Block Skill

Relborn · Post by **Relborn** » Wed May 14, 2003 12:04 pm

In a former German version of Bloodbowl, the Block Skill was by an typo putted into the strength category. After a long discussion in our league, we decided to leave it there, and after 2 years of playtesting I have to say, I like the results.

It made sure, that block wasn't a no brainer anymore and made the blodge combo more rare.

How do you think about such a change ?

McDeth · Post by **McDeth** » Wed May 14, 2003 1:22 pm

Voted No, No easy access to block would make tackle too powerful, and those strength 2 Gr's would take a real battering, in fact they wouldn't have a prayer

Grumbledook · Post by **Grumbledook** » Wed May 14, 2003 1:25 pm

and all the elf teams

Relborn · Post by **Relborn** » Wed May 14, 2003 1:29 pm

I can only tell from our league-experiences, that neither the tackle skill was seen more often than before, nor did the skaven gutterrunner stand defenseless on the pitch (actually at some times the top scorer came from skaven teams).

Personally I think it a bit poor, that you have to take block on your Catchers (still shaking head whil writing this), to stay competative.

Relborn · Post by **Relborn** » Wed May 14, 2003 1:31 pm

And beside this point, of course I agree with you all that the block skill comes handy for those catchers (unimportant of what races they are).

The point is, should the block skill be such an easy accessable skill. And so far we made some very good playtesting experiences

Munkey · Post by **Munkey** » Wed May 14, 2003 6:51 pm

I voted not sure.

I quite like the idea, just because Block is a bit to prevalent and boring but...

It is such an integral part of the game and such a good skill that i'm not convinced it wouldn't badly affect the balance of teams that couldn't access it.

D'Arquebus · Post by **D'Arquebus** » Thu May 15, 2003 1:31 am

I voted no. I think this would give the strength teams a very substantial boost, which they don't need. Consider that it's not only catcher types who wont be getting it, but linemen as well. Now on any team facing ST 4 lineplayers the linemen are in for a beating anyway. Take away the essential block and they will surely become lineGYMPS.

That aside, I do not see the prevalence of block to be a necessarily bad thing. Personally it is not always the first or even second skill I get for my players (with the possible exception of linemen). All of my recent Chaos team's Beastmen sweepers got tackle and/or mighty blow first. I prefer to knock that blodge catcher down then to remain standing if I get both down. They can dodge away too easily if that happens and I usually reroll the result anyway.

I say leave it in General. It leaves the option open for the "standard", "boring" block (which I am not against at all) or a coach can try something a little bit different, to gain an advantage elsewhere. Heck, your opponent probably won't be expecting it.

duff · Post by **duff** » Thu May 15, 2003 3:01 am

The loss of block (except on doubles) would realy hit the elfs hard. They are fagile enough anyway on the LOS, given their price.

Mirascael · Post by **Mirascael** » Thu May 15, 2003 3:15 am

Relborn wrote:In a former German version of Bloodbowl, the Block Skill was by an typo putted into the strength category. After a long discussion in our league, we decided to leave it there, and after 2 years of playtesting I have to say, I like the results.

It made sure, that block wasn't a no brainer anymore and made the blodge combo more rare.

How do you think about such a change ?

I play in a 3rd edition league which suffers from the same typo.
The league is dominated by Dwarves and Orcs (in fact every good player chose one of those two races). Almost every basher-team list was significantly downtuned after the first season.

Fouling is penalized harshly in that league, doubles only give access to traits and there are no increases for STR/AG/MA.

Block as a STR-skill undoubtedly would utterly destroy the current balance.

Post by **GalakStarscraper** » Thu May 15, 2003 3:16 am

Interesting ... my league went the opposite way.

We added a Strength skill called Juggernaut which negated Block.

Code: Select all

A player with this skill in virtually unstoppable once he is in motion. If this player has moved at least one square first during a blitz action, opposing players may not use their Block or Stand Firm skills against his blocks.  This skill can only be used once per a turn and may only be taken by a player with a minimum Strength of 5.

But I could easily see it being modified to not have the ST 5 requirement.

Galak

Zombie · Post by **Zombie** » Thu May 15, 2003 3:21 am

The problem with block is that it's just way too powerful, so everyone takes it. Restrict it to only a few players and you've only made matters worse, by making them way stronger than the other players. Then, there's also the fact that nothing will ever be taken on a double anymore other than block.

I've always felt that the best way to solve the "everyone gets block" problem was to divide the skill in two to make it less powerful, and thus less attractive. See the thread i started about 5 months ago about that subject if you're interested. Here's the URL:

http://www.talkbloodbowl.com/phpBB2/vie ... php?t=3620

Post by **Thadrin** » Thu May 15, 2003 7:23 am

Zombie wrote: I've always felt that the best way to solve the "everyone gets block" problem was to divide the skill in two to make it less powerful

And I've always thought that that would make rebalancing the rosters a nightmare unless you're planning on giving all the players who curently have block both versions, which in turn provides balance problems - especially with the Norse and Dwarf teams.

Relborn · Post by **Relborn** » Thu May 15, 2003 7:37 am

Mirascael wrote:
Relborn wrote:In a former German version of Bloodbowl, the Block Skill was by an typo putted into the strength category. After a long discussion in our league, we decided to leave it there, and after 2 years of playtesting I have to say, I like the results.

It made sure, that block wasn't a no brainer anymore and made the blodge combo more rare.

How do you think about such a change ?
I play in a 3rd edition league which suffers from the same typo.
The league is dominated by Dwarves and Orcs (in fact every good player chose one of those two races). Almost every basher-team list was significantly downtuned after the first season.

Fouling is penalized harshly in that league, doubles only give access to traits and there are no increases for STR/AG/MA.

Block as a STR-skill undoubtedly would utterly destroy the current balance.

That's very interesting. In our league I was playing Welfs and I can't say that the strenght teams dominated the league (we hade Orcs, Dwarves and Norse teams in our league frequently).

Relborn · Post by **Relborn** » Thu May 15, 2003 7:40 am

GalakStarscraper wrote:Interesting ... my league went the opposite way.

We added a Strength skill called Juggernaut which negated Block.
Code: Select all
A player with this skill in virtually unstoppable once he is in motion. If this player has moved at least one square first during a blitz action, opposing players may not use their Block or Stand Firm skills against his blocks.  This skill can only be used once per a turn and may only be taken by a player with a minimum Strength of 5.
But I could easily see it being modified to not have the ST 5 requirement.

Galak

Sounds like a very interesting skill, which I would like to see in our league. How would you adjust this skill without the ST 5 requirement ?

Post by **GalakStarscraper** » Thu May 15, 2003 11:12 am

Relborn wrote:Sounds like a very interesting skill, which I would like to see in our league. How would you adjust this skill without the ST 5 requirement ?

Just drop the ST 5 requirement. Let anyone take it. Its a blitz skill so its limited in its abusiveness by definition.

Galak

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