Chaos roster for house-ruled league

[Darkson]

Right, this is the roster I'm thinking of adding to our house-ruled league in place of the current Chaos roster (LRB 4 based, with a few things "stolen" from LRB5), but I can't help feeling I'm missing something, so I'm looking for some fresh perspective.

0-4 CW (as normal)
0-4 Beastmen (as normal)
0-16 Marauders (Norse linemen, but with Mutation access)
0-1 of either Ogre, Mio or Troll
RR 70k

Mutations: as LRB 4 (so doubles), except for:-

Claw/Razor Sharp Claws: +1 to AV/Inj (respectively) but will stack with MB
Thick Skull/Regeneration added to mutation list
Two Heads/Extra Arms/Spikes/Hypnotic Gaze made mutation skills so can be taken on normal rolls, but only if the player has M access.
Four Legs added: gains Sprint and Sure Feet, but loses a point of AG.

[Bonehead]

What about secret weapons? For Marauders (and Norse) I always thought Ball and Chain would fit nicely.

[Darkson]

Off the top of my head (as I don't have the list to hand), they can take:

Chainsaw
Stakes (similar to Zara's stakes)

Ball & Chain is a possibibly I suppose.

Remember we're using LRB 4, so SW all get a penalty roll, not an auto send off. All SW are on-roster, as we don't use Stars.

I'm also probably going to bring in a pure Beast team (Gors, beastmen, Ungors and Mino) using a list somewhere on here, but that's not pertainent to this one.

[Bonehead]

We also play a mixture of rules. All we like from LRB5 back to 3rd edition.
We don't have on-roster weapons but a skill called secret weapon you can take with linemen on a double. After that you can buy a weapon for him. Costs ranging from 10k-30k (death roller a bit more). Also no auto send off. Makes for a good selection of weapons (restricted for different teams) but they don't appear too often. And there's still the choice between skill or weapon.

[fen]

First of all, I freaking love this mutation.

Four Legs added: gains Sprint and Sure Feet, but loses a point of AG.

I assume Centigores would be 6328 Horns, Sprint, Sure Feet. That's an interesting statline imo, even if you're not having Centigores (which I think the beastman team should have, but it's your league.)

As for the team, the only thing I've be a little cautious about is what happens when you get the 6337 Block linemen into the mix. Cause for me that was what made the original Chaos Pact team so strong.

I think my starting roster would be something like this:
3 Chaos Warriors - 300K
8 Marauder - 400K
3 Rerolls - 210K
and 90K left for FF. (Or lower FF for that 4th Chaos Warrior)

That's a pretty sweet team, and long term you draft in the Beastmen and an Ogre to increase the team's resilience.

Personally I would have removed the beastmen and gone with 6338 GM 50K Marauders and introduced 0-4 Blitzer (6338 GSM) + 0-2 Runner positionals (7337 or 6337 GPM).

[valedictor]

Hi Darkson,

Not sure how much value (if any) my input is on this, as you are well aware of my inexperience and rustiness But the chaos team roster has long been something that has felt a bit anaemic and, well dull really. I'm sure it plays perfectly well and all and suits most peoples' needs, (and probably develops its character in time) but would be nice if it has more of a chaotic and crazy flavour about it from the off.

As my ability to determine the pros and cons of minutae such as stats and skills is pretty laughable without a lot more match experience, mine is just a general observation based on my thoughts on the chaos team over a fairly long period of time. No doubt a lot of it, (if not all of it) can be picked apart by a seasoned coach. Might yield a few general ideas that couild be of interest though.

Oh well, here goes...

I would be inclined to stick to the basic format that exists now fairly closely, but allow for a few permutations and diversity here and there. By not deviating too much from the official roster too much, it might make it more palatable to the masses while also alllwing for some change to make things interesting.

So, I would stick with 0-4 CW analogues, your 0-16 linemen and your 0-1 big guy.

Looking at each of them in turn now:

0-4 Chaos warriors.

I wouldn't change their stats at all. I think these guys represent the brutal core of any self-respecting Chaos lineup. I would be inclined to leave them exactly as they are, except for the name. How about renaming them 'chaos thugs', or 'chaos brutes'...something similar to that. I've never been keen on the 'warrior' term - it's too military sounding and ties in too much with Warhammer too. From what I have read in a few posts recently, there seems to be a general move away from other Warhammer-type terms too, such as Stormvermin, and the various 'warrior' titles in the High Elf team now being replaced. (although I must admit 'Stormvermin' is just so much cooler than blitzer, and not really overtly military either, but never mind...) Figured this CW name-change would fit in well too, while still maintaining the impression that these four guys are real armour-clad bruisers.

0-16 beastmen. This is supposed to be a chaos team, so I would like to see some opportunity to play a really diverse array of characters. The official chaos team only has three different positions - less than pretty much all the other teams, and yet to me a leaning towards chaos would suggest that this should be the team that embraces diversity the most!
I figured that this could be achieved by simply renaming this position as 'chaos minion', rather than 'chaos beastman'. Keep the basic 6338 as this would represent your average muscly human-sized chaos lackey quite adequately. Lose the horns, and in place of the horns, allow one mutation for every other minion that you buy. (just so that every lineman doesn't start off with a mutation) OR, allow a pool of money for mutations, and then purchase as many mutations as you like from a list that shows the cost of each of the ten mutations, and distribute them to the minions in the team as you see fit (maybe a maximum of two per player?) Maybe there's a simpler way of limiting the number of mutations initially available to the rank and file... I personally prefer the second of these two possibilities.

0-1 big guy. You get to choose from Mino or Ogre. Ogres should be readily available in chaos teams! Get 'em back in there!


That way you would end up with:

0-4 chaos thugs
0-16 chaos minions (sporting x number of mutations bought from a mutation fund that is part of the total starting money available to build the team, not in addition to it obviously - maybe 100,000?)
0-1 ogre or minotaur.

The benefits of this as far as I could see would be:

This would retain the general shape of a tried and tested official roster;

The names allow for broader scope when choosing appropriate miniatures - personally speaking, I don't really like beastmen as miniatures. They always strike me as a bit samey and characterless compared with the plethora of other chaos types that GW has in its various game systems. If you call them the more general name 'minion', then it would encourage coaches to use miniatures that could be chaos humans, beastmen and other unsavoury humanoids.

It would let people field their beastmen if they still wanted to (just buy a minion and give him horns), all those great old 2nd ed. chaos players could get a new lease of life (Lewdgrip - minion with tentacle, Slarga - minion with extra arms, Dorjak, minion with claw, the armoured guys like Galmen, Luthor and Wormhowl make for good chaos thugs, and the figures with no mutations are then perfect for the minions who didn't get a starting mutation given to them). I don't know about other coaches, but these are some of my favourite miniatures GW has ever produced for BB, and mine have spent most of their lives sat on my shelf because they don't fit in the current chaos starting roster very well. Would be a nice way of looking after the heritage of the game a bit, (especially as a lot of these old figures are still available).

This way, you could have a starting lineup with a nice selection of armoured basher types, supported by a motley selection of chaos humans, beastmen, whatever, with a (modest) sprinkling of mutations to add a touch of craziness. Just tinker with the total amount of money available for buying mutations until you get a reasonable sum that doesn't permit any overpowering of the linemen component of the team.

As I said, just a general observation / overview really. Absolutely no idea if it is practical or not! You fellas are the experts. I've always thought that chaos should be the 'showcase' team for Bloodbowl, as they represent all that is good and bloody about the game, and I don't think the rather bland '0-16 beastmen' really does it enough justice.


Best of luck with your plans anyway, I certainly look forward to seeing what you ultimately come up with.

Cheers , John.

[Darkson]

The reason I've removed the 0-16 Beastmen is because I want(ed) to add a Beast of Chaos team, with Ungors, Centigors, etc, so having beasties as 0-16 felt "wrong", but removing the option to take them completely also felt "wrong".

But if the conversation I had with them last time comes to pass (been away for a couple of gaming nights) they're thinking of going to LRB5 to get more practise for tourneys, which will make this a moot team design anyway (and means I won't play any league BB ).