Tactical Gems

[B SIDE]

THE PITCH

“Blood Bowl is a sea where a snotling may drink and an ogre may bathe.” – Ancient Old World proverb

Aim to control more of the pitch than your opponent does. Place your defenders as far up the field as you can safely manage without letting the ball slip irrevocably behind you. Never give up more of the field than you have to. If your opponent moves toward a sideline, push him farther toward it. If he is forced to fall back, give chase.

The slower a piece is, the farther you should keep it from the sidelines. The limited mobility of these pieces means that they’ll be useless if the focus of play moves to the other side of the board.

The path to move a player up the field is the same length in a straight line as it is at a diagonal. The path of a pass is not. Always be on the lookout for diagonal moves that take advantage of imbalances in defensive positioning, relative speed of players, and passing and interception opportunities.


THE PLAYERS

“The lineman is the soul of Blood Bowl.” – Lord Phillip of Idor

In order to get the most from your best players, give them support from your linemen. Use linemen to screen for your catchers and passers, to lend assists during blocks and fouls, and occupy your opponent’s big guys and blitzers. A lineman’s tackle zone is the same as the zone of the mightiest of Zugs.

Blitzers need space to reach their full potential. If your fastest players are trapped in nets of your own creation, you’re not taking advantage of their speed. If your strongest players can’t reach the enemy, you’re not taking advantage of their strength. When moving your linemen, keep your star players in mind.

Don’t give your opponent easy targets. If you want to send a catcher into your opponent’s backfield for a pass, don’t send him alone. At the minimum, two catchers can’t both be blitzed away. Two catchers with a couple of friends to run interference will be much more effective.


THE CENTER

“Attacking up the center of the pitch is best by test.” – Sir Robert of Fich

Centralize your pieces to make them powerful. On offense, a weak point anywhere in your opponent’s defense can be exploited from the center. On defense, any weak point can be supported from the center. The faster your players are, the less this will affect you. But even a Gutter Runner with +1MA and Sprint can’t go from sideline to sideline in one move.

When choosing between pushback squares, it’s generally better to push your opponent toward the sidelines. A piece that’s closer to the center is stronger than one that’s farther away. Tiny advantages over your opponent will certainly add up if you continuously deny him central positions.


THE BALL

“Playing the ball may be dangerous, but the fights in the stands, why a guy could be killed!” – Bones McFemur, Skeleton star player

Protect the ball early and often. Even if you’re not going to pick the ball up at the beginning of your turn, send someone to put a tackle zone on it. Nuffle inflicts the harshest punishments upon those who do not obey this rule.

Be careful about blocking with your cage corners. If they fall down, there’s nothing between your ball carrier and that slobbering minotaur two squares away. Even just leaving your corners in tackle zones means free blocks against them on the following turn. A cage is good support for a ball carrier, but even a cage sometimes needs support.

An exposed ball carrier will usually lose the ball. It only takes three players to blitz the carrier, retrieve the ball, complete a pass downfield, catch the ball and score. Don’t underestimate the danger that your opponent’s pieces represent if they are positioned near your ball carrier.


(Tactical advice adapted from chess. More to follow.)

[inkpwn]

Like it, glad someones written down some universal tips.
Could be a good print out for a club notice board or something.

[duckwing]

Very nice document

[B SIDE]

MATERIAL

“When sacrificing to the gods, it is best to sacrifice your enemies.” – Redmucus the Bold, Khorne’s Champions

When you have more pieces on the pitch than your opponent, foul. Eleven men against ten is a slight advantage. Three men against two is a decisive advantage. The risks of being sent off are increasingly outweighed by the rewards of KO’s and CAS’s when you have a material advantage.

When you have fewer pieces on the pitch than your opponent, speed up the game. Score, or force them to score- blitz your opponent’s ball carrier into the endzone if you must. Do whatever you can. More rolls for your KO’s is good. And it’s always easier to score with half of a team than it is to defend with half of a team.

On offense, three 50K linemen can score, but a 150K big guy can’t. Don’t waste time trying to knock over that troll. Get that ball. You’ll be surprised at how hard it is for the big guys to keep up with a well organized team that’s determined to score a TD or force a turnover.

An extra player on the pitch is worth a little trouble. It may put your pieces out of position, but blitz that witch-elf off the pitch. A drive is seldom settled in two turns, and when it is, the two guys you commit to the brutal act probably would not have helped you anyway. On the other hand, if the drive goes longer than a few turns, the extra man on the field will be a great boon.


SCORING POSITION

“The open receiver is a criminal who should be kept under lock and key. Mild measures, such as murder, are not sufficient.” – Aron Nimzovichov, Safety, Rakhov Rooks

Receivers must be advanced to scoring position. Whatever their MA, they must be in place to score before the clock runs out. Failing this, they should never have been on the pitch in the first place. If your goal is not to score quickly, leave your receivers in reserve and field linemen instead.

The more spread out the pitch is, the healthier your chances are to score. A single blitz can usually free up a lone receiver, and you only need one to cross the line with the ball to move that score marker. Spread out on offense to create scoring chances. On defense, look to isolate receivers into groups that can be contained.


SPACE

“A cramped position contains the seeds of Chaos.” – Duke Siegbert, Owner/Coach, Talabheim Terrasques

Location, location, location. Pieces in the right place are worth more to your team than pieces in the wrong place. Keep your players involved in the play. Take move actions that don’t seem especially important early, so that in the event that the unexpected occurs, you’re ready to capitalize.

On offense, put your men at risk to open the position. A cramped offense is a scoreless offense. Send out receivers, blitz a man free, and do whatever you can to get the defense out of their comfort zone.

Avoid risks when you’re in control. Don’t worry about the long pass when you’ve got the opposing team where you want them. Running up the score is not the goal of blood bowl (except when it is). A desperate opponent will only expose himself to further danger against a disciplined opponent.


TEMPO

“If you don’t make dust, you’ll eat it. Ha! I am so clever.” – Count Jacques DuRapier, Vampire Star Player

Don’t pick a fight with a bully- when he’s looking. If you put tackle zones on a team with stronger players, or a better position, you’re just asking to get knocked over. That’s not so bad if you make your armour rolls, but you’ll always be reacting instead of acting. Instead, keep out of range until you see an opening, then capitalize on your opponents mistakes with initiative and authority.

Every move is an opportunity to further your game plan. Don’t waste a single opportunity to get your players into better position. Advance to scoring position, lend assists, screen off receivers, and move in on that squig bladder. Don’t waste a single move with a single player, and your whole team will play to their potential.

Initiative is worth some material. If you have the chance to choose between a pushback or getting a turnover during your opponents turn, take the turnover. You might lose a player to a freak injury roll on a both down result, but you’ve got time to make up for it.


MOBILITY

“Runner runner got the skorrz. Kill the clanrats! We just winz winz winz.” – Eisenfaust, Skaven Gutter Runner, Das Vermin

The more open the position, the better for a fast or agile team. Cramped pieces can’t use their high MA or AG to get the ball moving. Spread the pitch to create opportunities for your speedsters to shine.

Attacking on both sides of the pitch will spread the defense. With a greater area to defend, the defender has to spread out his resources, giving you more weaknesses to attack. If you run your receivers down a single sideline, the defense will have an easier time stopping the score.


TACTICS

“The game is played on positional lines, but the positions are settled by good hits.” – Richard the Red, Dwarf Blitzer, Gossamer Hammers

Don’t leave a player on the sidelines, even when it seems like a good idea. Blood Bowl is unpredictable at best. You never know when you’re about to suffer a sudden turnover and have your star trollslayer blitzed off the pitch.

Ignore your opponent’s threats whenever you can do so with impunity. A passer with no receivers in position is not going to get the TD pass. A good blitz on a thrower can turn advanced receivers into weak players in bad position. Don’t’ jump at shadows, and you’ll free up your pieces to act where they can be most useful.

Hit em’ where they aint. Even a good cage takes a lot of offensive players out of the blocking picture. That means you can take advantages of mismatches in other parts of the field. Slow the offense, and smash the stragglers.


FORCING MOVES

“The pin is mightier than the sword!” – Tankred the Mighty, Empire Wrestling champion

It’s always the ninja you don’t see that kills you. Pay attention to detail at all times when playing Blood Bowl. There’s no excuse for counting a blitz out wrong, or being forced to dodge through a tackle zone because your own player is in the way.

Pressure the ball carrier. Blitz him when you can, and mark him when you can’t. A loose ball may not be as good as yours, but at least it’s not theirs. Force your opponent into bad blitzes, dangerous leaps, and 4+ pickup rolls in tackle zones whenever you can. This has the pleasant side effect of making your players safe from being blitzed off the pitch, fouled, and hit with one die blocks early in the turn.

(Further near-plagiarism from The Tao of Chess, by P. Kurzdorfer, to follow. lol Maybe some good advice from Jeremy Silman, too. He's a strong strategist.)

[nick_nameless]

THE PITCH


Aim to control more of the pitch than your opponent does. Place your defenders as far up the field as you can safely manage without letting the ball slip irrevocably behind you. Never give up more of the field than you have to. If your opponent moves toward a sideline, push him farther in. If he is forced to fall back, give chase.

[

b]THE CENTER[/b]

“Attacking up the center of the pitch is best by test.” – Sir Robert of Fich

Centralize your pieces to make them powerful. On offense, a weak point anywhere in your opponent’s defense can be exploited from the center. On defense, any weak point can be supported from the center. The faster your players are, the less this will affect you. But even a Gutter Runner with +1MA and Sprint can’t go from sideline to sideline in one move.

When choosing between pushback squares, it’s generally better to push your opponent toward the sidelines. A piece that’s closer to the center is stronger than one that’s farther away. Tiny advantages over your opponent will certainly add up if you continuously deny him central positions.

I like it, and I know it's an adaptation...but I just wanted to point out this strategic inconsistency.

I think the right strategic advice is to either push your opponent to where he can be best contained and lack maneuverability because he's crowded by his own men, or push him somewhere that will take him out of the play. Pushing to the center or side is more of a matter of what else is happening.

[B SIDE]

"farther in" meaning "farther in toward the sidelines. Consistent, I think. But thanks for pointing out the poor writing. Will edit.

[duckwing]

When you have more pieces on the pitch than your opponent, foul. Eleven men against ten is a slight advantage. Three men against two is a decisive advantage. The risks of being sent off increasingly outweigh the rewards of KO’s and CAS’s when you have a material advantage.

Now this must be a typo or I don't understand what you are saying. Sure it should be "When you have more pieces on the pitch than your opponent, don't foul"?

[nick_nameless]

When you have more pieces on the pitch than your opponent, foul. Eleven men against ten is a slight advantage. Three men against two is a decisive advantage. The risks of being sent off increasingly outweigh the rewards of KO’s and CAS’s when you have a material advantage.

Now this must be a typo or I don't understand what you are saying. Sure it should be "When you have more pieces on the pitch than your opponent, don't foul"?

No...he's saying foul when you are up guys. When you are down guys it's too much of a risk that you might lose one. Unless you play ogres and are fouling with 20K snotlings

[Bert]

Ya there should be more consideration for the "fouling when your a man up". For a number of teams a slight advantage is plenty. The odds of enhancing the numbers advantage are better using that advantage then by fouling. In one turn you can give back that edge instead of using it for a number of turns.

I would agree to this theory if the rules for fouling werent so detrimental. The only real reason to foul is for TV. If your opponent has some star player that wins the game for him, thats who you foul.

The only other reasons to foul are if your playing your team towards doing it (goblins 50k bribes) or youve lost the match and are trying to extract some value for the loss.

Fouling was nerfed to prevent it from being a tactic and to prevent the gross abuse. Consider this last line with what you have posted. Other than that everything else makes this a nice article.

[TuernRedvenom]

Ya there should be more consideration for the "fouling when your a man up". For a number of teams a slight advantage is plenty. The odds of enhancing the numbers advantage are better using that advantage then by fouling. In one turn you can give back that edge instead of using it for a number of turns.

I would agree to this theory if the rules for fouling werent so detrimental. The only real reason to foul is for TV. If your opponent has some star player that wins the game for him, thats who you foul.

The only other reasons to foul are if your playing your team towards doing it (goblins 50k bribes) or youve lost the match and are trying to extract some value for the loss.

Fouling was nerfed to prevent it from being a tactic and to prevent the gross abuse. Consider this last line with what you have posted. Other than that everything else makes this a nice article.

I strongly disagree. My nurgle team fouls like there's no tomorrow vs most teams. Fouling is most definately worth it if you have cheap linefodder and can get enough assists. I have a frenzy peston that team that is used specifically to get targets away from their team mates to be able to get a nice modifier on the foul.

[Bert]

"I strongly disagree. My Nurgle team" exactly! My point number 3 says if a team is built for it. With cheap fodder you can use fouling for a numbers edge. Trust me if I had my way fouling would be more involved in the game.

But as a Tactical Gems article, its suppose to be advice for coaching and all teams. To tell every team to foul when they have a one player numbers advantage is wrong. I will foul with 40k value players, even 50k. But an elf team is not going to foul unless its crucial for them to get rid of that player.

[mattgslater]

There's also tactical fouling. If you're caged up in the right place, but there's that one prone opponent who could give you trouble, you may want to foul him to keep him from standing up next turn.

Good stuff, by the way.

I think most folks assume "in" means toward the 0 column. In fact, I assumed that to the degree that I've been using that term that way without defining it, and nobody's brought it up yet.

[mattgslater]

Here are some.

Blood Bowl Never Sleeps
You're not a passive observer during the opponent's turn. You're watching what he does and planning your next turn around it. Never blink; make sure you know everything your opponent does on his turn. Get a sense for your opponent's sense of priority and space, and look for tactical errors in real time. Don't take phone calls! (I'm talking to you, Cecil.)

PRIORITIES

On Your Feet or On Your Knees
Unless you're planning on rolling dice with a prone player, you should almost always stand all prone players before you do anything else. If you have multiple actions at similar priority, take actions with prone players or poorly-positioned players before other ones. The exceptions are for players who may do better by remaining prone than by standing; for example, prone guys locked on the sidelines, who have to dodge at a penalty to avoid a crowdpush, should stay prone at least until end of turn. After all, it's MUCH better to be fouled than to be surfed.

Ease and Importance
Rate every action by some cocktail of likelihood of turnover and importance. What that cocktail is should be up to you. But if you know you're going to do something and it can't fail, do it first. Then, go down the line of importance and ease, so that difficult, unimportant actions come last. If you don't have a TRR, ease has to trump importance; if you do, then you can take critical actions with moderately-easy actions on the table, if the critical action isn't too dangerous.

Mess with your opponent's priorities
Contingent actions, easy actions that either have to wait for hard actions or are dependent on the success of hard actions, are the biggest bugaboo of BB risk management. Position your players so your opponent has to take less critical actions before taking more critical ones, and try to minimize the number of contingent actions you take. Sometimes this is not possible; for instance, if you have a player who would move and hand off the ball on a 35/36 chance, but only after blitzing a hole on an unskilled 2d block, then so be it.

[B SIDE]

When you have more pieces on the pitch than your opponent, foul. Eleven men against ten is a slight advantage. Three men against two is a decisive advantage. The risks of being sent off increasingly outweigh the rewards of KO’s and CAS’s when you have a material advantage.

Now this must be a typo or I don't understand what you are saying. Sure it should be "When you have more pieces on the pitch than your opponent, don't foul"?

No...he's saying foul when you are up guys. When you are down guys it's too much of a risk that you might lose one. Unless you play ogres and are fouling with 20K snotlings

Correct.

[Mango]

Attacking on both sides of the pitch will spread the defense. With a greater area to defend, the defender has to spread out his resources, giving you more weaknesses to attack. If you run your receivers down a single sideline, the defense will have an easier time stopping the score.


I dont really agree with this, it could just be the wording but 'attacking a side' to me is comitting 3+ players to gain and hold territory. If this is done on both sides then the middle is weak and susceptable to counterattack. If you 'attack' a side with 1 or 2 players the opponent really only has to mark them with a player and concentrate on the true attack.

Generally though I like your articles, they are nice basic tentants to play by and are a great guide for new and up and coming players