and I ended up extending them with wire and greenstuff.
Making the snotlings would be harder, there are half a dozen very cool Blood Bowl versions of which I have a few, but getting the rest would be expensive. Instead I might take the fantasy snotlings I have and convert them using arm swaps and adding a few pieces of Blood Bowl equipment to them.
Another big attraction of this team is that I have just finished converting Big Bertha along Brick & Grotty, they ideally fit that team as well.
Pro elf
I did paint up an elf team a while back, but that was using the 2nd edition range with only a couple of minor conversions. I have long wanted to do a team in that same kind of style but updated with plastic models. I like the image of the face masks and even the big hair that elves sported back in the 2nd edition days. The models still hold up for the most part but are a bit static and I like to add my own style to teams.
The 40k range has some excellent and really dynamic models in the shape of harlequins and dark eldar. There are also some good options for parts from the fantasy range. The biggest difficulty I have found is that the 40K models all seem to have some kind of backpack, removing this without the model looking rubbish is difficult and time consuming.
Elfs are seen as being weaker than either wood or dark elves but I have seen them do well in tournaments and they could just as easily be used as high elves too.
Stars are also an issue as the only one on my list is Jordell and he is a wood elf.
Wood elf
Woof elves are another team I have yet to do a “proper” version of, only the daemonette dryad conversion I did for myself a few years back. The 3rd edition team suffered from following the super bland wood elf army at that time. Later on the range and background was completely redesigned, instead of hippy tree-huggers they were now capricious, otherworldly fey.
I’d like to do a team more in keeping with this, something along the lines of celtic warriors with bare chests and tattoos. The difficult part is to find the parts needed that suit the more slender frame of elves.
The wild riders came with useful torsos for male or female players and the witch elves could work as well. To bring them over to Blood Bowl players I’d incorporate some 40k parts. I did make a dark elf runner in this kind of style, but would need to add more variety in appearance and pose to differentiate the positionals.
Wood elves are one of the strongest teams in both leagues and tournaments, they are disliked but not as hated as something like dwarfs. You may lose 5-0 when facing them but can usually inflict some pain back.
Their only star I still need to do is Jordell, but he is very representative of the team.
