Making my first Bloodbowl Team.

[Athelan]

Hello everyone,
I got the Orc&Human blood bowl set from my girlfriend for christmas and after only a few games I must say that I'm hooked. I've finished painting both the human and orc teams (much to the discontent of my Empire Army). Now I'm planning to convert and paint my own army. I live in the middle east and play Warhammer and now Bloodbowl with only 3 other people and any models we buy is the once a year when we get leave from work to go back to either UK or Australia(for me.) So from the peices I've got I've just round spare Clanrat and Nightrunner boxes, so a Skaven team it is. So I have;
20 Clanrat models-Unbuilt.
20 Nightrunner Models-Unbuilt.
1 Skaven Assassin.
2 Gutter Runners.
3 Warplock Engineers.
Now these are the only things I've got to make a team. What models will I need to have a strong skaven team? How many linesmen will I have to make? etc etc.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

[purdindas]

Hi,

You should defintetely have both storm vermin. They are the only players who start with block and AV 8 is worth its weight in gold if your a rat. I'd reccomend at least 3 gutter runners but you should make 4 if you can. Alot of people use a thrower. This is a good idea considering he has sure hands and access to passing skills (leader). A ratogre is also a must have. One of the best big guys IMO. Star players are nice but not essential because you probably wont get that much use out of them anyway.

Good luck building the team

[Ullis]

I have no idea what the figures look like, but just guessing from their names:

Clanrats could probably make linerats (7-8 should be plenty), blitzers (2) and a thrower. The thrower can be differentiated by giving him a ball and posing. The blitzers can be differentiated by say, heads with helmets and as much armour as you can get from the possible bodies.

The night runners sound like they'd make good Gutter runners (4). They might work as linerats too. The assassin and warplock engineers could probably stand in as a proxy for a star player? That totals up to around 14-15 figures with the majority coming from the clan rats.

Another good way to make the models stand apart from each other are painted (or bought) base rings:

Red: Blitzers
White: Throwers
Yellow: Gutter Runners
Blue: Star Player
Whatever's left (gray or green usually): linerats

I have converted a slann team from kroots and although I tried to use variable poses, the base rings are a really good way (and only way...) to make them stand apart.

A Rat Ogre should be a big rat so I don't think you're covered there, but skaven teams really do well without one so you're fine either way.

[Athelan]

So one reply says a rat ogre is a must and another saying its not! Now I've played a human team with an ogre and can say I much more enjoy the throwing/dodging/catching game than the bashing game. So is a ratogre a must for a skaven team? I'd prefer not to have one but would I be severly gimped? I'd prefer to have a full on agility team, the other teams in my league will be Orcs, Ogres and Undead so I don't think I can compete in the bashing game!
Thanks again for the feedback.

[duckwing]

I haven't played skaven myself but I can say that a coach in a small league here fired his rat ogre because he didn't think it payed off for the extra inducement it gave his opponent. Of course, he played against some pretty bashy teams. I don't know how big a difference that makes.

[purdindas]

The main reason you should have a rogre is to make up for your lack of bash potential elsewhere. It's a matter of preference though.

[rodders]

the R-ogre no R-oger debate rages on

i'm in he's the 14th man camp as its all too often a liability

[Pagan]

Basically everything said above works fine. If they have different poses, try to find the poses that will match the number of non lineman and use them for that. Also painting them in different colors can be an easy way to tell them apart. Keep everyone in the team colors, but paint helmets and/or shoulder pads a different color since those parts are easily seen. Some system like that works fine.

One of our players has a skaven on stilts, not sure where it is from, that acts as a gutter runner. Rather humorous.

[Harry Buddha Palm]

Rat Ogres are definitely NOT must haves. They can be really good and they can be really bad. I used one for a long time, but ended up firing him because he was always getting knocked out (or worse) and failing his wild animal rolls at the worst times. I haven't missed him at all. There are times when having one is useful, but there's just as many times where it won't do anything except bloat your Team Value. If you don't want to use one, then don't. You won't be gimped. Skaven can play just fine without one.